Chapter 3

Toriel had been right. The land outside the Ruins were freezing. Even with the giant sweater and scarf, Piper shivered with every step through the heavy snow. She was on the tall side, but it still didn’t help with walking through the endless white that blanketed the forest floor.

“Alright, P-Piper…. You can do this… it-it’s just snow... “ She forced herself to trudge onwards down the path ahead of her. “You’ve b-been through worse…”

Her entire journey through the forest had been put on hold by weird monsters stopping her for whatever reason.  Especially that weird Jerry thing that looked like a fleshy pacifier. He just… kept showing up. She was too cold and tired to deal with him, so she and the other monsters kept ditching him. Others, she either beat them up until they wanted MERCY, or just did whatever until they went away. She’d scared herself the first time something attacked her and a yellow heart popped out of her chest. She found that she could shoot things at people with the heart, which made getting rid of monsters much easier, but she could only do it for so long before she grew fatigued.

She froze when she heard a voice farther along the path. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they didn’t sound like someone she was willing to mess with. She quickly jumped behind a tree and tried to keep still. Her attention was focused on the path up ahead.

The crunch of feet in the snow soon alerted her to the approaching figure. She reached for her pocket to draw out her knife, but stopped herself. Maybe this monster was like the others that approached her. Her heart-gun hadn’t finished charging- no thanks to her poor health- so she could probably get them to be nice to her or something if she were spotted.

The footsteps stopped right next to her tree. Piper hardly breathed for fear that she would be found. She thought she could hear the faint crackle of fire. Maybe they had a torch.

“Come out. I know you are there. There is no use hiding from me.”

She froze for a moment, then did as commanded with shaky steps. The human took in the sight of this strange monster before her with wide eyes. They appeared to be on fire… or made of fire… He wore a light coat over a black vest and a white button-up dress shirt, which wasn’t affected by his flames. A pair of simple glasses rested on his fiery face.

“... You are a human…” he (she assumed he identified as male) murmured. His voice was quiet, like the crackle and burning of a fireplace on a cold winter’s night. “Two in one week… quite the surprise…”

“W-Wait! You saw another human?” She lowered her hand to just below her hip. “Were they about this tall, a-and had a blue-”

“Yes…” He looked her over quietly before he took off his coat. “Please wear this… You may freeze…”

Piper accepted the jacket after watching him warily for a moment, putting on hover her sweater. “Funny… the old lady told me the same thing…”

The fire monster didn’t question her. “Let me take you to my restaurant… You can heal up there…”

“I-I don’t have much money-”

“I do not wish to take your money… You are weak… It would be unkind to make you pay for my hospitality…” He extended his arm out to her for her to take. “You will be safer with me, anyway…. The monsters of the forest do not try to attack me…”

Piper wrapped her arm around his and let him lead her down the path, a tired grin on her face. “Such a gentleman~,” she teased lightly. “You gonna tell me your name? I’d like to know who’s takin’ me on such a lovely date.”

“My name is Grillby…”

“Hm. I’m Piper.” She watched him as they walked together. Though his sleeves were rolled up, leaving his arms bare, she didn’t get burned by his flames. She felt pleasantly warm, and she found herself snuggling into his heat. Grillby didn’t seem to mind the closeness, though his silence was a bit unreadable.

However, it was a companionable one, and Piper was grateful for it. It allowed her to look out at the forest. It was such a beautiful place now that she didn’t have to worry about monsters attacking her or Jerry pestering her. The forest was quiet save for Grillby’s natural soft crackle. She stopped them for a second to steal these ice cream bar things she found in the snow. They were called Nice Cream, though Grillby didn’t seem to know what that was. She shoved most of them into her weird pocket that swallowed everything before they continued.

After a half an hour of silent companionship and an equally quiet forest, The trees opened up to a town covered in Christmas lights. The town was lively and bright, full of friendly looking monsters of all shapes and sizes.

“Welcome to Snowdin…” Grillby said as he led her through the town. He stopped her at a box near the inn. “Place what you don’t immediately need in here... There are others like it throughout the Underground…”

“Alright…” She put some of her Nice Cream and her pie into the box. She wanted to save the pie for a rainy day.

The fire monster took her to a building named after its owner. It looked like an old swanky diner she’d seen to be favored by old men. The sign on its door read that it was closed, so they wouldn’t be bothered by anyone. Grillby pulled out his key out of his pocket and unlocked the door, ushering Piper in quickly. “It is best you stay out of sight… The friend of the head of the royal guard lives in town … he'd contact her if he saw you… ”

“Oh? I bet I can take ‘em.” She sat down at the bar and looked about. The diner had a warm atmosphere and an old jukebox in the corner. The place looked like something out of a movie. “Quite a nice place you got here, Grillbz.”

“Than you… would you like a hamburger or a plate or fries…?”

“Um… Burger, please. I ain’t had a good meal in weeks.”

He frowned a bit (at least, it seemed like he did), and stepped into the kitchen for a few minutes. He returned with the best looking hamburger Piper had seen in years, with its meaty juices seeping into the bottom bun, and perfectly sliced lettuce and tomatoes. She couldn’t stop the groan she made when he put it in front of her, then dug in like she hadn’t eaten in years.

“Why are you looking for the other human…?” Grillby asked as he watched her eat. “You two do not appear to be sibling…  and you are too young to be their mother…”

Piper sighed softly, putting her burger down. “Yeah… I’m not related to them… but that don’t not make me their family… Frisk is all I got in this world… I promised to come back for ‘em when I was old enough… but I was too late…” She sat up and looked at him. “We grew up together in foster care. I was 14, they were three… We stuck together like glue.”

“What is ‘foster care’?”

“It’s this system for kids who don’t got families or can’t live with ‘em. They get placed in other people’s homes and are moved about every few years. Some homes are nice… most I’ve been to aren’t.”

Grillby was silent for a moment. “Why did you leave them?”

“I grew out of the system. I was gonna adopt Frisk, but I had to be 20 to do it.” She rested her head in her hands. “I let them down…”

A warm hand patting her head brought her out of her sulking. Grillby’s gaze helped calm her down. “You didn’t let them down… You can still catch up to them, but it will be difficult…”

She nodded seriously. “What do I have to do?”