#commontale

Steps echoed on the wet roch nearby and she hurried putting back her cap, hiding her unruly hair. One day she'll have enough control on its shape, making it as bloby as any water elemental -which she wasn't- but for now.

Cap.

Mynn whistled gently to a random familiar tune, hoping to conceal how focused she was on the stranger path, hoping they wouldn't wonder much about her presence.

They didn't left as she hoped.

Instead, soft humming joined her whistling, perfectly in tune. The voice sounded young and it scratched an invisible itch despite her not recognizing it.

The steps stopped behind her and the humming stopped.

"Hey!"

She glanced back to the monster. A skeleton kid was smiling gently at her -how did she know he was a kid he wasn't wearing any stripes? There was no doubt in her mind however.

The other's smile diminished into nothing at her expression and something desesperatly wanted to get it back.

The skeleton sat beside her without a noise and looked at the river. Mynn wrapped tightly the outside layer of her fire with a colder touch. Saying she grew up near a hot spring in hotland had its limits after all.

"You don't have to do that with me, I'm not gonna tell on you."

What should have made her even more wary only produced instead a deep relief in her system. This small slip allowed her temperature to plummet and she groaned when her flames lost their cool tones for her regular warmer palette.

It was anyway to late to hide it again and pass it for a light trick so she rolled her shoulders to evacuate any tension left. She had an exhausting shift this morning and it felt nice to unwind.

Her cap left her head and her hair pooled around her neck, tips picking up towards the ceiling as they burn gently.

"Hey, that's mine."

She snatched back her hat from the stranger's hands who only chuckled as he gave it back. Mynn idly dusted it off before setting it on her knees, pondering about putting it back in her apron's pocket. She shrugged. In it, it went.

Then she turned fully to the other, who had stop sightseeing to stare at her face with his mismatched eyes. The yellow pupil seemed to be searching, inquisitive, while the red cross stayed still.

She looked away.

That whole thing was very weird.

Did this guy do something to her? Why was she feeling okay with sitting there with what was a very weird stranger?

"Who are you?"

She was still avoiding the other's gaze so she couldn't know how he reacted. But the silence stretched for a minute before he answered.

"A friend. I hope."

A friend?

"I don't know you thought..."

"You used to."

Something in the way he spoke made her turn back.

The other's hands were clasped against the stone and tears made his eyelights shine.

Oh. He was younger than her. A surge of protectiveness pushed her to take hold of one of his hands, running her fingers on the smooth surface in a way she hoped was comforting.

A little sob racked through the other's shape and she decided that it didn't matter if he was crazy or taking her for someone else. She could play the game for a moment.

Because whoever that boy was missing he was missing them dearly.

They stayed like that for a while, until the boy calm down somewhat.

"Hey Mynn, I hope you're not gonna be late at work because of me?"

She startled. The sad boy knew her name and that she had work this evening?

"No, no, that's fine, I don't have anything until later," she lied.

She couldn't leave him all miserable yet. Grillby was understanding.

The boy smiled at her in a weird way but didn't add to it.

"How are we friends?" she cautiously asked.

"We met here ages ago. Lint's fault as usual. She should come picking me up in a bit by the way. If she didn't forget..."

And like that the boy told her all sorts of wild tales which often involved her and a few familar names she swore she never heard before.

It was fascinating, the life the boy had invented her. More friends than one would know how to do of. Visiting strange places and seeing beautiful but dangerous stuff. He even suggested the barrier had been close to falling here and that she had a place in all this. That she was important in a way.

It was truly mesmerizing.

She knew it wasn't her story. But she couldn't help but be envious. Tonight, she will go back to her tony house, exhausted and alone.

That "old life" sounded brighter.

She surprised herself at entertaining the thoughts that all of this was true. That the fantasy was more than a dream by an imaginative kid.

She summoned a few fireballs to fidget and juggle with as she pondered.

The boy grew quiet again and he started fidgeting as well, with the long goopy thingies that ran out of the bottom of his outfit. What even were those ?

"I want my old life back. It was a good life, I think..." she muttered.

She shut her mouth with a click. Why did she say that ???

It was a thing getting lost in daydreams, it was another believing impossible things.

Her life was here, lonely or not, and it was the only life she ever had.

The boy didn't react to her slip and finally stood up when a crash resonated in the caverns.

"That must be my lift."

He bid her goodbye and started walking away before stopping a few meters away.

"You'll get it once everything is done. See you soon!"

And the boy ran away into the darkness of a tunnel, never looking back, never looking at her.

She had a feeling she wouldn't see him again. Not like this, at least.

Mynn pushed herself up, dusting her dress off and putting back her cap on her head. Blue bled in her fire as she slowly walk towards Snowdin.