Chapter 6

“So, ya live in Waterfall?” Piper asked as she avoided stepping into yet another puddle. She shouldn’t have been surprised that a place named after what happens when H2O goes over a ledge and gravity takes over. But these things were literally everywhere.

“Yup!” Undyne walked straight through all of the puddles like they didn’t even exist. “It’s best fer my skin, ya know? And I can breathe thanks to the humidity.” She pointed at her neck, making her gills wiggle. The human beside her couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, technically, I used to live here. I… may have accidentally set my house on fire trying to make spaghetti…”

“... what.”

“Yeah…”

“Ya set yer house… on fire…”

Undyne nodded.

“... in a place called Waterfall…”

“Do you just enjoy my screw ups?”

The human shrugged. “Ya gotta admit, it’s hard to screw up that bad…”

Undyne growled softly in irritation. “And you haven’t screwed up like I have?”

“The worst I’ve done is hit a lamp post with my car.” She shrugged. “You know. Normal mistakes.”

“Shut up.”

“Make me, fish stick.”

Said fish stick was about to raise her fist when Piper’s phone rang. The girls were rather surprised to hear it and just stared at it until Piper had the common sense to pick up and answer. “¿Alo?”

[“Piper…?”]

“Is that yer boyfriend?~” Undyne teased.

“Shut up, fish stick!” Piper hissed back.

[“Is this a bad time…?”]

“No! Not at all!” She smiled softly. “What can I do fer ya?”

The girls could hear Grillby gently crackle over the phone speaker. [“I just called to check on you… Have you made it to Waterfall yet?”]

“Yeah, we have. No surprise why you couldn’t come with.” She glanced at all the puddles around them. “Wouldn’t want ya to be extinguished or whatever.”

[“Certainly not…”] he chuckled. [“I will call back later… I need to open my restaurant… Sans is loitering in front of my door and scratching at it…”]

“Like a cat?” she snickered.

[“Exactly like that…”] She could practically hear him smile. [“Stay safe out there…”]

“Thanks, Grillby. Adios.” She hung up and shoved her phone back into her pocket. She was starting to get used to the odd disappearing act her things did when she put them away.

Undyne tilted her head curiously. “What does that mean?”

“Hm? Ya mean adios? That means good bye.”

“Is that a language or just human lingo?”

Piper rolled her eyes. “It’s a language. It’s called Spanish. I grew up speaking it more than I did English. Not many people speak it now, though.”

“Why not?”

“Well, after the humans sent the monsters underground, many of the nations just kinda became one big one. Most people speak English now.” She shrugged. “Any other language is taught through families.”

“Huh… the world has really changed out there, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah. It sucks for a lot of us.”

The fish monster stopped and looked at her. “Whadya mean?”

“Well, not everyone has enough money up to take care of a family. The power systems favor the big dogs who have all the money. Little dogs like me are brushed aside.” She put her hands in her pockets. “I had the bad luck o’ losin’ my parents. Once they were gone, I had no voice in the world. They put me in the foster care system, where kids are chewed up and churned out. Some got lucky and got adopted. I wasn’t those kids. Been through more houses worse than a smoker’s been through cigarettes. That screws up a kid for life.”

“Whoa…” Undyne rubbed the back of her neck. “I don’t envy you…”

“Ditto.” She nudged her shoulder, walking ahead of her. “Let’s keep going. I don’t wanna lose any ground between me and Frisk. I gotta get ‘em home.”

The monster ran to catch up before falling into pace beside her. “Why are you so determined about this?”

Piper sighed. “The best and worst years of my life were with Frisk… We protected each other in the foster homes we lived in together… I just wanna give ‘em a happy endin’.”

“But… what’re you gonna do when you get to Asgore? Or someone who can stop you?”

“Keep goin’, I guess… Not much else I can do…”