Sure enough they encountered the skeletons again before long. The two of them seemed to be arguing about what kind of puzzles were hardest when they arrived. Amidst their argument Sans spotted Rain lurking back among the tree line and waved her forward.

With some reluctance she stepped out into the open, cutting off Papyrus’s argument mid-sentence. He looked at her, then to his brother, then back to her again. He did this a few more times until Rain was certain his head was spinning like a top. Chara’s amused laughter rattled around inside her head and made her ears ring.

Papyrus grabbed his brother by the sleeve and turned them both around. The wind carried his overly loud whisper to them despite his attempts at subtly. “Sans, oh my god! What’s that over there?”

They both looked back over their shoulders.

“i think that’s a rock, bro.”

“Oh.”

“but wait, what’s that in front of the rock?”

Papyrus looked up again, eyes peering out over the folds of his orange scarf before he ducked back down. “Oh my god! Is that? Is that a human?”

Sans chuckled. “yup.”

Papyrus stood up so fast it looked like an unseen force had snapped him to attention. “Oh my god! Wait, isn’t that your coat? Why is it wearing your coat?”

Sans shrugged.

Papyrus dismissed this in his frenzied excitement. His limbs seemed to want to do several things all at once but since no agreement could be reached between them, he just sort of vibrated excitedly in place. “Oh my god! Sans, I finally did it! Undyne’s gonna- I will finally be able to- I’m going to be so popular! Popular! Popular!” All the pent up energy finally broke free and Papyrus practically started bouncing in his boots.

Rain took an uncertain step back but Sans gave her a reassuring head bob.

“Aw. Isn’t he just precious?” Chara mused in some sinister shade of black. “I guess he doesn’t look so tough after all.”

Papyrus finally seemed to realize the weird look he was getting and composed himself, clearing his possibly nonexistent throat and striking a heroic pose that maximized the impact of his wind tugged scarf. “Ahem, human! You shall not pass this area! For I, the great Papyrus, will stop you! I will then capture you and you will be delivered to the capital! Then!” He paused, rubbing one gloved hand against his chin. “Then… well, I actually don’t know what happens after that.” They locked eyes across the icy distance and Papyrus became somewhat serious again. “In any case, continue only if you dare!” He made some sort of gesture with his hand that was either supposed to be perceived as threatening or mysterious.Then he spun around eventually vanished into the swirling mists of the blizzard up ahead. His dramatic exit being somewhat compromised once again by the high pitched giddy laughter he emitted as he went.

Once again they found themselves alone with Sans, who was still looking off in the direction his brother had gone. “well, that went well. don’t sweat it, lady. like i said, i’ll keep an eye socket out for ya. just keep to the road and you will be in snowdin in no time.” He didn’t wait for any sort of reply before he left this time.

Rain was liking the sound of all this less and less but Chara and Sans were right, if she didn’t get to town soon she would be in trouble. She didn’t know what exactly she would do once she got there- surely the whole population would be thrown into a frenzy by her arrival. But maybe she could managed to steal some food and sleep in someone’s garage long enough to regain some energy.

So with her head bowed against the wind, she marched on. She couldn’t feel her toes or her nose, even though she knew it was running. She was getting tired of this. She just wanted to go home. She just wanted to see her own bed again.

“It’s ok Rain. We will be home soon enough. Just stay Determined.”

They began to see small traces of civilization pop as they went. The snow on the path became packed down into slick sheets of ice in some places thanks to foot traffic. A few small shacks and unoccupied sentry stations showed up now and again but no one seemed to be around and the doors were locked.

Then they began to see fresh paw prints that sank deep into the snow. Some of them bigger than Rain’s hand.

“This isn’t good. That’s a guard dog print. It’s fresh. The snow has not filled it in yet. Be careful”

They could hear a few distant howls now and again as the day stretched on. Sometimes the howls were close by, other times they were nothing more than a distant echo.

So far there were no other signs of the skeletons. Rain began to wonder if perhaps they had gone off to raise the alarm and get the real guards.

They were walking past what they assumed to be another deserted dog house when they heard the sound of a blade being drawn.

Rain spun around and froze. A large black and white dog stepped out from his hiding place behind the house, some sort of oddly shaped cigar clenched in his yellowed teeth. The creature was walking upright like a man, ears twitching in the wind.

“Did something move?” He grunted, flicking the cigar butt out into the snow and drawing his second blade. He sniffed the air. “Hello? Is someone there?”

Rain watched the dog inch closer, still sniffing the air. Either monster dogs did not have the same sense of smell that their over world counterparts had, or the stink of his own cigar smoke was throwing him off. Regardless, he was creeping closer.

“Don’t move.” Chara warned. “Do you see it? Look at his eyes.”

The dog was stooping low to the ground now, reaching out to feel the shape of their footprints a few yards back and smelling them. When he looked back up Rain saw that his eyes were full of fog and stars. Cataracts. He was nearly blind.

Despite this, he still seemed to recognize their out of place shape among the nearby foliage. He stalked forward, feeling out each step and holding his blades at the ready. “I know you are there. Show yoursmelf!” He was within arm’s reach of them now. His blade began to glow blue as he drew it back for a strike.

Rain gasped and tried to lunge out of the way.

“Don’t move.” Chara ordered.

Rain’s limbs locked in place. She squeezed her eyes shut as the blade swung towards her.

She felt something pass through her. The feeling was weird and hard to describe. It was like feeling the wind pass under her skin. She opened her eyes just in time to watch the second blade pass right through her. In a rush of panic she tried to run. She tried to scream. Her mind reeled at the sight of such an image but Chara kept her still and quiet, whispering in her ear.

“When something glows blue like that it will pass through you if you don’t move.”

The dog sniffed again, leaning forward to squint at them. “Sans? Is that you? Damn it son, you know I can’t see worth a damn. Why do you always have to prank me like this? For a second I thought you were a-”

A strong gust of wind chose that particular time to hit them; catching in their hood like wind in a sail and tugging it back to display her red-cheeked face and gray-streaked hair.

“Human!” The dog howled, lunging forward with his other blade. This time it did not glow blue.

Before Rain even knew what was happening her arm flew out to block the blow. The sound of metal colliding against metal rang against the trees as Chara brought their fire iron to bear.

The second blade came after them and swung low, going for their legs. They hopped out of the way and endured a shallow cut to the calf.

“Well so much for that!” Chara barked.

Rain felt confusion at hearing her own voice. Then the realization dawned on her. “No, wait! Stop!” She cried, talking to her own rebellious tongue.

Chara drew back her makeshift spear and drove it into the dog’s shoulder. A high pitched yelp pierced the air and he dropped one of his blades.

Chara pulled back, the spear tip strangely clean, and hit him over the head with it. The dog collapsed into the snow.

“Chara what did you do?” Rain quavered, dropping down to her knees next to the dog and checking his cloudy eyes. “Is he dead?”

“I don’t think I hit him hard enough to kill him. He’s just knocked out. Come on, his house is probably unlocked. Let’s move him inside and get the hell out of here. Just kick some snow over the weapons. If someone else sees us with one of those they will probably know where it came from.”

Rain did as she was told and dragged the dog back inside his house and covered him with a blanket. She lingered by the door, torn between her own crippling fear of having been attacked and her worry that they had taken self-defense too far. The feeling of the blue blade passing through her still lingered in her mind and made her stomach turn but she couldn't help but feel uneasy about how still the dog was now. “Are you sure he will be alright?”

“I wouldn’t lie to you Rain.” Chara promised.

Rain let out a slow breath. “Ok. Ok good. I hope you are right.” She did not notice the strange sound when she closed the door with trembling hands and ran away. But Chara heard it and she smiled. It sounded like sand sliding against itself.

It sounded like dust.

***

They could hear their bickering long before they got there. Sans and Papyrus were working on something on the other side of a frozen pond in a clearing up ahead.

“Ugh! Sans you are so lazy. You were napping all night. Don’t try to deny it, I saw you doing it.”

“uh, i think that’s just called sleeping?”

“Excuses, excuses. You know you could have recalibrated half your puzzles instead. Honestly, why have you let them fall into such disrepair? You used to love setting traps for humans!”

Sans notice them watching and thumped his brother on the arm and pointed them out.

“What? What is it?” Papyrus looked up from the strange device he had been tinkering with and blinked in surprise. He shot to his feet and brushed the excesses snow off of himself. “Oh-oh! So the human arrives at last! As you can see, in order to stop you, my brother and I have created some puzzles. I think you will find this one,” his grin widened and for a brief moment there seemed to be a strange orange light in his eyes, “quite shocking!”

Chara stiffened. “Oh Jesus Christ he’s going to electrocute us.”

“For you see, this is the invisible electricity maze.” He was pacing back and forth on the other side of the supposed maze, looking quite pleased with himself and somewhat devious. “When you touch the walls of this maze this orb will administer a hearty zap!” He held a delicate looking blue and green orb up over his head that glinted in the weird light of Snowdin’s day cycle.

“I no longer believe this was a wise choice.”

“Sound like fun?”

“No!”

“Not really.” Rain answered.

Papyrus continued to talk over them; oblivious to their lack of enthusiasm. “Because the amount of fun you will probably have!” His devious grin shrank into a more sheepish smile. “Is... actually rather small… I think.”

Rain looked to Sans for some sort of help but he just motioned with his head for them to hurry up and get over to his end of the pond.

Both Rain and Chara looked at the pond, then at Papyrus. Realization dawned on them and they both smirked.

They were cautious at first but once their first two steps did not cook them like flies they adopted a more confidant pace.

Papyrus yelped and twitched. The orb he was holding made a loud buzzing noise. “Sans! What did you do?” He shrieked.

Rain continued to inch along unnoticed.

“i think the human has to hold the orb.”

“Oh. I-” He was cut off by another yelp when Rain bumped into another wall.

“Sorry!” She called from across the pond, apparently hitting a third wall as she said this. “Sorry again!”

“It’s alright! It’s alright just- ouch! Just- ah! Human! Hold still!” Rain stopped at his request with some reluctance. She didn’t want to see what would happen if she made them angry.

Papyrus took a moment to compose himself then marched right into the maze. His boots left little trails of slushy footprints behind him. He held out the orb and smiled. “Well, here you go.” He gave her a pat on the head and murmured good luck before hurrying back to his side of the pond where he eagerly awaited their next move.

“Wow. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer is he? Think you can toss that thing into that snow drift over there?” Chara guided Rain's attention over to a mound of snow that had built up against a bush on the closest bank.

Rain looked down at the tracks of slush. “Actually, I think we could just follow his footprints out of here.”

“We don’t have time for that.”

“It’s ok. I got this. It doesn’t look too hard. Look at him. Look at how happy he is. It would be best if we made a good first impression, right? Stay on their good side?”

Papyrus was grinning ear to ear. Well, grinning ear hole to ear hole- more so than a skull usually did. He seemed pretty hyped up about this whole thing.

There was a strange feeling inside Rain’s chest. The image of Chara melting into a pouting puddle of shadow came to mind. She made some sort of displeased sound that bounced around their head. “Fine. Don’t slip.”

She did slip. Just a little. Just enough to make her curse while Chara snickered at her; but she made it across nonetheless.

Papyrus held a thoughtful hand under his chin as they emerged from the invisible maze. “Impressive. Quite incredible, you slippery snail!” He seemed to be struggling between being pleased and frustrated. “You solved it so easily.” His eyes narrowed and he scowled at the path they had taken. Once again Rain thought she saw a little orange flicker in his eye. “Perhaps too easily. But no matter, this next puzzle will not be so easy. It’s designed by my brother, Sans. Surely you will be confounded! I know I am.” He closed his eyes and smiled all the warmer, then realized what he was doing and immediately became more serious. “I must go and prepare. Prepare yourself human, for you have not bested me yet!” He practically ran off like an excited, giggling school boy. He took off so fast across the unbroken snow that one could swear he was defying the laws of gravity or at the very least, thermodynamics.

Sans approached them then, looking off in the direction his brother had gone in. “hey, thanks. my brother seems like he’s really having fun.”

Rain tucked her chin into the warm folds of the borrowed jacket. “He’s an… interesting character.”

“boy, you have no idea.” He laughed. “did you see that outfit he’s wearing? he calls it his ‘battle body.’ we made it a few weeks ago for a costume party and he hasn’t stopped using it since.” He shook his head. “man, isn’t my brother cool?”

“Er, yeah. I suppose that is a descriptive word. That can be used. In situations such as this where it is necessary to describe…things.”

He tilted his head. He seemed to be distracted by something. He was looking down at the snow. “hey, what happened?”

Rain looked down and realized the fresh scab on her leg had broken open. Bright red spots of blood marked her path all the way back to the other side of the pond and stained her perpetually wet clothes a dark color.

She tucked her injured leg behind its counterpart. “Oh, it’s nothing. I slipped on some ice and cut myself on a sharp rock on my way over.”

His teeth clacked together in worried thought. “if you say so. if all this gets to be too much trouble let me know. i'll see if i can do something to help.” He gave her a friendly thump on the arm and parted ways. “well, thanks again for helping me out like this. don’t worry, a sharp tack like you shouldn’t have any issue with the rest of these puzzles. you will be warm and safe in snowdin in no time. and uh, hey, thanks for doing the whole maze. for a second i thought you were just going to throw the orb and walk off.”

Rain could feel Chara glaring at his back. It was a thick pressure behind her eyes. “I don’t think I like how observant this one is.”

“He seems nice. Weird, but nice.”

“Too self-aware for my taste.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, nothing. Come on. Let’s go. I’m trying to stop the bleeding but this is getting hard. Pretty soon you will have to choose between bleeding to death or freezing to death. You better hope that skeleton is going to do more than just wink at us or we won’t make it to the village.”

Rain lowered hear head and marched into the wind, Chara's words nagging at the back of her mind. The trial continued.