"It's time."

Did it have to be?

"Wake up, Cter."

Was it over?

"We are approaching the next village."

Who was she kidding? Of course it wasn't over.

"This one we managed to protect, I remember. It was at this village that my subordinates and I finally came to decision about using the tactic we had considered too risky for us to employ against the humans for fear of a bigger retaliation. The humans were camped not far away from the forest here, and after our attacks they turned another way."

It was only the beginning. Only the beginning of what was to be the end of monsterkind on the Surface. Two months of constant talks and discussion between the heads of state for both Xoff and Monster Country. Two months of each day becoming duller than the previous one even as the day when all the discussion would be set into motion crept closer and closer.

More and more had the Monster Mages been the subject of the discussion but not the participants of it. What had begun with Cter had bled over to Kry and Kurant as well. More and more did all three find themselves sitting on those chairs outside the ball room collecting rest and sleep to not immediately be exhausted by their mission.

Lot of good that did though…

"Land just outside it this time, Aajja. It's probably better if we do not land in the middle of the village for those which still have monsters in them. We are to be messengers for those that are alive, after all."

For the first time since they set off on their mission.

Over a month had passed since Cter and her two colleagues set off from Jarasevo Castle on the backs of the three griffons, heading into different directions to bring all of the known monsters back to the Monster Capital.

One month of landing at abandoned or destroyed villages to look for the monsters who were known to live there yet who's name did not show up on the list gathered by the Royal Guards from the many monsters that had made their way to Jarasevo. Scrolls upon scrolls were packed tightly into the pouches carried by the griffons on harnesses that were meant for horses.

Aajja had been in good mood about the harnesses, but that became a lie on the first night he and Cter made camp. The feathers he plucked with itching irritation were plentiful that night, as was the scratching he did underneath the stuffed leather pouches with his talons.

Cter had offered to cover the harnesses and pouches with barrier magic so that Aajja wouldn't have to itch so much, and while he at first declined the offer, it did not take long before he came to realize that there was no use for him to keep up an act in front of Cter.

After the first village where Cter had crossed off the name of a close friend of his after sensing the corresponding dust on the remaining fireplace stood alone among a blackened, wooden skeleton there was no reason for the Griffon Commander to pretend to still be able to keep his head high.

There was nothing to be gained with their mission.

All the two could do was to keep what they lost to a minimum.

The horse harness and stuffed pouches were covered in barrier magic as Aajja took flight from the first village, collapsing the frail wooden skeleton behind his mighty leap into the air. Same was the barrier magic on the harness and stuffed pouches as he landed at the first village they had found that was still alive with monsters. Aajja's landing barely disturbed the unkempt road which had been deliberately worsened one forest length away to masquerade that a previous human attack had happened. It was a clever idea, and had evidently worked.

"I pray it is not the only village you will have to read the decree to."

Cter stood for a few quiet seconds underneath Aajja's raised wing for her to reach the stuffed pouches. His beak turned to her with his brow spilling over his monocle, wondering what was bothering her. "Just need to remember in which pouch the decree was," the Monster Mage explained without taking her eyes from the arrangement of leather pouches her right hand was hovering over.

"Been over two months since I packed them." The second pouch she guessed at was the correct one, and with the expensive parchment in her hand she stepped out of the shadow of Aajja's wide wing which he lowered down after plucking a few feathers from it.

The regal presentation of himself which he had kept subdued with Cter he brought back for the villagers that tentatively approached the griffon monster raising his head high and folding his long tail around him like a ringed cushion to roost on. The Monster Mage that walked to meet the first monsters that dared approach from their village was more to the villagers' interest though, and whispers both from tongue and soul spread like wind through aspen leaves. Some of which flanked the road with their yellow and red fluttering.

It was beginning to become full autumn.

And there was one place Cter wanted to reach before winter came. Any relocation of monsters would have been impossible during winter, and should the Monster Mages return to Jarasevo for it then they would spend the majority of their time traveling back and forth to Jarasevo rather than completing their mission.

For Kurant and Kry searching through Xoff, the winter would not be too much a change, but with Monster Country and Hjearta winter meant...well...winter. Kurant and Kry would continue during winter, and once they were done they would backtrack through what they had cleared and then continue to where Cter had cleared to make sure for her as well that there were no monsters left that she had missed. Then they would continue to Hjearta where they would hopefully meet up in time at the last village and then help the relocating monsters on the way back to Jarasevo.

It was a plan.

Not one that the Monster Mages got any say in though, however.

"W-What brings you here, Monster Mage?" asked a small drake-like monster with tiny horns and a timid tail unsure at what angle would be the proper one to be in when addressing a Monster Mage. There was hope in her aura, something that Cter didn't want to feel. "I-Is t-t-the w-war..."

A shine glimmered in the dark eyes, and as the hope in the drake's aura grew it affected the other monsters that had dared approach, growing and growing with each one until it became a joyous murmur that stopped just short of the monsters running back to fetch the good cider maturing in their cellars.

"W-We i-incapacitated the r-road to prevent any humans from r-reaching us, y-you see." A mixture of shame and pride whiffed through the drake monster's aura, causing its small wings to try and squirm into its back. "P-Please f-forgive if that meant t-that we d-did not trust the R-Royal G-Guard."

It wasn't the drake that should have apologized to Cter.

"Please bring here all monsters in the village."

It should have been Cter that apologized to the drake.

"Y-Yes," nodded the drake which Cter had guessed correctly was the mayor of the village. "C-Certainly!" The monster returned to the small gathering and after some quick exchange of words she came back to inform the Monster Mage. "It w-will take s-some time for u-us to p-prepare s-something that is w-worthy of y-your visit."

After a steadying breath the mayor extended an excited motion of her arm towards the quaint village not much bigger than Cter's back in Hjearta. The wood of the houses were different, but the arrangement and shapes of them all were very similar. There was even a house in the same spot that Cter's childhood home would have stood. Perhaps the village had a lake too some ways into the forest?

The Monster Mage shook the thoughts out of her head. She couldn't get lost so easily like that. She had a mission to fulfill. "No preparations, please," said Cter with the palm of her covered left hand raised. "Only bring all of the monsters in the village here, please." Immediately there was confusion and worry settling in with the monster mayor. Before it grew too much Cter had something else to ask of her. "The name of your village, please?"

"I… Um..." The monster mayor cleared her throat. "I s-suppose I s-should have w-welcomed you, s-shouldn't I?" Her already-red scales turned even redder. "Aspose." Her wings fluttered and her tail bent in an awkward angle as she bowed. "W-Welcome to Aspose. So..."

"Aspose," Cter repeated with a nod. "Got it."

"Y-Yes," smiled the monster mayor a bit too widely. She felt it herself, and excused herself to update her people about what the Monster Mage wanted.

Or what she didn't want, to be exact.

As Cter turned back to Aajja his wing was already raised again for her to reach the pouches she needed. "Wouldn't have said no to some positivity," he tried to cheer up with an accompanying chuckle which fell flat for him immediately. He adjusted his monocle after its bounce from his forced chuckle with a tired talon and an equally tired exhale. "Now that we're here at a village with no spilled dust on the ground and burned buildings it is beginning to feel...strange to me."

He retreated his tired talon from his monocle that was being held in place tightly by Aajja's sunken brow.

"Would the humans really find out if we told them that there were no monsters here in this village? And if they did, would they really kill them in slaughter like what occurred at the Final Battle? Are all humans really latent with this volatile killing intent that not even a lonely village that can only be seen from the air is unsafe from the human soul?"

Almaso, Amberherd, Ammountain village…

"You know that the humans know about the villages too, Aajja," said Cter while browsing through the stuffed-together scrolls to find the one for Aspose. "They will move in and divide up Monster Country after we have all gone to the Underground, so naturally they will be seeking to settle the villages that us monsters have already settled. You might have helped protect the villages from the human attacks, but they did note the position down on their maps."

Anitter village, Anotter village, Antherd village…

"Sir Gerson knew that as well which was why he was so quick with providing our own maps to fill in what the human maps were missing. We are here to make sure that the monsters in this village find safety within the Underground free from the influence of the human soul."

White feathers rose between the pouches, cutting against Cter's hand with the sharp huff that the Griffon Commander exhaled. "And how many more times will you have to tell yourself that before you start to believe it, Cter?"

Cter could hear that there was more tragedy than there was anger in Aajja's voice and aura. If anything he was asking himself the same question as well. "There's not a number big enough for me to believe it as true."

Aoaoa village, Aofilly, Aphiliate village, Apparage…

"And if I was capable of shielding this village from the humans using my magic I would have already done so. This village might be able to hide from the humans for years, be it a few, or perhaps a human generation or two, but then what?"

Asa village, Asba village, Asbe village…

"What will befall these monsters when the humans do find it? What will befall the monsters in the Underground if the humans find out that we did not keep our side of the bargain? That we acted in bad faith? King Asgore arguing that the Barrier be one-sided was to assure the humans that the monsters were acting in good faith, and so we much follow."

Asja village, Asjo village, Asjolko village…

"This war is not something that will be forgotten so soon, believe me in that."

The feathers of the Griffon Commander ruffled once more. "If only so though," he wished with a wispy breath. "If only so..." As his feathers settled back down there was a wash of regret in his aura which had the stuffed pouches sinking down. It had the Monster Mage missing the top of the next rolled-up parchment, and losing where she was in her search.

"The way the mayor's wings fluttered like they did when you told her to not prepare for anything and only bring here the rest of the village I recognized from when I was told that I would be conducting aerial surveying of the human army. A flutter that did its best to hold back the fright within. A flutter that expected relief but was given the complete opposite."

Aofilly, Asbe village, Asjo village…

"My wings did not make that same flutter when we saw Ustit's dust on those burned walls at Ranngajilli. They stayed stuck to my sides as if nothing. My tail did not move either." Aajja scratched at the fluffy appendage with a deep talon.

"I noticed it then immediately, but seeing how the mayor reacted, and that she reacted, reminded me that I didn't. Ustit stayed in our home village because he liked to keep his feet on the ground, and joining the Royal Guard would have had him in the air. I wonder if..."

A nostalgic scoff shook the pouches more than before. Cter managed to keep one finger on the scroll she was at though. "Singe my soul, why am I thinking about it now? Of course he would have tried to fly away if he had the chance to. Why would he have stayed on the ground during a human attack? I...I couldn't have done more, dammit all. It was his choice to not join the Royal Guard. It was his choice, and that..."

"Aajja," said Cter gently, but firmly. "Stop." To show that it was not because she was continuously losing track of where she was on the scrolls she walked around to the front of the Griffon Commander. His deep, dark eyes were weak and defeated, and the feathers around his beak were tensed in a sulking grimace.

"Trust me when I say that I know exactly how you feel. All of...this," the Monster Mage gestured at the village where the villagers were gathering, the stuffed pouches with their names on one of the many, many scrolls, and between the Griffon Commander and herself. "All of this we don't have enough for to feel about. Not even half, or a quarter, fifth, sixth, and so on."

She threw her gesturing hand in the air as if it would detach and land in the forest to be forgotten forever. "And that's by the humans' design. Us monsters are emotional creatures, and they've managed to numb us towards that."

An air of growing worry and confusion which had been confined to the monster mayor had spread to the villagers and resulted in their collective aura rising like the distortion in the air above the paved roads in Xoff during those hot days when Cter traveled through the country.

"They have numbed me to the point that I'm happy to see that the villagers are worried. I'm glad to see that they are becoming scared of why you and I have arrived here and why I told them not to welcome us properly. I'm glad that they are scared, Aajja."

Cter inhaled slowly through her nose.

"Because they are still untouched by the humans' attempts at smothering everything in words to cover their actions. The actions they have done no words could ever cover up, but evidently that haven't stopped them."

It was only when seeing Aajja's beak open slightly to then close with unsure intent that Cter realized that she had lost the thread that she wanted to pull. Her head sank, "Sorry," and her shoulders lifted weakly in a shrug.

"Being aware of how you feel and hovering above that to make sure that your emotions are not betraying you when you most need them makes it difficult to acknowledge that they're just that. That they're just emotions. To me that's the biggest crime that the humans have done towards us monsters." Cter looked to her left arm.

"They have made emotions something that is to be concerned with in a logical rationale. Perhaps it began with human magic, or perhaps it began with the Fusion's Curse. Both discoveries has led to the humans being more aware of their emotions as well as their soul, and with the inquisitive human mind that wants to get to the bottom of everything, that has led to them making emotions less...well...magic. In the human sense of the word. Wondrous and unexplainable."

There was not a lot of agreeing in the Griffon Commander's eyes. "I could see that being the case, I guess." If it was because he did not agree or if it was because he did not want to agree Cter could not tell from either his eyes nor his soul.

"I will have to think about what you have said for a bit, Cter. Despite my wings I have not hovered above myself like how you said. From how you said it though I can tell that it is something true that you tell me, and that I appreciate. This mission has only begun and we both are already so...exhausted."

Aajja looked to the quietly glowing harness and stuffed pouches fastened on him. "It is good that you were insistent on offering to help with your magic, for otherwise I might have felt the need to keep things inside rather than share them with you."

His head looked towards the village, but his eyes traveled far past it towards a horizon far beyond. "We've only found one alive village after a month of searching, and that we have made it to one after so much death and destruction I don't think we would have managed it otherwise."

Cter gave the Griffon Commander a comforting stroke down his neck. His feathers and underlying fur felt soft and gentle on her palm. "I wouldn't have made it without you either, Aajja. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and soul for sharing this burden with me. These villagers will have nothing but anger and confusion towards me after I've read them the Royal Decree, so I will be relying on you to take me away from those emotions as fast as possible. The less baggage I take away from each village the better it will be in the long run."

A pained chuckle had Aajja looking down at the Monster Mage who's eyes and lips had begun quivering. "I will have a lot of apologizing to do when we are safe in the Underground." Her hand on the Griffon Commander's neck clenched to harden the Monster Mage. "But I'd much rather have to apologize to those that are alive than to those that are dead."

Soft and gentle feathers surrounded the Monster Mage, covering her in a warm, secure blanket of feathers and underlying fur. A deep purr reverberated all around her.

"Your emotions do not feel numb to me, Monster Mage. I understand why you are pushing them down to try and make them numb, and I will not do anything to raise them up. I only tell you so that you know that I know." His words were more comforting than his large neck and head which he brought down to embrace the Monster Mage with.

"I will be there when you apologize to everyone as well, Cter. I will take you to each and every single one you save on our mission. I promise you that. To carry you while you carry the weight of all of monsterkind is what I will do until you can put this war behind you, finally. When you will be able to, I will be able to as well, for that will mean that the war is truly over. Only then can we finally forget about it all."

"Thank you, Aajja."

From the very depths of her soul.

"U-Um… E-Excuse me?"

A depth which Cter was brought back from as if ripped away from her world below the lake surface, filling her with the reality she wanted to escape from. The villagers were gathered with the drake-like mayor at the front, waiting. The time for her to weep and cry would have to come later.

"Yes, mayor."

After Cter and Aajja had left for the next village.

"I have with me here a Royal Decree from King Asgore and Queen Toriel."

After she had told the villagers about their future.

"Please follow it to the letter."

After she had condemned them to a life without stars, grass, sky, rain, or sun.

"And obey any human orders on the way."

To a life in the Underground.