Half-Tale: The Fallen

Chapter 4 - Strange Encounters

Half-Tale: The Fallen

Characters are not mine. Half-Life and Adrian Shephard belong to Valve Corporation, and Undertale and Chara Dreemurr belong to Toby Fox. Please support the official releases.

Chapter 4 – Strange Encounters

Take it slow.

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They were met with a rather unorthodox looking room, with the wall acting as a barrier almost crossing into the middle of the room but was stopped just short; there lied a posse of red flowers. On the red flowers lied something translucent.

Something akin to a traditional ghost.

"For real?" Adrian thought. He lifted his head up very slightly, his eyes still pinpointed on the ghost. "Now there's a ghost, I think."

"ZzZzZzZz..."

"And... he's sleeping...?"

"ZzZzZzZz..." a translucent, traditional ghost-like apparition continued to vocalise as they lied on the aforementioned red flowers. "ZzZzZzZz..."

Adrian lowered his head and turned to Chara and whispered. "Is he... is he saying the letter Z a bunch of times?"

Chara nodded, whispering back. "Yeah... They tend to do that to hide the fact that they're visible and stuff."

"They? I only see... Huh, yeah. Alright."

Chara floated over to where the ghost was, hovering above them as she puts her hands on her hips. "Hey, Napstablook! Time to get up, buddy."

"ZzZz... hum?"

The ghost's vocalisations cease.

"oh, chara?" Napstablook said in a monotonous tone, reorienting themselves to a proper upright position. They hovered ever so slightly over the ground. "you're looking a lot older than the last time i saw you. how long has it been?"

"Eh..." Chara tilted her head side to side for a second to indicate thought. "Last time you saw me, I was 15. Been a while since then. How's life? No snail races up right now in Waterfall? How's your cousin?"

"...no... i like coming here sometimes because it's really peaceful and quiet this side of the underground," Napstablook replied quickly, yet sombrely. "...especially when undyne is 'cooking' with papyrus over at her house; i find it really hard to listen to my music."

"...but you wouldn't know about papyrus; you should know about undyne, though," Napstablook continued. "and i... don't want to talk about my cousin."

The ghost turned to Adrian, changing the tone of the topic. "...who's this?"

"This is, ahem, Corporal Adrian Shephard! He's, eh... He's a soldier."

"I don't give out my name just to anyone, Chara," Adrian sighed. He didn't really mind all that much, but he would've preferred to give it himself. "...but yeah. Corporal Adrian Shephard, at your service."

"...a soldier, hm? like gerson?"

"You can say that, I guess. Think more modern, though," Chara nodded. "Anyways, we would appreciate it if you were to move out of the way. We'll meet up with you later in Waterfall."

"oh... am i in your way...? i'm sorry... it is nice to see you again, chara, and it's nice to meet you, adrian."

"Pleasure to meet you too, Napstablook."

The apparition then spontaneously dematerialised into nothingness, likely reappearing elsewhere in the Underground. Adrian tilted his head in curiosity, having several questions regarding what just happened, before he moved on, so he questioned Chara.