Undertale fanfic : Stories From the Surface (31)

Chapter 31 : Cold Snow, Warm Hugs




It had been quite a difficult climb for Ms.Hernandez’s team, but they had finally made it to the supposed location of the monster settlement, high up in the snowy mountains. She quietly cursed her own impulsivity under her breath (and wouldn’t be surprise if everyone else did too) as more snow fell, getting all over their warm clothes and erasing their tracks. Why did she decide that going on a mountain expedition now was a good idea? Why couldn’t she just wait for spring?
One guide interrupted her inner monologue by going on and on about all the cryptid sightings in the area.
“’Pretty much the only thing this place is known for”, they explained. “Only people you’ll encounter here are hikers and cryptid chasers. And cryptid-chasing hikers.”
“’Ya think the ‘cryptids’ were just monsters?” the other guide asked. “That would explain a lot.”
The archaeologists checked their map again for at least the millionth time. Several voices kindly, or in some cases not-so-kindly pointed out that finding the cave entrance was going to be tricky with all the snow. Their leader sighed heavily. Yes, they were right, but complaining was useless now.
After a few minutes of searching through snow and rocks, she stopped for a second and thought about the guides’ conversation.
“Wait, what did you two say about cryptids earlier?” she asked them.
“Well, there have been a lot of sightings here, is all I’m sayin’”, the first one replied. “Over a period of like, a hundred years? Of course, all we have are blurry pictures of sh- things in the distance.”
“And I say these were actually monsters. I mean, if there’s a settlement ‘round here…”
“But they would have to get out to be seen and mistaken for cryptids by humans, though…” Hernandez pointed out. “Could some of them have, like, bypassed whatever barrier we imposed on them? ‘Cause, I mean, if they did… we might not even need to find the entrance : we can wait until one gets out and, well, shows us where it is!”
One half of the group nodded in agreement ; the other half let out sighs of varying degrees of frustration at the prospect of just waiting there in the cold for something that might not ever come. They still helped the first half set up camp though.

Meanwhile, the foot of Mt.Ebott was more rainy than snowy. Undyne liked it that way.
That’s why she decided to go back outside after lunch with her girlfriend to take a walk in the rain. As she neared the edge of Ebott, she thought maybe it would be nice to run to the shelter and give Valari an impromptu visit.
She knocked on the door and after a few seconds the man from before opened.
“Oh, hello!” he greeted her. “I was just about to call your house!”
“I’m so fast I answer calls before you even call me!” she joked.
“Convenient. Anyway, hum… Valari’s glasses disappeared.”
“WHAT?!”
“We think another kid stole ‘em, but we don’t know who yet.”
“Well I’M GOING TO FIND OUT!” Undyne yelled, shoving the human out of the way and rushing into the building.
“W-Wait!” he called after her. “Please don’t frighten the kids too much, they have enough problems already!”
She violently opened the door to the next room, where all the human children playing in there froze instantly… expect Valari who still was sitting alone in a corner and quietly moving beat-up toy cars around, unaware of what was happening. Undyne calmed down only a little bit.
She walked to Valari, who finally noticed her when her boot entered her field of vision.
The adult crouched down in front of the child and signed her hello. It was the only piece of human sign language she remembered from the videos her girlfriend and herself had watched together the day before, yet it was enough for the little girl to start getting teary-eyed.
Undyne gestured Valari to wait, then stood up and faced the other children.
“Alright, which. One. Of you. Stole. Her. Glasses?” she asked them, tightening her fists and trying as hard as she could not to shout.
They remained silent and as still as they could be… Until one child meekly raised a hand while staring at the floor.
“Why would even do that??!!” the fish monster asked.
She did not get any answer ; however the guilty child accepted to give the glasses back to their owner.
“And write her an apology letter, ok?” Undyne told them.
“Would you steal someone’s wheelchair?” the man from the front desk (who was standing in the doorway) asked.
“No”, the child admitted, picking up a stray crayon from the floor.
“So you already understand you can’t take someone’s disability aid away just because you feel like it, right?”
“…Yes.”
“Good. Now please don’t do it again, ok?”
The child nodded then was given a piece of paper to write their apology letter on.
The man signalled for Undyne and Valari to follow him out of the room and back to the front desk.
“Well, thank you m’am, this went much quicker than I expected!” he told the monster.
Valari gently tapped on her forearm to get her attention.
“You want something?” the fish asked, lowering herself to the ten-year-old’s eye level.
The child caught Undyne in a hug.
“You’re welcome, punk”, she smiled, picking Valari up and off the ground and hugging her back. “If you have any more problem, you can count on Alphys and I!”
The child hugged her tighter in response.