Book 2: The First Fallen Human

Freezing Karma

Dust tapped the wooden post, his finger bones striking the wood with enough force to have left indents. He continued to drum his fingers quietly, slowly lifting his head. His frantically glowing eye scanned out over the snowy paths. Nothing. There was always nothing. Why was there always nothing...? Why had the human stopped coming...?

To spite him. Dust twitched and his head bent to the side a little. He hated it. The silence was deafening. Almost roaring in a way. His grin kept twitching wider and wider and it ached to hold it. He persisted anyway. The wind whistled through the snowy trees. Dust paused and listened. The wind was different today. He raised his head, his brother's ragged, red, dusty scarf wrapped tightly around his bony neck.

He stared out into the thick pine forest tree line. His hood flapped, ruffled harshly by the wind. Dust didn't mind. He couldn't feel a thing. He shakily lifted his arms and skipped his skeletal hands into his pockets, the finger bones tapping together lightly. He continued to watch the dark trees for anything. A sign of life. Anything at all.

"Brother." Papyrus' ghostly voice made him perk. "Brother, we are not alone here." That caught Dust's full attention. The air around him became slightly more choking. Papyrus never lied. He twitched again, starting towards the direction the wind was blowing from. He pushed into the tree line, the snow crunching underfoot. He began a long, slow whistle. The tune was off and echoed through the barren woods.

Something was clinking. It was soft and barely noticeable, but the sound was like heavy rain to Dust. He stopped mid-walk, the sound circling around him. He focused intensely for any signs of a creature. Dust was amused. He was even slightly embarrassed. Had he really forgotten one?

Dust slowly took his hands out of his pockets and they dangled limply at his sides. A tree creaked. Dust whipped around and a gaster blaster materialized in front of him, activating without hesitation. A clear path of destruction soon stretched miles into the woods as the gaster blaster dissipated. Dust grinned.

His grin twitched and froze as the clinking continued. It was still circling around him. The undergrowth rustled. Dust was watching. Bone shards began to materialize around him. He formed a circle around him and shot them out in every direction.

Several of them got stuck in the trees and bushes, but the ones that went through. There was several metallic noises. Like someone was shaking chains. Dust blinked and stood tensely. He jumped as the bushes all around him suddenly lit up bright red. Not the bushes themselves but... He peered further. Something behind...

"Snake." Papyrus' voice whispered ever so softly. Dust could see it moving. It was slinking along the ground. One long, red body. But something was throwing him off. Bits and pieces of the body seem to move on their own. The entire construction of the body, every piece was moving differently. It all glowed a vivid red. Dust grinned.

He watched as one of the bushes rustled and something began to push out. He saw the head first. A short snout with dripping, needled fangs made of red light. A glowing forked tongue. The eyes were lit as well. Dust let out a shiver of excitement. "Snake." He whispered, drawing out the word nice and slow. The serpent was large.

It reared up over him, revealing its body to be made of millions of tiny, glowing red bullets. Each one seemed to spin and move at its own pace, in its own way. It hissed and clouds blew out of its mouth like a smokestack. Dust was in awe for a moment. He sank down into an attacking position. The serpent hissed again. They maintained eye contact for another few moments, before the serpent's jaw opened and unhinged as it lunged at Dust.

Dust shrieked and managed to JUST teleport himself away. A gaster blaster appeared in his place. He reappeared, but before he could activate it, the serpent had wrapped its entire body around the gaster blaster, bringing it crashing to the ground. Dust flinched as a large crack appeared in the giant skull. The serpent hissed as the gaster blaster tried to escape, the large skull's red and purple eyes furious.

There was a cracking noise. Dust could see the serpent's body constricting around the gaster blaster. The gaster blaster gave him one last look before cracks spiderwebbed across it and its eyesockets went black. The entire skull caved in, exploding into dust. The serpent unwinded, turning its attention back to Dust, who gave a twitchy scoff.

He snapped his fingers and more gaster blasters appeared. Three of them. The snake hissed and Dust activated them. He turned his head away from the destruction, the light unbearable to his dim eyes. He turned back and studied his work. He stopped in shock. The serpent was detaching parts of its body to avoid the blasts. He watched as it came back together and the serpent lunged for his gaster blasters, fire spewing from its jaws.

It lit up two of the gaster blasters, charring one to dust and allowing the other to crash to the ground, burning alive. It attacked the last one, biting down on its jaw and full on throwing it into the ground. Once it was down, the serpent coiled around it, reared up and lit the gaster blaster ablaze. It screamed and struggled, but was unable to escape the serpent's coils.

The serpent only released it once the skull was destroyed. Dust's eye lit up and millions of bone shards lit up around him, glowing a neon violet. He shot them off and watched as the creature simply made openings in its body to allow the shards to go straight through. The holes closed and the serpent's lunged for him.

Dust skidded back several feet, a large bone forcing the serpent's jaws open. It was the only thing between him and the monster's jaws. He blinked as he saw fire lighting up in its throat and quickly teleported away, landing on his knees several feet away. That didn't stop the blast, however.

Dust twitched and watched as the woods began to catch fire, the flames bright and harsh, rising up. He pushed himself to his feet, his hood showing his crazy eyes. He gave another wide grin. "Pap, leave me alone for a bit." The ghostly head began to protest and  Dust turned to it. "GO." Papyrus flinched before nodding and fading away. The serpent snarled and snapped its mouth shut, crushing the charred bone. It turned its burning red eyes on him.

Dust stood across from it, being the serpent's one and only opponent inside a ring of fire.