Half-Tale: The Fallen

Chapter 6 - The Cold

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 6 – The Cold

New faces bring new challenges.

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Adrian suddenly felt a rush of a chilly wind breeze past him.

"...Colder..."

The comfortable feeling of the RUINS and its various tight corridors decorating its section was suddenly and promptly cut off, like a flame being extinguished from a candle, lighting the way forward.

Impacting him immediately, he reacted aptly.

"...Yet colder."

The marine instinctively hugged himself, shivering ever so slightly. Even a marine wasn't entirely infallible to sudden changes in weather, no matter how much training they may go through to combat this weakness.

It's a matter of how used to it you would be.

Normally, Adrian wouldn't react this way in any case; he was a bona fide trained soldier, after all, trained in all matter of scenarios and combat situations. However, the sudden shift still disturbed him more than it normally would. He turned to Chara, who obviously seemed no worse for wear.

Adrian stifled a chuckle. "Can't feel any of this, huh? Lucky you."

The young woman turned to the man and smirked. "Perks of being a ghost. We can't feel... but there lies the damn downside. We can't feel."

"Fair trade-off."

"I don't think so."

"Well, you know more than me," Adrian thoughtlessly commented, pulling down his sleeves. Wherever he was stationed, it was always hot in some way, so he wasn't used to having them down very often. Raising his gaze, he saw Chara looking right back at him.

"What?"

She briefly looked at his sleeves, now rolled down and covering his forearms. "...It's not that cold."

"Like you'd know."

"Contrary to your belief, I was here before you, ya know."

"Maybe things have changed since the last time you were here alive."

"Yeah, right. Nothing ever changes 'round here... though with you around, I guess that'll change."

Adrian shrugged and took a singular step forward, taking note of his immediate surroundings.

It appeared he was surrounded by trees; or to be more specific, he was submerged in a plethora of dark oak woods, there seemingly being no deviant paths to take other than the one right in front of him, a gaped, obvious, opening covered in snow.

In the horizon, Adrian saw some semblance of light, but it was foggy.

The marine sucked his cheek and blinked. "No way but forward."

Right as he was going to press forward, he witnessed a slight glint disturb his vision ever so slightly on his left.

"Hang on, Corp. Check this ou-"

"Hold that thought."

Adrian paused. He slowly turned his head to his left, tilting it ever so slightly in curiosity. He stared at a large boulder intensely, as if he was expecting something to happen when he did. Something felt inherently off about it, though; it felt like the boulder was staring right back at him.