UnderBound: The Fallen Monster

Chapter 7: Hangout Start!

As I walked back to Ness and Lucas' house, I saw Lucas standing outside next to the door.

"Hello, monster," he said to me, "Are you ready to hangout?"

"Yep," I answered.

"Perfect!" Lucas said, "I got just the place where we can go! Follow me!" I followed him as we walked around town, and then we stopped back at his house again.

"My house!" he said with enthusiasm.

What was the point of all that walking then? the voice said.

"Now," Lucas continued, "Let's go inside, and, do what people do on hangouts." We walked inside the house and we went into his room. Inside was tons of toys, posters, and a computer. I went over to look at the toys. There were various action figures on display.

"Whoa," I said, "Where did you get all of these? Toys on the surface aren't as cool as these."

"Us humans have developed certain talents," Lucas explained, "Certain people have invented various electronics, such as cell phones."

"Oh," I said, "Up on the surface, technology and toys aren't as cool."

"So, monster," Lucas said, "What do you want to do?"

"You can call me Asriel," I clarified.

"Oh, okay," Lucas said, "So Asriel, what do you want to do?" My stomach grumbled. It had been a while since I last ate something.

"Do you have any food?" I asked him.

"Why of course I do!" Lucas said with excitement, "Do you like omelets? I made a few of them this morning. They should still be good."

"Sure," I answered. I still had no clue why everyone here liked omelets. Were they really this popular? Lucas ran downstairs, and came back up with a plate of omelets. 

"Here you are," he said politely, "Enjoy." I took a bite of one of the omelets. For some reason, I expected it to taste absolutely disgusting, but I was wrong. It tasted delicious.

"Thank you," I said, "You must be good at cooking."

"Well, you would think so from how delicious my omelets were," Lucas said, "But, that's actually the only thing I can cook. That is, without burning the house down." My mouth dropped when I heard this.

"Oh my gosh," I said, "That's awful. What were you making?"

"Spaghetti," Lucas answered, taking a seat on the floor. "Apparently, it was too hot when I was cooking, and it started a fire. That was about three months ago. Ness told me that I'm only allowed to cook omelets from now on. Though, I would like to try making spaghetti again."

"Interesting," I said, also taking a seat, "My mom cooks for me all the time. Sometimes, she makes this really yummy pie that butterscotch and cinnamon in it. I wish I could see her again."

"Do you miss her?" Lucas asked me.

"Yeah," I said, "But she always told me to stay courageous. So I will."

"It's probably none of my business, but why did you climb the mountain?" Lucas asked. I had never really thought of that before. I wanted to look for answers to a long lost legend, but that was silly of me to think of. I was only 9, and just starting 3rd grade.

"I... wanted to see... if you guys... were the reason... for the other fallen monsters," I said, tripping over my words, "And why they weren't coming back." Lucas looked shocked.

"Asriel," he said, "Even if they were still alive, there was no way they could've come back." I gasped. A tear dropped from my eye.

"Please don't cry," Lucas said, "I didn't kill them. It was the responsibility of our selfish king, Flint." He stood up, and changed his mood.

"But that's a story for another time!" he said, "What do you say we play a game of tag?!" I stood up and smiled.

"You mean in the house?" I asked, "What about Ness? Won't he get mad?"

"Nah," Lucas said, "He's too much of a lazy bum to care anyway." I went up to Lucas and tapped his hand.

"Tag!" I shouted. I then ran out of the room and downstairs, laughing.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Lucas shouted with joy, "You got a head-start!" He began to start chasing me around the house. He had a hard time catching me, because I was so small, and he was bigger than me. 

"When I catch you, I'm going to gobble you up!" Lucas shouted. I squealed with fear and excitement. Eventually, Lucas caught me by picking me up and jumping onto the couch.

"Gotcha!" he said, "Now it's time to eat you!" He started to tickle me, and I started laughing.

"Stop it!" I said while laughing, "It's too much!" Lucas stopped tickling me.

"Oh man," he said, "That was fun. You're like the little brother I've never had. I wish you could stay here forever."

"Me too," I replied, "But there's this voice in my head telling me that I need to go home. But don't worry. I'll come back to visit sometime again. Thanks for letting me hang out with you."

"Anytime," Lucas said, "But next time, I will beat you at tag again. I was just going easy." I giggled as I walked out the door. When I got outside, I saw Chara and Ninten buying ice cream from some guy with a big black mustache wearing a flower shirt.

Ice cream? It's so cold outside, I thought. Chara and Ninten turned around and saw me standing there.

"Hi Asriel," Chara said, "Would you like some Nice Cream?"

"What's Nice Cream?" I asked.

"It's just ice cream," Chara told me, "I'm sure you would love some. I know it's cold out, but it's not selling very well."

"Um, okay," I said. Chara walked back up to the Nice Cream man.

"Everdred," she said, "Can we get one more cone of Nice Cream? It's for our new friend."

"I don't see why not," Everdred answered. He handed an ice cream cone to Chara.

"Take it," he said, "It's on the house."

"Thank you," Chara said with a smile. She walked over to me, and handed me the ice cream cone.

"Here you go," she said, "Give it a try." I nervously took the ice cream and licked it. It was sweet. I smiled at Chara.

"Thank you," I said.

"You're welcome," Chara responded, "We're going to head to Waterfall now. You coming?" I nod my head, and we headed for Waterfall.

"Man, I am so excited to meet Kumatora," Ninten said, "She's so cool when she beats up the bad guys." 

I hope she doesn't beat me up, I thought as we walked by, seeing the snow and forest changing to a waterfall and dark cavern.