I'm not one of you <Frans>

CHAPTER 20: Its cold!

Time: Unknown
How would I know how many days I have been down here? Is it two? It feels like an eternity. All I do is walk.

My eyes were practically shut as I was running through the calf-deep snow of Snowdin. The cold air made my feet go numb and my fingers frigid. My ankle throbbed every time I would hop onto the other door to get out of the thick snow to move even the slightest of inches.

Running in cold air didn't help either, causing my airways to close up due to the stinging of my dried throat. I couldn't drink the snow here. It was too cold for my body at this point. My feet numbed down to the bone, and my running speed started to slow down from my original heart-racing sprint. I was too tired to function.

"Fuck! Fuck!" I cursed to myself, tears were brimming into my eyes. I felt as if I couldn't get further enough away from the old Inn. The row of attacks kept replaying in my head, how just a moment later and one of those bones could have impaled me in an instant. "God damn it!" I cursed again helplessly. "If only my shoes hadn't been destroyed by me turning on the heater. I would have been faster getting away from that... place!" I cried, wanting to stop and break down. I wanted to eat, and I wanted to hold my foot in agony.

But I didn't. I kept bounding through the deep snow, as the images started to blur together, creating not only a white blob of my vision, but of darkness as well. The evergreens surrounding me outside of the town seemed to merge together into one, badly resolutioned image. My eyelids were heavy, I still couldn't function. "Damn, I really wish I was a morning person right about now!" I cried, feeling the small bit of warmth come from my eyes as the first tear started to fall. I was scared. What was going to happen to me?

Just don't fall asleep. Just don't fall asleep. Whatever you do, Frisk, just don't fall fucking asleep. If you fall asleep, hypothermia is definite.

I kept running, realizing the snow was starting to get shallower in length, only reaching my ankles at this point. It was quickly losing depth. Was I going up? Or was the snow going down? "What the—?" I said, opening my eyes a bit more, feeling the crust around my tear ducts and eyelids. I was shaking, seeing the black blur of a a new area. All I knew is that it wasn't a snowy wonderland.

The snow soon vanished the more I stepped closer to this uncharted place. It seemed strangely silent, this desolate place was dark and gloomy. Though I couldn't see right, I wasn't going to be able to see right until I could find a proper place to sleep and regain my strength.

Putting weight on my ankle for the first time out of the support of the soft cushion of snow, I quickly tumbled down and collapsed underneath my own weight, putting my arms out in front of me to catch myself. "Whoa." I said quietly, letting out a sigh, still catching my breath from the rush of adrenaline about 30 minutes ago.

It feels like two hours ago, this moment has dragged on for forever, it seemed. The coldness of the snow didn't help, it seemed to freeze time.

I let out another sigh, still shaking and trying to calm down my racing heart. "Man, I should have exercised more." I huffed, wheezing and having trouble breathing. "At least I'm a little warmer." I said hoarsely though my dry through. I was warmer old due to the exercise I had forced myself to do, my body was involuntarily shaking and I couldn't feel my feet.

Looking down, I could quickly see the swelling of my ankle, causing it to become a horrid black and blue color. It was a nice contrast to my pale skin. "Fuck." I wined, obviously it was sprained, or even worse, fractured. "I couldn't have hurt it that bad by falling on it, could I?" I hissed after reaching down to touch it, quickly retracting my finger in pain from the pressure I applied on it.

I'll have to really find somewhere to camp now.

Getting up was a struggle, but I finally achieved it after some fiddling around with my body weight. I continued walking with an evident limp in my step. I almost couldn't apply any pressure to my poor foot. "Ow. Oww!" I wined.

Looking up, I could faintly see the resemblance of tall, unkept, wild grass that stood in the way of the forming path that was in the ruined area and the snowed area. To the left of me, I rushed towards what looked like a river, eyeing the water with greedy eyes and getting on my knees, lapping the water into my mouth with my hands like a dog.

It was loud and obnoxious, but it cleaned my dry throat of the ice that the cold air caused it to form slightly. At least, that's what it felt like. Sighing, I sat back. My vision wasn't any better. The first stages of frostbite were kicking in, and with my lack of layers, it could be dangerous for me to sleep so close to the snow.

Walking through the tall grass that blocked the path's way, I continued to walk, when I faintly saw a big, blue flower and and yet another stand, similar to the ones I saw in the snowy area next to the broken lamp in the woods. It smelled of mustard and ketchup, as if someone's condiments were kept open.

It wasn't as cold here, the temperate died down greatly when I stepped into the grass. Maybe it acted as some sort of insulator? Maybe that was it's purpose all and all? Either way, it blocked out most of the cold air that came in small gusts throughout the area, and I was thankful for that. My feet were quickly tingling, which was pretty uncomfortable, but a good sign that the blood was circulating again.

I slumped down behind the stand, the vision was practically black, or my eyes were closed. I just needed to sleep for an hour. I just needed an hour of something. I just needed rest.

Then I would continue exploring and focusing on trying to find a way out of here. "Chara." I mumbled, drifting off, tucking my knees in and hugging them tightly, trying to get as warm as possible. "You're a fucking bitch."