#underheart

“Come on, come on, come on!” MK bounces, chocolate eyes alight with overflowing excitement. “We don’t want to miss it!” He cries, swishing his tail around behind us like a very mad broom.

“I’m hurrying,” I say with a little huff, hoisting the sunshine yellow umbrella a little higher into the air so the rain will stop hitting MK on the top of his spikes. “And what are we trying to see anyway?”

MK’s eyes sparkle and his face twists into a huge smile that shows off all his little sharp teeth, “Why, I’m going to show you the most amazing monster in the whole Underground!”

I raise an eyebrow at that statement, because I highly doubt anyone could be cooler then Sans, or tougher then Undyne, or kinder then Toriel, or as good a cook as Papyrus, but I still nod at MK’s statement. Obviously whoever this monster was they meant a lot to him, so I will wait to make my own judgments.

Before to long we finally make it out of the Waterfall part of Waterfall, MK runs ahead as I try to get the umbrella back in it’s holder, abandoning me to the cold wet caves all by myself. I hurry after him as fast as I can, and I do finally catch up, but only because MK’s staring into space dreamily in the middle of the cave.

He snaps out of it pretty quick and then proceeds to gush on and on about some monster I haven’t even meet, and about how cool he is and how dangerous and amazing his job as the The Captain of the Royal Gaurd is, and if only I had run a little faster I could have seen him. I nod along, but overall just try to get him back on track, which is us getting out of this cold wet cave.

“I cannot believe how unlucky you are!” MK says with a bounce as we start heading across a bridge made of rock that hangs over a cliff I can’t see the bottom of. “If you had just-,”

“MK,” I breathe heavily with a sigh, “I get it, I’m sorry I missed it, can we adventure now?”

MK smiles sheepishly and nods in agreement, spinning around quickly so I won’t see his reddening scales. “Let’s just-,” he slips on wet rocks as he tries to hurry across the bridge. “Annabell!” He yells as he slides over the edge, his sharp shark like teeth the only thing keeping him from falling into the pit below.

“Hold on I’m-,”

“And wha’ are you two youngens up to?” An amused and powerful voice asks from the the side of the cave we just left.

“My friend is in trouble!” I explain quickly, not sparing the new monster a glance as I tug on MK’s sweater, trying and failing to pull him up. “Can you help me-,”

“Now why in the name of the Stars would I ever help you?” The voice asks, with the same lighthearted tone. “I bet it’s your fault he’s down there in the first place,” he goes on, “right human?” And this time the voice is directly behind me. I freeze up, scared out of my mind, but I keep my grip on MK and pull again. I won’t let him die just because I’m a weak human.

“Annabell’s my friend!” MK protests, unlatching from the ledge to yell. He slides another five inches down the side of the bridge before he grabs another outcropping of rock with his teeth.

“Please you have to-,” I’m pushed roughly out of the way, and almost go tumbling over the edge of the bridge myself. In my place stands a turtle, a turtle with light yellow skin and a grey shell, covered with pictures of war, in the very middle is the same Delta Rune as my cloak. He walks on two legs despite being a giant turtle and has a large hammer strapped to his belt.

“Here we go youngen,” he says, easily hoisting MK over the edge by the back of his yellow sweater and dropping him on his butt, safe and sound on top of the bridge. “No more careless ‘ventures for you, k?” He orders pointing a rather dismissive finger at the armless monster. “Now run ‘long. I have business with this here human, and it isn’t pleasant for youn’ eyes to be witnessin’.”

MK jumps to his feet quicker then the turtle monster can turn around, “She’s my friend!” He yells, hoping over to where I am and definitely standing in front of me, with a glare in his eyes. “You have to understand Gerson!” He cries as the turtle monster with a mustache, Gerson, sighs deeply. “She tried to save me! No evil human would do that!”

Gerson ponders that for a second and it’s all the time MK needs, he bends down and grabs my cloak in his teeth pulling me up and then dragging me off the bridge. “Hey! Get back here ye two!” Gerson yells after us as we race through the maze of slippery caves and glowing mushrooms.

“We just have to make it to Hotland!” MK yells over Gerson’s constant stream of monster bad words, “he doesn’t like the heat and won’t follow us!”

“How much longer?” I ask as I notice that we’re starting to lose ground and my lungs are burning.

“Not far!” He pants rounding a corner with wide eyes, “THERE!”

In front of us stretches a faint neon sign, which reads “HOTLAND”. It seems we did make it. I won’t die here, I’ll keep my promise to Waylon, I’ll find him!

Suddenly everything stops, I trip over the air and land face first on the hard stone ground. MK slides to a stop in front of me, his eyes wide in horror, looking back I understand why, a Fight screen as appeared in front of me, along with my floating white soul.

Gerson huffs in his place 20 feet from me, his own fight screen floating before him, though his soul is nowhere to be seen. He squints funnily at my white soul and eyes the spot where my [ATTACK] button should be with a strange expression on his face.

“Finally caught ya human,” he huffs hand hovering over his [ATTACK] button, “Now we can finish tis the right way.”

I swallow thickly as MK yells from behind me for Gerson to stop. His own Fight Screen and white soul appearing before him as he slides into place next to me, a determined look in his chocolate eyes. I want to tell him to leave, to run away and leave me, because there is no way we can beat this monster, the leader of the Royal Guard. But I know MK won’t leave no matter what I say, so I take a deep breath and prepare myself to defend MK.

“Look,” Gerson sighs shaking his head in annoyance, but never removing his hand from its position above the [FIGHT] button. “I know you’re jus’ tryin’ to protect your friend. But listen here youngen that’s a human, and it’s going to kill you. So before it does I’m going to kill it.”

MK doesn’t say anything for a long moment, then he takes a deep breath and head buts the [ACT] button, pulling up another menu which leaves me breathless at its contents. Every single option is [DEFEND].

He head buts the screen again and moves in front of me, puffing out his shoulders and standing on the tips of his toes so he’s taller and more imposing. “I used to look up to you!” MK yells across the field, “You’re the strongest monster in the whole Underground and they say you’re the reason the King came back alive from the final battle!” He yells, as Gerson flinches at the memory. “But you’re just a bully! Annabell is my friend and you’re not going to hurt her! Human or not she saved me!!”

Gerson stares at us, wide eyed and mouth agape, confusion etched into his very soul. But pain also clouds his startled eyes, pain and fear. The Fight screens vanish along with our souls.

“Thank you for not-,” I start to say, only to blink in confusion when I stare at an empty cave, Gerson is gone.

………………………..

<First Chapter>

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