ShelterTale

ShelterTale Part 3

A week later, the king sat on his bed in the palace, trying not to scratch at his wounds. By now, the healers had sealed the cracks in his skull as well as they could, but scars still remained, and his speech had not returned to him. Captain Asgore and Prince Sans we're both in the room with him, apparently unsure what to say or how to act.

Gaster knew they couldn't understand him, but he couldn't help trying to lighten the mood regardless. "This is a bit inconvenient. I was supposed to give an encouraging speech to the people today. Asgore, perhaps you could give it in my place as my scapegoat?"

The royal guard captain's expression sunk, but Sans covered his mouth to hold in a hiss of laughter.

"Son?"

"Prince?"

Both adults looked at the first prince with the same baffled expression.

"heh heh. scapegoat. good one, dad."

"Prince, you understood what he was saying?!" Asgore bellowed, his voice full of hope and amazement.

"Son, is it true?"

The first prince put his hands in his jacket pockets and shrugged. "well, i had a whole week to listen to the pattern. it's just like a verbal word scramble; it's not that hard to figure out what he's saying, y'know?"

At both of their urging, Sans begrudgingly wrote out a cipher translating the sounds in the king's speech to the sounds in their language. Asgore studied it and frowned. "Even with this, I don't think I'll be able to easily understand your orders, your majesty."

The first prince's cognitive ability was an exception. Few would ever be able to comprehend such a muddled language. Gaster could understand that much by looking at the cipher. "Perhaps sign language would be easier," he murmured while gesturing the same to Asgore.

"Ah! Sign language, huh?" The giant goat man rubbed his fluffy head sheepishly. "I haven't had to use it much, so I'm afraid I'm a bit rusty, but I think I'll be able to understand."