Chapter 12: Snowy Challenges

"Better not 'snow' flake out!" a Snowdrake joked. This duck-like monster with the feathers on his face making a snowflake-shape, a toothy grin in his beak, and a scaly belly, had engaged us in a fight along with his friend. Frisk and I decided to try splitting up (so to speak) to challenge each monster one-on-one between the two of us.

I gave a quick laugh at his bad joke, and the monster smiled, responding with, "See!? Laughs! Dad was wrong!"

After dodging some of his ice flake attacks, I told him, "heh, I thought that was pretty good. It was a pretty 'cool' joke of yours."

The monster's excitement ended, as he just stared at me in disbelief. "Ugh, I've heard that one."

"Eh... guess you win them all." I gave the drake a thumbs up, signaling the end of our battle, and he fluttered off.

Looking over, it seemed Frisk was doing pretty good without me. She was fighting an Ice Cap monster, a small snowman monster with big eyes and a carrot nose... and a big ol' ice-crystal hat. At least it was for the moment...

The narcissistic monster was annoyed that Frisk wasn't paying attention to its "cool" hat (hey, just because Snowdrake or Sans aren't around, doesn't mean I'm done with bad puns), but eventually, it was defeated in trying.

However, it seemed that wasn't Frisk's plan. Once it stopped sending icy waves at Frisk, and it stopped paying attention to her, the mute girl snuck up to Ice Cap... and stole his hat! (Which promptly melted in her hands...), and the monster turned into a cube of ice. I guess without its "Ice Cap", it was now just "Ice" (and no, I will not stop with the puns).

"Well, what's the point..." he said dejectedly. With him being Ice Cap no more, it just sat there.

But then Frisk gave him a thumbs up, and that seemed to cheer Ice up. "So I can still impress you?" Seemingly happy with his new identity, the new ice cube monster slid away.

"Hey, good job! I knew you could do it!" I exclaimed.

Frisk looked up at me and signed, it was scary. I don't want to do it without you. Tears welled in her eyes.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay. Look, I won't always be there to help, but for now, I will be watching you. And I want you to be able to become comfortable with monsters. If you can learn to become friends with them, they will be friendly to you. So, can you do this for me?"

Frisk didn't move for a bit, but then she excitedly signed, YES! I WILL!

"Okay, calm down. No need to get too excited. But thank you."

Frisk seemed a little confused by my response. I guess she didn't quite understand how important the monsters were to me. But still, I knew she didn't want to harm anyone anymore, so this was necessary.

We reached a small frozen pond, with a small "island" in the middle with a sign. There was something off to the left, but it was mostly out of view due to trees or such, so I couldn't make it out yet.

As we approached the frozen pond, something else walked out from behind the trees. "hey."

"Hey, Sans," I greeted the skeleton, while Frsik gave a nervous wave.

"i just wanted to tell you something important to remember."

"Yeah?"

"see, my brother has a very... special attack. if you see a blue attack-"

"Don't move and it won't hurt you?" I interjected. "I've seen that kind of magic before. We even just dealt with someone who tried using it on us."

"seems you're on top of things," Sans replied, but then he noticed Frisk was a little confused. "seems the kid here doesn't fully get magic yet. okay, here's an easy way to keep it in mind. imagine a stop sign. when you see a stop sign, you stop, right? stop signs are red. so... imagine a blue stop sign instead."

Frisk nodded, and then made the sign for stop, holding one sideways, palm towards her, the other palm facing up, then brought her sideways hand down on her open palm. After that, she was completely still.

"yeah, you got it. pretty simple, right? remember, when fighting, think about blue stop signs."

Frisk then nodded in response, before waving and walking off, towards the other figure I noticed earlier. I watched to make she wouldn't get into trouble, before turning back to Sans.

"Thanks for helping," I told him. "I really don't want to have to fight your brother, but if it does happen, it'll certainly help."

"well... yeah. as long as you don't... you know," Sans said, knowing exactly what I thinking about.

"Yeah..." I looked back at Frisk, and muttered under my breath, "you know, you'd think Frisk would know more about magic, after..." I stopped my thought there. With how low my voice was when I said that, I didn't think Sans understood it, but it seemed he caught it anyway. But his response caught me by surprise.

"After all the resets, right?"

I turned to stare at him. "Wait, you know?"

Sans was quiet for a bit, before saying, "yeah, i know a bit. i work with my father, watching the kid, and anyone else who had control of the resets. trying to find out how to stop them. also, i, too, remember the previous resets and timelines."

"I... see. Good to know. So does your father know you're here?"

"he asked me to be here. but... i also have my own reasons for being here."

"You do?"

"yep, ...but for now, that's unimportant. papyrus... he doesn't remember the resets. same with pretty much all other monsters. so keep that in mind."

"Right, I understand." It probably wouldn't help if everyone knew that their lives wouldn't matter if time simply rolled back. "I got to go check up on Frisk. I'm sure I'll see you later."

"yep, see ya."

I waved to Sans as I walked over to Frisk. She was enjoying herself as she slid along the ice.

"Having fun?" I asked her. She looked over and nodded before falling on her bum. I snickered. "You okay?"

She gave me a thumbs up, before trying to get up... and falling down again instead.

"Here, let me help you." I grabbed her hand, and helped lift her up. Then I began using my healing magic on any places that might've gotten a bruise. Frisk... seemed to like the feeling of the healing magic. I suppose it made sense, this kind of magic did soothe the senses as it removed any feeling of pain. Still, I don't think I've ever seen Frisk with such a calm expression.

As I finished up, and summoned a few more fireballs for warmth, I told Frisk, "sorry I took a bit, I wanted to talk to... Sans..." I looked over to where Sans was... and he was gone.

Okay, how does he do that? I thought. I shook my head, and said, "nevermind. Is there something you wanted to do before we move on?" I figured it would be best to ask, in case she wanted to wander off again.

Frisk nodded, and, once again, slid on the ice, this time traveling across it to the other side, past the sign.

"North: Ice
South: Ice
West: Ice
East: Snowdin Town (...and ice)". That's what the sign said.

Yep, that makes sense, I thought.

Not wanting to risk slipping on the ice, I used my blue magic to leap across the ice. Sure, I could've just walked around, but I wanted to catch up to Frisk.

When I did, she was with that figure I saw earlier, which apparently was a snowman, with coal eyes and a carrot nose. But not any normal snowman. It had to be a was a monster, or at least had magic imbued into it, as it was speaking, talking to Frisk.

"...Hello there," I heard it say as I approached. "I am a snowman. I want to see the world... But I cannot move. If you would be so kind traveler, please... Take a piece of me and bring it very far away."

I leaned down by Frisk, and asked her, "so, what do you want to do? Should you take a piece of him with you?"

Frisk, surprisingly, seemed mystified by the snowman. Maybe because it didn't seem monstrous, but rather friendly. After a bit, Frisk went up and grabbed his carrot nose.

"Geeze, I know he said to take a piece of him, but maybe ask first before taking his nose," I teased.

Frisk sheepishly looked away, then handed me his nose so she could sign, sorry.

The snowman was confused at first, probably because he didn't understand her sign language, but then I explained and translated for him, and said, "Oh... it's okay. And thank you... good luck!"

I handed the carrot back to Frisk, who put it in her backpack, and we both gave our goodbyes, and went on our way.

Eventually, the tree line opened up to a snowy opening with cliff drops on both ends. A large square of the area had its snow packed down into a slightly darker patch of ground.

And of course, guess who we found in the middle of a sibling squabble.

"YOU'RE SO LAZY! YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!" exclaimed the tall skeleton that we knew as Papyrus.

"i think that's called... sleeping," his stout brother replied snarkily.

How does Sans get around from place to place so fast? I thought.

"EXCUSES, EXCUSES!" Papyrus replied, before noticing us. "OH-HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES!"

"Yep! So, I have a question for you," I told him. "Ever hear of up-bro?"

"UH, NO, WHAT IS 'UP-BRO'?"

"Oh, nothing much. What's up with you?" I replied innocently.

Papyrus finally noticed the prank I was pulling on him, and groaned, while Sans snickered. "oh, that was good," he responded.

"YOU ARE JUST AS BAD AS MY BROTHER," Papyrus replied, before straightening back up. "BUT REGARDLESS. IN ORDER TO STOP YOU... MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES! I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE... QUITE SHOCKING!"

I looked around, seeing nothing of interest, and said, "yeah, it's quite surprising. There is nothing here."

"OH-HO-HO, YOU FAIL TO UNDERSTAND HUMAN. FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS THE INVISIBLE... ELECTRICITY MAZE! WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THIS MAZE, THIS ORD WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP!" Papyrus then held out a small light-blue sphere. "SOUND LIKE FUN? BECAUSE! ...THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE... IS ACTUALLY RATHER SMALL, I THINK."

Okay, Sans, I thought to myself, I hope you got a plan here.

"OK, YOU CAN GO AHEAD NOW."

I had no idea how to approach this. Papyrus didn't even provide a hint. Maybe he'd give one if I asked? How much did the electricity hurt? I was about to ask these questions...

...Except I had missed the obvious.

Frisk made a few careful steps forward towards what I assumed was the maze, probably the packed snow square, and then... Papyrus got electrocuted.

"Um..." I sounded, as I stared at Papyrus cartoonishly-charred body.

Papyrus shook off the ashes and began stomping the ground. "SANS! WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

"uh, i think the human has to hold the orb," the shorter brother replied.

I facepalmed. Of course, that was the secret!

"OH... OKAY." Then Papyrus walked over to us, not only taking the correct path through the "maze" in reverse, but his heavy footsteps in the snow remained, giving a clear path back.

"HOLD THIS PLEASE!" Papyrus cheerfully exclaimed before tossing the orb to us. I caught it and then with my other hand, I grabbed Frisk's, knowing exactly what to do know. Papyrus then ran back to his previous position (making even more footsteps in the path back), and finishing with, "OKAY, TRY IT NOW!"

I looked back at Frisk. She seemed a little freaked out, probably because of Papyrus's approach, but she also seemed to be calming down now that I was holding her hand. I leaned and said, "okay, follow my steps, okay?"

Frisk nodded, as I began to lead us along the path of Papyrus's steps. And once we got through...

"INCREDIBLE! YOU SLIPPERY SNAILS! YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY... TOO EASILY!"

As Papyrus said that, I just shook my head while smiling.

"HOWEVER! THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE SO EASY! IT IS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS! YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED! I KNOW I AM! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Then he... back-slided away?

I let go of Frisk's hand, as she looked on to where Papyrus left. Meanwhile, I approached Sans. "So, any tips on this puzzle of yours?"

"nah, it's nothing to worry about," Sans answered. "so, hey, thanks... my brother seems like he's having fun."

"You're welcome... He's just, a little strange. But then again, so are all monsters," I replied.

"yep. by the way, did you see that weird outfit he's wearing? we made that a few weeks ago for a costume party. he hasn't worn anything else since... keeps calling it his 'battle body'. ...man. isn't my brother cool?"

"Eh, as long as his brother thinks that, I'm sure he's good. As for me, I'm hoping to get to know him better... and help Frisk become friends with him."

Frisk wasn't paying much attention, but once her name came up, she turned to us, silently staring.

"well, good luck with that," Sans replied. "i'm sure he'd like. he really needs a friend."

"Yeah..." I was silent for a bit, wondering what would happen going forward. I really hoped that Frisk could be comfortable with him. But for now... "Well, we should get going. See you on ahead, I'm sure."

"yep, so am I," the short skeleton replied, as we continued on.

Author's Note: What? You thought I'd use "up-dog"? Nah, it's for the era of up-bro! It's time for a change!

But in all seriousness, I was planning on going further in the adventure, but then I realized that the last Papyrus bit was the best place to end it, or else it would go on too long. I was actually hoping to bring in the Lesser Dog part afterward (...without actually checking to remind myself when exactly that would usually happen. And I still haven't. It could be next up, or at least a little bit away. I love this game, but I can't even remember right off the top of my head).

Whelp, first mention of the original story, with Sans bringing up that he is working with Gaster. Honestly, I don't have too much that is new to add for a while, but I don't want to ignore the base story. So bear with me here, okay? (It's also becoming harder to name these chapters, I'm starting to find.)