Branches smacked into Chara's face and roots threatened to trip their feet as they climbed Mt. Ebott, half-delirious with exhaustion. Dried tearstains were smeared across their flushed cheeks, evidence of the tantrum they had thrown. Earlier that day, their mother had said that they were worthless. They were a burden. They should never have been born. As she continued on in her screechy voice, Chara dodged around her and ran out of the house, tears still streaming down their face.

None of her words had come as a surprise, of course - they'd known what she thought of them ever since the occasion when she'd found them kneeling by the corpse of a bird. That time, it hadn't even been Chara's doing - they'd found it by the road, fresh blood staining its ruffled feathers red. The violent loss of life had fascinated them and drawn them to it like iron to a magnet. Then their mother had picked them up rushed them home. Behind closed doors, she slapped them, calling them a little freak. She locked them in the pitch blackness of the basement, and told them to think about what they had done wrong.

Chara had tried going to other adults for help, but nobody believed them. Why would they, when Chara's parents were respectable members of the community, and Chara was the ungrateful brat who always picked fights with the other children?

"Demon child," the neighbors had called them.

"Her parents must be saints for putting up with her," they'd said.

Chara hated the world and every human in it. Sometimes they wished that everything would disappear; sometimes they wished that they themselves would. They were determined to make one of those wishes come true that day. After all, travellers who climb Mt. Ebott are said to disappear.

The blisters on their feet were aching in protest of their long hike. Distracted by pain and anger, Chara failed to notice the gash in the earth or the twisting, snake-like vine in their path. They tripped, tumbling headlong into the pit. As they fell, they caught a brief glimpse of golden flowers - then they hit the bottom, and everything went black.

Asriel was sitting down, leaning against a stone pillar, admiring the golden flowers before him. They were so nice, being one the few spots where any sort of colorful plants grew, which was thanks to the hole above that allowed sunlight to come into the underground. Asriel gently touched one of the nearby flower's petals, then withdrew his hand, smiling. So nice, Asriel thought.

After a brief moment, Asriel got up and decided to return home. He knew his parents, Toriel and Asgore, would worry if he was gone for too long. As he turned a corner, however, he heard a thump sound from where he had just left. Asriel turned around, wondering, What was that?

Asriel made his way back to the golden flowers, thinking aloud, "It sounds like it came from over here..." Asriel went behind the pillar where he had been lying against and peeked around it. He was then greeted with the sight of a young person he had never seen before. The person looked a little beaten up as well. Seeing no paths to the golden flowers other than the one Asriel just took, the only way they could've been reached is through the hole from above.

Going around to greet the person, Asriel said, "Oh, you've fallen down, haven't you? Are you ok?" Kneeling down and extending his arms to offer the child support, Asriel continued, "Here, get up."

Slowly, Chara blinked their eyes open. They were in a dark cavern, lit by a ray of sunshine streaming down from the gap above. Beneath them were golden flowers - they must have broken their fall.

They heard the voice of a young boy and turned towards its source. Chara was momentarily taken aback when they saw that the speaker had floppy ears and white fur. Whoever he was, he certainly wasn't human. Maybe Chara was hallucinating - perhaps their body was broken and bleeding out on the cavern floor while their mind was elsewhere, imagining anthropomorphic goats. Maybe that fall had killed them, and this was the afterlife. Their attention was diverted away from such macabre thoughts when the realized that the kid was asking them if they were ok and offering to help them up. They couldn't remember the last time anybody had cared about their well-being, so Chara decided to just go with it, and climbed to their feet with his help. This person, odd as he was, didn't seem all that bad.

"I'm Chara," they said. "Who are you?"

After Asriel helped the child up, they introduced themself as Chara. As Asriel guided Chara back through the way he came from, Asriel said, "Chara, huh? That's a nice name. My name is Asriel." Asriel gave Chara a look-over to see how badly they were hurt. Chara was leaning on him quite a bit, so that meant they couldn't stand up properly. Beyond that, though, Asriel couldn't really tell. Still, it was probably a miracle that Chara didn't die from the fall. Right now, though, Asriel needed to get Chara some medical aid.

"Don't worry, I'll take you to my mom and dad. They'll know what to do," Asriel reassured Chara. If Asriel recalled what Toriel taught him, this child was a human. Asriel had never seen a human before, except from the books he read. Asriel had a lot of questions, but he knew they could wait until the human was better.

When the boy - Asriel, he'd said - mentioned going to his mom and dad, Chara felt as though a bucket of ice water had been dumped over their head. Chara had never had good experiences with adults. Asriel's mom and dad would look upon Chara with distasteful eyes while spitting words like "creepy" and "devil child". They'd take Asriel away, and tell him all sorts of horrible things about Chara, and Chara would never see him again. Even worse, they'd make Chara go back home to their mother.

"No! I'm fine," Chara said. They tore themselves away from Asriel's supportive grasp even though their legs could barely hold them. Leaning heavily against the wall of the tunnel, they repeated. "I'm fine. Leave me alone."

Chara tried to inch back to the place they had fallen, away from the entrance that lay ahead, but their body failed them. They collapsed to the ground with their head dizzy and their scrapes and bruises screaming for attention. Chara cursed themself for their weakness.

Asriel was surprised when Chara pulled away from his support. He couldn't understand why the human didn't want help. His parents weren't bad people; far from it. They were the nicest people one could meet. Asriel even knew they had won 1st place for some competition for something like that. When Chara fell, though, Asriel understood one thing: they needed help, whether they liked it or not.

Asriel went over to Chara and kneeled down, attempting to support Chara again. "You're not fine. You need help," Asriel insisted as he reached over to grab Chara. "Please. You could die if you don't get help," Asriel added. Then Asriel remembered something. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bar of chocolate. "Here, eat this," Asriel offered, putting the chocolate bar near Chara's mouth. "You'll feel better. Trust me."

Despite Chara's protests, Asriel kept trying to help. Chara knew that they could die; that had been the point of climbing the mountain, even though they didn't like thinking of it in those terms. They didn't expect eating candy to help much, but they took Asriel's offer and ate the chocolate bar anyway. The moment they swallowed the food, Chara felt healthier and more invigorated. Their injuries seemed to be healing on their own.

"Wow," Chara gasped. "How did you do that?" Although they weren't fully healed, they were no longer on the brink of death either. Chara looked at Asriel with an expression resembling awe. They were getting the feeling that whatever they thought they knew about the world didn't apply here, where there were magical healing chocolate bars and non-human beings like Asriel.

Asriel smiled in relief to visibly see Chara getting better. "Better now?" Asriel asked. "Mom says human food and monster food work differently." Asriel didn't know how it worked, exactly, but just knowing it worked was enough. Despite some of Chara's injuries recovering, however, the chocolate bar definitely wasn't enough to let Chara make a full recovery. They still needed help if they were going to get better.

Asriel extended his arms to support Chara again. "Let's get you back up," Asriel said with a kind smile. "You're going to be ok. Mom and Dad are the nicest monsters you'll meet here. We can help you." Asriel didn't know how or why Chara came here, but as long as they were someone he could help, he would help them.

Hesitantly, Chara accepted Asriel's help once again. They draped an arm over his shoulder and limped down the dark cave tunnel, towards something resembling a doorway. It was bordered by tall pillars on either side, and there was an inscription of a winged circle above three triangles on top.

Chara was still wary of Asriel and his mom and dad, but that chocolate bar, this strange place, and his inexplicable kindness had all piqued their interest. "What do you mean by 'monster food' and 'monsters'?" Chara asked as they continued forwards. They'd never heard of monster food, although the ones in the stories seemed to eat people, and 'nice monster' seemed like an oxymoron. Asriel seemed to be using that word differently than they were used to. "If your parents are monsters, does that make you a monster?"

Chara had a lot of questions, but Asriel unfortunately could not answer all of them. Instead, he simply smiled and said, "Let's get you to my house first. You still need help right now."

Some time later...

Asriel and Chara eventually arrived at his house in New Home. Upon entering the doorway, Asriel shouted, "Mom! Dad! Somebody help!" Fortunately, somebody came.

"Asriel? What's wrong, my child?" Toriel asked, coming over from her room.

"Golly, who's that?" Asgore asked, also arriving to the scene. "Is that a human?" Asgore asked, seeing Chara leaning on Asriel.

"They're hurt," Toriel said, noting Chara's injuries. "I'll go get something from the kitchen. Dear, get the human somewhere comfortable," Toriel ordered, already heading to the kitchen.

Asgore smiled kindly and extended a hand. "You're gonna be alright now," Asgore reassured Chara. "Let's go."

Chara looked up at the large monster, defensive and uncertain. Why were these people going to so much trouble for the likes of them? Reluctantly, they let go of Asriel and took his dad's hand. Asgore beamed at them encouragingly, and led them through a hallway in the opposite direction that Toriel had gone, to a small room with two beds. They sat down on one of them. It was warm and soft; they felt that they could lay down there and never get up.

"How are you feeling? What's your name?" Asriel's dad asked gently.

Chara turned their face away from him, uncomfortable with his soft gaze. "Fine," they said sullenly. "I'm Chara."

Asriel's mom bustled in, carrying a plate of pie. "You are not fine, small one. Who did this to you? You will get an apology." She then gave the pie to Chara. "Please, eat this. It will help you."

Chara looked hesitantly at the pie. They weren't supposed to take food from strangers - it could be drugged or poisoned. Nonetheless, they felt curiously inclined to do just as Asriel had said, and trust this odd family of monsters. Hesitantly, they took a bite of the pie. ♫ Warm butterscotch and sweet cinnamon exploded on their tongue - it was the best pie they'd ever tasted. Chara wolfed the slice down, then looked up guiltily, expecting to be reprimanded, but saw nothing except smiles on everyone's faces. They could feel all their injuries healing as they regained full health.

They broke. "I can't understand. Why are you being so nice to me?" they cried. Chara buried their face in the sleeves of their striped shirt, small sobbing noises starting to come from their throat involuntarily. Asgore shifted over to hug them, and Toriel knelt beside the bed to do the same.

"There, there, my child. You are safe now," Toriel said soothingly, rubbing their back.

Asgore added, "Everything is going to be alright."