The Mountain East (An Undertale Fanfiction)

Chapter 26

A gray tinge replaced the vastly recognized monotone purple as the party of four neared their destination. A house, replicated almost one-to-one of the one in the former capital, stood majestically in the middle of the buzzling metropolis. Monsters could be seen working away, polishing furniture, heaving objects into their new abodes.

Asgore stumbled slightly as he approached his new residence, his right hand clutching at his stomach as he staggered forward. Toriel held onto his other hand worriedly, anxious for the sudden frailty he showed. Asriel was merrily bounding towards the house, unaware of the situation unfolding behind him.

"Gorey, are you sure about doing it today?" Toriel asked. Her purple robes now stood out against the gray landscape. The mauve Delta rune imprinted on it looked relatively bleak and unorthodox as the purple it once complimented largely disappeared. "We can always move tomorrow. The innkeeper said there'd be side effects for at least another two weeks, give or take."

Asgore bent down and kissed Toriel, her face adding a new palette of red to the portrait and landscape. Her blush was more one of surprise than a flustered one however, as she was no stranger to sudden affection. Chara glanced away, though for their privacy or of embarrassment, even she did not know. "Tori, it has to be today. What ruler never delivers a promise to his people? It would be like if a king missed his own coronation."

Toriel frowned but gave a look of understanding. "I'm sure they would understand. You needn't raise your voice to be heard, suffer to please." Chara nodded in agreement, having heard exactly none of it.

Chara looked back at a sudden crash of noise that seemingly materialized out of nowhere, followed by the yelping of a high-pitched voice and a chuckle of a deep one. The sound of boxes crumpling to the ground and wood hitting earth barely drowned out the two voices' argument.

"Sans! Look what you've done!" The high reedy voice of Papyrus overcame the thundering orchestra of noise behind them.

"hey, give me a break, paps. i've never been here before, so it ain't my fault if I teleport us seven feet off the ground. the whole city is literally just monotone gray, I can barely tell air from ground. it's all a bit plane if you ask me."

Both Chara and Papyrus physically shrunk in size as Sans unleashed the pun to torment his brother. The former shrunk from loss of air in their lungs, the latter from loss of pride.

"Hello brothers! What brings you here? I thought you would rather have stayed in Snowdin." Asgore waved at them, his posture regaining its straight normality.

"I, uh, enlisted the help of Papyrus and Sans to assist in our shift to new home." Toriel couldn't help but chuckle at Sans' pun, despite the obvious sense of hate for puns in the air.

"Yes! Lady Asgore has kindly offered me cooking lessons in return for our fruitful efforts!" Papyrus said, thankful for his attention span of... well, none, to be distracted. Sans decided that he was too lazy to correct his brother for the seventeenth time. Papyrus shuffled closer to Chara and raised one hand to funnel sound into her right ear. Despite his attempt at secrecy, his reedy voice seemed to ring out throughout the vicinity. "You should come by to try some of my cooking masterpieces sometime, human. Once I have perfected the royal technique of spatula wielding, I shall truly ascend to spaghetti heaven!"

This sprouted several laughs from the party of five, now six as Asriel returned from his solo tour, possibly called back by the magnet of a voice Papyrus possessed.

"sorry if I broke anything in those boxes, tori." Sans addressed her and turned his head slightly to gesture at the mountain of packages behind them.

Toriel shook her head and laughed. "It's alright, Sans. I don't have a bone to pick with you."

Both Sans and Asgore laughed in return, and Chara laughed at Papyrus' expression as all hope for peace and prosperity was seemingly sucked out of him. Asriel started to tug on his dad's cloak, trying to get his attention.