"Cter!"

Arms wide and strong, chiseled by years of farm work, surrounded Cter, lifting her up high with a scruffy beard chafing its unkempt strands against Cter's face.

"Oh it's been years! Again!"

Locked inside the tight grip that was on the cusp of snapping Cter's body in two, the Monster Mage could only wiggle her arms and hands in response. Had she any air in her lungs she would've returned the greeting, but she was quite unable to.

"I don't even care that I am dirtying your fancy robes! I'm so glad to see you again!"

Thick, rolling tears squished between Cter's cheek and her father's, easing the chafing just a little bit, but not much.

"You're a Monster Mage too! How about that!"

To Cter's immense surprise her cheek was dented by her father's lips pushing it in with all his might. He'd never been one for kissing, but here he was, slobbering her cheek with his dried lips.

No wonder it was so sloppy.

"Your mom should be home too," Cter's father remembered with the widest of smiles that narrowed the wrinkled eyes into soft slits. The dirt layered on his face like thick strokes of a brush bent and was shone-through by the joyous fluster burning on the time-weathered cheeks. As rapidly as he scooped up his daughter, Cter's father put her down gently back onto the dirt road leading through the edge of the Hjearta village. Behind him was the fallen-over wheelbarrow that he'd tipped in his surprise seeing his daughter walk on the path next to him. The sound of the unprocessed wood falling over had Cter turn to see her father the second before he scooped her up.

Not that it helped her brace for it. She could've concealed herself in a block of ice and his arms would've still made it through. Nothing she was capable of would've been enough.

But what would've been enough then?

And could Cter achieve that?

"Cter?" her father perked with a curious tilt to his head. "You're not gonna say something?" He spread out his long, muscular arms that had just hugged her half to death. "You're not happy to see me?"

She wasn't?

Of course she was!

Headfirst, Cter dove onto her father's sturdy neck. "Hi dad," she said as she rested her head against his. "I'm home again."

"That you are, magic girl," was said back with a fatherly pat on her back. "That you are." The pat quickly descended into tugs and nipping at the fabric of Cter's mantle. "Dressed as pompously as you can."

"Dad!" Cter protested through her laugh. "I'm a big deal." Her neck craned back to meet the held-back snicker of her father's moving and convulsing lips. "I am, actually." He couldn't look her in the eyes. Not when he was on the brink of collapsing into a roaring guffaw. "A. Very. Big. Deal," Cter spurred on while squinting hard in faux seriousness. "The biggest deal that has ever befallen this village."

"That I can agree on," Cter's father let loose quickly yet carefully. It gave him enough to be able to look his daughter in the eyes, even just for a brief moment. "Don't tell your brother I said that though."

Oh Cter knew she should have brought with her an Echo Flower or two! Dammit!

"Because I am such a big deal," Cter instead continued to pry. She was gonna have her father laugh. That meant Cter would win. Exactly what that winning meant though she still was mulling on. "Big. Big. Big deal!"

One of the large arms swept up Cter's leg to take some weight off of the sturdy neck. While she wasn't a big deal when it came to weight, it was still not the most comfortable having a daughter hang only from the neck. "Oh yes indeed," was said with fatherly pride masquerading the building laughter underneath. "The child who had her head stuck in the jar of jam more than twice is such a big deal. Yes, indeed." Again he couldn't face his daughter's look, narrowed due to her puffing her cheeks up. "The child that more than thrice tried to help with the splitting ax facing the wrong way." His nods were sporadic in an attempt to shake off the laughter. "Very. Very. Big de- Ah! Ha ha ha ha ha! No! Stop!"

Even if it took Cter stroking her nose while exhaling across her father's neck to have him fall over with laughter she still considered it a victory. Even if she had to resort to the trick that always worked, it was still a victory to her. Not quite as full as it would've been had she managed to get her father to laugh on his own, but a victory was a victory nonetheless.

Like the trees her father fell with such ease he went down with a heavy thud that echoed throughout the forest, his laughter even further. With a stumble, Cter managed to regain her balance as her support gave way underneath her. With her father writhing on the ground bent at the waist she brushed herself off and straightened-out her robe.

She was a big deal, after all.

By God was it good hearing him laugh though. Cter had forgotten how much she'd missed her father's laugh. So...simple. Laughing because he was happy and glad. Nothing more. He was over himself that his daughter was back, and that pure joy he roared for all to hear! It brought a tear to Cter's eyes. Happy tears. Tears that she let dot the ground below her while she just stood quiet and listened to her father being happy.

So simple.

"By the glaciers drift, my stomach hurts."

So very simple.

"But it's nothing with my heart swelling so much seeing you again, Cter."

So…

"Seeing your mother's hair cascading down her gentle shoulders rolled back with that stubborn demeanor she always teases me about." A long, content sigh brushed with the wind to create a curious whisper from the surrounding foliage. Not so much the trees with their needles, but from the bushes naked from the earlier foraging. "Continuing down a mantle colored a purple I'm not sure my peasant eyes can even understand the importance of, stopping just above that symbol representing monsterkind brazen in soul-white." They await for Cter to turn around. For her to leap into her father's arms again. "It's a mantle less than a handful are allowed to wear." They await to see what will sprout from the irrigated ground below the Monster Mage. "I shouldn't be one to look at one." They wait. "Me, a mere woodcutter in a village deep into Hjearta." And wait. "I shouldn't have been blessed with a daughter like you." And wait. "A daughter that is nothing like me." And wait. "What she needed to be to become what she was meant to be."

The blueberry bushes were the closest in their guess. They knew Cter the most. It was from them she'd always tried her first magic on. To try and pick without touching. They knew her. They knew the tremble in her closed fists when she couldn't hold it in any more.

They knew Cter.

"Dad!"

And how much her soul was overwhelmed.

With his left arm, Cter's father braced behind him as his daughter again dove into his embrace. It sank deep into the soil, almost touching the bedrock underneath, with his fingers burrowing between thick roots.

"I've missed you so much!" the fourth Monster Mage exclaimed with all her heart and soul. Her aura did all it could to find something to latch onto with the magically-inert human it so much longed for, but there was nothing for it to find. Cter wanted to though. She wanted to be as close as possible.

But she couldn't.

Not in the way she wanted.

"There there, child."

The way she needed it though?

"Welcome home."

That was simple.

"The home you'll always have."

So very simple.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there to greet you when you arrived earlier today, my berry," Cter's father apologized while stroking her hair after cleaning his hand as best as he could on the less dirty spots on his work pants. "A willow was leaning over the road leading to the neighboring village, and I had to get it down safely before we had another accident."

Accident? Cter's head angled up. "What accident?"

"It was just a cart that broke, Cter," her father assured with a slow nod. "Not to worry. Could've been worse, but it wasn't. Happened a year or so ago."

"Oh..." Cter wasn't there. "Right." She leaned her head onto her father's shoulder again. "I wasn't here..."

The stroking slowed down, with only a concerned, fatherly thumb caressing the bark-brown hair. "No...you weren't." The unkempt beard was lowered onto the top of Cter's head tenderly. "You were away on more important things, child. Becoming a big deal. A deal bigger than I can understand." Cter's father said it with all the love he could let loose from his dried lips. "Still you fit on my lap, Cter. The biggest deal in the entire wide world, sitting on my lap. A soul greater than anything there ever is and was, yet light enough for me to carry with one arm." He sighed, confliction carrying over his daughter's head. "How can I both be this proud and confused at the same time?"

No! No, don't think about it!

Don't mull on it and let it fester! Cter didn't want to! She just wanted to hug. To hug and say that she missed her father. Nothing more. Nothing more at all! Stop! She didn't want her father staring vacantly in thought! She wanted him to look at her, his daughter.

Simply as that.

"Heh," snickered her father with a puff out his nostrils. "I'm gonna give myself a headache if I continue with this." He gave a quick peck on the top of Cter's head to relieve some of her worry that he felt bubbling inside her. "The worst I can do is make you worry, isn't it? Your eyes, they've changed, Cter."

Yes, that she knew. She wished that he wouldn't have noticed, but a part of her both knew that he would notice, and also wished the reverse, that he would notice. If he noticed than he still was her father. Then he still loved her like his daughter.

Still, hearing the concealed shock in her father's voice wasn't something either part of her wished.

"In them I still see the child that I had to scare by screaming and throwing myself at the upside-down ax swung with all her little might. The same frighten too. That what she did was wrong, but she didn't understand why exactly. She only knew that she was afraid, only knew that something had gone very wrong."

Cter's grasp tightened on her father's back.

"Some have said that it is because of the color of your eyes, Cter. Always green. Always gonna be green and always the apprentice." Four sturdy fingers drummed a quick verse on Cter's head. "However," came almost as a whistle, "they're right."

Wha-

"But not in the way they think."

Well at least he was following his usual brand of obscure logic. That brought some comfort to Cter, even if it was nullified by the dirt that loosened from her father's shirt due to her furrowing her brow and scraping it down onto her lips.

"Your windows to your soul are always gonna be green, Cter. That they are right about. What they're not right about, not wrong, just not right, is that you will always be the apprentice." Cter's father lifted her mantle up with a quick tug. "This proves as much. No, what you are going to always be, Cter, and what you have always been, is unfulfilled."

Her attempt to lift up her head to stare her father in the eyes with her own perplexed ones was thwarted by her father pushing her head back down again. "No, no. Let me finish," he irked while clearing his throat just to drag it out for his own amusement. "Unfulfilled, Cter. Because you always want to learn something more. Learn something new. Something exciting! Something that's never been done before!" His forehead touched Cter's. "You've already reached a top we couldn't possible see. Now that you're up there though, you, and you alone, know that there are other tops as well. Tops above you, and to the side of you. They are there for you to reach, and there is no doubt in my mind, or my very much human soul, that you'll reach whichever one there is that you set your mind, and very much monster soul to."

Monster so-

"Again," Cter's father repeated while again pushing her head down from trying to look up. "Let me finish."

But then why did he make those stops that indicated that he was done? Did he do so on purpose?

…

Yes, of course he did.

"Your mother gifted me with a human daughter, Cter." His large hand came to rest above Cter's chest. "You, however, have gifted me with a monster daughter. A monster daughter that looks just like my human daughter. You've added to yourself, Cter. Not replaced. Not now, not then, not never. Always remember that. Even against whatever the Monster King and the Monster Queen tell you. You may be a monster in their eyes, but those eyes aren't as green as mine. A green that's the same as your, but different as different can be. My green is what they are right about, your green is what they are not right about."

Dad…

"Plus, you've gifted me a monster daughter that I doesn't have an extra mouth that I have to feed. That's-"

"Dad," Cter sighed with her right hand gripping her father's mouth and holding it shut. "You just had to ruin it, didn't you?"

"You'll have to be specific," he retorted through the small gap he managed despite his daughter's clamping grasp. "You know, as usual?"

"Also," Cter quirked as she let go of her father's mouth. "I've actually given you two monster daughters, and another mouth to feed." She waited for her father to finish looking around for the aforementioned second daughter, sweat beginning to bead on his brow. "Her name is Idyll Fech, and she's been like a sister to me ever since the first day I arrived in Jarasevo. Whenever she chooses to visit, she'll be welcomed here like family." Cter leaned back so that she could get a view of her father's entire expression. "Romrom said so."

The many wrinkles loosened in a tired sigh. "Romrom made it so," he repeated with his brow shooting up only to come fluttering down again. "Of course she did. Has she already declared it with her crow's feet on paper?"

Yes, she did really have a horrible handwriting. That she still was allowed to be a Village Elder with her writing on par with that of crow's feet was really a miracle. Cter could read it, but it wasn't really a skill she could take elsewhere. King Asgore's faux-cursive looked very proper compared to Romrom's...interpretative and...expressive writing, so at least there was that.

"She's not with you, is she?" The question was both curious and hesitant. "Your friend?"

Cter allowed her father some respite by shaking her head. As her hair settled she tittered at the sight of the worry draining like water through a colander without a bottom. "She's back home in the castle." It didn't even strike Cter that she referred to the castle as her home.

To her father though?

"Oh so the castle is your home now?" he perked up with a titter of his own. His hand grabbed at his daughter's nose, tugging at it. "Gonna have to ask your mom to sew you some bigger britches then, you cocky little changeling." Cter's swatting and nasal protest did nothing to help her. All they did was amuse her father even further. "Or will simple, yet functional, Hjearta cloth cause rashes on your smooth and noble bumbum?"

"Fagther!"

The final cute, nasal protest was enough for Cter's father to release his prey, but not without one last hearty laugh. "Oh you must be my daughter then! You sound exactly like how you did when you bumped into my knee with the jam jar on your head." He leaned in for one last, fatherly hug that interrupted Cter massaging her nose back into the shape it was supposed to be. "Those memories I've caught myself wishing back to from time to time, but seeing how you've grown up, daughter mine, I'll never find myself wishing back to ever again."

Tears of pride finally fell from the forest-green eyes identical to Cter's.

"Why wish when you're now more than I could ever wish for."

Cter let the hug last for as long as her father wanted to. So long that she began hearing the leaves detach from their branches to become fallen down for the next year. Some settled onto her and her father, laying still as the wind gave the two space to not be disturbed. It was tender.

Tender from father to daughter.

Tender from daughter to father.

"Don't wipe your nose on my neck, child."

"Shouldn't have tugged at it then, father."

Oh so tender.

"I should let you go to have you visit your mother now," Cter's father figured after a dozen or so leaves had settled onto his head. He brushed them off absently before wiping his neck clean with one of the leaves which he then discarded into a nearby bush next to him. "I'm sure she'll be over the moon more than I to see you again. I'll be joining you a bit later once I'm done with the rest of the willow."

Done with the willow, he said?

That gave Cter an idea.

"What is there left to do with it?" she asked in a very offering manner as her father stood her and himself up. "Is it felled?" She put her sleeved hand up to her chin to subtly imply.

"Felled, yes," her father began, totally oblivious to the subtle implication. "Road's blocked because of that, but that I warned beforehand so if anyone's taken by surprise by that it's their own fault for not paying attention to the loud yelling and crashing sound."

"Usually what catches the attention," Cter agreed while moving her sleeve in way that was certain to also catch attention.

Yet it didn't.

"So now it's just a matter of sawing into movable pieces to then transport out of the way. I was actually on my way back to sharpen the larger saw when I saw you." Cter's father was as effective with catching the hint as a fishing net was catching the wind. He indicated towards the knocked-over wheelbarrow and the stumps that laid spread from it. "Managed a few pieces before it became too annoying to continue."

Cter nodded. "Perhaps you'd like some help then?" She practically waved her sleeve in her father's face.

"Oh no, I can manage myself. You just make sure mom has some tea ready when I get home, would you kindly?" Cter's father leaned forwards and kissed his daughter on her forehead. "I'll be home before you know it." As he turned to his wheelbarrow though his shoulder was yanked at, and his body spun back.

The brows of the Monster Mage hang low over her forest-green eyes. "Dad..." she said with disappointment drooling from her baffled expression. "Are you serious?" She tugged at his shoulder again with her sleeved hand. "Come on," Cter sighed with a slow shake to her head. "Please."

Her father looked at his gripped shoulder with a few long blinks. "Oh..." he finally figured. "Right."

Finally!

Cter's hand slithered down her father's shirt arm to where it was rolled-up to. Digging her fingers underneath the confident fold, she rolled the fabric out again down the hairy forearm. She buttoned the square-patterned shirt arm close and moved over to the other side. "How comfortable are you with using fire magic to quickly cut the willow?"

"Eh..."

Alright, so not that.

"We can try with some stasis magic," Cter then suggested. She took hold of the cuffs of her father's plaid shirt to begin the magical transfer. Through her left, sleeved hand it was direct, lines moving up her fingers and over to the fabric of her father's shirt. For her right hand though she first extended her magical lines through her Xoff robe and then onto her father's left shirt arm. It took a bit more magic on that side because of that to have it be even. Picking the initiating memory for her father to active his borrowed magic was both easy and difficult. Easy because of the plethora of strong memories she had with her father, and difficult because of the plethora of strong memories that she had with her father.

Without any specific reason she choose her tenth birthday when he first took her to see the glaciers to buy ice for the village after a particularly dry spring. He would throw her up the melting slopes for her to slide down and be caught by him again.

Oh…

Those days…

"Cter," her father said in awe looking at the glowing lines that glowed with such intensity all over his daughter leading onto his shirt. "You're amazing. This is..." He turned his arms to get a full look at the purple lines that looked to be sewn into the fabric itself. "Is this your magic?"

"It is," Cter replied with a proud nod that bounced her head like an eager child. "It is stasis magic. With it you should be able to lift the stumps more easily."

"So like, magical strength?"

"No."

But actually that was a better idea. Since her father didn't have any aura to him that he could actually use magically he was bound to become dizzy and seasick projecting his motions further away than what his body was. Cter could've explained that he could just lift things closer to him, but if he was just gonna do that then orange strength magic would be simpler and thus more effective.

Also the orange glow would fit better with the green plaid of her father's shirt.

The most important aspect to consider.

Cter gripped the shirt fabric once again. Instead of withdrawing the magic and redoing it instead she took the opportunity to try and replace it. For that she again went back to the glacier memories, but contextualized it differently. Instead of the primer being the joy her father had when seeing her slide down the melting glaciers, she primed the memory with the song he sang to her while they traveled. It was meant to give her strength to keep herself awake so that she could see the lights illuminating the paths up the glaciers from far away during the night. Unfortunately not even that could keep her awake, and she fell asleep on his lap.

"It's orange now," Cter's father duly noted. "Did you change it?"

"I did," she informed as she gave her father's arms back for him to use again. "Strength magic."

There was a slight air of offense taken.

"So that you can work faster and come home quicker for me," Cter added to clear said air. "My way of helping you out. You're not too proud to accept help from your daughter, are you?"

"I guess not."

Well there you had it.

"Remember the song you sang to me when we traveled to the glacier after my tenth birthday?"

Cter's father quirked an eyebrow. "That old drinking song?"

Oh! So that's what it was!

"Yes," said Cter to continue her explanation. "Think back to when I fell asleep on your lap. Hum the song you sang to me to help your soul remember. Let the memory flow out your arms and envelop the lines. Don't think about it. Feel it. It's me on your arms. It's my magic, the expression of my soul. You're reaching out to me, it's what you're doing. That's what's gonna ignite the magic."

While it was clear her father didn't understand fully what it was he was supposed to do, in a sense he didn't really need to. He was Cter's father. To reach out for his daughter was nothing he needed to put his mind into. Within a mere second the orange lines Cter had bestowed to her father began to expand into a honey-like layer of orange that settled over his arms like a suit of viscous armor. "I think..." he said before the orange glow penetrated his closed eyes. With a jolt he flinched seeing his arms covered in magic. "Woah!" His sharp breath calmed down quickly though. "It feels..." He couldn't believe it. "It feels like you, Cter. Like..."

"Like how you felt when I fell asleep on your lap that night before we reached the glaciers?"

The brief shock of Cter guessing exactly correct melted away into wonder and warm love. "Oh, Cter." her father opened his arms to embrace his daughter.

Who promptly took a step back with her palms up. "Strength magic," she reminded. "While I did give it to you it's dependent on you how strong it'll be."

Her father stopped in his glowing track. "Ah, right." He looked over his shoulder before returning a wide grin to his daughter. "Then let us test it out, ey?" With long and brash steps that swung the orange magic with arced streaks from his arms swinging with his gait, Cter's father approached the knocked-over wheelbarrow. With a proper squat he grabbed onto one of the stumps, and almost effortlessly he flipped it into the wheelbarrow's bucket with a loud, metallic clank. "Hey now!" his impressed exclaim cheered. "That's like nothing!"

"So then I'll tell mom to set on the kettle immediately," joked Cter as she brushed her father past with a quick peck on his scruffy beard. "Just don't spend all the magic on flexing or taking down more trees. If you feel it beginning to feign take it more easy to have it last longer. It's not for lifting very heavy very fast, but for lifting heavy for a while.

Because according to Barbeqa the muscles are different when trained for specific tasks like lifting much and quickly and lifting less heavy and longer. She even demonstrated it with her own fiery muscles. Told Cter that a human could be strong with large, bulging muscles, and also be strong with more slender, and longer muscles. "Humans can specialize their bodies, even change the specialization with enough effort."

Which was what Cter's magic did.

It made monsters more like humans.

"I can almost juggle these!"

And made humans more like monsters.

"Thank you, my daughters!"

Anytime, father.