Kaya change into her skeletal form and her magical eye flared, the light from it illuminating the tunnel as the light from the entrance faded. Skyla just continued to hold onto her arm, scared of the consequences that would come out of it if they were seen or simply of the dark. She didn't blame her best friend if she was, most humans were, after all.

They continued on for many feet, and Kaya's white eyes appeared in her eye sockets as brightness appeared around the corner. They neared the next corner and she forced them to stop.

Muffled voices flowed into the tunnel. A whole lot of them.

Early explorers? Lyra asked. But everyone knows the Underground is off-limits now. Kaya knew that last part was meant for her.

She peaked around the corner, and found, luckily, what seemed to be early explorers or hikers. There were five of them, a couple of females, and the other three males. They seemed to be inspecting Asgore's old throne. Old, since he and Toriel are no longer rulers. One of the females, with dark brown skin and sleek black hair, sat in it, landed with a soft thud, and needed help getting out of it. The other, light-skinned with blonde hair, looked up and Kaya hid from view, hoping she made it before the adult caught sight of her.

Darn it! I wasn't fast enough, she though as she heard footsteps, that gradually grew louder as the female approached, crunch through the dying golden flowers covering the ground. Golden flowers could last a long time before they died natually, and echo flowers were almost immortal. Asgore wasn't around enough anymore for them to be flourishing, as he was their caretaker.

The footsteps stopped suddenly, Kaya's non-existent heart pounding in her head, and a voice spoke up, echoing down into the tunnel, or halllway as it once was.

"Hello?" asked the female that had seen her. "Can you come out please?"

A muffled question came from one of the males.

"I saw someone, Mason."

Yep, she most definitely saw me, Kaya thought as she and Skyla pressed against the wall containing the gateway into the throne room. She heard more footsteps and guessed that 'Mason' had come over to her, for she heard his voice louder and clearer than before.

"Well, why don'cha get 'em to come out, darlin'?" They're a couple, then.

"I'm trying! You can't blame a country girl for being soft on others!"

"Hey!" Mason shouted into the hallway, which was extremely loud to the two girls, since they were right by the gateway. "Would'ya like tah c'mon out an' have a little chat?"

While his loud voice shook the hallway, it echoing all around, Kaya whispered to her friend, and mainly to herself, "Why does he talk so much like Dad?"

"I think I heard something."

Shit! Why are the risks I take to say something always jinx me?!

"Can ya c'mon out? We don' bite. At least, I don't."

"Excuse me?!" the blonde shouted. By now the other three had come over from the disturbance in their 'work' and she heard a soft "oh!" from the other female.

Kaya couldn't help but let out a laugh, then smacked her skull when she realized what she just did. She was glad when she heard the end of Skyla's laugh, so even if she had managed to keep it in, her red-headed friend couldn't. Her 'heart' jumped when she saw a tanned, toughened hand grab onto the delicately engraved border if the gateway and saw the rest of, she guessed, Mason follow. He stared down at them with kind eyes and a surprised expression on his face.

"Well," he said, country deep in his voice, so she knew it was him. "How long've you two been 'ere?"

Neither of them spoke for a moment, and the uneasy silenced seemed to last longer than it did before Skyla replied, "W-we just got here, s-sir."

"Name's Mason, an' what are your names?" he asked politely.

"I'm Kaya and this is my best friend Skyla," Kaya said, piping up. He looks so weirded out, she thought as she studied his face. It must be because of me. I bet they've never seen monsters before, and I'm living proof of their legends and tales. But rumors have spread everywhere of their coming back by now. So why does Mason look so disbelieving?

"That's a.... pretty cool and realistic makeup design ya got there," he said uncomfortably.

Your suspicions are correct, Lyra growled, weary of him. These 'explorers' have never seen a monster before.

"Wait, have you never seen a monster before?" Skyla asked, echoing their conversation.

"Uh, what d'ya mean? Skeletons aren't monsters."

"Mason! Can the rest of us see them?" the other female shouted behind him.

"Yeah, sure," he replied, unnerved, and backed out of the gateway. Kaya stepped out into the throne room, her friend coming out beside her. She twitched her tail, which she did a terrible job at hiding. One of the younger males, dark-skinned like the female and possibly in his early twenties, jumped back at the sight of it.

"What the crap is that?!" he screamed. Everyone seemed very uncomfortable around Kaya, except for her red-headed friend of course.

"Maybe I should leave all... this to you, Sky," she said, being uncomfortable by all the weird looks the others were giving her.

Skyla grabbed hold of her arm as she turned to leave and said, "No. You can't leave me alone with a whole group of strangers and expect me to explain to them the legends and what monsters are and how they were freed by your mother."

"And how do you think I can help?" she asked, turning on her friend. "At the moment, I'm only making them uncomfortable, as I do with everyone else! I would be of no use here. Only useful thing is to probably tell someone that a group of 'explorers' are in the Underground. And yes, I know it's my fault that we will get in trouble for being in a forbidden area in the first place."

"Wait, you're going to call the authorities on us?" the blonde asked, desperation and panic in her voice.

"Well, outside. Signals aren't that great down here." A strange glance from Skyla answered the reason for her next sentence, "Yes, I've been down here before. So what?"

"You've been down here before?" the third male, the one who had yet to speak, asked. "We've been down here for a few years and only just made it to this castle. How often have you come?"

"I come here often, visiting Snowdin, the Ruins, Asgore's castle, Hotland, and I was coming back to explore Waterfall."

"So, these different sections have a name?"

"Yes. If you went down the hole then the first section you came across was the Ruins. Next would be Snowdin, which is the, most likely, run-down town in the snowy landscape. Next would be Waterfall, then Hotland, and finally here, Asgore's castle."

"How come you've explored Snowdin and the Ruins but not Waterfall?" Skyla asked.

"I overshot when teleporting and sort of forgot about it until I was reminded of it in one of Mom's stories."

"'Teleport'?!" the whole five of them asked, bewildered.

"Yes, but I won't answer any more questions until you all tell us who you are and what you're doin' down here." In the middle of her sentence, her magical eye appeared and started flaming. That didn't really scare any of them, and that's when she knew they weren't typical explorers.

"Alright," the dark-skinned woman spoke up, taking a step forward. "I'm Ali Blackburn, she's Caitlin Wingfield, you know Mason Wingfield, Cait's husband, my boyfriend, Edward Salazar, and he's Kade Bryan," she replied, gesturing at each one as she said their name. "And we aren't explorers, we're adventurers. We were given the opportunity to explore this ancient cave that was told to be closed to the public." She gazed down at the two girls, with Skyla looking very uncomfortable and Kaya meeting her gaze, although her own wavered slightly.

"Alright. I'm Kaya Dreemurr and this is my best friend Skyla Rivers. And for your information, I'm not a monster. Nor am I human. Well, no. I'm not just human or monster."

"What?" Caitlin asked, confused.

"I'm both human and monster," she answered as automatically turned into her human form. Her tail swayed behind her, and occasionally the tip would twitch.

"How many of these, er... 'monsters', have tails?" Mason asked.

"Quite a few. Mine is complicated, having to explain to you about timelines and stuff in order for you all to understand."

"So, you mentioned magic earlier," Kade said. "Can you show us?"

"Yeah, sure. Why not?" she answered and teleported onto Asgore's throne, looking at them from over the top of it, herself standing on the seat. Skyla pointed to where she had teleported and she waved before teleporting back to them.

"Wow," Kade said, amazed. "And, uh, how often are you able to turn into a skeleton?"

"It's completely natural for me to change into either if my forms, with my human form being my default, and most if the time changing into my skeletal form is when I'm using magic."

"Is there anything else you can do?" Edward asked, intrigued.

"Oh yeah. Besides teleportation, I have telepathy, magical bone attacks, magical goat skull attacks, which are called Gaster Blasters, a guardian wolf named Lyra-"

Do you have to bring me into this? Lyra interrupted.

They asked for all I can do, and you are included, Kaya replied sourly.

"A guardian what?" Multiple voices asked.

"A guardian wolf," she repeated, and Lyra appeared beside her, looking annoyed and sulky. Everyone backed away from the large wolf, with Kade and Skyla looking quite interested, with a little anger from her red-headed friend.

"How come I never knew about her?!" she asked, now enraged.

"Lyra prefers to be hidden away without too many people wondering about her," she said, defending herself and her guardian.

Do these people have to know everything about you?

In order to gain their trust, yes.

Fine, but may I be left out of it from now on?

Sure.

With that, Lyra disappeared and everyone looked only more intrigued and weary of her.

"This is so interesting!" Ali said. "Is there anything special about monsters?'

"Besides being not what you imagine them as, besides somewhat looking the part, their SOULs are upside-down to human SOULs and only come in shades between white and a pale gray."

"What d'ya mean by 'SOULs'?" Mason asked.

Kaya summoned her own to demonstrate. "This is a SOUL," she said. "Mine is different from everyone's because it's half human and half monster." She pointed to the two sides as she said them. "Colors stand for the strongest trait that person has. I have two, DETERMINATION as red and PATIENCE as light blue. Do you mind if I show them yours, Sky?" she asked Skyla.

"Sure," she replied. "But can we sit down? Standing is starting to kill my feet."

"Yeah," Kaya answered and they all sat down in a circle. She summoned her friend's SOUL, its color a variation of KINDNESS. "This is a typical human SOUL. Shape of course, since they all come in various colors." She turned it upside-down by picking her red-headed up with her magic and turning her body upside-down. "That would be a typical monster SOUL shape, and pretty much devoid of color," she said as Skyla shouted, "Hey! I never agreed that you could do this!"

"Sorry." She set her back down on the ground and received and angry glare.

I deserved that, she thought.

"What colors do you think we have?" Caitlin asked.

"Whatever trait fits you best," Ali answered. "We know DETERMINATION and PATIENCE."

"There's also BRAVERY, JUSTICE, KINDNESS, PERSEVERANCE, and INTEGRITY, which are orange, yellow, green, purple, and blue," Kaya said. "At least, those are the most popular, common, well-known, and distinguishable traits. It'd be quite a lot to take in when you are told how many traits there are and how much of what basic trait is in it."

"What trait do you think you have, Cait?" Ali asked.

"Maybe KINDNESS or INTEGRITY I guess. What about you, hubby?" she asked Mason and leaned against him.

"I'm thinkin' BRAVERY," he responded. "What about you, Edward?"

"Flat out saying PATIENCE. I believe I am patient enough to earn the trait. What about you, Kade?"

"Well, since I'm the brains of our team, I think I have PERSEVERANCE. And," he sighed, as if knowing what her answer was. "What trait do you think you have, Ali?"

"I'm all out JUSTICE!" she shouted and leaped to her feet, posing somewhat heroically.

"From the discussions we had, I would believe that those traits are right," Kaya said.

"If only there was a way to see our SOULs and find out if they are those traits." As Kade finished speaking, Kaya summoned their SOULs for them, and found that their guesses were pretty much correct. Caitlin had a green-blue SOUL, KINDNESS and INTEGRITY; Mason had a variation of BRAVERY, of which all of them were a shade or variation of the basic seven trait colors. No one had a true, straight out basic trait color. Edward had PATIENCE, Kade had PERSEVERANCE, and Ali had a yellow-red SOUL, meaning she had JUSTICE but also a bit of DETERMINATION.

The five adults all gazed at their SOULs, marvelling over them. Kaya's phone went off and she fumbled to answer whoever was calling her.

"H-hello?" she asked and stood up, walking over to the hallway leading to the way out.

"where the hell are you right now?!"

"Oh! D-dad! I was jus' takin' a short walk in the forest," she answered quickly. She could easily tell her father was pissed, yet also very concerned.

"it's past noon!" he shouted back. Her eye sockets went dark and she didn't respond. "ya better get back home, else i'll ground ya!"

"You're gonna ground me either way!" Kaya said. "And how was I suppose to keep track of time down here?!" Too late, she shut her mouth and didn't say a thing more.

Sans sighed on the other end and must've face palmed. Or skull palmed if you think about it. "ya know none of us are allowed there anymore. alright. stay there, i'll come an' pick ya up."

"Why do you assume I need help?"

Her father appeared before her and ended the call before saying, "i don't. i jus' know you'll stay 'ere."

"That's a different voice," she heard Ali say.

"who'd'ya bring with you?" he asked as he went into the throne room with Kaya right behind him. He stopped and stared at the five adventurers and Skyla, who came over to her.

"Oh, another skeleton," Caitlin said. By now they were all on their feet, and Ali whispered to her friend, "No, he's the only skeleton we've seen."

"But what about Kaya?"

"ya showed them?!" Sans asked furiously, turning to her.

"I didn't have much of a choice, considering that I can't keep my skeletal form forever while not consuming magic," Kaya argued.

"why were you in your other form in the first place?!"

"Mason scared me when he appeared around the corner! I couldn't help it and ya know that!"

"who's 'mason'?"

"He's the tall, tanned one over there," she said and pointed to the group. Mason waved slightly, holding Caitlin close to him.

"which brings me to my next question," her father said, turning back to the group. "what're ya doin' down 'ere in the first place? underground's off-limits to the public."

"We're a group of adventurers and we're granted permission to explore this cave," Ali answered, standing close to her boyfriend. "I'm Ali Blackburn, she's Caitlin Wingfield and he's Mason Wingfield, Cait's husband. This is my boyfriend, Edward Salazar, and he's Kade Bryan." She gestured to each one as she said their name like she had done for Kaya and Skyla.

Kade made the daring choice of taking a step forward and then took the consequence of being held up in the air by Sans.

"Dad! Set 'im down! He didn't do anything wrong."

"Please set me down," Kade pleaded. "I prefer to have solids underneath my feet."

"you all go back to somethin' else," he said. "place of headquarters or somethin'. underground's no place for humans."

"But Mom was just fine when she went through," Kaya said.

"'s not why they should leave."

"Then what? The Underground's empty of monsters. They all moved to the surface."

"get home, lil' lilac," he said, avoiding the question and using the nickname he had given her when she was younger. "did'ya forget what today was?" he added on a lighter note.

It took a moment but both her and Skyla said, "Ooh."

"I forgot that it's Sarisk's birthday," Kaya said, slightly embarrassed that she had forgotten.

"go get somethin' for 'im if ya haven't already," her father said and set Kade down, who seemed to faint on the spot. "an' help your mother go shoppin' for thanksgivin' tomarrow."

"Can we come with?" Ali asked. "Er, uh, tomorrow? We don't really have the funds yet to buy our own turkey."

Sans sighed. "c'mon then," he said, turning and going down the hallway. Kaya and Skyla followed, with the group following hesitantly afterward.