Knighttale

Forest Encounter

The vessel climbs back up, clicking and chirping while moving. They end up at the cavern opening, climbing up and wandering the forest before sitting under the covering of a couple of large trees.

Early the next day, Undyne and Alphys are on a walk through the woods, having a conversation. 

"..I'm just saying, the m-multiverse theory isn't nearly as far-fetched as it s-sounds," Alphys says, stuttering nervously as usual. 

"I get it, Al, all I was saying is it sounds crazy, is all. I do believe you, and I didn't mean to sound like I didn't." Alphys sees a bit of a dark bubbly liquid as Undyne says the last part, and stops. After a moment, Undyne notices and stops as well, asking "Is there something wrong Al?"

Alphys takes a few steps over to the liquid, crouching and looking at it "This doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before"

"It's probably just from an animal or rot from an old fruit, don't worry about it," Undyne says, shrugging.

Unsatisfied with that answer, Alphys grabs a small scraper, collecting a little bit of it and putting it in a tube. 

"It doesn't look like rot," Alphys says. They both a loud rustling from large tree branches and a cr crunching of fallen leaves. "!!! I think there's s-something ahead, I s-saw something move."

"We're in the woods Al, it's probably just an animal. If it'll make you feel better though, I'll go take a look for you." Undyne says, stepping out towards the source of the noise, looking around for anything.

"B-be careful Undyne!" Alphys says, watching from a distance.

"It's alright Al, there's-...." Undyne takes a few more steps.

"Un-Undyne?" Alphys shakily calls out.

After a moment Undyne responds "There's an odd-looking fella sleeping..? They're not moving at all." she crouches down, gently shaking them by the shoulder. "Hey bud, you shouldn't be sleeping out here."

The vessel jolts up partway, slashing at Undyne "HEY!! CALM.DOWN." she loudly says, as she jumps back summoning a spear and blocking the slash. 

"Undyne!" Alphys squeaks, panicked. The vessel tries to stand before collapsing. They try again twice before giving up and backing up as much as they can against the tree.

At this, Undyne drops her spear, letting it dissipate "Wait...you're hurt...I just scared you, didn't I.." She takes out her phone and dials a number. Alphys slowly approached, seeing a hair-think crack going from the top of the vessel's left eye to over their horn.

At this point Undyne has called the local hospital, saying "Undyne here. Alphys and I ran into someone who's pretty hurt while on a walk in the Ebott Forest. I don't know what happened but they're...bleeding... a lot. I can't move them without worsening their injuries and they're pretty spooked.

We'll send someone over, I'm pulling the exact location from your phone's GPS now. Please stay on the call."

"Alright, I will, and I'll do what I can to stop the bleeding." Undyne puts the phone on speaker, setting it on the ground "Alphys, do you have anything to wrap with?"

Alphys shakily opens her bag, rummaging through it in a bit of a panic "I th-think so." It takes a minute, then she pulls out a roll of bandage wrap and gauze "W-will this work?"

Undyne takes both rolls, saying "Yes, they will," starting to wrap the Vessel's side and chest. "Thank you, Al." She pauses, spotting something in their side "...They've got some kind of....ball made of spikes in their side.  It looks like this ball was stabbed in their chest, was dislodged, then stabbed back in lower in their side."

"Alright, leave that alone. Removing or moving it will worsen the bleeding and could cause further injury." The lady on the phone says.

After a few minutes, a small team arrives with a wheeled hospital stretcher. Two of them step in, picking up the vessel and getting them stabilized and on the stretcher. The last member approaches Alphys and Undyne, asking "Do you know what could have happened? Or their name?" 

"I just found them like this, and I've never seen them before. All I know is they're pretty cut up and have a spike ball in their side. They haven't said anything." 

One of the team members shines a small light in the vessel's eyes "Can you hear me?" they weakly chirp in response to the voice. The team gets them to the ambulance, getting them to the hospital to help them better.