Chapter Text
It starts as nothing more than a whisper running on the mouths of the children.
A human is in the forest! Such an occurrence hasn't happened in so long that the only monsters still alive to remember it are probably the king himself and some old turtle guy in Waterfall. The queen would probably count too if she hadn't just up and vanished one day. It's so strange that Loppe actually decides to visit Grillby's to see if anyone's heard anything more specific.
The bunny monster steps outside her shop and enters her sister's inn instead. "Hey sis, can you keep an eye on the shop for a bit? Been hearing some strange things, I'm gonna see if I can get somethin' outta the fire guy."
The other bunny nods. "Sure thing, sis! You wait here, Snowball," she says to her son sitting next to her, to which he merely mutters a little 'okay' and continues to scribble on the paper he has behind the counter. Collie herself fetches a heavy azure cloak with little star-like dots from under the same counter and drapes it around her shoulders, then follows her sister outside and goes to stand between her own establishment and Loppe's shop.
"Thanks, sis," Loppe says. With that done, the vendor begins to pace along the rest of the Snowdin buildings.
"Hey Cinnamon!" She kneels to ruffle the fur between the ears of the tiny little bunny. He can't speak yet so he just squeaks in protest, making both of his sisters giggle almost in unison. "How's things, Bonnie?"
The cheerful rabbit monster with the leash bounces in place. "I'm just great! You know how I love walking little Cinnamon around, he needs to get used to the snow! But where are you going?" She tilts her head to the side, one ear dipping almost horizontal.
"Grillby's," Loppe responds. "Want to check on a few rumors running around."
Bonnie giggles again. "Are you sure you don't mean kids? I saw a bunch of them run past here just now getting ready for a snowball war!"
Loppe smiles fondly, but just shakes her head. "No, it's the fire man I want to talk to. Later, sis." She waves goodbye, and also gives a brief wave to Bonnie's cousin standing by the entrance to their home. Scotch is still a bit shy, having only just arrived back from the capital after a long stay for studying, so he just waves back quietly.
"See you!" the bunny holding the leash says, waving enthusiastically.
Loppe follows along the snowy road at a sedated pace, exchanges idle greetings with some of the locals. She says hello to the blue-furred bear arranging the gifts under the tree and points out an error on the name written on one of the tags. She asks how the brown-furred bear is doing and waves at the stout little mouse monster and the horned creature across the door to Grillby's place, both of them wrapped in their usual garments of an oversized scarf and a bright orange cloak.
The bar is almost empty when she steps inside. The dog guard is still out on patrol, so only a few of the more stable patrons are hanging around. Thankfully that doesn't include Grillby's annoying, self-proclaimed 'translator'. The guy can talk just fine. But she sees the horse monster with the green mohawk, the fish guy, the skeleton with the blue coat, the toothy fellow, and...
...sigh.
Loppe's mother is here. As always. Since their father fell down and they stopped getting news about him from the Royal Scientist, their mother hasn't been coping well. She's almost always holed up in the bar now, completely drunk and completely uncaring of Loppe and her siblings. She didn't even name their youngest brother since their father fell down on the very next day after his birth, Collie had to do that. Loppe's had to take over for their mother, being the eldest sister and all, and while she's old enough to handle it it's still not ideal.
Her mother's eyes are glazed over and staring vaguely at the ceiling. She has one hand resting loosely around a bottle. She doesn't even notice Loppe. The shopkeeper decides not to disturb her now and looks around again.
Wait, wasn't the skeleton just here? His seat's empty now. Hmm, he's always been an odd one.
Nevermind. More important things to worry about.
"Hiya Grillbs," she calls as she steps up to the counter, waving in greeting to the other patrons. The fire monster merely nods. "You hear anythin' about a human in the forest?" Grillby nods again while Loppe takes one of the empty seats. "What's their deal? Anythin' we should worry about?"
There's a long silence, during which only the quiet crackling of Grillby's fire and the constant jukebox music is heard. Then...
"...maybe."
Loppe's tranquil smile peters off. "What?" She lowers her voice and leans in close, not caring about the strange looks from the other monsters present. "Grillby, what do you know?"
Another not-quite-silence.
"...dust... when they left the ruins..."
Loppe goes pale underneath her cream fur. The fact that monsters are technically at war against humans crashes back into place in her mind with horrible abruptness. There hasn't been a human in the underground in so long that everyone's just grown complacent.
"Grillby, are you sure? What about the Royal Guard?"
By now everyone in the bar is listening in to her urgent whispers. The horse monster even manages to, if not turn off the jukebox, at the very least lower its volume to make it near-silent.
The fire monster's response comes with a delay as usual, and even lower than normal. His flames seem to burn just a tiny bit dimmer.
"...Doggo is dead..."
A collective gasp rings out through the bar.
Then everyone jumps when the front door literally bangs open and a chill gust of wind blows Grillby's flames around.
It's an icedrake, panicked and out of breath (a good portion of their young call themselves chilldrakes instead for some reason).
"There's a human in the forest killing monsters! I saw them, I just barely managed to hide, we need to run!"
Total pandemonium breaks out. Every monster present rushes to the exit. The horse monster just starts to follow the already fleeing icedrakes, not having relatives in town. The others turn away to find their homes, warn their families and pack their things. Even Grillby calmly puts down the glass and cleaning rag and leaves through his fire exit.
Loppe's mother is still in a daze when her daughter grabs her arm and makes her jerk upright. "Mom! Mom, get up, we have to go!" Loppe pulls hard on her mother's arm, even manages to drag her to her feet, but she's hardly cognizant of what's going on.
"Wha...? Where're we goin'? Are we gonna s- *hic* see some hot guys~?"
She's practically draped over Loppe, the shopkeeper has to fight to keep her mother upright. "Yeah, sure, hot guys, just move! " Loppe has to shout to get the other bunny monster to actually start using her legs.
Slowly, unsteadily, they make their way to the door and out into the street. Voices fill the air, children asking questions, monsters still looking for family members, warnings shouted to no one in particular. By the look of it, the Ice Village in the forest has been completely emptied, and Snowdin Town seems to the following suit fast. The burly wolf that mans the ice machine has the slime family perched on his shoulders as he strides past.
"Sis!"
It's Bonnie, running down the street with Cinnamon in her arms. "Sis, what's going on?! All these drakes coming through, they're saying there's danger and something about a human?"
"Seems like it, Bon, the human's bad news. They killed Doggo," Loppe says, not letting her sister interject when her hand flies to her mouth. "Wait here with mom, okay? I'll get Collie and Scotch and we're leaving."
Bonnie's eyes go shiny with tears and her mouth trembles. "But where are we going?! If even the Royal Guard can't handle them?! What are we doing?!"
Loppe opens her mouth to answer, realizes she has no idea, and closes it again. She props their mother up against the wall of the bar to give herself time to think, but Bonnie's tears start to roll and she just can't bear to see her little sister cry, that's not how it's supposed to be!
"Bon, no, please. We'll be fine, okay? We can figure that out later, right now we need to get away from here. Just stay here with mom, alright? And keep an eye on little Cinnamon. Can you do that for me?"
Loppe's hands have gone to her sister's shoulders. Bonnie sniffles and rubs a hand over the fur, already frozen into little spikes on her cheeks from her tears. "Yeah, okay. Just hurry back, Lop."
The shopkeeper smiles and giver her sister a tight hug. "I will, Bon."
And then she's off. She sticks to the edge of the trees to avoid all the monsters going in the opposite direction and in no time at all reaches the inn and her own shop. Collie's still here, looking worried beyond compare. She opens her mouth to ask, but Loppe starts first.
"Collie, go get Snowball, we're leaving. Get Scotch to help you grab some stuff from home and lock it up." She indicates the two little buildings behind her sister.
Collie hesitates for a moment. "...that bad?" she asks simply.
"That bad," Loppe confirms with a nod.
Her sister doesn't need another word to spring into action. Each of them dives back into their own places of business. On her side, Loppe grabs a large, roughspun sack and shoves a few stacks of cinnamon buns inside, each stored in its own separate container of wickerware. She doesn't care about the human stuff, and the bisicles will just melt outside of Snowdin, so she leaves them. The gold would be nice, but it'd take too much time to dump it all into a single container and would be just too heavy to lug around. She leaves that too. What matters is keeping her family safe, she won't need that much money.
Loppe is about to leave when a last-minute idea comes to her. She pulls a scrap of paper from behind the counter along with an old, half-broken pen, and writes out a hasty note that she leaves tucked under the corner of the till.
Maybe the human will feel bad about their actions and change their mind. It's a long shot, but it doesn't hurt to try.
With everything done, she heads back out and even forgets to lock the door in her haste. The door to the inn is partially open as well, letting her see a large stuffed rabbit posing as Snowball behind the counter. That actually makes her smile briefly, but she hurries past the door soon after.
Collie emerges from their home after only a few minutes' worth of wait, both she and Scotch hefting large packs on their backs, the boy towing Snowball along by the hand since Collie has her hands full. "All done?" she asks while shutting the door and locking it.
"Yeah," Loppe answers, offering her own hand for Snowball to take, which he does gladly. He's too scared or confused to ask anything, clinging to a little snowman plushie he's had since he was the size of Cinnamon.
Almost everyone's left already. The quartet is the last to follow along the trodden snow, under the ominous half-silence of wind rustling the pines. They rejoin with Bonnie, Cinnamon and their mother, who Loppe has to take firmly by the hand as well to get her to follow them, and together they delve into the mist that marks the boundary between Snowdin and Waterfall.