“Are you sure about this?” the small skeleton mumbled under his breath, “We should of just stayed in Snowdin and worked on theoretical quantum physics questions…”
“Stop hyperventilating and start helping if you’re so worried. Here, cut a few samples of this bioluminescent flower. I’ll go get a few soil and water samples”
Sans looked at the pair of scissors in his hands. Purple. Such a childish colour. But then again, despite her apathetic speech and her surprisingly vast knowledge on just about any topic, she was still a ten year old. But he couldn’t say much as he himself was only thirteen but already had a job as the assistant to the Royal Scientist, W.D Gaster.
“Don’t forget to snip the stem at a 45° angle or it won’t last as long and we’ll have to make another trip here.” Her voice echoed in the empty cavern. “Can you also dig up a whole one so we can take it back to the house?”
“Sure… just, hurry up.... before someone sees you.” His eyes darted around field of echo flowers. No one around, good. Sans then talks his attention to her, crouched by the water’s edge filling her bottle with the glowing water. Beside her was her ballpoint pen and spiral notebook filled with her observations. All was calm and quiet for a second, but... only just a second.
In one single flash, she was down on the ground, a spear through her torso. A pair of sharp, yellow eyes looked down upon this sight from one of the bridges.
Sans rushed to her side. Her HP was draining but at a surprisingly slow rate. Too slow according to her attacker as a shower of spears came at them. With one swipe, he covered the two of them with his blaster and sent an arrow-like bone in the general direction. He heard a scream of pain and a loud thud.
She tugged at his jacket. For the first time Sans saw a different side of her. She was in pain, she was crying, she was scared. On inspection of the open wound, they both knew the inevitable. What was surprising was the fact that she should have been gone instantly. Yet, she was still here.
Slowly, so ever slowly did the life drain out of her. She bit on her lip and stared into Sans’s eyes. Her glasses were in arm’s reach, the lens cracked and the frame bent. Her notebook in the water, wet and abandoned.
Sans tried to hug her but she pushed him away. After the initial shock, she was back to her poker face. Sans wondered how that was even possible for a person not to be so broken in a time like this?. He just had to ask.
“Are you not afraid?”
“No.” she sighed. “Fear, especially fear of death is extremely illogical. We will all die someday so what’s the point of being afraid?”
“But to many it’s the fear of dying that makes them to keep on living. That’s the point of being afraid.”
“True, though you stated many. Therefore there are still some that don’t. I guess that’s what makes me special huh?”
“Yeah. You sure are a special one. But I find one flaw in your thinking, if you say you are not afraid then why are you still here?”
“Perseverance. Instead of a fear of death, I have a hope to keep on living. I hope that I’ll survive this, I hope that I’ll grow up and become old. A hope that one day we’ll climb this mountain we’re buried under.”
These words still haunt him as he walks to the very spot. It’s always quiet here by the water’s edge. The echo flowers taunt him with that very voice of a lost friend. It was raining somewhere else on that day the blue water turned red and the violets were purple. But today, it’s raining here.
