Wow, I am really into the idea of posting a chapter every other day and writing ahead of time. For example, I posted a chapter when my computer was about to die! Pretty incredible, right? Anyway, I think I need to post today, but if I did post yesterday.. um... happy belated or early or right on time Birthday. Also, I got lots of great reviews.
So thanks for all the support.
It's worth my phone vibrating and waking me up.
All night long.
...yup...
"Humans have magic too, y'know," Chara said between bites of the saucy, probably expired spaghetti.
Frisk made a humming sound, signaling that he, in fact, did not know.
"Figures. You've read about midevil times before, right?"
Frisk furrowed his eyebrows.
"Do you remember the Salem Witch trials?"
He shook his head.
Chara made a groaning sound. "Of course! The one person I can talk with about human history lost all his memories!"
A grumbling sound echoed throughout the area. Chara yelped.
"Wh-what was that?!"
Frisk rolled his eyes. "Your stomach."
"O-oh," she replied, bashfully. "S-sorry."
"Here." He offered out some kind of sandwich lazily. "From Toriel's."
She hummed with approval as she gulped down the sandwich in almost two bites.
"Mmm..." she replied while chewing. "Pweshe tell me you got shocolate," she begged with a mouthful. Frisk shook his head as Chara finally swallowed.
"Ugh, that blows."
More grumbling echoed through the forest.
"Got any more?" Chara asked, a blush growing on her face.
Frisk shrugged. He figured the town was bound to have something.
"Wanna move forward?" He offered, standing up. This time when he held out his hand, Chara was actually able to take it.
They continued forward.
"So... that thing about magic?" he inquired.
"Oh yeah! Anyway, long before you, or even I, was born, humans still greatly believed in magic and monsters. But there was one common theme; monsters were bad," she explained as the two trotted along the path. "So one day, the two groups hated each other so much, they went to war." She paused for a bit, thinking about what to explain next. "Back then, just about everyone knew magic, and had to learn it to defeat the monsters."
"That's incredible," he gawked. Even after seeing down here, he still doubted the existence of magic.
"After the humans won the war and drove the monsters down here, generations of humans were born who never once saw a monster, but they were all told the same stories. Stories of giants, of beanstalks, of dragons, of witches..." This time, she paused as if trying to remember something. "Magic was forbidden after the war," she explained. "The church deemed it unnecessary to have the same 'evil' the monsters did. Also, most people were scared a dark wizard would break the barrier. So thousands of kids grew up never seeing a monster or a wizard. Anyone suspected of having or using magic was killed so that they couldn't break the barrier. But soon, magic and monsters became legends and tall tales, all trapped underneath Mount Ebott." As Chara finished, she realized Frisk had stopped. They were in the room with the Sentry Station where she found Frisk.
"Wow," was all he could say. "How do I learn it?"
Chara giggled. "You already know it!"
"I-I do?" Chara had never seen him so surprised. Or so, anything, for that matter.
"Reach into your pocket," she dared.
So, he did. "What am I trying to grab?" he asked.
"Nothing. Just put your hand in your pocket."
"I... There's nothing here..."
Chara was laughing up a storm. She was having trouble breathing, and she feared for the life of her unstable form. She tried to calm down.
"Where's my stick?!" He kept reaching in both pockets frantically. As he said stick, he felt the rough wood in his hand, and let out a deep breath.
"Inventory," she explained. "Most humans have it and don't even know it. Sometimes they put items into their inventory without knowing it, and the second they want to look for it, they can't find it because it's in another dimension!"
"Wh-what?"
"Yeah, try it out. Hold out your hand and ask for something you think you have."
Frisk held his arm out with his fingers spread.
Toy knife... he thought. Suddenly, he felt the cool plastic in his hand.
"Wow, you're magic is stronger than most untrained humans," she commented. "Also, you're 'save' power is also magic. One of the rarest forms. Only the strongest, most determined beings have it."
He tried doing his trick with just about everything else he had. He wondered how he was able to keep everything in his pockets at once.
"Did I always have this power?" he asked while putting his final item back into his inventory.
"Well... yeah. It just became much stronger when you got to the underground."
"How come monsters have more powerful magic?"
"Easy. They train. And, when they fight, their soul stays in their body, so it's easier to access."
"Their soul?"
"Souls have to do with magic. It's filled with magic. The only thing that's bad about having your soul in your body when you fight, is that if you die.." She paused for dramatic effect. "Your soul turns to dust just like your body."
"And that's why human souls can last after death, but a monster's soul doesn't," he guessed. Chara nodded.
"Wanna get a'move'on?" she asked, taking a step ahead. "I'm starving!"
Frisk nodded and they continued their journey past the mushy pile of snow.
"Wait a second... why is this puzzle solved?" Chara asked as they got to the next room. It was some kind of ice rink.
"I think Sans solved it for me so I could run away from you faster when you were mad at me." He took a step onto the ice rink, being careful not to slip away yet. He held out his hand to see if Chara wanted help.
Chara gladly took his hand. "Why would he do that?"
With one kick of Frisk's foot, they smoothly glided to the other side. "Maybe he thinks I'll stop listening to you and not kill him."
Chara took a step forward, and little did she know the next path was made of ice. "What a baby."
They slid all the way down to the other side of the path, and Frisk shook some snow off his head. "He knows about my power, maybe he can even remember my loads," he informed Chara.
"A weak monster like him? No. He might be smart enough to know you have it, though." Frisk nodded. She was probably right.
The two had hit a fork in the road. One path went forward, and the other path went down the mountain.
"Which way?" he asked the now-human girl.
"Let's go forward... one of them's down there..." she informed, pointing a finger down the slope.
"If it's only one, I can take'em. You stay here, I'll go," he offered.
"No. We're going forward." She didn't have a good feeling about the skeletons. If Sans was smart enough to figure it out, he was probably also smart enough to tell him brother. Knowledge is power, and someone with knowledge of Frisk's power was someone to be weary of.
"Geez, ok..." Frisk wanted to explore down the cliff. Now, he would never know what was done there. He stepped down the forward path. It was another forest clearing with round balls of snow everywhere. In the center was a really tiny dog house.
"What's this?" he asked, pointing at one of the strange snow balls.
"It's a snow poff." She seemed annoyed that he asked. He pointed to another one.
"And this?"
"And this... is a snow poff."
"What about this?"
Chara was getting really annoyed. "This, however, is a snow poff," she said, sarcastically.
"And what about this one?"
"Surprisingly, it's a snow poff." She crossed her arms. She was just trying to get to the other side of the room.
He pointed towards another one, without even saying anything.
"Snow poff..." she answered.
"Is it really a snow poff?" he asked, pointing to yet another snow poff. Chara was too bothered to answer another one of his ridiculous questions.
"Behold! A snow poff!" Chara exciteingly gestured to a snow poff right next to the path she was walking on. Frisk went to the second to last snow poff on the cliff. The last completely blocked the way.
"Eh? There's 30 gold inside this... this... what is this?" he asked, purposely trying to be annoying. He didn't get an answer. He went over to the last one.
"And what's this?"
"A dog," she said sarcastically. "It's a God damn sno-"
The 'snow poff' grew a tail and a head, then barked. It looked too adorable to kill. Chara gawked at her ironic sarcasm. The rest of the dog, which was a set of armor and a set of arms and legs, popped out of the snow. The armor was covered in dog faces. It was cute to an ugly extent. The dog was huge. Much great than the Lesser Dog he fought earlier. He called it the Greater Dog. The red mist flew out of him. Now he knew that was his soul. He knew his soul was protecting itself by flying out of him.
He punched at it, right in the chest. He drew his hand back. Punching the armor hurt. It probably wasn't the best idea, but at least the dog looked injured. A spear flew through the playing field, looking white, and then blue. He remembered Doggo's spear was blue, and how when he didn't move, it went right through him. When the spear turned blue, he stayed completely still. It didn't harm him.
The dog stared at him intently. He almost felt uncomfortable. He punched it in the face this time, as hard as he could. The body, and the dog's soul, both turned to dust.
"Did you know you use magic in battles, too?" Chara asked as if it was a statement.
"I do?"
"Yeah, you grabbed all the gold that dog had on him when he died. Check to see how much gold you have." He checked his inventory. He had 620 gold. He gawked. He stole all of this from monsters without knowing? Magic was incredible. Together, they walked down the path. All the two could see was the wooden bridge, but Chara seemed nervous.
"I'll just stay here..." she said, meekly.
"What? Why?"
"Both skeletons are here," she informed. "Still, only certain people can see me... but I think Sans can see me, too... I don't want him to know I'm in the flesh now.."
"O-oh..." he said. "Should I find another way around?"
"No, you're fine," she said with a sigh. "I'll just stay here. Come and get me when they leave."
Frisk nodded and walked onto the bridge. Soon, he saw the other side, and the two skeletons standing there. He stopped.
"HUMAN!" Papyrus yelled. No shocker there. "THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE!" No... not Canada! Anything but Canada!
"Behold! The gauntlet of deadly terror!" he announced. Under the bridge appeared fire, a spear aimed at him, and a cannon. On the top was a spiky swinging ball, another spear, and... a dog?
Frisk stopped listening for a little bit as he looked for a way through the situation. If he went at the right time, he could bypass the fire. The fire would burn the bridge, and he could use the bridge like a latter to get up.
How would Chara get across, then?
He could just walk back now and ask Chara how to learn flying or teleportation magic to get them across.
That's not going to work...
"He's probably going to walk through it," he heard Papyrus pout.
Wait...
He could just walk through this and survive?
"And it won't be any fun at all."
Like this has been fun. WHAT ABOUT THIS SEEMED FUN!
"Hmmm... so this human thing was a bust, huh?" Sans piped in.
"Well, I mean, I'm excited to capture him," Papyrus said without enthusiasm, for once. He stopped listening again. He was good with his plan to just walk through it.
Suddenly, the deadly array of traps and the dog disappeared. Now, he didn't even need a plan. Papyrus laughed himself out of sight, but Sans was still there.
One. Just one. I can take him, he thought. Then I won't have to worry about him.
"Hmmm..." Sans said when he went up to him. "Guess we didn't need your help to have a good time after all." He paused and closed his eyes. He was deep in thought. "Say, I've been thinking."
Oh no, did he burst a brain muscle?
"Seems like you're gonna fight my brother pretty soon."
Long after you're dead.
"Here's some friendly advice," he said with a happy tone, winking.
"Why are you helping me?" Frisk blurted out. "Those puzzles... now advice?"
"Because... I don't like doing things. I'm what people call lazy. If you keep going the way you are now..." He paused his warning and closed his eyes. "You're gonna have a bad time."
His eyes were black, cold pits. They dug deep into his soul.
Frisk acted quick. He had his knife pop out of thin air into his left hand. Then, he got ready to lunge forward.
Suddenly, all of the underground turned black for a second. He lunged when the lights came back on, but Sans was no longer there. Instead, Chara was sitting in front of him, her head being lower than where he swung his knife. They both wore confused expressions on their faces.
"H-he saw me..." she said, nervously. "He knows I'm in a body now!"
"A-aren't you more concerned about the fact he can teleport?"
"Th-that too. Teleportation is the hardest magic to learn.." she informed.
"Let's just... go..." he said, trying to ignore the situation.
They passed the sign saying 'Welcome to Snowdin,' but no one seemed to be home.
Chara was the narrator for a bit this chapter. I don't have her as the narrator in this book because, well, narrating is my job. But hey, they made it to snowdin! Only took six chapters...