Twila of the Night

     Still keeping one arm securely wrapped around the sleeping infant, Navi used the other to draw Twila into a tight hug. She had no words–not now– all she had was herself, to show Twila that she was there, that she would support her, that she always would. Though, after a moment, she did grudgingly add: 

       “I’ll try if he does.” 

        Helm would take advantage of her kindness if she were to show it–of that, Navi was certain. it was unfortunate, but the two of them were simply from different sides of the same battle. It was unlikely that they would ever get along. Unless Twila were to intervene, that is. 

          The little bundle in Navi’s arms began to stir, and Navi let Twila go so that she could check on Raisa. “Oh–looks like she’s waking up! And she wants her mama!” 

Twila sighed and leaned into the hug with ease, taking comfort in both Navi’s embrace and the warmth of her child swaddled against both of their chests. She laughed a bit at her begrudging behavior, nuzzling her cheek in thanks. “I’ll talk to him.” 

It didn’t take hardly a second for Twila to have already scooped Raisa up into her arms and hold her close, crooning in soft latin as the infant woke. She almost seemed to forget Navi was even there for a second--so engrossed in the life of her child and babbling incessantly. Felinombra were known for their tunnel vision, and Twila was no exception.

Raisa herself woke up, and showed Navi her first glance at wide, yellow irises. She squirmed and sniffled, but before she could start to cry, Twila had already pulled her close and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Tace, amica mea. Hush, my love.” 

She seemed to calm down then, but still squirmed a bit. Twila just sat down on the floor, holding Raisa to her chest and humming. 

“You’re her aunt, Navi. Her matertera. It is important to me that you know her. Especially if anything were to happen to me or Helm--I want you to look after Raisa. I want you to be a safe place for her.”

Normally, such a request would be a formality, but with Twila’s history, and Helm’s terrible track record... the confession held more weight than usual. She would not ask such a favor lightly--and she didn’t. Twila wanted Navi to look after Raisa. She could think of no better candidate.

Gaster was a master of rounding up escaped test subjects. He had plenty of practice when it came to tracking people down in his lab, wrangling them back to their cells, and even putting up a fight when his test subjects just wouldn’t quit. 

He wasn’t about to attack this child. But he did know a thing or two about corralling children who didn’t do what he asked of them. 

With the washcloth in hand, Gaster steps closer to the child, kneeling beside her. As he does, floating skeletal hands appear. A few appear around her, trying to halt her progress, while one grabs onto the back of her shirt to keep her in place.

“Now, now. None of that.” With the hand holding the back of her shirt, Gaster is able to bring the washcloth to her face and wipe off a few smears of blood. “You keep this blood on you, it’ll get sticky and hard to clean off. You don’t want that, do you?”

Raisa growled low in her throat as her path was obstructed, tail lashing in irritation. It wasn’t directed at Gaster, but rather, the floating hands she didn’t quite realize he’d created. She nipped at the wash cloth as it rubbed her face, spitting it out at the gross fabric-taste. It gave him the opportunity to get more of it off, although it didn’t do much in the grand scheme of things; her neck and collar were still a muddy red. 

“Noooo...” Raisa answered, but she didn’t seem happy about it. Still, she allowed herself to still long enough to get her hands clean. This was better than being sticky, she decided, although the process was unpleasant. 

Still, Raisa wasn’t known for her attention span, and within seconds she’d found something else to occupy her curiosity. 

       Navi’s expression softened at Twila’s words. She would have put a hand on her sister’s shoulder–but even in wanting to comfort Twila, Navi knew better than to take a hand off of Raisa. 

       Instead, she simply sighed and looked at Twila gently. “I didn’t either. I’m afraid where this is concerned, I don’t know all that much, either. By Hylia, that’s a first for me.” She laughed a bit wryly, a small smile working its way across her face before she became more serious once again. 

            “I could…research it, if you’d like? I’m sure someone in castle town knows about child care, and, well, they wouldn’t be able to answer all your questions, but they’d be able to help you get a solid start…!” Perhaps Navi was overreacting, but that didn’t sound particularly comforting…but there wasn’t much else she knew how to do.

      “But…Twila. You’re going to be an amazing mother. You already are. These things you’re worried about… they’ll work themselves out. If nothing else, you’ve always had incredible instincts. You have Helm, and, well, if you want, you have me. We’ll all work through this together. I guess this means I’ll have to be nicer to the birdbrain from now on, huh?” 

          Twila laughed a bit as Navi admitted she had no idea what to do from this point on. It was reassuring in a way--the one person who seemed to know everything suddenly knowing nothing at all. Part of it was very reassuring, part of it was scary. But either way, Twila was just glad that she had someone to share the burden with. 

          “I would... prefer this to be a secret, honestly.” Twila muttered, a bit sheepish, but unwilling to give up her security for the chance at information. “I have spent too long in hiding to come out now...” 

          The rest of it? Twila had no idea what to say, except...

          “I do want you to be a part of it. Of course I’ll have you. I know I wasn’t... I know you didn’t get the chance to be here earlier, but that wasn’t because I didn’t want you. It was because I didn’t want to hurt you. I wanted you safe so I could have you now.”

          A pause. 

The lights in Gaster’s eyesockets flicker as he watches the child become fascinated by the sink. Had she never seen one before? He found that odd. Did Twila not own a sink? Based on Raisa’s reaction, that was an easy assumption to make. He found himself wondering what sort of home Raisa had with Twila. 

But thoughts about her home life could wait. Once the water was warm enough, Gaster gives a wave of his hand, and a washcloth appears in it, summoned from somewhere in the lab. He wets it with the warm water from the faucet, before turning his attention back to the child trying to escape. 

“Sorry,” he says, approaching the child with the washcloth. “But I doubt your mother would appreciate it if I returned her child covered in blood. You don’t have to take a bath, but we should at least make you look somewhat presentable.”

Raisa squinted and growled low in her throat, throwing her leg over the sink and aiming her foot down down down as low as it could go, hoping to reach the ground without falling. She couldn’t fly well just yet, only jump and glide, so she often forgot she could just use her wings to get down off of tall objects. Unfortunate for her, but useful to Gaster, who likely didn’t want her getting up in high places. 

“Noooooo,” She squirmed, kicking her legs but unable to reach the floor from the sink. “Noooo. No water. Don’t want. Non. Non. Non aqua.” 

Oddly enough, the more Raisa spoke about her mother, the more Gaster realized he had already met this child’s mother. Long ago, he’d met an odd monster named Twila. She fit the description of Raisa’s mother perfectly. Gaster suddenly understood why he hadn’t made the connection before. While Raisa and Twila were similar in some respects, for some reason, he’d imagined Raisa’s mother to have feathers, like this child did. Well, it didn’t matter. At least now he knew where this child came from. 

“I think I may have met your mater before,” Gaster comments, glancing down at the child. “Our meeting was brief, but from your description, I believe we’re thinking about the same person. She’s probably worried about you- but I don’t think she’d mind too much if you stayed a bit longer.”

One of the doors along the hallway opens as the pair draw close, and Gaster steps inside. The inside of this room seemed to be a work area. It had cabinets filled with samples, and tables along one wall with medical equipment. Another examination table was in the center of the room, but against another wall was a row of sinks. Gaster places Raisa on the edge of one of the sinks and turns on the water, running his boney fingers under the tap to test the temperature. 

“No worries, no worries.” Raisa sang, obviously unconcerned with her mother’s anxiety. She was having fun, and in her mind she was safe. Therefore, she was obviously doing the right thing. 

Her thoughts were immediately scattered by the sight of the sink, however, and her golden eyes widened in interest, ears pricking up. It was like magic. Water coming from nowhere! It didn’t make sense. 

Cautiously, she reached out to touch the faucet, attempting to find the source of the water. Upon getting her hand wet, however, she recoiled, scooting away from it. She didn’t much like being wet. She didn’t like being sticky either, but she wasn’t sure which was worse. 

It was an odd experience, picking up a child that wasn’t afraid of him. To human children, he was the stuff of nightmares. And even to monster children, his own species, he wasn’t quite right. They knew there was something deadly and wrong about him. But Raisa didn’t know there was something wrong with him. To her, Gaster was a friend, someone who had shown her a human and let her eat it. It was something that would have scarred most children for life. But Gaster knew by this point that Raisa was no normal child. 

Holding the child in his arms, Gaster walked out of the room, the door opening and closing at his will. The human would be dealt with, and they would eventually be replaced. Their life and death had no consequences in this place. 

“I have a sink,” he replies as he walks down the hall, his footsteps not making a sound. “It’s like a waterfall, but smaller.” He pauses for a moment, before adding, “What else does your Mater have? What is she like?”

Raisa crooned as Gaster asked about her mother, her tail flicking this way and that. She loved her mother and father both dearly, and it was rare she got to talk about them, since most of her friends already knew who they were before they knew herself!

As Gaster watched the morbid display, he couldn’t help but wonder if Raisa’s table manners would get better as she got older. With practice, perhaps she’d managed to not get blood everywhere. Not that getting blood everywhere was much of a problem in his lab- he was used to spilling it quite often. But a messy eater led to a messy face, and Gaster had to stifle a laugh as Raisa looked up at him and gave a toothy grin. He knew toddlers weren’t known for eating very neatly, but this was the first time he’d seen a toddler covered head to toe in their meal. 

“Very messy,” Gaster corrects the child. He reaches out and picks up the child, carrying her in his arms. he didn’t seem to mind getting blood on him. Perhaps he was just used to it. “Let’s see if we can get you cleaned up. Blood can get sticky if you leave it on too long.”

He turned away from the human on the table. Their soul had shattered the moment they perished, meaning they were now useless to him. He’d have to go out and find a new test subject to replace them, but that was fine. Like Raisa, many humans found their way into his lab on their own. It wouldn’t take long to restock his supplies, he was sure. 

Raisa crooned as she was picked up, obviously pleased at this particular course of action. She clung to Gaster as best she could, purring happily in his grasp. She wasn’t afraid at all; in her mind, he’d kept her safe and given her food and even let her kill his human, which meant that she could trust him. Simple math, really. She’d already forgotten about going home, and already forgotten about her mother who was no doubt looking for her. No, she was safe, and that meant she didn’t have anything to worry about. 

Her purring was interrupted by a little hiccup, and raisa jumped slightly in Gaster’s arms. She’d eaten too fast. 

Gaster watched, folding his hands behind his back, as the child transformed before his eyes. No longer was she a child skittering around the lab, curious about everything around her. As she approached the human, she became a predator. Her movements, while still amateurish and needing practice, were surely that of a predator stalking its prey. 

But she didn’t stalk for long. Soon, she was upon the human, her wings helping her glide down to them as she leapt across the room, her claws holding onto their writhing body as they screamed and tried to get away. Her fangs dug into the neck of the human, and as the examination table was stained crimson, Gaster felt his smile growing a bit wider. This child was full of surprises. He hadn’t been sure if she would attack or not. 

But as the human’s struggles stilled, as the child dug her fangs into the neck of the human and feast on their blood, any doubts in his mind were erased. Gaster stepped forward, walking further into the room to observe Raisa a bit closer. 

“Now that,” He said, grinning down at the bloody child, “Was interesting.”

Toddlers were not known for eating quickly or neatly, and Raisa was a perfect example of that. It took her several minutes to eat her fill, though she seemed happy as a clam the entire time. The scene was reminiscent of a toddler getting their own personal cake for their birthday--though slightly more macabre and twice the mess. 

When she’d finally finished, Raisa was drenched in blood from head to toe, and the unfortunate human had quite the sizable hole in his neck. The tiny huntress looked up at Gaster and gave a toothy grin, licking red from her lips. 

Raisa… wasn’t cowering. She hadn’t clammed up, she wasn’t trying to hide behind him to get away from the bad human. No, she was intrigued. She was growling at him, was walking towards him, and the only thing stopping her from getting even closer was Gaster’s hand holding onto her own. 

The lights in his eyesockets flicker a bit, surprised. The human on the table glances at Raisa for a second, but his attention quickly went back to Gaster. The human didn’t see Raisa as a threat. Gaster, in the human’s opinion, was the far more terrifying monster here. 

Intrigued, Gaster nods down at the child, and releases her hand. “Of course,” he responds, casting a glance over at the trapped human. “Have fun.”

Have fun. These were words Raisa understood, the same words her matri said when she told her how to catch a rabbit, or when she went to play in the mud. They were good words, encouraging words, and all she needed to give her the confidence to catch her prey. 

Gaster let go of her hand, and Raisa’s attention focused back on the human. She tried to remember everything she’d been taught about a good huntress-- they were quiet. Stealthy. She growled still, but it was quieter than earlier. She held every nerve taught. Huntresses were clever, and careful, and they always knew when to strike. She wiggled, adjusting her stance once, twice, three times-- and leapt. 

She jumped--far higher than a normal child her size could--and the wings made an appearance again, gliding her down onto the human’s chest. Her claws, once cute as they tapped on the tile flooring, were now tools, instruments she used to cling to the human as she landed. He screamed and tried to thrash, but it didn’t seem to bother her. One hand came up to hold the human’s face as she leaned over, got her mouth around his neck, and bit down. She turned her head, tearing through the flesh with some difficulty.

The screaming stopped then.