Chapter Text
You jumped forward, but as you did, you turned around, resulting in your ass meeting the cold ground. Temmie cowered in your jacket, mumbling 'scary skeleton' and the occasional mention of the name 'Papyrus'. said nothing as you stared at the skeleton in front of you, at least bearing a good seven feet tall, wearing black jeans, an orange turtle neck while over that he wore a thick black jacket that bore plenty of white fluff around the hood, looking quite warm. His ever-present grin was lazy, one of his fangs on the left side was a gold tooth. His eyes were half-lidded, almost as if he was tired and didn't really care about anything, small white pinpricks acting as pupils, trained on you. His hands were stuffed into his jacket pockets and a cigarette floated in front of his mouth.
He didn't say anything to add to his previous statement but instead studied you, eyes occasionally lingering on your piercings. You kept your hold on Temmie as you stood again, using one hand to brush off snow from your pants. His eyes met yours, keeping contact until you decided to break the silence.
"Are you gonna kill me, so I should run now?" You cocked your head to the side, taking a small step back, hardly noticeable by those who didn't pay attention. The monster took a quick glance at your feet, then back at you, shrugging shortly.
"Temmie thinks that Temmie's new friend should run," Temmie stated quietly, "Papyrus is one of the scariest monsters in Snowdin, alongside his brother."
"you do realize, cat, that even without ears I can hear you?" The said skeleton, Papyrus, growled, taking a short drag from his cigarette.
Temmie squeaked and burrowed into your jacket. You laughed softly and rubbed the back of your neck, turning away as you held Temmie up with one arm. Papyrus stared at the lump under your jacket for a moment before raising his eyes and extending a hand towards you. Hesitantly, you took it, raising an eyebrow at him as you did.
"i'm papyrus. papyrus the skeleton." Papyrus introduced, pulling his hand back without taking his eye sockets off you. "you're a human, right?"
You nodded silently and took another step back, glancing out of the corner of your eye as the second figure, smaller than Papyrus, stalked up upon you two. Three if you counted Temmie.
Papyrus, seemingly not wanting you to be aware of the figure, pulled your attention back by asking, "so what's another human doing down here?"
Looking back at the tall skeleton, you tightened your hold on the cat/dog monster in your arms, shifting your stance slightly so you could run at any point. Papyrus seemed oblivious as you shrugged, glancing once more at the figure that was getting closer. It seemed shorter than Papyrus, was carrying something that seemed to be like a sword, spear?, shaped like a bone with a really sharp point. You returned your gaze to Papyrus and sighed.
"Guess just looking around? Possibly gonna get myself killed but..." You paused for effect, allowing the figure to get a bit closer, then raised one hand to your forehead like a salute. "Gotta blast!"
Without giving him a second to figure out what you meant, you dashed away, clinging to Temmie, who squealed into your shirt, kicking up snow as you ran.
"YOU IDIOT, PAPYRUS! YOU LET HIM GET AWAY. HELP ME CATCH THE HUMAN!"
You didn't decide to look back, guessing the voice belonged to the figure that was walking over. You stumbled over your own feet, the cold numbing your legs to where you couldn't feel them, causing you to trip over yourself. You were never good at running, track wasn't your best thing in gym at school, seeing how you never really tried and stuck back with a few girls that didn't try as well. Easily, you were out of breath and ready to be done.
Adding to the stress of the situation, sharp bones flew around you, landing in the snow, missing you by mere inches. With a loud yelp and startled jump, you missed your step, stumbling to the side where you slammed into a tree, falling back as a bunch of snow fell onto you. Temmie shivered in your jacket, trying to force herself further into your chest for heat you didn't have to spare.
"Human! You have been caught by me, the Magnificent and Terrible Sans. You must come with us without-"
"Okay." You shivered and you stood and shook the snow off your body, keeping Temmie close.
"Struggling and- Wait, what?"
Sans' loud voice softened into confusion as he stared at you in disbelief. The, at least, 5'8" monster shifted a bit as he contemplated what to say, Papyrus striding behind him.
"a little tongue-tied there, eh m'lord?"
The handle end of Sans' bone sword, thing, smacked Papyrus' skull, a groan emitting itself from the male skeleton. The shorter of the two skeletons glared up at him.
"Papyrus, I'm warning you now, don't test me or I will dust you." One look at Sans' expression and you knew he wasn't kidding.
You started backing away as the two brothers glared at each other, although Papyrus seemed to be backing down under Sans' gaze, submitting to the 'Alpha Male'. You just continued to take short steps away, hushing Temmie as she started worrying again. Even you had started worrying, gnawing on your lip rings as you started to doubt that you would be able to get away. Sans would probably make you into a human-kabob. Doubting was probably the best thing you were good at in life. That, and also being very anxious. Anxiety was your best friend.
"Human," Sans didn't even turn to face you, but his dark tone stopped you in your tracks. "I'm giving you one warning, just like my lazy-bone brother, and if you don't take heed to that warning, he is not the only one being dusted."
In an instant, your feet started moving on their own, running into the forest. Sans and Papyrus both shouted after you a few of the sharpened bones impaling the ground behind you and to the side. Temmie screeched, harming your eardrums as it rang throughout your skull. The crunching of snow beneath your feet was drastically loud, syncing in with the footsteps behind you that grew louder each second. The fear dawdling in your system grew to great lengths, outweighing your common sense, adding to your adrenaline, pushing you further. Your legs were moving on their own with no intention to stop, even if your breath was labored and short, your lungs burning with a fire that was greater than any pain you've experienced. Beads of sweat crawled down your neck and forehead, sometimes irritating your eyes with the salt it carried. Your throat felt like sandpaper rubbing harshly against more sandpaper, the dry feeling becoming more intense as it clawed at your windpipe.
So this was what it felt like to be in a life or death situation. You hated- no, that was an understatement- you loathed the feeling with a burning passion brighter than any sun you could think of. You doubted even the word loath would be an accurate description of the hatred burning inside you. Just the thought of being in this situation caused your stomach to rise to your throat, the acid burning your already scorched mouth. You forced back the feeling of throwing up.
You forced yourself on, becoming a bit light-headed, stumbling a lot more frequently, the cold air whipping at your cheeks. You couldn't hear the brothers behind you anymore, nor could you see much of anything anymore. The wind had picked up, snow falling more frequently and faster obstructing any and all ability to see past your hands, which had turned a very disturbing color of blue. Stumbling over your own numb feet, you slowed the run into a slow walk, working to clench and unclench your hands but to no avail. At this rate, you'd have to cut them off due to frostbite but that would require you to find a doctor.
It was cold, and with the cold came exhaustion. The need to stop and sit down, close your eyes, and rest just a little bit but you knew the consequences if you did. Hypothermia was a bitch to deal with, then again so was hyperthermia but you weren't dealing with that right now. You didn't have the right clothing for this weather, nor did you really have anything. What you did have was less than ideal for this situation, seeing as none of the clothing was meant for winter wear. It wasn't a situation you were prepared to be in at all.
Moving became much more of a struggle, your legs hardly making any progress through the never-ending forest. The wind was inconsistent, starting up and howling like a madman then slowing down to a soft lull; the snow fell along with the same pattern but that was to be expected with the wind. Any footprint you had left behind was quickly swept away; good when you're running away but horrible when you're about to die. You didn't know whether or not anyone would find you or if anyone was even nice enough to save you. The first three Monsters you've come across have all tried to kill you, minus Papyrus really, he was just there.
You could barely keep your eyes open any longer, much less move, finally stopping and collapsing. Your knees, though, never hit the ground, a pressure pushing up under your armpits as you were lifted and maneuvered into a position easier to carry with Temmie on your chest.
Right, Temmie. In your hazy state of mind, you couldn't tell if she was alive or not but she was still there.
Whoever held you shifted a bit, an arm under your back and the other under your knees. It was a bit surprising that you could even feel it but then again, you couldn't exactly feel what it was, just where your weight was being held.
Other than that, someone was saving you? There was nothing out here, how would someone know you were here and save you? The only Monsters that seemingly knew you were out here...
The last of your thoughts faded away with your consciousness, the wind dying down, and the only words left that you had heard being:
"you did well, kid."