arrival

Ashley awoke with a headache and blurry vision, and her left wing hurt in a way that couldn’t mean anything good. She sat up, paws clutching her fluffy head as she tried to keep from toppling back over. She stretched her large, white wings and flinched at how sore they were. She must have hit them on the way down, or tried to use them. Opening her mismatched eyes again, she looked around to try and find her glasses, breathing a sigh of relief when she spotted them lying right beside her, only somewhat scratched up. She shoved them on her face and finally stood, ignoring the flash of black that clouded her vision for a few seconds. 

She glanced upwards. Ashley wasn’t sure how she’d survived the fall, and with so few injuries, but she had. Now… she was stuck. Under Mt. Ebbot. Where the humans lived. To say she was screwed was an understatement, if the stories she had heard were correct. She surveyed the room, trying to ignore her mounting anxiety. There were four white pillars, one in each corner of the room, and a bed of golden flowers on which she had landed. She felt a twinge of guilt for crumpling the pretty buttercups. Returning her attention to the hole where the light was coming from, and where she’d fallen into the underground, she contemplated trying to fly out. But, with the barrier to contend with, it was out of the question. Impossible. The barrier let things in, but never out. Besides, her wings were too small for that anyways, and she had acrophobia.

“Oh, um, hello.” A voice came from behind, and Ashley twirled around to see who had spoken, too fast since she lost her balance and almost fell. A human stood before her, with dark skin,  dark eyes, and even darker curls that reached to her knees. “I’m not gonna hurt you.” The human said, lowering her voice a bit and taking a step back.

Ashley could tell she wasn’t lying, and she relaxed a tad. She was scared, too, though not of her, oddly enough. 

“Hi.” Ashley barely managed to make her voice audible, and she cringed inwardly at the pathetic squeak that came out. She had never been good at talking to people. “I’m Ashley.”

“I’m Brooke. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve never met a monster before.” Brooke smiled at Ashley in a friendly manner, and Ashley decided to trust her. “Um, you probably shouldn’t stay here, the patrol might find you…” Brooke stated, worried frown replacing the smile. 

“The pa— where can I go?” Ashley asked. Brooke shrugged and thought for a moment, before answering.

“Come with me, I can help you find a safe place to stay.” Brooke offered, stretching out her hand, and Ashley placed her soft paw into it, allowing herself to be led away. “We have to be careful.” Brooke explained. “I don’t know what will happen if we’re caught, but it won’t be good.”

“Okay…” Ashley followed Brooke into what appeared to be the dilapidated remains of an old city. The purple-hued stone bricks were cracked and crumbling in some places, and vines were growing out of the broken places or just out of the walls. Despite this, the city was not abandoned. In fact, in some places it even appeared to be undergoing minor repairs, mostly to avoid cave ins, and somewhat cleaned up in places where the dust was beginning to pile up. As if it had been abandoned for years and then returned to. Ashley knew it was stupid, but the dust that was scattered around made her uncomfortable. It made her think that a lot of monsters had died here.

Brooke led Ashley through what appeared to be backroads, talking about why she was worried about the guards in the first place. “So, you know how the barrier was created by six monsters and six human mages, yes?” Ashley nodded. “Yeah, so we need the same amount of magic as the six human mages and monsters. We’ve had scientists try and find other ways to break the barrier, but as far as I know, that’s the only conclusion anyone’s come to. So I don’t think the royal guard would hurt you, per se, but… you wouldn’t really be treated very well. Down here, most people hate monsters. They also hate mages for some reason… Really, just magic in general is hated. So… yeah, you wouldn’t be treated very well. Probably locked up or something.” Brooke fell silent, and Ashley nodded.

Ashley shuddered. “That definitely doesn’t sound pleasant.” Brooke nodded.

They reached a gate in a wall, and Brooke stopped Ashley as she took a key from her pocket and stepped toward it. She unlocked it and shoved it open roughly, and a gust of cold air swept out as some snow leaked into the Ruins. 

“We’re getting close, I promise.” Brooke said, continuing the journey out into the snowy forest beyond. Ashley followed along, feeling her paws turn icy cold as she stepped onto the freezing, snow-covered path they were now on. 

“Um… not to sound ungrateful, but… why are you helping me?” Ashley asked suddenly, curiosity getting the better of her. She would’ve expected a human to hate monsters for trapping them underground, or to at the very least want to be freed.

Brooke let out a humorless laugh, and paused, looking Ashley dead into her mismatched eyes. “Because it’s wrong to hate an entire race of people over something you agreed to. Monsters didn’t even start the war, they just did what they thought best to protect themselves. Humans agreed to go underground, monsters didn’t even suggest it, it’s what our people chose over lving with monsters. We shouldn’t be treating monsters the way we do down here. We shouldn’t be treating the mages like we do down here. It sucks everyone is so hateful toward monsters and magic.” She explained. “Besides,” Brooke started again, turning and continuing to walk down the path. “you seem nice enough, and I like helping people.” 

Ashley didn’t really know how to respond, so she just nodded. “Ok.” 

The two continued in silence for a few minutes before Ashley asked, “What’s it like down here?”

“Eh… could be better, could be worse. We have the Ruins, which we just left, and I forgot to shut the gate to… ehem, there’s Snowdin, where we are now, Waterfall, which is quite pretty and wet, Hotland, which has lots of lava and is where all the sciency stuff happens, and New Home, the largest and most populated city. It’s so big, they made these tiny little cars to drive around it in. Anyways… The Ruins were recently moved back into by a small community who didn’t appreciate the political atmosphere in New Home, though they’ve always had royal guards positioned there to look for monsters. And Snowdin has always been a really small town. Yknow, funnily enough, the only people in the Ruins or Snowdin who would turn you in would be the royal guards themselves, nobody ‘round these parts appreciate the way magic and monsters are viewed. I mean, the majority of people here are mages, for stars sake. There are a couple royal guards who wouldn’t arrest you, but… they aren't assigned here. Overall, the underground ain’t that bad, though there are… some… special areas.” Brooke shrugged. “I dunno how different it is to surface life.” 

“Interesting. Where are we going now?” 

“My home. I live alone, for the most part. My dad shows up from time to time, but… he usually just stares blankly at the T.V. all day when he’s home, and mostly he’s at the bar. If he’s there, ignore him.” 

“Ok.”

The two fell silent as they crunched through the snow. At some point, Brooke turned off of the main path onto a slightly more difficult to see trail that descended a cliff and led off into the forest below. They walked on for some time until they reached a clearing where a log cabin stood, with a small shed off to the side that had a rusty, corrugated metal roof. There was a creek that crossed the path, and a wood bridge crossed it. Brooke led Ashley up to the door, where she took out a new key and unlocked the door, beckoning for Ashley to follow her in. 

The cabin was small, and had the kind of rustic decor that you would expect to find in a state park. There was a fireplace with a flatscreen on the mantle and a couple couches to the right, and a kitchen to the left, with a loft straight across that had a ladder-staircase hybrid leading up to it and a hallway and two rooms under it. It appeared to have limited head space though, since the A shaped roof had not been fixed to provide for a room up there. Brooke explained that the room behind the kitchen was the bathroom, and the other one was her dad’s room. At the end of the hall, though it was hard to see, was a closet. Brooke got the entire loft to herself, since her dad refused to try and exist up there.

Brooke moved over to the fireplace to start a fire, Ashley trailing after her to see what was going on. “Oh, um… I can help with that. If you want.” Ashley offered, when she realized what Brooke was up to. She was feeling a tad guilty for not doing anything to thank Brooke for her kindness.

“Really? Sure, go ahead.” Brooke stepped back a bit, and Ashley summoned a small fireball and knelt down to hold it to the tinder. She smiled with satisfaction and stepped back as the tinder caught. 

“Whoa…” Brooke breathed, looking to Ashley with childlike wonder. “You can just create fire?”

“Um, yeah, thats how my magic works…”

“What else can you do?”

“I can sense other people’s emotions, if I want to.” 

“That’s so cool.” Brooke grinned at her. “Must be fun to be able to do all that.” 

“Oh, well, it gets a bit tiring after a bit.” Ashley shrugged, thankful that her fur covered any hint of a blush. 

“Yeah, that makes sense. Anyways, I’m gonna make some hot chocolate, you want any?” 

“Yes please.” Ashley answered, a bit faster than normal, and her tail wagged a bit. She was beginning to get comfortable around Brooke, and she loved hot cocoa more than anything. Brooke smiled and ambled over to the kitchen where she pulled out two mugs and set some water in an electric kettle on to boil. 

“You want the Mew Mew Kissy Cutie mug or the mothman mug?” Brooke asked as she got out two packets of swiss miss. “Oh, I hope you don’t mind this being dark chocolate, by the way.”

“Nah, that’s fine. Hot cocoa’s hot cocoa. And I’ll take the mothman mug. Waiiit, you guys have Mew Mew Kissy Cutie down here too? My brother loves that show.”

“Yeah. Sometimes we’ll find Mew Mew Kissy Cutie stuff in the dump. It’s really fun to watch.” 

The water began to boil, and Brooke fixed the hot cocoas, handing Ashley her mothman mug. 

“You want marshmallows?” Brooke asked, holding out a bag of jumbo marshmallows. 

“Maybe just one, these are a bit big.” Ashley said, smiling. Brooke chuckled and nodded.

“Yeah, the local store only gets the jumbo ones, they've tried for other sizes but that didn't work.” Brooke handed Ashley her marshmallow then plopped one into her own before turning and walking to sit near the fire, on the floor. Ashley joined her. 

Ashley prompted Brooke to explain a bit more about the underground, and she obliged. Apparently, while the humans of Snowdin and the Ruins were pretty chill with monsters and mages, the overwhelming majority hated them with a passion, and were abundantly clear that they would only allow a monster to live so that they could break the barrier. Terrifying as that was, Ashley opted to ignore it for now and focus on the human who had decided to be her friend. Life in the underground really wasn’t all the different from the surface, with the main thing being the fact they couldn’t see the sky and were relatively closed in, though they could (and did when they needed to) create more tunnels and caverns as long as they stayed under the ground where the barrier kept them trapped. 

Despite being nervous and a bit scared to be stuck under a mountain with a bunch of people who may or may not hate her guts for simply existing, Ashley decided to look on the bright side. She had met Brooke instead of a guard, she was in the area of the underground where people wouldn’t just kill her, and she had hot cocoa. Maybe being trapped down here wouldn’t have to be miserable.