This chapter had a lot of exposition and dialogue, I promise there'll be more action in further chapters! Again, reviews and feedbacks are greatly appreciated!
Tess's eyelids flickered. The warmth surprised her, she had passed out in the snow for all she remembered.
Where was she now? Shouldn't've hypothermia had killed her?
The soft covers were warm, the bed soft. Tess opened her silver eyes a crack, and the blue room revealed itself to her. Where was she?
"Finally you're awake," said a soft voice. Tess raised her gaze to see who had spoken.
The blue creature had fish-like scales covering her entire body, scarlet hair tied in a tight ponytail against her head. Her brilliant golden eyes had vertical cat-like slits that stared onwards in curiosity. Tess gasped in panic and sat bolt upright as if electrified.
Another monster? Did it want to imprison her too?
"Who are you?!" Tess demanded, shuffling to get away from the monster who stared at her curiously.
"That's not how you greet someone punk," the monster scolded her, a little hurt at Tess' outbreak. "Aren't you glad that I got you out of the snow?"
Tess instantly calmed down. "You saved my life?"
The monster girl shrugged her shoulders matter-of-factly. "You're lucky it's me who found you, human, and not a sentry," she told Tess. "They would've killed a human like you on the spot."
Tess' thoughts drifted to what Toriel had said to her before she had escaped- something about how the others would kill her... but this monster didn't lay a claw on her. Why had she lied?
This monster's character was innocent, gentle... she was just a child, like her. Grey human eyes met yellow monster eyes, and for that moment, the human and the monster shared a special connection- as if destiny had meant for them to meet all along.
"So," the monster broke the silence first. "I know your name probably isn't 'human', so unless you want me to call you that, maybe you should tell me what a should call you?"
Tess got over her shock and steadied herself. "My name's Tess. Tess Ashby. And who are you?"
"My name's Undyne the Undying," the monster introduced herself proudly, puffing out her chest in pride. "But you can just call me Undyne."
Undyne? Monster names were peculiar, but so cool. Tess trusted herself to sit at the edge of the bed, next to where Undyne was sitting. The fish gave a massive toothy smile, showing off her killer teeth.
"I've brought you food," the little monster girl offered, standing up to exit the blue-wallpapered room into what looked like a kitchen. Wow, monsters were more like humans that Tess initially thought. "I didn't know if you human eat the same stuff as monsters, but I gave it my best."
She returned with a bowl of steaming red tomato soup. The smell was delicious... and Tess found her mouth watering. Why was it that monster food was much better than human food?
"I made it myself!" Undyne pronounced proudly, handing Tess the bowl and spoon she was carrying. "Those vegetables never knew what hit them! Fu-hu-hu!" She laughed, partly at herself, partly at the soup. "It's so healthy, you'll be almost as strong as I am!"
Tess snickered with her, taking a small sip of soup. It was tasty, but it was hard to tell the taste from its burning heat. Her tongue jumped in pain as Tess quickly swallowed as to avoid all her tastebuds being burnt of by the scalding heat of the soup.
"This is really good," Tess managed to stammered with her burnt tongue. "Just a little hot..."
"The heat represents my passion!" Undyne told her. "Burning heat of my power!" She flexed her biceps. "Fu-hu-hu-hu!"
Tess smiled as she took another spoonful of tomato soup, getting used to the high temperature steadily. Undyne sat down beside her again and watched her eat. "So I was right, humans do eat soup."
The human girl nodded her head and continued to eat, highly doubting she would ever taste anything ever again. Suddenly another thought crossed her mind.
What about this monster kid's parents? Wouldn't they kill her?
"Where are your parents?" she asked, hoping Undyne wouldn't take any offence to her question.
Fortunately Undyne kept everything cool. "My mum ran off with my uncle and my dad tried to stab 'em both," she explained, calmer than she ever should've been saying things like that. "My dad's now in jail and I've never seen my mum since. At least I'm keeping the ol' place in shape."
Tess blinked twice, not able to understand why Undyne was being so relaxed about an awful thing like parental issues. Maybe Tess was too obsessed with her yesterday and not moved on like Undyne? She tried to smile and put the soup down.
"My parents weren't great either," she told Undyne. It seemed so strange saying it out loud, something Tess had never done before. It was strangely easy, after keeping it bottled up for so long. "My dad was a crippling alcoholic and one night he beat my mum to death. My brother managed to escape before me, and now I've escaped too, but I've... accidentally fell down here."
Undyne gave her a wide smile, her fangs sharp. "Wow, we're like the screwed-up-parents gang. What was your brother's name?"
Tess began to remember, her hand sliding into her jacket pocket to feel the little music device. "His name was Ben, Ben Ashby. He's older than me by three years. I've made him a promise." She gave a nostalgic sigh. "I promised that I would find him someday." Her face brightened. "Do you know how to exit the underground?"
Undyne's happy expression faded at her question. "The barrier can't be crossed," Undyne explained simply. "Everybody can enter, but nobody can exit. It's said only a human soul and a monster soul can cross the barrier, and seven human souls equal the power to shatter the barrier."
Tess dropped her eye to the ground, a little guilty that she'd asked Undyne that question. What was she gonna do now? She pulled out the MP3 from her pocket and put the headphone into the jack while Undyne watched.
"What are you doing?" the fish wanted to know. "I've never seen a device like that! What is it?"
Tess offered her one earbud. "It was my brother's. It plays good music. I've got nice music, you want to hear some?"
Undyne hesitantly took the earbud and stared at it for a while. "What am I meant to do with this?"
"This? You put it in your ear," Tess instructed, demonstrating by putting a white earbud in her left ear. "Then you can listen to it."
Undyne gave her a look, but put the earbud into her right, finned ear. "Now what punk? I look like an idiot."
Tess put on the device and started to scroll through the music library. "What one do you want?"
Undyne looked at the names of the songs that scrolled through, not able to decide between the twinkling names. Eventually her finger pointed to a song with a really cool name.
Bohemian Rapsody by Queen
"What does that one sound like?" she asked curiously, yellow eyes darting from the little MP3 to Tess and back again.
Tess smiled gladly that Undyne had chosen this vintage classic. "That's one of my favourites," she told Undyne simply and pressed play.
Undyne's face went from confused to dazzled as the song started to play. "What is this? Why is it so beautiful?"
Tess chuckled and went quiet to let them listen to the human song. Undyne clung onto the earbud, listening eagerly and staring into blank space. Her fins perked up as the song changed multiple times.
As the song ended, Undyne looked to Tess with wide eyes. "Your human technology is amazing!" she complemented sweetly. "How many songs do you have on here?"
"Thirty," replied Tess, grateful that someone at least liked her song collection. "Undyne, if I can't go through the barrier, what am I gonna do?"
Undyne snapped out of her daze and look Tess in the face worriedly. "We'll wait! Asgore needs seven human souls to shatter the barrier! He'll do it eventually, and then we'll break free together!"
Tess' heart lifted. She could wait forever, and that wasn't too bad. "How many has he gotten now?"
"Five!" Undyne answered cheerfully. "Only two more!"
"I can do that wait," Tess puffed out her chest in pride. "I'm a patient soul, I can wait forever."
The two girls chose another song and began listening.
"Hey Undyne..." Tess piped up after a moment. "Do you wanna be... like... friends?"
"Friends?" Undyne echoed, her yellow eyes looking at Tess up and down. "I've never had... a proper friend before..." She smiled wider than before. "Yeah! I can make friends with a nerd punk like you any day!" Her hands clasped on the side of her face. "We'll be besties!"
Tess and Undyne burst out into laughter, the song playing in the background.
And so this was the start of a brilliant friendship.
Tess and Undyne hung out all weekend, loving the emptiness of Waterfall. No monster came across the little swamp.
Undyne had introduced Tess to Napstablook and Mettaton, two sweet ghost cousins that worked on a snail farm next door. The human girl grew to love them both, and the ghosts seemed pretty fond of her too, even Mettaton, who found time to admire the human over his own beauty.
And then there was Undyne... who loved spending time with the human girl. She had shown the monster how to play the deserted piano left by her mother. Music... it was so great!
However from the shadows, a dark shape watched. His hood was up, and he watched from where the two young girls would not see him. His eyes were gone as he watched hour after hour, his hands in his pockets.
So another human had fallen down... how... good... They could finally be free if this one died...
The watching monster closed his eyes and remembered the faint memory of the surface. Sunshine, starlight... fresh air on his bones... Monsters lived for thousands of years, so a human's lifespan was like a butterfly's in comparison.
Sans swayed on his feet, watching as Tess and Undyne helped Mettaton and Napstablook with the snail farm. So this little brat was helpful... how cute. He had watched how five humans fell down before her and how they died at the hands of his faithful friend, Lionheart, the Captain of the Royal Guard. This time would be no different.
Monsters had to go free. Sans would kill the human himself but... he had watched how quickly Undyne had become attached to this human being, and he personally knew her very well. He'd helped her to come out of her tough situation she'd been put in by her parents.
Maybe he should tell Lionheart? He, after all, would no doubt put loyalty to the monster kingdom over personal troubles...
Sans shook himself. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea?
He'd wait and watch... see how things play out. That would be a better idea.