Chapter 2: The Forest - Part 1
As the cool air touched her cheeks and the heavy snow filled her autumn-boots with each step, it just dawned on Frisk that she had never been in such a snowy place her entire life. Every tree, every rock, every breeze in the air seemed to just scream winter, or at least what Frisk imagined winter used to look like in her world many decades ago. To her, this forest and air felt incredibly enchanting and unreal, and these things mixed with the distant cavern roof above with glowing gems looking like stars made the place feel incredibly wast and open. It was no longer a cavern at this point, but rather a whole new world.
On the other hand though, with its vastness came the fear of the unknown, and like in the old city in the ruins, Frisk felt like there were eyes at every corner, and inside every dark place looking back at her. It, strangely enough, made her feel more dread than the claustrophobic hallways, as in those she at least knew all possible exists and vantage points. This time she wasn't alone though, and she was very happy about it.
"You, uh, remember this place Flowey?" she asked, mostly to break the eerie silence.
Flowey didn't answer, but Frisk knew he was still there as she felt him stirring in her backpack. He was stirring unusually much.
"Uhh, Flowey?" she asked. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, n-nothing," Flowey said, trembling. "Just, uh, freezing my stems off over here. Gods, I always hated this place. The cold is unbearable for a flower like me-no especially for a flower like me! We are summer creatures for crying out loud. Made for heat and water, not this meddlesome cold and ice! Ever see a sunflower growing in the winter? Hmm? Of course not!"
"Wait are you gonna die?" Frisk asked, feeling a bit worried.
"Obviously not," Flowey said. "If I was weak enough to wither in this breeze, I never would have asked you to take me with you out of here. Thankfully, I am not just an ordinary sunflower, far from it in fact. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I am going to close myself off from the world for a while."
"Wait what are you-"
But before Frisk could finish her question, she was immediately answered by the sound of the flower rumbling and a zipper closing in her bag. Then he stopped.
"Ahh, that's a bit better," said a muffled voice in her bag. "Still not perfect though. Still just a tiny bit of breeze in here though, and dark. But hey, better to be in complete darkness than in complete… uh, coldness or whatever it's called. But anyway Frisk, if you're lost and need me, then just shake the bag or pull me out or something. The cold here is not much, but it will most likely keep me from sleeping either way."
"Alright, I'll keep those things in mind," replied Frisk.
"What?" Flowey asked. "Can you speak a bit louder? Didn't hear a single bit of what you just said."
"Forget it," Frisk said to herself.
The road ahead of her was distinctly carved out, so not only was it hard to lose your way, but it also signified that this underground forest wasn't completely abandoned. Once Frisk realized that she just felt worse. Even though she knew that death was not final for her, the mystery and fear of the unknown still got to her.
Then she stopped in her tracks as she noticed that there was something unusual on the road. It was hard to spot normally, but since there was not much going on around at the moment, Frisk noticed it as soon as she looked down.
"What the hell?" she muttered to herself.
There were strange, small footprints on the road. At first, Frisk thought that these were her footprints signifying that she was going in circles. Feeling a bit nervous at this thought, Frisk put her foot on top of one print to test this theory. Fortunately for her, the footprints didn't match her size, proving to be much smaller, likely belonging to a young kid or someone with dwarfism. But then she looked closer at the footprints and realized they were fairly recent. A tinge of dread filled her insides.
"Ok, that's not good," she whispered to herself.
Frisk continued her walk down the road. After a few more meters, she noticed that the strange footprints seemed to curve a bit. She stopped and examined their path and saw that they now curved outward from the road and led to somewhere far into the forest.
She looked back down the road ahead and saw that it ended on a large, wooden fence. Next, she looked at the beaten path and saw it lead into the depths of the forest. Now despite her growing worry, her curiosity also grew, and Frisk felt an urge to at least check. Then, even knowing how dangerous it could be, Frisk couldn't resist her curiosity and headed off the path.
"What's the worst that can happen?" Frisk said to herself, as she trudged through the thick snow. "Well, I could die for one. Not that it matters anyway. Yeah… still not used to that fact."
The outward path grew thicker and thicker with snow, making hard for her to navigate. With every step, Frisk could feel the snow fill her boots and wet her socks and jeans. After a while, she stopped, ankled deep in snow and feeling tired from the effort.
"Fuck it," she said to herself. "Not worth getting lost over."
But before she turned around, she noticed something in a bush ahead beside one tree. The footprints led to it, and there was clearly something inside. Some sort of weird shape. Frisk could once again not resist her curiosity now and continued to follow the prints. As Frisk closed in on the bush, the first thing she noticed was the terrible smell that grew all of a sudden. It smelled like something, or someone was rotting.
Frisk didn't think much of it, at first. Then she saw the strange thing in the bush much clearer, and her mind went immediately into dark places. It seemed to resemble a figure wearing piles of dirty clothes.
Is that… what I think it is? Frisk thought.
Frisk felt she had to know. She was frightened, of course, but she felt she had to know if her mind was right. So she crept closer, and closer, till she was right above the bush. Then she looked inside and gasped.
"Oh my god!" she cried and backed a few steps away in shock.
There was a skeleton in the bush. A human skeleton, no doubt, about the size of a young child. It wore a blue winter jacket with a grey hood and a plain white t-shirt underneath, visible since the jacket was open. It also wore black, short sport jeans and grey slippers. The bones were unusually thick, and the rib cage swelled outward suggesting that in life, the owner of it used to be fat.
"What's going on out there Frisk?!" Flowey yelled from the bag, having heard her shocked cries.
"Th-there's a dead body here!" Frisk said. "A human kid I think!"
"What?! Are you sure?!"
"Yeah!" Frisk confirmed. "It certainly looks like one! I mean, monster's turn to dust when they die right?! Or at least, that's how I seem to understand it. Do they even have skeletons?!"
"Well, sort of! They don't really work or look exactly like human ones do though! Plus, the bones dissolve once they are no longer in the body! Just like all the other things inside of them do!"
"Oh, it's definitely a human then!" Frisk said, feeling a lot more uncomfortable now. "God, poor kid."
"Any idea what caused it?!"
"No clue! I'm not really a forensic expert or anything! I can tell though that he or she's been dead a long time, obviously since they are a skeleton, and judging by the smell… ugh... they seem to be still rotting! But… that makes no sense! The footsteps leading to it were fairly recent! If they've been dead a long time, then- wait! What the hell?!"
"What is it, Frisk?!" Flowey asked. "They're not standing up or anything, right?!"
"There's… something weird about the eyes!" Frisk stated. "Or eye sockets rather! Don't know why I didn't notice it until now, but it's like they are… closed!"
"Closed?!"
"Yeah, it's kind of hard to explain!" Frisk said. "I'm gonna take a better look!"
She crept closer to the body, trying to get a better understanding of this strange thing. As she did, she noticed another strange thing about the body. It was like it was moving up and down similar to a person breathing in their sleep. Frisk ignored it, assuming it was simply the soft wind.
Then she came closer and could finally see clearly what the things on the eye sockets were like. They seemed to resemble something eerily familiar.
"Hang on," Frisk said to herself. "Are these… eyelids-"
On exactly the moment before she could finish her sentence, something happened. It took Frisk a few moments process what exactly what was happening, and even then she wasn't sure what it was.
First, the skeleton suddenly began rumbling. Then there came a loud, yet strange noise from deep within it, sounding incredible like groaning. It was enough to make Frisk freeze in her steps. This strange movement of the body made it seem like it was a living being, and the human girl stared at the entire event in confusion and fear. Then, just as abruptly as it began, the body seized all movements and became almost still again.
"The shit was that!" Fris said.
Then the skeleton opened its "eyelids".
"Gah!" Frisk cried in surprise.
The shock hit her like a truck, so much so that she lost her balance and fell back first onto a thick pile of snow. The flower in her backpack took immediate notice of it since the fall nearly crushed him.
"What the heck Frisk?!" he yelled. "Are you trying to kill me back there?! Frisk?! Frisk?"
Frisk didn't even notice the flowers whines and complains, as she stared at the skeleton. It was beginning to stand up.
"What the fuck!" Frisk yelled. "WHAT THE FUCK!"
"Frisk?! What the hecks happening-"
And without hesitation, she began to run. She waded clumsily through the piles of snow as best and as quickly as she could. The weight of the snow was immense, much more than any snow or winter Frisk had ever experienced, and it caused her to occasionally stumble, but she always managed to push herself back on her feet.
"Frisk, what's going on-"
"The thing's alive!" Frisk said immediately. "The thing is fucking alive!"
Just before she reached the road, she turned her head around just to peek and saw the skeleton standing upwards, with snow falling off and out of it. It stared at her with pitch black eye sockets that looked like they had no bottom.
Then before she could turn around, Frisk found herself falling. She whined again as she felt herself fall onto solid snow.
"Gah, fuck," the winced.
Frisk looked up and saw that she was back on the road. Then without even thinking about it, she stood up and began to run towards the fence. The wooden fence grew taller and taller ahead, and Frisk now saw that there was a gate where the road led. Whether it was open or not, Frisk didn't care at the moment. She was just gonna smash through it if possible.
As she closed in on the fence, she glanced behind and saw the living skeleton in the distance just about reaching the road, and it looked at her. To Frisk, there was no doubt about it now. It was after her.
Frisk turned back to face the road and saw that the gate was just a few steps away, and at that moment, she braced and positioned herself to burst through. But even with all the strength she had managed to muster at the last moment, the fence proved stronger, causing her to just hurt herself as she clumsily smashed into the wood it like it was a solid, stone wall.
"Oh, fuck!" she winced.
In her panic state, the next thing she did was to try to pull or push the fence gate open. It was locked, as she suspected, and so it proved useless. Frisk backed away a bit, panicking to find a way through like when she was trapped by the hole in the ruins.
"Shit, shit, shit!" she said. "Maybe, I could uh, climb up. Yeah, that'll work. Let's try that-"
Frisk froze completely in her tracks after she had backed a bit and felt her backpack bump into something behind her. The air was also suddenly filled with the same, disgusting odour of the skeletal corpse.
Oh my fucking god, the thing is right behind me, she thought. How the hell is it behind me? I was like half a mile away.
She heard heavy breathing behind her, so there was now no doubt it was a living thing.
"Buddy…" said a calming male voice.
Holy shit, it talks, Frisk thought. How the fuck does it talk?
There came a short chuckle from the male voice behind her.
"Is that how you greet a new friend?" it asked. "Why won't you turn around and shake my hand?"
Frisk stared at the gate, not daring to look behind her. She didn't know what to do, what the thing behind her was, or even what it wanted. All she knew was that she was trapped between a gate and a weird, inhuman thing. There was only one way out of this, she thought.
She slowly pulled the knife from her pocket.
"Buddy?" the skeleton asked.
Frisk took a deep breath, put on a confident face, and turned herself around in a complete half-circle. As she suspected, the skeleton of the small figure was standing right there behind her, wearing the same clothes and the emptiness in the eyes seemed to have a slight, white glint in them like a distant star. Somehow, despite having no muscles, he managed to have a somewhat surprised expression on the skull.
"Get back!" Frisk commanded, pointing the knife down at him.
"Woah, Woah, Woah," the skeleton said with his arms in the air.
"Get the FUCK back!"
"Geez kiddo, you speak to your mother with a tongue like that?" the skeleton said casually.
The grin on its dead face now seemed unusually wide for a skeleton. Frisk didn't care much for it. She just stood there, pointing her knife down at him with both hands.
How the hell is this thing even alive? Frisk thought.
"Just what the hell are you and what do you want?!" she asked.
"Well if you'll just put your knife away and calm down then I'll explain it to you ok?" the skeleton answered with the same, casual tone. "I mean, I know you're scared but if you think that's bad then geez, look at me. You made me literally jump out of my skin."
At that moment, Frisk fear began to wane, and be replaced mostly by utter bewilderment.
"Wh-what…?" she asked. "Wha-what are you talking about?"
The skeleton put his arms down, and his face shifted into an expression that said: "Really?".
"It was a joke, kiddo," he said. "Y'know, because I am a skeleton? I have no skin and… eh, it kind of ruins it when you have to explain. It wasn't that good either, to be honest. It needed a bit more of a… more of a backbone into it eh?"
Frisk didn't laugh. Just looked at him unamused with her knife still pointed at him.
Why the hell is he just making terrible jokes, she thought.
"Ok, just what in the angel's name is going on out there, and who are you talking to?!" Flowey yelled from the bag. "Screw it! I'm coming out!"
Frisk heard the sound of zippers being open in her bag, and Flowey peeked out, shivering slightly.
"Now just who the heck are… are… you?"
Something made Flowey stop in his words, and that something was the skeleton in front of them. It wasn't fear that filled up in him, but rather confusion, and he stared at the skeleton like he was trying to figure out what in the world it was. Similarly, the short skeleton seemed to have taken a similar interest in Flowey.
"Frisk, who is that?" Flowey asked.
"How would I know?" she asked without moving her eyes from the living corpse.
"Hey you look familiar," the skeleton said, eyeing the flower. "Haven't I seen you somewhere before? Like, at a bar or something?"
Frisk didn't see it, but at that moment, Flowey's eyes lit up like a Christmas ornament as a memory struck him. But as soon as it faded, his expression turned into one of disappointment and annoyance.
"Crap, it's you," he said.
"Oh yeah," the skeleton said with the same tone of remembrance. "You're the talking flower that harassed my brother all those years ago. I had almost completely forgotten you."
"Same here," Flowey said bitterly as if he wished he had done that.
"Uh, Flowey?" Frisk began, who felt completely out of the loop. "You uh, know this guy."
"Yeah, that's just Sans," Flowey said. "The local comedian. Or as I like to call him, Mister Smiley Trashbag."
"Heh, nice to see you too," replied Sans with a tone that said: "Is that the best insult you got?".
Flowey sighed.
"It's alright Frisk, you can put your knife down," he said. "This guy is a pain, but he won't hurt you. Not his style."
"Well, at least you have some sense."
With that said Frisk reluctantly put the red knife back in her pocket. Even though Flowey assured her he wasn't dangerous, she couldn't find herself to completely trust him.
"Now that's better," the skeleton said, his expression not changing in the slightest.
"What do you want?" Frisk asked without hesitation.
"Oh nothing," Sans replied. "Nothing at all. Or at least, nothing from you at least. In fact, I would like perhaps a nice bed, a good tv, and perhaps some snacks if I can."
"Right…"
Since so many weird things had happened to her in just a span of a day, Frisk didn't bother thinking about why a skeleton wanted snacks in the first place.
"Hey, you're a human aren't you?" he suddenly asked.
As soon as he asked that, all of Frisk's suspicions and distrust came boiling back up.
"Now how do you know that?" Flowey asked. "I thought most monsters had forgotten what a human really looks like."
The skeleton shrugged.
"I've read a book or two," he answered. "Or rather, just looked at some pictures from a book or two about humans. Besides, not many monsters come down this road. Not after The Royal Hunt put up this fence here at least."
Frisk backed away a few steps from him and began to slowly back for her knife.
"Woah, Woah, kiddo," Sans said immediately. "You think I am gonna hurt you just because I know you are human? Geez. I've only known you for a few minutes and already you think so little of me."
Frisk stood still, with her palm stretching for the handle. She turned her head towards Flowey to see what he thought.
"Don't," he stated. "He's not gonna hurt you. He has no interest in hurting humans in fact, and even though I'd like to see you stab him in his smug face, making an enemy of him and his family is not worth it. Trust me."
His family? Frisk thought nervously.
Even though she was still a bit uneasy by the skeleton, she decided to take the flowers word again and put her hand away from the knife.
"Hey, looks like I underestimated you, flower" the skeleton said in a gleeful tone. "Looks like you have actually more sense in you than I thought. Twice as many in fact."
Then using one of his weird, bony eyelids, Sans blinked, and Frisk thought that slightly disturbing.
"Making it two senses," he continued.
Flowey sighed as if he expected a joke of this calibre. Frisk, on the other hand, felt a bit confused, until she noticed the punchline and chuckled a bit. She felt it was perhaps the most she had chuckled or even laughed in a while.
"Woah is that a smile I see?" Sans asked sarcastically. "Good job kiddo. Continue this up and you might learn to laugh a bit."
"Ok, now you're just being an asshole," Frisk said bluntly.
Sans became stared at her quietly for a while as if he was thinking something and then he gave a simple shrug.
"Yeah didn't think this joke through," he said. "Sorry about that. Would promise to not make such jokes again but eh, never been good with promises."
"Nah it's ok," Frisk said. "I was kind of joking too. I've… never been good with jokes."
"Frisk, can we get the hell out of here now?" Flowey asked impatiently. "Please?"
"Right," Frisk said. "So it was nice to meet you and all, but uh we kind of wanna continue on our own right now."
"Really, but we just met," Sans said.
"Alright, mister-"
"I was just joking kiddo," Sans said, interrupting her. "I'll just go back to my spot. You seem to be sure that you can handle this on your own so... See you around kiddo."
"Yeah, see you too."
With that said, the skeleton turned around and began to walk away. After he had gone far enough, Frisk turned back to Flowey.
"You don't like this guy eh?" she asked him.
"Are you surprised?" Flowey replied. "Tell me you didn't feel one bit annoyed by him?"
"Nah, he seems alright," Frisk said.
"Really?" Flowey asked in surprise. "Not even after he made fun of you? Well, let's agree to disagree then."
"Hey, you said something about his family earlier," Frisk began, changing the subject a bit. "About how it was not a good idea to make an enemy of them. Why, is he like a… mobster or something?"
"Nah, he's nothing like that," Flowey said. "It's just that… ah, it's a long story. I'll tell you later."
"Alright then."
Frisk turned around to face the tall wooden gate. Up close, the tallness of it looked a bit intimidating. She tried the knob but as she suspected, it was shut tight.
"You don't uh, have a chance to know of any ways through this gate thingy right Flowey?" she asked.
"Don't ask me," he said. "I'm about as stumped as you."
"Great."
"I may not know of any proper ways," Sans said behind them. "But I do have an idea."
Frisk turned back around once more, feeling utter shock and surprise.
"Jesus, I thought you were gone!" she said.
"Are you just gonna keep sneaking in on people like that?!" Flowey said.
"Well I decided to come back here to watch your progress a bit," Sans said casually.
Well, that sounds a bit stalker-ish, Frisk thought.
"Looks like you need some help," the skeleton added.
Frisk didn't think much through his sudden appearance since he pulled a stunt like that earlier. She just assumed it was something he was just able to do. Either way, she felt a bit desperate for any ideas at this point, so she decided to bite.
"Alright then," Frisk said. "What do you have in mind? With getting through this gate I mean."
The skeleton grinned seemed to widen a bit.
"Watch," he said simply.
He walked towards Frisk and reached up towards her shoulders with one of his bony hands and Frisk felt him eerily resemble a little kid looking up to an older guardian.
"Now hold still," the skeleton said. "Or you might get sick."
"Wait what are y-"
It was as if time itself had blinked at that moment, for Frisk found herself suddenly facing the gate, even though she not only had her back to it just a second ago but also she didn't move one bit. Or that was what she thought she was looking at first. It took her a while to notice it though since much of the trees and areas looked so similar, but then she looked around in bewilderment and realized she was actually now standing on the other side of the gate.
"Wha-what just happened?" Frisk asked in confusion.
She heard Flowey cough immensely behind her.
"Gah, please warn me before you do that again!" he said angrily.
"Wait, did you just teleport us?" Frisk asked.
"Nah that wasn't a teleport," Sans answered. "I just… squeezed ourselves through the fence super fast."
"Really?" Frisk asked.
"Of course not," replied the skeleton. "It was teleport obviously."
Frisk looked at him with a puzzled look.
I think I'm never gonna get this guy, she thought.
"Thanks," Frisk said. "But why?"
"Well, it's a lot better and faster than climbing over ain't it?" replied Sans.
"I meant why did you help us?"
The skeleton shrugged.
"Why not?" he answered. "You were in need and I helped you. Think of it as a charity."
Frisk didn't really buy his words, and she was sure Flowey didn't either. She felt like he had some other, hidden agenda. But he helped them either way so she didn't really care much about his true motives at the moment.
"Ok then," Frisk said. "Well, either way, thanks for your help. Sans wasn't it?"
"Yep that's me," he answered. "Sans the skeleton.
"Well, Sans, I think we'll be going now," Frisk said. "Oh and I forgot to mention earlier but sorry about that whole… knife thing."
"Eh that's fine kiddo," Sans said, "Already made up."
"Ok, thanks for that," Frisk said. "Now as I said, I'll guess I'll see you around."
"You too, kiddo," the skeleton replied and made another wink. "Even though you're a human, I'll promise to keep an eye socket out for any dangers coming your way. But like I said before, I'm not good with promises."
"Alright then," Frisk said softly.
With that said, she turned towards the road and continued down the path, and Flowey gave a sigh of relief. But it was only after taking a few steps that the skeleton suddenly called after her.
"Hey kiddo," he said.
Frisk turned back around and could hear the flower give a subtle, but clearly frustrated sigh.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I was wondering if you could maybe do something for me," he began. "Since, y' know, I helped you after all. Now it is not much. Like you don't have to carry any boxes for me or anything. In fact, you don't really need to do anything when you get down to it."
Frisk felt like she had expected something like this and gave out a short sigh.
Of course he wants some payment in return for helping, she thought. Thought as much. Well, let's see what it is at least.
"Ok, what do you want?" she asked.
"Just getting right to it eh?" Sans began. "Very well, so here is the thing. My brother, Papyrus, has been feeling very down lately. He's been feeling down for a long time actually. Like years. But it has gotten worse these past few months. Ever since I took and hid away all his… uh… stuff that he used. Mostly because he became addicted to it and so kept spending all our monthly allowance on it, and once I gave him the talk, he just kept buying and using it in secret."
He gave out a short sigh as if to say: "how far you have fallen".
"But my brother has never seen a human before," he continued. "He also makes no secret that he really wants to. Many monsters do in fact, but especially him. So I was wondering if maybe before you continue on your quest, you could perhaps stay a bit while I give a call and then my brother comes running over to say hi."
"So in other words, you want me to just hang around here for a while?" Frisk asked.
"Yeah, something like that," answered Sans.
Frisk thought about it for a few seconds. This felt a bit suspicious, but Flowey had been very adamant so far about him being unharmful, despite his clear annoyance at him. Then she shrugged and said:
"Sure I can do that."
Suddenly, Flowey began to stir immensely in her backpack. It was perhaps the most stirring he had ever done so far.
"Uhhh, Frisk?" Flowey said awkwardly. "I think I just um, remembered something. Y' know what? Just ignore everything I just said about him, I take it all back. That skeleton is actually super dangerous and untrustworthy. Oh, and he's also one of the most powerful beings down here, so I suggest that if we simply run away right now, we'll-"
"You're a shit liar you know," Frisk said, looking straight at his face.
Flowey stopped in his words and looked at the girl with an expression that was half frown, half disappointment.
"Was it that obvious?" he asked.
"I mean… yeah," Frisk replied. "You went on and on about how harmless this dude is while also being less than subtle on your annoyance, and now that he's offering to hang out with him a bit you suddenly began to contradict everything-"
"Yeah, I know what happened these last few minutes, I don't need a recap," Flowey said bitterly.
"Ok look, I kinda wanna do this," Frisk said. "I'm just really curious about this world and people, and if it makes up someones say in the meantime then what's the catch?"
"I just want to… get out of here as fast as we can, alright?" Flowey said.
"C' mon, it'll just take a moment!" Frisk said. "Can't we just do this one nice thing? Please? I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"
Flowey didn't answer. Just looked away from her with a full frown on his face like an upset child.
"If you can't bear it so much then why don't you go back in the bag for that moment?" Frisk asked.
Suddenly, a realization dawned on her.
"Hang on," she began. "You've been out of the bag for a while now. I thought you couldn't stand the cold."
Flowey's frowned turned into an expression of worry. Worry of that of feeling caught in a lie.
"I… uhh…" he began.
"Wait, were you actually… scared?" Frisk asked.
She smiled as that thought came to her. That smile then turned into a chuckle, which then turned into a small laugh. It was not a laugh of mock or amusement, although she felt some of it, but rather a laugh of surprise, although the flower clearly didn't take it that way.
"Hey, that's not funny!" Flowey said angrily. "Stop laughing!"
"I wasn't laughing at you," Frisk said smiling.
"Hey if you two wanna sort some things out between you two then we can just do this thing later ok?" said Sans, who was still standing there.
Frisk looked back at the skeleton and Flowey followed suit. In her bickering with the flower, she had almost completely forgotten him."
"Oh uh, yeah we are totally ready to do this thing," Frisk said. "Right Flowey?"
"Ugh, yeah," he said begrudgingly.
"Ok good," the skeleton said.
The skeleton then reached into his jacket and pulled out an old looking smartphone.
Wow, that phone looks ancient, Frisk thought. Not as old as the one that the old man had, but still. Is everything down here just over a hundred years old or something?
Sans then began to type in some numbers with his bony fingers and Frisk wondered how he could use a touchscreen without fingerprints since that was always how she assumed those phones worked.
Then he put the phone up to his ear, or rather where his ear would be located, and began to speak softly into it.
"Hey Pappy, it's me," Frisk heard him say. "Oh did I wake you? Sorry. The time zones here are weird…"
"I still think this is a dumb idea," whispered Flowey.
"Yeah yeah," Frisk whispered back.
"...hey so I got something for you," Sans continued in the phone. "It's a little surprise, something I'm sure will brighten up your day. What? No, it's not a herb or anything of the sort. But it is something alright. Heh, it is something. Oh, I'm at the gate, in the forest. Set up by… you know who…"
"Gods he is still talking," Flowey whispered.
"Yeah, no shit," Frisk whispered back.
"...so are you coming? Really? Oh, that's good to hear. Good that you've finally decided to leave your closet for a bit eh? Yeah, I know you're not literally in a closet. Yeah, I know that we sold it a while back. Anyways, it's good that you're making progress either way and I look forward to showing you the surprise. Uh-huh. Aha. I know. I love you too bro. Goodbye."
At long last, the skeleton turned off his phone and put it back in his jacket.
"Good news," he said. "My bro says he's up to it and is heading his way here right now."
"Yeah we figured that much," Frisk said.
"Good."
And so the trio turned quiet as they waited. For a while. Frisk and the skeleton just stood there in the exact same spot as if they were rooted in them. In this silence between them, the only sound Frisk heard was a soft gush of wind and her occasional exasperated breaths.
The skeleton, on the other hand, seemed unnaturally quiet and still, and would've been easily mistaken for a standing corpse that was held up by invisible strings.
"How long is this gonna take?" Frisk asked, beginning to feel impatient.
"Don't worry, he's fast," Sans stated. "Very fast indeed."
"Alright then."
A few moments passed, and the silence returned. Still, they waited. Flowey was now shaking immensely, either due to fear, cold or both, and so he wordlessly let himself sink back into the backpack. Frisk then heard the zipper of the backpack run closed.
"He's probably gonna be a while," Sans said, breaking the silence. "Must be out of shape or something."
Frisk tapped her foot on the snow and shivered as the cold was finally getting to her. Her current clothing was clearly not made for winter.
"I have a place not far from here," the skeleton said. "It's not really a house or anything. More of a… campsite than anything. Used to work there for a stand before it went out of business. Should we wait there perhaps? I'm sure the fireplace still works."
"Did you just say a fireplace?" Frisk asked. "If you did then I'm definitely sold."
Author's note:
So here is the first part of the second chapter. The forest chapter as I call it because it... takes place in a forest. Yeah not the most original title, but hey neither is "The Ruins". It'll be the shortest chapter so far, or at least the one with the fewest parts.
As for the part, it's self? I think this is perhaps the most humerus (heh) part I have written so far. I thought it was fitting because we are finally introduced to Sans Undertale himself. Took a while for him to show up in this AU (unless you've read the prequel story where he is one of the two POV characters).
Here comes the bad news though. After the next part or the one after, I will, once again, be taking a short break. I don't know how long it'll be, but I'll try to be done with not only the chapter till then, but also the upcoming "reboot" of the politics bear story. That one won't not a big story mind you, or even that long. It's just an idea I thought of and wanted to explore.
But until then, hope you enjoy the story and more is coming soon.