#underforest

Me and Izzy continued through the falls area, the uneasy presence permeating the area. Izzy's ears drooped, I picked up a stick and readied it the way one would a sword. Suddenly, a spear appeared in front of Izzy, causing her to screech. A few more spears appeared around us and began firing themselves at us, and we began to run. At that point, we knew it wasn't just a defense mechanism. Someone was trying to kill us. I saw a shadow in the distance, someone that looked… human? They were tall, and had a ponytail, and they were holding a spear. Just as soon as I saw them, they disappeared.

We continued running, until we found some tall grass, which we hid in. The figure from before, who turned out to be a fish monster, came up to the grass, reached down, and grabbed something. She pulled it up slowly, only to reveal a small dinosaur monster. He had a goofy smile on his face. Izzy giggled. The tall knight-fish monster put him back down, whispered something, and walked off. We came out, and so did he. “Yo! You guys are those guys that saved Cory!” “Yup!” said Izzy. “Undyne told me that there was some monster roaming around. Undyne said to ask everyone a question about them! So I can find out who's the bad guy!” He smiled bravely. “So! What’s Izzy’s greatest fear?” Izzy turned red and said, “Small spaces.”

"Now, you, other person I don’t know! Uhhmm…” Izzy looked at me and said, “What did Papyrus and Sans give us when we left Sundin?” I replied, “Papyrus gave us a sword, my scarf, and Sans gave us these little bottles and a book.” We had the items in my knapsack. The monster child perked up, excited by the fact that I had gotten a sword from Papyrus. "YO! You got a sword?" 

“Y-yeah?” 

“YOOO! That’s so COOL!” I noticed that he has a backpack with a huge leaf on top. Probably an umbrella. “My name is Jacob Kidd, but you can call me Kidd. Nice to meet you!” He said, putting his tail in front of him, as if asking for a handshake. I shook his tail, and he flicked it forwards, as if he wanted me to follow. "Follow me!" He said cheerfully, "Let's go find Undyne!" Izzy put her hand on the child's shoulder, causing him to stop. "Let's… not. She tried to kill us a second ago." Jake looked confused, tail wagging excitedly, still. "She did?" 

“Yeah.” I said. He thought for a moment. “Wait…you might have seen…a swamp monster! Oh… we gotta go!” He ran off in the direction of Undyne. We followed him, hoping he wasn’t in danger. He was talking to Undyne. She saw us. We prepared to run, but she stopped us.

“Children. It’s not safe. Deadly monsters are roaming around. We must go to the villag-AARRGH!” A snake monster wrapped her up with its tail, and prepared to eat her. “UNDYNE! I’LL SAVE YOU!” Kidd rammed his head into the monster’s tail. The monster flicked him aside, and me and Izzy ran and caught him. Just before the monster could eat her, it glowed an odd color of green. The monster tried to move, but couldn’t. Undyne’s spears stabbed into the creature, ending it. 

Undyne stood up straighter, tilted her head to look at Kidd, and then walked off. Kidd stared in absolute disbelief as Izzy came up behind him. "So… that's her?" Izzy asked. Kid snapped out of it, and looked up to her happily. "Yep! She's the coolest person around. I guess she thought we ran or something!" He ran up the path, yelling, "Come on! Let's go find her!" We followed close behind him for a while, enjoying the scenery of the falls. The falls were truly beautiful. There are no words on God's green earth to describe such beauty.

Eventually, the trees grew thicker, making the path more narrow, Izzy's ears perked up, and Kidd's tail started to wag again. "Ooh! We're almost there!" He ran ahead, and as we ran to catch up to him, I saw a glimpse of something, it almost looked like the child from the first dream I had, gray and limitless. It was only for a second, but that didn't matter, because when we stopped, we were staring at the Falls Village. 

“SAAAAAAAAAAANNNNSSS!!!”

“IZZY!”

“CORY!!”

“RANDOM KID WHO WENT WITH THEM?!”

Everyone was waiting for us when we stepped out of the forest, especially Papyrus, who came up and hugged Sans as hard as he could. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, YOU BONEHEAD!?!" Sans wriggled out of his grasp, and began to explain our predicament. Some of the other monsters came up and congratulated me, and thanked me for getting rid of the rain. I just nodded, I didn't know what to say. Izzy came up to me, amidst the chaos, and gave me a quick thank you before disappearing into the crowd.

Later that night, I was in Sans’ house, in my room, when I heard a knock at the door. It was Izzy."So… I need to talk with you."

"So I've been thinking… you're a really cool person, and… I really want to help you, Frisk. I wanna help you escape this forest, and even help us escape. Do you mind if I travel with you?" Well, it's an idea. I thought. I already knew I was gonna say yes, however. "Absolutely!" I responded. She jumped for joy, shaking the house to its core. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you!" She stopped jumping and shook my hand. "I won't let you down, Frisk!" Sans came into the room, rubbing his eye sockets. "well. i see that went well." He mumbled lazily. He perked up a bit and smiled. "well, you two have a long day ahead of you. why don't you get some sleep?" I hopped right into my bed and fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

That night, I had no dreams. I guess the bad dreams stopped when I sent the spirit to the afterlife… or maybe I was wrong. Anyways, I woke up the next morning and headed outside only to see Izzy waiting there for me. "Ready to go, Frisk?" She said. I nodded and we headed down the path leading out of the town. We walked for a bit, and when we left the town, it got… really foggy. "What is the deal with this fog…?" Izzy asked.

"IT'S ME. PAPYRUS." The fog cleared to reveal Papyrus, wearing his battle armor, a scarf, and a sword made of thorns. "HUMAN. I WORRY ABOUT YOU. I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'RE CAPABLE OF SURVIVING OUT THERE. SO THEREFORE… I CHALLENGE YOU TO A BATTLE! YOU CAN ONLY LEAVE WHEN YOU MANAGE TO DEFEAT ME!" Izzy groaned and slapped her forehead. "Paps! We don't have time for this!" He shook his head. "NO! FIGHT ME!" A strange blackness surrounded the area as Papyrus launched an attack with thorns and rocks at us.

Izzy dodged and threw a fireball at him, while I dodged his attack. He dodged her fireball while saying "GOOD, GOOD." He threw a large blue thorn at Izzy, and she stopped moving. The thorn passed right through her as she set the ground around her on fire. "Alright! Let's kick it up a notch, Frisk!" She slammed her foot to the ground, picked me up, and threw me at Papyrus. He screeched as I nailed him directly in the groin. "ARGH, CURSES!" He threw a thorn attack at Izzy, which she dodged and threw a few more fireballs at him.

After a few more minutes of fighting, Papyrus used his telekinesis to throw me back at Izzy. "NOW… CAN YOU SURVIVE MY SPECIAL ATTACK?" He sent an array of thorns, as well as some bones and leaves at us, before sending a large row of thorns our way. I got on top of Izzy and she flew me over the thorns. "NYEH… MEGA THORN ATTACK!!!" All of a sudden, a large thorn, as big as a tree was sent hurtling towards us, which Izzy promptly flew over. After that, Papyrus looked too drained to fight. "HAH… HAH… IT SEEMS… WE BOTH WIN! HAH…" He collapsed to the ground, exhausted. "Welp. He's not going anywhere. Let's go, Frisk!"

Me and Izzy hiked through the forest for a bit, enjoying the beauty of the forest. A few wolves came onto the path, but they decided not to mess with us. Eventually, we made camp on the side of the path, as it was getting late. As I lay on a bed of moss that night, I wondered, why did the monsters want to leave? It was so beautiful here. I went to sleep, and had no dreams, unlike the other times.

After a few days of hiking, we came upon a waterfall, one taller than the trees themselves. Izzy perked up, her little dragon ears sticking straight up in the air. "That's a good sign! That means we've almost made it to the Falls Settlement!" She said excitedly. Finally! I can't wait to see it! I thought. We kept walking, until I began to feel an uneasy presence. It wasn't the same as the ghosts. This was different. Izzy felt it too. Someone was with us.

The forest was dark, but Sans had lights… in his eyes? "How do you do that with your eyes?" I asked him. He shrugged. "skeleton magic." We continued walking until we found someone, seemingly hanging from the vines. It was Cory. He was alive… but barely conscious. Sans teleported him back to the house before we continued, and as we were about to, we heard running footsteps behind us. "Wait! Let me help you!" Izzy was running towards us. Sans stopped her dead in her tracks. Sans eyes stopped glowing, before two green eyes pierced the darkness. "what is izzy's last name?" He asked. Izzy was silent before answering with "Drake." Sans' eyes lit the forest up, and the thorns around his feet disappeared. “alright. follow behind us. everyone, keep an eye on each other. if someone disappears, say something.” We continued for a while, none of us disappeared, and Izzy’s fire breath made it easier to see, and eventually, we came upon something… very odd. “Sans?”

“yeah?”

“Come here real quick”

He ran over, with Izzy in tow, and he looked down at the thing I had found. It was a music box, but it was old and rusty. I doubt it worked. “huh. i don't think… i don't think ive ever seen a music box like this.” Izzy piped up behind us. “I think we’ve come far enough. Let’s see if we can see any ghosts.” Sans’ eyes glowed a deep purple, and his eyes looked around, as if he was searching for something. “i found something.” He said, after searching around for a few seconds.

“this music box has a spirit residing within it.” His eyes turned back to it’s normal eyelights, and he picked up the music box and played it. The tune it played sounded so sad, as if the melody itself was damaged by the years it had spent there. After the melody played, Sans’ eye lights flickered. He crumpled to the ground, screaming in pain.

“SANS!!” Izzy screamed. She ran towards him, only to be stopped by an invisible force. A satanic whisper echoed through the area, but it sounded nothing like Sans. “Who.” The voice whispered. Izzy spoke up, still absolutely terrified. “Who are you??!” We heard Sans’s voice again. “they’re the ghost in the music box.” The whispering voice spoke again. “Yes.” Sans chuckled. It was a low chuckle, but I could hear it. “told ya.” We must stop this ghost. This is getting out of hand. “What do you want from us?” I asked the ghost. “DEATH.” My mind went back to Sans’ story. The human. An image of a girl in a green jumper flashed in my mind. The ghost wants vengeance on all humans. Sans began floating into the treetops, as if the ghost was taking him. I grabbed his foot, and tried to pull him back down, but the force was stronger. It almost pulled me into the trees with it, but Izzy kept us down. After a few more seconds of pulling, Sans fell on top of me, and I fell onto Izzy. I groaned and sat up. “Is everyone ok?” Sans rolled off the top of the pile, before opening his eyes and saying, “well, I’m not dead, but hoooly crap that was terrifying.” Izzy sat up. “What was it like?”

“hell.”

“Oh.” Sans shook his head, and stood up. “we don’t have time for that. get up and let's go” He grabbed Izzy, pulled her up, and he ran further into the forest with us following. Eventually, we heard a laugh coming from nearby. The ghostly silhouette of a fire elemental flickered in front of us, and Izzy screamed. “AAAAAAWHAT THE HELL” The figure dived at Sans, attempting to grab him. I pulled him to the side before the ghost could touch him. The ghost shrieked and tried to grab me next. Sans blocked it off with a large wall of thorns, causing it to disappear. “Oh my god… that was terrifying! Where is it now?!” Izzy shrieked. The ghost appeared right behind her and tried to grab her. She shrieked and spat a large fireball at it, which only made it madder. It tried to launch a fireball at Izzy, but Sans jumped in front of Izzy and took the blow for her.

This has to stop, I thought, as Sans took blow after blow. STOP HER. I did the only thing I could. I jumped in between the ghost and Sans. The ghost hissed and whispered, “Get away.” I got closer. “GET AWAY”

I walked into the town. It was sunny, and no rain appeared. A slight breeze flew by, and I saw people walking around, saying hi to Sans. “Hi Sans! Huh! Found a lil monster?” said a bunny lady. “yup. found em walking around, all scared an stuff. well, you’re ok now, eh, kid?” I nodded. I pointed to the shop near the inn. Sans walked me over there. It was warm inside, and another nice bunny lady looked at me. She was sewing some clothes that another small bunny nearby was fidgeting about. “Mom! I want the clothes to show my friends!”

“Im hurrying dear.”

“Oh! Hello Sans, how can I help?”

“hey, ms bun. how are ya?”

“Oh, I'm alright, sans. Did you find any beetroot?” Sans nodded, smile growing wider. “yup, a whole garden's worth and more, all hidden behind a pile of rocks.” He handed some beetroot to Ms Bun. Ms Bun gave him some money, then looked at me. “Oh! Hello!” she greeted me brightly “Sans, was this child lost in the woods?” Sans nodded “yup.”

“Don’t worry child, we’ll keep you safe! Just don’t go in the forest, alright?” I nodded. “Now, Sans, wanna buy something?” Sans shook his head, then pointed to me “the kid does. they got a lotta money.” I bought some food, and an umbrella. Just as I was going to buy all my new stuff, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. A small doll decorated with leaves and flowers sat on a high shelf. I pointed to it. “Hmm? Oh! That old doll.” She handed it to me. “This was an old, old doll. I heard that the king’s children owned it. Heh. You can have it. You remind me of one o’ them.” She handed it to me. It was made with care, but now some of the seams were falling out, and the stuffing inside was drooping sadly. I could feel an uneasy presence as I placed the doll in my knapsack.

I paid for my stuff, and left with Sans. “well, kid. it’s getting kinda late. head back to the inn, and we’ll talk tomorrow.” I went back to the inn, waved to the innkeeper, and went upstairs. I fell asleep quickly, and dreamed. I saw a child drawing. They had a purple and yellow shirt, and khaki shorts. They turned toward me, and they had my face! They walked towards me, and right before they touched me, I woke up. It was still late. I heard mutterings from outside. Giggles. I peeked the window open a tad. I saw 2 small shapes, sneaking towards the forest. I knew something bad was going to happen, I knew! I quietly changed into some clothes, put on my scarf, and grabbed my backpack.

After some hesitation, I grabbed the doll. It looked like a little goat-person. A lot like Toriel, but with a purple and yellow shirt, and little khaki shorts. Odd…. I rushed outside, tip-toeing after the 2 shapes. The trees seemed to glare at me. The shapes stopped. “W-whos there?!” someone whispered loudly. “Cory, shut up!” the shorter shape said.

“S-sorry Izzy.” I walked closer. “D-don’t come closer! We’ll…” He paused. “Izzy.” Another figure, the girl I heard earlier, spoke up. “Yeah?”

“Where's the long stick?”

“Uhm..I dropped it.”

“WHY?!”

“I thought it was a branch!” I walked next to them. “Uhm..hello.” I said “AAAAA!” the girl, Izzy, screamed “SHH! Keep it down, and I won’t tell.” I told them. They took off their cloaks. The little bunny from the shop, and a dragon. “Ok, what the heck is going on,” I said. “Sorry,” said the bunny. “Um..I’m Cory,”

“I’m Izzy.” said the dragon. “I’m Frisk.” I said. “Nice to meet you, Frisk.” said Cory. “Errr… We haven’t seen you around here.” said Izzy. “Did you come from the forest?” “Yes,” I said. “I…came from the side near the ruins.” Izzy looked relieved “Phew. I thought you were one of those spooky monsters.” she said. “What monsters?” I asked. “Monsters that wrap you up and steal your lifeforce! Then, they disguise themselves as you.”

“Spooky!” I shivered. “BUT…Theres always something different about them. A different tail, a freckle, a cut where there was none. Heh heh…” said Izzy. “Heh…where's Cory?” We looked around. “Hi guys!” Cory appeared. “Oh, hey Cory! Geez, you scared us.” said Izzy. “Haha! Don’t worry. Come on guys, I saw something cool! A really cool bug.” Cory started to run ahead, then stopped. “Guys?” Izzy had stopped. “Cory doesn’t like bugs.” Her eyes lit up, she opened her mouth and fire blasted at Cory. Cory dodged, faster than lightning. ‘Cory’ dashed at us, eyes red and arms out. This was the monster Izzy had been talking about. Blue, jagged rocks shot at us. Izzy stood still. I went to protect her.

“Don’t!” The rock passed through her. Then she went back to blasting fire. “Blue means stand still! Orange means move!” She moved around, spraying fire at the monster. A bunch of blue rocks circled her, and she was hit. “No!” I ran towards her, but was hit with one of the sharp rocks. The monster, now in its true form, a tree-like golem, stood over us, arms ready to pound us into dust. I cowered. Suddenly, it glowed blue, and it was slammed into the ground. “hey kid. tell me about this later. for now, get the other kid and RUN.” I hesitated. “NOW, CHILD.” he yelled at a volume that was so much louder than his normal, quiet tone.

Me and Izzy ran back to the hotel and waited. About an hour later, Sans came in, carrying a small pouch. “you two care to explain why you were in the forest at such a late hour, followed by an explanation of why cory is lost now?” Izzy spoke up. “It was my fault, sir! I convinced her to help me calm the spirits of the forest! I'm so sorry!!”

Sans’ expression calmed down, and he gave the dragon a neutral expression. “i understand. if the spirits are this angry… they must feel it too. they must be aware that there is a human within our forest. frisk. come with me. now.” I followed him out the door, and into the forest. He made a small cage filled with bones, probably so no one could get inside. “do you know why the forest is haunted?” I shook my head. His eyes darkened, as he began to tell a story.

“Long ago, a human fell down here. Their name has been forgotten to the sands of time, but they were known to be a kind child. They helped the residents of this forest, they never harmed or raised their voice at another monster. They were kind. They were bent on helping us escape.

One day, a group of fire elementals attacked her. They tortured her. They almost killed her. Luckily, they were stopped. I stopped them before they could kill her. But… she was beyond my help. She believed that everyone was evil.

She snapped.

I desperately tried to swim but it was too cold. I was sinking deeper and deeper and hearing words like: “HUMAN!”, “PAY ATTENTION”, “check the ice” and “broken” My eyes began to close, but then I heard a crack and splashing. I suddenly got grabbed by something and heard another crack and then I was on the sturdy ice. A skeleton head popped out from the water. “APOLOGIES, HUMAN I THOUGHT THE WATER WAS WARM ENOUGH FOR HUMANS TO SWIM IN IT, I GUESS IT GOT MUCH COLDER FROM WHEN I LAST CHECKED UP ON IT!” Papyrus would then climb out of the water and would hold me, he would then complete the maze. “SANS CAN YOU LEND THIS HUMAN YOUR SWEATER?” Sans would look at me. “Sure bro.” He would then take off his sweater and give it to Papyrus and then Papyrus would put the sweater on me. “uh pap, i think the human needs to rest before you do the next puzzle.” Papyrus was holding me very tightly but I didn't really care. “GREAT IDEA SANS, LET’S GO TO THE INN, I HOPE THEY ARE DONE WITH THE EXPANSION!”

Papyrus was about to go run but then “wait pap i can bring them there much faster than you.” Papyrus was shocked. “WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY BROTHER!?” Papyrus then sighed “BUT I WILL LET YOU GO AND BRING THE HUMAN THERE IF YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN!” Sans laughed, “I know a shortcut.” Papyrus placed me down and I stood up, even though I was shaky and exhausted I walked next to Sans. “hold on kid.” I held on to Sans arm and then suddenly we were in front of a big wooden hut. “looks like they finally finished that expansion, come on kid.” We walked inside and saw a bunny. “Hello there-” The bunny seemed surprised to see me but then quickly regained her focus. “Welcome to the inn, how many nights will you be staying for?” Sans would quickly pull out some coins and some ketchup. “One night, it’s for the kid and here is a tip.”

Sans would place down the ketchup after he gave the coins. “Alright hun, your room is upstairs and look for a door that says room 4!” I would walk upstairs and I would see another flight of stairs which means there is another floor. But I just walked to the room with the wooden door which had the number 4 carved into it. I went into the room and closed the door. The room was so cozy, and so warm. There was a little bathroom, a comfy bed, and…well that was about it. I took of sans’s jacket, and washed my hands and face. I changed my clothes into a pair of pajamas near the door. There were many sizes, ranging from big enough to cover the bed to small enough to fit a mouse. I changed into a pair that fit me. I jumped into the bed, and fell asleep. The dreams came back, but they were different. Toriel hugging me, Sans and Papyrus smiling at me. They all smiled. I saw a froggit. It hopped towards me. It said, “Keep going! You are our..” Everything turned to black. And I woke up. I heard a knocking at the door. “room service.” I opened the door. Sans stood there, his jacket back on. The jacket he let me borrow was hanging near the door. He probably has another. “geez, kid. you slept tibia-ble.” I giggled. He smiled wider. “well, i'm here ta pick up my jacket.”

He grabbed the jacket, and started to walk away. Then, he turned. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. paps is waiting for ya downstairs. get ready.” He walked away. I went back into my room, brushed my teeth with one of the many toothbrushes, washed my face, and went downstairs. Papyrus and sans were waiting downstairs, “my brother has-” Papyrus would look at sans. “BROTHER DON’T TELL A JOKE THAT WILL GIVE THEM A CLUE ON WHAT THE PUZZLE IS AND SPOIL IT , AND I DON’T LIKE SPOILERS!” “HUMAN! I HAVE A GIFT FOR YOU!” He hands a present to me, neatly wrapped with wrapping paper with little bones on it. I opened it up. Inside is a cape/scarf, like papyrus’s. Except it’s green and blue. “THAT, HUMAN, IS A SCARF! SO YOU DO NOT GET COLD AGAIN! IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS!” I will try it on. It fits quite well. “NOW, SANS, WE NEED TO GET TO THE PUZZLE AGAIN!” “ok bro. hold on bro. and you too, kid.” We grabbed his hand, and went out the door.

We were back at the puzzle. “HUMAN, I HAVE FIXED THE PUZZLE! NOW, PROCEED!” I started to walk forward, but then hesitated. “FEAR NOT HUMAN! I SHALL SHOW YOU THAT IT IS PERFECTLY SAFE! WATCH!” He walked forward, swerving a couple of times but otherwise being fine. I walked forward, following his steps. “HUH? THE HUMAN…WON?!” “THIS WAS ONLY A VICTORY! FOR..BOTH OF US! NYEHEHEH!” Papyrus walked off. I touched some of the other ice. It quickly started to crack, and shattered. I shivered, and walked to the next puzzles. “NOW HUMAN, OUR NEXT PUZZLE IS…” He would point at something which looked like an obstacle course. “THE ULTIMATE PUZZLE OF INFINITE DOOM AND TERROR!!!” Sans was trying so hard not to laugh, snorting behind Papyrus. Papyrus kept explaining, while I ran through the obstacle course. I won't go through the details, but I got through it easily. By the time he was done, I was in a hammock on the other side, enjoying hot chocolate with Sans. “...AND THAT IS WHY DOGS ARE REAL. ANY QUESTIONS? HUMAN?” He looked over to the other side, and I could see the absolute shock and anger on his face. “SANS!!!! I TOLD YOU NOT TO RUIN THE SURPRISE!!!!!” I looked over at Sans. His smile widened before he burst out laughing, and we all started to laugh.

Except Papyrus, obviously.