#undyne-appreciation

Undyne was sure she knew every drop of water, every hidden cave, and every single monster who lived in Waterfall.  It was hers in a way that most things couldn't be, since her parents fell.  The place she lived wasn't her home, really, so she decided that meant that all of Waterfall was hers.  Anyone who tried to disrupt the peace in her tiny empire was a villain, and it was her job as a mighty hero-to-be to take them down.

She swam through a small underwater tunnel she had known about for ages.  The little fish monster who lived there gave Undyne a wave with its fin.  It was polite, but kept its distance.  She'd only challenged it to a fight the one time, but it hadn't forgotten.  Like it shouldn't!  It must know better now not to do...whatever it was it had done.  She couldn't remember, exactly, but it must have been really bad.

The blue light from the glowing mushrooms on the surface lit the end of the tunnel, giving her a bright point to swim towards.  She jumped right out of the water, landed on the stone floor with a loud splat, and shook the water out of her hair.  "Take that!" she shouted, at no one.  The cave was empty.  

That was dumb. She'd really been hoping there'd be someone to fight there.  Some bad guy.  

Undyne kicked one of the mushrooms and then felt a flash of guilt.  It hadn't done anything!  She was supposed to protect it!  She tried to shove it back where she found it, but it was in pieces all over the floor.  

Those mushrooms were important!  She'd heard from Gerson about how the monsters had no light when they first came to Waterfall, so they had to depend on the different kinds of glowing mushrooms to see.

Oh well.  It was just a stupid mushroom.  Another one would grow there.  But if she wanted to hit something, maybe she should stick to stuff like rocks. Non-monster rocks.  Unless those rocks were huge jerks, of course.

She kicked at the wall.  It held firm, which was kind of disappointing.  Probably for the best, though.  She knelt down and scratched a picture on the floor with her claws.  Maybe it was time to head out, since there were no enemies to fight in here.  She traced the outline of a cool sword in the dirt.

Through the cave wall, she thought she heard a sound.  Her earfin twitched, and she leaned in.  There wasn't anything over there, she thought.  It was supposed to be stone forever past this point.  

It was an odd, low noise.  She pressed her ear directly against the stone, but couldn't make out what it was.

She turned and faced the wall, so she could yell directly at it.  "HEY!  Is someone over there?  You're not supposed to be there!"  That might not be true, but she hadn't known about it, so there had to be something underhanded going on over there.

"NGAHHH!!!" She kicked the wall, hard.  Her toes hurt.  "Listen up!  Tell me what's going on, or come over here and FIGHT me!"  

The sound suddenly went quiet.  They'd heard her!  They were ignoring her.  She punched the wall, which hurt even more than kicking it.  She pulled the ribbon out of her hair and wrapped it around her knuckles.  She punched again.  "Knock KNOCK, losers!"  A small crack formed in the wall.  Maybe she could dig her way through!

She kept punching, until bits of stone started to fall.  Progress!

A head poked its way through the wall, a distance away.  A ghost?  Oh, dumb.  Maybe there wasn't anything over there.  Ghosts could just hang out inside a solid wall if they felt like it.

"Uh," they started.  They were visibly nervous.  "There's, um...a door on the other side.  If you need to get in, for some reason.  We aren't trying to keep you out, it's just...there's no door here.  It's just a wall."

"Well, if you'd left me alone, I would have made you a door right here!  You're welcome!" she said.  She rubbed her hand.  

"I'll show you how to get there, if you quit it."

"Deal!"  A whole new place she didn't know about?  

The ghost led her back through the tunnel and suddenly took a turn she had never noticed before.  This tunnel was dark and winding, and she felt completely disoriented by the time she was on the surface again.  

"Were you trying to get me lost?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What?  No? Then you couldn't leave.  When you're done with...whatever's so important."

She fumbled around until she found a mushroom to light up the space.  She saw the way into the mysterious ghost cavern, now.  The noise she heard on the other side was much clearer.  It was some kind of music.  Hollow and low.  They were playing a song she had never heard before.

She started marching towards the entrance, but the closer she got, the more she noticed how dark it was  in there.  A cold wind blew through and hit her on her wet scales.  She shivered.  "It's really spooky already." She gave the ghost a quick nod.  "Good job!!"  

"Thank you..." The ghost bobbed up and down, suddenly cheerful.  "Wait until you see the curtains."

"I bet they're all torn up and blowing in the wind!"

"They're like spider webs...they're so worn."

"Badass!" She clapped her hands over her mouth and looked around, like her teacher might erupt out of the water behind her to give her detention.

"Uh...thank you."  

She shook off her fear, and gave the ghost a grin.  "I can't wait to see the rest of it!"  

The ghost home exceeded her expectations.  The curtains billowed over windows painted on stone walls.  Cobwebs hung from an enormous chandelier hanging in the center of the first cave.  A spider trailed down and waved at Undyne and the ghost, before climbing back up to get back to work.

The music was still playing, and Undyne followed the sound through the rooms.  As she got closer, she couldn't figure out another way to describe the sound other than enormous.  It filled her ears and made her scales vibrate.  She could feel each note under her feet.  

She finally entered the last room and the noise stopped, abrupt.  A ghost sat in front of a huge piano with pipes coming out the top of it.  She stepped towards them, and the ghost made an alarmed noise and disappeared.  

"Hey!  That was cool!  Come back and keep playing."  She waited, but there was no response.  "Please?  Pretty please?"  It didn't work.

The first ghost had let her wander where she liked, so Undyne was alone.  She slowly approached the weird piano's bench, trying to figure out how they even got in in there.  Did they bring it through the tunnel?  There was no way it'd fit!  

She leaned down and poked at one of the keys.  She barely touched it, and sound blared at her.  Undyne took a deep breath and slammed her hands on the keys. She almost fell back from the noise.  She cackled, overjoyed, and plunked herself down on the bench and started playing.

Undyne had no idea what she was doing, but every loud blast of noise drew another round of high pitched laughter out of her.  

Normally when she did anything - yelled, screamed, kicked - to try and get her feelings out, it just felt like a tiny drop of it fell out and left the rest still boiling inside her.  But slamming her hands on the keys of the piano and having just so much more than she put in pour out - it was like anger and passion and hate and love and everything was right there and she could hear it!

She started to sing along with the notes.  Screamed along with them, really.  She screamed every expletive she knew, and made a few up.  

After a while, her ears hurt, her face was wet from crying, and her throat was completely raw.  She ran her hands down each row of keys one last time and then jumped to her feet.  She gave a bow to the empty room. The ghost she'd seen playing earlier appeared, briefly, and nodded before disappearing again.  

Everything drained out of Undyne, all at once.  She wiped at her face and headed out of the cave, noticing now her sore hands and toes and throat, and wishing that she was home so she could drink some cocoa and get warm again.

The first ghost led her back through the tunnels and out.  Undyne was never able to find their home again, and she never heard that music through the wall. She would sometimes sit and listen and wait, and sometimes she would kick at the stone and yell, but there was never any answer.