Undertale

Chapter 8: Never Trust a Flower

(Waterfall is going to be such a long chapter, I decided to make this its own.)

I began to walk back down the path where I'd fought Papyrus. On the other side of the mist, the snow gave way to blue grass by the side of the river. I followed the river, walking along a path of blue rock. Waterfalls fell from high cliffs, spraying me with cool water. I found myself on a cliff ledge encased by blue rock, forming a sort of room. A waterfall fell over the side of the cliff face, from a stream that must run underneath the rock. In this room was an orange, fish-like monster, the Monster Kid, and Sans at his sentry-station-hot-dog-stand-thing (which still had snow on it).

The sound of rushing water fills me with determination.

"Yo! Are you sneaking out to see her, too?" the Moster Kid asked.

"Her...?"

"Awesome! She's the coolest, right!?"

"Who?"

"I wanna be just like her when I grow up..."

I remembered what the duck monster said in Grillby's. He said that all the kids wanted to be like Undyne, the leader of the royal guard, because she beat up people. "Oh, you mean Undyne?"

Monster Kid nodded excitedly. "Hey, don't tell my parents I'm here. Ha ha."

The orange fish-like monster was standing next to a light blue, bioluminecent flower. The flower seemed to be speaking. "This is an echo flower," said the monster. "It repeats the last thing it heard, over and over...Neat, huh?" The flower repeated his words. "Never trust a flower..." said the monster, "that's one of the constants of this world."

I nodded in agreement, thinking of a different flower; a yellow one with a face.

I walked over Sans' sentry station. "Sans, what are you doing here? Aren't you a sentry in Snowdin?"

"what? haven't you seen a guy with two jobs before? fortunately, two jobs means twice as many legally-required breaks."

"Oh, is that why?"

"i'm going to grillby's. wanna come?"

"Oh, uh, sure, Sans."

"well, if you insist, i'll pry myself away from my work," Sans joked. "over here. i know a shortcut." I followed Sans further down the path. I couldn't imagine what his "shortcut" could be, but I took his gloved hand and about a second later, we were standing in Grillby's. "fast shortcut, huh?"

"Sans, can you tele—"

"hey, everyone."

"Hey, Sans," said one of the dogs.

"Hi, Sans!" said another dog.

"Greetings, Sans!" said the monster with the big teeth.

"Hiya, Sansy," said the inebriated bunny.

"Hey Sans, weren't you just here for breakfast a few minutes ago?" the fish monster asked.

"nah, i haven't had breakfast in at least half an hour."

"Sans!" I said.

Sans winked. "you must be thinking of brunch."

"Sans!"

"here, get comfy," Sans said to me. We sat on stools at the bar. I heard a loud, disgusting farting sound. "whoops, watch where you sit down. sometimes weirdos put whoopie cushions under the seats."

"Weirdos like you?"

"anyway, let's order. whaddaya want?"

"Well, a burger and fries would be fine..."

"hey, that sounds pretty good. grillby, we'll have a double order of burg."

Grillby left the bar and went through a door behind it.

"so, what do you think of my brother?"

"He's pretty cool."

"of course he's cool. you'd be cool too if you wore that outfit every day. he'd only take that thing off if he absolutely had to. oh well. at least he washes it. and by that i mean he wears it in the shower." I laughed as Grillby came back with our food "here comes the grub. want some ketchup?"

"Yes please."

Sans winked. "bone appitite." I tipped the ketchup. The cap fell of and all the ketchup poured onto my food. "whoops. eh, forgeddaboudit. you can have mine. i'm not hungry anyway."

"Oh, no, Sans, it's fine..."

"anyway, cool or not, you have to agree papyrus tries real hard. like how he keeps trying to be part of the royal guard. one day, he went to the house of the head of the royal guard, and begged her to let him be in it. of course, she shut the door on him because it was midnight."

I laughed and sighed. "Papyrus..."

"but the next day, she woke up and saw him still waiting there. seeing his dedication, she decided to give him warrior training. it's, uh, still a work in progress." Sans paused. "oh yeah, i wanted to ask you something. have you ever heard of a talking flower?"

It seemed to me as though everything went quiet. "Uh... echo flowers?"

"so you know all about it. the echo flower. they're all over the marsh. say something to them, and they'll repeat it over and over. what about it? well, papyrus told me something interesting the other day. sometimes, when no one else is around... a flower appears and whispers things to him. flattery... advice... encouragement... predictions. weird, huh? someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on him."

I felt my stomach steadily sinking. Somehow, I knew that it wasn't an echo flower.

"keep an eye out, okay?"

"I will."

"thanks. welp, that was a long break. i can't believe i let you pull me away from work for this long. oh, by the way... i'm flat broke. can you foot the bill? it's just 10000 gold."

"SANS!" I cried, sounding just like Papyrus. "I can't afford that! You should have told me sooner!"

"just kidding. grillby, put it on my tab." I sighed in relief. As we were walking out, Sans said, "by the way... i was going to say something, but i forgot."

        As I walked back to the marsh, I thought about what Sans and the orange fish-monster had said. 'Never trust a flower... that's one of the constants of this world.' I felt uneasy.