Harbinger
Alright, now that SPM is done and over, time to get onto my to-do list. I’ve decided to do this first, but tomorrow it will be back to requests.
So, I fell in absolute love with @melle-d‘s Mythtale, but by god, once I saw the Horrortale version of that AU, I went straight to writing. I was given permission to pretty much do whatever the hell I wanted with the AU version.
So, enjoy.
Genre: Psychological/Fantasy/Mythology
AU: Mythtale (Horror)
Word Count: 1,412
Summary: A seer of bad omens finds a starving god to seek out his purpose.
Sans sung himself a simple tune as he traveled unaccompanied through the dead valley, the crunching of the crisp plants the other only noise to ring through the silent environment. With a set destination, he was careful to look for any and all signs of a presence nearby. Well, a presence other than a god. Giant trenches carved onto the earth showed to all that the end was near. The sun was just about fully set behind the distant mountains, but still he pulled his hood over his skull further, trying to hide himself in his bundle of robes, the only thing he brought with him.
Finding this place wasn’t so hard for the small skeleton; all he really had to do was follow the terrified directions of villagers, the ginormous drag marks, and his own visions. Occasionally he would turn from the past to look into the blurred future, looking for a sign of anything, but he only received the same sights as always.
Born a seer, Sans had a gift of glimpsing into the future, though they were never clear to him. All he really knew was that these visions only brought about bad events. He would sometimes see flashes of orange light and heat days before a wildfire, or perhaps he would only see a splatter of red minutes before an attack on another monster. Some considered it a gift, though most thought he was a bad omen, meant to only bring about bad luck and tragedy. Sans himself had begun to believe it, wondering why he would be given the gift in the first place when he could barely see anything within them. Isolation became the norm for his life, and attempts on his life were soon a regular occurrence. When one of the attacks left a good chunk of his skull missing and the inability to see in one socket, he had completely resigned himself to defeat. However, his vision had only begun to strengthen, as he had begun to receive clearer images. Torn valleys, decimated villages, and scarred bones were just a few of them. He could tell right away that they were no omens or predictions of events, but instead a purpose; his purpose. It was the reason he was put on this world, and so he found himself obligated to follow it.
And so here he was now, not a single soul in his sights, his blurred glimpses of the future only coming more frequently. He was so close. He would find him soon.
And there he was. Crossing over a destroyed hill, Sans finally saw him: Papyrus. Once a god that defined the kindness and good-natured spirit of the world, he was now a completely emaciated skeleton, no longer with any legs or a bottom working jaw due to the effects of his starvation after not eating for centuries. His teeth were chipped and uneven and he lacked any eyes or sockets, and boy was he huge. About the size of a mountain and with an arm span totaling a few hills and valleys, he was more than a sight to be feared. Giant trenches in the earth trailed from his pelvis from where he had dragged himself with his large talons staking into the ground. He laid on the ground, limp and helpless. He looked so pitiful, and yet more than deadly. He was the epitome of entropy and death, and yet he was still so…
“Beautiful,” Sans whispered, a hand coming up to hook around the curve of his destroyed eye socket. He felt as though he was being shrouded in understanding for once in his lifetime, as his mind began to piece together vision and memories and foretelling glimpses that he could never explain. This was an answer to his question of purpose, he knew. A grin stretched across his skull, growing only wider as he moved from his place atop the hill and towards the god. For all he knew at this point, he could be heading for certain death right now, but it wasn’t like he had much to live for anyways. The visions had completely ceased at this point, allowing him to see the beast before him in all its glory.
The beast seemed to sense his presence nearby, as he turned his skull in the direction of the much larger skeleton. A hungry rumble emitted from within his ribcage. Or was it a whine of loneliness? He could not tell yet.
Sans felt no fear as he approached further, his hands fiddling with his robes to tighten them in some vain attempt to appear pleasing in the presence of the starving god. At any moment, Papyrus could just snatch him up and have the smaller monster provide him with the little sustenance he was worth. However, he did nothing of the sort, his skull laid flat against the earth as another pained moan echoes through his ribcage, which held his large soul that seemed to be losing its glow.
Sans was just before the god’s skull before he finally stopped, looking up at the blank, deformed, but still so white canvas that usually contained the sockets. The two monsters said nothing to one another, not that one of them could, and for a moment, Sans could only feel his excitement that beat within his soul. He slowly raised a hand, his robes falling down his radius and ulna and reached forward, his feet moving to step him forward and get him up close and personal with the beast before him. Papyrus did not move to stop him, instead letting the tiny skeleton get close enough to touch him.
There was hesitation at first. Logic kicked in at the last moment, stirring within Sans’ skull as his phalanges holding just centimeters away from the god’s skull. He stilled for a moment, contemplating his final choices, before finally laying his palm flat against the marred skull of the god.
In an instant, everything just became so clear to Sans. Visions he had experienced in the past were now crystal clear, with fire and destruction no longer blurred by the limitations of his talents. As for the future, it was just as comprehensible. Decimated villages and screams of agony rang in his mind as though they were playing out at that moment. He could feel the shadows fill his robes, listening to them begin to laugh, but not to mock or to poke fun, but instead to celebrate and rejoice. Shadows filled his skull through the hole that had removed his eye, filling his head with laughter and voices and thoughts and visions and purpose. He could hear a voice, his voice, speaking to him, the scratchy and hoarse sound of him soothing him like a lullaby to a child. He finally understood now, seeing the glimpses of destroyed villages and ruined lives, feeding the god and leading the world into entropy little by little. And the forefront of it was Sans, bringing the good news that Papyrus, the starving god, his god, would finally be fed through the world’s gradual demise. He would be his harbinger.
Sans slid a hand into the robes he wore, entering the laughing darkness past the sharpened ribcage to gently touch his whitened soul, glowing brightly at the contact with his god. It could feel the direct connection formed with Papyrus. It almost felt like home now. For the first time in his life, Sans felt as though he finally belonged somewhere, and that he could finally be happy. For once, the god and his harbinger no longer needed to be alone. Sans could feel his god’s hunger, his pain, and loneliness, while Papyrus tried his best to fix Sans’ own. With his voice and shadows, Sans knew they would stay connected, no matter how far they became.
The conversation was short. He only needed a little prodding to convince the larger monster to eat.
The smaller skeleton removed his hand from Papyrus, turning and walking away from the god and towards the nearest town. His skull full of visions of destruction and dismay and robes at the brim with laughing shadows, Sans finally knew his purpose. He walked away without a word, as there were no words that were needed to be said. He hummed a tune to himself, rejoicing over the times.
It was time to bring people the good news of the end. His god would finally be able to eat.