After they finished hanging out with Napstablook, Chara and Frisk headed toward the nearby shop to buy some food. Frisk also bought a pair of glasses covered in smudges and a notebook with some of the pages torn out. She placed both items into her inventory without equipping them. The shopkeeper, a very old tortoise-like monster who wore an archeologist outfit complete with a pith helmet on top of his head, was much livelier than Chara thought he would be.

"Here ya go kiddo." he said with a wide, mostly toothless, smile. "That'll be 171G. And would your friend behind you like anything?"

Chara's head perked up. Frisk looked at her with an encouraging smile as she moved to the side so Chara could stand in front of the counter.

Chara walked up to the counter, looking at the food on display. After a few moments she asked for a couple of crab apples.

"Sure thing youngster." Gerson said as he pulled the apples out from under the counter. "That'll be 50G." Chara handed over some of the money that Frisk had insisted she carry.

As they turned to leave Gerson suddenly called after them. "Hold on a second there!" Chara turned back around and saw that the whimsical smile had disappeared from the old monster's face and was replaced with a grim frown. Gerson walked out from behind the counter and stood in front of Chara. With her new height, the top of his helmet reached just past her chin.

The old, shelled monster squinted up at her. Pulling a magnifying glass out of his pocket, he began to take a closer look at Chara's face. "I'm not sure what kind of monster you are, but you look familiar somehow. Have I seen you somewhere before?" Chara opened her mouth slightly but wasn't sure what to say. If she told him who she was, how would he react? He would have questions, questions they didn't have time to answer.

Before she could say anything, Frisk quickly jumped in. "She's one of Undyne's admirers! She knew that I wished to meet Undyne, and asked to come along." Chara quickly glanced at Frisk before turning back to Gerson and nodded.

After a few tense moments of silence, Gerson gave a hearty laugh. "Wa ha ha! Oh, I see, you kids and your heroes." Gerson lowered his magnifying glass and hobbled back behind the counter. "Y'know, some folks say that she's the protector of both the Underground and of all monsters."

Chara nodded again as she played along with Frisk's lie. "Yeah, that's why I admire her so much, because she's the strongest monster in the Underground."

"Well, I shouldn't keep you kids from meeting with her any longer than I already have." Gerson walked back behind the counter. "When you find Undyne, tell her I said hello."

"We will." Frisk nodded before leaving the store with Chara right behind her.

After they moved far enough away from the shop, Chara spoke up. "Thanks Frisk, I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to tell him who I am."

"No problem, Chara, I thought the same thing." Frisk said as they kept walking, passing more history plaques and dozens of echo flowers whispering to each other.

After wading through a couple of small streams, they arrived at a small patch of trees with mushrooms scattered around. Both the trees and mushrooms were glowing softly with a blue light, just enough for Chara to make out their surroundings. Frisk lead the way, following the slim glowing path, occasionally stopping to nudge a small cluster of mushrooms, lighting up more of the path. As they neared the edge of the patch of trees, they came across a lone Temmie.

After sparing her, the Temmie scurried off. Frisk walked the last few feet of glowing blue path before it made a hard left turn. But to Chara's surprise, Frisk turned right and left the path.

"Frisk, where are you going? The path leads to the left." Chara looked to where Frisk was heading but couldn't make anything out past the glow of the trees. "There's nothing over there."

Chara went after her but when she caught up, Frisk turned to her with a wide grin. "Come on Chara!" Frisk grabbed Chara's hand and began pulling her along.

After traveling through darkness for several moments they finally emerged into a large cavern. To the left of where they emerged, there was a signpost in the ground and a large painting hanging on the wall behind it. Further to the left there was a save point and a box as well as two more signposts outside a doorway in the cavern wall. Hanging above the doorway was another larger sign. Past the doorway was an enormous stone statue on a pedestal.

But what drew Chara's attention was the dozens and dozens of Temmies. Some were curled up next to each other sleeping peacefully, while others were talking to each other in their usual broken English, and the others were simply standing or sitting here and there, vibrating excitedly as they stared into space.

One of the Temmies noticed them standing near the entrance and walked up to them. "Hoi, im Temmie! welcom to... Tem ViLlagE!" She exclaimed excitedly, her tail wagging behind her. The Temmie's introduction got the attention of the other Temmies, who all began to gather around Chara and Frisk, each saying "Hoi" and introducing themselves as Temmie.

As Chara watched the small, sweater-wearing monsters swarm around her legs, she began to feel an odd warmth in her chest. As if she had just drunk a mug of Toriel's hot chocolate. And for some reason, she had the urge to scoop up an armful of Temmies and give them all a hug.

As if in answer to her thoughts, one of the Temmies leapt up at Chara. She instinctively caught the small white monster in her arms. The Temmie looked up into her red eyes and said, "Hoi! I'm teMMiE!" before nuzzling into Chara's sweater.

Without even thinking, Chara ran her hand down the Temmie's back, which elicited a purring sound from the Temmie. Looking over to Frisk, Chara saw that tears were streaming from her closed eyes, and she would occasionally sniffle.

"Frisk, why are you crying?" Chara asked, a hint of concern breaking through the LOVE.

Frisk gave a small laugh. "Don't worry Chara, I'm not crying. I'm just allergic to Temmies, that's all."

"If you're allergic, then why'd you want to come here?"

"Because they're just so cute!" Frisk gushed as she knelt down and began petting the closest Temmie.

Chara gave a brief sigh, before continuing to pet the Temmie in her arms, who had fallen asleep.

*Chara and Frisk are nearing the end of Waterfall.*

*This fills you with Detemmienation!*