Shadowtale (Undertale AU)

Chapter I || A world fallen into darkness

(Shadow's POV)

I sat alone between the trees, just watching. I was rocking back and forth on the edge of sleep, fighting to keep my eyes open. I CAN'T fall asleep. It's my job to scout Snowdin, and I can't afford to not care. No one can anymore. 

If you don't work, you die. Maybe the stupid flower was right. Kill or be killed. It seems like how it is now, at least. It scares me, almost, thinking about what this place used to be. We were happy, well, as happy as we could be. But now it's all gone to hell.

The Undying are running rampant, killing whoever they want and stealing food from people, the Resistance is trying, fairly unsuccessfully, to stop them, the king isn't doing anything about anything anymore, and I'm sitting here alone in the cold snow, watching for a human that's never going to come.

I was broken of my tired stupor by the sound of a loud grinding noise, followed by timid footsteps.

No.

It can't be

A human hasn't fallen in years

And there's no way it's Toriel, she wouldn't leave this place if she was bribed to.

So, it must be...something else.

Anything else,

but...

There it is.

A human, clear as day, not that I would know how clear that is in the first place.

It was rather short and small, just a child. Its sweater was too big for it and fell over its hands and even came down past its waist. Its knees were shaking from the cold, and it looked around timidly.

I shifted in place, uncomfortable from sitting on my tailbone for too long, but the slight rustle caused the human to look around violently and stare into my face.

But, unlike this creature, I know how to blend into darkness, so I closed my eye and breathed slowly, dimming the glowing dots across my face. 

The human stayed looking at where I had disappeared for several seconds before moving on. I carefully glided alongside it, quiet as a passing breeze. I followed as the human slowly made its way down the cold path to Snowdin and over the rickety bridge.

Most was quiet, but for the blowing of wind and crush of snow beneath the human's feet as we entered Snowdin, but on came an almost rumbling shake that rattled the human where it stood.

Of course, the Undying had to show up now, right when I was getting somewhere. I saw the human look worried, its steps faltering. Fine then. I silently hop down into an alley beside the human, still not visible to it.

Oh, it's totally gonna scream, I think to myself, annoyed. Fine. In a quick motion, I cup one hand around the human's mouth and one around its chest, pulling it out of the pathway and into the alley. It yelped, but it was muffled by my hand.

"Don't scream, don't move." I said in a harsh whisper. The human went still with fear, not wanting to disobey me, unaware of my intentions. I watch as a crowd of people go prowling by, muttering to each other about 'finding a human' and how you 'just have to sniff e'm out.' I see most of the canine unit today, not accompanied by their stupid little leader. I stand stiffly, waiting for them to move on. 

(Frisk's POV)

When the group had gone, whoever had grabbed onto me let go. I turned around quickly to see who it was. 

They were tall, taller than me, but not as tall as Toriel. They were mostly obscured in shadow, but I instantly recognized the face as belonging to whoever was watching me from the darkness back outside of the ruins. Their face was mostly obscured by a bandanna and a large hood, but I could tell that they had black eyes with slit white pupils. Well, one eye that I could see. The other was closed. I know only skeletons have glowing pupils like that, so I at least know what kind of monster this person is.

"A-Are you S-Sans?" I asked, remembering the skeleton Toriel had told me about. The figure moved very quickly towards me, slamming a hand into the wall beside my face and pressing a blade into the bottom of my jaw, barely enough to draw blood.

"Don't you ever, EVER, call me that." They hissed, so close I could feel their breath on my face. I squeaked in fear and winced against the knife on my neck. The figure drew away, still bristling with anger. He licked the edge of his blade, drawing the blood off of it. He had fangs that looked sharp enough to pierce my skull.

Though it was dark, I could still make out what he looked like. He was wearing a dark purple sweater and a black hooded cape that was purple on the inside. His pants were black with a single white stripe on the sides, and tucked into tall, purple boots. His face was mostly concealed by a dark bandanna with stars on it and his hood, but I could make out his glowing pupils, and rows of glowing turquoise dots that ran from the bridge of his nose upward, two that looked like round animal-like eyebrows, and four below each eye. His left eye was closed, a long scar drawn across it from the edge of his jaw to just over the bridge of his nose. the dots underneath the scar glowed slightly more feebly than the others.

"W-Who are y-y-you then?" I asked, now even more afraid of whoever this was.

"It's Shadow to you, pipsqueak. Who are you?"

"O-Oh, I'm Frisk."

"Huh. Fine, I guess I have some explaining to do." He said, apparently resigned to explaining some long, complicated story. "Right, where to start. Well, if you're from the surface and haven't been living under a rock, you've probably been told about us monsters down here." His voice had an undertone of venom to it. "Things haven't been going very well. There's no light, and no food. People eventually started fighting over what few resources we have, leading to all-out pandemonium among the monsters. The captain of the royal guard, Undyne, revolted and formed a gang of ex-royal guardsmen called the Undying. They run around stealing from people, sometimes even killing ones who put up a fight. In retaliation, I, and several others formed the Resistance, working toward stopping the Undying from murdering everyone. The Undying have been trying to find a human that's fallen down here for a while, for either food or glory. You're lucky they didn't catch you right then. You would've been dead meat. It would be difficult to gather everyone together right now, so we're going to have to wait for a scheduled meeting. The next one is in a few days, so we'll have to get comfortable for the time being." Shadow finished

"Wow, that's...a lot." I said, trying to take it all in at once.

"Well, if you don't get it, too bad because I'm not explaining it again." Shadow said.

Rude.

Shadow turned to give me a stern look. 

"Stay here. Don't make a sound. I'm going to get some stuff, so don't die."

"Ooookay?"

Shadow turned back around and, almost ghostlike, hopped up a tall pile of crates and onto the roof of a building, his cape fluttering behind him. He sprinted away silently, cape billowing as he ran and jumped across rooftops. I watched him go in awe.

As soon as he was out of sight, I looked back to the alley I was in. It was dark and cold, chill wind blowing past. There was the pile of empty crates against the back wall that Shadow had climbed up, and that was about all. The ground was muddy and snowy, so I opted for sitting and waiting on a crate.

And so, I waited, still taking in all the information that had been dumped on me.

(1294 words)