"Lift up your chin for me, please."

The mighty neck covered in soft, gentle feathers arose with a soft motion to the long neck. The floppy gular folded like a bellow before bouncing to its full, hanging length.

"A bit more, if you can."

Even with the otherwise-folded long neck stretched out to its full length the fastenings of the leather straps were still buried deep within the thick plumage and underlying fur. Cter's decision to remove the barrier magic around the harness first before undoing the buckles weren't the best of decisions, she came to realize as she fumbled blindly within the thick plumage.

"I think..."

When she finally found it, the worn buckle could not be undone cleanly, and a few feathers were caught in the process. Like a deflated accordion Aajja's neck folded in on itself again, prompting a swift apology from the Monster Mage. "You get to scratch at it finally now though."

Cter barely managed to step aside to continue coaxing the harness off Aajja before his talons shot up to scratch at his neck. Dark blue magic covered the tips of his talons so that he could scratch deeper. From behind it looked as if he was about to stab one talon through his throat with how deeply he scratched. Dense purrs reverberated through the Griffon Commander's body, denser than Cter had even heard before.

Or felt.

She had to immerse herself within the warmth of Aajja's plumage to unbuckle where he could not reach. His magic was not precise enough to fold out the leather straps either, so it was up to Cter's hands to undo the buckles around his neck and stomach. With her arms reaching both above and below his torso, Aajja's purring resonated within Cter as well.

It was pleasant and had her wishing even more that she had the gall to ask Aajja if she could sleep on him during the nights. Her tent was comfortable enough with her sleeping more on her added magic to soften up rather than the actual cot bed. Having a magical fire warm from underneath too made it so that she was never cold during the nights when they had to settle down for the day on the road rather than in some abandoned house.

To be surrounded by warm feathers and soft, gentle purring though…

Imagining it brought back hints of memories from when Cter was but a small child falling asleep during the spring and early autumn evenings on Romrom's lap. A sunny day meant that her black, raven feathers were still warm during the colder evenings, and with her rocking her human grandchild to sleep with the residual sun-warmth still present on her feathers and with her soft singing coaxing in rhythm to her wing stroking the small child's hair it...all...did…

"Cter?"

The Fourth Monster Mage shot her eyes wide awake. "Yes. Sorry. I was..." She cleared her throat and aura from the lullaby-like memories. "I have just one buckle left." It was one that her half-aware mind had trouble finding which way the buckle was fastened at, but eventually the last one came undone too after Aajja sucked in his stomach. "There you are!"

A nearby evergreen provided the perfect rough bark for the Griffon Commander to rub the length of his neck and body against to itch where he had not been able to. Cter's barrier magic had stopped the itching from progressing worse, but there was not much he could do to relieve himself of what was already itching. It didn't get worse, but it did not get better as well.

And for three long months he had endured.

"Singe my soul..."

For three months of landing at one alive monster village after almost ten dead ones on average, he had endured.

"Fluffbun! This feels so…"

Small puffs of snow formed on the canopy-shielded ground, shaken down by the Griffon Commander's borderline-violent scrapes against the thick, lumpy bark of the old evergreen tree which branches shook hard enough to dislodge a thick rain of needles along with their clingy snow. Green when falling off the branch and purple just below the lowest branch where Cter caught them with a magical miasma of stasis magic.

The scratching meant to relieve itching being the reason for more itching was a fate Cter helped not come to fruition for the Griffon Commander. He needed it. The way he threw up his wing straight up into the air to reach spots he otherwise would not been able to would have been akin to Cter throwing up her–

"Achoo!"

A look comprised of both massive relief and slight concern lit up the Griffon Commander's eyes and aura. "Oh, do forgive!" he asked of the Monster Mage seeing her recoil from his large, fluffy tail swiping her across the face. "I...I was just..."

"It's fine," replied Cter to the flustered Griffon Commander with an increasing blush travelling over his face. Ruffled, half-loosened feathers adorned his neck and body, giving him the impression of being a teenager coming home late at night to his parents looming over him with their wings and beaks.

Amid the blush he used his tongue to reel in his monocle he had shaken off his eye hanging down his gular like drool. "I'm happy to see you finding relief from this." Cter took a glance at her magical miasma to take a quick stock of the amount of needles Aajja had loosened. It was a rather thick spread of pine needles he had shaken loose, with the branches above looking barren and wilted. "Take the time you need."

The thick layer of pine needles was not unlike the layer of pine needles that covered the foyer in Cter's family home during winter to soak up the moisture from the wet shoes set to dry after the short winter day. Even Romrom used them to dry her talons off before entering. The magical miasma to catch the pine needles falling out of the canopy Cter remembered from Romrom.

While she was a child before heading to Soul's School, Cter would do her best to help her monster grandma to catch all the pine needles falling off while her father chopped down the tree. Instead of magic she used a bucket, and it was only until much later that she realized that Romrom asking Cter to scoop up the needles that fell off when the tree hit the ground was her grandmother making sure that her grandchild was a safe distance away from the large, sharp saws.

Cter did not need a bucket to catch the needles that the Griffon Commander shook loose though, and if she missed anyone she was sure as hell not going to pick up small, green needles among a forest floor. She had survived things worse than large saws ever since she left her home village in Hjearta, after all.

A village that was just around half an hour's walk further into the forest. A village that was the last stop the two of the Royal Messengers were to stop at for the year. Cter's breath had hung in the air ever since Aajja had passed over the Hjearta border. With each of the handful of villages they had known of to house monsters Cter's breath had hung thicker and thicker.

With each visit to inform the humans to inform the nearest members of the combined human army about the monsters in their respective village Cter had added more and more to the warmth of her fire magic she kept under her robe and pointy hat she had been given to wear for the cold.

She did not need it to keep warm, so instead she used its wide brim to conceal her face and identity the best she could. Her presence, both with landing on the back of a mighty griffon and her royal garb, was enough to convince that she was there on official business. The few times she had not been immediately thrusted a quick flair of her magic in a colourful burst had been enough to convince. At one village she was asked if she was the Princess of the Lineage, which had rattled inside her mind like a stone in a honey slinger.

How long before the damage she did towards the monsters trying to protect them became more than the damage that old mage had done towards the monsters trying to hurt them?

It was a question Cter had not been able to shake off. A question she was not able to definitively put a stop to. Time and time again she landed at another village with the mission to bring the monsters that had survived the war to an Underground away from friends and families.

The Royal Decree told that those of the humans that wanted to join with the monsters in the Underground were to make a mention of that to the nearest representative of the combined human army that they were to deliver the monsters in their village to. Still though the journey back to Jarasevo was to only be made by the monsters, so it was still taking them away from their home and loved ones.

And Cter was to do the opposite.

Return to her home and loved ones.

The reward for her doing good in condemning all of the villages before her own.

It was bitter beyond belief.

"Okay," exhaled the Griffon Commander, pleased. A rough shiver ran throughout the length of his body from the tip of his beak to the tip of his tail. The shiver was accompanied with a wave of dark blue magic which acted like a comb, dragging free the loosened feathers and tufts of undercoat from his body. From the large piles that gathered underneath him it looked as if he had been shaved, but the thickness of his plumage and coat looked none the thinner. "That's better."

Aajja caught the look of Cter glancing down at the piles of shed fur and feathers. "I'm sure some of the birds that haven't migrated to warmer weathers will be nesting pleasantly this winter," he commented with a small laugh while investigating the branches above him. After nodding towards a few birds that gathered on some of the branches he gave a more serious one down the dirt road occasionally spotted with thin, white ice. "Speaking of nesting through the winter."

Cter only found one curious bird overlooking the potential material for its nest which was one more than she expected to find. It was a red-chested one with a slicked-back tuft on its head which reminded of Kry's hair sans his gray streaks.

"You can fly there if you don't want to walk," she offered the Griffon Commander with a point towards the roof of evergreen and fir trees that coveted the road leading to Cter's home village with dancing shadows and irregular shapes of light which bloomed brighter when they swept over the icy spots in the dirt road. "It's not far, but you will not be able to squeeze yourself through the branches unhurt."

"You won't shield me with barrier magic then?" quirked Aajja along with a raised eyebrow raised teasingly. He chuckled, and picked up the harness into his gular with an uncomfortably wide gulp. "I would enjoy a walk with you if you'd allow me, Monster Mage."

She would, and the two headed off with a joint look over their shoulder after a half a minute to see a large collection of small birds swooping down to take their pick of the large, warm feathers and shed undercoat.

"Is there a way for you to be able to keep those pouches hidden inside your own, larger pouch for the length of the winter, Aajja?" asked Cter after another half a minute of crunchy walking over the cold dirt road. The sheets of white ice were tempting to stomp her foot through, but she managed to keep that desire subdued enough.

"Telling your village that all monsters are to be taken away from it and then asking to stay there for the rest of the winter is the reverse of a good order, I agree," replied the Griffon Commander with surprising clarity considering the baggage in his mouth. "I don't think I can keep these in my gular for long." He had to talk slowly to not get his tongue stuck in any of the buckles. "Old leather and older metal is not the most tasteful of combinations, unfortunately."

Cter took his word on that. She did not even have to confirm with his aura. "Telling the truth about what they are for I don't think we should do though in case someone asks about them. It's better not to tell the truth. Not lie, but just not tell them the truth. We'll hide them away first and foremost though."

That was Cter's plan. "They are papers necessary to bring about peace between humans and monsters." Which they were, but it was not the truth of the matter. Neither of the two Royal Messengers noticed how casually Cter said it as it had become second nature for them by that point. By a much earlier point, to be more specific.

When exactly neither could point out, but eventually it all became routine for the two both with finding the destroyed villages and quietly searching for what dust still remained and also to read out the Royal Decree for those villages that were still alive. What still had the two unsure how to act the best was the monsters that they found in hiding.

A family of cat monsters living in a hunter's cottage two hour's flight from the nearest road was the first that Cter and Aajja found. Their zigzagging across the landscape as if ploughing back and forth to cover as much ground as possible was what had their mission taking so long. Had it just been them flying from village to village they might have been done before winter set in.

It was with a modification of the Spider Butcher's magic that Cter sensed the monsters in hiding, which she had given to her colleagues as well. A way to feel aura at a vast distance. Nothing else could be read, only that it existed somewhere in the distance.

That it worked sat unwell with Cter, and seeing fear turn to hope and then back into deeper fear again from those that she found in hiding haunted her. The fear of being found out after hiding for their life, to the hope of realizing that it was a Monster Mage that had found them, and then to confusion and deeper fear hearing the Royal Decree and being told that one of the Monster Mages were giving them up to the humans.

"W-We'll h-hide a-again! F-Further a-away! W-We'll–"

"You'll just make it worse for yourself and everyone else. I will be able to find you again and then I will have to bring with me the human army. If you make it to Jarasevo willingly then nothing will happen to you. The war is over, and for peace to return and for another Fusion not to be formed, King Asgore and Queen Toriel has made the difficult choice to go through with the human's proposal about the Underground. In exchange we have been assured by the human royals that no harm will come to the monsters by the hands of the humans if we cooperate. Please make your arrangements as soon as possible. Accommodations are being prepared for housing during the winter further south along Pulsaoder, so please make your way to the main road and follow it south. I can provide magic for you to help you on your way if needed."

The look of the mother's face was that of nil when Cter had finished talking. There was nothing. Nothing on her face. Nothing in her aura. "No." Nothing in the slightest. "No, we understand, Monster Mage." Nothing. "Thank you."

Like with all monsters that were found hiding deep away, Cter followed along the hiding family to the nearest squad from the human army both to make sure that the monsters found their way and also to gauge the humans in the squad. Gauge both their reactions and the reaction in their souls if theirs were noticeable.

The Xoff king had kept his promise with each squad being comprised out of those who had been either in the reserve or in the contingency that Rasliela had sent away for Monster Country, but with those human squads in Hjearta there had been one or two in each squad who's souls had been noticeable to Cter.

They had all been lesser rank than those in the squad who did not have noticeable souls, but still. Only one human had to have their cursed soul take them over for something to happen. Only one out of the many human squads Cter had escorted so many monsters to.

The first hidden family was the one she voiced concerns about when she delivered them to the human squad. About that there were three out of the ten humans that had noticeable souls to them. Three out of the ten she knew definitively had killed monsters at the Final Battle, and that was too many for her. Her concerns were shot down though.

"Monster Mage..."

But not by the humans.

"It is too late for you to try and show this for us."

But by the mother of the family.

"Please, leave us be. You've done enough and beyond."

She had done too much…

"And beyond."

A quirk from the Griffon Commander's ears flipped over to her, dragging with them the pelican-like head. "You back from your thinking, Cter?" he asked the low-hanging head of the Monster Mage walking beside him. His bendy neck slithered low to look up at her rather than down. "I can tell that it wasn't a pleasant thought that you disappeared into."

Cter met the dark eyes with a weak glance. "Sorry," she apologized with a sigh that formed a cloud she broke in two by walking through it. "Keeping everything at an arm's length from your soul has them all easily collapsing onto you when you try and wipe your brow." She absentmindedly pushed a large rock in the place of her next step to the side with some stasis magic. The rock rolled down into a crevice in the dirt road, nestling itself into the thin sheet of ice with a crunch akin to a bite into some crispbread.

Maybe Romrom had baked some not too far ago.

"Don't want to alarm you, but I began smelling smoke a few minutes ago, and it's blowing tailwind for us. Contained, safe smoke, that is. We're not far away from your village." Aajja poked a talon into a sheet of white ice, puncturing it with a slight echo to it. "Do they even know that we are coming, by the way?" He poked another hole into the sheet with his back foot.

"It's rather late to ask, I know, but you've talked about it as if that's the case, so I've just been assuming so. Seeing you disappear into thought had me thinking too though, so..." His shrug had his wings landing back on his body with a small, cold gust that stung slightly at Cter's flush cheeks.

"In all honesty?" began Cter before shaking her head. "No, they do not know. We will show up and ask them to house us for the winter without any forewarning." It was just a matter of fact. "We will help them throughout winter, of course, but it will still be us showing up without any warning."

Aptly so, the first houses on the outskirts of the village came into view as Cter finished her sentence. Through the edge of the forest at the next bend of the road were the neighbor houses Cter had friends in when she was young. Monster friends.

Friends she would have to send to Jarasevo.

"I will be happy to help to earn my keep," told the Griffon Commander with conviction in his voice. "Although I suspect that it will become difficult come spring to say goodbye to those that have hosted us. Especially so if it is a monster in the household we will be living in."

Cter hummed in response.

"I see," said Aajja with a defeated exhale. "I'm guessing you know who this monster is?"

"I do." Cter looked to her left arm. "My grandma, Romrom. She's–"

Snow fell from a nearby tree as Aajja's inertia stopped within less of a second. The sway from his abrupt stop propagated through the length of his body like a wind through a wheat field. His aura became as ice, and his eyes locked with Cter's. "R-Romrom?" he asked to clarify. He saw in the Monster Mage's eyes that he was correct, and with a whip which looked to tear his gular off his chin he looked behind him up the road he and Cter had walked. "T-The p-previous v-village… They s-said..."

They…

They said what?

"I d-didn't..."

What did they say!

"I d-didn't know you knew s-so I..."

What about Romrom did he hear!

"I t-ticked it o-on the s-scroll w-when I–"

The purple coat stretched fully horizontally behind Cter as her legs carried her quickly down the rest of the road to the village. A path of quick, rough crystal magic was paved in front of her so that her boots could find grip instead of on the cold, slippery dirt road. Faces she recognized passed her by, as did their confused voices.

"Cter?"

"Wha–"

"Why are you?"

"When did you–"

"Cter..."

"Cter!"

The last of the voices was the most familiar one, and upon a glimmering road of crystal magic of her own swelling emotions' making she caught the aged face of her father staring at her from the front of the gathering group of villagers. She was but a few steps from her home. She was but a few steps from her family's house.

"Come here, Cter. Please. You're not ready."

A door opened behind her, and the smell of her mom's cooking surrounded her.

"C-Cter! W-What..."

She was but a few steps from her home, with both her parents walking up to her with arms outstretched and faces contorting.

"H-How d-did you h-hear..."

She was but a few steps from her home, with both her parents embracing her like they never had done before.

"Y-You're h-home, Cter..."

She was but a few steps from her home, with her family around her.

"R-Romrom...she's..."

Her entire family.

"No..."

Three humans.

"Romrom..."

And no monster.