VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 36

"have fun," Sans waved lazily at Undyne and Frisk, who were both clambering into one of Papyrus' cars, a sleek crimson convertible, which Frisk recognized as Papyrus' first car he'd purchased on the surface.

"We will," Frisk waved back, getting into the passenger seat. Undyne was supposed to take Frisk to a country road outside of town or someplace deserted to teach Frisk the basics.

Undyne was silent as they drove, and Frisk quickly picked up on it. There was a certain awkwardness between them, just like there'd been with Asgore earlier. They both clearly wanted to talk about the real problem, and yet . . .

No. Frisk stopped herself from overthinking once again, opting to take Terrence's advice. She couldn't be tense like this all the time, she had to try and relax, even if it killed her. Her hand drifted to the radio, so she could play a song Undyne would enjoy. The first thing that came up was 'Jingle Bells', making them both pause for a second. "Uh . . . Christmas isn't for another three months," Undyne blinked as Frisk couldn't help but smile.

"Gotta capitalize off the favorite holidays somehow," she shrugged, changing to another station, which was in the middle of one of Mettaton's songs called 'Cords of My Heart'.

"Not really my cup of tea," Undyne admitted," prompting Frisk to turn the dial once again, entering a channel with two older men discussing sports. Immediately, Frisk turned the dial again, bringing on Jingle Bells once again.

Undyne scoffed. "I wonder who decided to make that song such a big deal."

After flipping through a few more songs neither were really interested in listening to, they mutually agreed to leave it off for now and bring their own cd's next time. Their mind was off music in just moments, however, as they had left the great city behind, their surroundings replaced with sprawling farm land and vast pastures where cattle grazed.

They continued for a while longer, before Undyne turned into a long stretch of dirt road, and parked the car. "Here we are," she smiled.

"Looks pretty safe," Frisk nodded, looking at Undyne suspiciously.

"What? No tricks, I promise. I couldn't do any intense training exercises even if I wanted to. Papyrus is pretty fond of his cars," Undyne replied.

Taking her word for it, Frisk gave a satisfied nod and the two stepped out of the vehicle to switch sides. Once the girl was in the driver's seat, she suddenly felt very intimidated, peering over the steering wheel, and glancing at the pedals at her feet, before the gear stick. "Okay . . . what first?" she asked.

"Well, first you're gonna want to put your seatbelt on," Undyne replied, to which Frisk followed her instruction. Once she was buckled, Undyne continued; "Do you know the difference between gas and brakes?" Undyne questioned, to which Frisk nodded. "Okay. Start by pulling forward, slowly."

The car didn't move as the engine revved loudly when Frisk pushed against the gas pedal. Surprised, she pulled her foot back, eyes wide as she looked at Undyne. "Um-"

"Oh, and take it out of park. That's probably important too," the officer added with a shrug. Frisk did just that, and with it out of the way, she could finally get to the driving part. This time, when she put her foot on the gas, the car moved. It startled her, and she quickly stopped, much to Undyne's amusement. "Try again. Take it slow, just go down this road."

"Okay . . ." Frisk nodded, and lightly pressed her foot against the pedal. The car started to slowly move forward, much to her enjoyment. "I'm doing it!" she grinned.

"NOW DRIVE!" Undyne yelled, nearly making Frisk leap out of the car and have a heart attack. Instead, she pressed her foot down as a response and the car peeled out of its spot, kicking up gravel and dirt into the air, shooting forward down the road.

Frisk did her best to slow her breathing, but the speed of the car was making it hard to calm down. She managed to slowly ease up on the gas, taking a quick glance to see Undyne grinning from ear to ear, obviously not concerned. Frisk felt like it was a miracle she hadn't crashed- but then realized that that was probably why Undyne had taken her out here. So she could drive without hitting anything; there wasn't much to hit.

After a few moments, Undyne pumped her fist into the air. "FASTER!"

Frisk indulged with an apprehensive gulp, and picked up the speed a bit. She glanced at her dashboard, trying to figure out where the speedometer was, quickly picking it out, which read '70 mph'.

"Uh, Undyne?" Frisk asked. The road ahead was still straight, narrow, and empty, but that didn't calm Frisk any.

"FASTER!"

Frisk swallowed once again, watching the speedometer slowly rise up to a frightening 85 mph. She'd never driven before in her life, and so far, this wasn't a pleasant start. Undyne was clearly getting a thrill out of it, but Frisk only felt her heart pounding in her throat as the dirt road flew by.

"FASTER!"

The world around began to blur.

"FASTER!"

Frisk's grip was deathly tight on the steering wheel as she continued to oblige Undyne's commands for whatever reason.

"COW!"

The girl's eyes widened in shock and fear as she veered the steering wheel to dodge an apathetic cow that had entered their path, and they went careening into a field filled with even more cows.

"COWS!"
Frisk jerked the steering wheel to and fro, forgetting that her foot had pressed the gas pedal to the floor, and after narrowly avoiding a now very frightened herd of cows, she lifted her feet, veering the steering wheel to the left, and she slammed her foot down on the brakes. The car skidded to a halt, digging into the soft earth and spraying grass and dirt everywhere.

For several long moments of silence, the two sat there, before Undyne stood up, pumping her fist into the air. "AWESOME!"

Undyne turned toward Frisk, grinning from ear to ear—but it slackened as she saw Frisk's pale face, having assumed the girl would have the grit for the situation, like she used to.

"Erm, okay, minor detour," Undyne chuckled nervously. "Pull back onto the-"

"Can you drive me home?" Frisk interrupted, slowly unbuckling herself. Undyne sighed- oh well, it was the least she could do.

"Yeah, sure."

The ride to return to Sans and Papyrus' to drop off Papyrus' now very dirty car was a little tense, though that was mostly due to Frisk coming down from an adrenaline high, and Undyne trying and failing to apologize multiple times. It wasn't her fault she sucked at apologies.

Frisk had no idea why she was so distressed over that drive. She'd been through much more dangerous and much crazier situations, but a simple off-the-rails joyride with her notoriously adrenaline-junkie friend had disturbed the often unbreakable Frisk. Had it just been the speed? Just the cows adding in that layer of danger caked on top of their speed? She felt as though it might have been deeper than that . . .