Chapter Text
Martlet always suspected she'd die in a hole. She slumped against the red, sticky wall and glanced upwards at the faint light from where she'd fallen in, and tried to distract herself from the throbbing, stabbing pain that lanced from her wingtip all the way to her shoulder. She always knew she'd die somewhere like this, doing something she was just told to do. Dig a hole, you need some dirt to anchor the crossbeam to properly arrange this puzzle. Oh, hang on, this dirt, deeper down, has different properties. Could I use that for anything? What happens if I dig deeper still? Oh! There are things here, artifacts of some kind in the dirt. Are there more further down, if so, do they change by layer? How did the ground form, exactly? And so on, so on went her logic until she hit air instead of dirt and plummeted into... wherever this was, and faced whatever... that thing was. It wasn't a monster, and she didn't think it was a human. The pain stabbed into her arm again her vision slowly went white. She dragged herself forwards, directly under where she'd fallen from. Whatever that horrible octahedron was, with all the teeth and that sticky red and that searing light it was gone now. She didn't think she could fight it, let alone win, and but sometimes things didn't make sense. None of this made sense.
Martlet looked up at the light filtering from above and her beak pressed down on itself. She'd be late for roll call tomorrow if she died! She bent her legs low, took a great leap, and flapped with all her might, gaining maybe an inch before her broken wing gave out and she plummeted face-first into the ground, and a pain in her face and chest joined the wings, back, and feet in their agony. The light had gotten brighter now. She closed her eyes. This was always how it was going to end, she told herself. It wasn't like she could've helped anyone in any way anyhow. Nobody liked her. Almost nobody knew her. Nothing depended on her. Maybe Undyne would notice she was gone tomorrow... someone else might notice in a week. By the end of the month she'd just be another one of the mysteries of the Underground, and then by year's end she'd be forgotten. That didn't sound too bad, when she thought of it that way. No stress. The light grew so bright it shone through her eyelids and she turned her head away. Were the remnants of her puzzle up to code..?
A gust of wind struck her head and she flew sideways, squawking in panic, flapping with her good wing before she slammed into the wall with a sickening crack. Her eyes widened and she bit back a scream before she gracelessly slid down onto her butt. She dragged herself to her knees and batted the light away from her eyes.
Something else was here with her. A pale blue figure, about her height, on his hands and knees. He breathed in slowly, then released a contented sigh. A massive hole replaced his face and resplendent crown of quartzite crystals erupted from his scalp. His shoulders and knuckles popped as he shifted about on the ground. "Ah. Free at last. O Gabriel, now dawns thy reckoning, and thy gore shall glisten before the temples of man!" His voice, low and deep, gradually increased in volume as he stood and raised his arms high above his head. He looked about then, having made an oath.
Martlet wondered: Who was Gabriel? Why was he due a reckoning? Man..? She dragged herself to her feet again and coughed. The figure turned. Martlet stepped closer, ignoring the chill that ran down her back, despite how hot and damp the room was. The smell of ozone slowly replaced the smell of copper as she approached. Wait... wait. This was a human!
The human paused as he gazed at Martlet. His hands unclenched and his arms went slack. "That... that cannot be." He said, mostly to himself.
Martlet took a big breath in and ignored the screaming pain in her ribs. She had to be brave. She struck the best pose she could and cleared her throat. A coughing spasm wracked her and she spat dust onto the ground, where it mingled with her feathers and the octahedron's fluids. She looked back up at the human and then to the ground. Should she do anything at all? It didn't matter either way. But... she promised she'd follow protocol, she really did, and even if this human hadn't done anything, and might not deserve to have anything bad happen to them... she had to fight. "Um... uh... ahem! As the Royal Guard's trusty handbook states, when you encounter a human, you must battle!"
"Don't do this, Dove." The human clasped his hands together.
Martlet exhaled slowly. It really wouldn't matter. She knew it was all over anyway. But... protocol, protocol... she dug through her pockets and fished for the handbook. She dropped it. Her broken wing... ah. She needed both hands for the book! Memory, memory, memory... her memory. Right, right! "Martlet of the Royal Guard has encountered a human. Um... ah! Ahem! Protocol one! Be courteous and allow your opponent the first attack!"
Well, that protocol hadn't worked at all just beforehand, hence her broken wing, but this was a human and not a horrible meat cube. So maybe it would work this time? The Royal Guard had to know what... Martlet's stomach sank. She promised to follow protocol and good Royal Guards followed orders. So all she had to do was endure the human's attack and then... he was looking up, towards Snowdin. Martlet shuffled over to the hole. "Y-you have to go through me first! Protocol says so."
The human picked the handbook off the ground and flipped through it, looking between Martlet, the hole, and the book.
Was this an attack? It didn't feel like an attack. "Um... it's... it's your turn. It's okay!" She paused. "Books distract me all the time! That's... t-that's..." goodness, her wing hurt. "That's how I ended up here anyway... I was... um... thinking about a book..." She said. The human glanced up at her. He gently reached his finger out and prodded her beak. She paused and shimmied next to him. "C-can you turn to the table of contents? I need to figure out what to do when someone doesn't attack."
"That was my attack."
Why was her heart beating so fast?! A cold sweat broke out across her face and she started to sniffle. The pain in her wing was finally starting to get to her. Her toes curled in her shoes and her breathing quickened. "I-I don't think that was an attack?"
"I, King Minos, attacked," he said, flipping through the booklet. "Now it is thy turn."
Wait... king? Humans had kings? They had whole societies up there with kings and presumably guards and maybe even hot chocolates? Did they have horror movies about monsters too? And - OW - the wing! The wing! Martlet flapped her good limb and a feather floated slowly towards Minos. He caught it in his hand and looked over at her, tapping his foot.
"Um... y-you can attack now..." Martlet said. Minos plodded close. The smell of ozone filled the room. He reared his fist back and a horrible white light emanated from it. Martlet broke into a cold sweat. He stood there and Martlet cocked her head. "I said you can attack now?"
Minos didn't move.
"Um..." Martlet looked away. "Is... is this your turn..?"
It was like he froze solid. Did she break him? Martlet turned away. Wait, did she beat a human? How? Did that little, no, wait, hang on. Ow! Pain. Slow melting fire all the way to her shoulder. What good was it that she beat a human if they were going to just die here together? And he was kind of handsome too, not the way she thought humans would be, she thought that since they were mostly water - so she'd heard - that they'd be like, puddles, but no, he had a shape, and it was an admittedly nice shape and she was lonely and what was happening to her? She sank down and looked at her mangled wing. She'd crushed her first-aid pack on landing and what little was left was incinerated so there was nothing to do except... she glanced back at Minos.
Minos was still there, frozen like a statue.
Wait! Martlet was moving out of turn! She stood back up and awkwardly held the position she was in as soon as her turn ended, exactly like the guidebook suggested. Minos remained still. She looked up and then broke position, and he poked the back of her head with his finger. It sent a dull electric tingle down her spine and she squawked. She turned about.
"Thy turn is now." Minos said.
Martlet looked at her limp wing and dully kicked a clod of that weird, coppery red mud at Minos. He stepped to the side and then tapped her beak again.
"This... doesn't really feel like a fight..." Martlet said.
"Perhaps it need not be one?" Minos said. A sudden golden light filled his hand and he flicked it into Martlet's face. Nothing felt like it happened, but he shrugged. "Done! I declare this contest over. I, Minos, spare thee, Martlet of the Royal Guard." He pointed to a page on the guidebook.
"If the HUMAN uses their power to SPARE you, then... well, I guess that's it! Don't fight anymore!" The book read. Martlet looked down at it, then up at Snowdin. Well... she didn't want to fight. She sat down and looked up at the ceiling again. Now what? Maybe she could bring him before Asgore and explain that she found a good human, and that everyone could finally get along and be happy...
If she wasn't stuck at the bottom of a reeking hole, covered in coppery gore, with a wing that burned like fire, with no food and no way out.