The Forest Part 2

The campsite didn't prove to be much of a campsite in the end. Frisk assumed that it was perhaps much better in its heyday, but now there were only two wooden houses, one which was so torn down, with no roof and had so many holes in the walls and floor that it could perhaps no longer be considered a house by definition. In one place, there was a pile of planks with some of them standing upright in the snow, and Frisk could only surmise that this was once a shack that used to keep tools and such.

As for the fireplace itself, whatever wood was left in it was either dry or completely covered in snow, but Frisk managed to light a little flame from it based on her minuscule memory of her time at summer camp. It was very little, and not very warm, but Frisk was content with whatever she could get at this point.

She sat on a small boulder in front of the fireplace, while Sans sat opposite her on a bench so small it obviously made for kids, but since he was so short he fitted almost perfectly.

"Yeah it's not much," Frisk said, staring at the fire. "But it's the best I got."

"Eh it's fine," Sans said. "Us skeletons aren't really bothered by heat or cold anyways since we don't have any skin that is."

"Well that makes sense," Frisk said.

She turned to Flowey, who sat in the pink backpack which was now placed down beside her.

"What do you think, Flowey?" she asked him. "Is this fire good enough for you?"

"Define good enough," the flower said. "Because if to you it means sitting by the most minuscule amount of heat possible while sitting opposite the most annoying creature in the underground, then yeah maybe."

"Looks like someone has a cold shoulder," Sans said.

Frisk snickered a bit while Flowey just rolled his eyes. She didn't really find the joke funny or even that clever, but rather it was the delivery and cheapness of it that she couldn't help but feel slightly amused.

"Well, at least there is someone around to laugh at my hilarious jokes," Sans said.

"Yeah," Frisk said. "So anyway, uhh what's your brother like?"

"Slightly better," Flowey said.

"Well I might be biased, but I think he's cool," Sans answered, not giving Flowey any heed. "He's also kind-hearted with an… well, let's say an average sense of humour. Also kind of an introvert these days and he doesn't really get out of the house anymore much unless it's something important. If I had to describe him in a word, it would perhaps be 'chill'. No pun intended."

"Well thanks for that disclaimer," Flowey said. "Can never tell with you."

Sans smiled a cocky smile.

"Hard to believe it," he continued. "But he used to be much more social and crafty just a few years ago. My brother that is. He even made his own armour. Said it was for a costume party he was suddenly reminded of, which was strange since there was no such party being held anywhere near us, and we were especially not invited to any such party or even any party in general. Once I asked him about it, he later claimed that he had actually dreamt it. But since he was clearly having fun making it, I didn't think it necessary to stop him."

"So what happened?" Frisk asked.

Sans took on a dark expression as if an awful memory resurfaced. Even though she had no idea what it was, Frisk knew that look very well.

"Sorry," she said. "You don't have to tell me."

"Yeah, let's talk about something else now ok?" Sans said.

"Either way, I can't wait to meet him."

"Good. I can promise you won't be disappointed."

Frisk looked around the campsite, not really taking any of it in as she was thinking about all that had happened in just the past day. After a moment of silence, Frisk was suddenly reminded of a question she wanted to ask the skeleton ever since he first spoke to her.

"Hey if you don't mind me asking," she began. "But um… how did you die?"

Sans, who was staring away into the distance prior to the question, went and looked straight at her as if she just suddenly grew four arms.

"Uhh what?" he asked, sounding confused.

"Oh forget about it," Frisk said. "Shouldn't have asked. I'm sure it's a sensitive topic for you."

"Uhh, it's more weird than sensitive," Sans began. "Because unless this is some boring afterlife, I'm pretty sure I'm alive. I think. To be honest, I haven't checked in a while. But seriously though, do I really look like a dead person to you?"

Frisk chuckled a bit, then stopped once she realized that he wasn't being sarcastic.

"Are you serious?" she asked. "You don't know."

"Know what?" Sans asked with no hint of jest in his voice.

He turned towards Flowey, who was smiling in amusement. For the first time in a long, long time, Sans felt himself to be utterly baffled by someone.

"Pothead, you know anything about what she's on about?" he asked him.

"Yeah I do," Flowey said. "But I ain't telling 'cause this is hilarious.

"I… don't know how to break this to you," Frisk began with sorrow in her tone. "But… you being nothing but a skeleton is uhh, it's not normal."

"Sounds pretty normal to me," Sans said.

Now Frisk was the one who felt confused.

"This isn't strange to you?" she asked him. "You have no skin, no organs. You are practically a walking corpse, and where I'm from, that means dead."

"Ah, I see," Sans said with a tone of realization. "Look kiddo, I think you are the one who is misunderstanding this situation."

"What are you talking about?"

"You see I've always been a skeleton."

"What?!"

"Since birth."

Frisk stared at him for a good few moments. A moment later she chuckled. But she stopped once she saw he wasn't joking about this either.

"Wait, are you… saying that you died at birth or something?" Frisk asked.

"No, I was born a skeleton," Sans said. "Me and my brother. We were both born as skeletons. In fact, our mother was a skeleton as well. As is our dad. And our granddads and grandmothers"

Frisk looked at him, now feeling utterly baffled. She didn't know whether he was serious and confused, or if it was some sort of an elaborate joke on his part. It was like he was a walking enigma.

"What?" she said. "Wha- what are you-"

"I'm a monster, kiddo," Sans said. "A skeleton monster. Not a literal skeleton."

Frisk stared at him, slightly more confused than ever before. Then the realization hit her like a boulder, and she felt like a complete idiot.

"Oh!" she said loudly. "Oh! Oh god, I am so sorry for that I… Jesus Christ I am such an idiot!"

"Nah it's fine," Sans said and chuckled. "It's fine. You didn't know any better but now you do. That's what dad always used to say to me."

Suddenly, Frisk heard something sort of unexpected. Not only that, but Sans seemed somewhat surprised by it as well. The sound came from Flowey. He was laughing.

"You knew about this?" Frisk asked him.

"Of course I did!" he said in between smiles and laughter. "But gods. Seeing you make a fool of yourself was so worth it!"

"Ok, we are now even from me laughing at you back there," Frisk said.

"Eh, fat chance," Flowey said and smiled.

Frisk turned back towards Sans, and she felt like there were now plenty of more questions on her mind.

"Wait so if your entire species, or monster type or whatever, is like you then how do you work?" Frisk asked him. "Like why do you resemble human skeletons so much?"

"Ehh, not sure about that myself actually," Sans said. "Then again, I don't expect you to know everything about how humans work just because you are one yourself."

"Good point," Frisk said. "But you have to know something, right? Like, how the hell does your kind reproduce if you don't have any organs and such?"

"Heh, you're not the first person to ponder that," Sans answered. "Nor the first one down here. Many people assume and believe that it involves some sort of complicated ritual or magic. But actually, the answer is surprisingly simple. You see, when a skeleton-"

At that moment, there came a weird sound from Sans' pocket that barely lasted a second. It sounded strangely enough like a 'ding' noise a microwave makes.

"Oh, that's my phone," Sans said. "Must be Papyrus. Funny, I was starting to wonder why he was taking so long."

With that said, Sans reached into his pocket and pulled out a plain, old school looking black flip phone and looked at the screen. He stared at it for a few good moments, and then the expression on his skull seemed to frown in subtle displeasure.

"Well that's a shame," he said, sounding mildly disappointed.

"What is it?" Frisk asked.

"It looks like he's not coming after all," Sans said and put the phone back into his pocket. "Claims he's not feeling up to it anymore."

"Oh, ok," Frisk said, feeling a bit let down as well. "That's too bad. Was kinda excited to meet him."

"Yeah," Sans said. "But eh. Anything can happen, that's life. If my brother is not in the mood then I don't wanna force him."

He looked at Frisk as if an idea suddenly popped up in his head.

"Of course," he began and his grin widened. "I could always shortcut you straight to my place and surprise him there."

Frisk felt a sudden surge of suspicion in her chest after he said that.

"Uhh, thanks but I think we're good," she said, feeling a bit uneasy.

Sans looked at her, a bit surprised by her answer, but then he shrugged.

"Well whatever you say," he said. "Now, back onto my daily schedule. Where was I? Oh right."

With that said, Sans stood up from the bench, stretched his arms a bit only to then let his entire body fall back on the bench, his front now facing the air. Then he put his skeletal hands on the back of his skull and closed his eye sockets.

"Uhh, what are you doing?" Frisk asked.

"What does it look like?" Sans asked sarcastically, his eye sockets still 'closed'. "I'm resting."

"Ok then…" Frisk said, feeling a bit weirded out.

She stared at his resting skeleton. If she didn't know any better, Frisk would have assumed he was a very old corpse.

"Umm, what am I supposed to do now?" she asked him.

"Dunno," Sans answered. "Go to sleep, take a walk. Do whatever you want I suppose."

With that said, Frisk stood up from her seat and looked around the empty campsite, trying to think of anything to say or do. She felt like there was one thing she wanted to ask him, but she couldn't quite place it. After a while of pondering, Frisk came out blank. Whatever it was, she thought it was perhaps not that important.

"Well I'll guess we'll be going then," she said.

"Or you can do that too," Sans said. "I would tell you to be careful but, to be honest, you came here at a pretty good time. The Royal Hunt isn't doing any patrols in the area this week so you can be as suspicious as you can for the moment. But of course, if you're heading deeper into the kingdom, it might be smart for you to be a little bit careful in the least."

"The Royal Hunt?" Frisk asked.

She couldn't tell why, but that name filled her a bit of unease.

"Oh right, you're new here," Sans said. "Well, in short, it's a group filled with a bunch of knights, mercenaries, warriors, you name it, who's job is hunting down humans for the king. Or what's left of him anyway."

"The king?" Frisk asked curiously.

Sans became strangely silent for a moment.

"You are very curious aren't you," Sans said. "Well sorry kiddo, but while I would really like to stay here and chat awhile, I am kind of busy at the moment."

"What, napping?" Frisk asked.

"Yes," the skeleton answered. "But those questions you have? I'm sure you'll figure them all out down the road, trust me."

Frisk sighed a bit. She really wanted to know more, but she didn't want to bother annoying him too much either.

"If you say so," Frisk said, unsatisfied.

She looked around the campsite once more, almost as if she was expecting it to change.

"Well thanks for the company," Frisk said. "And uh, I guess we'll see you around."

"You betcha," Sans said, eye sockets still closed. "I'm almost certain we will."

"We better not," Flowey muttered inside the backpack

Frisk paid no heed to what he said and headed down the road. Suddenly, the forest now felt much livelier despite nothing about it having changed. Once Frisk was gone a decent length from the camp, Flowey peeked his head out from the backpack once more

"Well that was a complete waste of time," he said.

"Yeah, yeah," Frisk replied.

The forest grew a bit thicker the further they went in and after a while, Frisk had sort of grown used to the atmosphere. There was still barely any sound, although small breezes could sometimes be heard.

This was perhaps the most wintery place Frisk had been through, she thought. She only wished winters were more like this on the surface. Nowadays that is. Nowadays, you could barely see anything white during winters. She was sure it was common in the past, and that the people back then must've taken it for granted. Frisk felt a bit envious of the people back then.

"Y'know, I'm kinda surprised you didn't take his offer back there," Flowey said after a while. "To teleport I mean. Could've skipped this whole walking business."

"Yeah, about that," Frisk began. "He was nice and all but… I don't think I really trust that guy one-hundred-per cent."

"Really?" Flowey asked seriously. "Even though I told you like a million times he was harmless and the one time I didn't you immediately saw through my lies?"

"Aren't you the one with the memory loss?" Frisk asked back.

Flowey shrugged.

"Good point," he said. "Still, it was a bit paranoid of you don't ya think?"

"Maybe, but still, I just felt like he was hiding something," Frisk admitted. "Hey, speaking of paranoia, why didn't you just tell me you were scared back there?"

Flowey sighed.

"You wanna find more ways to laugh more at my misery is that it?" he said.

"What? Oh no, no, no, no," Frisk said, almost panicky. "That was… God, I'm so sorry for laughing at you back there. It was just… so unexpected from you I couldn't help it."

"What, it's unexpected that I have feelings?" Flowey asked sarcastically.

"No, I didn't mean that," Frisk said. "I just… sorry."

"Yeah, yeah, apologies accepted," Flowey said. "But if you really want to know, then here is the gist of it. The reason I was scared was that… the place made me… gods how do I explain it… there was something about this forest that just didn't sit right with me. Like, I felt like there was something I was missing about it."

"Like a bad memory?" Frisk asked.

"I think so," Flowey said. "Yeah, I think that's it. There was something I was forgetting. Something, or someone, that we might need to keep out for."

"Could… could it be The Royal Hunt?" Frisk asked worryingly.

"Maybe," Flowey said. "Or it could be something to do with that Mickey fella the old hermit mentioned."

"Oh shit!" Frisk exclaimed and stopped in her tracks.

"What is it?" Flowey asked with a slight hint of concern.

"I had almost completely forgotten about that," Frisk said. "How the fuck did I forget that?!"

"Yeah, how in the… F did you forget about that?" Flowey asked.

"I don't know," Frisk said. "Maybe it's because so much shit has happened in just these past few hours, or maybe I've caught some of your memory loss or something."

"Yeah, I don't know the extent of it so… maybe?"

"God," Frisk said, feeling slightly exasperated. "I could've asked that skeleton guy back there whether he recognized that name or not."

"Holy shi-, I mean holy angel, you're right," Flowey said with a tone of great realization. "Wow. Why didn't I think of that either? Oh right, too busy not liking him. I guess. So what? Are you gonna, turn around and go back to him?"

"He's probably long gone by now," Frisk said.

She sighed and stood still for a moment. After a short pause, she turned around and continued walking down the road.

"It's fine," she said. "I'm sure we'll encounter someone else down the road and then we can just ask them. Who knows? Maybe this Mickey is a popular guy or something."

"Yeah let's hope," Flowey said.

Frisk had only walked a few feet further before Flowey thought of an idea.

"Hey, if you really wanted to," he began. "You could always just stab yourself right now and we have another chance to ask the skeleton about it."

Frisk turned thoughtful for a bit as she pondered it. A few moments later, she came to a decision and shook her head.

"Nah," she said. "I don't really know how far back we go. We could go back just a few seconds ago, or we could go all the way back to the ruins. Besides, even if death is not permanent, it still hurts like a son of a bitch.."

"Oh, I agree," Flowey said, sounding like he could relate. "I agree with that very much."

Author's note:

So I think I have discovered 3 reasons for why I have such unfrequent uploads.

1. I have a shit ton of games to play, and they always keep me from doing my "job".

2. I am not really in the greatest mood these days so that might have some effect on it.

3. I am lazy as fuck.

Anyway, I know it's been like... god, how long has it been exactly? 2 months? I know I can just check, but I'm sure that will just make me feel worse. But whatever's the case, I don't think it really matters right now because guess what? I have finally gotten a new chapter out. I am sure this is great news for like my, 6 remaining readers or whatever. But it's here, finally, I am gonna keep going because I have a shit ton of ideas for this AU and I don't want them all to go to waste. Either way, for now just enjoy the currently available chapters, and more will come soon. I promise. I am already halfway through the next part. I think.

Chapter update: 03.03.2021

Updated and slightly altered because of typos and continuity errors.