UnderHappened

18 - Memories

Finn spends the next hour wandering through a maze.

It's eerie. The maze is made up of bits of dark land connected by equally dark bridges spawning large pools of water. The only light around comes from the water itself, which is glowing a faint turquoise, and from the silent blue flowers scattered around the bridges, neither of which provide enough illumination for Finn to see much more than their hand in front of their face and, occasionally, a new pile of white dust. The monsters here all turn out to be either creepy seahorses, fishtanks on legs, or Moldsmals like the ones Finn encountered in Toriel's domain, and Finn doesn't spend much time talking to them. They're too busy trying to get out of the maze, and they keep hitting dead ends.

Eventually, however, they cross the last bridge and make their way into a cave whose floor is studded with glowing gemstones, leaving the luminescent pools of water behind. There's another glowing plaque on the wall, which Finn eagerly approaches and reads out loud.

"The power to take their SOULs. This is the power that the humans feared."

Like we would've actually ever used it, the dummy grumbles.

"Wait." Finn looks at the plaque again, then down at the dummy. "Hold on. Was that  what started the war?? The humans attacked the monsters because they were afraid that the monsters were going to take their SOULs?!?!"

History 101.

"But that... that... that's ridiculous!! You can't just attack a civilization and imprison it underground because you're afraid of a power that it might use against you someday."

Tell that to the Seven Sorcerors.

Finn is disgusted.

"That's evil!!"

Hmm.

Finn shakes their head and continues down the cave. The more time they spend down here, the more their respect for their own race declines. The monsters are very obviously the victims, still suffering from a wrong inflicted on them by the humans hundreds of years ago. They've been trapped in caves for generations, raising children who will never see the sky. Children who make wishes on rocks and hope and hope that they'll come true somehow. And as if that wasn't enough, now they're being wronged yet again, by a fallen human intent on finishing them all off for good.

Finn would do pretty much anything, at this point, to right those wrongs.

The cave empties out onto a narrow rock bridge traversing an expanse of dark blue water, and Finn makes their way rapidly across, their eyes fixed on the clump of white resting in the mouth of the cavern on the other side. It's a lot smaller than the other piles Finn's found in this area, and they soon find out why. The monster is the size of a fish bowl, and resembles a very pretty pale green cartoonish goldfish with a shock of droopy hair-like blue fins. Its face looks a bit like the face Finn carved on their jack-o-lantern last Halloween. 

"Hi," Finn says, taking a cautious step back and hoping beyond hopes that this particular monster isn't a creep. It's far too cute and pretty to be one.

The monster blinks, looking up at them, then says in a very soft, quiet voice, "Hi." It seems to be trying to hide behind its droopy fins.

"I'm Finn," Finn tells it, relieved that it isn't saying anything weird. "What's your name?"

"S...Shyren," the monster replies, barely more than a murmur.

"That's a lovely name," says Finn brightly. Shyren reminds them a lot of the shy kids at their school, and they know that the best way to talk to them is to be as friendly and non-intruding as possible. As a pretty quiet kid themself, Finn is often mistaken for being shy, and they hate the way people generally treat shy children. "Your voice is so beautiful. It sounds like a waterfall."