Chapter Text
You never did well around adults. Kids, animals, even teenagers, you could handle, and you did a pretty good job, but adults? No. No, no, no, no, nope. Adults were complicated; adults looked at you from above and treated you like a kid just because they were five, ten years older than you? Hell, even when you really were a kid, that kind of condescending treatment really irked you; not even your parents treated you like that. No, adults were infuriating. Adults believed they couldn’t be wrong, that all their answers were the right answers, and that they knew the right way for you to live your life. After three years working as a teacher (two of them in a high school, and not counting your practice in a middle school) you had seen this behavior from the parents too many times, and in equally as many shapes and forms. Because to an adult, you came to understand that at some point, everything outside the adult world became unimportant and any time their kids disagreed with them, it was them ‘throwing a tantrum’. Anything outside of their bubble was wrong, irrational, useless, or just plain stupid. And that kind of thinking always got on your nerves. As a teacher (and as a mother) you wanted to punch them right in the face.
Your parents said it was a “witch thing”.
Ah, you still remember your mother's words the night before you took that train to Mt. Ebott with your 3 year old son, for the final steps of your witch training:
“When people see what we can do, what we are, kids say ‘fairy’, while adults say ‘witch’, and even when they’re using the right name, you must never forget that the implications are different. Kids love magic. Adults fear it. And fear, my child, leads to hate.”
You made sure to always remember it, and kept your magic well-hidden, especially now that you were in the countryside. (After all, country folk have always been more superstitious and believed in magic more than most people) For the last year you'd kept your rituals and potions in the basement and told Max to never talk about it to others (“This is our secret, okay, sweetie?”), while you worked as a teacher at the local school. And it worked pretty damn well, if you do say so yourself.
The town you were living in, simply called “Low Ebott”, had around four hundred inhabitants, 68 of which were children between the ages of 3 and 12. The school was divided into three sections; you were in charge of teaching and taking care of the kids between the ages of 6 and 9, a class total of 17.
And, as was bound to happen in a town as small as Low Ebott, in a little more than two months you got to know everyone, especially the mothers of your students. You learned everything about the townsfolk in no time; who they were, who they were related to, what they did, what was the most embarrassing moment in their lives (and you were truly pleased to found out that, against your expectations, no one gave that much of a damn about you being a twenty-three year-old single mother with a three year-old son; you weren’t even the only single mother in town).
But who you got to know better than anyone else were the kids, and you loved those kids. You made sure they knew you love them and that they could rely on you for anything (God knew you had seen teenagers in your previous job that could have used someone who believed in them when they were little). And from all the seventeen kids, you must admit to yourself, that you favorite, was Frisk.
Even when at the beginning it was complicated to have a selective mute come to your classroom in the middle of the school year, you grew attached to them. Frisk was the only orphan in town, and lived at the local church with the sisters (you weren’t really sure what religion they followed here, it was something pagan, related to the spirits of the forest and wicca stuff, if you weren’t misinterpreting it), so they had a lot of time to spend alone. You still remember when they came the first day, the sisters never said were they found them, but the kid looked like, wherever it was, it wasn’t a good place. Sometime after that, they started hanging out around you, following you to the forest when you were collecting stuff for your rituals, helping you clean the classroom after school or just playing with your son while you prepared your classes. They were the first to come to school and the last to leave, they loved spending time in your house and made a wonderful playmate for Max, and when they warmed up enough to you, they surprised you talking. Not a lot, just a couple of words from time to time, a little “Hi” in the mornings and a soft “Bye” in the afternoon. One time, when you were in the forest, they caught you… “throwing glitter” when they fell from a tree, and started calling you “Miss Fairy” or “Fairy Teacher”, it was so cute you didn’t tried stopping them.
That’s why you found yourself being extra worried that first day they didn’t came to school. You went to the church as soon as you could and asked the sisters if the little kid was sick, a bad feeling twisting your stomach, they insisted Frisk was an adventurous kid, and that they went to the mountain early in the morning and probably just lost track of time. They promised to make sure they were fine and give them a good scold for worrying you.
That night you went to sleep with that anxious feeling still twisting your guts, hugging Max close to your chest (“Mom, I can’t breathe!”).
The next morning you woke up already knowing the news. Frisk was missing.
Classes were canceled and everyone spent the next two days looking for the kid. You climbed up the side of Mt. Ebott until the magic of the barrier made every hair in your body stand. The barrier was pure condensed magic, it was a literal wall of energy, there was no way a human, let alone a kid, could pass through it. Just a user of magic was able to trespass such ancient power. When you returned to the town everyone looked at you with the same question in their eyes, but you just shook your head, there was no Frisk up there.
Today is a Friday afternoon, you’re cleaning the classroom before going home, trying not to think too much about the missing child. It’s been almost a week, and even when you wanted to fill a police report the rest of the townsfolks weren’t so sure (something about a problem with the feds before you moved in). You’re still worried, but the thought of Max being safe in your parents’ house keeps you stable, he’s not coming back until you’re sure there’s not a kidnapper on town. God, you’re on edge lately…
You were just ready to lock the door and go home when you felt it. Like a light suddenly being turned down, a large amount of magic, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
The barrier fell.
The classroom keys are falling too, but you don’t really care, because, right now, you’re running with all your might to Mt. Ebott.
The school wasn’t that far from the outskirts of the mountain, but you weren’t that good of a runner either, so the little race lets you without breath. With shaking legs and a heart rushing a mile a minute, you take a quick look around; the trees cover you and no one comes this close to the mountain due to the legends, the sun is setting, it looks safe enough. You start rummaging through your messenger bag, still looking around.
You pull out a couple small pine branches tied with red yarn. It is an ancient trick, to let the forest guide you, you had used it many times and it always worked, but…
You grimace remembering how it just fell lifeless to the ground when you tried to use it to found Frisk. You look at the green leaves, debating whether or not it’s worth it, when two little arms trap your waist. You yelp, turning with a jump.
“WHAT THE-”
Your words stop in your throat when you found a little smiling face with closed eyes looking at you through a window of brown bangs.
“For the ancient Gods and the celestial beings, Frisk, what the he-” Kid’s present! “-ck happened?!” They just look at you with an innocent smile, like it wasn’t that big of a deal. “Oh, no. Nononono, don’t even dare to think you can smile out of this, Frisk. Everyone was worried! We looked for you two whole days! Where have you been? What happened? Are you hurt?! Have you eated anything in the last week?! Oh, gods, what water have you been drinking?! Wha-” A thought strikes you, and you froze. The kid came from the mountain, from up the mountain, but you searched up there, there was nothing. Nothing except… “Frisk…” You knell in front of them, a nasty felling creeping up your neck, making your hairs rise. “Where were you?”
Their smile just grows wider and you suck a breath before-
“Frisk! My child, I have told you not to run like that!” A voice comes from behind some bushes, and when you rise your head to look at the owner you found a very big, very humanoid, goat wearing a purple dress. You can almost swear your heart stop beating. “Oh, well, hello young lady…” She (at least it sounds like a she) clears her throat and puts her hands in front of her lap. “Could you please, uhm, let go of my child?”
Very (very) slowly you stand back on your feet (and, god dammit, she’s still a head taller than you), eyes never leaving her. You can see more monsters coming from behind her, another goat creature (taller and with way bigger horns), some kind of siren or mermaid carrying a yellow… lizard person (you’re not saying reptilians), a couple of skeletons (is… is that a skeleton wearing an armor? What’s this? Someone’s Dungeons & Dragons campaign?). You take a deep breath (oh, Gods, everyone is staring at you with eyes as wide as yours) and clear your throat, preparing your best “teacher voice”.
“No one is going nowhere until you explain me what’s happening.”
Frisk hugs your leg, giggling softly, and you feel at least a little bit better when your statement startles the monsters, even if it is just because they’re surprised.