Chapter 10
Word Count: 2,633
Two figures with serious faces walked through the lab slowly as they examined the rooms. They halted in the room of Vedran’s death, standing just above his dust and looking down at it.
“What do you believe happened, your highness?” One asks as the other’s, or the king’s, gaze does not change. He looks around at the fatalities. The souls of the humans were shattered long ago, making soul collecting impossible even if wanted to.
“I do not understand completely what happened Nomeus, but from what I was told, Vedran had a strong bond with Aster, or Wingdin as he calls him.” The king looks back down at the dust, kneeling to begin collecting it in a medium sized glass vial.
“Aster is his human name, no? He probably didn’t want it to cause anything confusing or bad. We did bring back a dead person, and maybe with loved ones.” Nomeus replies, putting his own thoughts in. The king stops and stares for a moment.
“Most likely.” He finally stated, then soon continues on with what he was saying and doing. “With Vedran’s dust here… I can’t say it was Aster’s fault for this.” He continues, finishing up cleaning the dust and putting a lid on the container. “The possibility of him being a rabid experiment seems too low for all this.” For a minute, things are silent.
“It does indeed, your highness.” Nomeus says after some thought. “Do you believe the humans have something to do with this? It may explain their strange behavior recently.” The king thinks for a moment.
“Maybe…” He picks up the dagger where Vedran’s dust use to be, getting up and turning to Nomeus. “Some kind of magic seems to have been used to kill the humans here but…”
“But all that killed Vedran seems to be that dagger.” Nomeus continues for him. “I think we can kind of guess what could have happened now.” The king nods, thinking for a moment.
“I… Doubt he would cause anyone harm, at least from what Vedran told me. He might as well be hiding amongst monsters, maybe even scared for his life.” He states, putting the dagger back down. “Nomeus, get the guard to clean this up. Then I need you to try to find Aster’s location. I feel the humans are up to something so I’m hoping you will protect him if anything happens?” Nomeus nods.
“Yes, your highness.” He pauses. “I… have a feeling I know where and who he is. He’s already in great care, but I’ll keep him from any humans. I’ll try to get him to admit who he is, but I’ll need something as a test he wouldn’t expect to be one.” The king thinks for a moment, staring at the vial of dust in his hand.
“If that is so, try bringing him to Vedran’s dust ceremony.” The king begins to recommend, handing the vial of dust to Nomeus, who takes it. “See if you can get a reaction out of him from it. Their bond should show as well then. Maybe you also just need to mention the name to get some reaction.” He takes one last look around, and Nomeus nods.
“Shall I tell Aksinya of her father’s death, or would you like me to send someone else?” Nomeus asks, looking at the dust vial.
“Whatever works for you. She probably already knows anyways. He pretty much disappeared till now. She probably made the guess. Confirmation is all she needs now.” The king explains, and Nomeus nods in response. After a few moments of silence, the two decide to leave…
Meanwhile, Gaster sat outside of the school, watching everyone train. Nomeus had been called away from the school the moment they got there. Gaster was told to leave them be, and a large, brown and white goat monster with some crown on his head too talked to Nomeus.
It wasn’t too long till they started to leave and the class had a substitute that Gaster didn’t really pay attention to. The goat, who Gaster had guessed was the king, had left another, and presumably his son, white goat monster who seemed to like talking to Toriel a lot. Gaster was completely distracted by writing in his journal to not notice the new kid was walking up him a bit later after talking to Toriel for a while.
“Heya! What are you doing all the way over here?” The voice made Gaster jump, looking up at the kid while he held the open journal tightly. The goat monster didn’t seem to notice him jump, and just smiled and offered a hand. “I’m Asgore! Asgore Dreemurr!”
Toriel walks up behind Asgore. When she speaks, both the boys look her way. “That’s Gaster. He doesn’t talk much, but he’s new, so you really can’t blame him.” Asgore pulls his hand back a bit. Gaster growls inaudibly, not liking being talked about like this, even with good intentions.
“Is that so? I don’t see any reason to be shy though! No one means any harm here!” He turns back to Gaster, offering his hand again. Gaster hesitates, but then slowly goes to shake his hand with his bandaged one, quickly pulling away after. Asgore stares for a moment, surprised. “You're… hurt?”
Gaster just sits there and nods, really wanting to go back to his journal. He fidgets with his hand, not liking the way this is going. “I’ll be fine. It was just… An a-accident. I can take care of myself.” Asgore seems a bit surprised as Gaster makes a face to show he’s not too pleased with the topic and stops making eye contact by looking at his journal again. Asgore was going to say something, but was cut off.
“Are ya making friends, young prince?” Nomeus said walking up with the king behind. Gaster looked up and then at Asgore. Prince…?
“Trying to! He’s shy according to Tori though! A challenge for me then!” The prince seemed enthusiastic about all this, making Gaster shrink a bit more into a ball he already kind of was with his knees up to write on without looking straight down. The king came over and kneeled down to talk to Gaster better, offering a hand.
“King Gorin, as you probably know. If he is trying to be friends with you, then so shall I.” Gaster wanted to hide. Disappear from the world for a small time. Be forgot by others for a short while. Be unknown to the world until he feels a bit more comfortable. He shakingly shakes Gorin’s hand, and the king smiles at him. He shoots his hand back as quick as he can.
The conversation would have lasted longer if Ouphre hadn’t showed up to say something to Gorin. “There’s commotion at the front of the town, your highness.” She kneels and bows her head. Gaster notices she’s wearing some kind of armor as well instead of her normal everyday clothes of jeans and some top. “The human leader wishes to speak with you.” Gorin’s face went serious as she said it. He gets up, facing her, and then speaks.
“Where the commotion is?” She nods her head. “Alright.” He begins to walk off around the school building, heading to where the commotion is. Both Nomeus and Ouphre follow, Nomeus explaining to the substitute before actually leaving the school grounds.
The two goats and even the skeleton watch curiously before Asgore perks up. “Let’s go check it out!” He suggests, turning to the group. Gaster tenses up, while Toriel seems to take a moment to think.
“It would be nice to know what’s happening, especially you as prince…” Toriel thinks out loud, only to nod her head a bit later. “I’ll go with you Gorey.” She gives a smile saying so, only for the pressure to go on Gaster as they turned to him, giving curious looks. He shrunk back a bit as reaction, but eventually nodded as he fiddled with his scarf to cover his mouth.
Asgore smiles yet again, and as Gaster gets up, they head off to find out what’s happening. Asgore has a skip in his step, while Toriel calmly follows behind, and Gaster doing so as well but a bit sheepishly and unsure.
The three found a crowd at the entrance of the town. Asgore looked around for his dad, and without hesitation disappeared in the crowd with Toriel somewhat behind. Gaster, however, hesitated but eventually made his way in, squeezing past all the monsters to the middle of the giant ‘C’ shaped group. At one end stood Gorin, most of the monsters huddle behind as Nomeus and Ouphre stood beside him, magic spears in hand to defend anyone if needed.
At the open and opposite end of the crowd stood Chatch, a smirk on his face just like before. He seemed confident for coming all the way with only one or two of his own guards that stood by his side to the main capital of the kingdom of monsters, bearers of magic that most humans feared. Gaster saw him look his way, seeming to chuckle but it was covered by the murmur and whispers of the crowd.
“What are you doing here Chatch?” Gorin soon asks with a stern look. Chatch’s own look doesn’t seem to falter even with the powerful looking monster in front of him.
“Business is all.” Chatch replies, and Gorin gives him a hard, questioning stare. Gaster shrinks back into the crowd a bit, only to find Asgore behind him. Asgore smiles at him and stays at Gaster’s side, Toriel coming up and stays next to Asgore. Gaster looks at them for a minute before looking back at the two leaders like everyone else here.
“What kind of business do you need? What is so important that you cause commotion here?” Gorin asks and gestures around to the crowd with his trident.
“You already should know what I want.” Chatch says, making Gorin give a confused look. “The experiment. It’s location. We feel like there was someone that did something to make him either disappear or escape, and even killed off the humans left in the lab so there was no witnesses from possible opposers. And we have evidence to point towards your side of the experiment.” Gasps set out across the crowd as Gaster began to feel uncomfortable as he shuffled around in place.
“Are you accusing foul play on me and my people?” Gorin’s face was a scowl as he growled, but even with this, Chatch’s face grows more happy it seems.
“In a way.” Was his only reply. “A monster named Vedran was told to have close ties with the experiment. They also happened to have both disappeared at the same time. We also saw only human deaths in the lab, showing a threat as us. We believe the experiment could even being hiding among you, as it wouldn’t be hard with the way the scientist thought he was, species wise.”
Gaster looked at the crowd to see a bright, yellow scaled lizard who looked upset, and almost in tears. He had his guess to who, and if it was he felt bad over it, slumping his shoulders in shame.
“We do not have a clue what happened to the experiment, but we do know Vedran was killed by what I saw at the lab earlier.“ While Gorin said that, Gaster looked at the lizard again, only to see her gasp and begin to cry.
A sudden guilt rushed over Gaster as he watched her hear the news for the first time. Some monsters around comforted her, mostly the ones who noticed. By now the crowd was more quiet for her cries to be heard. Everyone seem just as affected by the death as her, as some even cried with her. *Everyone cares for everyone here it seems…* “We do not have the experiment currently in known possession either way. Your accusation is false.” Chatch finally changed his look by his face going to a more neutral but slightly upset one.
“Right now you have no way to show what you have of him being supposedly killed true, so that also says yours can be instead.” He says, and Gorin squints a bit at Chatch. “We’ll make a deal. You give the experiment back, we’ll leave you alone and continue the experiment properly. You don’t… “ He looks at his own guards, smiling. “We’ll have to take it down the road of war I guess.” Everyone was shocked, even the king himself. Gaster held his chest and took a step back, his face horrified.
“That’s too much for some experiment that can be simply replicated!” Gorin argues, practically baffled by the route Chatch wanted.
“I see it more as a way for monsters to attack us, ruining our experiments with them and taking them for their own. It’s a personal and concerning attack to us.” Chatch explains. “Makes you all a threat.” Everyone was dumbstruck by Chatch’s view. The crowd took a few minutes to actually start murmuring again to each other, and for even Gorin to think of a reply.
That was the point Gaster had to leave. He ended up turning around and heading back to the school. He hid behind the back where practice happens, and pulled out his journal. He was going to write, but after a few moments he ended up tearing up to make his vision too blurry. Over the fact war might happen because he ran away, because he killed over someone who was like a father’s death, because he felt too emotional to control his anger he never really felt too much before. It felt like his fault, and upset him for those reasons.
He tried wiping away the tears but they kept flowing, and he just grew worse with the emotions. He never had a time he actually cried properly before. Vedran’s death was upsetting but it made him more numb than anything. He was passed out the day of it mostly so he couldn’t really mourn until he was at Nomeus’s place and already accepted the fact.
“Gaster, are you alright…?” a voice says while he tries to wipe the tears away. He looks up, not really wanting anyone to see him as a mess like that, but it’s obviously too late now. Asgore had said it and was standing just in front of him, looking concerned. Toriel looked upset as well, and came to Gaster’s side and kneeled down.
Gaster stays silent for a bit, trying and kind of succeeding at wiping his tears away. “Y-yeah I’m just fine…”
“If something is wrong we’re here to help you know.” Toriel says with a sad look. He takes a minute to think of and say something.
“I don’t- really want to burden anyone with what’s wrong if something is. I just- would like it to be left alone- just to not have anyone worry.” Gaster mumbles, making it almost not that audible.
“We… Understand…” Toriel says, looking down a bit. “If that is what you wish, we shall accept it, but just know we are here for you.” Asgore nods in agreement.
“T-thanks Toriel- and you too Asgore…” Gaster replies and the other two reply with a smile.
“Call me Tori if you want, it’s what my friends do.” Toriel says with a smile, and Gaster nods. He wasn’t sure if he would actually use it though.
After that, Asgore sat down by Gaster’s side and Toriel too, but it was silent until Nomeus showed up, who was clueless of what happened. The day continued somewhat normally, but Gaster wasn’t in a very great mood from it. The warning was stuck in his mind all day from then on…
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