Undertale - A Second Chance

A Time to Gather

The living room was silent except for the ticking of the clock and the sounds of cars on the highway and birds in the trees outside.

Ray sat on the couch in the living room alone, holding his broken sword in his hand and scrolling through a page on his laptop.

Ray had decided that it was time that he figured out what era his sword came from so he was looking up different sword styles throughout history to see if he could find a look alike.

He looked at Claymores, Scimitars, and Shotels and could find nothing until he began to look far, far back.

Then, reading an article about the Iron Age, he saw it.

A short, double-edged straight iron sword with a leaf-like shape.

It was a Celtic La T'ene short sword.

The Celtics...Ray had heard that name just the day before!

Fascinating...a basketball team has their own kind of weaponry!

Ray chuckled at the obviously incorrect notion then sighed and ran a hand through his hair, trying to cling to that temporary light of humor. It was one of the first he had had in several days.

The discovery of his family's gravesite had sent Ray into a silent stupor for the rest of the day. When he had finally ceased crying at his family's grave, he had sat up, his arms limp and his eyes half shut, not emoting at all and hardly acknowledging those around him, including both Sans and Asriel.

All of Ray's family and friends were deeply concerned for Ray when he had come home and did not say a word.

The next day was much the same in that Ray did not speak much but at the end of the day, this streak was broken when Ray, while sitting next to Asriel and Frisk, suddenly embraced his two step-siblings and said simply, "I'm so sorry...I love ya'll," as tears ran down his face.

The next day, Ray had a few conversations with his family about his current state.

The day after that, Ray had smiled at a joke Sans had told Toriel in a text.

This day, Ray had decided that he couldn't hide what was happening around him. He had called Sans and told him about his dreams and apologized for not taking things seriously. Sans of course had told him "eh, fuhgeddaboudit, 's all good, kid."

Sans then told him that he, Ray and Asriel should meet up and have a "chat".

Ray agreed that more had to be shared but he was surprised that Asriel be in the conversation. When he wondered to himself why he felt this way, he decided that he was trying to protect Asriel...

When the obvious cliché-ness of the sentiment hit him, Ray decided that it was only right that Asriel be there. He had held just as much of his own in the fight against the Killer as Ray did.

What was happening was just as much Asriel's business as it was Ray's and Sans'.

The Chat was happening that day and the three conspirators had agreed to meet in the woods behind the Dreemurr residence. Behind the house, the ground fell into a creek bed that sometimes was a bone-dry ravine, other times a muddy line of quicksand and flies, other times a delicious babbling brook with an occasional influx of chubs, minnows and crawdads. The creek was surrounded by a small line of oaks, cottonwoods and pecans.

Cicadas buzzed in the trees. The wind blew the trees as the leaves of the cottonwoods rustled noisily. Flies and butterflies and ants were gathered in mass in the creek which was mostly a moist line of mud except for a small pool of water that still attracted some small frogs and mosquitos.