Were We Doomed From The Start?

14.- Encounter

When they got out of the tall grass, they tried to leave to the next room but a monster child ran out from the grass, trying to talk to Ninja, having already seen Shadow and Gaster. Shadow hid behind Ninja, acting like a normal shadow as Gaster attached himself to the ceiling before the monster kid could look at them again.

"Yo...did you see the way she was staring at you...?
That...

...was AWESOME!
I'm SOOOO jealous!
What'd you do to get her attention...?
Ha ha.
C'mon! Let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!"

It said before running ahead of Ninja, tripping then getting back up and running off again.

"This creature will certainly be a nuisance later."
Ninja thought to himself.

A feeling of dread hung over both Ninja and Shadow, but they stayed determined nonetheless. Shadow's face became more detailed and he could feel it, turning away in an attempt to hide his face.
Gaster jumped down from the ceiling and Shadow came out from the tall grass, still looking away in an attempt to hide his face. He walked over to Ninja and lightly tugged on the jacket, getting Ninja's attention before he walked away. Ninja turned to look at Shadow, seeing how his face had gotten more detail. Shadow stared at Ninja for a few seconds, as if asking for some words of reassurance.

Ninja stared back, unsure of what to say. He reached out, paused for a few seconds then pat him on the head before walking over to the next room, Gaster holding out his hand to hold Shadow's as they also went to the next room.

In said next room, there were four flowers and a sign, explaining how they need to be lined up to bloom.
Ninja grabbed two and placed them in the water, giving them a small push to try and complete the path across the water, then grabbing the other two, lining them up and they bloomed, allowing them to cross. Ninja checked his map in the next room, going to the left and looking at Shadow.

Shadow looked over at him then the deep water that they needed to cross, avoiding the time lost by lining up flowers.
Ninja got a head start and jumped across, while Gaster grabbed Shadow and simply stepped over it, making it look fairly easy.

In the following room, there were Echo Flowers and signs on the wall. Ninja went over to the closest Echo Flower and leaned in, listening to what it echoed.

"A long time ago, monsters would whisper their wishes to the stars in the sky.
If you hoped with all your heart, your wish would come true.
Now, all we have are these sparkling stones on the ceiling..."

Ninja read the sign as he went over to the next flower.
"WISHING ROOM" it read. He listened to the next flower.

"Thousands of people wishing together can't be wrong! The king will prove that."

Shadow floated over to listen in as Ninja went over to the other two flowers.

"C'mon, sis! Make a wish!"

"I wish my sister and I will see the real stars someday..."

Ninja went over to check the telescope as Shadow listened to the flower at the end of the hallway. "Ahh...seems my horoscope is the same as last week's..."

Shadow rolled his eyes and went over to Ninja, who was walking over to a wall. He looked at Gaster, who shrugged. They followed Ninja to the wall, and he put his hand on it, as if waiting for something. Gaster opened his mouth to speak but right as he did, the wall opened like a door. It led to a hallway, with ancient writing covering the walls.
Ninja walked over, put down his backpack and handed some stuff to Shadow for him to hold, quickly getting out his journal and ink to write it down, putting the rest of his stuff back into the backpack, putting it on then reading the writing on the wall, taking note of it.

"The War of Humans and Monsters."

"Why did the humans attack? Indeed, it seemed that they had nothing to fear. Humans are unbelievably strong. It would take the SOUL of nearly every monster...

...just to equal the power of a single human SOUL."

"But humans have one weakness. Ironically, it is the strength of their SOUL. Its power allows it to persist outside the human body, even after death."

"If a monster defeats a human, they can take its SOUL. A monster with a human SOUL... A horrible beast with unfathomable power."

On the next sign, there was an illustration of a strange creature...there was something very unsettling about this drawing, making Ninja slightly back up as he stopped writing, trying to avoid letting Shadow see it, pulling him away from even going near it as Gaster following behind, seeing it and observing it casually as if he had seen worse.
There was a small floating platform ahead, so Shadow went around it, floating over the abyss instead. Gaster offered for Ninja to go first, but he refused, insisting Gaster go first. It took a few minutes, but they reached a conclusion, both on it at the same time, Gaster holding Ninja in his arms which allowed them to both cross relatively quickly.

They were on a dark bridge, pillars to the left side, just across the slightly shallow water that was on both sides and under them. As they walked down this darkening bridge, Shadow tried to strike up a conversation, but Ninja quickly hushed him, claiming he felt like they were being followed.
Both Shadow and Gaster were startled, looking around frantically as Ninja tried to get them to not draw too much attention while picking up the pace.

As he started to pick up the pace, almost to the point he was running, he stopped, pulling Shadow back, just in time as a spear fell down right in front of Shadow, only barely missing him, suddenly and violently cutting off the tip of a lock of his hair.

His lock of hair fell to the ground as he stood in fear, the spear in his face, seeing his reflection off it and slightly clouding up a part of it with his heavy breath.