A Few Stars

A Few Stars

“A long time ago, monsters would whisper their wishes to the stars in the sky. If you hoped with all your heart, your wish would come true. Now, all we have are these sparkling stones on the ceiling…”

—Casodir, Cassian, Reflection Under the Surface, Snowdin Librarby Publishing, 33 ABE

“Thousands of people wishing together can’t be wrong! The king will prove that.”

—Anonymous

———

*You hear a passing conversation

“It’s peaceful out here isn’t it?”

“It’s too quiet…”

“Oh, don’t be such a sissy.”

A small child walks through a damp cavern, a fluffy white paw grasped tight in their tiny fingers. The child is leading another child, a small goat monster. The soothing white noise of rushing water softly permeates the background from some distant chamber.

“Where are we, Chara?”

“I don’t know! Isn’t it wonderful?”

“I think we should go back…”

The child leads the goat to one of the cave walls and sits down. The goat sits down next to them.

“Brother, look up!”

The goat lifts his head slowly, and a little cautiously, then exclaims.

“Woah!”

The cave roof is covered with thousands of glowing blue stones, glinting against the void of the ceiling as if suspended in air.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? They look just like the stars from back home.”

“What’s a star?”

“A star… Well, they usually come out at night. They cover the sky with little pricks of light, like this. Sometimes people would ask them for things, like wishes.”

“What’s a wish?”

“…”

“Chara?”

“A wish is when… sometimes, Asriel, people really, really want something, but they know they can never have it. So we make a wish, hoping that out there, somewhere, there might be some unknown power that can grant it, and bring a little joy to our lives…”

“…”

“Of course, it’s all just lies we tell ourselves to distract from the reality of life.”

“Chara, don’t say that! I believe wishes are true!”

“You didn’t even know what a wish was till just now.”

“I don’t care. C’mon Chara, make a wish!”

“How about you go first.”

“Alright, I wish that my sibling and I will see the real stars some day.”

“That’s a good wish, Azzy.”

…

“So? Don’t you have any wishes to make?”

“…hmmm, just one, but… it’s kind of stupid.”

“Don’t say that! Come on, I promise I won’t laugh.”

“…if I say my wish… you promise you won’t laugh at me?”

“Of course I won’t laugh!”

“…Someday, I’d like to climb this mountain we’re buried under. Standing under the sky, looking at the world all around… That’s my wish.”

The goat child giggles softly. His companion turns to look at him with a hurt expression.

“…hey, you said you wouldn’t laugh at it!”

“Sorry, it’s just a little funny… that’s my wish too.”

…

Eventually the two siblings stand up, and walk back the way they came, the child leading their goat companion. The blue flowers scattered across the cave floor murmur a soothing chatter as their footsteps fade down the corridor, then quiet falls once more.

…

*It’s strangely silent.

———

This is an extremely short fanfic I wrote a long time ago based on some of the echo flower dialogue in Undertale

The quotes from the beginning come from Undertale, but are cited in-universe (in the AU this story take place in, which is Faithtale)

Undertale by Toby Fox and Temmie Chang

Faithtale by me