Wingdings Gaster stood on the battlefield a sword in one hand, his other raised as he threw a human into his brother's bone wall with blue magic. The human screamed out in pain as the bones went right through him, blood came out splattering onto the muddy ground. The human coughed up some more blood before he died.

Wingdings let out a sigh of relief, the human had come up behind him, sword ready to take his head, if he hadn't reacted as fast as he did then he could've died...

But now was not the time to relax. They were losing, losing terribly. How many members of his race had died already? How many of them were his family? He'd stopped counting...

Wingdings had never wanted to be a solider. He was the youngest sibling, the youngest cousin, still in his last year of school, not long turned eighteen. He just wanted to pass his exams and get a job while he studied further and saved up money so he could move to the capital and get into the best university, then he'd become the best scientist the world had seen.

Yet here he was standing in which had once been a town filled with monsters but was now nothing but a field of dust and blood, devoid of hopes and dreams. His armour that had once been shining and clean was covered with mud, the blood of humans and the dust of his fallen comrades. How many had he killed now? 50? 100? 1000? How high was his LOVE?

He felt no regret. Humans were evil; they'd shown up in his peaceful town of skeletons one day and began killing everyone. Not just people who fought back but they killed the elderly, the disabled... the children.

Several of his siblings had kids of their own, his little nieces and nephews, all of them murdered by humans. His father was killed before his eyes, his mother had shouted at him to run, that she'd hold them back. His last memory of her was of her summoning up a large bone wall as he ran and her scream he heard in the distance.

He swore revenge on the humans, all the survivors had. They'd fled to the next town where they learnt that humans had declared war, the old King had died of disease a couple of months before and the new King, Asgore, still had a lot to learn, the humans took this as a weakness and attacked several towns and villages in the same way as they had done to Wingdings's. The humans showed no mercy, they killed everyone. Most of the survivors from these places had joined the army.

Three of Wingdings's cousins, two of his sisters and one of his brothers had survived. He'd never had friends, he was the nerdy kid, who took more interest in science books than in people, he was a teacher's pet and spoke in a weird font, needing sign langue to talk with others. He was bullied but he never really minded, he had no need for friends. His bullies were never that bad, they didn't deserve death. All they had done was call him names and exclude him.

There wasn't a whole lot of skeletons left. His family had tried to tell him not to join up with them, to instead protect the weaker monsters and assist them in their escape and to help with healing the wounded, he was the best healer in his family, after all. Wingdings had none of that, why should he run while the others fought? They'd tried to tell him that some skeletons had to live and that he was too young to fight and how he was so smart that monster kind couldn't lose such a great mind. Yet Wingdings still had none of that, his family fought, he'd fight. Then, once the war was over he'd become a great scientist. The Great Dr Wingdings Gaster...

Yet here he was in a losing battle. He'd already lost two cousins and a sister. He didn't know where his other cousin and sister where, but his brother, Tempus, was beside him.

"wingdings? are you alright?" He called.

"I'M FINE!" Wingdings called back signing with a pair of magic hands. He wasn't really fine, he hated this, he didn't want to see any monsters die and no one would say it but the number of skeletons on the field was slowly decreasing.

Wingdings was beginning to feel like that this was a bad idea, he didn't want to die and he had a lot he still wanted to do. But no matter how much he wanted to live he could sill die, pointlessly.

It was too late to turn back now, however. So his only choice was to fight on. He let his mind drift away, acted without thinking as he fought side by side with his brother. Bones flying towards their enemies, arrows flying back at them. They threw the humans around with blue magic, humans came at them with their blades. The brothers only used the swords only when they had to, like when they were casting an offensive spell and had to defend at the same time or whenever a human got too close.

Wingdings fought in a zoned out state, he didn't want to think of the death he was causing, so he didn't think. But a scream pulled him out of it. He turned to face the scream and saw the exact moment when three humans thrust their swords into his cousin's chest and he turned to dust. Wingdings let out a scream of his own and summoned a huge blaster, a weapon of his own design.

The humans turned to him a look of fear in their eyes.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT! BURN IN HELL!" He yelled not bothering to sign, what difference would that make? These humans were about to die anyway. The blast killed more than just three humans, Wingdings didn't know or care how many, he just knew that his LV had just increased and so he zoned out again and went on killing. He hid within his own mind too scared to really face what was going on, to scared to face the fact he just lost someone he loved, again.

It wasn't long before he zoned back in again this time it was because he felt someone pull his arm. He turned to attack but saw that it was his sister, Kristen, and stopped. She pulled both of her brothers aside and knelt behind a broken wall.

She had been promoted to captain just before this battle, she was strong but wounded and limping, before Wingdings had a chance to say something about it she interrupted.

"WE'RE LOSING, WE CAN'T WIN. WE'VE BEEN GIVEN THE ORDER TO RETREAT. MY DEAR BROTHERS, YOU MUST GO."

"not without you!"

"WE WILL NOT LEAVE!"

"NO TIME! JUST GO!" She stood fast and jumped the wall. She summoned a wall of bones stretching as far as she could. She stumbled a little and Wingdings knew that it wouldn't be long before she dusted.

He had to save her, he didn't save their mother, he wouldn't let his sister die in the same way. He ran forward, Tempus tried to grab him back but missed. He jumped the bone wall and ran into the battle desperate to save Kristen. He fought well, shooting out bone attacks and blasters as fast as he could until he heard a shout

"WINGDINGS! WATCH OUT!" Kristen called out too late and he tuned straight into the human's attack. The blade stabbed him in the face right under his left eye cracking the bone down and into his mouth but not going right though the other side. He yelled out him pain and fell to his knees. He put his hand over the wound and one of his fingers went into the newly formed hole, that really freaked him out and he screamed again. And then yet again he screamed as another human came down on him. The sword hitting him in the right side of the top of his head cracking his skull from the top and into his eye socket. He fell further down laying on the muddy ground. He figured this was it, he would die.

He turned to Kristen just to catch her final moments as an arrow hit her in the spine and she dusted with a scream. Wingdings was losing conciseness but he saw Tempus fight towards him.

The next thing he knew he was being dragged across the battlefield towards the monster's strong hold on Mt Ebott.

"come on bro, you gotta help me out here. you're not as small as you used to be i can't carry someone the same height as me."

Tempus was talking, constantly telling him to wake up or to help him or to just walk or to just fucking wake up, telling him to not die.

Wingdings let out a small groan and tried to stand on his own two feet. "WE... WE'VE LOST?" He asked, he'd sighed weakly not totally sure his brother could see it. Wingdings couldn't see him after all, in fact he could see very little and couldn't see anything on his right...

"you're awake, good. we have to get back fast."

"WHAT HAPPENED? WHERE IS EVERYONE? WHERE ARE WE GOING BACK TO?"

"sorry, wingdings i understand you unless you sign."

But he was. Wasn't he? He looked at the magic hands he had been signing with, it was too pale to see unless he really concentrated on it. He figured trying to talk was pointless until he got more energy.

Wingdings limped with the support of his brother, his head hurt so much but he was becoming more aware of his surroundings. Hundreds of monsters were running away, he saw no skeletons among them. He didn't want to concentrate on the horrors around him. There were so many wounded, so much dust and blood and rotting human corpses. He closed his eyes and let Tempus lead the way.

That was until he was suddenly dropped into the mud. He turned and saw no other monster around him, he just saw a human with his blade amongst a cloud of dust. Tempus, his brother... just died... Just like that, so suddenly, too quickly, out of nowhere...

And he was alone in the darkness of the battlefield that was just getting darker as the sun set.

He didn't want to die, he was too young, too ambitious, too intelligent, to die. He was filled with adrenaline, mustering up all the strength he could he summoned a blaster and killed the human before they had a change to come at him. He stood on shacking legs and ran, his whole body was painful but he had to ignore it, what just happened was painful, he'd lost everything and he couldn't even mourn, not yet.

He saw someone in the distance; a commander, a bird monster, he called out, it didn't matter what he said they couldn't understand him. All that matter was that they heard him.

The commander caught him as he fell. "Medic!" They called but nobody came. "Hang in there, kid."

Wingdings felt himself being lifted again but as soon as he got to his feet he heard a human, "surrender now, demons!"

The commander let go of Wingdings carefully and put his wings up, Wingdings copied putting his hands up.

"Well look at what we have here, an officer and some kid." One human laughed.

"Kill the kid, take the officer, we'll execute them publicly."

"Don't," the commander spoke, "let him go, he's wounded and too weak to fight, he's no threat. I'll come quietly if you do."

"HA! You come quietly or you'll die now, it's not that important that we take you prisoner we just thought it'd make things more fun, give the civilians a little show. Show 'em what happens to filth like you demons!"

Wingdings glared at the humans. No way was he going down without a fight. He may be weakened but he'd still try, he was a boss monster for heaven's sake! "JUST TRY IT, HUMAN SCUM!" He snapped, forgetting to sign in his anger.

The humans look at him confused. "What?" The leader said.

"He's a skeleton," the monster commander said, "they speak in fonts, it seems he speaks in one that we can't understand. They call these kind of fonts speaking in hands."

"Hands huh?" The human laughed and looked to his left. "You there, boy mage, come here."

Gaster watched as a human child only about ten years old came over and his heart broke, he hated seeing children in battle, it wasn't right. "Yes sir?" The child said.

"I have the perfect target for you to practice your aim on."

The leader snapped his fingers and two men grabbed Wingdings and forced him to his knees.

"Don't!" The commander called. They couldn't help, they'd been tied up, Wingdings hadn't noticed. They had been on his right.

"Hold out his hands."

The humans pushed Wingdings forward, his face in the mud and they held his arms outstretched.

Wingdings looked up at the human child and he struggled to get up but he was too injured. He knew if that he was at full health he'd get out of this no problem but with the head trauma he had...

The human leader put his arm around the mage. "Apparently, this skeleton speaks in 'hands' so blow them off, be careful not to take his arms just his hands. This will be good practice for you."

The kid looked worried. Maybe he didn't want to do this...

"What if I hit the soldiers?"

Nope, that was too much for Wingdings to hope for.

"Good point," the human bend down, "stay put, don't you dare move or I'll kill your commander and then you and I'll make both painful. Do you understand, filth?"

Wingdings glared but nodded there was nothing to do now but give up. No matter what he did he'd die and he wouldn't take any humans with him. All he'd do by resisting was hurt his pride and receive a painful death so he lay limp, accepting his fate.

The humans let go and backed off. The child cast a spell and Wingdings saw a bright light and felt an intense pain in his hands, like there was a hole being burnt into them. When the light faded he saw what had become of his hands. They hadn't been blown off but he had a large hold in each hand. It burnt so bad and he had to fight back tears of pain. He may have given up but he'd never cry in front of a human.

"Aww," the child said, "I failed..."

The leader laughed. "Yes, but it was a good effort. I didn't expect you to do it, I thought you'd blow his arms off. You have potential, kid. Try again."

As the child raised his arm again, the commander rushed the kid knocking him over. It seemed they had gotten free of the human's grasp but their wings where still tied behind their back.

The human leader sighed and stabbed the captain in the back, the sword going in deep causing a bloodcurdling scream. They turned to dust. "Well looks like the fun's over. Time for you to die, skeleton."

The sword was raised ready to end Wingdings's life. He shut his eyes ready for death to come. He had so many regrets but it was all too late now.

The blow ever came. All Wingdings felt was warmth. He looked up slowly and saw a wall of fire and a very young fire elemental in simple, mismatched armour run over to him. He was quite a bit younger than Wingdings but he couldn't get a good view of him before he passed out again.

Grillby's unit had gotten the order to retreat last as they where further out in the front lines. Everyone was running as fast as they could but Grillby wasn't ready, he could still fight... he could still kill humans...

He was terrified really but he wanted to help monsters more than anything. He couldn't just sit around at home while his father and brothers fought for their lives. He was an elemental, he couldn't take physical damage the only threat to him on a battlefield were water and ice mages. He felt it was his duty to help more vulnerable monsters so he ran away from home and lied about his age to be let into the army. He was just fourteen but he didn't regret his decision, he wasn't hurt and had a lot of energy. He had saved a few monsters already. Of course he'd been saved a few times as well...

As much as he was still willing to fight he knew that he shouldn't disobey orders. He was already in trouble when they found out he wasn't even sixteen and in even more trouble when they figured out he enlisted when the age of enlistment had still been eighteen.

He ran away with his unit. He had been at the very front deep into the human ranks so he was one of the last to run, now at the back of the fleeing monsters and would probably be one of the last to get to safety. As he ran he heard humans following him, he felt arrows stab into his back, pricing his armour, it didn't hurt but it was an annoyance. Archers were a huge risk to other fleeing monsters so he turned around every so often and fired off as many fireballs as he could in a desperate attempt to hold the humans back. It was slowly working and he was beginning to lose them as he ran faster.

As he got closer to the mountain he couldn't help but notice that there were no monsters other than his own unit. He hoped that was because they had ran away and not...

Something caught his eye. A group of humans surrounded a young and badly hurt skeleton. They were going to kill him... Grillby couldn't let that happen, he was here to save people.

He had no time to think things through. He broke formation and ran to the skeleton. He heard his commander shout out to him, "Oi, solider! Get back here!"

"...He'll die if I don't go," Grillby yelled back.

"He's a dead man either way! It's not worth your life! That mage could easily kill you!"

He ignored the commander and continued on. He knew that the commander wouldn't help, no one would but he didn't care he had to help the skeleton. He just wanted to save people, he didn't want anyone to die.

He used all his strength to create a wall of fire around the skeleton and shot out fireballs at the humans. The fight didn't last too long, there was a few close calls as blades of water came close to him but he somehow got away with only scratches. He killed all the humans in the end with a powerful fire blast that left their bodies charred.

He ran over to the skeleton who looked up at him. His right eye was closed and he squinted with his left. Grillby noticed the broken glasses next to him, they weren't what was important though. The cracks looked painful and Grillby noticed the holes in his hands. The skeleton past out quickly and Grillby began to panic, afraid he'd fallen down and was about to dust.

He took a deep breath, he wasn't very good at healing magic, he was much better at just setting things on fire, but everyone had been taught simple healing magic in basic training. Grillby did what he could but he knew it wouldn't be enough, he had to get this guy up the mountain if he was to have any hope of survival.

Grillby had no idea how he'd do that though. The skeleton was very tall so that would make it difficult to carry him, but Grillby figured that since he was just bones he couldn't be too heavy.

After quickly pulling out the arrows in his back, he positioned the injured skeleton carefully and managed to get him onto his back. Since the skeleton was so tall, and Grillby still had some growing to do, he ended up with the skeleton's legs dragging behind him but he was rather light.

Grillby started to move out towards the mountain. He was really far behind the others and slower now that he had a passenger but he just had to make it up there.

He was beginning to climb the mountain when the skeleton began to regain some conciseness. He made a small moaning sound and then said something in a language Grillby couldn't understand.

"...What?"

The skeleton sighed and a pair of magical hand appeared before Grillby, they looked the same as the skeleton's, holes and all. They signed out something. "WHO ARE YOU?" The skeleton spoke at the same time.

Grillby knew sign language. He was a shy kid and used it sometimes when he didn't want to talk. He'd probably use it now but his hands where busy holding the skeleton in place.

"...I'm Grillby... I was retreating when I saw you... I had to help."

The skeleton was quite and Grillby wondered if he had fainted again but he suddenly spoke, and signed again. "THANK YOU FOR SAVING MY LIFE."

Grillby smiled. "...Don't mention it... I joined up to save lives... What's your name?"

"WINGDINGS GASTER... PLEASE, JUST CALL ME GASTER."

"...Nice to meet you, Gaster... Try not to die on me... Try to stay awake."

"EASIER SAID THAN DONE BUT I'LL DO MY BEST."

"...Tell me about yourself," Grillby said, "...talking may help you stay awake... Talk about whatever you want."

Gaster took Grillby up on that offer. They spoke to each other all the way up the mountain about all sorts. Gaster's plans to become a scientist, his ideas, his theories, Grillby didn't understand a lot of it and Gaster knew that but that didn't matter all that mattered was that it was keeping Gaster awake.

Grillby also told Gaster about himself, about how old he really was and why he had lied, he spoke of his dream to open a bar one day, one like his father used to own but had been destroyed in the war.

They spoke of the lives they used to have, their future plans. When they ran out of topics they spoke about what they saw, just pointing out random things in the forest. Random observations became nothing or started a conversion that went on for a while, some of it was rather stupid but that didn't matter to either of them. Had anyone heard them they would assume it had just been two friends messing around on a leisurely walk not two strangers retreating from a battlefield.

Of course the two of them were getting along rather well.

They got to the top of the mountain and saw powerful looking guards standing at the entrance to a cave. They'd made it.

Grillby made sure he had a good hold of Gaster before he took off running towards the cave.

"...Help!" He called out.

A guard ran over to them and carefully took Gaster off of Grillby's back. Gaster hissed out in pain and lent on both the guard and Grillby as he tired to walk the rest of the way.

"He's badly hurt," the guard told the others. "We need a medic here now."

One of the other guards nodded and ran off. As another approached with a clipboard.

"I'll need your names and squad numbers. We need to keep a good record of survivors in order to inform the families."

Gaster nodded, and spoke weakly he really wanted to sleep, he was so tired but he held on. "WINGDINGS GASTER FROM SQUAD 176." He looked over at Grillby who was looking nervous, he'd probably be found out now, Gaster didn't want him to get into trouble for lying about his age. "HE SAVED MY LIFE," he added. Pointing to the fire elemental.

The guard flipped through the papers on the clipboard and wrote something down.

The guard who had ran off returned with four doctors carrying a stretcher, they helped Gaster onto it and ran off, He needed medical attention now.

"And you?" Asked clipboard guard.

"...Grillby... from squad 184."

He flipped throw his papers again. "The rest of your squad just came in."

"...I know... I disobeyed orders to save Gaster."

"A friend of yours?" The guard asked.

"...No... I just couldn't leave a monster in danger."

"That's very brave of you then."

Grillby stayed quiet. He was worried about Gaster but he was also worried about himself. When he first signed up he'd taken steps to make himself look older and they had been so desperate for troops they hadn't really checked his age or asked for ID but now... He really looked his real age and these guys were probably going to ask...

"Um... It says here you're eighteen?"

Shit... "...Yep, it does."

"You don't look eighteen, sixteen maybe but that's still a push... Did you lie on your form?"

Grillby sunk down into himself, no point in lying now it'd just get him in more trouble. "...I did."

"Please tell me you are at least sixteen."

"...Fourteen..."