Falling Stars: Five Short Stories of Fantasy - Kindle edition by Jackson Aukerman, Danielle Sink. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Falling Stars: Five Short Stories of Fantasy.
It's been a little over a year since I first self-published my collection of short stories on Amazon, so I decided to start a promotion. The whole book will be free Saturday the 20th through Monday the 23rd if anyone is interested.
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In today’s SRH vs RR game, the RR captain Sanju Samson is in your must-picks along with Liam Livingstone. In the bowling department, Rashid Khan and Mustafizur Rahman are…
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Here is…
Falling Stars: Five Short Stories of Fantasy - Kindle edition by Jackson Aukerman, Danielle Sink. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Falling Stars: Five Short Stories of Fantasy.
I ended up reducing the price of my ebook down to $3.50 instead of $4.99, so it’s a little cheaper now, which is always a good thing.
So I know this is not at all related to literature, but it is related to Undertale and I’ve been writing my Undertale novelization, so I figure I can get away with it. This is my attempt at voicing six different Undertale characters. Probably not the best (especially Alphys) but I had a lot of fun with it. Feel free to let me know what you thought.
The only thing that lit up the darkness was the intense purple flames swirling around me. I could feel heat radiating from them. The flames were magic; that much I understood. Toriel stood in front of me, blocking the door. There was a knife in my hand. Was that the knife I picked up earlier? How had I gotten here? What was going on? I was so confused.
I dodged out of the way as fire came soaring past me. Toriel was attacking me! What was going on?! I distinctly noticed that my body was moving on its own. Something was wrong! It was like I was just watching a movie, unable to move away from the path I was on. I dodged out of the way again when something horrible happened. Against my will the knife came streaking down, slicing Toriel right across the chest. I wanted to scream, to stop myself. My body didn’t respond. She fell to her knees, gasping in pain.
“Y…you really h…hate me th…that much….?” She coughed, her body wavering. “Now…now I see who I w…was protecting b…by keeping you h…here...Not you….b….but them!”
She coughed and faded away, her body disintegrating into dust. There was nothing I could do! A tiny gray soul hovered there for a moment before it broke apart, scattering like the dust of her body. Toriel was gone!
I woke up screaming. I sat straight upright in a comfortable bed, chest heaving from fear. A dream. It had just been a dream. It was terrifyingly real, though. I looked around. I remembered where I was, finally. Toriel had found me and taken me into her home. She hadn’t even been mad at me for getting through the ruins myself. She had taken me to this little room and put me to bed. I had been so exhausted sleep had rushed over me. Then that horrible dream…no, horrible nightmare happened. It wasn’t real. It was just a bad dream.
I looked over and saw a little plate of pie setting on the floor by my bed. It smelled good, like cinnamon and butterscotch. I smiled as I realized why I had gotten those strange phone calls from Toriel. I was still shaking over the dream, but at least it was over now. I wouldn’t have to worry about it again. Toriel wasn’t going to hurt me. I wasn’t going to hurt her. Why would I ever do that? It was just some stupid dream. Maybe I had felt bad about not listening to her in the ruins. But that didn’t matter now. I was safe and sound.
I got out of bed, picking up the piece of pie and taking it with me into the hall. The whole house smelled good, like the pie in my hands. Toriel’s house made me smile, it was so nice and homey. I walked down the hall, past a set of stairs leading into a basement and into the living room. Toriel was sitting there in a large, comfortable chair. She had a tiny pair of glasses on and was reading a book titled “72 Uses For Snails.” I approached her just as she looked up and smiled.
“Oh, up already?” she looked pleased. “I’m so happy you’re awake. I have so much I want to show you. My favorite bug hunting spot, for one. Oh and I’ve already written up a nice curriculum for you. This may come as a surprise, but I’ve always wanted to be a teacher.”
“Oh, yeah?” I laughed.
“Well, maybe it isn’t such a surprise,” her white fur blushed some. “But I want to make you happy here.”
Toriel was being so nice. I felt kind of bad, but a question was nagging at me. “When can I go home?”
A sad look crossed her face, “Oh, well this IS your home now, young one. Why don’t I tell you about this book I’m reading instead?”
“Toriel,” I looked down, not wanting to look her in the eye. “How do I get out of the ruins?”
“Uhh…” she looked down at her book. “What if I told you a fun fact about snails? Did you snails flip their digestive systems as they mature? How interesting!”
“Toriel, please tell me.”
She snapped her book closed, setting it down on her chair. “I need to do something. Stay here, child.”
Toriel pushed herself out of her chair and left the room quickly. I could hear her footsteps going down the steps in the middle of the house. I didn’t have an option, really. Toriel was amazing, but I couldn’t just stay here forever with her. I had to find a way out of the hole I had fallen into. I took a breath and followed her down the steps, into a long darkened tunnel beneath the house. Toriel was up ahead, facing away from me. I approached her carefully.
“You wish to know how to return ‘home, do you?” Toriel’s voice sounded different. More serious. “Ahead of us lies the exit to the ruins. It is a one way exit to the rest of the underground. I am going to destroy it.”
“What?!” I cried out. “No, you can’t!”
“I can and I’m going to,” she said firmly. “Once I do, no one will be able to leave the ruins ever again. Now be a good child and go upstairs to your room.”
“Toriel, please don’t do this!” I cried as she headed off further down the hallway.
“This happens every time a human falls into the underground…” Toriel’s voice was full of emotion. “They fall down, they leave, and they die. I’ve seen it again and again.”
“What?” my eyes widened. “This happened before?”
“It’s happened over and over, you naïve child,” she snapped. “If you leave they….Asgore…will kill you. Don’t you understand that I’m protecting you? Go to your room!”
“Why have they killed other humans?” I stumbled after as she moved down the hall. “Who’s Asgore?!”
Toriel reached a bend in the hallway, “Do not try to stop me, child. This is your final warning.”
She moved down and stood in front of a large door. Suddenly my dream flashed before my eyes. The door, Toriel, this hallway. It was all familiar. It was from my dream! How could this even be possible? I wasn’t going to hurt her. I refused. I wouldn’t let my dream come to pass. I wouldn’t hurt her. She taught me everyone could be talked to. I had to talk her out of all of this.
“You want to leave so badly?” she shook her head. “You are just like all the others. There is only one solution then. Prove yourself….prove yourself to me. Prove that you are strong enough to handle yourself in the underground!”
She stomped her foot on the ground, standing firm in my way. My soul flashed in front of me, appearing once again. Toriel was going to fight me. The sight of her body crumbling to dust flashed in front of my eyes again. I wasn’t going to let it happen! I wouldn’t ever let it happen, dream or not.
“I’m not going to fight you, Toriel,” I said, trying to keep my voice as strong as possible. “I don’t want to do this.”
Fire appeared in her hands and started swirling around me. She sent the fire right for me! I tried to move, but I got hit right in the soul. It flashed and dimmed. Toriel was strong, stronger than I could’ve guessed. I didn’t want to get hit many more times. I kept dodging, kept trying to avoid her attacks. Inevitably I kept getting hit. My heart got weaker and weaker every time her magic fire struck me. No matter what I wasn’t going to attack her. I wasn’t going to strike back. I wasn’t going to pull that plastic knife from my bag. I stumbled out of the way of another attack, trying to get Toriel to look me in the eye.
“I don’t want to fight. You taught me not to!” I cried.
She gritted her teach and sent another wave of fire into me. I cried out, my soul dimming. Small cracks appeared in it as I fell to my knees. I couldn’t take another hit. I wasn’t going to be able to survive another strike from her fire. And I shuddered to think what was going to happen if my soul was destroyed. I looked up to see Toriel’s fire swirling around me. It could’ve hit me easily, she could’ve struck me down no problem. The fire didn’t touch me. She was purposely avoiding me. Toriel didn’t want to hurt me, not like Flowey had. She didn’t want to do anything to me.
I spread my arms out, a symbol of submission. She shook her head sadly, “What are you doing?”
“I won’t fight…”
“Attack or run away!” she sent more fire towards me, but that too went spinning away from my body. She couldn’t make herself strike me down. “What are you proving this way?”
“That I don’t have to fight,” I looked at my poor, weak soul. “I’m proving that you taught me the right thing to do.”
“Fight me or just leave!”
“That isn’t what you taught me!”
“Stop that! Just go away!” she cried out, tears streaming down her fur.
I felt tears stinging at my eyes as I refused to move. She shook her head, tears spraying everywhere.
“Child, we could have a good life here. We could be happy together. Happy and safe,” she smiled sadly.
I shook my head, “Toriel, that sounds amazing but…I have to go.”
“Why are you making this so difficult?” her tiny smile was extinguished. “Please, go upstairs.”
“No…”
She laughed to herself, something that surprised me. “I’m so pathetic. I cannot save even a single child. I understand, child. You would not be happy here. The ruins are quite small once you get used to them. It wouldn’t be right for you to grow up in a place like this.”
“Thank you…” I sighed, shaking.
“My expectations…my loneliness…my fear…” she sighed. “I will put them aside for you, my child.”
My soul faded away and I sighed with relief. Toriel and I were safe. She sighed and looked down. “If you truly wish to leave the ruins, I will not stop you. However, when you leave…Do not come back. I hope you understand.”
She knelt down and gave me a warm, fuzzy hug. I nuzzled into the safe, warm feeling of her arms. After a moment Toriel stood up and looked at me sadly.
“Goodbye, my child.”
She stepped back and went down the hall, leaving me alone in that room. After a moment I went through the door and down another long hallway. I was so afraid of what was ahead, but at the same time I was relieved. Whatever that dream had been, however it had predicted the future: I prevented that tragedy. I had avoided the pain and fear. I moved into the next room and was immediately enveloped in darkness. Ahead was a small grassy mound with a flower on top. I went pale as the flower spoke.
“I want you to learn! In this world it’s kill or be killed,” he hissed. “So you were able to play by your own rules? You didn’t kill anyone this time!”
“This…time?”
“You spared the life of a single person,” Flowey laughed, high and cold. “But what will you do if you meet a relentless killer? You’ll die and you’ll die and you’ll die! Then finally, you’ll tire of trying.”
“Leave me alone!”
“Then, you’ll tire of trying. What will you do then? Will you kill out of frustration? Or will you leave this world and leave me to control it?” he cackled.
“Get out of my way! I won’t listen to you! I won’t kill anyone!”
Flowey waved back and forth with sick glee, “I can’t wait to find out what happens. This is so much fun!”
He disappeared into the ground, leaving me in the darkness alone once again. I quickly tripped forward, out the door on the other side of the room and into the complete unknown. I had no way of guessing what was coming next.
