Chapter Four
Suddenly the two ended up inside of Grillby's, as the child looked around in confusion while Sans was amused at their expression.
+ How the heck?!
– What magic is this?!
Sans greeted everyone as they greeted him back, which made the child notice how popular Sans was among the monsters. He offered her a stool as she sat next to him, and gave him a look of disapproval as she realized she sat on a whoopee cushion, while he brushed it off as if some unknown person did it. After ordering the food while the child's food was flooded by ketchup, Sans offered his food to her as she began to eat some fries, while Sans went quiet for a moment.
"… oh yeah, I wanted to ask you something. have you ever head of a talking flower?" Sans asked, as the child almost spit out her fries but was able to keep them down.
+ Oh snap! Yes! I HAVE heard of a talking jerk yellow jerk flower!
– Oh man, what does he know?!
"Yes, I have," the child replied with a slight seriousness in her tone.
"so you know all about it. the echo flower. they're all over the marsh. say something to them, and they'll repeat it over and over..." Sans said, as the child's shoulders slumped when she realized he wasn't talking about Flowey but the obvious Echo flower that she passed by.
+ Ahhhhh! The darn Echo flowers! I forgot about them…
The look on the child's face as she ate made Sans continue speaking, "what about it? well, papyrus told me something interesting the other day. sometimes, when no one else is around… a flower appears and whispers things to him… flattery… advice… encouragement… predictions. weird, huh?"
+ Oh my gosh that's not an Echo flower!
– He's talking to Papyrus!
+ He must be lying to him or something!
– What is that flower planning?!
"… Very weird," the child responded.
"someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on him. keep an eye out, ok?" Sans asked, as the child could detect a hint of worry in his tone.
"Sure thing, Sans. You're bro is cool, so I wouldn't want someone to be playing a trick on him like that," the child said.
"thanks. welp, that was a long break. i can't believe i let ya pull me away from work for so long," Sans said as he stood up from his stool and the child did too.
"oh, by the way… i'm flat broke. can you foot the bill? it's just 10000g," Sans said, and the child's eyes widened.
+ WHAAAAAT?! THAT MUCH?!
"just kidding. grillby, put it on my tab," Sans said, as the fire monster nodded towards him, and the child breathed a sigh of relief.
"by the way… i was going to say something, but i forgot," Sans said as he turned to leave.
"Kid? Hey, what's up?" a familiar voice said, as the child turned to see Curtain approaching her from where the jukebox was around the corner of the bar area.
"Curtain! I didn't notice you were here!" the child said as the two exchanged smiles, and Sans happened to stop in his tracks when he heard the child speaking to someone with a name he hadn't heard before.
"Yeah, I was checking out the music they got here and stuff. Ooh, is that fries?" Curtain asked as she noticed a plate of fries and a plate of fries drowned in ketchup.
"Oh yeah. The ketchup bottle gave me trouble with the first one, but Sans gave me his food instead," the child said, as Sans turned to look at the two.
"Ah, you mean the skeleton guy. That was cool of him. You two were hanging out here?" Curtain asked as she turned towards the child from looking at the food.
"Yeah, but he-oh! He's right there," the child said, turning and noticing that Sans hadn't left, as he walked a few steps closer to approach them.
Curtain turned towards him as she examined him, and he examined her as two friends of the same person who never met would. The child went between them and introduced the two since the moment of silence seemed a little awkward to her.
"Curtain, this is Sans the skeleton who is Papyrus' brother I told you about. And Sans, this is Curtain who is my friend I met in the forest," the child said.
"Ahhh, so you're Sans. Hello! It's nice to finally meet you," Curtain said with a smile.
"heh. nice to meet ya too. curtain, right? i didn't know the kid had a friend already," Sans said with a slight widening of his smile, as he extended his hand towards her.
Curtain took his hand, as the child thought he was going to use the whoopee cushion on the hand trick, but he didn't.
"Well I was wondering why she was down here in the first place, so I followed her scent to find her," Curtain said.
"huh. so how long you've been on her trail?" Sans asked.
"Since the Ruins," Curtain replied, as Sans eyed her carefully.
"… that's a pretty long trail. what made you want to find her in the first place?" Sans asked.
"I wanted to make sure she was okay, especially when I found out she was just a child, and a cool one at that. I just… hoped she wasn't hurt," Curtain replied as she looked towards the side.
"… i see. well, i can see why you two are friends. it's like birds of a feather almost. of course… i don't really know you that well, curtain. and being a sentry and all kind of makes it my business, ya know?" Sans said with his eyes closed.
"Oh? Ooooh. Right, you're technically a lookout for suspicious people or things… Uh, I'm not a threat if that's what you're wondering. I come in peace. I'm just looking for someone," Curtain said with her hands up.
"heh. don't worry. i'm not going to capture ya or anything. we can just talk. i'm on my break anyway," Sans said with a wink as he extended his arm towards the stools he and the child sat on earlier.
"Okay, sure. Well kid, I'll be right behind you in a moment. Just going to have a quick chat with Sans," Curtain said as she patted the child's head and she nodded.
"Okay, I'll just take a quick nap at the inn," the child said, and then Curtain walked over to sit down.
As Sans passed by the child, she looked at him with a raised eyebrow since supposedly his break was supposed to end already, and he just smiled and winked towards her. The child sighed and then headed out to go to the inn, while Sans and Curtain sat on the bar stools. Curtain took the plate of flooded ketchup and started digging through with two of her fingers to find the fries and eat them.
"would you prefer a cleaner plate of fries?" Sans asked.
"Nah, this is fine. I like ketchup anyway," Curtain said as she continued eating, while Grillby set a bottle of ketchup next to Sans.
"heh. me too," Sans said as he took the bottle of ketchup and drank it straight from the bottle, while Curtain looked at him with a raised brow.
"I never saw anyone drink ketchup straight from the bottle like that," Curtain said.
"as i never saw someone eat swimming fries before," Sans said with a wink, as Curtain smiled.
"well, might as well get to the point… you're name is curtain, you seem to have come from the ruins, and you're friends with the kid… you also have a good sense of smell, but you don't seem as fluffy as the other guard dogs here," Sans said as he looked her over again and noticed how vivid her purple eyes were even with Grillby nearby.
"Hmm. True, my name is Curtain, but I wouldn't say that's where I came from but from the direction I came from, and yeah we became friends pretty fast. She's a funny and pretty cool kid so far. And yeah I may not be a dog, but I do have traces of wolf," Curtain said with a smirk, as she also looked over Sans and found the slight surprise and added glow in his pupils to be quite nice.
"wolf huh. i didn't know ice wolf had a cousin."
"Heeheehee. Well, I guess you could say that, but we're not blood cousins. I'm like… a bird and a wolf, known as an Aecan."
"well, that explains the strong sense of smell… but wow, bird and wolf huh? do you run to fly or chirp to the moonlight?" Sans asked with his grin slightly widened, while Curtain snickered.
"Nah nah. I'm not so mixed up like that. Though it would be pretty cool to run and fly, but I like howling. I'm not too good at chirping though," Curtain said as she rubbed the back of her head.
"oh? can i hear?" Sans asked with interest.
"W-Well, I'd prefer not to… there's a crowd, ya know?" Curtain said, as her eyes shifted towards the others in the bar.
"aww, that's too bad, but it's okay. you don't howl to if you don't want to," Sans said with a wink, as Curtain chuckled.
"I heard you're a pretty punny skeleton from the kid, and I see it's true," Curtain said with a smile.
"hehehehe. nice. looks like you're pretty punny too," Sans said as they exchanged smiles with one another.
"Sooo, is it okay if I go to meet the kid when she wakes up?" Curtain asked, finishing the last fry from the ketchup pool.
"hmmm… alright. you're off the hook, curtain. if ya need anything, just give me a ring," Sans said as he stood up from his stool.
"Cool, thanks…huh?" Curtain said as she pulled out her phone, but noticed that Sans' number was already on her phone.
"Hey, how-" Curtain stopped speaking when she looked up to see that Sans was gone.
Curtain turned to Grillby and asked, "Do you happen to know where he went?"
"… … …" Grillby stopped cleaning the cup he was holding and just shrugged.
"Ah, okay. Thanks anyway," Curtain said, and then she stood up and headed out of the bar.
Inn:
The child stepped out of the inn as she met Curtain, who just happened to make it there when she stepped out.
"Hey kid. Looks like I'm in the clear. Ready to go?" Curtain asked, and the child nodded.
"Papyrus told me where I should go if I wanted to try to exit the underground. But apparently it's where the king is, so I would have to face him just to get to the barrier…" the child said as they started walking together.
"Ahh, that's quite a dangerous feat to accomplish. The underground isn't that small from what I learned so far… but hopefully I'll learn how to fly so that you wouldn't have to face him," Curtain said, as the child nodded.
"So, do you happen to have wings or something like that?" the child asked.
"Weeell, my wings are made of magic, and I can sort of 'summon' them. The problem is that I can't go higher. Like, I can glide but not fly upward. I can't get any lift for some reason," Curtain explained.
"Hmmm, have you ever watched a bird fly? Or maybe a bat? I know birds are light in weight. Are you light enough?" the child asked as she rubbed her chin.
"Yes, I've watched different animals fly around, even bees. And yeah I'm pretty light in weight, I don't have many bones," Curtain replied.
"You don't? Oh yeah, monsters are made of magic," the child concluded, as Curtain just smiled at her.
"Yeah… humans have bones under their muscles and skin which is what gives them the most weight with the marrow and all that, while I don't have as much structure as they do, which makes me light in weight," Curtain explained as the child's mouth was agape in awe.
"That's pretty cool, you know a lot," the human said, and Curtain's smile widened at them.
The two continued walking as Curtain happened to stop by Sans and Papyrus' mailboxes for a moment, and then they continued walking passed the mist to where the child had previous entered before going with Sans to Grillby's. They entered Waterfall together, unaware of someone watching them from within the cave above the entrance, cloaked in the shadows. As they reached their head forward to look carefully at the two, their layered blood-red eyes widened a little as they grinned with their full set of sharp teeth.
"More fuel for the fire… and look at that, an old face and a new one… this'll be interesting," the dark creature thought to herself, as she began hopping along the shadows of the ceiling to keep out of sight.
Indeed, this will be interesting... Welp, seeing as Snowdin is done, I'll probably wait tomorrow for Waterfall unless I have extra time today.