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Papyrus always loved the stories his father would read. Tales about daring princes and evil dragons, of wonderful adventures and pretty princesses.
But life as the actual prince of a small kingdom held little to no glamour, as the Duke often lamented. Especially when your brother is the heir to the throne, incompetent as he is.
"BROTHER!!!" He now shouted, staring at his older brother in anger. "YOU SAID THAT YOU WOULD RESOLVE THIS!!!" Sans peered at the legal document Papyrus brandished in his skull.
"I did?"
"ALL YOU DID WAS NOD AND TELL THEM IT WOULD BE TAKEN CARE OF!!"
"It was resolved, right? That's why it was passed to you, you are the best at this sort of thing."
"YOU ARE SHIRKING YOUR DUTIES!" Sans shrugged. Papyrus felt like shaking him. Didn't Sans understand that Papyrus was already handling most of the issues and responsibilities in this castle? "I CAN NOT SOLVE EVERYTHING! YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF THIS, NOT ME!"
Sans frowned, eye sockets blanking for a socket before he turned a pleading look at the taller skeleton. "Aw, come on bro, don't you love me?"
And there it was. The guilt trip that was used over and over again.
"GAH!" Papyrus stomped off, ignoring the disapproving look from the guards as he slammed the door open, marching away from his brother's office.
Too many times had this happened. Too many times had Papyrus taken care of something he shouldn't have.
Before he knew it, he was in the gardens surrounding the castle, walking through trimmed rose bushes and blooming flower beds. He sighed, keeping to the pea gravel path as he tried to distract himself with the surrounding foliage.
He paused on the small bridge across a creek breaking through the gardens, leaning on the wooden banister. His gaze led his eye lights upstream, the garden dissolving into the royal forest further on.
A sharp movement caught his eye.
A fish leaping from the water? A bug darting over the reeds?
The thing moved again, jerky in its movements before crashing into the creek. Papyrus stepped off the bridge and began to walk upstream, trying to avoid stepping on small wildflowers as he searched for the area again.
This time he heard the splash of water, as well as the desperate croak as a small frog tried to leap out of the water. It was tangled in some sort of thin line, tied to a branch stuck under the water; and a large trout circled the branch, trying to snap up the poor creature.
Papyrus took action immediately, jumping into the stream above the area of conflict and kicking a foot towards the trout, ignoring the chill of the water. The frog gave a gasping croak before sinking underwater. Papyrus's hand cupped the creature, a hand worrying at the string before it loosened from the branch, allowing him to separate the frog.
As he strode ashore, he took a better glance at the smaller creature.
It was of the common green variety, the type seen hopping through the grass when the dew was fresh, with pale gold eyes (now shut tight in fear) and a brown speckled body, wriggling through the foliage. The string was wrapped around its body in a criss-cross fashion, hinting that it was intentional. Papyrus muttered to himself as he began to unwind the string, wondering what child or immature being had decided to torment the poor amphibian.
It had seemed to go into shock, shivering in his hand as he finally got the last few parts off.
"THERE THERE, LITTLE ONE," he soothed, trying to pitch his voice lower. The frog made a small noise, a gold eye revealing itself as it peered up at the skeleton.
"HELLO!" Papyrus greeted. The frog's eye fluttered for a moment. "YOU POOR THING, YOU HAD QUITE THE FRIGHT! YOU NEED REST AND SOME FOOD!" Papyrus paused as he looked at the frog.
"WHAT DO FROGS EAT ANYWAY?" He wondered aloud. "FLIES OBVIOUSLY, BUT WHAT ELSE?" The frog didn't comment, seeming to be asleep in his hand. If not for the rising and falling of its chest, he would have wondered if it was dead.
Quickly making up his mind, he gently scooped the frog into his pocket, intending to find a capable stable hand who knew something about frogs.
It was Undyne who helped him out the most, laughing at his merciful nature and then excitedly talking about how the trout was representing the ferocity of fish species and how she hoped to do the same for her own people. Papyrus listened with a knowing smile, half hearing her rambling. The two of them had grown up together and regarded each other as a sibling, despite their differences.
Undyne had told him to keep the skin moist with room temp water, and to make sure it had fresh air. The frog was resting on a soft cloth on his dresser, after having been checked for wounds by a stable hand and then gently dabbed with a moist cloth. And now, he waited in hopeful anticipation for the little creature's awakening, scribbling notes onto parchment as he reviewed peace treaties and news with the correlating kingdoms.
The news was often gleaned from kingdom newspapers shared across the region, going back and forth on gossip or new dukes or royalty dead or born.
A small snippet had somewhat caught his attention, as the daughter of a lord with a kingdom (though with his title it was called an estate) had mysteriously disappeared, after a rogue fairy was detected in the nearby forest. Most likely a curse if anything, which annoyed Papyrus. Despite the closeness in souls his race had with the fae, monsters were far more benevolent and actually honored the peace treaties.
His thoughts were broken by the sudden plop of a wet thing on his face, gold eyes peering at his eye lights as he let out an unprincely squawk of surprise. His arm caught the dresser as he fought to stay in his chair, hand peeling the frog off his face.
"WAS THAT REALLY NECESSARY??" He asked with a displeased frown. The frog ribbited, throat inflating for a moment.
"DON'T SASS ME," he retorted "I SAVED YOUR LIFE." The frog kicked, legs extending. He set it down, watching as it folded its legs underneath itself. It didn't seem to be afraid of him, something he felt rather nice about. It seemed to be observing him, slowly blinking from moment to moment.
"WELL, DO YOU HAVE A NAME?" He asked, internally unsure if he would even get an answer. The frog chirped a light note. "I, ER, I DON'T UNDERSTAND FROG..." he apologized. The frog seemed to deflate.
Papyrus tilted his skull. "WELL, IN ANY CASE, YOU ARE AN EXPRESSIVE LITTLE CREATURE." It perked up a bit, leaping to land on the top of his skull. It turned a few times in a circle before settling down, the pads of its feet naturally sticking to the smooth bone.
He grinned.
"I THINK I'LL CALL YOU... CHIRP."
"CHIRP THE FROG!"