A cold gust of wind welcomed us, as we stepped through the doorway into Snowdin Forest. And was promptly blinded for a moment by a leaf that got blown into our face. Brilliant start, if I had to say so myself. I groan as I raise one hand, stumbling forward out of the doorway to brush the leaf of our face.

And as I do, the door shuts behind us. By the time I finally peel the stupid thing off, the door had shut with a foreboding 'thud'. Guess Mom had really meant what she said then… we weren't going to be able to come back. At least without her opening the door back up for us.

"Do we just go?" Frisk says, furrowing her eyebrows as she clutched the sweater we had tighter to our body. If I had known it was this cold, I would have tried to request a coat or something from Toriel before we left. But, I suppose our sweater would just have to do until later. Not that our bow would be helpful in the matter of keeping us warm - unless we tried to string it around our neck like a scarf, I supposed.

"Yeah… this is Snowdin Forest." Unlike the ruins… nothing much seemed to have been changed in here. Then again, nobody really lived in the forest when I was alive. And unless the actual town of Snowdin moved from it's point next to Waterfall… then there wouldn't be any other changes to speak of, really.

"... Was that pun intentional?" I could hear the groan in Frisk's thoughts.

"Let's say it wasn't the king who helped name it, but his queen instead. She is very… punny." I say, a smirk on our lips now that we worked confidentially onward - but first we went over to the one bush on the road. I blinked as I pulled back the branches, and nearly yelped in surprise. A… video camera? " … What the hell?" I heard Frisk flinch at my swear. "What! I say this describes this perfectly if someone is recording this. And on watch for someone or something escaping the ruins." While I know Mom wouldn't have approved my use of such a word - not even the strongest swear I knew - I wasn't going to shy away from using it or even hearing it like Frisk just did.

Knowing that no answers were going to come from staring at the camera, I finally turned away and began walking down the path. Our feet sunk into the snow, but only slightly. It wasn't as deep as I expected it to be. Once again, however, I wish we had been more prepared. Maybe if we dug around in that old shoe box, we would have been able to find a pair of winter boots or something. The brown boots we had on now barely did anything to protect us from the cold.

"You mentioned that earlier… " I could tell Frisk wasn't enjoying trudging through the snow anymore than I was, but unlike me, that wasn't where her focus was at the moment I could also sense a little annoyance at my own pun, but put it aside for now. "Are you really royalty?"

"Technically, yes. Through adoption. Don't call me a princess or I will make it my JOB to annoy you with puns." Now, a cool silence rang through the forest. Seemingly empty except for us, also. Strange.

"Does that mean… she was the queen? M… Mom?" I froze us in our tracks for a second as she stuttered out the last word. If I could, I would have shot Frisk a nasty look. As it was, I only could hope she could sense my distaste. Technically… I guess Mom had taken in her as her own child. Whether I liked it or not.

"Yes. And… she still is, as far as I know. Then again, I guess I'm not the most up-to-date and knowledgeable person about. Maybe we could ask someone if Snowdin. They're a friendly enough town." It had been a while since we went to the small town as a whole family. Not counting the amount of time that had passed after I died also. Strange, thinking about it like that.

"There's a whole town named that also?" I could feel her groan at the name, once more.

"Yeah… it's a bit. Hopefully the path to the town is clear enough so we could see it." I shiver once more from the cold before continuing on. So far, this was the most clear path we could take. The trees on either side of us were way to thick to try traveling through.

Speaking of… a thick branch lay in front of us. "Hey, this could work better than that toy knife we found." I said, grinning as I tried to kneel down to lift it up.

"What? No!"

"Kidding, I'm just kidding! Just imagine trying to swing this thing around. We can't even lift it…" I had started to lift it, but could barely tilt it to one side. Sighing, I got back to our feet. "We shouldn't be wasting any time, anyway. I don't want to die for a second time with you by freezing to death."

"Right…" I let my thoughts drift as Frisk took the steering wheel. While I wouldn't have known it otherwise, it gave you plenty of time to think when someone else could do all the hard work.

SNAP

That shook me directly out of my thoughts, our whole body flinching from the sudden noise. Immediately, Frisk turned us around to where the whole branch broke in two. "Crap." I stare at the broken branch in horror. Okay, maybe we weren't so alone. Nothing else could go wrong, right?

"M-Maybe that was Toriel? Maybe she changed her mind… or it's a joke." I could hear the stutter in Frisk's thoughts, and quickly, she dug the phone out to call.

Nobody picked up.

"... Let's keep moving." I take control, feeling the rise of panic on Frisk's side, and knowing if we had to run… well, we couldn't be panicking and floundering. Immediately, we picked up the pace a little - even though Frisk seemed to have some kind of limit on how fast she could move. "There! That's a bridge! Maybe we could lose whatever it is there!"

For one second, Frisk tore our gaze from ahead to look back. For a split second, I was sure there was a black shadow. But just like that, it was gone. A shiver ran down our back - and this time, it wasn't from the cold.

"Maybe she'll take us back! She was right!" Frisk yelled at me, even though I swung our head back around and kept on peeling for the bridge. Meanwhile, Frisk was trying to hit the redial button on our phone.

"It"s too late for that! That thing is behind us! If we try to go back, I'm sure we'll be more than dead!" Soon, we came to the gap into the road. What I hadn't noticed before was the bars trying to block anyone from passing.

While I immediately wanted to keep moving, Frisk planted our feet firmly into the ground. I let out a hiss of annoyance. "Frisk, c'mon! We can't just stand here!"

"But it's blocked off!"

"Frisk, for God's sake, MOVE. The bars are too wi-" I stopped midway, when I felt a warm wind over the back our our neck. No, not the wind. The wind out here could never be that warm. It had to be…

Frisk already had froze our body into place before I realized the danger that was right behind us. Only now, I realized the amount of danger that we had to be in if what Mom said was true.

"human."

"Oh god, help us."

"don't you know how to greet a new pal? turn around and shake my hand."

"Wha- no. We are walking ahea- Frisk!" I felt my own panic as Frisk turned around. "What are you doing?!"

"Runnings not going to do any good." Frisk said firmly, her eyes shutting for a second as we shiver, before stretching out our hand to shake the monsters.

"WHAT THE HELL FRI-"

The sound that came out of his hand shut me up as soon as we all became deathly silent. For a few seconds, neither me or Frisk have anything to say.

"heheh… the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it's ALWAYS funny."

For a moment, I didn't say anything - Frisk still seemed frozen in fear. I wanted to laugh - truly I did. After all, it was pretty funny. I had to admit that. But with Frisk's fear and mine combined, the most I could do was let out a nervous half-laugh. "Y-Yeah, funny!" I nearly choked on my words, as we finally got our first good look at the figure in front of us.

A skeleton - now that was intriguing. I leaned forward, trying to catch every detail. I had only seen one skeleton before in the Underground… and this was definitely not him. Strange. And his outfit was even stranger. A blue jacket… and a bulge that made it seem like he must have had a stomach, when I knew for a fact that skeletons were all bones powered with magic. And… he was wearing slippers of all things.

"Wait, you've seen a skeleton like this before?!" I flinched at Frisk's sudden thought. I hadn't meant to verbalize my thoughts to Frisk. Apparently our connection was growing stronger than I'd like.

"Yes, it's a long story. I'll tell you later." I say in reply, before turning my attention back to the skeleton.

"anyways, you're a human, right?" The skeleton looked at us, looking confused by our sudden lapse into silence. 'We gotta remember that no one knows when we're talking to each other - we probably look weird when doing it." I thought, trying to put a grin on our face as we stared at the skeleton.

"Good idea." I hear Frisk say in return. "That's right." She says out loud, nodding in response to the question.

"that's hilarious."

We blink in confusion. "... Hilarious?" Well, that wasn't what I thought he would say. If Mom had been right, then most monsters would attack us and/or try to capture us. This guy… this guy was different. I could tell straight away.

'yeah, kiddo." We blinked once again, as he winked at us. "i'm sans. sans the skeleton i'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now." Immediately, we tensed up. "but... y'know… i don't really care about capturing anybody." Slowly, we relaxed a little more. This guy… I didn't know what to think of him. At all. Was he just… lazy?

"now my brother, papyrus… he's a human-hunting FANATIC. hey, actually, I think that's him over there. i have an idea. go through this gate thingy. yeah, go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone."

"Told yo- woah!" Immediately, Sans spun us around and began pushing us across. "NOPE, this isn't a good idea!" Immediately, I tried to dig my heels into the ground to stop us, but it didn't do much good.

"Um… are you sure this a good idea?" Frisk voiced her concerns, eyes wide as he pushed us forward.

"of course. it's fine, I promise. now, quick behind that conveniently-shaped lamp." I looked over at the lamp - it was pretty… conveniently shaped. I wasn't going to question it, however. Out of the corner of our eye, I could see a figure approaching in the distance. No way was I gonna allow us to be caught by a human hunting fanatic or whatever. As quick as possible, I walked behind the lamp, and crouched down behind it.

"Might as well get comfortable…" I sat down in the snow, leaning against the lamp. "Don't know how long this could take after all."

"And now we're gonna be cold and wet…" Frisk sighed, curling her legs to her chest.

"Too bad. We've been walking forever, it feels like."

"sup, bro?" I could hear Sans from here clearly - Papyrus must have arrived. Slowly, I twisted my head to the right to get a quick glance at Papyrus. Much taller than Sans, he wore a whole different set of clothes… but quickly we went back into place as Frisk assumed control.

"Chara! Do you want to be caught by that guy?" Frisk scolded, and I could barely resist the urge to roll my eyes.

"Come on! This is interesting! This would only be the third skeleton I've seen - like ever. They're rare…" I sigh leaning back against the lamp even more.

"YOU KNOW WHAT "SUP,' BROTHER! IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN' RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES! YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!" I blink as I listen to Papyrus. Strange. Very… strange. "Fan of puzzles? And hopefully ones that are more challenging than the ones in the ruins."

"Hey! Those were pretty challenging!" I hear Frisk protest, but ignore her to listen to the brothers.

"staring at this lamp. it's really cool. do you wanna look?" We froze, listening. Was Sans going to sell us out so quick?

"NO! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT! WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE?! I WANT TO BE READY!" I let out a short breath of relief. Maybe Papyrus wouldn't bother to come over and check.

"I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE! I WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN! THEN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I UTTERLY DESERVE! RESPECT… RECOGNITION… I WILL FINALLY BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD!" Now this was interesting. This whole skeleton was intriguing to me. The Great Papyrus? He obviously didn't speak in third person all the time, but had a show name. And he wanted to join the Royal Guard? What for, I couldn't exactly guess. The Royal Guard hadn't exactly been needed as things had been pretty peaceful when I was alive. Had things really changed that much since then? Or was it due to capturing a human?

"PEOPLE WILL ASK, TO BE, MY 'FRIEND'? I WILL BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING."

"This guy really wanted to be popular doesn't here? Makes me wonder how many friends he actually has right now."

"Shh, Chara!"

"hmm... maybe this lamp will help you." Oh god. I couldn't tell if this guy was really trying to out us, or just getting a good laugh from all this. Either way, I was kind of shaping up to liking these skeletons.

"SANS! YOU ARE NOT HELPING! YOU LAZYBONES! ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOOGLE! YOU GET LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERY DAY!"

"Lazybones?" I couldn't help but quietly snicker at the phrase. "I wonder if that was intentional or not."

"hey, take it easy. i've gotten a ton of work done today. a skele-ton."

Luckily, Frisk had planned ahead and quickly slapped a hand over our mouth to stop my laughter. "Oh my god… he's a punner. I've found myself another punner." I think gleefully, silently shaking with laughter now.

"I'm delighted." Frisk said, though I know some of the laughter was coming from her also at this point.

"SANS!"

"come on. you're smiling."

"I AM AND I HATE IT!"

"The sentiment is shared!" Frisk called in our mind.

"Well, you're stuck with me, so learn to love them." I turn my attention back to Papyrus once more, tilting my head so we could hear better.

An audible sigh could be heard from Papyrus. "WHY DOES SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME… HAVE TO DO SO MUCH JUST TO GET SOME RECOGNITION…" And in that moment, I kind of felt sorry for the guy. Sure, I barely knew him. But hey, he didn't seem like a bad guy. People often acted differently when you were around them or not. I briefly wondered what would happen if he knew we were there, listening in.

"Don't you dare!" I heard Frisk's voice call out, obviously hearing my previous thoughts.

"God! Some privacy would be welcome." I think, before sighing. "I wasn't going to be stupid enough to reveal ourselves, Frisk. What do you take me for? Some kind of idiot?"

"wow, you really sound like you're really working yourself… down to the bone."

Once again, our body shook with silent laughter. "These jokes are so bad… but I don't care." I snickered, shaking my head as I tried to contain my laughter. "I'm gonna have to exchange our jokes sometime. Maybe have a pun contest. Yeah, that would be nice."

"Just promise to leave me out of it. Sure they're funny, but I'm not good at making jokes myself."

"Well, we kinda share a body, Frisk, my buddy, my pal. If this thing is gonna happen, I would say that you would HAVE to be involved."

"UGH! I WILL ATTEND TO MY PUZZLES… AS FOR YOUR WORK? PUT A LITTLE MORE… 'BACKBONE' INTO IT. NYEHEHEHEHEHE… HEH!"

"Oh my god." This time, there was no containing my laughter. These two skeletons were a riot. God, I had thought Mom's puns were good. But these? These were on a totally different level. They were bad - really bad. I could admit that. But to me they were priceless. I could feel Frisk's slight amusement and irritation at the puns, mixed together, but at the moment, I could only feel amusement.

"ok, you can come out now." I heard Sans said, and I get up from my sitting position, having to lean on the lamp for a moment to stand up straight.

Slowly we walk over to Sans, who was… smirking? "you oughta get going. he might come back. and if he does… you'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes."

"They were hilarious, I have to say that." I say out loud, grinning before looking around to investigate the area a little more.

"That lamp really was convenient, wasn't it?" Frisk says as we look at the lamp we had hidden behid. It literally was the size and shape of our body - which I had to admit, was pretty creepy.

"Very." I say before moving on to the post. Finding… condiments behind it.

"Ketchup?" Frisk said, sounding as confused as I felt, and I turned my head to look at Sans. he was still standing in the same spot as before, carefully watching us. I didn't blame him for that. After all, we were a human. And I didn't really trust humans myself - except Frisk now. They were the only exception I was making currently though.

"Maybe it's San's, since Papyrus did just say this was his post." I guessed, tilting my head at him before shrugging. "Eh. I'm not gonna question if he has a tongue or not. Don't really wanna find out either."

"How would skeletons even eat? Wouldn't the food fall right through them?" Frisk questioned as we approached the main path, ready to set off once again.

"No, no, you misunderstand the concept of monster food. Remember when we ate that monster candy earlier? And you felt rejuvenated?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Monster food is magical - it converts what energy you would eventually get from the food into energy that can heal easily. Most monsters run on magic - skeletons also. That's how they stand up right despite not having any other organs and muscle to support them." I said matter of factly.

"You sure know a lot about this kinds of stuff."

"Well, I was literally raised by monsters - the King and Queen no less. I wanted to learn as much as I could about who I was living with and the monsters around me when I was younger." We were starting to head out of the area when I heard San's speak up again.

"actually, hey... hate to bother ya, but can you do me a favor? i was thinking… my brother's been kind of down lately… he's never seen a human before. and seeing you might just make his day. don't worry, he's not dangerous. even if he tries to be."

For a moment, I fell silent. "We're going to do it right? You did want to make his day earlier and reveal ourselves to him." Frisk pointed out.

"Of course we're going to do it… and I wasn't going to reveal us! Jeez!"

Seeing that we both agreed, Frisk nodded at Sans. "Sure!"

"Nice to see a comedian around!" I called after Frisk, and silently snickered to myself. "This is gonna be fun messing around with these skeletons. A skele-ton of fun, as Sans says himself."

"Seriously, re-using a pun he had just made a few minutes ago?" Frisk doesn't sound amused by my joke.

"thanks a million. i'll be up ahead." Sans said, before… heading back in the direction we came.

"... Uh." I watch him go. "... Up ahead? But he went … I'm not gonna question it." I shake our head.

"This is gonna be interesting…" Frisk murmured, before we both moved onward.

Sorry for the wait guys. I had finals after the last chapter I posted, and then I had absolutely no muse for this story up until recently. This chapter is a bit shorter than the last, but a bit longer than the rest of them. I hope to get a consistent amount of words done each chapter from now on, and only felt like the last chapter couldn't be broken down in any way possible, and that's why it stands at it's length.