An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chasing The End: Epilogue
All you wanted was to live the rest of your life in peace and solitude out in the shadow of Mount Ebott. When you bump into the Prince of All Monsters, you find yourself unable to keep your nose out of trouble or be able to turn a blind eye to the atrocities that humanity is committing against monsters. Loneliness once meant safety to you...but you're beginning to realize that the relationships you've made are more important than the so-called-safety that loneliness provided you.
I drew some fanart for @myownpersonaldemons story! Chasing The End, which i totally recommend btw now that it is almost complete! Just the Epilogue left then i can finally rest my poor h e a r t-
I drew a scene from the latest chapter near the end so uh spoiler?? I’m so sorry i spoiled you but you don’t know the context at least
You know your GrillbyXReader fic? (I just read it, and I forgot its name). Did you plan and write out the Prophecy Chief and the grandpreist were talking about? If you haven't written it down, what's the premise?
Spoilers beneath the cut in case y’all haven’t finished reading Chasing The End or any of its related fics!
I never wrote out the prophecy per se, because it’s less of a word based prophecy. Chief’s main magical talent was that he was able to see outcomes, and kind of create prophecies that way by telling people what could happen, so they were more likely to try to make it happen if that makes sense?
As the future became the ‘present’ for Chief, he slowly started to realize that the future he wanted to see was becoming harder for him to ‘see’ with his powers. Eventually, it got to the point where there were only a few options to try to swing things in his favour, but he ultimately chose the wrong outcome, which led to his and his village’s death.
He told the Grandmaster exactly what would happen if the Grandmaster attempted war on the Monsters. That the Reader, Chief’s daughter, would kill the Grandmaster. However, there was a pathway that Chief ignored because he didn’t think it’d ever happen. Which was the Grandmaster slaughtering Chief’s entire village and killing Chief. (They were once close friends and Chief didn’t think that the Grandmaster would ever sink that low that he’d kill an entire village and children.)
TL;DR: Chief can see future possibilities to make ‘Prophecies’, but he chose the wrong one to tell the Grandmaster, which led to his and his village's death.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chasing The End: Chapter 33
All you wanted was to live the rest of your life in peace and solitude out in the shadow of Mount Ebott. When you bump into the Prince of All Monsters, you find yourself unable to keep your nose out of trouble or be able to turn a blind eye to the atrocities that humanity is committing against monsters. Loneliness once meant safety to you...but you're beginning to realize that the relationships you've made are more important than the so-called-safety that loneliness provided you.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chasing The End Chapter 25
All you wanted was to live the rest of your life in peace and solitude out in the shadow of Mount Ebott. When you bump into the Prince of All Monsters, you find yourself unable to keep your nose out of trouble or be able to turn a blind eye to the atrocities that humanity is committing against monsters. Loneliness once meant safety to you...but you're beginning to realize that the relationships you've made are more important than the so-called-safety that loneliness provided you.
This is actually just an AU for Chasing the End where the war between monsters and humans never happened that I thought of (not spoiling anything that hasn’t been revealed as of Chapter 15), and it’s kind of in a fantasy setting so.......................................here you go\
You heard the high-pitched scream that made your stomach drop and your hands drop the dish you were washing. Your heart beat heavily in your chest, but a soothing reassurance calmed you down almost instantly. It almost seemed to whisper ‘no one was harmed...it’s okay...we’re all okay’.
Still, you wiped your hands off on your apron and hurried outside into the yard. Grillby was holding a small flaming child high above a smaller amphibian monster who was attempting to scale him to get to the child. Nindree was too busy cackling, getting a dry look from her mate who then proceeded to head over to scoop Undyne into their arms.
“What happened?” you asked, half-amused as Grillby lowered Kindra slightly but still well out of reach of Undyne if she were to wriggle her way out of Cherja’s arms.
“Undyne wanted to show Kindra the new move that Gerson showed her! Cept, my little brat wanted ta practice ON your kid. Sorry for the intrusion, but the way! BUT! We’re basically family so DEAL WITH IT!” Nindree said with a big grin, and Cherja sighed exasperatedly, before swiping their long tail into Nindree’s legs and tripping her.
Undyne cackled, clapping her tiny hands at the sight of her mother sprawled on the floor.
“Apologiessss, Lionheart, Undyne was full of energy,” Cherja sighed, slithering closer to you.
You sighed softly, “No apologies needed, Cher. Which one screamed like that?”
Grillby jerked a thumb over to Undyne who was grinning proudly up at you from underneath her parents arm. You raised your eyebrow, “That was a loud scream, kiddo. Thought someone was hurt.”
“Gotta make em AFRAID!” Undyne shouted, pumping her fists upwards as best she could, but almost fell out of Cherja’s arms. Cherja sighed again before placing their daughter onto the dirt unceremoniously. Undyne grinned up at you, her red hair flopping into her face before she roughly shoved it out of the way. It looked like it had been braided at one point, but you knew Undyne hated the feeling of her hair braided unlike her mother.
“Undyne, do you wisssh to ssshow your Aunt them move inssstead?” Cherja asked, “No tesssting it on her, though.”
“Oh, no,” you waved a hand, “sweetie, you can practice on me, but first you gotta apologize to Kindra for scaring them.”
Undyne puffed out her cheeks before sighing dramatically and walking over to your SOULmate. Grillby bent down to one knee and Undyne held out a webbed hand towards Kindra, who had returned to her more human-esque appearance. Kindra stared at the hand before peering up at her father. Only when he nodded did she reach out and accept the hand shake.
“Sorry for scaring you...or whatever,” Undyne mumbled, before immediately darting back over to you and grabbing at your apron. “NOW?”
You huffed out a laugh, “sure, kid.”
Undyne led you a bit away from the house to the ‘sparring area’ as Nindree had declared it one day when she had tackled you to the ground one day. It had been ten years since you last had to worry about keeping your fighting skills sharp. The peace treaty King Riagol made with the human king had worked, thankfully.
Your best friend’s daughter was nearly fifteen and sometimes forgot that Halflings didn’t mature as fast as Monsters did, and sometimes couldn’t understand why your four year old wasn’t like her. Speaking of, you glanced over at Kindra, sending out a comforting pulse and she returned a loving one that almost made you start crying in the sparring ring.
You’d never thought you would ever have this life. A husband, a daughter...Gods, you didn’t even think you’d have friends. There had been a point where you had refused to look to the future, every day was one after the next because all you saw when you looked into the future was death, despair, and war. This wasn’t the future you had ever envisioned...but it was a future you were grateful for.
Undyne didn’t let you dwell on your thoughts for long at all before she was pulling you into an encounter. You skipped your turn by checking her and giggling at the description.
*Wants to get strong enough to suplex a BOULDER!
When it was her turn, you could see her face screw up in concentration focusing on her hand before a spear fizzled into existence. Undyne grinned wickedly at it before glancing over at her parents with excitement and then turned back towards you. With even more concentration she threw the spear towards your SOUL. You already knew there was no harmful intent in the blow, but it was your SOUL, so you shifted it out of the way of the spear at the last second.
When it was your turn, you checked her again and saw that the description had changed to:
*WILL suplex a boulder one day!
Your smile widened before you allowed her to end the encounter.
“One day I’ll be able to bet anyone in a fight!” Undyne shouted in promise before running towards Nindree and tackling her back to the ground. You snorted as the two began to rough house on the ground, shouts of praise and encouragement from Nindree and cackles and laughter from Undyne filled the small clearing that you and Grillby had made your home.
Cherja smiled fondly at the image before they turned back towards you, “Thank you...that isss all we came by for....ssshe wasss quite excccited. We ssshall get out of your hair, Gasster and Viv invited usss over for lunch.”
“OH! RIGHT!” Nindree sprung to her feet, Undyne tucked under her arm giggling, “Viv wanted me to tell you that she and that old fart think that their egg’s gunna hatch soon. Sans has been talkin’ bout nothing else.”
You smiled, “I can’t wait to meet Papyrus.”
“NEITHER CAN I!” Undyne shouted, “Sans doesn’t wanna rough house with me, and Ra’s too small still.”
“Anywaysss, let’sss go,” Cherja said, placing a hand on Nindree’s back, “We’re intruding.”
“Pah, what’s with you and Grillbz always telling me I’m intruding,” Nindree grumbled, but allowed her mate to guide her away after giving you a one armed hug, and punching Grillby’s shoulder.
“...if you stopped....we wouldn’t tell you...” Grillby shot back, grinning at her and giving her a lighter punch back. You waved, calling out promises to see them soon, and watched as they continued down the path back towards the capital. Once they were out of sight, you twirled towards your family and pulled Kindra out of Grillby’s arms.
“Well, wasn’t that an exciting morning,” you said kissing her nose, then added as you glanced at her small stripped dress, “good thing I enchanted your clothes to not burn. Combustible baby.”
Kindra smiled at you, returning the kiss on your nose with a bit too much pressure and enthusiasm. She giggled at you as you scrunched up your nose slightly. Grillby placed a kiss to her temple which made her giggle more, and then pat her father’s cheeks happily. He responded by blowing some sparks lightly at her, which made her giggle even harder as they dusted across her cheeks.
“What were you two up to?” you asked, nudging Grillby’s stomach with your elbow, “Besides lighting my daughter on fire.”
“I did it!” Kindra announced loudly, before bursting into flames in your arms. Grillby yanked her out of your arms immediately, and you felt the slight panic in his face but you simply laughed.
“Look at you! Have you been practising?” you asked, subtly reaching over to Grillby to soothe his worries. You both knew that she’d would have to have intent to harm you, but she also wasn’t able to stop things from catching on fire. Your clothes were not enchanted against fire...yet. You added that to your mental checklist.
“Yeah! With Papa!” Kindra chirrped happily, before kissing Grillby’s cheek and the wriggling in his arms. “I wanna go!”
“....where?” Grillby asked, but relented.
“Play with frogs!” Kindra announced, pointing towards the pond.
Grillby tensed slightly, and you rested your hand against his back.
“Just don’t burst into flames near the water, okay?” you said smiling down at her, “It makes Papa nervous.”
“Okay! I won’t!” Kindra said, beaming at the two of you before spinning around and skipping towards the pond.
Grillby let out a sigh of smoke this time and looked down at you before back at his daughter. You stepped closer and wrapped your arms around his waist. Immediately, his arms curled around you, but his eyes never left Kindra as she splashed in the pond and then began to crouch down to try to find some frogs.
Sometimes you swore he neared overprotective when it came to Kindra, but then again he had never been around Halfling children. All he knew was that fire elementals didn’t mix with water, and his daughter, who even if she was half-human, was half-fire elemental. The first time he had walked in on you bathing with her, he had nearly fainted.
Neither of you were going to dunk her into water when she was in her flame form...but she was old enough that she had control over switching back forth now.
You kissed the highest point on Grillby that you could, which was his chest, before releasing him. “Okay, crisis diverted, I’m going to finish up my morning chores. Are you heading to the tavern soon?”
He nodded, bending down to kiss the top of your head. Fingers gently tracing your jaw before he straightened, and moved closer to the pond. You could feel the worry that he was trying to tamp down, but you sent a soothing flow similar to the one he had just sent you, and watched as his shoulder relaxed ever so slightly.
Grillby had retired from the Royal Guard a few years back, before the two of you had even decided to have Kindra. Shortly after he had opened Home’s first tavern. He was tired of fighting, and he had found that he loved cooking and learning new recipes. Your cookbook, well it was his now too, was constantly on the counter with him scrawling the recipes that he made into it in his language. It was now a mixture of the strange Mage written language, and the Monster written language. Plus one scribbled recipe that Kindra had written for tea that Gerson had made for her.
Oh! Right, Gerson was in the city. He’d probably be at the tavern when Grillby went to open it. You’d probably swing by with Kindra if Gerson didn’t pop by your farmstead first.
If you went into the city, you’d probably pay a visit to Toriel and Asgore and see how their Egg was doing. Asriel was taking a while to hatch, but neither were worried, each Egg took its own sweet time to hatch. Riagol was a mess waiting for his grandchild, however, and complained that he would Dust before they hatched. Then what? He’d never get to meet his grandchild.
You had been on the end of a few of those rants, normally while you and Gaster were giving him an update on the latest SOUL research. Gaster had quite the humor once you got to know him...and now you didn’t have to guess why him and Vivaldi were SOULmates.
With that thought, you glanced over your shoulder to see Grillby ushering Kindra back towards the house. He gave you both kisses before heading out to the city to his day job.
The rest of the day sped by, as they all seemed to do now. You taught Kindra about human and monster history, you taught her some more magic tricks (small things to help her improve her control), and got her ‘help’ in the farm. Just before dinner, you took her into town to her father’s tavern, where she and Gerson chattered the night away, and you joked with Vivaldi and Gaster while Sans chuckled away holding onto his baby brother’s egg.
Kindra eventually got tired so you gave Gerson a kiss on the cheek, said goodbye to Viv and Gaster, and then encouraged Kindra to give everyone good night hugs. She did. Every single monster in the tavern. Who all cooed and aww’d at the little Halfling who was sleepily moving from Monster to Monster. You smiled and felt Grillby’s SOUL flare with affection.
It wasn’t a long walk back to the farmstead, and you sang Kindra to sleep along the way. Her tiny head tucked against your shoulder, one arm limp and the other loosely holding onto the neckline of your tunic. You quietly opened her bedroom door and slowly placed her into her bed. She stirred slightly, but settled quickly as you pulled her blanket up.
For a moment, you stayed with her, watching her chest rise and fall and her eyelids flutter with dreams. Memories floated to the surface, and you wiped a few tears from your cheeks before you stood up and left her to her slumber.
You entered your own bedroom and stripped down before pulling on your nightwear and slipping into bed. Grillby’s schedule varied, he normally stayed until the last patron left...and thankfully the monsters were kind enough to not eat up too much of the night. Still, sometimes you missed falling asleep with him in the bed beside you. Especially during the winters.
You were awoken by a warm arm wrapping around your waist and a strong chest pressing against your back. A soft kiss on your shoulder was followed by a trail up your neck, making a shiver roll down your spine that had nothing to do with the temperature. You gently stroked the arm around your waist and nestled back into his embrace.
“I love you,” you whispered, tilting your head so you could see him better.
“...and I, you,” he replied back just as softly. “...never thought I’d get this.”
“Me either,” you said before shifting in his arms so you were chest to chest, “I don’t know where we’d be if the war-“
He silenced you with a kiss, just a quick one, before pressing his forehead against yours. “...don’t think about that...when I do....it makes my SOUL hurt.”
You nod, foreheads brushing against each other’s lightly. “I know,” you run your hands up his chest before slipping them around his neck to pull him into another kiss. This one more heated.
There wasn’t a day that went by that you didn’t thank the Gods that the war never happened.
You didn’t want to imagine what your life would’ve been like if it did.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chasing The End Chapter 24
All you wanted was to live the rest of your life in peace and solitude out in the shadow of Mount Ebott. When you bump into the Prince of All Monsters, you find yourself unable to keep your nose out of trouble or be able to turn a blind eye to the atrocities that humanity is committing against monsters. Loneliness once meant safety to you...but you're beginning to realize that the relationships you've made are more important than the so-called-safety that loneliness provided you.
