Guess who's back, back again. Phouka's back, tell your friends. Yup, I'm updating again, and I've got the scenes all set for the next chapter so fingers crossed there won't be too much time to wait between this one and the next. Thanks a million for all the support and feedback so far! XX
Eventually Monday rolled around, and Tess helped Undyne prepare for another boring day of school.
"I don't like school," Undyne told Tess truthfully. "There's awful people there."
The human girl shrugged matter-of-factly. "There's awful people everywhere." Her eyes brightened as she brushed Undyne's long flaming red hair. "Maybe I can come to school with you?"
Undyne's white soul jumped. "They'll recognise you as human!" she objected. "They'll kill you... they'll-"
"Not if I'm with you," Tess insisted, braiding her friend's hair into a pretty french braid. "I can be a monster."
Undyne shut up at her calmness and let Tess continue to fiddle with her hair. Her webbed hands lay on the piano keys silently in thought. What monster would they insist Tess would be?
"Are you sure Tessy?" Undyne asked skeptically, beginning to press random keys on the piano. "Most of those kids will just make fun of you."
Tess made the sound of a displeased horse and finished her hairstyle. "There we go. If those bullies are anything you've told me about, I'm not letting you go to school alone ever again."
Undyne flashed her a wide smile and stood to her feet. "It's not you who protects me. It's me who'll have to protect you!" Her scaly finger poked Tess chest. "I'm big and I'm strong Tessy. You're a wimpy human and need my protection!"
Tess chuckled and turned to put on her patchwork jacket. "Do you think they'll like me?"
"No," Undyne answered truthfully. "Maybe Papyrus will."
Tess asked who Papyrus was.
"He's really nice," Undyne insisted, grasping her schoolbag off the floor. "Helps everyone with their homework." Maybe Papyrus would be friends with Tess? That would be ideal. Undyne swung the bag on her back and lead the way outside. Tess followed her eagerly, like a child stumbles after its mother.
This would be Tess' first time to go beyond the boundaries of this tiny waterfall neighbourhood and go into Snowdin. She was shaking from head to toe in nervousness, trying to not make her teeth chatter. Undyne gave her a playful punch to the shoulder.
"Don't look nervous punk! It makes you look weak!" she told her. "You've got me with you, you've got nothing to fear!"
Young Tess returned the smile, then looked past her head and waved cheerily. Undyne spun round to greet the two ghosts racing to say their goodbyes.
"No! No! You're doing it all wrong!" Mettaton tutted when he saw the lazy way Undyne had thrown on her blue jeans coat. "You're supposed to wear it with style! Not like you've just dressed yourself in the dark!"
Undyne had never liked Mettaton. He was ridiculously narcissistic and constantly needed to have the attention on himself. She had no idea how his cousin- Napstablook- even put up with him. Now Napstablook was a whole different story. He had a very close relationship with his cousin, and he was one of Undyne's closer friends- maybe even one of her best friends. He seemed to get along with Tess just fine, with was fine by Undyne.
"I'll dress however I want!" Undyne retorted, jabbing a scaly finger at his transparent body. "Besides do you like the braid I have?"
"It's marvellously gorgeous," Mettaton complemented. "It should go straight to any monster fashion magazine- and may I add it suits you quite well indeed."
That was another thing. Mettaton could go from criticism to absolute adoration in mere moments. Tess giggled quietly as Undyne calmed down.
"Uh... B...be careful Undyne..." Napstablook warned her. "W-we can't have you coming back here with bruises again... the three of us will wait-"
"Actually I'm going with Undyne," Tess cut across him.
Her decision caused both ghosts shiver their transparent bodies. Napstablook shrunk while Mettaton erupted into protest.
"But Tessy dear," he cried, pushing past Undyne to put his face closer to Tess'. "Those monsters seek to destroy you, and with your soul, humanity."
"I'm gonna be a monster," Tess replied calmly, calmer than anything Undyne would manage in that situation. "Like a furless anthropomorphic furry of some kind."
"That might work..." said Napstablook, who was too scared to go against any opinion. "Be... careful out there."
Undyne hurried Tess away before the ghosts could cause them to be late. She lead Tess by the hand down the familiar way to the river person's dock, hoping that no one else was hoping for a ride from it at this late a time. Tess jumped at every small sound, looking up at the shiny stones on the ceiling with awe and everything that moved. Jeez, it was like she'd never seen shining rocks stuck to a ceiling.
The rush of the river echoed round the halls long before the two girls reached the wide torrent of cold water. Again, the river person's absence annoyed Undyne. What if the river person was busy? That couldn't happen, she didn't want to be late- again- and cause Tess to be late too. She bit her tongue gently and stomped her foot thrice on the cold, wet ground. "Arise and come to me!" she bellowed so loudly that her voice echoed through the corridors for a while before silencing gradually.
This time it took a few moments for the boat to arrive. The long, wooden cat was bounded on the surface of the fast current as if it was hard land, the pale oakwood hardly making a sound. Its ears were flattened tightly against its head, a long oaken tail trailing behind it while the tall hooded figure rode on its back without a grip, like surfing. It turned its head towards them as its steed skidded to a halt and turned to pad gently to the shore.
Undyne smiled and turned to see Tess' reaction, who was staring at first the wooden cat, then the hooded figure and back again.
"Pretty cool huh?" Undyne whispered, glad to see Tess nod her head.
"What a... Wonderful sight..." said the river person, bowing its head lowly. "Did you give the human child my best wishes like I asked?"
Oh no. She'd forgotten! Undyne froze as she realised that the river person would take high offence to this, and perhaps not even let her on its boat.
Thankfully Tess came to her rescue. "Yes mister, Undyne gave me your best... even though I didn't who you were at the time."
What a brilliant lie. A monster with a white, weak soul would not be able to tell such a believable lie, but some monsters could weed out even the best lies like a lie detector, and Undyne prayed the river person was not one of those monsters.
"I'm... flattered," the river person bowed, taking in Tess' lie like the truth. "I assume that you're taking Light Blue Soul to your school, Undyne the Undying..." it turned its head to Undyne, so smoothly like an owl. "Have you figured out what to do with her yet?"
Undyne's flared up at that question. "She's my friend now," she spat angrily. "She'll wait with us for the barrier to be destroyed."
The river person nodded its head solemnly and moved out of the way to let Undyne hop onto the boat. She reached out a webbed hand to Tess, who put her warm, furless hand into hers and gently lowered herself onto the boat. She clung onto Undyne's clothes for balance as the boat drank from the river, its long tail hovering lightly over the water.
"Undyne, is this safe?" she whispered unsurely, eyeing the river person with great scepticism.
"Safer than travelling by foot," Undyne answered as the hooded figure ran a dark hand over the cat's neck and told it silently to go. The boat tossed its head like a horse and began to run, flinging up water behind it.
When the boat was running, it went thrice as fast, the wind howling in ears and slapping against faces. Undyne knew that the boat was always sturdy, but Tess clung onto her for dear life, her little heart pounding so hard Undyne could feel it on her back.
"Don't worry! This boat never faltered!" she yelled, however her words were whisked away by the wind. The river person also noticed the human's fear, and spun its head round to give her a look.
"This boat is safer than any seatbelt," it said calmly, its voice ringing from the inside of their heads to avoid its speech being killed by the air speed. Its words caused Tess to worry more, because spinning a head right round like in The Exorcist was frightening enough without the fact that this was the master of the sentient boat which was now running on water faster than any cheetah could ever manage.
Finally the freezing temperatures of the snow region drifted forward, which brought forth a new, cold smell for Undyne to breathe. The boat skidded to a halt, sending water flying up into the air and then pitter pattering down onto the river again. It then carried on in a happy trot towards the bank, where its legs sank below the surface and it docked successfully. Undyne hopped off clumsily and landed on the frozen ground, shortly followed by Tess, who seemed happy beyond words to be back on dry land, shaking on her feet as she marvelled standing on still ground again.
"You okay Tessy?" Undyne asked, readying herself to jump to her aid if Tess decided to faint.
The human, however sounded fine. "I just don't like fast things," she explained, steadying her voice with every syllable. "I may be a fast runner, but I don't like to go that fast."
Undyne patted her head with a webbed hand. "There, there," she said mockingly. "We're safe now, Undyne will take care of you."
Both girls giggled and began to walk away, but a strange noise drew their attention back to the river person, however the hooded person was on land, busy dipping its hand into the water. It was the boat that made the noise.
For the first time Undyne ever saw it speak in its funny language directly to someone who wasn't the river person. It opened its scary mouth full of sharp wooden teeth and meowed just like a plain housecat. It began to drag itself out of the water with its two strong oaken forelegs, digging its long claws into the frozen, snowy ground. It seemed to call them to come back, half of it still in the river.
This boat had never done this before, and Undyne knew that her reaction wasn't something Tess would find comforting. However the human was more at ease with a sentient boat than with going down a river at god knew how many miles per hour.
With a careful step, Tess stopped breathing as she walked back up to it, letting out her breath bit by bit. The boat stretched out its head to greet her, inhaling her scent through a brown nose. Undyne watched in awe as her friend hesitantly ran her hand over its head, causing it to produce a loud thunderous purr in such a low pitch it might've been a growl of an engine. It pressed its head further into her hands, closing its big black beady eyes, and Tess giggled like a little girl.
"Pretty kitty!" said she, for a moment looking as if she'd gone back in time to her toddler years. So innocent and frail and fragile... "C'mon Undyne! Its adorable!"
"You and I have a very different definition of adorable," Undyne replied, shaking her head. The boat never wanted to be pet by Undyne, quite the opposite really, so she didn't trust herself to even get near it. "C'mon Tessy, we'll be late."
Waving goodbye, Tess trotted back to her, a wide smile on her face.
Boat has been pet.
"Yay, cross petting a boat off your bucket list," Undyne said with fake enthusiasm as they walked stride by stride into the cold forest.
"Oh come on Undyne!" Tess laughed, shrugging her shoulders comically. "Loosen up, I don't see why petting Boat was such a bad thing." She reached into the pocket of her patchwork jacket and pulled out her precious music device. "What shall we listen to today?"
Undyne took the earbud and put it in her ear eagerly as Tess scrolled through the library again and put on a song, this time by a band named 'Fallout Boy'. Those band names were so glittery and so beautiful, why didn't monsters have such entertainers?
The song blared in her ear as they waltzed into the town of Snowdin, where the monster people rushed about their day as it was very early in the morning and people were rushing to get to their jobs and school. Undyne took Tess by the hand in fear of loosing her through the crowd. The snow crunched beneath their feet as Undyne snaked through the rushing people, her grip tightening on Tess' hand, and the school soon came into view. Children played about in the playground, happy squeals echoing round the town.
The school building was similar to most, tall and with two storeys for classrooms and a canteen and everything a school would normally need. The office was just in the front of the school, where Tess would need to register. It wouldn't be long, Undyne hoped, and they would ask for any information like 'what breed of monster are you?' Tess insisted she would be a furless anthropomorphic furry monster, but Undyne wouldn't be convinced.
No monster payed attention to them as Undyne lead her friend to the office and pushed open the door.
"How may I help you?" asked the old monster at the desk, eyeing the new person suspiciously, as if she already knew she was a human. Undyne pulled out the earbuds out of their ears so they wouldn't appear rude. The monsters wouldn't know what that string was for anyway, so it was just a safety bet.
"I would like to register for school," Tess replied clearly, however her hand curled tightly around Undyne's seeking comfort, which Undyne was more than glad to give.
The office lady blinked and began to tap on her computer keyboard. "What is your name may I ask?"
"Tess Ashby miss," she replied.
She answered the office lady's questions as vaguely as she could, or straight up lie to cover her identity. Soon, Tess Ashby was a student at the school, no more questions asked.
"C'mon Tessy! I'll show you our class!" Undyne cheered, almost skipping with joy down the corridor as the bell rang so loudly that Undyne must've gone deaf for a split second. It wailed the school's start, then fell silent as the doors opened and let in the schoolchildren from outside. Thankfully they didn't have to snake through the crowds in front.
The classroom was normal, just as Undyne had left it a few days before. The teacher was a nice, young anthropomorphic white mouse dressed in pale violet, tapping away on her cell phone as the children poured in. Undyne lead her precious Tess to the back of the class, where they sat in a two-person desk.
The teacher got an e-mail on her phone as the students were still settling down, chattering among themselves cheerfully. She read it, and looked up at Tess in confusion of why a new kid had suddenly turned up to class.
"Morning class!" she squeaked, causing the class to settle down and hush expectantly.
"Good morning Miss Bianca," the children chorused back in unison, some eagerly, some devoid of any enthusiasm.
"Today I've been given a message that there is a new child joining our class today," Miss Bianca announced, looking Tess straight in the eye. Undyne silently warned her not to make any stupid moves. "Little one, why don't you stand up and introduce yourself?"
Exchanging a worried glare with her friend, Tess stood shakily to her feet.
Poor human, Undyne thought. She's frightened out of her skin.
It was true. Tess was shaking from head to toe as all eyes pressed on her.
It's when an unexpected situation occurs is when part of the real personality comes out. Undyne watched her, praying that she wouldn't give herself awake in her fear.
She shouldn't've worried, because after her short moment of tremor, she seemed to solidify and stand taller. Undyne couldn't put herself in her shoes. She was never a 'new kid', been there straight from day one.
"My name is Tess, Tess Ashby," she began, speaking so clearly as if delivering a presentation. "I've just recently moved into Snowdin and... I like Doritos."
Her last announcement caused a ripple of confusion to go through the crowd. What was Doritos? Some kind of sports game? However Tess bowed her head and sat back down, thankful that her brief five seconds of fame were over.
The day turned out to be pretty normal at first, Tess gaining only some attention from the class. Thankfully none of them were actually old enough to recognise a human being despite the core subject of human and monster biology in that same day.
The bell for lunchtime rang, somehow louder than before, and nobody waited for Mss Bianca to dismiss them. The classroom was empty faster than anybody could snap their fingers.
The cold harsh air was pleasing to breathe in after the stuffy, building air that lingered in the classroom.
Undyne had her head wrapped round showing Tess all her favourite bits of the playground, she didn't notice the bigger kids that bullied her coming towards them. Some of them turned and whispered at the sight of someone talking with their favourite victim. Maybe with their wits combined they could mould this newcomer into someone they needed her to be.
They decided to approach them.
"Who are you?" demanded the biggest boy, who looked Tess up and down.
Undyne's heart leapt. Oh no, he couldn't be here! He couldn't hurt her or Tess. She wouldn't let him.
"Tess," Tess replied simply. "What's your name?"
The boy clearly approved of her, because she was calm, friendly and welcoming, which was exactly the same reason Undyne highly approved of her too.
"Have you settled in okay?" he asked.
Tess nodded, calm and simple.
"Do you know the way around yet?"
She shook her head, causing her long dark hair to flow with her movement. It wasn't black like Undyne first thought, but a very dark brown that could now be seen thanks to the brightness of the snow.
"C'mon then, we'll show you around," the boy gestured his head back to the school.
Undyne's heart stopped as her mouth flopped open like a fish's. Her gaze flashed from the bullies to her friend. She wouldn't leave her... she promised... she... promised...
"Undyne was showing me," Tess stood her ground calmly, giving her monster friend a comforting smile.
The boy turned his eyes towards Undyne and gave her a menacing glare. "We don't need the many of us to do a tour round a school," said he, shuffling his black hair and flipping his seahorse tail. "You can stay here."
She's gonna leave me... She's gonna leave me behind...
"Actually you're right, we don't need the many of us to do a tour round a school," Tess snarled simply, taking a step towards Undyne. "Undyne's my friend, so she'll be showing me around."
The seahorse and his gang weren't expecting a rejection so calm it could ease of a flaming Vulkin. However while they got off the shock pretty quick, someone ran towards them.
Undyne's heart let go of its tension in relief. The bullies would surely leave them alone in the presence of Papyrus the Skeleton. He helped with their homework- correction, did their homework- and had a reputation of being a rather large snitch, unable to hold secrets to just himself. Noticing this, the bullies left without saying goodbye, slumping off towards the shadows.
"Thanks Tessy," Undyne turned to her once they were out of earshot. "Looks like you're not as heartless as you look."
That wasn't strictly true, if anyone looked more friendly than Tess, they would be Papyrus.
"Undyne! Undyne!" called the skeleton, running over to them as fast as he could through the snow. "Undyne they didn't hurt you did they?"
"Who's that?" Tess asked, lifting a dark eyebrow as the skeleton boy neared.
"Oh him? That's the Papyrus I was telling you about," Undyne explained quickly before the zooming little ball of bones homing towards them.
"They better not've hurt you!" he panted restlessly. "Those guys are no.. match... huff... puff... for The Great and Helpful Papyrus..." He took a massive inhale into non-existent lungs. "They were frightened of me! Did you see that? Did you? Did you?"
Undyne rolled her vertical pupils. "Yes Papyrus, we saw it alright."
Papyrus straightened himself and not-so-subtly brushed himself down to make himself more appealing to look at.
"Greetings! I am The Great Papyrus!" He stuck out his massive red-gloved hand for a handshake. Tess smiled and shook his hand.
"And I'm Tess Ashby, but you probably already knew that," Tess replied, looking to Undyne. "Undyne told me a lot about you."
Papyrus looked as if he had just been notified that the barrier had been knocked down. He looked so happy as curled his red-gloved hands at his mouth and made a squealing noise of pure ecstasy.
"I feel so popular!" he squeaked in excitement. "Undyne talks about me!"
Undyne rolled her eyes again. "Hey Papyrus, why don't you hang out with us after school today?"
Somehow Papyrus looked even happier, if it was even possible. "The Great Papyrus would love to! I'll wait for you outside the school doors after school!"
Thankfully the rest of the day went by in a flash, and before any of them knew it, they were on the back of the cat boat, who seemed to take great pleasure in carrying them on its back. The River Person had told them that its boat was very fond of children, particularly human children.
Mettaton and Napstablook greeted them eagerly as they returned with wide smiles on their faces.
As soon as they've dumped their school stuff at the lifeless dummy, they ran out to the snail farm to play. Hours went by with snail races, games of tag and a few million rounds of hide-and-seek.
Eventually Undyne and Tess agreed within themselves that Papyrus should be let onto Tess' secret. He was a sweet, young boy that could be trusted. He was their friend.
"You're not a furless anthropomorphic furry monster?" Papyrus gasped in disbelief. "Tell me, what's it like being human?"
Another stone fell off of Undyne's heart. Thankfully Papyrus wouldn't take Tess' horrific the wrong way, and the other two made him promise to take it to his grave. Papyrus assured them that The Great Papyrus always kept his promises.
"Sans I'm home!"
Sans looked up from his position on the couch. He had been home late from his sentry duty, mainly because he didn't wake up at his designed time and overslept half an hour. And still, Papyrus had not been home. Thankfully he had left a note to tell him that he was hanging out with Undyne the Undying and someone called 'Tess Ashby'. Who in the world was Tess Ashby? Could it be...?
Sans sat up as Papyrus jumped and sat next to him. He looked so much like their mother... who had died giving birth to him. Thanks to her death, their father- the most brilliant Royal Scientist there was in the whole underground, had become distant and wrapped up in his own work, leaving Sans to care for everything at home. "You're the man of the house now" he had said to a young teenage Sans- back when they've first been sealed under the ground.
"Hey Paps," Sans greeted him, couldn't help noticing how happy his younger brother was. "How was school?" He didn't want to ask about school, he wanted to ask about this strange 'Tess Ashby' he had mentioned in his note, but he felt as if he needed to be gentle and polite with him.
"School was great!" Papyrus replied excitedly, his papyrus-font voice chattering away in euphoria. "I'm in a group presentation with Undyne and Tessy!"
There was that name again. Sans could only assume that this 'Tess' was the name of the human he'd seen with Undyne and the two ghost cousins, but how could he be sure? Could the human be as stupid as to reveal their true identity as a human to everyone by going to a school full of monsters out for revenge against humanity? Maybe this 'Tess Ashby' was just a newcomer from the city? There were more and more monsters moving into Snowdin from New Home lately, due to severe overpopulation.
Sans shrugged. "How was it?"
Papyrus stood up, for he could not sit in one place for too long. "It was perfect!" He skipped into the kitchen, temporarily out of Sans' sight, but the bigger skeleton was too lazy to get up and see what he was up to. "We work together so perfectly! We're the dream team!"
If there was a good time to ask about this mysterious new friend of Papyrus', it was now. "What about that new name, Tess? I haven't heard of her before."
Papyrus' noise clattering in the kitchen paused for a moment, and Sans could hear that he was muttering something to himself under his breath, though he couldn't hear what.
"She's a furless anthropomorphic furry monster," he replied quickly after his brief moment of hesitance. "She's very nice!"
Papyrus was good at many things, however lying was not one of them. Or maybe Sans was one of those monsters who knew how to weed out lies between dialogue. Either way, Papyrus was lying.
"That's great," Sans shrugged. Now he had sure that the human's name was Tess Ashby.
However that meant Papyrus was now introduced to that human...
Sans knew that Papyrus would take even less time to grow attached to a friend than Undyne took to become the human's friend. And in that case, it meant trouble.
How could his own brother be friends with his sworn enemy?
"Sans are you okay?" Papyrus asked, noticing that Sans had no puns and nothing witty to say over his worry about the human. "You're less bouncy than usual."
'Bouncy' wouldn't be a word Sans would use to describe himself with, but then again, Papyrus had an entirely different perception of how the world looked than he did. Papyrus barely remembered the surface world- since he was barely fourteen months old when the war broke out- while Sans' head was littered with bittersweet memories of the sun, the stars and the moon.
"Chill Papyrus, I was just thinking," he assured his little brother. "There's more knocking around in here than meets the eyesocket." He knocked his bony fist against his hard scull.
Papyrus sighed loudly as he took out a box of sprinkles from the kitchen and dumped it on the rock that sat on their plate. "Here you go Mr. Rocky. Sans, you should really take him out on a walk someday."