The Animals Inside

Chapter 8: Farmtale

^Credit to irodimmatcha.

Author's note: I don't know how, but now Flame can disappear and reappear at will, okay? I don't mean to be confusing, it's just as stated before: I'm too lazy to change what was written before to match new info. Also reminder: Frost is no longer you/reader. It's me. 'Themself' will be used when referring to myself aka Frost, and themselves will refer to more people when in Frost's POV. It's 12 am rn and I don't have anything to do, so here ya go. Before I forget, Flame is a he/him now. Frost also gave Flame a laurel. If you don't know what that is, it's basically a flower crown, except way fancier. You have to search laurel crown to find a picture though. Also, there's Frost's telepathy now, for when to separate independent thoughts and telepathic thoughts.

"Hello"- talking | (Hello)- muttering or whispering | "Hello"- yelling | "Hello"- unholy screeching *Hello*- thinking | =Hello= - Flame's telepathy | \Hello/- Frost's telepathy | Hello- emphasized

.・゜-: ✧☾✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧☽✧ :-゜・.

Frost woke up and called for Flame as they still didn't know where Flame was when he was gone since Flame was an expert at hiding his emotions and magical presence to the point where neither the Dreamtale brothers nor Black, the fellswap sans who went partially blind from an attack when he was a babybones, could sense him when he was hidden. (Look at "Reborn as a fellswap san and now I'm kinda blind!?" by KarmaAkabane425. Thanks Karma!) Flame was teaching Frost how to hide his emotions since Frost had a decent grip on hiding his magical presence. Others could detect it if they were careful since Frost could only hide it to the extent in which a person who was a bit more observant than normal could sense a presence. The person wouldn't know where the presence was, but they would soon know since they would get wary and more observant. 

"Yes Frost?" asked Flame, popping up behind Frost out of nowhere. This startled Frost, causing them to fall out of the tree they were sleeping in. "FLAME DON'T DO THAT! THAT SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME. YOU KNOW HOW TENSE I AM RIGHT NOW!" Oof. That sure hurt both of their sensitive ears. "Sorry Frost," said a Flame with flattened ears, paws pressing against them to give extra protection. "oof." There came a sudden sound, and Frost jumped up 5 feet into the air (literally) and landed back in the tree, successfully morphing into a cardinal, while Flame went back to being the semi-invisible being he was the night before when they encountered the Star Shits. (If you can't tell, I love that nickname, as well as The Bad Gays.) The sound came very squashed skeleton wearing floral-printed pants, a straw hat, work gloves, sandals, and a blue jacket. He got up, rubbing his spine, and looked around for whatever landed on him. A quick look through the codes (Error taught them how) told them that this was Farm, the Sans from Farmtale, the neutral AU that helped the Bad Gays destress, according to Error.

Farm POV: 

Oof. Biiiiig oof. *What landed on me?* I pondered. *There were two voices, one of them screeching so loud I might have grown ears.* I chuckled at that. "Heh, ears. Anyways, you two can come out. I know you're somewhere around since I didn't hear anything after you jumped off me, meaning neither of you two has moved from where you landed after jumping off me." I looked around as I said that, my gaze landing on a beautiful cardinal who seemed to be acting off. Upon closer inspection, the cardinal had a beautiful mark in the shape of a lotus on its chest (picture in Chapter 6: The Plush and Magic Learning) with swirls around it like a laurel. "Hello, dear. You don't seem like all the other cardinals I've seen before. Have you perhaps seen something that was just on me?" Even as I said this, I knew that the 'something' that was on top of me was the cardinal since the cardinal had the lotus mark, and I could sense magic in it, something that is abnormal in animals. The cardinal's head tilted to the side, and it looked a little to the right as if conversing with someone or something. Finally, the cardinal gave a slow nod and attempted to fly off.

The cardinal failed. Miserably. As I held in my giggles, I noticed that the cardinal seemed to have never flown before, which would be weird, as the branch couldn't be accessed by birds any other way. I opened my mouth as it landed, about to ask if it was okay and if it wanted food when the mark started to glow a faint, blue glow. (The human soul color in the picture. There is no reason for it being blue, other than me liking that shade of blue.) The glow was barely visible, but once I squinted and looked a bit closer, I could confirm that the mark was indeed glowing. (Holy flying corn on a purple squirrel) I mumbled, amazed, as the cardinal shifted into the form of a young skeleton. Shaking myself out of my trance, I went over and was about to offer it a place to rest and some of Papy's corn soup when I noticed that they had a pair of black-tipped fox ears, laid back against their skull, which had a web of cracks, along with a few holes, where small pieces dusted. "Are you okay 'ere partner?"

Flame POV:

"Are you okay 'ere partner?" I could tell that Farm wouldn't harm us. I don't know if it was because of Frost's cracks, or because of the pendant, which still had some of Error's siphoned magic. =Don't talk to Farm. He won't hurt you, but I still don't trust him.= \Okay Flame. What should I do? You told me to show him since this is Farm, but I also don't trust him./ From my place at the right side of Frost's skull, semi-invisible, meaning only Frost and others they let could see me, I glanced over him, judging. =He is relaxed-= \I know that. Just tell me what information I should tell him to get some actual food. I'm starving and our dust jar broke, back in that abandoned AU./ I... didn't know Frost could be authoritative. They've always relied on me to help, ever since they fully adapted to Sans's body. =Keep staring at him, and stay 2 feet away. Don't look at me. He noticed when you were a cardinal. Then, quietly mumble that you're hungry. He'll probably take you to his house and feed you.= \Okay./ "I-i'm f-fine." Frost stuttered out. Farm blinked, he most likely thought that Frost couldn't speak after they didn't reply for the time we were telepathically talking to each other. "C-can I have s-some f-food?" Farm smiled a nice, warm smile. " 'Course partner. You seemed hungry 'nough ta eat a lion." Frost continued staring at him, their expression being the only thing that changed on their face, going from a distrustful look to a more wary one. "Follow me, partner," said Farm. Frost stared for a bit, before following behind. Farm looked back to give a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, you'll get all the food ya want, ya just gotta walk for a little."

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~Toodles!