VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 111

The flutter of her eyelids signified her awakening. The hole above streamed a warm light upon her. Frisk looked about to find . . . golden flowers. However, just as quickly as she'd seen them, it all disappeared. The flowers, the light, all that remained was a cold, empty darkness that surrounded her. It took her a fair few moments to recognize that this wasn't her end. Usually she'd be faced with the choice to CONTINUE or to RESET. They'd appear regardless if she was in control or not, but since they didn't, and since her hand felt like it was on fire . . .

Frisk summoned her SOUL. Its vibrant red glow illuminated her surroundings, and she could find she was lying in a pile of rubble, two stone walls on either side of her. Another hallway going in two directions. No torches sat around the walls to be lit, and the stones themselves were barren, outside of cracked, deluded surfaces.

A look up confirmed a distant warm glow, barely noticeable. It had been a long fall, yet she was still alive, and somewhat fine.

Now she looked down at her hand, and to her horror, she released the obsidian had cut clean through her palm and out the back of her hand. Blood was still pouring out of it, and only now did she register how weak she felt. Thinking quickly, Frisk grabbed her sleeve with her good hand, and tugged.

Nothing happened. The movies made tugging off sleeves look a lot easier. She tried again, to no avail, before letting out an annoyed grunt and summoned a scarlet knife that she proceeded to use and dismantle the sleeve. Once off, she paused . . . and her eyes traveled to the knife. It sat so comfortably there, it simply felt so . . . right.

It disappeared, and Frisk used her dismembered sleeve to wrap as tightly around her wound as she could, finishing with the best knot she could make, admittedly a very sloppy one, but it would hold nonetheless. To finish out her medical work, her bad hand began to glow a shade of scarlet that enveloped her bandage-sleeve. Due to the physical nature of her wound, it wouldn't heal much, but enough to hopefully stop bleeding for a bit.

With that out of the way, she could now feel the pain in her back, as well as the back of her skull. A brief touch of her hand there pulled back blood. This little expedition into the depths of an ancient monster kingdom had turned from exciting to boring and tedious now to perilous.

Her next thoughts were of Papyrus. She looked around to find he was slumped against a nearby wall, seemingly resting. Slowly, the girl tried to climb to her feet. Her body ached, but fortunately, nothing seemed broken. She was just incredibly sore. That fall could have gone a lot worse.

"Papyrus?" She called. Her voice was hoarse. Some water would really go a long way right about now . . .

The skeleton slowly lifted his head. One of his eyes was closed, and he seemed extremely weak. Ignoring her wounds acting up, she quickly made her way to his side, brow creased in worry. "Are you alright?" She asked, looking him over. No broken bones that she could see . . .

"Y-YES," he confirmed, his voice slightly quieter than usual. "JUST . . . TIRED . . . I WASN'T SURE IT W-WORKED . . ."

"What worked?" Frisk asked, looking into his empty eye sockets.

"Y-YOUR HEAD WAS . . . BLEEDING A LOT, AND . . . YOU WEREN'T B-BREATHING . . ." he replied. "I USED A LOT OF MAGIC TRYING TO HEAL YOU. I'M JUST . . . TAKING A LITTLE BREAK . . . D-DON'T TELL SANS, OKAY? HE'D . . . NEVER LET ME FORGET THAT I HAD A L-LAZY MOMENT . . ." Papyrus gave a weak chuckle, trying to smile confidently at Frisk.

To go this excessive with his magic . . . Frisk had never seen him so exhausted in any of her timelines. He'd exerted a LOT into healing her.

Had it really been that bad? Had she been so close to death's door, possibly staring through an open entryway? Imagine that. One simple, stupid fall. Without Papyrus, no doubt she'd have died down here. Out with a whimper. Her heart beat so quickly against her chest as she understood how close to dying she'd just been. No more resets. No more coming back. One life was all she had now, and it had nearly ended so anticlimactically.