Beneath The Mountain

by DieselBusters

After an accidental fall, Jack finds himself in the domain of the monsters. However, he doesn't have to find his way out alone.

6. Chapter 6

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Beneath The Mountain

Chapter 6: A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

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It was a beautiful afternoon in Scarlett Meadows. The skies were clear and it was unseasonably cool for a midsummer's day.

Two men had recently left Saint Denis, their journey taking them down the newly-built Rhodes Highway, a new paved highway going through most of Lemoyne. They even saw a couple of automobiles along the way, a Model T Ford and a brand new Jeffrey Six as identified by the younger man who had developed a burgeoning interest in this still-new mode of transportation.

While they were riding, the younger man listened as his partner was right in the middle of telling a story about some of the people that had made venturing outside of St. Denis dangerous in years past, specifically the Night Folk and the infamous Murfree brood.

"The good news is ain't nobody run into the night folk in years, as for the Murfrees well... I don't think there's any of 'em left." Replied Harold, the older man.

"What happened to all of them?" Asked his companion, Jack, or 'Jake Milton' as his pseudonym suggested.

"Well... Nobody really knows what happened to the night folk. People stopped running into them years ago, and it was sudden too. There were sightings and encounters with them and one day they just... Stopped. Even the locals living on the bayou stopped seeing them, it was like they just dropped off the face of the earth. People think they just fled into the really deep parts of the bayou, probably running from the expanding St. Denis. Then on the other hand there's... Stranger theories."

"Such as?"

"The night folk practiced strange rituals, some kind of voodoo... Or maybe something entirely different... Something much more ancient. Whatever the case may be, some of the more superstitious folk believe whatever it was they practiced caused them to disappear. That something… took them."

"Hmm. Do you believe it?" Jack replied, sounding a bit skeptical.

Harold seemed to pause for a moment, seeming to go over his thoughts. "I don't know, son. I like to believe there's some sort of rational explanation for just about anything. But there are strange things that happen on the bayou, unexplainable stuff, things that go bump in the night. I can't say I truly believe it but..."

He went silent, seeming to be lost in thought.

"What about the Murfrees?" Asked Jack, breaking the silence.

"Hm, that's a more straightforward answer. The Murfree brood were once the terror of Roanoke Ridge, all the barbaric and downright horrifying acts this family of twisted inbred mountain folk did…"

Harold grimaced, seeming to recall the various things he heard. "Savages doesn't even describe these people, if you could even call them people to begin with. They were evil, twisted by… god knows what."

Jack had a grim look on his face too. He knew about these things himself, from his own memories of the time to the stories his father told or the things he'd read in Arthur's old journal.

He knew all too well.

"So, what happened?" Asked Jack, prompting him to continue.

"A few years after the Van Der Lindes and Pinkertons came through and cut down their numbers, what was left of those inbred bastards started going back to their old ways, to the sort of stuff that made them infamous in the first place."

"Thing is though, the mine in Annesburg had new owners now, ones who were much more hands-on. These owners didn't want a return to the bad 'ol days and when reports of Murfree activity began to come in, they raised an army. Took on every mercenary, bounty hunter and hired gun from Saint Denis to Escalera. Hell they'd hire anyone who could simply handle a rifle. Once they'd gotten enough men they sent them into the interior of Roanoke Ridge. What happened after that is... Not well known."

"Why's that?"

"Not much information got outside, other than what the mining company wanted people to hear, which was they were simply just cracking down on crime and bringing better law enforcement to the deep mountains."

"I'm guessing that wasn't the full picture."

"Maybe. I never saw anything myself but I heard the stories. Tales of wide-eyed mountain men stumbling into towns, recounting stories of armed men sacking villages and burning down homesteads, people being killed if they as much as resembled a Murfree. It's said they attacked their main hideout, Beaver Hollow. Shot down anyone standing outside, poured burning tar inside and dynamited any known exit points, sealing whatever was left of those bastards inside the cave and leaving them to a fate they rightly deserve".

"A lot of these stories were told by the hired men themselves, usually in a saloon over a few too many drinks, drunkenly confessing to their own atrocities. Whether the people they victimized were Murfrees or innocent people that just got in the way was anybody's guess."

"Jesus. And people didn't care?"

"Nope. Even without the power held by the mining company, people just didn't care about what happened to these mountain folk. A lot of the men who signed up had friends or family who had been victims of the Murfrees and wanted them to pay, wanted to do to the Murfrees what they'd done to their loved ones. Either way, there's a reason why you don't see or hear from them anymore."

They rode in silence for a little while longer before Jack broke it after mulling over a small detail that his partner had relayed to him earlier.

"Mind if I ask you a question, mister?"

"Sure, what's on your mind?"

"So what happened to Colter?"

"Huh?"

"It's been derelict for as long as I can remember. Clearly there was something that made all of you quit living there."

---

I had a strange dream that night.

I can't remember for the life of me what happened, but one thing I distinctly remember seeing was a person who bore a striking resemblance to Frisk.

But it wasn't her.

This kid bore a striking resemblance to Frisk, but was unmistakably different.

Their hair and skin was a lighter tone and their clothes looked similar but were a different color.

But the most distinct difference was this mystery kid's facial expression.

It was a big wide smile, but not one of joy or happiness.

No, their smile was demented, full of an underlying malice that deeply unsettled me.

I don't remember the apparition ever speaking a word or even doing anything. Just standing there, staring at me with that twisted grin on their face.

I would later draw a connection between that dream and the strange silhouette that I briefly saw in Toriel's house.

I wasn't sure what these sightings meant, whether they were some sort of premonition or just my mind playing tricks on me. I still haven't figured out what these visions meant, and I likely never will.

Maybe it's best that I don't.

---

Despite that I woke up feeling very refreshed, with the unmistakable feeling of a full night's rest.

Probably even slept better than I did at Toriel's, especially considering I was on an actual bed this time.

Normally I'm up and at 'em when it comes to getting up in the morning, but this time I let myself lie around longer than I usually do.

Eventually I finally got up and went over to wake up Frisk.

"Psst. Hey, rise and shine."

The kid rolled over in response, awake but not quite ready to get up yet. "Ugh Five more minutes... Please."

Granting her request, I walked into the washroom and freshened up a little, applying some of the pomade I bought.

Ain't no Doc Luster's, but it'll do.

It was probably a silly thing to worry about my appearance considering the circumstances, but I figured being trapped in some unknown land wasn't a valid excuse not to look my best. I figured since I was probably one of the first humans these monsters have seen in a while, I oughta keep myself looking somewhat presentable.

After slicking my hair back, I slipped my boots on and put on my coat and hat. By now the kid had finally got up and was getting ready as well which didn't take long thankfully.

"Sleep good?" I asked.

"Yeah, kinda. I had a weird dream."

"That so?"

"Yeah, I can't remember it clearly, all I remember is some weird song and seeing a reflection of myself... At least I think it was myself. I heard someone speaking to me too, but can't remember the words."

"Hmm, that's odd." It sounded similar to mine, but different. I didn't quite know what to make of it. Almost thought of telling her about what I saw last night but decided against it.

"Well if you're ready, let's hit the trail."

We packed up whatever wasn't already and left the room.

"Hiya again!" The inkeeper said as we walked back down the stairs. "I can tell you two had a good night's rest."

"Yes ma'am. Room was really cozy."

"Well I'm happy to hear! It's odd though because the two of you were only up there for about ten minutes."

"Wait. You serious?" Frisk exclaimed.

"Yep!" She handed back the coin I gave her. "Here's your money back, I ain't gonna charge you for a measly ten minutes."

I almost told her to keep it out of courtesy, but considering our situation I felt like we needed to save as much coin as we could. I took it back, but ended up putting a 10 right back on the desk.

"Here, for the hospitality."

"Why, that's mighty kind of you!" The innkeeper glowed. "If you need to stay the night you're always welcome back."

We ventured back out into the frigid cold, going through town until we were nearing Grillby's.

"You still hungry?" I asked the kid.

"Mhm. Starving." She replied, sounding like she wasn't fully awake yet.

We barely walked through the door when a familiar voice shouted: "well whaddya know, lancey! merlin!"

Sure enough, good 'ol Sans was seated at the bar.

Seems like we can't round a corner without running into him.

"wanna join me?" He continued. "just started my break and i wouldn't mind the company."

I looked around the restaurant and all the same patrons were still here, aside from the TV repairmen who I assumed went back to running their scam.

I'd caught the attention of the guard dogs again, hearing a "Borf!" from Greater Dog who was happy to see me again.

"Hey, you're back. I see you've made friends with the local bonehead." Doggo remarked.

"Yeah. It's a long story." I replied as Sans beckoned us over towards a couple of empty stools at the counter.

"Hey, ask him to throw us a bone or two." Dogamy chimed in. "Yeah, we like bones." Dogaressa added.

"Hey Sans, weren't you just here for breakfast?" I heard the ugly monster thing ask.

"what? nah i haven't had breakfast in at least... hm... half an hour. you must be thinking of brunch."

The entire restaurant erupted into raucous laughter for whatever reason. Even Frisk was laughing while I was trying to figure out what was so funny in the first place.

"here, get comfy" Sans said as the kid and I took our seats while I paused to swipe away some weird rubber cushion that was on top of the stool.

"yeah, you gotta watch your seat in here. weirdos like to put down whoopee cushions sometimes."

"You wouldn't happen to be that weirdo would you?" I asked.

"what, me? wouldn't dream of it. anyways i'm starving, lets order. i'm thinkin'... hmm..." He seemed to exaggeratedly look over the menu before settling on: "how does burger and fries sound?"

Frisk agreed while I politely declined. Good as it was, I wanted to try something else.

"suit yourself, lancey. hey grillbz, double order of burg and fry."

Grillby seemed to nod and started walking over towards the kitchen, stopping at where I was sitting.

"Back so soon?"

I shrugged. "I guess I'm still hungry. Needed to get my niece some chow anyways."

"Hey that's great, good to see you again regardless. Know what you're getting?"

It didn't take much thinking to decide. I had a specific dish in mind, something I hadn't had in a long time and something that had been repeatedly denied to me during my time down here.

"Would you happen to have any spaghetti by chance?" I asked expectantly.

Despite lacking a discernible face, I could tell Grillby grew a smirk.

"Two burg specials and a spaghetti dinner, comin' right up!" Which prompted a silent but excited hell yes from me.

Before walking away, Grillby leaned closer to me.

"Also be careful around Sans, he fancies himself a comedian."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Don't lend him money either. If you saw how big his tab is, you'd do a fucking cartwheel."

Grillby walked into the kitchen as Sans piped up again.

"so. whaddya think?"

"'Bout what?" I replied.

"y'know, paps. he's cool right?"

"Yeah, totally!" "Sure." Both of us replied.

"'course he's cool. you'd be cool too if you wore that outfit everyday." I started imagining myself wearing that ridiculous getup, the mental image almost making me laugh.

I ain't too sure about that, Sans.

"he even wears it in the shower, least he washes it i guess."

It wasn't long before Grillby reappeared with our respective orders, passing them out with a warm "Y'all enjoy that now." before returning to whatever task he was doing before.

"mmm grub's here" Sans remarked. I was already polishing off my food, not being one to dilly dally when it came to eating.

The spaghetti was truly out of this world, tasting exactly like the first time I'd had it.

Maybe being stuck down here isn't all that bad.

"hey, want some ketchup?" I heard Sans asked as he pulled out a bottle of ketchup from his jacket and held it out to us.

"Mighty kind of you partner, but I think I'm good." I said. Frisk on the other hand seemed to take him up on the offer.

"Sure, thanks." Frisk said as she took the bottle and held it over her food.

"bone appetit, kid."

I guess the cap must've been loose, because nearly the entire bottle spilled out and drenched her food in the thick red condiment.

"Hey, what the hell?" Frisk interjected, seeming annoyed and a bit crestfallen at her meal essentially being ruined.

"oof, bad luck kid." Sans slid his food over to the kid which he hadn't so much as touched. "you can have mine, i'm not really all that hungry anyways."

She thanked him, her mood improving as she began to polish off her food.

By then I had already finished mine and had actually started eating the ketchup-soaked order, which was actually still pretty decent despite being drenched in the stuff.

Look, you can call me a glutton all you want and I guess you'd be right, but I just cannot accurately describe in words just how good Grillby's cooking was. There wasn't a chance I was letting it go to waste, ketchup be damned.

"cool or not, you gotta admit he tries real hard, like how he keeps trying to get in the royal guard."

"I admire his persistence." I replied, coming out extremely muffled as I was in the process of taking a bite. I was hoping I was deep down enough to where my mother couldn't see me from heaven, otherwise she would've probably died a second time at me neglecting my table manners.

"see, one time he marched right down to undyne's house and begged her to let him join. 'course she, uh, slammed the door in his face because it was 2 in the morning. but when she got up the next day and went to do her morning run around waterfall, and found him still waiting at her door."

"Hm. He really is persistent." The kid remarked.

"Or stubborn." I added.

"well whichever way you slice it, she still admired his dedication. after that she began giving him 'warrior training' sessions."

"Seems to really be paying off." I sarcastically chimed in.

"yeeeah… it's uh… a work in progress. tell ya the truth i don't think she even teaches him anything combat related at all, but paps is still happy about it.

It wouldn't surprise me if she was to be honest. Papyrus was pretty tough all things considered, kinda made me wonder why he wasn't in the guard.

Maybe it's his personality.

We sat in silence for a little while longer, by now the kid was finishing up and I'd finished my third meal within probably an hour. I was washing it all down with another iced tea while I observed Sans pull out another bottle of ketchup from his coat and… start drinking it.

Grillby came back to our side of the counter and I'd heard what I think was supposed to be a whistle.

"Well I'll be. You must've been hungry, partner."

"Reckon so. Ain't gonna pass up good food, even if its… Well, slathered in ketchup." I replied.

I heard him laugh a little. "Yeah, I saw that little accident with the ketchup bottle. Still, I'm happy you enjoy the food."

Grillby went back to cleaning a few glasses when Sans suddenly piped up.

"oh right, hey i wanted to ask ya both something."

Before either one of us could respond, the world around us grew dark and cold and time itself seemed to pause. All except for the area where the three of us were sat at that moment.

I'd had my suspicions about Sans from the moment we met. While I didn't really believe he had any malicious intentions towards us, I still knew there was something more about him, something… powerful that he kept hidden behind the whole lazybones persona.

But, if that wasn't enough to put me on edge, what he said next did the trick.

"Have you ever heard of a talking flower?"

I felt my blood turn to ice. Not even the snowy bitter cold of Snowdin could compare to the icy feeling that came over me.

I guess the same thing happened to Frisk because neither of us answered.

Sans didn't seem to notice anything amiss and just continued. "i'll take that as a no. so there's these flowers that grow around waterfall, echo flowers. you say something to it and it'll repeat it over and over and... you get the picture."

"Yeah, why are you asking us though?" I replied, feeling a permeating sense of dread and anxiety building up.

"well, papyrus told me something very interesting the other day. he said that sometimes when no one is around, a talking flower appears and whispers things to him."

"What kinds of things...?" Frisk warily asked.

"flattery... advice... encouragement... predictions..."

I didn't feel well, but I kept my composure, avoided acting out of line and letting Sans finish.

"weird, huh?"

"Sure." Which was all I could say at the moment.

"someone must be using echo flowers to play tricks on him." Sans concluded.

I didn't believe him however, hell I'm not quite sure he believed himself. But I just knew the flower in question wasn't one of these 'echo flowers'. I knew it had something to do with an old friend that up until that point, I thought we had left in the ruins.

"just keep an eye out, ok?"

"I'll keep that in mind."

With that, the restaurant came back to life and it grew warmer and more lively, like what we'd just experienced never even happened.

By the time the kid and I managed to compose ourselves, Sans rolled up his sleeve and looked at his wrist, which had nothing on it.

"welp that took longer than i thought. gotta get back to work before the boss yells at me again. by the way, i'm flat broke. can you cover the bill?"

He didn't even give us time to muster a response before continuing "it's only 10,000 G."

The kid looked taken aback and let out a "Hey, what the-?" while I just shook my head.

"Not a chance in hell, partner." I replied, knowing he was just playing a trick.

"whaaat, you serious? hey i'm kidding anyways. put it on my tab, grillbz."

Grillby spoke up however. "Yeah, about that. Your tab is pretty high as it is, I would really appreciate it if you would be so kind as to pay it for once."

Sans just shrugged. "sorry grillbz, gotta get back to work. hey maybe next time."

"That's what you said last time." Grillby shot back, clearly annoyed.

"hey dont worry grillbz, i promise."

He began making his way towards the door, only for a wall of literal fire to rise up and engulf the door, blocking his exit.

"I'm afraid I wasn't asking." Grillby said, his usual drawl sounding lower and more menacing as he stood tall, looking very intimidating as his fire glowed brighter. "You're going to stay here and we're gonna have a talk about your debt to me, is that understood?"

"yeah… alright grillbz." Sans replied, sounding surprisingly nervous.

Grillby turned his attention to us. "Y'all can go on ahead if you'd like." He said as he dissipated the fire around the door, leaving it completely undamaged. "Sans and I need to have a little chat."

Not wanting to stick around, the both of us left, with Grillby giving a friendly "See y'all next time!" as we went back into the freezing cold.

As we made our way back to the cave exit, Frisk broke the silence, addressing the question both of us likely had on our minds at that point.

"That talking flower… You think he was talking about-?"

"I don't doubt it. Sounds too close to be a coincidence."

"I thought that flower was trapped in the ruins, thought we wouldn't see him again."

"I did too kid, but it sounds like we need to stay on our toes. I don't think we've seen the last of him."

"That's what I was afraid of."

We finally reached the end of the cavern, where a sign adjacent to the road read Welcome To Waterfall!

We left Snowdin and finally entered Waterfall. Almost immediately I began hearing the sounds of rushing water as the air grew noticeably warmer and more humid..

It got darker as well, with the ceiling of the cave growing considerably lower and the cave itself growing more narrow. It was more akin to a normal everyday cave, albeit with a river flowing beside us and little glowing stones embedded in the walls.

We came to a clearing with a couple of monsters and an empty guard post.

"Yo!" I heard a loud, shrill voice holler. The source of the sudden interruption turned out to be that yellow lizard kid with no arms that I'd seen in Snowdin earlier.

"Are you sneaking out to see her too?" He continued.

"See who?" I asked, confused.

"Well duh! Undyne! Y'know, the captain of th-"

"Yeah, yeah. I know who she is." I said, cutting him off.

"Oh man, she's so awesome! I wanna be just like her when I grow up."

I didn't reply. I knew for a fact this kid didn't have a chance, but I wasn't about to be a complete son of a bitch and crush his dreams.

I turned to look at Frisk, who was reaching up to another empty space again, least that's how I registered it.

After doing her 'saving' routine, we continued our trek, the path led to a waterfall with another one of those boxes adjacent to it.

"Guess we won't be needing these anymore." Frisk remarked as she removed her winter coat and left it in the box. I followed suit, exchanging Arthur's old winter coat for my new duster, which I donned shortly after.

"heh Now you really look like a cowboy." The kid remarked.

Deciding to have a little fun, I pretended to draw my revolver and 'aimed' my hand at the kid, doing the finger gun thing.

"Reach for the sky, pard-ner!" I said, exaggerating my accent, which elicited a laugh from the kid.

We began wading through the waterfall when the kid pointed out something behind the cascading stream of water. We checked it, finding a small room behind the waterfall which ended up being empty, aside from an article of clothing lying on the floor.

"Ain't nothing in here, lets-" I started, when Frisk went over to the piece of clothing and picked it up.

"Hey put that thing down, you don't know where it's been."

Instead of listening to me though, she put the thing on. It was one of those weird skirt things ballet dancers wear, I wasn't cultured enough to know what they were called. Didn't have a clue what it was doing down here, or why the kid wanted to wear it in the first place.

"How do I look?" she asked, mirroring the time when she found that old ribbon.

"Well… Look kid, I'm not gonna lie, you look ridiculous." I bluntly replied, noticing how much it clashed with her striped sweater and jeans.

"That so?" I watched her do some sort of twirl. "Why thank you, that's exactly what I was going for!"

We left the waterfall behind and continued down the lane until we entered a room flanked by a ledge on our left when Frisk suddenly began to slow her pace and finally stopped, grabbing my hand tightly.

"Hey, what's the matter?" I asked, understandably concerned.

The kid held her finger to her lips and whispered "Something doesn't feel right."

She wasn't lying, even I felt something off about this room, almost like we weren't alone.

"Alright, stay low. We need to move slowly and quietly."

"What about that patch of reeds over there?" She hushedly replied, pointing to a patch of reeds and cattails that sure enough, flanked the road.

I nodded and we both crept forward until we sneaked into the reeds and concealed ourselves from sight. When I was sure we were well-hidden, I put my hand to the ground and began to focus on my surroundings, going into what I called eagle eye.

For context, I have a couple of unusual abilities that I inherited from my father. The first one being dead eye, a stage of increased concentration that happens when aiming a weapon that makes it to where I can place my shots with near perfect accuracy.

Eagle eye is the other one. Like dead eye, it's a stage of heightened focus and awareness, but instead I can use it to track animals or people and can even notice certain discrepancies or points of interest in my surroundings that could easily be missed by the naked eye.

Both of these abilities were a mystery to me, all I really know about them is that both my father and Arthur had them and had written about them in the journal that I now carried. They even discovered that dead eye can be fortified by things such as tobacco, liquor and snake oil. Arthur was even the one who named these abilities, apparently hearing the term 'dead eye' from the stories of Red Harlow, some notorious gunslinger from long ago who had this ability as well.

I went into eagle eye and looked around to see if I could find anything or anyone that might have given us this uneasy feeling.

It didn't take long.

Right on top of the ledge overlooking us was a massive hulking metallic beast that I recognized as royal guard armor, but it was different, more personalized to reflect the personality of the monster who I knew this was, the captain of the royal guard and the same monster who I've been hearing about constantly for the past few hours.

"UNDYNE!"

I nearly jumped at the sudden break in the silence, but managed to keep still. I knew all too well who that voice belonged to as a familiar costume-clad skeleton ran in, stopping in front of the armored behemoth.

"G-GREETINGS UNDYNE!" Papyrus continued. "I HAVE COME TO PRESENT MY DAILY REPORT! UHHH… REGARDING THE PAIR OF HUMANS I… Informed you about earlier."

I grew very wary upon hearing this. I started wondering if Papyrus was actually just spying on us and was about to rat us out. I listened intently, curious to hear what he had to say.

Undyne turned towards him, surprisingly gracefully considering the massive suit of armor, and addressed him. It wasn't easy to hear her, due to the distance and the fact her voice was muffled by her helmet. Luckily eagle eye made it easier for me to focus on certain sounds and I was able to pick up her voice.

"Did you fight them?"

"WHY YES! OF COURSE I DID, RATHER VALIANTLY I MIGHT ADD!" He said, assuming that weird heroic pose again.

"I see. Where are they then?"

"HUH?"

"Did you… capture them?" She replied. Even from where I was standing I could pick up a tone of slight annoyance in her voice.

"UH WELL… YOU SEE" He stammered, trying to explain himself. "NO! I'M AFRAID I DIDN'T."

I heard Undyne groan, clearly a bit displeased.

"I TRIED VERY HARD, UNDYNE! I TRIED MY BEST! But in the end… I was bested. I failed."

Undyne spoke up again, this time with a calmer and considerably colder tone.

"That's fine, Papyrus. I'll just have to take their souls myself."

I quietly scoffed. Yeah, I'd like to see you try, sweetheart. Though despite my bravado I knew that's probably exactly what she would do if we ran afoul of her.

"W-WHAT!? BUT UNDYNE, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DESTROY THEM! SEE…"

At least this confirmed he was still on our side.

I could barely decipher what she said next. I'm not sure if she spoke quieter or if I just didn't focus enough. All I was able to make out was "…You know it has to be done."

"I understand." Paps replied calmly, his tone of voice sounding a bit disheartened. "IN THAT CASE, I WILL HELP YOU IN ANY WAY I CAN."

With that, Papyrus turned around and went back the way he came. The both of us just stood there crouched amongst the reeds waiting for Undyne to do the same.

She never did though and after a while it got to the point where my legs were starting to hurt and we couldn't wait around for her to walk off, we had to get moving.

"Alright kid. Take it slow, nice and easy. We need to get out of here." I relayed hushedly.

The kid nodded and the both of us quietly crept forward, away from the steely giant. It was going pretty well, but then Frisk accidentally stepped into a puddle. I managed to catch her and keep her from falling, but the sound from the sudden movement reverberated off the cave walls and alerted Undyne.

I watched with an impending sense of dread as Undyne sharply turned towards our direction. I was able to see her faceplate, the shape of a snarling sharklike face now staring right in our direction.

She stepped closer to the edge, her boots making a loud metallic CLANG CLANG CLANG that echoed off of the cave ceiling and made my sense of dread and panic grow even more. I drew my Schofield and readied it for a fight

Undyne lifted her hand and a strange blue light materialized into the shape of a spear which she was now holding, almost as if it was made of pure lighting.

No no no no no I repeated to myself as I watched her head move from left to right, scanning the room for any sight of intruders. This lasted for probably a minute but it felt like hours as she just kept scanning the room.

Finally, the electrical spear dissipated and Undyne began to walk backwards. She slipped under the veil of darkness as she walked back into an adjacent cave, disappearing from sight. The last I saw of her was her right eye which glowed in the darkness and became the only indicator of her presence for a short while as she retreated further and further into the cave, the metallic clanging of her boots growing fainter and fainter until they could be heard no longer.

The kid and I just stood there for a while, we didn't move as much as a muscle until we were positive she was gone. Silently we crept out of the patch of reeds, only to discover we hadn't been the only ones who were hiding in it.

I nearly went full defensive mode, until I realized it was just that yellow lizard kid from earlier.

I was a bit annoyed, scratch that, very annoyed. But this kid seemed absolutely giddy, just hopping and running about the place like he'd just drank coffee for the first time.

"Yo! Oh man… Did you see the way she was staring at you?" He yapped excitedly.

"Hard not to." I replied dryly.

"Oh man! That was… Awesome! God I'm jealous!" I simply scoffed at the remark as I looked at the kid to make sure she was alright.

Surprisingly Frisk seemed more or less unfazed by the close call with Undyne. If anything she also looked slightly annoyed at the monster kid's surprise appearance.

"What'd you even do to get her attention like that?" He asked, continuing the constant barrage of meaningless questions.

"I stepped in a puddle." Frisk replied, surprisingly drier than my own tone.

"Aw man, really?! Yo I should step in a puddle next time I see her!"

"Yeah, you do that. Tell me how it works out for you." She responded, not even trying to hide her sarcastic tone of voice.

"Yeah man, totally! C'mon, let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!"

The monster kid took off, running forward before tripping and falling right onto his face.

So that explains the dark circles under his eyes. I thought, feeling a bit of pity for the poor kid having to live without a set of arms.

However he managed to pick himself up like it was nothing and carried on his merry way.

Must be used to it I guess.

After the monster kid left, Frisk spoke up again.

"That was close."

"Too close."

"What are we gonna do about her?" She asked while pointing to the spot where the metallic mammoth was just standing a few minutes ago.

"Well, we avoid her. Stay out of her way, make sure she doesn't find us. Worst case scenario, we run as fast as we can. Doubt she can run all that fast in that suit of armor."

"And if that doesn't work?" Frisk asked, understandably concerned.

"Let's not think about that right now."

We proceeded forward, coming to a small stream. There were a few of these big seedlings that were apparently 'bridge seeds' according to a nearby sign and if you arranged four of them in a row they would sprout into a bridge.

But I had neither the time nor patience to mess around with them and just picked up the kid and had her sit on my shoulders as I waded through the water, which really wasn't all that deep.

"Traveling down here must suck." The kid remarked after I put her back down.

"You're tellin' me."

"You gotta deal with all these puzzles and stuff just to go places, and outside of that it looks like you gotta walk everywhere."

"True. I wonder if these puzzles are always activated or if they're just here for us."

Frisk shrugged. "Beats me."

We made it further into the cave when I heard a familiar electronic ringing. Frisk pulled out the strange mobile phone device and answered it as I listened in, only to hear the familiar jawing of a certain skeleton.

"HELLO HUMANS! THIS IS YOUR GOOD FRIEND PAPYRUS!"

"Howdy Paps." I replied. "How'd you get this number?"

"WHAT? OH THAT'S EASY! I SIMPLY DIALED EVERY SINGLE NUMBER SEQUENTIALLY UNTIL I FOUND YOURS! NYEH HEH HEH! BOY YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE SOME OF THE ANSWERS I GOT!"

"Yeah, I certainly wouldn't. So uh, you need something?" The kid responded.

"RIGHT! SO UH… WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?"

I felt my eyes widen almost on instinct as the kid seemed to parallel that.

"Excuse me?" She replied, a bit taken aback.

"I'M ASKING FOR A FRIEND…"

"Uh huh, sure you are." I answered, strongly considering hitting the 'end call' button.

"YEAH SHE THOUGHT SHE SAW YOU TWO WEARING SOME DUSTY OLD TUTU AND A LONG BROWN COAT!" Paps continued.

I finally understood the nature of that question and felt my sense of unease increase a little. Undyne must've seen us somewhere and I began wondering if she had been watching us the entire time.

"WELL, IS THAT TRUE?

We both looked at each other, unsure how to reply.

"Uh no! I'm uh… Wearing a three piece tuxedo with a matching tophat… and my companion is wearing overalls… and a straw hat." I lied.

"OH ALRIGHT! I GOT IT, WINK WINK!" He responded before hanging up.

"That was… Weird." Frisk said.

The path led us to a strange narrow room with the ceiling studded with more of those glowing rocks, which nearly resembled a night sky. A sign carved into the wall designated this place as the "Dreaming Room" whatever that meant.

Though I found out shortly after due to a few of those weird echo flowers being present in the room.

"A long time ago, monsters would whisper their wishes to the stars in the night sky." One of the flowers echoed. "If you hoped and believed with all your heart, it was said the wish would come true. But now all we have are these sparkling stones embedded in the ceiling…"

"Thousands of people all wishing together can't be wrong! The king will see to that."

"C'mon sis, make a wish!"

"I wish we'll get to see the real stars someday…"

We listened as the other flowers echoed the voices of whatever monsters were here last. We ended up getting to a dead end but I was able to notice the shape of a door in the rocky wall thanks to eagle eye.

It led us to a large wooden walkway built over a massive underground pond. There were more of these ancient plaques carved into the stone itself all adjacent to each other. Frisk walked up to examine the first one.

"The War of The Humans and Monsters." Frisk read aloud.

She continued to read each plaque in succession, reading each one of them aloud.

"Why did the humans attack? Indeed, it seemed they had nothing to fear. Humans are unbelievably strong, it would take the soul of nearly every single monster in existence just to equal the power of even the weakest human SOUL."

I just followed and listened intently. I'd already learned about this ancient war from that book in Toriel's house and I was honestly fascinated by this seemingly long-forgotten piece of history.

"Humans have one weakness though. Ironically, it is the strength of their SOUL. It's power allows for it to persist outside the human body, even following death."

"If a monster defeats a human, it will be able to take its SOUL. A monster with the power of a human SOUL is a horrible beast with unfathomable power."

If that wasn't unsettling enough, the last plaque left me with a feeling of what I could only describe as some sort of primal terror.

Instead of some sort of ancient text, it was a carving of a strange creature. No, strange doesn't even begin to describe it, this thing was almost demonic in appearance. It was something ancient, something truly monstrous, it unsettled me to the point where I can't even bring myself to describe its appearance.

If that carving had me feeling like that, I could only imagine what was going through the kid's mind at that moment.

After that last plaque, the boardwalk came to an end with another jetty being situated at the other side of the subterranean lake. It was connected by a small wooden ferry with a rope tied to both ends that you needed to pull to get across, similar to the ferry at Brittlebrush Trawl.

The kid and I got on the raft and I began pulling us to the other side, the entire time I kept thinking about what was carved into those walls. I kept thinking about that illustration, that beast. Whatever that thing was I assumed it must've been what happened when a monster got ahold of a human soul. I prayed to whatever higher power was out there that we wouldn't have to cross paths with something like that during our time down here.

As we got closer and closer to the jetty on the other side of the pond, I began to notice someone standing on it. It wasn't easy to tell who it might've been but as we got closer and closer, I recognized the figure.

It looked like Monster Kid, except it clearly wasn't him.

He was completely monochrome, looked as if someone had taken a photograph of MK and the double from the photograph just sprung to life. As if that wasn't creepy enough his eyes were completely white and devoid of pupils.

It felt… wrong. Hell, as we got closer the tone of the world itself seemed to change.

Finally we got to the jetty and were face-to-face with this monochrome double. Frisk must've noticed him too because she was very hesitant to even move from the raft.

Finally, I stepped forward and broke the silence.

"Uh, partner?"

The kid, or the thing mimicking him, spoke. The way his voice sounded is difficult to describe. It was soft and eloquent, nothing like how the real MK sounded. However it also sounded… ethereal? Like its voice was being carried by the wind, echoing from an entirely different plane of existence.

"Have you ever thought about a world where everything is the same… Except you don't exist?"

"Excuse me?" I replied, not knowing what to make of what it just said.

"A world where you never were, yet everything is still the same. Everything functions perfectly without you…"

I could sorta understand what this thing was getting at and… The more I thought of it, the more it disturbed me.

The thing began laughing and if its voice wasn't strange enough, its laughter was something else entirely.

"You understand, don't you? The thought terrifies me too." It said, almost as if it could read my mind.

Suddenly I blinked and the apparition was gone.

The kid and I just stood there in silence. We'd clearly seen the same thing and it seemed like neither one of us could make sense of what the fuck just happened.

In the end we just continued forward, not speaking a word about what we just saw.

What the hell is with this place?

As we began to walk down the plank road, that uneasy feeling returned. I thought it was from that encounter with the strange apparition but as the feeling grew, I knew that wasn't the case. It was that same feeling of dread that I'd felt the first time we'd run into Undyne.

Undyne.

*THWACK*

Almost if on cue, an electric blue spear flew in front of us, narrowly missing us both and landing into the boardwalk before dissipating.

Immediately my fight or flight instincts kicked in and I drew my Schofield and turned to face our newly-arrived adversary.

I was able to see Undyne a lot more clearly now and let me tell you, to say she looked more intimidating up close was the understatement of the century.

Immediately I aimed my revolver, chambered a round, and fired. However I missed, having to dodge another salvo of those spears and my shot ended up impacting the stone pillar next to her.

I knew trying to fight was pointless, she had the high ground and easy cover to boot. My priorities shifted and I instead chose the flight option.

I picked Frisk up and hoisted her to where she was sitting on my shoulders and made a run for it, dodging the spears as I sprinted down the boardwalk. The kid even helped out, shouting out where these spears were coming from and making it a lot easier to keep away from them and focus on getting the hell out of dodge.

Through all this, Undyne kept following us from the column-laden bank of the lake. But our luck turned and she hit a dead end, buying us some time to continue our retreat as she desperately hurled more spears at us. We reached the end of the boardwalk which led to another patch of reeds and switchcane, this time covering the road in its entirety.

I silently thanked whoever was in charge of maintaining the roads and paths down here for forgetting to cut the foliage that now acted as our savior, as I dove into it and got us to a point where we were well-hidden.

I had managed to get a last look back at Undyne as we dove into the reeds, she had jumped onto the boardwalk and was now pursuing us. We both found separate hiding spots as we laid on the ground and tried to stay perfectly still.

Our pursuer finally caught up to us as I heard the familiar clanging growing closer and closer until she was making her way through the field of reeds and was way too close to us. She kept walking and walking, searching for us until she suddenly stopped.

For a moment I wondered what made her stop until to my absolute horror, I watched her raise her arm and reach into the reeds right in front of her, clearly grabbing something, or someone.

No. Please, god don't let it be her.

This was it, I was going to kill this bitch.

I yet again drew my Schofield. I was close enough to where I could make out a weak spot in her armor. I aimed my revolver at it and was ready to fire the moment she pulled up the kid-

Sure enough she raised her arm and revealed who she had found hiding in the reeds and to my utter relief it wasn't the kid.

Or at least, not my kid.

Of all people, it turned out to be the monster kid again. At least it was the real one this time.

Despite that, I'd never felt more relieved to see his scaly yellow face. Undyne ended up putting him down and just… leaving. Going back the way she came from.

We stayed put for another couple of minutes before I finally got up, finding the kid and pulling her to her feet. We exited the field of rushes and weeds only for MK to follow us out yet again, this time he was even more giddy than the last time, excitedly dancing around the room in pure ecstasy.

"Yo… Oh my god… Did you see that?! Undyne just… She… SHE TOUCHED ME!" he loudly bellowed out.

"Easy kid, calm yourself." I suggested, afraid he might actually explode.

"Alright, sorry." He took a few minutes to collect himself until he was much calmer. "She touched me, oh my god, I'm never washing my face again."

Doesn't look like you wash your face much as it is. I silently remarked as I noticed his face being slightly dirty. Guess that was just how one looks when they're constantly falling on their face.

"Man are you guys unlucky. If you were just a little closer to the middle…"

"Oh yeah, we must be the unluckiest people in the world right now." The kid sarcastically retorted.

"Hey, don't worry! I'm sure we'll run into her again!"

I fucking hope not. I silently remarked. She doesn't strike me as the most sociable person.

The monster kid ran off, yet again falling on his face before springing back up and continuing.

"Well that happened." Frisk remarked.

"Mhm. Quite the nuisance isn't he?"

"C'mon, he's not that bad."

"I don't know, he gets on my nerves. If I had to pick between dealing with Undyne and some fanatical kid that worships the very ground she walks on, I would probably consider picking Undyne."

"Aw, don't be so dramatic." She replied, giving me a mischievous grin.

"I ain't being dramatic."

"Yes you areeee." She replied smugly. "Besides, he's just a kid."

"Well you're a kid too and you're nowhere near as annoying."

"Why, I appreciate the compliment." She did a little bow to compliment her tone. "I guess I'm just different. Y'know, I did once hear that girls mature faster than boys do..."

I just snorted and gave out a light chuckle. "Yeah well, anyways. That was another close call… A very close call."

She nodded. "Almost like she was expecting us."

"That's because she was"

"You think so?" She replied, a bit surprised.

"Well it certainly wasn't a coincidence."

Frisk went quiet for a bit, seemingly thinking about our situation. "So what does that mean?"

"Well. It means she probably knows where we are… to an extent. Whether she's tracking or following us I can't say for certain."

"So that means…"

"Avoiding her is gonna be a lot harder, might even be impossible."

"Are you implying that you might… Kill her?"

"I don't want to, but if I have to turn her into canned sardines to keep us safe, I won't think twice about it."

"But Jack-"

"Look Frisk. I know I made a promise, but our situation has changed. Undyne seems hell-bent on killing the both of us and I highly doubt she's open to reason. While we're down here, my job is to keep you safe, get us out of here and get you back to your family. I'd rather not resort to killing any of these people but if we're in a bad situation and left with no other options, I will do what I must."

The kid clearly wasn't pleased by this, I could see the look of disapproval on her face, but I could also make out something else on her face.

Understanding.

She let out a sigh and reluctantly replied "Fine. Do what you must… But please try at least."

I nodded in response. That I could do, but time would tell if I would actually be able to stick to that.

We ended up in a room with several branching paths and another telescope just sitting out in the open. We tried the path to our left and ended up in a room where the nice cream guy we'd run into back in Snowdin had set up shop.

Least it's a better spot than a damned tundra.

We ended up buying a couple of cones from the guy again, mostly just to be nice since he still wasn't getting much business and was trying out some new gimmick involving punch cards.

"Each time you buy a cone, you get a punch card. When you bring back 3 of these cards, you get a free cone!"

This time I got chocolate and it tasted pretty good yet again. This time the little note I got read It's always a pleasure seeing you again!

We resumed checking out the other exits, this time running into a monster that I could only describe as a walking onion with eyes.

"What is a star?" it asked. "Can you touch it? Can you eat it? Can you kill it? ….Are you a star?"

"Uh, right… We have to go over here now." I replied, hurrying the kid along as I did.

We ended up going down a small wooden footbridge that led us to a beautiful glowing marshland. I was stunned at how the place looked, the water itself seemed to have this bright blue glow that managed to light the surrounding area enough to where I didn't need to break out my lantern.

Even the nearby trees and grass seemed to glow, but I couldn't tell if they were actually glowing or just reflecting the light cast by the surrounding water. It kinda reminded me of Bluewater Marsh but this time the water was actually blue.

We trudged further into the marshland, during which I kept looking at the glowing water, wondering if the water itself was glowing or if it was due to some bioluminescent substance lying on the riverbed. More importantly I wondered if the water was safe to drink, but decided it would be best if I didn't try and find out.

During our trek we kept passing more of those echo flowers, which repeated bits and pieces of conversations had by the last people who walked through the marsh. I mostly tuned them out as they weren't really important, just more idle chitter chatter about wishes or whatever else.

After navigating through the glowing swamp we finally found the exit, getting another call from Papyrus along the way.

"HELLO HUMANS, THIS IS YOUR FRIEND PAPYRUS! REMEMBER WHEN I ASKED THAT QUESTION PERTAINING TO YOUR ATTIRE!"

"Yes, I remember." I replied dryly.

"WELL I WAS PUT UP TO IT BY A FRIEND OF MINE! HER OPINION OF YOU TWO IS A TAD BIT… MURDERY."

"Yeah, couldn't imagine why."

"WELL WORRY NOT DEAR HUMAN, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD NEVER BETRAY YOU! I AM NOT A CRUEL PERSON AFTER ALL AND DEEPLY VALUE OUR FRIENDSHIP! SO TO ASSIST YOU, I TOLD HER YOU WERE WEARING A DUSTY TUTU AND A LONG BROWN COAT!"

I felt a bit of annoyance and even a little anger flare up but did my best to keep it contained.

"And why in the world did you do that?"

"WELL SINCE THE BOTH OF YOU WERE WEARING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT OUTFITS THAN WHAT WAS DESCRIBED TO ME, I TOLD UNDYNE SHE WAS RIGHT ABOUT WHAT YOU WERE WEARING JUST SO SHE WOULDN'T RECOGNIZE YOU! OH DID IT PAIN ME TO TELL SUCH A BOLDFACED LIE, ESPECIALLY TO MY FRIEND AND FUTURE COMMANDING OFFICER! BUT I DID IT BECAUSE YOU ARE MY FRIENDS AND I WANT TO ENSURE YOUR SAFETY!

I sighed internally. I guess I couldn't really blame him for trying to help us out, even if he ended up doing the exact opposite.

"Well, thank you anyways Paps."

"OH HOW I HATE HAVING TO RESORT TO SUCH THINGS! ALL I WANT TO DO IS BE FRIENDS." he lamented before ending the call.

"At least his heart's in the right place." Frisk remarked.

We exited the luminescent marshland, briefly pausing to look at another one of those inscriptions that were in the wall.

"The power to take their SOULs. This is the power the humans feared." The kid again read aloud.

"I wonder why they keep writing the world 'soul' in all-uppercase." I remarked, reading the carving for myself.

"Yeah… Weird isn't it?" Frisk replied.

We ended up going through a path that took us by another underground lagoon, which was similar to the others we'd encountered earlier.

Until a tentacle emerged from the water.

What the hell?

A few more popped out of the water until finally a large shape broke the surface of the water.

It was the face of an… octopus? No, it had a face on it that I would describe as cartoonish, but it didn't resemble any cartoon I had ever seen before.

"Hey… There…" It spoke. "Noticed you were… Here…"

"Uh, hi there?" "Howdy?" both of us replied, unsure of what to make of the situation.

"I'm Onionsan! Onionsan, y'hear!" It chirped out in a similarly cartoonish voice that I found to be pretty annoying.

"Well it was nice meeting you Onionsan." I replied as we continued walking.

Onionsan kept pace with us though, seemingly wanting to continue our little conversation.

"You're visiting Waterfall, huh! It's great here, huh! You like it, huh!"

"Sure." I replied. I'd like it a lot better if you quit talking.

"Yeah, me too! It's my big favorite! It continued.

"That's nice partner, good for you." I replied.

It suddenly ducked its head below the waterline yet somehow was still able to speak.

"Even though the water's been getting so shallow… I have to sit down all the time… But h-hey! It still beats moving to the city and having to live in a crowded aquarium! Like all my friends did…" Onionsan said as it made a variety of cartoonishly exaggerated facial expressions.

"Right." The kid replied.

"A-and the aquarium's full anyways… So even if I wanted to… I couldn't… But that's okay though, y'hear! Undyne's gonna fix everything, y'hear!"

"Yeah, we'll see how that works out." I replied flatly.

"Someday I'm gonna get outta here and live in a big 'ol ocean, y'hear!"

"Well I just hope you ain't got a problem with saltwater."

"Oh… Saltwater?" It replied, sounding a bit crestfallen at this revelation. "Oh… Well that might still be ok! If all else fails I'll just find a big 'ol lake to live in, y'hear!"

"That's the spirit.."

We finally reached the end of the pond and Onionsan apparently couldn't go any further.

"Well… That's the end of this room. It was uh… Good talking to you two!"

Frisk nodded and I just replied "Likewise."

"I'll see you around! Have a good time in Waterfalllllllllllllllllllllllllll!" It said as it descended below the surface of the water.

After we got far enough away from the room Frisk broke the silence.

"Let's never go back there again."

"Agreed."

We ended up in a circular room with a couple of branching pathways. We took the one on the left which had a sign posted next to the entrance.

The northern room hides a great treasure.

Though when we entered it, all we found was a weathered old piano and a sign reading A haunting song echoes down the corridor… Won't you play along?

It was clearly some sort of musical puzzle where I had to play specific on that piano, but I didn't hear anything echoing down the corridor aside from the sound of running water. I listened intently, even tried using eagle eye, but I heard nothing.

"Hear anything?" The kid asked.

"Negative. It's as quiet as a mouse in church."

"That's disappointing." The kid said, sounding a bit defeated.

We abandoned the puzzle and walked forward, coming across more of those plaques.

"You'd think they'd put these stupid plaques closer together..." Frisk remarked.

Frisk went up to the plaques and continued her little tradition of reading each one of them aloud.

"This power has no known counter. Indeed, a human cannot take a monster's SOUL. When a monster dies, its SOUL disappears and an incredible power would be needed to take the SOUL of a living monster."

"There is only one exception. The SOUL of a special species of monster called a 'boss monster. A boss monster's soul is strong enough to persist after death, if only for a few moments. A human could theoretically absorb a boss monster's SOUL, but this has never happened. Now it never will."

"Boss monster huh." I remarked. It made me start wondering what exactly a boss monster would look like, if they were visibility different from an ordinary monster. Maybe the king was one, it was in the name after all.

The corridor led into a small room where I could hear the sound of dripping water.

The only thing in the room was a strange statue carved out of stone, which I walked closer and examined. This statue was clearly old, old enough to where it had been eroded away by drops of water constantly falling on it for who knows how long, making it hard to identify what it was supposed to be aside from some strange horned monster just sitting by itself.

While I was looking at the statue I didn't notice Frisk walking away, continuing further for a bit until I heard her enter the room again, this time carrying an umbrella.

"Hey, where'd you get that?"

"I found this bucket in the next room that just has a bunch of umbrellas sitting in it."

"Umbrellas huh, what do you even need that thing for?"

I watched inquisitively as she approached the statue and placed the umbrella into one of the statue's eroded hands, which surprisingly fit.

"Thought it'd appreciate it."

As the umbrella began to catch the water and keep it away from the statue, music started to play.

I guess there must've been a music box built into the statue somewhere and either the water or lack of it in certain spots had kept it from working.

The music box chimed out a haunting melody. I don't know what it was about the song, but it just brought up this strange array of feelings that I could only describe as melancholic and… familiar?

I took out my journal and did a quick pencil sketch of it, labeling it "Lonely Statue."

I kept staring at the statue, letting it play its haunting tune while I continued to study it, until…

I still don't really know what happened to me at that moment. It was pretty quick but lasted long enough to be embedded into my memory.

One moment I was staring at it and then I blinked. When my eyes opened up the world had gone red and time seemed to slow, I could hear the music now slowed to a crawl mixed with the telltale sound of blowing wind which signaled I was in dead eye.

However, the statue had changed in the literal blink of an eye. It went from some old eroded statue with vague characteristics of what it might've been to… something much more defined.

It was like I was looking into the past, seeing this statue during a time when it was quite new, before the trickling water had eroded away most of its features.

The statue I saw now was of a monster, a beast that… looked familiar.

I was taken aback. It looked like a warped, more monstrous version of… Toriel?

The beast was kneeling down, cradling something in its arms with a mournful, pained look on its face. I shifted my gaze towards what the thing was holding as the sound of wind sped up and the red tint began to fade as I finally figured out what this statue had in its arms.

It wasn't something, it was someone. Another statue, this time of a lifeless human being cradled in the beast's arms.

That's not what caused my blood to turn to ice though. It was when I recognized the human.

It was Frisk.

I immediately snapped out of it and felt myself jump backwards and stumble, nearly falling over.

"Jack? Jack! What's wrong!?" The kid shouted.

I took a few seconds to collect myself before answering. "Nothing, it was nothing."

"Well it sure didn't look like nothing."

"Look kid, it was nothing. I thought I saw something that wasn't there, just forget about it."

The kid raised both of her hands. "Alright then, if you're gonna be cagey like that it's fine."

"I'm not being cagey."

"Yes. You are. Something about that statue clearly bothered you and you won't tell me about it." She replied, a frustrated tone in her voice.

I sighed. This kid really is a stubborn one, ain't she? What the hell could I even tell her, that I saw a statue of her lifeless body being held by some monstrosity?

"Well, anyways." The kid said, changing the subject. "I think the music coming from that statue might be what that puzzle back there was talking about."

We went back to the puzzle room and I sat myself right at the piano, which thankfully still had its seat. I tried out the piano, testing out the various keys and playing a few notes from a few different songs just to see what state it was in. Surprisingly despite its battered exterior, the interior sounded perfectly intact. Each one of the keys not only worked but sounded perfectly in tune.

Guess someone must be taking care of this old thing.

I listened to the haunting tune from the music box which I could still hear reverberating down the hall. I began hammering away at the keys, playing haunting melody from the music box until a hidden doorway opened up in the rocky wall.

"There we go!" The kid shouted. "You're pretty good with that piano, I took you as more of a guitar guy."

I just shrugged in response.

"A piano-playing cowboy." She chuckled as she entered the room, looking for this alleged treasure.

However I stayed behind, deciding to play another song on this old piano. I decided to go for something more classical and started playing one of my favorites, Moonlight Sonata Mvt. 1.

I always enjoyed playing the piano, there was something about it that I just found relaxing. Being able to just forget about all my troubles and let my mind focus on playing beautiful music.

I got lost in the music, forgetting about my situation and almost forgetting where I was. I imagined myself camping by Flat Iron Lake at midnight under a full moon. Just sitting on the shore, watching the moonlight reflect off the lake without a care in the world, until I felt a presence next to me. I thought it was the kid at first until I turned my head and discovered I had an audience.

Specifically, one monster who was right next to me, seeming to be in pure awe as I let the beautiful melodies of Ludwig Van Beetoven flow out of the old piano.

The monster in question looked like a flying fish with a head of long hair and a face that I could really only describe as slightly grotesque. When she realized that I had noticed her, she backed away and hid her face.

I halted my playing and beckoned her over.

"Howdy there! Hey, come here, it's alright."

She still seemed very nervous but reluctantly floated her way back towards me.

"I take it you were enjoying the music?" I asked, which she responded by moving herself in a way that resembled nodding.

"Si re, se ri." I heard her mutter in a manner that was admittedly pretty off key, but I could tell that she was trying to mimic the song I was playing.

"How 'bout a little bit more?" I asked as I resumed playing, once again filling the room with the beautiful melody.

As I continued playing I could hear her attempting to follow the notes and replicate the song. Admittedly she was doing pretty poorly at first, however as the song went on I could notice her improving until she was damn near able to sing it accurately

"Si re, Si dooo, Si mi, Faaa Sool" She sang, getting the hang of it.

Finally I finished the song and noticed she looked a lot more comfortable, more confident too. By now we had surprisingly attracted a bit of a crowd, a few waterfall monsters were standing either inside the room or around the doorway, seeming to enjoy the little impromptu show I was putting on.

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" I said, praising Shyren and even giving her a small applause, which I heard a few of our audience members follow along with. "Hey you did great, well done."

Shyren seemed to blush, clearly being flattered. Guess she wasn't used to receiving praise like that.

"Say, how about we change it up a little for the fine folks in the audience. I was thinkin' we switch it to something a little quicker, more upbeat, a little ragtime if you will. Whaddya think about that?"

Shyren seemed a bit unsure but ultimately did her nodding movement again, seeming confident enough to try something new.

"Excellent! This here is another one of my favorites. I like to call this little diddy Alexander's Ragtime Band, it even comes with words this time. Alright I'm gonna play the first few notes and I want you to follow along with me, sound good?"

She smiled at me and nodded again, clearing her throat and warming herself up.

"Alright, from the top now!" I started hammering away at the keys, the upbeat ragtime music emanating from the piano.

Shyren managed to get the hang of it surprisingly quickly and was following along by the time I was ready to sing the actual lyrics.

"Oh, my honey! (Si re si mi) oh, my honey (Si re si mi), better hurry and let's meander!

Ain't you goin'? (La sol do ti) Ain't you goin'? (La sol do ti) To the leaderman, ragged meter man? Oh, my honey, (Re mi fa so) oh, my honey, (Re mi fa so) Let me take you to Alexander's Grandstand brass band, ain't you comin' along?"

We went through the entire song, me playing the piano while performing a little duet with the shy little fish, putting on a hell of an act.

By now we'd amassed quite the crowd, all of them seeming to enjoy the act. I even spied Sans at the back of the crowd handing out little strips of paper to the audience members for whatever reason, who gave me a sly wink once he noticed me looking his way.

Eventually we finished the song, getting a standing ovation from everybody in the audience (who were already standing to be fair) I stood up and gave a little bow to the audience which was quickly reciprocated by Shyren.

The crowd dissipated as the monsters returned to whatever they were doing prior. Shyren seemed full of glee and said what I assumed was a "Thank you" before going her own way.

"Looks like you were having fun!" Frisk remarked, emerging from the room.

"You're right about that." I replied, still sporting a big smile on my face.

"Soooo, are you a performer as well, or does it come naturally?" She asked in a joking manner, which I just shook my head at.

"To be honest with you, I was just copying some musical show that came through town a couple months back. Anyways, did you find that 'treasure'?"

Frisk just gave a slightly embarrassed smile and shrugged. "Well I found it but… some weird dog ended up running off with it."

"You serious?"

"Yeah, but it just looked like some big red ball. Doubt it would've really done much for us anyways."

I shrugged. "If you say so."

We left the room and headed down the path, passing the statue which continued to play that haunting melody which combined with the vision I'd seen earlier, made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

As we got further down the hall we came across the bucket full of umbrellas that Frisk mentioned earlier with a sign reading Please take one right beside it.

I didn't really know why these people even needed umbrellas in the first place, though I quickly got my answer when we got further down the path and it started Raining.

That's right, it was raining.

Puddles of water were all around the path as honest to god rain fell from the ceiling. I chalked it up to an underground lagoon being above us and the rain just being water falling out of various cracks and perforations.

Frisk was the only one who brought an umbrella which she quickly opened. I just continued walking, not really minding getting rained on as I was sorta used to it.

We made our way down the corridor, getting pelted by the subterranean rain all the way through. It was a pretty quiet and peaceful walk all things considered.

That was until we happened across a small alcove next to the road and I want you to take a wild guess who we found standing inside it.

"Yo! You got an umbrella?" Monster kid shouted as he was huddled in the small alcove. "Can I walk with you guys? I don't wanna get soaked and well… I couldn't exactly grab an umbrella myself." He explained, hinting towards his obvious lack of arms.

"Sure!" The kid replied while I just let out an indifferent "Mhm."

"Awesome, thanks!"

He walked with us and I surprisingly didn't mind his presence for a while as the walk was still pretty quiet and peaceful, with the gentle pitter patter of the underground rain adding to the calming and soothing atmosphere.

Emphasis on for a while.

As expected the little fanatic began to rattle on about Undyne again for the umpteenth fucking time today.

"Man, Undyne is sooo cool, she beats up bad guys and never loses! If I was a human I'd-"

"Hey buddy." I interrupted. "Would it be too much to ask for you to talk about something that isn't Undyne-related?

"Oh sure… Hmmm…"

We walked in silence as he seemingly mulled over what to say.

"Oh! So there was this one time we had a school project where we had to take care of this flower…"

"That so?" The kid replied.

"Yeah, the king himself even donated some of his own flowers! We had to call him Mr. Dreemurr…"

"Dreemurr huh…" I remarked upon hearing his surname.

"He even came to school, did this whole speech about responsibility and making good grades and… stuff. I, uh… Kinda tuned most of it out." He said, giving a slight look of embarrassment.

"Hey, no shame in that! I never really was a big fan of lectures." Frisk remarked.

"Yeah, the entire time it had me thinking if Undyne came to school and beat up ALL the teachers!"

I silently groaned, disappointed that this kid seemingly couldn't hold a conversation without bringing up Undyne.

"...but she probably wouldnt do that." He continued. "Undyne would never harm an innocent person."

Yeah, I beg to goddamn differ.

"Hey that reminds me, how come I haven't seen you around at school before, or… around at all?" MK asked.

"Oh we live in a small village back in the woods. We don't really leave it much and I've never really gone to school." Frisk answered.

"Wait, you don't have to go to school?! Man, that's awesome! Wish I didn't have to go to school…"

He turned his attention towards me.

"What about you dude, did you have to go to school?"

"No, I haven't." I responded truthfully.

"Man, that's freakin' awesome! You must've had a cool childhood."

I felt my face shift into a deep frown as my thoughts grew grim.

I didn't like talking about my childhood. Hell, I really didn't have much of one to talk about. As much as I love my late mother and father, I could recognize that they weren't always the best parents, which is probably a hell of an understatement.

I barely had a childhood at all, between being raised in Dutch's gang and spending the majority of my formative years constantly moving from place to place with my parents after it collapsed. Hell I didn't even have any real friends at really any point in my life before then.

It was no way to raise a child.

Eventually I did end up getting a proper life after my father had built his ranch, but it wouldn't be long before even that was robbed from me.

"Believe me kid, I didn't." I said, coming out low and grim to the point where even Frisk was taken aback.

"But wh-" MK started to ask, but I guess he must've been smarter than he let on because he wisely dropped the question. "...Nevermind."

We walked the rest of the way in complete silence, which I was thankful for. The corridor soon ended, bringing us to a place that took my breath away.

It was an absolutely massive cavern, tall and wide enough to where I couldn't even tell where it began and ended.

The ceiling was high up and studded with more of those glowing rocks, again resembling a night sky like it was in Snowdin and the rest of Waterfall.

We were on the shore of a massive underground lake. The thing that truly caught my attention, however, was what laid beyond the lagoon.

A city.

A big one.

Unlike the ruins, this one was lit up and noticeably populated. However the structure that stood out the most was a massive castle built at the edge of the city, dwarfing all the structures around it.

That must be the capital. I thought, which was almost immediately confirmed by MK.

"That's New Home. The big building is the royal castle, where the king lives."

If we had a canoe or some sort of boat, we could've crossed the lake within an hour and been out of here a lot quicker.

However, I didn't see anything of the sort lying around. Seemed like if we were gonna get out of here, we would have to do it the hard way.

We stayed there for a while, taking in the sights and resting for a bit. I enjoyed the silence, with the only noticeable ambient noise being the rushing of a nearby waterfall.

I even pulled out my journal and did a sketch of the scenery, labeling it 'Riviera Overlook'. The entire time I was sketching, Moonlight Sonata echoed through my reverie, being a well-fitting song that matched the scenery.

Eventually we started going forward again, leaving the riviera behind us.

The corridor we entered lacked any of the underground rainfall we had encountered earlier as we came upon another bucket of umbrellas.

Must be the return. I thought as Frisk folded up her umbrella, shaking it a few times to get any excess water off before returning it to the bucket.

However our advance was halted as the path before us ended at a steep ledge.

"What the- There's usually a stepladder here…" MK remarked.

Well not anymore. I silently remarked.

Fortunately the ledge wasn't very tall. It would've been a hindrance to someone around the size of Frisk or MK, for a man of my stature however, it was a piece of cake.

I picked up Frisk and hoisted her over the ledge first before grabbing the ledge and pulling myself up. Once I was at the top I turned back to MK and stretched out a hand.

"Alright kid, give me your han-" I said, suddenly remembering he didn't have a hand to give me. "Oh… Right."

He stood there, giving off a slightly embarrassed smile.

"It's alright man, go on without me. I know another way around, I'll catch up with you guys later."

Suit yourself.

Monster Kid ran off, falling on his face and picking himself back up again for the umpteenth time.

"He should really stop running like that." Frisk remarked.

The corridor became noticeably darker as we moved further, with less of those luminescent rocks being present that gave the rest of Waterfall its signature dim lighting.

We came across two more of those plaques detailing the abridged history of the monster war. Like the last couple of times, Frisk read them aloud while I listened, or pretended to listen.

"The humans, afraid of our power, declared war on us, attacking suddenly and without mercy"

"In the end it could hardly be called a war. United, the humans were too powerful and we, too weak. Not a single SOUL was taken while more than half of our entire population was turned into dust."

Guess that's what happens when one of them dies, they turn into dust. I silently observed. Strange.

The corridor ended, leaving us at a large chasm that was crisscrossed by various wooden bridges leading many different directions.

"Well… Shoot." The kid remarked. "What now?"

"Reckon we're gonna need to pick a direction."

"Yeah but… Which one?"

"Maybe we oughta-" I started, when suddenly a strange blue spot appeared in the middle of the boardwalk.

"What the hell-" the kid said as more of these blue spots began to appear on the walkway.

The both of us were confused for a moment until almost unanimously, we came to the realization that we were in danger.

"We gotta move!" Frisk yelled as I picked her up, only a split second later those blue spears came out of the spots.

We'd been ambushed again, Undyne certainly must've known we were coming. She was situated on the walkway below us allowing for her to run those spears directly through the one above.

It was harrowing, the only thing that made it possible to get out unscathed was said blue spots..

I carried Frisk on my shoulders yet again as I sprinted and jumped, maneuvering my way down the twisting and turning wooden boardwalk. I didn't know where I was even going, all that mattered was getting away from her.

Eventually I picked a way and went down it, the spear attacks seeming to stop once I had reached a certain distance.

For a second I thought luck was on my side and we'd managed to escape Undyne yet again.

That was until I ran right into a rock wall.

It was hard to see down there and in my desperation to find a way out, I'd ended up running right into a dead end.

I turned around, hoping I had a chance to run back the way we came and find an actual means of escape.

But my luck had turned as I saw the hulking figure of our pursuer standing right there, blocking our only way out.

This was it, I knew it. Undyne had finally cornered us. The only chance we had of getting out of there was killing her, something which I admit I was quite looking forward to at the time. All I had to do was shoot fast and hope to god that armor wasn't bulletproof.

I put the kid down and made sure she was behind me as I spoke to the Captain of the Royal Guard for the first time.

"Hello Undyne." I said, sounding as menacing as possible as I drew my revolver and aimed it from under my coat.

Undyne remained silent however, not speaking a word.

"Why don't you just walk away, leave us be. I don't want to kill you but if you take a step closer, I surely will." I warned her again, hoping against all odds that there was a chance to still resolve this somewhat peacefully, even though I knew it was a fruitless effort.

I readied my Schofield, waiting to turn her into canned fish paste. However as I prepared myself to kill my first and hopefully last monster, Undyne did something I didn't anticipate.

I heard the sounds of those spears again, but couldn't see her summoning them anywhere in our vicinity. It wasn't until I heard the sound of cracking and splintering wood that I knew what she'd done.

"You fucking bit-" Was all I got out before my voice turned into a terrified scream as the walkway, severed from its supports, gave way and for the second time I felt myself plunge into the darkness below.

---

"You ever heard of Mount Ebott?"

Jack had indeed heard about it. He'd heard all manner of stories about it ever since he was a kid, but had never really paid them much mind.

However it clearly meant a lot more to Harold. He could tell, from his tone of voice to the expression on his face, his companion had a much more personal attachment to the mountain and its many stories.

"No, reckon I haven't." He responded. While untruthful, he felt it was necessary as he was genuinely curious and wanted to hear what this old man had to say.

"Hm. Can't really blame you. It's a big mountain, probably the biggest in the entire region, stretching from West Elizabeth to Ambarino. Folks say it's haunted or cursed or whatever, but the fact of the matter is that the mountain has a history. People who climb it vanish without a trace."

Jack stayed silent, giving his full undivided attention to the old man. The things he was saying had definitely piqued his curiosity.

"Mount Ebott has had a bad reputation for a very long time. The Indians who used to live around the Grizzlies saw it as cursed, forbidden. Their legends said evil spirits dwelled within the mountain and those who ventured near it would suffer a terrible fate. When settlers began moving into the Grizzlies this legend was passed on to them. With the town I grew up in being close to it, naturally I grew up hearing many stories about the mountain."

Jack thought about it for a minute. Most of the things he'd heard about Mount Ebott tended to be… outlandish. Crazy tall tales that would only fool a child.

What Harold was saying however, sounded significantly more believable. Combined with the serious manner he had while recounting these stories, Jack couldn't help but start thinking that maybe there really was something more to this old legend.

"I don't know when the first disappearance happened. It was long before my time, by the time I was growing up these disappearances were well-known. I know for a fact it wasn't from exposure or wild animals or anything natural."

"And why's that?"

"We had people who would go out into the wild and have that sort of stuff befall them. When it did you would usually have search parties from town go out and they would either find a body or at least evidence they'd been there and had run afoul of the kind of stuff that gave The Grizzlies its name."

He paused, taking another sip of the bourbon.

"But the people who went missing on Mount Ebott… It was like they vanished off the face of the earth. Some of the search parties would even look around the mountain and each time they would find nothing."

"Interesting. You seem pretty invested in this old legend." Jack replied, fascinated by how much his companion knew about this particular mountain.

"Yeah, well. There's a reason for it." A pained look spread across Harold's face before he took a long swig of the bourbon.

"I knew one of those people."

---

A/N: Hey It's me. I'm still alive.

Sorry for taking two years to post this chapter. Lack of free time and lack of motivation are a hell of a duo.

It's here now and I'm gonna try and release the rest of the chapters in a timely manner from now on.

If you've been keeping up with this story, thank you. If you're new, welcome.

I really hope you enjoy this chapter.

Until next time, take care.