Foxtale: Official AU Story - Chapter 1
@theshippingcharacter here it is! Your AU!
Just a short little story, but hopefully you guys will enjoy!
http://archiveofourown.org/works/9632225
By now everyone already knows the full, tragic tale of the monsters of the Underground.
In the Great War between monsters and humans, the humans were victorious and had slaughtered many monsters, coating the ground in their fine dust. To save his remaining people, King Asgore surrendered and allowed his people to be driven to Mount Ebott and sealed by the barrier. The barrier that could only be broken by seven human souls, and one monster.
During the collection of these souls, Asgore and Tori’s son made his way to the surface using the soul of their adopted human child’s and, upon laying their lifeless body in the flowers, he was killed by the humans. Tori and Asgore, in their grief, divorced, and the collection of souls continued.
The monsters’ hard life continued on. Humans were rarely found in the Underground kingdom, and were more often than not, accidently killed before their soul could harvested. Resources, food and magic were starting to run low. Hope and Determination were beginning to become hard to find – the lives of countless monsters were at stake. But the monsters knew that this way of life would only continue…
Until the day that the angel would descend to the Underground through the way of the ruins, and the Underground would become empty.
This is the Undertale legend that we all know and love. This is the legend that has spawned so many tales of heroes, of sacrifice, and of love. The tale that has caused so many others to take up their pens and contribute to it. Artwork, stories and many more fantastic pieces, these all sprung from this original, and fantastic legend.
This universe, through the powers of reset, caused many more alternate universes to spring forth. Underfell, the violent universe – a world of kill or be killed, where collecting EXP and LOVE the only way that you could be feared and respected. Underswap – the cute and friendly universe, where, to be the very best, you made the most friends. Underlust – kiss or be kissed, a universe of a… special kind of love. Swapfell – the feared fusion of both the Swap and the Fell universes. There are many more of these unique and wonderful universes, and many more being created all the time.
But we are here to talk about one of these in particular. There is one universe that is vastly overlooked and underappreciated. One were not only were the monsters sealed in the Underground but, due to their cleverness and crimes of the past, foxes, too, were also sealed away. Not even the monsters trusted these beings. They were feared for their vile tricks, their terrifying schemes, and their bloodthirsty history.
These foxes were unlike the ones that we see on the Surface. They still had their majestic tails, their tall, fluffy ears, they had their sharp teeth and canine mouths, not to mention their quick and clever brain. But the foxes that were sealed away were the descendants of foxes that had merged their race with the rarest of the monsters – the skeletons. This resulted in strong, magical beings that thoroughly enjoyed their pranks and tricks… many times taking them too far. Often times this would result in injury or death of the poor victim, their tormenter collecting EXP and LOVE from their death. But, as we know from the tales of Underfell and Swapfell, the gathering of EXP and LOVE is a cruel addiction. It has the power to overwrite a monster’s characteristics, making them savage, hungry for both power and dust. This is why even the monsters had begun to fear them.
Once the monsters and foxes were sealed away, and the humans had carried on with their own boring lives, the foxes found their own place to live. With them being banished by the monsters, hidden away from the humans, they had no chief, no one to rule over them. For a time it was comfortable but, tensions rose, and a desire for power hovered over the community. It was during this time that the foxes clashed, not with the other monsters, but with one another. Arguments were shared, heads were bashed, and soon the meeting, once of proper monsters, became a screaming ground. Eventually, they all had came to a simple conclusion, “the strongest will rule us all!” they declared, the contestants of the crown taking up arms against one another in a battle to the death.
The survivor would have been crowned their supreme leader. Even as good as this idea had originally seemed however, there soon was no monster left untouched by this battle. Even monsters with no desire to join in, with no desire to rule, were pulled in or killed on the spot. Turns out even foxes did not trust other foxes. As the battle had carried on, each warring fox would remember that he or she had a forgotten enemy. One that could potentially overthrow them if they were successful in this contest. “This could not be allowed to happen!” they are swore, killing those they deemed a threat. One prevention kill led to another, then and to yet another. But, as a wise man once said, there is no peace with war, as war only breeds more war, blood breeds more blood. These so-called prevention kills quickly led to retaliation kills by the other monsters. The contest had turned into a bloodbath.
Murderous instincts took over and the constant thirst for LOVE and EXP became unleashed. Fox clashed with fox, friend clashed with friend. There was no one left unscathed. Their snarls and weapon noises soon were drowned out by death howls and their barks. The entire Underground shook with the force of their violence. It was amongst the insane chaos that two brothers escaped, although they too were not unharmed. The taller one had received a slash to eye socket as he ran through the mob, resulting in a scar that never healed. The smaller fox was not so lucky. Another fellow fox had been squeezing his already small and weak arms together, causing little cracks to form in the upper bone. Morrow and magic flow were permanently changed that day, leaving his hands small and weak. His brother had been able to save him, attacking but not killing the assailant.
Together, these two brothers escaped, vowing to make a better name for themselves and for the remains of their fellow foxes. They turned their backs on their vile history and chose to make a new name for themselves.
But it was during their getaway, fleeing both the slaughter and the resulting dust storm that something changed within these two monsters. The tall and lanky one, known as Papyrus, was once happy and energetic, dreaming to become a part of the prestigious Royal Guard once he was accepted by the other monsters. He became rude, withdrawn and angry, disenchanted with the Underground. Obnoxious and troubled. There was only one monster that he truly trusted, and that was his beloved brother. His smaller brother, Sans, once lazy, innocent and cute, became more level-headed, and much more aware of everything. They only had each other now. Their father, W.D. Gaster, had somehow had struck a truce with the humans before the fall of monsters, and he himself had cast the barrier that sealed them away. Only he could cross it to freedom. All other monsters were cruelly left to their fate.
Once they escaped their clan, Papyrus and Sans were able to find shelter in a place just outside of the monster village of Snowdin. They had tried to avoid the monsters as much as they could, avoiding any potential conflictions. The Snowdin monsters only kept a wary eye on the two foxes, especially on Papyrus. With his edgy appearance, his long scar, brilliant red eyes, and jagged teeth, he was truly a fearsome sight. Sans was much smaller and completely adorable, his big blue eyes often forming into the shape of stars. To the townspeople, he appeared weaker to the others and was quickly deemed more trustworthy by the townspeople. He was the one that they spoke to, the one that they preferred to sell or trade with. This, in a way, was ironic. Sans had inherited more of their father’s intellectual mind, and was stronger with his magic attacks. He knew the powers of his cuteness, and was able to use it to his and his brother’s full advantage. Papyrus, as was easily seen, was clearly the physical fighter of the two of them. He could take a hit and retaliate the damage, sending the poor monster down.
The foxes, although safe and comfortable in their new home, knew that their new lifestyle wouldn’t last forever. Eventually they would be challenged by other monsters and be forced to reveal their true strength to the townspeople who tolerated them, or risk their own death. As months went on, the town monsters slowly began to trust, at least to a degree, the young foxes living outside of town. Papyrus had even taken up Royal Guardsman defensive training with the Royal captain herself, the resilient catfish, Undyne. He, by now had a new dream. He would become a Royal Guardsman, to become stronger and able to protect his brother from all harm, but also so the other monsters would realize that not all foxes were devious, that there was still some good left in that race. Sans, also through the generosity of Undyne, had found work as a sentry. He pretended to enjoy the constant walking, all through the forest, setting up traps and puzzles, all while watching for humans. His soul just wasn’t in it though. He wanted to sleep, be lazy. But to help his brother achieve his dream, he needed to help too. They needed to rebuild the name and history of the fox.
And so life, as it does, it went on. There was no sign of Gaster, though Sans and Papyrus were not surprised. After all, with access to the Surface, what monster would chose to remain below? They had saved only one of his textbooks, one that explained the fine balance of science, magic and use of Determination. As Sans and Papyrus had puzzled over it, looking over Gaster’s equations and other notes he had made in the barrier’s creation, they came across a small sticky note. ‘KEEP THEM IN’ was all it simply read. Papyrus had grown angry then and had tossed the book in the trash. Their so-called father had left all the monsters and his own sons to rot in the Underground, and ensured that no one would escape. What sort of father does that? However, the monster that Gaster had addressed as ‘Them’, were completely evil beings, ones with no shred of good left in their bodies. They were evil, no amount of HP or small-case love could change them. They were happy being themselves. Sans and Papyrus would not know this vital information however, not until it was far too late. It wouldn’t be until after the human had fallen down to the Underground, that everything would become clear, and that Gaster’s warnings, finally, would be taken seriously.
