How could laughter sound so cold? Wet fins pressed against cold scales as the little monster hid behind the slide, away from the prying eyes.
Tears stained her scaly cheeks, hair as red as flames clinging to her face. Hugging her knees together, the little monster pressed her face to her long jeans and let her tears soak through the material.
The distant laughter of the others was echoing around the playground, bouncing back and forth, as if the playground itself was laughing at her. They called her name, but the little monster was smart enough not to come at the call.
"Undyne! Oh Undyne! Come out! We don't want to hurt you!"
Those words rang in her head, so the distressed Sea Wraith pressed her webbed hands to her finned ears. At least that drowned out the taunting a little.
Suddenly she felt herself being grabbed by the shoulders and flung over the slide. She yelped as she crashed into the snow back first. Before she could pick herself back up, snow was kicked in her face, getting into her beautiful golden eyes. More laughing.
That laughing. It was what made things so bad.
Pain seared through her shoulder as someone kicked her at full force, her tear-ridden cry causing the laughter to grow.
Suddenly the kids scattered, the cold laughter dying to silence in an instant. The little monster shook the snow from her scales and hair before pushing herself up to see who had scared her tormenters away.
The massive brute of a lion monster was slowly making his way towards her, accompanied by a rather shorter, blue-hooded skeleton.
"Are you okay small one?" The mighty lion asked, voice booming louder than any of the laughter the kids managed. Undyne gasped when she realised that the Captain of the Royal Guard was talking to her. His mane was mighty, the warm amber eyes friendly.
"I-I'm fine!" Undyne insisted, a bright blush of embarrassment glowing on her face that she had shown weakness in front of her hero. "I'm all fine I'm-"
"Your denials are a little fishy kid," said the skeleton, lowering his hood and blinking to get his white pinprick eyes back visible in their sockets. "Some kids can be cruel. I'm telling you, if my little brother had seen this, he would've given those kids a stern talking to."
The little Sea Wraith's thoughts drifted to the young skeleton that sat way in the front in her class, one that was very popular due to his kindness and reputation of doing homework in exchange for absolutely nothing. The whole school knew the name of Papyrus the Skeleton.
"Listen little one," the Lion Warrior knelt beside her and helped her to stand. "You need to tell someone about those kids. They'll stop once you tell your teacher."
She nodded, her eyes flicking from the Captain of the Royal Guard to the sentry and back again. Their smiles were comforting, care in their eyes that somehow managed to make the little Sea Wraith calm a little.
"Now go on," the hero gestured towards the school. "Your lunchtime's over."
The little fish nodded and turned back to run to the school building. She would tell someone, just like her hero told her to do so.
The little child slowly dared to open her eyes. The last thing she remembered was the terrifying silhouette of her father before she blacked out, however it didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.
She had fallen.
She became aware of the pain only a few moments after her silver eyes were open and staring up at the distant light up, up many miles, so far away that the light was only a mere white speck in the distance. However the pain came from her head bump and her leg wound. Surprisingly, she had taken no fall damage. Her organs were still functioning- they should've been shattered when she hit the ground!
Groaning, the little human pressed her hand to her forehead to mute the pain a little while she sat up. Her blue soul hadn't taken any damage than it already has, so that was at least good.
It was at that moment that she realised the pillars surrounding the vertical tunnels. They were ancient! Like ones the humans built in Ancient Greece, some crumbled away by time, some still held strong. The sunlight that managed to seep in through the distant hole far, far above bounced off the deep purple marble. Ruins.
The yellow flowers she had landed on had somehow stopped her fall, reaching up to whatever sunlight they could reach. It was incredibly lucky that she had fallen on these flowers that could save anyone from a potentially lethal fall. And the human thanked the plants for that.
Where were she? Was she dead? Or was she in hell? Some people believed in that sort of thing, but this human had suffered so much that sometimes she couldn't tell what was real or what was fake.
Then the truth broke upon her. Her brother would be looking for her! She had promised him that she would find him someday, and she couldn't do that down here! Raising her eyes up to the hole in the surface, her heart sagged. Climbing wasn't her thing, nor was extensive determination- her father's key trait- which would've been handy in a situation like this.
Footsteps echoed through the ruins, gradually getting louder, and louder, and louder, even louder as they neared. The human snapped her head towards the sound, for the first time noticing the dark corridor, which coincidentally was the only way out. And the footsteps were coming from that direction.
Quickly scrambling to her feet, the child fiddled in her pockets and drew the small plastic knife, brandishing it like a sword or a lance- a much more valuable weapon. Whatever was coming towards her, it would learn that she wouldn't go down without a fight.
From the depths of the darkness, emerged a huge white figure, her lovely lilac dress billowing in the non-existent breeze. Beautiful maroon eyes reflected their reflection so clear as if they were mirrors themselves. However it wasn't any sort of creature this human had encountered before.
The white fur covered this creature from head to toe, so white it could make the snow above look grey. Long ears rested on her shoulders, making way for two goat horns to prick outwards, like the horns of a devil. Despite her sudden appearance, she looked kind and warm. There was recognition in her eyes as they set upon the human. They seemed to smile, however there was something tortured too, as if this creature felt sorry for this human without even knowing them. She blinked in comfort and began to speak.
"Hello my child," she greeted the fallen human gently. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Toriel, and please-" she noticed the weapon in the tiny human's hands. "Put your weapon down, I mean no harm."
Skeptically, the little human straightened from a battle position and pocketed the knife once more. If this creature wanted to kill me, she would've done it already she thought to herself.
"Everyday I come here to see if any humans have fallen down," Toriel explained, taking small steps forward as if the human child was an untameable beast and not the other way around. "You are the first in quite a while."
Finally our human protagonist had found her voice. "Wait, have other humans fallen down?" If this goat-lady came here every day to see if anyone had fallen, that must happen a lot more often than whatnot. That's why everyone who climbed up the mountain never returned. They fell down here.
"It does happen quite a lot," she agreed with a slight nod. "My goodness, you're hurt my child!"
Without any more hesitation, Toriel rushed towards the human and knelt down to her level. Her massive paws began to glow in a bright green magic.
A tingly, cold sensation flowed through the human's body, focusing on the massive wound in her leg and on her head and even the minor scratches on her arms. Like brain-freeze, but through her entire body. The cold went away as suddenly as it started, but took all the pain away.
Inspecting herself, the human realised that her bruises and scratches have disappeared, so has the massive bump on her head and the long bleeding gash on her leg. It was all gone, as if the human had never been harmed at all in the first place.
"How... did you do that?" she managed to croak out, lifting her gaze to look the goat lady in the face. Toriel smiled widely.
"Monsters have magic my child," she explained. "Now come along, we have far to travel."
Without another word, Toriel took the human's small hand in her paw and began to lead her through the dark and dingy corridor.
A mother...? The human had lost her mother a long time ago and, as far as she was concerned, her brother was the only family she had left.
"Where are we going?" she asked, having to pick her pace up to keep in time with Toriel's pace of walking.
The goat woman smiled back. "You'll see."
"Were those kids bullying you again?"
Undyne raised her brilliant golden gaze to look the skeleton in the face.
She was waiting outside the headmaster's office to talk about her situation. Unfortunately he was leading a long, long meeting and Undyne had to wait until after school to speak with him. Even now, he was unavailable, so Undyne waited patiently, taking the great Captain's, Lionheart's, words to heart.
The skeleton boy known as Papyrus had never spoken to her before, always swarmed by herds of monster children who wanted help with their homework or just some advice. Papyrus was probably the most gifted child in the school, however everyone knew that he always tried too much.
"No, I just..." Undyne struggled to figure out an excuse to avoid telling the most popular boy in the school her suffering. "I was just wanting to see the headmaster about some homework."
"You can always talk to me about that!" Papyrus exclaimed profoundly, sitting down beside her on the bench she was sitting on. "I'll help anyone!"
"Even a human?" Undyne lifted an eyebrow.
"If they happened to be hurt," the skeleton boy nodded, reassuring himself. "Yep! I'd help anyone! Nyeh heh heh!"
Undyne's mouth lifted slightly at the corners as her classmate puffed out his chest and ran his bony hand across his head as if his bone fingers were combing through wonderfully long hair. "Anyways, what homework are you stuck on? I'll help you."
Poor, naive Papyrus. He really hadn't caught only to her lie yet? No wonder he could be played into someone's hands so easily, like a helpless piece of prey.
Thankfully the door to the headmaster's office swung open, and the old creaking voice rippled from the inside.
"You wanted to see me Undyne?"
"I'll see you later Papyrus," Undyne gladly took this opportunity to get away from confessing her lie. She stood up and, turning to wave back at the cheerfully smiling Papyrus, walked into the headmaster's office and shut the door behind her.
"What is your name my child?"
The human sat down at the table obediently, letting down her long silky hair over her shoulders to warm her neck against the cold in the underground. She hesitated. Toriel revealed her name, and took her into a safe home for the time being. She could be trusted.
"My name is Tess," the human girl introduced herself, shuffling to get herself comfortable. "Tess Ashby."
Toriel smiled warmly and placed a plate on the table in front of her, the hot butterscotch-cinnamon pie slice steaming, fresh out of the oven. The human girl's mouth watered. She was used to being starved, but seriously, when had she last eaten?
Tess hungrily dug into the pie, wolfing down the food, because quite literally this was the first meal she had in ages. To Toriel's amusement, this child was asking for more in less than a few minutes.
She was hungry alright.
"You have to get to bed," Toriel stated sternly after Tess had finished her eighth portion. "I'm sure you are extremely tired."
Tess nodded her head and placed her toy knife and bright red ribbon on the table as she got up to follow Toriel to her temporary room.
What a nice goat lady. Hopefully she would show her the way out so she could meet with her brother again.
He must be so worried! Tess calmed herself that she would see him again, no matter how much of her patience it took.