News of the three children's disappearance spread like wildfire through the underground. How could it be? How could three children suddenly disappear into thin air? There was no places to hide in the underground- every place had been discovered and domesticated, as of the King's knowledge.
Detectives were dispatched, and Snowdogs were sent out to sniff out their scents. The ghost cousins were questioned, as were Sans and Dr. Gaster- the last people to see the children alive and well. While Sans and Dr. Gaster had no idea of the whereabouts, the ghosts told them that they went out one day and didn't come back.
For the next few days monsters searched high and low, in every nook and cranny they knew, for the children couldn't've gone through the barrier. There was no incident like this before. It was like the children had vanished into nothingness.
Their scent was sniffed on the boundaries of Snowdin, but it broke off- giving no concrete leads. It was stale and covered by the snowstorm. The sentries searched the forests once, twice, thrice- yet still there was no sign of the children.
Some monsters have begun to say that the children had died in the storm, but their dust had not been found. There was no evidence whether they were alive or dead, only speculation. It didn't take everyone long to turn the whole investigation into a conspiracy.
Where were the children? Could they have found a way out? Had they really died in that blizzard? The lack of evidence was disturbing and frustrating.
Not even Captain Lionheart knew of the children's location, and he knew the whole underground like the back of his paw. He had lead multiple search parties- on the King's command, and yet none of them had come back with any news. No good news, no bad news.
But there were worrying news. The human among their midst had been revealed, and some monsters were outraged that one of them had been hiding between them as if they were a monster. The classmates who knew Tess Ashby personally, they wailed and growled at themselves for not noticing her obvious humanity sooner.
Some monsters went out looking not for the children- but for her. A group even formed, Lionheart leading it, specifically to be on the prowl for humans. The hunt had begun.
But six years had passed, and soon more and more monsters began to believe that the three had died in the snowstorm. It was just more probable! They couldn't've survived out in the open all that time, hypothermia would've caught them and they would've frozen to death.
Even some of the nastier monsters- the ones on the hunt for the human, had given up and moved on.
Sans did not want to believe that Papyrus was dead. He had looked everywhere, and would still search for him when he was supposed to be on patrol.
His father had become even more distant now, taking in a young yellow lizard as his apprentice as well as himself. He dwelled deeper into science down in the True Lab, where Sans and Alphys, the new girl was called, would help him with his Determination Extraction machine. Sans also tried to forget, but Papyrus was out there, and the thought kept him awake at night.
He had told Alphys all about Papyrus, his friendship and argument with Undyne and Tess, and how they had fled together god knew where. She tried to comfort him the best she could, saying that they had probably found shelter somewhere that couldn't be reached, but somehow Sans found that hard to believe.
Alphys tried her best to cheer up her lab partner, encouraging him to watch her human cartoons with her, doing most of his work for him and even went out with him to look for the lost three children, but nothing seemed to lift Sans' mood. She even went as far to crack a few dry, tasteless puns and skeleton jokes in a desperate attempt to get at least his joking side back on track, but even that was useless.
The older skeleton sat with Alphys at his sentry station after their shift with Dr. Gaster, and after another fruitless search in the snowlands. They had gotten all the way to the cliffs and turned back, knowing they couldn't get down there without great threat.
Sans blanked out, wondering if Papyrus was even alive at all, his dust lost somewhere in the snow. He would've grown up by now, wouldn't he? For some reason Sans could not imagine Papyrus as an adult, about Gaster's height... that was all Sans could imagine. What would he look like as an adult? All Sans could remember was Papyrus in his small stage, about his own height with a squeaky voice and short bones.
And what of Undyne, the wraith girl he'd helped after her family tragedy? She would've grown up as well, but again Sans could not imagine her older than he had last seen her. She would probably look like her mother, except with brilliant blue scales instead of sea-green.
"T-T-T-They have to b-b-be alright, d-d-don't they?" Alphys broke the awkward silence between them at last. "M-M-Maybe they've really found a way out of here? Although that would be impossible." She shivered at her failed attempt at a good comfort. "I-I-I-I'm sure they're alive."
Sans turned his eyes towards her, but said nothing.
"And... And I'm sure they're somewhere in the underground!" Alphys continued, clearly finding it difficult to hold Sans' tortured gaze. "Lionheart will find them! He swore he would!"
But the skeleton shivered when Alphys mentioned his friend's name. He kind of regretted telling him about that human. If he just kept his mouth shut, Papyrus would still be here.
"Between you and me, I think Lionheart will kill all three kids, that is if he finds them," Sans said sadly.
The yellow lizard gasped, her minuscule claws darting to her mouth. "He can't kill monster children! It's against the law!"
"Alphys, you know Lionheart," Sans said, his white pupils disintegrating to emphasise how serious he was. "He will kill everything weaker than himself if it gets in his way, and he has this... obsession with killing humans. Do you realise how passionately he talks about the other two humans that he had murdered?"
His friend didn't want to agree, but she had recalled how Lionheart had reassured Dr. Gaster about what he would do to that human. His tone was so bright and happy that even Sans had to take a moment to process the actual words coming out his mouth. Her look said it all.
"But he can't! Asgore'll-"
"Asgore doesn't know, and he'll never know," Sans snapped at her, and felt guilty when Alphys flinched at his harsh tone. "Lionheart is doing his dirty work for him, and that's all Asgore cares about. He's convinced that Lionheart won't resort to hurting monsters."
"H-H-He won't, will he?"
Sans forced his pupils to return to his eyes. "Lionheart is reckless and unpredictable. I'm just scared of what he'll do if he finds those three before we do."
"Then shall we go on another search? The snowlands are big, and perhaps they've found a way to unlock the ruins?"
Alphys jumped down from her place at the sentry station to crunch into the snow below. She fought to keep her spirits high, but she was shaking- and only partly from the cold. Sans sighed in defeat and followed her lead. At least Alphys was on his side, and he should be grateful for that.
But what if those three were really gone?
But not at all. The three were safe and sound in the hermit's house down below the cliffs. It was tough living in the harsh snow, eating snow berries from the bushes- and very occasionally sneaking back up the cliffs using magic for climbing to go into town to buy pastries and proper food. Of course it was only Undyne or Papyrus that would go, since Tess did not have magic, and they would throw on a black cloak and a black bandana to hide their identity. They would shift their voice a few pitches lower or higher so the rest of the monsters would not recognise them.
They had gotten quite settled in to that little hermit's house in the isolated lower snowy region, gotten used to the cold and the difficult conditions of life. But that was okay. They were safe from prying eyes and from the claws of Lionheart.
During those six years, the three had grown up. They were not children anymore, but young adults. Each of them had finished their growth spurt and changed a lot.
Undyne was the tallest out of the three, Papyrus only shorter by four centimetres, and Tess was a whole head smaller than them. Undyne's scarlet hair had grown so long it dragged on the ground when it wasn't tied up into a high ponytail, her muscles had been well-worked and a gleaming six-pack was shown on her scaled belly. Her fins had gotten longer, and she had shed her baby teeth- which were now replaced by long shark-like fangs. Papyrus didn't have hair, but his face had gotten longer and his shoulders increased in breadth. His cartilage had developed into strong bone, and he had gotten more sure-footed. And Tess, who had grown into a fine young woman of nineteen years with uneven hair that draped around her shoulders like dark cobwebs and a broad, flattened face.
The three children had gotten so close they were not merely 'friends' anymore, but family. Not in blood, but in bondage.
"I'm home!" Undyne announced her arrival as she stepped into the house, shaking the snow off herself and lowered her black hood and bandana. The house was tidied, just like Papyrus had promised, and the fireplace crackled loudly.
"Hi Undyne!" Papyrus greeted her from his place on the couch. His voice was no longer the high-pitched squeaking, it had gotten deeper into a pure tenor. "What did ya get?"
Undyne dropped the two huge white plastic bags of food onto the wooden table and began to take off her shoes. "Two whole bags of healthy food! I'm gonna be preparing soup for the next few weeks, so better get ready!"
"Hiya Undyne!" shouted Tess, hanging upside down from the entrance to her attic. Her hair hung down due to gravity, and there was a tic of excitement in her eyes. She looked a lot like an upside down mole. "Did I hear you'll be preparing soup?"
Undyne laughed at her. "Of course! I was getting tired of eating those bland snow-berries."
"How is it up there?" Papyrus asked, sitting up on the couch. "Did you see Sans?"
It was not that hard to see that Papyrus missed his brother greatly, but he kept on comforting himself that he would be reunited with him someday. Just like Tess, who had missed her own brother too.
Undyne shook her head apologetically. "Sorry Papyrus, didn't see him, but I did have a close run in with Lionheart.
Her announcement caused Tess fall through the hole in the ceiling and Papyrus to stand to his feet.
"Did he recognise you?" both of them demanded at once. "Were you followed?"
Undyne shook her head, red hair waving as she did so. "No, but he asked if I saw the three missing children anywhere. Of course I said that I hadn't seen them, and that they were probably dead."
Papyrus nodded his head as Tess picked herself up from the floor. "We're not little children anymore," said Tess eventually. "But of course we need to be careful. In the end, Undyne's still Undyne, Papyrus' still Papyrus, and I'm still me."
Tess was nervous. So what that they had managed to hide for so long? What if she died before the barrier was destroyed? Monsters lived much longer than humans did, and if that was the case, if she had to leave Papyrus and Undyne behind, would it all be for nothing? She didn't want it to be for nothing. She had promises to keep: to Ben, to Papyrus and, perhaps most importantly, to Undyne.
"Don't worry," Undyne placed her webbed hands onto Tess' sagging shoulders. "Lionheart will take a million years to find us here, and even if he does find us, we'll fight him."
Now it was possible. Both Undyne's and Papyrus' magic had developed along with them, getting more and more powerful with each coming year. While Papyrus' magic still shattered upon contact, he had mastered blue 'don't move' magic, and was now able to turn both Undyne's soul and Tess' soul a deep blue, so he could throw them back into a wall or such. But still that wasn't as impressive as Undyne's magic.
The Sea Wraith could summon glowing blue spears just at thought, between her hands or from the ground. She too could change the colour of souls, but instead to green, which prevented the other from fleeing the battle. It was quite useful indeed.
But the human wasn't defenceless. Undyne had trained Tess well, so that she was skilled in using branches, bones or spears as her weapons.
They were well prepared if the worst would come to be.
"I know," Tess sighed, pressing her face to Undyne's hard torso, asking for support and comfort. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this."
"Oh lay off Tessy," Undyne told her, wrapping her big arms around her. "You've been blaming yourself for six years, give it up already."
"It's us three together," Papyrus added, joining in the group hug. "Till the very end."
"Anyways," Undyne changed the subject after a few seconds, breaking apart the hug. "May I take your order?"
Papyrus and Tess managed to snicker before they both replied- "vegetable soup" in unison, since it was the three's favourite and they hadn't had it for a while.
So Undyne unpacked with the help of her two housemates and started to prepare. To her, and she was sure to the other two as well, life on the higher levels was just a distant memory she liked coming back to. She had realised that neither she, nor Tess, nor Papyrus actually mattered, and they weren't needed at all. Yet they still hid from the danger that surrounded them like hibernating bears in a cave. Except they weren't predators. They were prey.
Her mind got lost in thought so much that she started to stir the soup slowly. Papyrus was quick to point that out.
"I thought you were always supposed to stir fast and cook it on the highest setting," he said, confused. Tess laughed along with him.
"Careful Undyne, you're cooking the soup correctly!"
These two was all she had, and she liked it that way. Her fin twitched as she remembered the absolute urgency they had fled with, through the snowstorm and down the cliffs all those years back. The fear still plagued some of her dreams, even after laying low for all this time.
"Aight punks, I gat this," Undyne huffed, rubbing her talons together as she shook the unpleasant memory from her head. "Time to teach you how to properly cook a good meal! Fu-huh-hu!"
With that Undyne cranked up the heat and started stirring so fast her whole arm turned into a blur. It had gotten so hot that the whole soup had caught on fire. The watching duo did nothing for a few seconds, enjoying the display before they interfered and prevented Undyne from setting the whole house on fire.
"Howdy!"
None of the three were surprised to hear the fourth voice. Unlike them, the flower monster had not changed a bit. He visited them once each year to make sure they were still alive and well. Despite doubting the flower's pacifism and not thinking that he would do anything shall anything go wrong, Flowey was a welcomed guest in the three's house. Once again his yellow head popped through the mouse-hole and his voice squeaked like the critters that lived inside.
"My my, you three have grown a lot since the last time I saw you!" said the flower happily. "It really is a shame that I've decided on doing a pacifist run, I would've liked to put you three to the test!"
Like with the River Person's head-spinning ability, a normal person would've been terrified of such talk, but by this point in time the young adults had gotten so used to the flower's cheerful death threats that it ceased to phase them. Instead, the three welcomed the plant guest willingly. Papyrus had brought the old plant pot from the windowsill and put it next to the flower, who knew the drill and slithered into it. It took some time for him to adjust his roots to the strange dirt, but Papyrus had already carried him to the table, where he could get a better view.
"How's the upper levels Flowey?" Tess asked, sitting down on the chair beside him. The flower fluttered his leaves before he answered.
"Boring as hell. I honestly am tired of being trapped down here," he replied truthfully. "It's the same everyday." He shook his head wearily. "But did you know that the tragedy of the missing children is still very popular, even after all this time?"
"Yes, we know," Undyne muttered grimly, giving the soup a furious stir. "I've just had Lionheart mewling to me about it."
"Ah, so you've just been up there I see?" Flowey cooed. "Captain Lionheart sure doesn't like being beaten! He'll be searching for you until the day he dies."
"Oh bugger off," snapped Undyne as Papyrus also sat down at the table. "We don't need you to remind us that we're one step away from death."
Tess shuddered and stood to her feet. "One step away from death? I guess that's a nice way of putting it." She took out four bowls from the cupboard, left there by the hermit. Even though they were faded like the cutlery, mugs and plates, they were still functional and without much damage. Tess held one of them up to the light. The blue pattern on the porcelain was almost completely rubbed off now, just like the blue sky from her memories. "Quite prophetic, isn't it? If by the small chance we do survive-" she started to lay the table. "I'd like to tell my brother all about it." She stuffed her hand into the pocket of her patchwork jacket. She had grown out of it, but thanks to using old cloth that was around the hermit's house she managed to sew the sleeves and torso longer, though it was still ragged and messy. "Have you three ever seen the sky?"
Papyrus looked at Flowey, and Flowey looked at Papyrus while Undyne stopped her stirring for a moment. Undyne raked her memory, but then she remembered that she was born in the underground, and Papyrus was only a few months old at the time of the war.
"It was a long time since I'd seen the sun," Flowey confessed, flattening his petals against his face. Tess blinked at him.
"It's a big ball of gas ninety-three million miles away," Tess said. "I wonder when I'll see it again."
She pulled the MP3 Player from her pocket. It was still working, all these years later. Still playing the same thirty songs over and over and over again. Sighing, she shoved the MP3 Player back into her destroyed pocket, deciding that silence was best for now.
"But then again, I like the moon and stars more," said she, sitting back down. "There's something about night that I loved. Still love. I'd like to show all of you a completely cloudless night sky some day."
"Sans always talks about stars," Papyrus put in, playing with his spoon absent-mindedly. "What are they like?"
"They're stamped out into the black sky like cookie-cutter designs, sometimes falling, twinkling like the rocks on the Waterfall ceiling," Tess explained as Undyne served the soup. "And the moon watches them all, at least that's what Ben used to say. He said that the moon is the stars' caretaker, and whenever someone was distressed on earth, the moon would send down one of its stars to grant a single wish. Of course, the stars didn't want to grant wishes, so they fell from the sky and just stayed on earth instead, posing as different earthen creatures of the night. At least that's what Ben used to say."
"We used to have myths like that too!" Papyrus told her. "There's this one legend Gerson used to tell us."
For the first time Undyne's face brightened. "About an angel that's seen the surface returning to set us all free."
"It's more like a prophecy," Flowey interrupted. "I've heard it many times too. It's meant to be a symbol of hope, but I doubt it will ever be fulfilled."
"Prophecies, schmophesies," Undyne swatted her hand. "Let's eat!"
The white hills of the upper snowlands were still and windless. The trees around provided shadows, the darkness already thickening.
A single ember flame travelled through the cold forest, his warmth melting the snow around him and his amber light cast shadows across the already deserted forest. The forest wasn't as calm as it used to be, with the children missing and everyone rushing around looking for them. But now as night fell the forest went quiet once again.
Grillby liked it when it was quiet, unlike in his bar, where everyone was talking and loud and cracking puns. The forest was cool and soulless, nobody there to disturb him. He reached a flaming hand into his pocket and pulled out a single cigarette and placed it into his mouth. He placed the tip of his finger to the end of the cigarette, causing it to start to smoke. Grillby puffed out a cloud of smoke as he sighed. He always smoked when he was nervous.
He shouldn't be though. It's been six years. Shouldn't the agony of the tragedy fade, just like after every tragedy? Grillby rubbed the pure white eyes under his glasses with the palm of his hand. Gaster was distressed. Sans was distressed. Everyone was distressed. It was strange. It was frustrating. It was disturbing. The main topic Grillby would hear at his restaurant was still the missing children's incident, or conspiracies or theories about the subject.
Some said that the children had managed to pass through a blindspot in the barrier, others believed they had died in the snowstorm. Some even stated that the children weren't real and were just a myth drummed up by the storytellers like Gerson.
Personally, Grillby thought the children were dead. There was no way they could've survived a snowstorm without freezing over. Even a fire creature like Grillby would've met his doom in a blizzard.
He looked up and exhaled deeply. It was so long since the monster have set foot on the surface. The children that were born at the time of the war had all grown up now, and more were born. Some monsters never even got to see the surface, and died of age. Grillby shuddered. He wanted to see the surface again before he met his end.
Suddenly a twig snapped, the loud noise echoing through the forest. Some underground birds have taken off as a result, startled by the sound. So was Grillby.
The sound was loud. The sound was close. Was there someone in the forest with him? Eh, it was probably a sentry.
But then Grillby realised that the sentries were all at his place, enjoying the ends of their shifts. He froze over. Then who...?
Grillby quickly hit behind a tree from the moving creature, praying that it wouldn't notice his amber light. Who was it? He dared to lean out from behind his hiding place.
The forest was dark, but the hooded creature was even darker. It looked like the River Person, except its cloak was navy, and this creature's cloak was black. Grillby could even swear he saw blue scales below the hood. The creature was carrying two huge white bags, filled with what looked like food. The hands that were carrying them could be seen, claws glistening like silver and scales the colour of deepest blue.
Grillby recognised the strange person. They have been coming to Snowdin town for supplies for quite some time. Six years to be exact...
Nobody knew who they were. But now Grillby could recognise the movements as feminine yet bulky, blue scales peaking through here or there. It was a Sea Wraith woman.
A Sea Wraith...?
One of the missing children was a Sea Wraith. And not just any wraith. A female Sea Wraith the colour of ocean.
Could this be Undyne the Undying?
Whoever she was, the figure didn't seem to notice him. She just rushed away into the darkness.
Instantly intrigued, Grillby followed her, careful not to give away his position. He crept behind her, keeping his distance from her shall she notice him. He had no doubts about it anymore. This was definitely Undyne the Undying. Then... were Papyrus the Skeleton and Tess Ashby alive as well? They had to be!
For a while Grillby followed her, careful where he stepped. Then suddenly the trees opened up and the stranger in the black cloak stood at the edge of the cliff. Grillby promptly hid behind a tree, forcefully dimming his red glow so that she would not recognise him. The stranger looked around, two golden eyes glimmering below her hood, before she threw herself off the cliff.
Grillby gasped in surprise, then ran to the cliff to see what the stranger had done. Did she just commit suicide?
Though apparently not.
Grillby stared in absolute shock at the figure, a makeshift parachute unfurling itself from a bag on her back. With that she drifted down safely, the black hood being thrown off her head to reveal a long red ponytail.
For a moment Grilby stood there dumbfounded. The children were down the cliffs! He watched Undyne the Undying land a little roughly on the snowy ground, packing the large parachute back into the backpack on her back. She lifted her hood above her head again and walked into the trees.
Then Grillby came to his senses. Where was she going? He lifted his shades and blinked his eyes, special eyelids setting down over his eyes, turning them white to black. While the eyelid was down, all around his the world turned into swirls of blue, green, and a bit of red and orange and yellow. Infrared vision. All of the snowy environment around was coloured blue, coldness. But there was a hint of yellow, orange and even red between the trees. A house. People inside the house. Three of them, moving around, alive and well and emitting body heat.
The missing children! All of them! They were alive.
Flicking up his special eyelids, Grillby set his shades over his eyes and pressed his hand to the trunk of one of the trees. It was so could remember where he had seen the scene.
Of course Lionheart wouldn't give up on such a task. His prey had escaped right from under his nose and eluded the wrath he was so willing to unleash. The lion barely bottled his anger. That light blue soul was just at his fingertips, then vanished into nothingness as if it was nothing more than water vapour.
Lionheart would keep searching, even though his quest might be without a prize. There was a very high possibility of those three foolish children dying in that blizzard. But then that would be more awful. No human to fight. No soul to gain. It was a problem. A big problem at that.
His ear flicked when he heard the door open, but he didn't turn round. Grillby's Diner was full of newcomers, not just the Snowdin folk. Lionheart recalled that his friend, Sans the Skeleton, had not been coming to Grillby's as much as he used to. He had dwelled deeper into his Laboratory with his father and a new friend. The thought of killing that plump yellow lizard had crossed his mind a couple of times; Sans was his best friend, not hers!
Of course, Lionheart had wanted to kill his brother, but now decided against it. What would Sans think of him then? He flattened his ears at the mere frustration at the horrible turn of events.
"Captian Lionheart!" suddenly someone said.
The Captain of the Royal Guard heaved a heavy sigh and turned his head to look behind him. The other customers at the diner barely paid attention as the owner of the building rushed towards him. His flaming head was crackling and popping with anticipation, so instantly Lionheart knew that the fire monster had some important news to tell him.
"Yes?" he shuffled to face him, waiting for the news.
"I know where the missing children are."
At those words Lionheart felt his whole world light up. His white soul started to shine deep within him, his heart beating faster and his eyes began to glow.
"Where are they?" he demanded instantly, almost grabbing Grillby by the shoulders- stopping himself at the last second when he remembered that touching him would be a very bad idea. "Are they all alive?"
Grillby fixed his glasses with a heavy sigh. "Yes, they're all alive. And I know where they are."
Lionheart took a deep breath. "Where?"
It took Grillby a while to muster up the courage to even choke the words past his tight throat. "The lower snowlands. They've managed to make their way down those cliffs."
Of course. The once place nobody ever thought to explore. Lionheart had to give kudos to the three kids for figuring that out. They were smarter than everyone thought they'd be.
"There's a cottage in the woods," Grillby continued. "They're there. If you walk along the cliffs you'll find a tree marked with a burnt handprint. Across from there, there's the house where the children stay."
Lionheart was speechless. So those children were alive after all these years. Now he knew where they were.
Now he knew were the human was.
Lionheart stood to his feet, thanking the barman for his information and threw himself back out into the open.
He'd been waiting for this moment for so long. But first he needed to make a few essential stops.
Dr. Gaster didn't expect visitors. Especially not at this time. He had work to do for goodness sake!
He opened the lab door reluctantly, and to say that he was surprised at the monster hero's presence would be an understatement.
"Dr. Gaster!" Lionheart bowed his head to the scientist, paying respect to his best friend's father as if he were his own dad.
For a moment Lionheart seemed to shrink to the young cub-boy he was a few decades ago, when Sans was still a boy, when the surface was still the monster's home. Gaster gave Lionheart a confused glare.
"Yes, it's been a while Lionheart," said the Royal Scientist. "Are you here to see Sans?"
But to his surprise the massive anthropomorphic lion shook his head. "Not this time. I'm here to see you, Dr. Gaster."
"Very well," Gaster stepped aside to let Lionheart past once he'd gotten over his own shock. The oldest skeleton rubbed his eyesocket and shook his head. "Now I know you're not here for a friendly visit," he said, crossing his arms. Lionheart confirmed with a meow. He had sat down in a desk chair and began to spin around in it as if he were a child himself. "Then c'mon, spill the beans."
"Oh, I'm just wondering if you've got a teleportation device set to the destination of New Home," Lionheart asked, leaning back so he stared at the white ceiling. "One that will work from anywhere and will take all of your things with you."
Questions began to flood Gaster's mind at this strange request. What did Lionheart need a teleportation device for? Gaster was quick to ask so.
"I want to explore the lower snowlands," Lionheart replied effortlessly, as if he were going on a mere vacation. Gaster searched his words for lies, but found- to his own shock- that Lionheart was telling the truth. "And I need a way back up the cliff, if you'd be so kind, doctor."
Gaster rolled his eyes. He had expected Lionheart to bring news of his son, whether he was alive or dead. Right now everyone was in the dark on the subject, and the fact that he didn't know was driving him crazy. Arial and now Papyrus... Was Wingdings destined to lose everyone he was close to? His mind turned to Sans, and he reassured himself that keeping his eldest son close could enable him to make sure nothing happened to him.
"Fine then, Captain," Gaster sighed heavily. He told the lion to stay while he climbed up the escalator to reach his tiny, successful inventions.
"This is a teleportation detonator," Gaster explained when he got back. In his hand was a tiny joystick-like object. It looked like the detonator to some kind of bomb. "Flick the cap up and press the button and you will be at New Home in no time."
Lionheart stood to his feet and bowed down to Gaster once again. "Thanks Dr. Gaster, I owe you one." He took the small device and pocketed it. "I'll be sure to tell you how it was."
There is a loophole to every rule. A way to break every system. And Lionheart was always a rule breaker. A creative one at that. He knew the skeleton race could weed out lies between dialogue as if it were sorting black letters from white. But Lionheart had told the truth to Gaster, he really did intend to go down those cliffs to explore. But it was not lying if Lionheart didn't say anything at all, so he avoided telling him the other reason why he was going down.
He was there now, walking along the edge of the cliffs, feeling the snow crunch beneath his wide feet. Once again his eyes were glowing. He had made sure the sentries were given a surprise holiday, so that nobody could get in his way.
Once again anticipation was causing his heart to beat faster. He had felt this way every single time before a fight with a human, and he liked it.
This time the desire would be fulfilled. There was nowhere the human could run from him now. Never again.
Just like Grillby had said, he came upon a tree marked with a scorched black handprint. It looked relatively new too, only being marked the day before. Lionheart followed the barman's instructions and turned to the cliff.
Though he couldn't see the house itself, Lionheart was sure that he saw chimney-smoke rise from behind the trees. The lion opened his mouth to inhale, but smelt only forest. He was too far away.
Lionheart rubbed his hands together in glee and preparation, unable to hold back his excitement any longer. He outstretched his hand, and a long, big, fancy blade appeared. It was bigger than Lionheart himself, a weapon that took a ton of magic energy to summon. He was proud of it, keeping it sharp and shiny for occasions like these. He could see his own face in the metal, as well as the dried blood of Integrity and Bravery. Soon the blood of Patience would join them.
With that, Lionheart stepped over the cliff and felt himself fall.
Faster and faster Lionheart fell, the weight of his armour and blade pulling him down even faster. His golden mane was flapping behind him, and his eyes began to water from the wind. The ground was getting closer and closer. When it got close enough, Lionheart plunged his mighty blade into the cliffside and felt the friction pull them into a gradual stop. And when he did finally stop, Lionheart could stand on the snowy ground with two flat feet.
He was here at last. The blade was pulled away from the cliff, leaving behind a long gash in the rock like an open wound.
Once again Lionheart opened his mouth to take a deep inhale. Though the smell that reached the top of his ridged mouth caused his whole body to shiver.
Human scent!
Almost jumping with glee, Lionheart stalked forward, following the scent of his prey. His teeth were bared and his blade was drawn. It was close. So close that Lionheart could hear the beating of her heart, the breathing of her lungs.
With a few more steps, Lionheart could see her. She was standing in front of a dark-wooded hut, humming under her breath while she stood among snow-berry bushes.
He had found her at last! Lionheart licked his lips. He could kill her quickly and not go through the bother of having her call the others. But that wouldn't be fun! He had already made that mistake with Integrity, and barely got any excitement out of it.
So Lionheart stepped out between two trees, the shadows dancing over his golden body. There was nothing between him and the human now. No trees, no plants, nothing. Only snow. He smiled and punched the tree next to him, shaking it as some of the snow fell to the ground.
The hollow sound caused the human to stop her song at once. Lionheart watched as she turned round to look at him. No sound came out of her the expression of pure horror set upon her face.
Lionheart's smile stretched wider as he angled his blade so it caught the dim light. Her eyes were grey, just like Sans had described them.
"Hello Patience."