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Kneeled down at the dock, Martlet huffed, trying her best to untie the particularly stubborn knot that held Ava in port. She could've just cut the rope, but it was a nice rope, and it'd be a bit of a pain to replace, and...she needed to know how to get it undone anyways. She chose to look on the bright side. If nothing else, it was a testament to her own handiwork!
She didn't quite want to admit how long she'd been trying, having already sent Clover back to the house twice for something they'd forgotten on the way over. How they'd both forgotten the picnic basket for a picnic was beyond her. Maybe she really was rubbing off on him. Five months was probably more than enough time to pick up on some bad habits.
...She was glad she was able to axe the worst of them before he learned those too. A cluttered and messy house was no place to live. Sifting through piles of laundry and digging for whatever was the freshest wasn't any way to dress.
...Lacking the energy to do so much as show up to your job on time wasn't any way to stumble through life. Stumbling. Tripping and falling, walking without direction. Without purpose. Sitting at your post one bad day away from being fired.
Her wings had long since untied the knot, but sitting there in thought, she remained motionless.
She...really had been on the brink, hadn't she? If it hadn't been for that day, she'd still be pecking at leftover microwave ramen with birdseed.
She pulled herself to her feet, trying to shake away the lingering feeling of shame as she loosely held the rope in her hand. As she recognized the sound of snow crunching underfoot growing closer.
...Would she even have a job anymore? Would she still even be in Snowdin? What would she have done?
"Sorry I took so long!" A voice called out from behind her, as the boots in the snow came to a halt. "I was askin' Flowey if he wanted ta' come, n' he said he didn't wanna! He was busy doin...well he didn't say, but he ain't comin!"
She smiled, pushing the thoughts aside. It didn't matter. That wasn't her anymore, and it never would be. Not so long as he was here. Not after all he'd given her.
"Well, I guess he's gonna be missing out, then!" She said, standing aside and coiling the rope around her arm. Watching as he stepped in, setting the basket that was nearly as big as he was down beside him.
She knew he didn't...literally give her all of that. He'd try his best to help, but even during the worst, she'd politely declined. Some messes are only supposed to- only able to be cleaned by the monsters that make them.
No, she thought, as she stepped into the boat, grabbing the oar and setting them adrift. What he'd given her was purpose. The swift kick in the rear that Mom had always talked about. The wake up call that Officer Doggo would lecture her about, when he'd been covering her post for the past two hours. The energy to make improvement.
...And she couldn't thank him enough for that. To be able to come back to floors and countertops only a little messy, cluttered but not filthy. To a kitchen that wasn't overflowing with dishes, to a home that smelled like pine resin and sawdust instead of ramen broth left to fester.
...To be able to come back to somewhere comforting. Where happiness was built. Earned.
To be able to really call a house a home.
"Didn't'cha say you couldn't find none of these?" Clover said, drawing her from her mind once more. She looked over in confusion, before seeing the bottle of root beer in his hand. Before seeing the cooler, its metal top opened, a hole in the ice from which it was sitting a moment ago.
"I uh...might've hid a couple!" She said, sheepishly taking it from his hand. "I was...saving them! For a special occasion!"
...She was telling the truth, to be fair. Ever since that Wild East merchant left, she couldn't. As far as she knew, they only made it out in the Wild East. They'd have to go down and visit sometime. She made a mental note of it, before slitting it back into the ice and sealing the jar back up with a click, holding its contents in stasis.
...It was one of her prouder modifications, she thought, as she looked down at the rune engraved on the top. The standard issue S.C.U. Up until she'd...pried the lid off and filled it with ice, anyways. She'd originally just hid it away, bolted the jar down to Ava's floor. Double sealed the jar shut after Clover fell. But... the stasis effect worked with cold pretty well. And she figured it was better repurposed than to sit there as a reminder.
...Something mean turned into something nice. There was probably a bit of symbolism in there, somewhere. But that was above her paygrade.
"N' what's the occasion then? You ain't never told me more than a walk out n' Waterfall!"
"Glad you asked!" She said, pulling a map out from her back pocket and opening it to show him.
"We got a busy day planned! Officer Doggo's given us to go ahead, Waterfall should be clear of anything...in our path, and there's a really cool spot I wanted to take you to! And a whole-"
"Ya' got the map upside down."
"Oh, sorry- A whole bunch of cool stuff is on the way, too! It's uh...close to a nature hike! And if everything goes well, we should still be back home in time for-"
"Look out!"
She put the map down, coming face to face with a split in the river rapidly approaching. The river and...not the river. She quickly took up the oar, pushing them out of the path of the not river as it rapidly increased its pace. She sighed in relief.
"Good Save!" She said, looking back down at the map. "That was uh...Well, that other path wouldn't exactly be taking us to Waterfall, so...Just a while down this one!"
...Where did that other path lead, anyways? She narrowed her eyes, looking back down at the map as she traced its path.
A...straight line. directly through Waterfall, through Hotland, all the way over to-
She stopped, feeling as a presence leaned against her. Her wing, nearly by instinct, curved around him to accommodate.
...It didn't matter, she supposed. She could just enjoy the ride as it was. It was always nice to see the smile on his face.
"It's uh...a little more narrow than they marked it down..." Martlet said, as they began their trek down the cave. The basket felt heavy in her hand, unbalanced as she double checked the map. She'd rarely been into Waterfall since her reassignment to a Snowdin Sentry, let alone on foot. Her only comfort was that Ava had already been docked, and that she had someone who'd be willing to help toe her back upstream.
...She thinks, anyways. They seemed eager to help.
"This ain't the same cave s' on the map." Clover said, peeking under her shoulder as they walked along. "We goin' the right way?"
"Well, uh..." She looked again, squinting harder at the map. "Yes and...no."
"Yes, we're on the right path! No, we're uh..."
"...not on the right side of the river." She said, gesturing to a split in the cave up ahead. One across the flowing water. "But! I do have a plan! See, one of the first things they had me do as a test of my puzzle making skills was a bunch of Bridge Seeds! And if memory serves, they should still be around...Ah! Right here!"
She set the basket to the ground, walking to a loosely familiar pile, now covered in muck and overgrowth.
"A bunch of what?" Clover asked, as she began to pull them free, shaking them and watching as dirt and mud fell free in loose clumps.
"Bridge Seeds!" She clarified, walking to the river's edge and brushing away a clump of weeds. They'd even still had the same green shine to them. Still as good as the day she made them.
She yelped as a piece of it snapped to attention in her hand, the mechanisms within unlocking as one of its fake blooms unfurled.
Maybe...mostly as good as the day she made them.
"...What do they do?" Clover asked, watching as she gingerly pushed the bloom back into its place.
"Well, uh...they're artificial recreations of this super rare plant that used to be all over Waterfall! They were really cool to watch, and they responded to specific frequencies! And they were like paper thin, but they had enough tensile strength to hold the weight of a full grown monster! And-"
...She stopped, seeing a lost expression on Clover's face.
"Well, uh...How about I just show you instead!"
She gauged the river's depth, walking about its edge for a moment, before setting the seed down in the water and pushing it against the current to the other side of the stream.
To her thankful surprise, it worked exactly as it was intended to, its propeller kicking to life and burrowing a metal rod into the ground, rooting it in place.
She sighed in relief as the petals extended, grabbing another one from the pile.
"They're uh....well they're made to look like plants, and I...don't really remember what the fancy name is, so I just call them Bridge Seeds! Like...Seeds! To...Make a bridge!"
She set the second one adrift, watching as it connected with the other, immobilizing itself in just the same way.
"You wanna try?" She asked, shaking her wings free from the grime as she pulled another free from its tomb.
She watched as Clover rolled up his sleeves, taking the seed in his hands and setting it adrift in the water. As the look of wonder overtook his face, as he left and came back, grabbing another and another until the bridge was complete.
"And there ya go!" She said, picking the basket back up and taking the first step upon a seed, the metal clicking underfoot. "One modular bridge, in less than a couple minutes! Unless...you count the time to make the seeds, then it's...closer to an actual bridge construction time, but it's neat, ain't it?"
"How do they work?" He asked, looking up to her as they began to cross. "How do the petals stay out like that? How do they know when they're in the water r' not!? Can we make more of e-"
He was interrupted as a petal of a seed collapsed under his foot, snapping off into the river below him and throwing off his balance. He stumbled backwards, hardly even given the time to gasp in shock before the edge of his boot made contact with the freezing water below-
-Before her wing jutted out on impulse, snapping back and grabbing his flailing arm, quickly pulling him to safety before the water could do so much as soak the hem of his jeans.
"Are you ok? It didn't cut you or anything, did it? Oh gosh, I'm so sorry if it did!" She fired off in a rapid barrage of questions, fussing over him as he got his bearings back upon the gravel. She should've known that they were way too out of code to use, that they would've already long since broken- She'd even seen it happen and she still sent him across it! She-
"M'fine!" He said, smiling a toothy grin as she hastily stepped herself backwards, offering her wing to help him back to his feet. "Thank you though! For uh...savin' me!"
"...Any time, buddy." She said, sighing as he regained his footing, picking the basket back up. "...Look at it this way! We're on the right side of the river at least!"
"...Do ya' think we could make new ones?" He asked, motioning to the bridge behind them with his still-enveloped hand. "Could ya' show me how?"
"Well, uh... The coloring would be a bit tedious, and the internals would need some work with finer point tools than we have in the workshop, and there's...not really anywhere good to test them in Snowdin..."
"...mka-"
"But sure! I...guess we owe them a new batch of Bridge Seeds anyways, don't we?"
"Thanks, Martlet!"
She smiled, readjusting the basket in her wing as they continued onwards, his hand still wrapped around a digit of her wing. She didn't see any reason to say no to him, after all.
She was beginning to get concerned, the farther down they treated the path. She knew there wasn't any danger, that the captain would be out the entire day, but walking through the area still fried her nerves, like walking through a hunting lion's den.
...Assuming what that book in the library said was true, anyways. She didn't think it was entirely correct. She doubted that anything that heavy could jump 36 feet into the air.
...Unless they meant forwards, not up, but then that would've been a terrible misprint, and the humans who printed it should've-
"You ok, Martlet?" Clover called out from beside her, drawing her back as they approached a fork in the road.
"I- Yeah! Fine, just uh...Nothing, it's stupid. Think we're at the next stop anyways! It's uh..."
She paused, looking at the map again for clarification, squinting at the spot that had been soaked through from the bridge stumble.
"That one!" She said, pointing forwards to a grouping of two houses ahead. "It's... a bit silly, but I thought you'd get a kick out of it too!"
"What is it?" Clover asked as they proceeded forwards. "Just looks like a little town ta' me. N' it ain't got no people around r' nothin."
It...was rather empty, she only noticed, as they approached the houses. She gently pulled him forwards regardless. This was Blook Acres, and this was where the spam letter had mentioned.
But even so, as they went further down the cave, past the snail sized pens, past the snail sized....race track, there was nothing. Nothing except for the snails. Had they already gone under? Was there a sudden death in the family? She'd feel terrible intruding if there was.
"Well...maybe we can come back another time, Buddy. I don't think there's anyone h-"
"hello..."
She squawked in surprise, jumping back from the voice as a ghost protruded out from the wall.
"i was...getting food for the snails. sorry i scared you... i'll just.... go back home..."
"Wait! Wait wait-" She shouted, stopping them as they turned their back to leave. "We were here to uh- race snails!"
"Race...Snails?" Clover asked, looking up at her with confusion. "That sound a little-"
"i'm sorry it's....boring, i know... i don't think you should waste your time with it..."
"Fun, I was gonna say!"
"oh... well you can...pick a snail then, i guess.... i'll officiate with this...flag... just tell me when you're ready..."
She watched as Clover ran forwards, scanning the potential racers, before enthusiastically settling upon the yellow one.
"I'm liking the enthusiasm, buddy!" She said, picking a blue one and watching as it slowly crawled to the start of the track. "But uh... Are you sure? I mean, I'm all for it, but-"
But admittedly, she didn't want to spend any more time in the den than she already had.
"You're just scared that my snails gonna beat your snail!" Clover said, interrupting her with an arrogant smirk on his face.
"Oh, now it's on!" She said, firing back with one of her own. "Bluejay here is a three time world champion, yaknow!"
"Buttercup's gonna leave you in the dust!"
"I'd like to see them try!"
Triumphantly, Clover cheered as Buttercup inches across the finish line.
She sighed. She was happy for him, but...
She turned her head, looking at poor Bluejay, somehow having caught fire, stopped halfway into the track. The price of Buttercup's victory.
"I...usually just give the winner most of their money back because we have to turn a profit..." The ghost said, drawing closer as it pulled out something from a box behind them."but i'm trying something new since customers are kind of sparse....and i got a good deal on a bunch of snail hats..."
The ghost produced a hat from the box, a baseball cap with the words "i won a game of thundersnail at blook acres or something...but don't print the or something..." printed across it.
"you...already have a cooler hat though... i think i have some chocolate coins or something around here-"
"It's ok!" Clover said, smiling up at the ghost. "I still like it! I was gonna give it to my m- to Martlet anyways!"
"...Buddy? Are you-"
"I...I'm gonna go n' wait up there! I- I think I saw a bench or something!" Clover turned abruptly, hiding his face from the two and quickly walking away, settling himself beside the houses.
"...i think your kid is nice." The ghost said, offering the hat to her as she stared off at Clover in the distance.
"H-He's not-" She stopped herself mid sentence, looking down at the hat as the ghost dropped it into her wings. "He's...not. Right? He...He wouldn't- I'm...I'm not-"
"i'm sorry miss....i dont think i'm a family therapist...i don't think i know a therapist at all, actually...i hope you can fix whatever's there with you and your son, though...you look happy..."
She stood idle, staring down at the hat in her hands.
She...didn't know what to feel. But she did know one thing.
She didn't want to be feeling it in the lion's den.
"Alright!" She shouted ahead, walking over as Clover turned up to look at her. "Let's get going! We uh- We still got a bit of distance left to cover!"
"...Does the hat fit?" he asked, looking up at her as she held it in her wing.
"I uh...haven't checked yet, but...maybe! I just gotta...fiddle with the bits, maybe!"
...She didn't know if the hat even could fit. But mom had said that no…hat owner ever really thought it did. But she'd certainly try.
The further along they trekked, the more clouded her mind became. Indecision and worry and concern swirled around her, made the map hard to read, even so much as a foot in front of her. The basket felt heavier than it should've in her wing.
...Everyone had been saying that to her. Officer Doggo had, Bea had, Almost every other passerby in Snowdin had- Heck, even someone who'd never seen them before had!
But...she didn't feel like she was.
...Is that what she wanted? Was it what he wanted? She didn't know. She couldn't. The fog grew heavy.
"Martlet..." A voice called, pulling her back from the edge. "...How much farther is this place you're talkin' bout? Feels like we've been walkin' round' in a bunch of circles for a while..."
...She looked at the map again.
...They had. The last 15 minutes in her mind, she'd been leading them down the same stretch of cave in a loop.
"We're almost there! Promise!" She said, nervously chuckling as she put the map away. She needed to reorient themselves, and if memory served, around this section in the cave, there was...
"Just one more stop!" She said, spotting it in the distance. The telescope. She hurriedly approached, setting the basket down and looking it over.
"Martlet..."
"For real this time!"
...The telescope was the one thing she didn't understand, in full honesty. Even since her days at the lab, It was bolted into the ground. She'd seen it from time to time, even flying down and looking at it. Sometimes it moved, always it was just stuck there. But besides all the constant use and wear and tear, it was always pristine. Well cared for by its owner, she supposed. But she'd never seen anyone around it. Let alone claim ownership.
She looked up to the shimmering cave above, to New Home in the far distance. It was always nice to look at, and the spot she had in mind was no exception.
She motioned him forwards, spotting the clifftop in the distance and turning the telescope to face it.
"Right! So uh...It's not that far, and I got it pointed off at the spot already, but I thought you'd wanna see for yourself! That and uh...Well, I think the cave's really pretty from here!"
She watched as he looked into the telescope, angling and shifting it about as he adjusted it to his height.
"...Now uh, bigger thing you're probably gonna notice is New Home! Big city, off in the distance! It's...not really somewhere we can visit just yet, and I don't really think you'd want to, anyways! It's all stuffy and full of old people. My Parents do live there, though! Alongside...what, 65% of the population? And the view is even better where we're going!"
"...I hope it is, cause I sure can't see nothin."
"...Whatcha mean?"
"S'all dark." Clover said, stepping away from the telescope as she looked it over. "Ain't seein' nothin' but black."
"Maybe I turned one of the knobs too far? Here- lemme take a look."
She moved forwards as he left, scanning over its adjustments again before going to take a look for herself. Sure enough, it was black. Blotted out, as if someone had-
...Oh.
She moved her head back, rolling her eyes to herself as she reached for the lens, pulling the cap off of it that she had forgotten to take off in the first place.
"My bad, Buddy." She said, rubbing the back of her head and closing her eyes in embarrassment. "I...forgot to take the cap off. It should be more than ready to go now, though!"
Rather than the sound of gravel underfoot growing closer, she heard...snickering coming from him. Laughter, barely repressed.
"...Did I miss something?" She asked, opening her eyes and looking over to him. "What's so-"
"Someone gotcha!" He said, a hand over his mouth as he pointed at her with his other. "Someone gotcha good!"
"Buddy, I hate to tell you, but..." She began, hiding a smile of her own as she gestured to the spot on his. "You looked into the cap first!"
He looked at her with shock for a moment, before quickly rubbing away at his eye, staring at the ink that came free upon his hand.
...He only lasted a moment before he began to laugh full heartedly. And his was infectious.
...It wasn't terribly funny, everything considered, she thought. It would be a pain to get the ink out of her feathers, she didn't know how deep ink stained into skin, cleaning dye out of clothes was awful-
...But he was having fun. He was having a good time with it, and if he was, then she was too.
"I guess they got us both pretty good then, Ma-" Clover began, before cutting himself off again. "-Marlet!"
...She looked at him questioningly as he tapered himself off. There it was again. Was...Was it something she was doing? Was-
"So- uh- What's the view actually look like!?" He said, quickly pivoting off course and running back up to the telescope. She turned it slightly, back towards their destination. To the crystal laden skies above.
...There was the smile she was expecting.
Beginning to grow tired herself, Martlet helped pull an exhausted Clover over the edge of the rock, onto the level ground above.
"And...here....it is!" She said, out of breath as she extended her wings out in display to the ground before them.
"It's...a nice spot." Clover said, through half lidded eyes as he stumbled forwards through the grass, to where she had already set the basket down prior.
"I used to stop here all the time on my commute to the lab!" She said, opening the basket and unfurling the blanket within. It wouldn't be a very good picnic if they'd set everything down in the grass, after all.
"A lab?" Clover asked, sitting himself down upon the blanket after she set it upon the floor.
"Somewhere in Hotland." She responded, taking out a sandwich with one wing, and motioning in its general direction with the other. "Waaaaay that way, but...that's another story! We're here for the view! And uh- The flowers, too! Nobody really gets to talk to these ones! They're super off of any path, and you can't really get up here without flying, and-"
"Ya mean like Flowey?" Clover asked, taking a sandwich of his own.
"Well....kinda." She paused, before gently grabbing the stem of one of the Echo Flowers that surrounded them. "Say something to it! Anything!"
"...Hi?" Clover said, confused as he spoke directly
"-nything! ...Hi?" The flower echoed back.
"Are they....alive?" Clover asked, looking around at the Flowers that surrounded them.
"Well...as alive as any plant is, but...they're Echo Flowers! They repeat the last thing they hear back! Like...well, like an Echo!"
She let the flower be, gently letting go of its stem and listening as it began to quietly babble to itself, the words already beginning to fade. "We...have a tradition, down here. We do something special with them."
"Wahagowiem?" Clover asked, his mouth full as looked back to her.
"Well...there's this old legend." She began, looking up to the shimmers in the sky. "...Someone figured out that Echo Flowers are all...connected. Each one to each other, like one really, really big plant. And...monsters got creative with it. A myth started popping up. That if you tell your hopes, your...Dreams, to a flower, and if you really, really wish for it to come true, then...it does."
"And then, when it does..." She continued, pointing up to the shimmering crystals above. "...Then it turns into one of those sparkles on the ceiling."
"And...I thought you might've wanted to make a wish too."
He was silent as she looked over to him, staring down at his sandwich as he cleared his mouth. Silent for far too long.
...She knew this was a bad idea. Her and her stupid ramblings, her stupid stories, she'd ruined the moment entirely, how-
"...Do I have to tell anyone what my wish was?"
"Well...not if you don't want to! Just...Just the flower."
"...Does it not come true if I tell someone else?"
"I don't...think so? I mean- I don't think that it won't come true! Not that I- Well...you know what I mean!"
He looked over at her for a moment, before scooting away and gently pulling the stem of another flower close, whispering something below his breath.
She pulled another one, on an adjacent side closer. She could still make out the faint sound of her own voice from the flower. How quickly news spread between friends, she supposed.
...She remembered her own wishes, back when she took breaks in the commute, or after a particularly long day of standing guard.
...How she wished, pleaded to the flowers for...purpose. For drive, for something to motivate her.
...How she wished she wasn't so lonely all the time.
Looking back over her shoulder, to Clover, still making his own, she supposed those wishes did come true. A new one would have to be in order.
"...I wish this moment could last just a little bit longer." She whispered.
"Martlet!" Clover yelled, as she quickly let the flower go. "Martlet, how do I unmake a wish?""Why would you wanna...unmake a wish, buddy?"
"Well, I..." He began, that same look as before on his face, as he refused to meet her gaze. "I...Already made it, n' that I thought a little more n' I realised that...I kinda sorta already got it. And I don't wanna steal a wish from nobody if I already got mine!"
"Well, uh..." She hesitated, looking back at him, at the confusion and innocent childlike concern in his eyes. "Don't worry! It's fine, Uh...Maybe it means that...There's already another sparkle in the ceiling! I counted 103 the last time I was here! Maybe there's more!"
He nodded, silent as he scooted back upon the blanket, deep in focus as he tried to count the stars in the sky. She scooted back as well.
...She didn't stop him as he leaned down upon her, resting his head on her leg.
He didn't stop her as she wrapped her wings around him pulling him close as the pace of his counting rapidly began to slow, as his eyes drifted shut.
...She heard as he lost count, falling asleep after a drawn out "hundreden'...five..."
...Silence overtook the cave. One of peace. Comfort. Earned, after a long journey.
She relaxed herself, leaning against a rock as she ran her fingers through his hair, as she took the hat that toppled away from his head, setting it to her side.
"-nno' if I believe n' wishes r' not, but..." She heard an Echo Flower say in the silence.
"...I wish that I had a mama that was as nice as Martlet was."
"..."
"Martlet! Martlet, how do I unmake a wish?"
...She was only able to hold herself together for another few seconds, after she processed the words of the flower. She felt her body tremble, felt as tears began to well up behind her eyes. She pulled a wing free on reflex, trying to cover the gasping sounds she made as she tried to choke back the noise. She blinked, and the tears fell freely.
Her wings moved faster, enveloping and covering his form entirely, shielding him from the droplets that now fell and slid off of her own wings. The last thing she'd want is for her son to see her like this.
Her...son.
Emotion returned in full force, an indescribable mix of joy and relief, anxiety and fear, melting together into a great big mess as she pulled him closer.
She didn't understand it. She didn't think she ever could, but as she felt his sleeping form hug back around hers in response, as if upon instinct-
...She sniffled, choking back another sob and looking up to the sky.
...Maybe she should have been counting stars too.
...There were more than she remembered.
