On a sweltering summer morning, a family of goats clattered along an old forest trail.

At the head of the troop strode Asgore, whose resounding footfalls announced his family's presence to anything in his line of sight. As he trotted along, the great goat hummed a marching tune that only a keen ear could hear beneath the booming of his feet. He prayed, too, but not even the most sensitive ear on Earth could hear that.

A few steps behind glid Toriel, whose normally thunderous steps barely registered behind her husband's. A certain energy powered the goat woman's gait that day, and she may have left Asgore in the dust if she weren't minding the two at the end of the line.

Asriel, for his part, walked confidently after his mother. The path was familiar, and his footing was sure. He, too, felt something bristling at the tips of his fur. Something crackly and exciting that made him want to run. Not that he could, of course. That would mean leaving his brother behind.

At the very end of the Dreemurr procession, keeping pace only by the grace of Asriel holding his hand, trudged Kris.

Modest. Kris could keep at most a modest pace on his absolute best day. At present, he was going far slower than modest, because he was far from having his best day.

The youngest Dreemurr was following a strange trail leading somewhere he had never been, to meet people he had never met, in heat hotter than he had ever felt before.

The path appeared to be made of the same stuff as the family driveway. Hard and black and smelly. Hot, too, like it could suck up the sun's warmth and spit it back at poor children out of spite. Kris wondered why things needed to be made from the awful material.

He also wondered why the sun wanted to kill him. On that morning it sent down a sinister glare instead of its usual pleasant warmth. A high-of-one-hundred heat, his father had called it, whatever that was worth.

In the one-hundred-high warmth his faithful sweater felt like a thick blanket wrapped around him. His shiny black shoes were so hot on the outside that he could feel them through his socks. Beads of sweat swam on his brow and the back of his neck. Or, he assumed it was sweat. He might just be melting.

He knew he had to keep going, though.

Today was a crucial milestone for him. At least that's what Mom had told Dad a few nights ago, when good little boys should have been asleep. Something about mainstreaming and socialism-ization. Kris wasn't familiar with the words, but he could tell they were important.

Strangely, though, Mom hadn't told him about any of the fancy words that were at stake. She had just said he was going to get the chance to meet kids his age... besides his brother. She had said that it would be fun.

So far she was wrong.

"How are you feeling, my child?"

Kris scarcely had time to look up from his shoes before his brother answered: "I'm fine!"

He was just in time to see his mother's tired smile, and the slightest roll of her eyes.

"Not you, dear," she told him, finishing the familiar exchange before she glanced over at Kris.

Asriel giggled to himself, and Kris almost felt the corners of his mouth turning up. One day Azzy would get tired of that routine, but Kris hoped it wasn't soon.

As for his monther's question, Kris wasn't totally sure. He felt hot, there was no mistaking that. Tired, too, from all the fast paced walking. He felt a gnawing sort of feeling in his belly about all the uncertain things waiting for him down the road. He felt odd, for being the only member of the family affected by the heat. A part of him felt like acting pathetic in the hopes of going home, but a bigger part knew that he had to be here.

Kris scraped his tongue along the inside of his teeth as he thought.

This must be how the hero of his favorite game felt when he had to go into a dungeon.

Yes, he realized. That was almost exactly what he was doing right now.

Heading towards some strange place where his fate was uncertain, through a fire level without the magic shirt that stopped him from catching on fire. Odds were that there was nothing good waiting for him there, but he was honor-bound to go anyway, for the good of main streams and socialism.

Brave, he settled on. He was feeling brave.

His mother was still looking at him.

The little soldier clenched his jaw and straightened his lip. In the coolest way he could he nodded at his mother.

She smiled at him, and nodded back. Seemed she understood.

Mom turned back around and resumed her stride. After only a few steps, though, she looked over her shoulder again, and furrowed her brow. Not an angry furrow, more like a sad one.

The goat woman slowed her stride and allowed her children to catch up to her.

"Here," she told Kris, rustling through her purse, "I think this might help."

Before he had time to wonder, Toriel produced a glistening bottle of water, sweating just like he was. Kris' lips were already parted. With one flick of her fingers she removed the lid, and handed him the precious thing.

Kris marveled at his mother's powers. He hadn't even indicated that he was hot but somehow she knew. It was a superpower that Mom and Azzy and sometimes Dad seemed to share, being able to tell what Kris was feeling without him guiding them along. She'd even taken the lid off so he wouldn't have to let go of his brother's hand.

"Can I have one?" Asriel asked.

The crinkling of an empty bottle interrupted any answer he might have received.

Toriel looked down at Kris with wide eyes, while Asriel murmured in amazement.

"Oh dear," the old goat said. "Drinking that much so fast will give you a stomach ache."

Kris could only blink at his mother. What was he supposed to do with that information? He couldn't un-drink that sweet, sweet liquid now. And he preferred the cool sloshing in his belly to the knots it had been in a while ago.

After another moment, his mother took his spent bottle into her purse and produced a fresh one for his brother.

"Drink slowly, my dear. We will arrive soon, and I think you want to avoid getting cramps while running around with your friends."

Asriel nodded at mother, and after a moment he thanked her for the water.

The elder goat patted her sons' heads and turned around once again, resuming her place in the middle. Kris though he heard her mutter something about driving the gosh darned car herself as she went.

"How is everyone?" called Dad, without turning around.

"Fine," Mom told him. "Everyone is fine."

The answer seemed to satisfy him.

"That was pretty cool how you chugged that whole bottle in two seconds," Asriel told him, when it seemed like their parents were done talking. "It's like how they drink potions in games."

Kris smiled without even meaning to. He was supposed to be looking steely and brave, marching off to certain doom. Not happy.

"They're going to like you, you know," Asriel told him, as he nursed his water. "They're going to think you're cool, too."

Asriel squeezed Kris' hand, and the youngest Dreemurr found himself feeling warm again despite his gut full of cold water.

There it was again, that family superpower.

The rest of the walk felt like it flew by. As he and his family trotted along, Kris noticed a change taking place in the trees beside the path. Pine trees were popping up in between their leafy cousins. They were short at first, and only appeared once every several trees, but as the family progressed the pines grew taller and more frequent.

After a certain point Kris could only see pine trees, growing great and tall in neat tidy rows. Eventually, though, they reached the end of the trees, and their destination came into view.

Kris couldn't help but gape at it.

The black path in front of them stretched through a meadow. A vast meadow, surrounded by pines, with rolling little hills and shallow little valleys. Dotted around the landscape were thin poles with tiny flags, each of a different color. When the breeze caught the grass Kris could even see lines where it looked like it had been mowed.

The boy had never seen anything like it.

At the back of the meadow, where the road ended, sat the most impressive thing of all.

A castle. It stood tall and wide, with big pointy arches, gleaming windows, and strange metal things on its roof.

Actually, Kris realized after a few moments of staring, it wasn't a castle. It was a house. But one so large that it looked like it could eat the Dreemurrs' home and still be hungry.

That meant the meadow wasn't really a meadow, either. It was a yard.

"Neat, isn't it?" asked Asriel, and Kris could only nod.

Kris thought of the quests and adventures that he and Asriel had in their yard, and how much more ambitious their games could be if they had a million times more space to work with.

As the house-castle grew near, Kris could make out even more details.

Rose bushes guarded the edges of the great structure, with little pink peonies dotted between them. If Kris had to knock one thing about the giant house it would probably be the flowers. Dad's were way cooler looking.

The big house had a nice porch, though. It had its own little roof held up by pillars, with four rocking chairs lined up near the railing. Behind the chairs sat what must be the home's front door, and a thick-paned panoramic window. Light filtered through the heavy glass, and Kris could make out strange shapes behind it.

Asriel stopped Kris from bumping into their mother. She and Dad had stopped moving several paces away from the porch.

Before Kris had time to wonder, Mom turned around and knelt down. She looked him and his brother over, flicking debris off of their sweaters and straightening their collars. She made sure the fluff around Asriel's ears was level, and she took his mostly finished water bottle. Mother patted him on the back and shooed him towards Father.

Reluctantly, he let Kris' hand go.

Kris heard a door open, but he couldn't react. Mom wiped at his face with a wet thumb and smoothed strands of his fur into place. Kris knew better than to struggle. His mother's strength became infinite when she did this.

"Hey, who are these strangers on my lawn!?" called a familiar, jolly voice. Kris took a deep breath.

Mom finished grooming him, and gave him one last sympathetic smile.

"They will only be new once, dear." Kris had heard the statement before, but still didn't know what to make of it.

With that his mother turned around.

Brave, Kris told himself. He was brave and cool and also these strangers were going to like him.

Bravery didn't mean recklessness, though. So the stoic little soldier bravely took a stand behind his mother, and peered out from the edge of her skirt.

Immediately, he spotted two figures, one of which he recognized.

"Hey, Rudy!" called Father, and the larger figure waved at him.

It was Mr. Holiday, Kris knew. He had visited the house a few times. He was a tall, energetic man who always seemed to have a joke or candy on him. And he knew how to play video games despite being an adult, which Kris thought was pretty cool.

Mr. Holiday didn't cause Kris any worry at all. It was the other figure with him that gave him pause.

Beside the lanky man stood a smaller reindeer, roughly half his size. His arms and legs were slim and bony, but his body seemed athletic. He had a sharp chin, a black little nose and half-lidded green eyes. A mess of dark blonde hair sat atop his head, and Kris thought that Mr. Holiday must not preen his children like Mom does because many little poofs stuck out of it. The boy also had two brown nubs peeking out that must be the beginnings of horns. Or, antlers.

He wore black shorts with a silver chain glinting out of the pocket, and a black t-shirt that had some white letters on it. Kris would have to ask Azzy what it said later.

"Good afternoon, Rudolph," his mother called. "And hello, Dess. It seems like you grew a few inches since the last time I saw you."

The boy, who must be Dess, scratched his head and nodded.

"Yep, he's like a little weed, isn't he?" Mr. Holiday said, patting the boy on the head. "You know how it is, though. Seems like just yesterday Asriel was about knee high."

Kris thought the boy made it to "weed" before he tuned out of his father's small talk. As the adults chattered, Dess waved at someone on the other side of his mother. Kris could only guess it was Asriel. After a moment, though, the young reindeer started to look around, and Kris bravely retreated a little behind his mom.

"Wait, did you guys really WALK here?" Rudy squawked, up in the world of adults. "It's like a million degrees out! You're gonna melt that little guy... wherever he is."

For a moment Kris felt proud of his sneakiness, until the elder reindeer looked over and gave him a little wink.

"Oh, of course we walked," Toriel answered, in a tone Kris wasn't familiar with. "We wanted to experience fresh air, right dear?"

She punctuated her question by clapping her husband on the shoulder.

That must have been his signal to talk.

"Well, actually," Asgore started, "Our kind has, uh..."

Asgore swallowed the rest of his sentence, and after a pause Toriel clapped him again.

"As you know we possess an affinity for... pyromancy, and so heat uh..."

Every word the great goat uttered sounded less sure than the last. Each time he stopped and started again he sounded as if he'd shrunk an inch.

"The uh, heat doesn't bother us."

Toriel patted him on the shoulder.

Kris wasn't sure what to make of the exchange. It was the first he'd heard of this pie-romancing thing, but he hoped he got his soon so that dastardly sun would stop bothering him.

"Well!" chimed Mr. Holiday, a little louder than he probably needed to "Are we gonna do the uh, the meet and greet, then?"

"That is a wonderful idea," Mom said, as she rested a hand on top of Kris' head. She looked down at her little soldier as best she could, given his awkward position.

Kris felt like she was asking him a wordless question. After one more deep breath, Kris set his jaw and straightened his lips and found some excess bravery that he just had laying around. He nodded again.

Mom nodded back.

"Go say hello, sweetheart."

Bravely, Kris let go of his mother's skirt and walked over to where his brother was standing.

"Hey, there he is!" Mr. Holiday chipped in. "Kids, come say hello!"

He turned behind him in the same awkward way Mom had just done. "And by 'kids,' I mean 'you,' kiddo. If he can do it, you can do it."

Kris was pretty sure he looked cool and brave, but he broke character for a moment to scratch his head.

The reindeer boy Dess gave Kris only a quick glance before he looked over at his father. He had a soft sort of look on his face.

Then Kris noticed, for the first time, a little hand clutched around the leg of Mr. Holiday's pants.

After the hand came a shiny golden twiggle, and after the twiggle came a head. Before Kris knew it, an entire third reindeer emerged from behind Rudy. A girl, it looked like. Kris was already wary.

He felt impressed, though, at the feat of stealth she had pulled. Mr. Holiday wasn't nearly as good a hiding spot as Mom, and he'd been totally unaware of her presence. Then again, the girl didn't have as much to hide as he did.

She looked to be about Kris' height, but her arms and legs were even slimmer than Dess'. She had a much lighter shade of blonde hair that looked distractingly shiny in the harsh sun. She wore it in two little twiggly pigtails on top of her head, that looked to Kris like the ends of carrots that were ready to be pulled. Her face was long, and she had a round, bright red nose that would have looked like a clown's nose if it were any bigger. And she wore a mossy green dress that ended past her knees but before her ankles.

Kris thought there was something weird about the way she looked.

As she inched over to stand near her brother, though, Kris could hear his mother ooohing and aaahing at her.

"Alright kids, introduce yourselves," Mr. Holiday said, after the impromptu fashion show was over.

The deer boy gave Kris another look up and down, before he stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"Hiya," he offered, "I'm Dess. Nice to meetcha."

He looked Kris directly in the eye and smiled about half of a smile. Kris felt a little braver.

"Um, and..." a squeaky voice piped up, "I'm Noelle. Hi."

The girl walked up, too, and waved at him sheepishly.

Dess put a hand on her shoulder and that seemed to help her out a little.

"Nice to meet you," she added after a moment. This time her voice sounded more like a bell and less like a mouse.

Kris nodded at her, and her brother. He offered the two of them a wave, and a little smile which had sprung up unbidden.

Kris couldn't believe he had been so scared of this. Not that he was ever scared. He couldn't believe he had had to be so brave for this. He had met them, and they hadn't killed him or anything. Just said hello.

They were still staring at him, though. Dess even quirked his head to the side, after a moment. Kris wasn't sure how to proceed. After a moment Kris could feel six sets of curious eyes on him, and he didn't like the way it felt.

"Uh, this is Kris," Asriel chimed in, after a moment. "Kris doesn't talk much."

At that, Dess unquirked his head.

"Hunh. Alright."

Kris thought he could hear air wooshing behind him.

"Well that was easy, huh?" Rudy asked no one in particular. He glanced behind Kris for confirmation before he added "Kids, why don't you run off and go play with Asriel and Kris? Show them around, you know?"

Dess nodded, and Noelle did too.

"Come on, we'll show you around the yard," the little buck said, as he walked away, sister in tow.

Asriel took Kris' hand and followed after them. Once again, Kris felt like the protagonist of his favorite game. This time he would just be heading out on an adventure, not facing certain death.

He looked back at the adults who were slowly becoming small in the distance. Mr. Holiday was his usual jolly self, waving after them. Mom waved them off with just a little worry on her face. Dad was waving too, while looking awfully sorry for some reason.

Kris would wonder about it later.

"Come on, ya slowpokes," called Dess, from a few dozen paces ahead of them.

"Don't be mean," said Noelle.

"I'll be mean if I want," he laughed, messing up her pigtails before breaking off into a run.

"Hey, come back here!" she squeaked, sprinting off after him.

Before Asriel could even say anything, Kris picked up his stride, taking his brother with him. For the first time Kris could remember, he was the one leading Azzy, chasing after their supposed tour guides at a modest pace.