Rising Storm [ Ink!Sans x Reader ]

10. The Kingdom

Strange enough, you found yourself missing the mines you had laboured in for almost half your life span. Or had you really spent half you life mining coal and breathing in sawdust? The earlier portions of your life felt blurred and fuzzy, more so like falsely implanted recollections than actual experiences. Deja vu had been a nasty companion ever since your encounter with the shadow creature had jogged a few unwanted memories that continued to elude your grasp no matter how much you attempted to recall them.

But the universe that you and Ink had materialised in was nothing short of friendly. The woods in which the two of you roamed seemed sinister and foreboding, branches of bark that seemed to sharpen into claws at the very end and reached eagerly in hopes of ripping the soul from your body. "Out of everywhere we could have ended up, why here?" you asked, shivering as a breeze brought chills down your spine. The feeble [F/C] sweater was not doing the best in protecting you from the cold.

"I don't make the rules," Ink grumbled, though he didn't seem bothered by the cold temperatures, most likely given the fact that skeletons don't have skin. He untied the blue jacket from around his waste and tossed it towards you, not thinking much about the gesture. You accepted and quickly slipped it on, feeling warmer. You had been curious as to why Ink had always kept the blue jacket with him. It seemed unlike anything else that he wore, the brown tunic, scarf and trainers all seemed to match. When you asked him about this, the artist replied, "It's just a souvenir." The silence that followed suggested he didn't wish to discuss the subject any further.

"What universe are we in?" You looked up at the sky and for some reason, you longed to roam in a universe with stars painted across the dome. "Maybe after this one we could go to Outertale."

"You've never been to Outertale," Ink replied, seeming caught off by guard at your mention of the universe that held so many stars and galaxies. "How would you know what's there? Are you remembering?"

"What?" you asked, having not paid attention to what the painter had been saying. Your attention was instead diverted to a lone rabbit child that was hunched in the snow, whimpering and shivering as the snow fell from the nonexistent clouds above. "Ink, I think there's someone over there."

"Never mind," the painter shook off the momentary burst of excitement, which was new given the fact that he didn't have emotions of any sort. He pushed past you and took a step closer to the child that was lost in the snow. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before Ink straightened and began to back away. "[Y/N] we have to leave."

"Leave?" You looked at him in disbelief. "You said it yourself, we're on the run. There's no where for us to go and I'm not going to leave some child stranded in the snow! You may not give a damn for what happens to other living creatures, but I do!" On those words you shouldered past him and approached the child. "Hey there kiddo, my name is [Y/N]. Are you alright?"

The rabbit child shook his head, wiping back a tear that had frozen to the fur on his face. "Are your parents nearby?" You looked over your shoulder, wondering what sort of people would leave their child out in the woods to starve.

"Dead," the child whimpered, holding back a sob. "They died last winter when the Capital stopped food deliveries. They gave the last of the food to me and said that they were going on a supply run, but they never came back. I've been alone ever since. And I'm so hungry..." The child clutched his stomach in pain.

"We need to go now!" Ink snarled, placing his hand on your shoulder. "It's not safe here, especially with you wandering about!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!" you retorted, turning around to face the painter. "If you haven't been paying attention for the last week, I've been the one who's been saving our asses every time something tries to rip out our throats. You've only been able to use magic once and still won't tell me how you did it, which I feel deserves explaining. I - "