Underearth/Book 1/Chapter 8

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While resting against the tree, he looked around at the surrounding environment. On one side, near one of the routes, was a box with a sign next to it, though it too was written in the same language as the plaques and signs back in the Citadel. Frisk decided to push off from the tree and head down the path directly in front of him. Down the path was a dead end, though there he found a fishing rod stuck in the ground going into a vast river extending out in front of him. Seeing as there was nowhere to go, Frisk backtracked to the fork and headed down the path that was now on his left. Down the road a bit stood two familiar-looking skeletons. Frisk approached the skeletons till he got within eavesdropping-distance.

"SO, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE," Frisk heard Papyrus saying before being seen. Sans and Papyrus looked between each-other and Frisk multiple times before Papyrus bent down to Sans's height and began loudly whispering to him.

"SANS!!! OH MY- IS THAT... A HUMAN!?!?!??!?!" Papyrus stammered in disbelief.

The both looked over in Frisk's direction.

"Uhhhh... Actually, I think that's a rock." Sans replied.

"OH."

Frisk looked at Sans and Papyrus like they were idiots.

"Hey, what's that in front of the rock?"

"OH MY-" Papyrus started shouting before stopping and whispering loudly to Sans.

"(IS... IS THAT A HUMAN?)"

"(Yes)"

"OH MY G- SANS! I FINALLY DID IT!!!" Papyrus was clearly extremely excited. "UNDYNE WILL... I'M GONNA... I'LL BE SO... POPULAR!!! POPULAR!!! POPULAR!!!"

Frisk let out a sigh of annoyance as Papyrus then tried to regain his composure.

"HUMAN!" Papyrus started. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU!!! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE PALACE! THEN... THEN!!! I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT. IN ANY CASE! CONTINUE... ONLY IF YOU DARE!!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!"

Papyrus ran off as he laughed, leaving Sans and Frisk alone. Frisk gave Sans an annoyed look.

"Well, that went well." Sans said trying to brighten the mood.

"Oh yeah, that certainly went well. All that's gonna happen is I'm going to get captured." Frisk said sarcastically.

"Don't sweat it, kid. I'll keep an eyesocket out for ya." Sans reassured before walking off in the direction Papyrus went.

Frisk also walked down the path both Sans and Papyrus went down (as it was the only path), finding a rather large cardboard box to the side of the road. There was some writing on it, the first in English that he'd seen in the Underground. The writing was written in a sort of narrative form. "You observe the well-crafted sentry station." It read. *Clearly Papyrus.* After that first line, Frisk decided to move on. The first writing in English, and it was absolutely ridiculous, just like Papyrus.

As Frisk began moving away from the 'sentry station' and back onto the path, he heard a loud roar-like sound. Immediately, Frisk drew his wooden knife as he searched for the source of the noise. Sometime later, a large Monster, around Frisk's height, fluttered down. The Monster appeared to be some strange fusion of a snowflake and a dragon. As it landed, snow flew in all sorts of directions. Frisk jumped into action and ran towards the beast. The Monster's eyes began glowing red as spikes of ice jutted out of the ground. Frisk nimbly managed to dodge most of them but got scratched on one. This didn't faze Frisk, however, and he managed to get up to the Monster and sink his wooden knife deep into the creature's chest. It let out a loud, painful roar as it stumbled backwards before disintegrating into dust. Frisk walked up to where the creature disintegrated and pulled the wooden knife from the pile of dust. He then began making his way down the path once again.

After about a minute of walking, Frisk came across a sentry station, this one made of wood. As Frisk got closer, the smell of smoke became quite evident, as though someone was smoking a cigarette. Frisk drew a little closer to the station only to have some sort of massive dog-like Monster jump out, then stand on its hind legs with two knives in its hands. The Monster's intimidating appearance caused Frisk to freeze in place.

"Did something move?" The Monster questioned. "Was it my imagination?"

Frisk remained frozen in place as the canine continued its monologue. It then began to raise one of its knives, which began to glow a light blue, and brought it down towards Frisk. The light blue glow expanded, making the knife appear larger and into the range of Frisk. He started to panic as the blade drew closer until he attempted to dodge the attack. Unfortunately, the blade had grown very large by the time it reached Frisk, and there was no way to dodge. The knife cut right through Frisk's thorax and he fell to the ground in pain. Just like all the other attacks, Frisk's body was unscathed. When Frisk attempted to dodge, the dog Monster began barking. No doubt other Monsters would come to see what the commotion was. He drew his wooden knife and ran at the dog, stabbing it straight in the chest. It howled with pain before keeling over and turning to dust. Frisk retrieved the knife, and continued onward, ignoring the smoked dog biscuits to the side of the path.

Further down the path, Sans stood waiting. As Frisk drew close, he called out to them.

"Hey kid, got something important for you to remember."

Frisk gave him a slightly annoyed look. "What is it?"

"My brother has a very special attack. If you see a blue attack, don't move, and you won't be hurt. Simple right?"

Frisk continued to give Sans a slightly nasty look.

*Blue attacks huh. Like that light blue glow that came from the canine's blade earlier?* Thought Frisk. "Thanks." he said before walking past him.

Within the middle of the clearing was a lake, though completely frozen over. There was another path to Frisk's left and straight ahead. He decided to head for the path straight in front of him. Frisk thought about seeing if he could make it across on the lake, so he tested the ice a bit. It was extremely smooth and slippery, though didn't break, or even crack. He then pushed off from the snow, and he swiftly moved forward on the ice, flying across to the other side. From there, he went along the path.

Further down the path, Sans and Papyrus were arguing.

"YOU'RE SO LAZY!!!" Frisk overheard. "YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!!!"

"I think that's called... sleeping."

"EXCUSES, EXCUSES!"

Papyrus then caught Frisk standing in his peripheral.

"OH-HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU,,, MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES. I THING YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE... QUITE SHOCKING!!!"

Papyrus gave a bit of a chuckle after say that.

"FOR YOU SEE, THIS... IS THE INVISIBLE ELECTRICITY MAZE!!! WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THIS MAZE, THIS ORB WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP!" He says as he pulls a pale-blue orb from his outfit. "SOUND LIKE FUN??? BECAUSE! THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE, IS ACTUALLY RATHER SMALL I THINK."

Frisk shot Papyrus a nasty look, though he didn't seem to notice.

"OK, YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND GO NOW." Papyrus said.

Frisk took a step toward the electricity maze when there was a sudden zapping sound as Papyrus looked to be having a seizure. Frisk backed up a slight bit and Papyrus ceased his seizure. He looked to be extremely irritated.

"SANS!!! WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!" Papyrus yelled at Sans.

"I think the Human has to hold the orb." Sans replied.

"OH, OKAY."

Papyrus began making his way over to Frisk, going straight through the electricity maze and leaving a trail of footprints behind him. When he'd gotten to where Frisk was standing, he held out the arm holding the orb.

"HOLD THIS PLEASE!"

Papyrus requested of Frisk, who grabbed the orb. When he'd grabbed the orb, Papyrus ran back through the maze back to where Sans was waiting.

"OKAY. TRY NOW!" he yelled to Frisk.

Frisk, now holding the orb, made his way towards the maze. Papyrus's massive footprints were as clear as day, and Frisk just followed them through the maze, making sure not to waver. When he'd reached the other side, Papyrus heaved out a sigh of amazement and slight annoyance.

"INCREDIBLE!!! YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL!!!" He started. "YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY... TOO EASILY! HOWEVER!!! THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE EASY! IT WAS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS!"  Papyrus then dramatically pointed at Frisk. "YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED! I KNOW I AM!" He then gave his trademark 'Nyeh heh heh' as he ran off, leaving Frisk and Sans alone.

Frisk looked over at Sans, giving him an exhausted look followed by a sigh.

"Hey, thanks..." Sans began speaking. "My brother seems like he's having fun."

"Yeah, looks like it, doesn't it." Frisk retorted.

"By the way, did you see that weird outfit he's wearing?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"He made it a few weeks ago for a costume party. He hasn't worn anything else since."

"Kinda sounds unhealthy if you ask me."

"Eh, he calls it his 'battle body'. Man, isn't my brother cool?"

Frisk decided it'd be better to just leave down the path than comment on that. Frisk walked onto a relatively narrow stretch of land with a precipice on either side. Further down, the plateau widened again. On the widened portion, there was a blue bunny leaning on a cart off to the left. Frisk approached the bunny-Monster.

"I don't understand why these aren't selling..." Frisk overheard. "It's the perfect weather for something cold..."

Frisk took a quick look around. *Perfect weather for something cold?* he thought, *Everything's frozen.*

The bunny opened one of his eyes and saw Frisk standing in front of his cart.

"AH!!! A CUSTOMER!!!" He blurted out.

Frisk took a step back due to the bunny's sudden outburst. He then regained his composure.

"Hello! Would you like some Nice-Cream? It's the frozen treat that warms your heart! Now just 15 Gold!"

*Gold? That must be the monetary system used down here.* Frisk thought.

"Sorry, but I don't have any Gold."

A hint of a disappointed look appeared on the bunny's face, but then faded away.

"Well then... Tell your friends... That there's ice cream... Out in the middle of the woods..."

Frisk continued down the path which took him to a ravine connected by some securely placed planks. After carefully crossing, he made his way to the far-side of the cliff, where he found Sans waiting.

"Hey Sans, weren't you still back there?" Frisk started, pointing back to the invisible electric maze.

"Yeah, I was, but then I decided to come over here." Sans replied.

"But you'd have to walk right passed me to get here."

"Simple, I walked passed while you were talking to that entrepreneur."

Frisk remained silent.

"Speaking of which, I've been thinking about selling treats too. Want some fried snow? It's just 5 Gold."

Frisk gave Sans a dumb look. "Yeah, how about no. I don't know if you discovered this when you walked passed us, but I don't have any of your peoples' money."

"Heh, not all Monsters might understand it that way. And besides, I should charge way more for it anyway."

Frisk decided to just leave that strange conversation where it was, and travel around the rest of the plateau he was on. The rest of the plateau was a mostly featureless winter wasteland, with a single linear path leading to a narrowing of the plateau. Upon traveling down the narrowed path, he found Sans and Papyrus waiting. He was unconcerned about how Sans had gotten there without him noticing due to Papyrus's presence.

"HUMAN!!!" Papyrus yelled. "I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR..." Papyrus stopped for a second and looked around the plateau. "SANS!!! WHERE'S THE PUZZLE!?!"

"It's right there, on the ground. Trust me, there's no way they can pass this one." Sans reassured.

Frisk walked towards the skeletons. On the ground, right in the center of the plateau, was a slip of paper. He knelt down to take a look at it. It was a word search. He then stood back up and walked closer to the skeletons.

"SANS!!! THAT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Papyrus yelled.

"Whoops. I knew I should have used today's crossword instead." Sans retorted.

 "WHAT!? CROSSWORD!? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT!!! IN MY OPINION... JUNIOR JUMBLE IS EASILY THE HARDEST."

"What? Really, dude? That easy-peasy word scramble? That's for baby bones."

"UN. BELIEVABLE!" Papyrus then turned to Frisk. "HUMAN!!! SOLVE THIS DISPUTE!"

Frisk didn't really know how to answer. Crossword or junior jumble. Well, since Frisk had never seen a junior jumble puzzle, and he knew that crosswords were hard, he had to go with crosswords.

"Um, crosswords." Frisk finally said.

"YOU TWO ARE WEIRD!" CROSSWORDS ARE SO EASY. IT'S THE SAME SOLUTION EVERY TIME. I JUST FILL ALL THE BOXES IN WITH THE LETTER 'Z'... BECAUSE EVERY TIME I LOOK AT A CROSSWORD... ALL I CAN DO IS SNORE!!! NYEH HEH HEH" Papyrus let out before running off.

Frisk turned to Sans after his brother ran off.

"Heh, Papyrus... finds difficulty in, interesting places." Sans said.

"I can tell."

"Yeah, yesterday, he got stumped trying to 'solve' the horoscope."

Frisk decided to move on along the path. Some way down, he found a table with a frozen plate of spaghetti alongside a microwave. There was also a slip of paper next to the microwave. It looked to be a hastily written note left by Papyrus. He once again decided to ignore the writing and move onwards.