Oh my, thank you all for all the support you've given me and this story so far. Reviews are greatly appreciated!
The night was cosier than most, the little tidy house in the ruins making a terrific job of keeping the harsh underground air out. Tess hadn't slept that well in god knew how many years. All this time she had slept with one eye open in weary of her father, who more than often came home drunk, as he did for many years now.
It was horrifying what alcoholism could do to a person. From a nice, little-overprotective father rose a possessive family-beater.
Thankfully at least she had left him behind. She just couldn't wait when she would return to the surface and find her big brother. He must worried sick!
That night, she had slept so hard that no dreams came, no nightmares, no dreams. Thank goodness for that.
Toriel was there when she woke up, working away in the kitchen while humming a catchy tune under her breath. Tess yawned silently and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she trudged into the warm kitchen, lured into by the smell of tasty food the friendly monster was preparing.
"Good morning my child," she greeted the human girl warmly, giving her a fond look. "Slept well?"
"Like a stone!" Tess confirmed with a vigorous nod of her head. "What are you preparing?"
"I was meaning to ask you child," Toriel took a break from kneading a hard-looking dough to look Tess straight in the eyes. "What is your preference, cinnamon or butterscotch?"
"Butterscotch, definitely," replied Tess, finding her red ribbon and tied up her long hair in a loose ponytail all while taking her patchwork jacket off the hook and pulling it on. Her hands stuffed into the pockets, only to pull out a little MP3 with earphones.
Her gaze was fixed on the MP3 for a few moments in desperate longing. This was her brother's... before all this happened. A few small tears formed in her dazzling grey eyes, forming but never falling.
He was counting on her. She had to find him.
Quickly stuffing the MP3 back into her pocket, Tess looked up to see Toriel serve brilliant golden-brown pastries that smelled... mm... delicious...
Without hesitation, Tess sat down once again at the table and dug in eagerly, feeling the pastries crunch between her teeth and the soft filling melt in her mouth. Good food! Such good food, when was the last time she had eaten such luxuries? Toriel chuckled as Tess reached out for another one, and turned away to wash the dishes. What a nice monster.
The Froggits and Whimsuns outside were above friendly, and she'd even managed to have a friendly conversation with the local spiders, for no charge at all! She had scraped what little money she had to pay for a little spider donut, which now sat comfortably in her other pocket. It wasn't if she was ever gonna eat it, the sign had said 'of spiders' after all.
It was nice here, but of course Tess couldn't stay here forever. She had a brother! She needed to see him again! She had promised him that she would find him one day. Tess never broke her promises.
"Umm, miss Toriel," Tess began after she had finished the last butterscotch pastry. "Will you show me the way back home?"
Toriel looked at her like a dog looks at a high-pitched noise, clearly not expecting that question. "But my child... this is your home!"
Tess' smile instantly faded. "This isn't my home!" she objected, a little harsher than she had intended. "I belong on the surface! I need to return to my brother, he must be worried sick!"
Toriel refused to answer, lowering her head and getting on with washing the dirty dishes. Tess bit her lip and stood to her feet. "Listen miss Toriel," she tried to explain. "I thank you for all that you've done for me, but I really can't stay here. I made a promise and-"
"No," Toriel finally spoke. There was a darker tone lacing her voice now, low growls punctuating every word. "You cannot leave the ruins. If you do, they will kill you. He will kill you. Please my child-" she turned to face her, and Tess could see that the woman had tears in her eyes. "You will have a good life here. There are so many books that I want to share, and... and..." her voice trailed off, and the goat shook the sad look off her face. "No. You can't leave, and you won't."
Tess stumbled back, lost for any words. Bile rose in her throat. How could she? How dare she?
Toriel was just like her father.
Tess was a prisoner. So what if the food here was great? So what if Toriel didn't harm her? So what if it was nice here? She was held there against her will. This prison was just better disguised.
In her father's house, she felt like a prisoner. In Toriel's house, she now felt like a prisoner too.
Suddenly Tess broke into a sprint away from the room, darting towards the one place where Toriel never let her venture.
The basement. The exit had to be there!
"Go to your room!" Toriel shrieked in panic, giving chase. However Tess had experience running away, and she escaped Toriel's paws in the nick of time.
The plastic knife was left behind, probably dropped somewhere, so now Tess was weaponless. She had to flee. Fast.
Footsteps thundered downstairs, just like a racing heartbeat. The human ran on, aware of Toriel sprinting behind her.
All friendliness faded from her, replaced by horrified obsessiveness. She really was a monster.
Suddenly a ball of fire skimmed past her head, missing by mere millimetres, and there was a smell of burnt hair.
Did... did that goat just breathe fire?
"Child I don't want to hurt you!" Toriel cried desperately as they both ran through the dark, dark corridor. "Come back!"
However Tess wasn't listening. Fear had taken over her entire body, the instinct pounding in her chest. She needed to get away from her. Away from everyone that wanted her to stay. She had no patience for them, no matter how strong her soul was.
Another ball of fire was tossed at her, and Tess had to lean away to avoid being scored by a direct hit. However she lost her footing and fell hard on her knees.
The skin scraped off, the knees were now bright red. Now that was gonna make it harder to flee. The human girl grit her teeth. She had fled with a honking leg wound before; this was nothing compared to her past.
Toriel was drawing near, and fast. Tess gasped for air and picked herself back up and began to run again. The stitch had returned to her side, slowing her down.
No, she couldn't slow down. The monster was coming! Coming closer. So close that she could feel her warm breath on her neck...
Toriel reached out a paw and grabbed the ponytail that waved behind her. Thankfully Tess wasn't that good a hairdresser, and the red ribbon became undone in Toriel's hands, allowing Tess to escape and push her speed faster. The ribbon had to be left behind, it was an inanimate object, after all.
The door was now visible. Tess almost tripped with relief again, running onward steadily.
The massive purple door was easy to force open, and without any hesitation or glances back, Tess threw herself outside, slamming the door behind her.
Pressing her back against the door, Tess waited for the monster chasing her to bust the door open.
However it never came.
A minute passed, two minutes passed, three, five, ten...
Tess managed to calm down during that time, mouth gaped open to empty and fill her lungs with the air that she was had to pant to receive. Looks like Toriel had given up the chase and let her be. At least she was more reasonable than her father.
Now what? Tess lifted her gaze up and into the great beyond. The dark room was venomous, hiding another door, a single yellow flower growing in the centre. My... the underground was scary.
Tess closed her eyes. For a moment she was back on the surface, happy with her brother and away from her abusive father. Where the sun shined and the birds sang cheerfully, where hope was found almost everywhere. That was the brilliant surface, and down here was quite literally hell.
Reopening her eyes, Tess steadied herself and stood to her full height. However something was off.
The yellow flower was gone.
Maybe she was hallucinating from the chase? She had seen those flowers, they were responsible for saving her life. She had already marked them as a symbol of hope, since those flowers needed a lot of sunlight to live.
Shaking her head, Tess Ashby walked on towards the door. For that moment, she felt light, like nobody could tell her what to do. And she would go on that way, she just had to have patience.
If anyone had followed the running footprints in the snow, they would lead to the distressed sea monster, running far, far away from her school.
The headmaster had done nothing! Nothing at all! The bullying continued, even harsher than before.
The lunchtime had just begun, so the school wouldn't search for her for at least an hour. She had time to clear her mind, besides, she didn't want to spend her lunchtime being beat up and called names.
It was the sentries' day off, so nobody would see her. Perfect.
She trudged on, feet crunching the well-trodden snow. Only sentries walked here, and in this day no living soul stirred, not able to bother her if she wasn't there.
Suddenly her golden eyes set onto a shape in the snow. It was certainly not a snow dog, because it had colours other than white. And it was too large to be anything else. It certainly wasn't there before.
Undyne wiped her tears on the back of her sleeve and cautiously made her way towards the shape, curiosity biting hard at her scales just like the harsh cold air around. Her breaths came out in white water vapours that looked like the breath of a dragon.
It was then that Undyne noticed the same type of water vapour coming from the snow-covered lump. It was shaking.
That wasn't just some winter plant. It was a living thing, hypothermia slowly catching it and taking its life.
"Hang on mister!" Undyne called, realising that someone was on the brink of death. Forgetting all about her bullies, her school and the reason why she had come out here in the first place, Undyne bounded through the snow and to the frozen lump. Her webbed hands shook off the snow that had covered the creature. It had no fur, but Undyne's webbed hands managed to grip onto the cold skin. Her muscles worked under her scales as she dragged the frozen creature out of the deep snow. It was then that Undyne realised the horrifying fact that it wasn't a monster after all.
It was a human. A real-live human being.
Many thoughts raced through Undyne's head for that second. They were the ones who trapped them down here in the first place. King Asgore had stated that if any human was found, they should be killed immediately and their soul taken to the king.
Undyne had never seen a real human up close, but she's learned all about them in class. Their physical forms were more powerful than a monster's mere magical being, that's the only thing Undyne could think of right now. This human in her arms was her enemy.
The little human shivered and pressed herself towards Undyne's warm body, drinking in the warmth. Her eyes were still closed, and the subconscious instinct was telling her to cling onto the little heat she had found.
Undyne found her heart soften, and a thought rose to the front of her mind. She couldn't just leave this person to die out in the snow, human or not.
"I won't let you die human," Undyne whispered and lifted the human person bridal-style out of the snow. "I know a place where you can warm up."
Despite her size and age, Undyne was a strong monster, able to lift up boulders over twice her size even at a small age like this. She carried her finding down the familiar path, never as grateful as now that the sentries had the day off. It was incredibly lucky, and Undyne wasn't about to complain.
She had reached the river in a matter of moments, and bit her lip when the person she was looking for wasn't there. Cursing under her breath, Undyne clenched the human closer to her chest and tapped her foot three times on the ground.
"Arise and come to me!" Undyne bellowed, so that her voice bounced off the water and echoed many times. The human in her arms flinched at her voice, subconsciously pressing herself closer to Undyne and away from any harm.
Were humans really that weak?
Suddenly a boat crashed out from the depths of the river, head of a mighty wooden cat almost sentient as it roared its arrival. The spray of water showered Undyne as the boat crashed down onto the surface. The hooded creature on the boat turned its head towards her, expressionless.
"Undyne the Undying..." hissed the creature as it landed the boat on the riverbank. "And a light blue human soul...? Are you heading to New Home to deliver it to the king?"
That thought had crossed Undyne's mind a lot of times. The king needed human souls to shatter the barrier, and it would be easier just to deliver her to the king. The bullying would stop and Undyne would be known as a hero.
But the helplessness of the human made Undyne realise that this would be a bad idea. She wasn't a fool, and she realised what happened to any human that was delivered to the king. Taking their soul would mean having to kill them.
"No, take me to Waterfall," Undyne ordered, stubbornly stepping onto the boat. The hooded figure turned its head 180 degrees to see behind it at Undyne. A normal neck should not do that without snapping, and to any newcomer it would've been a terrifying sight to watch, however Undyne and other monsters were perfectly used to the river person's habits.
"A schoolchild like you should be in school, not running around with frozen humans," the hooded river person said indignantly, appalled at the way the young child was speaking to it. "Either go to the king, or go back to school."
Undyne drew her lips back into a snarl, showing off her many sharp teeth. "You work for free, you take anyone anywhere. Take me to waterfall."
The river person spun its neck back the right way and pushed off the riverbank. "As you wish, Undyne the Undying... but you do know," it spoke quietly, creepily, a voice that seemed to shatter Undyne's white monster soul itself. "Humans are hunted by all the monsters. We need to be free, and this one will contribute one of the seven souls needed."
"Oh shut up," Undyne snapped, partially regretting her choice to travel by the river person's boat. The surrounding caves were now a blur with the speed that they were travelling at. "Promise you won't tell anyone about what you've seen here."
"Very well, Undyne the Undying..." echoed the person, a bony hand stroking the head of the boat tenderly, its precious little thing. "I will not say a word about your finding or this human being if that is what you wish."
Undyne held the human even closer. Despite not liking the river person much, Undyne knew that it always kept to its promises, even if it was something extreme like finding a human. No doubt the river person knew everyone's secrets, just kept them to itself, and that was great quality to have.
"But do tell me," the river person spun its head round to look behind it again. "What are you planning to do with the human child?"
Undyne shivered as she realised that she did not yet have an answer to that question. "I'll figure that out soon enough," she promised as the boat docked to the side in the dark and dingy waterfall. "Thanks for the ride mister."
"All the pleasure is on my side, Undyne the Undying..." the river person bowed low and stroked the wooden cat's head with a black hand. "And when the little human wakes up, give it my best wishes."
Undyne nodded her head and stepped on the boat to the swampland. Her house was not too far from here. She should make it no problem.
Just what would this new discovery bring her?