It was cold. Really, really cold.

Everyone except for Ryan and Frisk was wearing short sleeves, which was a horrible choice to be wearing in a winter wonderland. Ethan and Sophie were silently cursing their choice of wearing shorts and a skirt respectively, and Angela was slowly starting to wonder whether if it would have been a lot more better to stay with Toriel forever.

"Why, of all things we could've wondered too, did we end up in winter?" Angela complained. Her ballet practice clothes were slowly losing her respect, and her ballet shoes giving her cramps were not really helping matters either.

"Ah, one of the many reasons and benefits of wearing a sweater everywhere you go." Ryan boasted the fact he was the most comfortable one in the situation. Even Frisk was shivering, despite the fact they were wearing long sleeves as well. Angela was starting to think the biggest threat wasn't going to be Flowey or Asgore, but dying of hypothermia.

"I'm going to pray that moving will help warm things up." Ethan said while rubbing his palms together. "Let's go."

They walked down the path, snow crunching beneath their feet. (Angela was seriously thinking of finding something else to wear. Again, ballet shoes don't do a lot in the cold either.) In a distance was a bridge hanging above what looked to be a sunken part of land, with something like an oversized gate in front of it.

"Is that a swing set?" Hannah squinted at the strange contraption in a distance. "Or is it a gate for giants?"

"Are all monsters that huge? That thing doesn't even look like a gate!" Chase commented.

They walked a bit more. It wasn't long before Angela felt a strange feeling in the atmosphere around her. The others must have felt it too, as they were looking around their surroundings constantly and nervously.

"I think someone is following us." Ryan whispered to the group. No one disagreed with the statement.

"I don't see anyone behind us." Chase, who was walking at the back of the group, turned behind him to check again. The snowy path behind them showed no signs of another person, or monster, following them.

They continued walking, albeit a bit more faster. Frisk found a rather large and tough-looking stick on the ground, but the group ignored it.

"Too heavy to pick up, Frisk." Angela commented as they walked on. But just after they took a few steps, they heard a loud "Snap!"

Turning around, the stick was snapped into peices, but there was no one to be seen near it. Ethan and Frisk went back to study it, before running back to the group.

"Smashed like it was nothing." Ethan commented. "I think we should be running by now."

So they did. Frisk crashed into a halt in front of the oversized gate, causing everyone behind them to bump into each other.

"What are you doing? That guy or something is right behind us!" Ethan wailed. Now that they have stopped walking, the footsteps of the person following them were obvious. Before Ethan could shove everyone forward, the footsteps stopped.

"Let me guess, he's right behind us?" Angela whispered.

No one dared reply.

"humans." A deep voice boomed. "don't you know how to greet a new pal?"

"turn around, and shake my hand."

Chase, with one hand holding onto his empty revolver, slowly turned around. The rest of the group followed him.

The shadows casted down by the huge trees beside the path stopped the group from being able to see the unknown person clearly. They stuck out one of their hand, waiting for the group's next move.

Chase's eyes narrowed down at the hand, before cautiously reaching out to shake it with his free hand.

"Plbbbbbbbbbllt"

Everyone stood in confused silence while exchanging equally confused expressions for a long while. The stranger let out a chuckle.

"heheh, the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it's always funny." Stepping forward, the strange figure turned out to be a short skeleton, just slightly taller than Frisk. He wore a blue jacket and a pair of shorts that resembled Ethan's sport pants, with a huge smile on his face. (How could he talk, no one knows.)

"anyways, you all are humans, right? i've never seen you kids around here before." He asked. "that's hilarious. i'm sans, sans the skeleton."

"i'm supposed to be on watch for humans right now. but.... y'know.... i don't really capturing anybody." He shrugged, prompting everyone to let out a sigh of relief.

"now my brother, papyrus.... he's a human-hunting fanatic." Upon that statement, the group groaned in distress, annoyance, fear and everything in between.

"hey, actually, i think that's him over there." Sans noted. As if on cue, the group could hear loud stomping from a distance.

Angela turned around. From afar, she could make out a small figure from a distance charging towards the group. The stomping got louder by each second.

"but don't sweat, i have an idea," Sans broke the tension in the group. "go through this gate thingy."

Angela narrowed their eyes at Sans, before turning around with the rest of her friends to look at the oversized gate. The small figure in a distance was growing larger and the sound of boots stomping on snow was getting louder.

"yeah, go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone." Sans insisted. The group walked pass the gate, with Sans following behind them.

"quick, behind those conveniently-shaped lamps." He gestured to a line of lamps seemingly randomly placed in the middle of a winter forest.

The group decided to not question about the lamps. If seven lamps lined up in a row is going to be the only thing saving them from a skeleton's human-hunting fanatic brother, then so be it. Sprinting off the path, they all hid behind each lamp respectively.

The stomping was probably as loud as humanly possible at the point. Then, before Angela could turn around and see what was happening, a loud voice called out.

"SANS!!"

Angela almost jumped up and blew their cover. Judging by the sound of something rocking, Angela assumed Ryan almost knocked the lamp he was hiding behind over. He winced, before turning towards Angela and making an "I'm okay" gesture. Carefully, Angela turned behind her and took a peek at who was yelling.

Papyrus, Sans's brother, turned out to be a tall skeleton possibly towering Chase. He wore a strange armour-looking costume, and had a red scarf tied on his neck.

"sup, bro." Sans turned to meet his brother, who seemed very upset about something.

"YOU KNOW WHAT 'SUP', BROTHER!" Papyrus yelled. "IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU HAVEN'T. RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES! YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!"

"staring at these lamps. they're pretty cool. do you wanna look?" Sans gestured towards the group's hiding spot. Angela shrunk back behind her lamp, silently praying that Papyrus wouldn't bother to check and throwing a lot of mental swear words towards Sans.

Thankfully, Papyrus couldn't care less about the lamps. "NO! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!!" He yelled while stomping the ground below him. "WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE?!! I WANT TO BE READY!! I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE! I WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN!"

Angela was seriously thinking of getting some earmuffs. The skeleton was seriously loud for someone without a voice box. Before she could continue silently complaining, Papyrus started yelling again.

"THEN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I UTTERLY DESERVE! RESPECT, RECOGNITION! I WILL FINALLY BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD! PEOPLE WILL ASK TO BE, MY 'FRIEND'? I WILL BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING!"

"hmm.... maybe those lamps will help you." Sans shrugged again, bearing a completely relaxed expression, which more or less added oil to the fire on Papyrus's face, or, skull.

"SANS!! YOU ARE NOT HELPING!! YOU LAZYBONES!! ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE!!" Papyrus bellowed, stomping the ground again. Angela was surprised that the ground hasn't collapsed below him yet. "YOU'RE GETTING LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERYDAY!!"

"hey, take it easy. i've gotten a ton of work done today. a skele-ton." Sans grinned at his own joke, while Papyrus looked like he was about to explode. Angela tried to keep herself from groaning out loud, while Chase was letting out a really loud groan. Somewhere, Angela could hear Sophie and Hannah trying to stop their snickering while the sound of a person trying really hard not to laugh out loud was probably from Ethan.

"SANS!!"

"come on, you're smiling."

"I AM AND I HATE IT!" Papyrus let out an annoyed sigh. "WHY DOES SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME, HAVE TO DO SO MUCH JUST TO GET SOME RECOGNITION...."

"wow, sounds like you're really working yourself... to the bone."

There was more snickering, more groaning, and Chase looked like he was using all of his will to not scream out loud. Beside her, Ryan's expression was as emotionless as ever.

Papyrus gave out a disgusted groan, followed by what was most likely the skeleton equivalent of an eyeroll. "I WILL ATTEND TO MY PUZZLES. AS FOR YOUR WORK? PUT A LITTLE MORE.... BACKBONE INTO IT."

"NYEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!!" He cackled as he ran off the opposite direction, leaving Sans standing awkwardly in the middle of the path. Just as Angela thought the coast was finally clear, Papyrus turned around and ran back, giving out a last "HEH" before running away for good.

The group stood in silence for a moment, before Sans talked. "okay, you guys can come out now."

Walking out from their hiding space, they turned towards the direction Papyrus left, half expecting him to run back and catch them.

"you kids oughta get going. he might come back, and if he does, you'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes." Sans grinned. (Or at least, it looked like he did. It's hard to tell when a skeleton is smiling all the time.)

"No thank you, we're outta here." Chase said as he dragged the rest of the group towards the direction Papyrus took off, clearly not ready to deal with more puns than he needed.

They didn't make it more than a few steps before Sans spoke again. "actually, hey.... hate to bother ya kids, but can you do me a favour?"

Angela raised her eyebrow. "In that case, what favour is it?"

"i was thinking... my brother's been kinda down lately... he's never seen a human before, and seeing you kids might just make his day."

Angela grabbed onto Sophie's hand, and was ready to bolt for her life. "Yeah, no. I don't think any of us wants to risk getting murdered by a giant skeleton."

"But he seems nice!" Hannah protested.

"And looks don't say anything~" Ryan repeated the same statement he said the day before in a sing-song tone.

"don't worry, he's not dangerous, even if he tries to be." Sans reassured. The team stared at him suspiciously.

He didn't wait for a response. "thanks a million," he continued. "i'll be up ahead." Upon that, he promptly turned around and walked the opposite direction the group was going off, back to the forest.

The group stood in silence for a moment.

"So," Ethan started. "Yesterday, we fell into a mysterious underground world, met a serial killer flower and a nice goat mom who I would not complain if she adopted me. Today, we fought said mom, and ended up in an underground winter with a pun telling skeleton and a human-hunting skeleton."

"That's about it." Ryan agreed. "Also, we have the king of monsters waiting to murder us and harvest our souls."

"Well, looks like we have no time to waste then." Chase concluded. "Let's go."

And they continued on their journey, following where Papyrus went.