Among a lone beach overlooking a dock, a small figure standing alone could be seen looking out into the rising sun. The figure belonged to what looked like a seven or six-year-old girl with long dark brown and black hair wearing a white dress filled with painted-on flowers of different colors. Her skin tone looked to be caucasian and she wore no shoes and was barefoot on the dock. If the wood was bothering her she showed no signs of it. She just simply stared out into the distance at the rising sun, her one-piece tanktop dress blowing gently in the wind neither shivering nor showing any signs of discomfort. It was like she was a doll.

A sudden ringing noise caused her to prove otherwise as she was startled before reaching into a hidden pocket in her dress and pulling out a small black cell phone. She looked at who was calling and her eyes, a light golden yellow color, changed to green before changing to pink and finally resting on purple. Each time her eye color changed they would flash like they were lightbulbs. They already dimly glowed. Her expression was unreadable but definitely not happy. That changed when she saw who was calling. Letting out a sigh and with a small smile on her face, the girl answered the phone and put it up to her ear.

"Hello! I honestly didn't expect ya to call me. If anything, you normally visit me in person."

Her voice was energetic yet not annoying, carrying a rather mature feeling in it. Her teeth were a little sharper than normal as well and she had a mischievous tone in her voice.

"Well, what can I say? I'm right now too lazy and busy to come to your private beach."

The voice on the other side belonged to an older-sounding girl but still young, probably in her teens or early twenties. She had a laid-back tone in her voice.

"Ya mean that your new business of selling ice pops in the Snowy Woods is working? What the-"

The girl stopped when she felt something was amiss. A presence of sorts. She turned to her left and spotted a person lying on her private beach. The girl's expression fell blank and she stared for a minute before saying,

"Oh...A human."

--------

'Wake Up'

'Get Up'

'Wake Before They Find You'

'She Can Only Protect You For So Long'

Frisk's eyes snapped open and they sat up, sweat dripping down their face. They took a second to calm down before realizing something was off. Didn't they get thrown overboard? Why are they now in a bed? More importantly, why a kid's bed?

Okay, maybe that wasn't the most important question right now but it nagged at Frisk. They got out of the dark pink and purple bed they were in and looked around. There was a blue and black bed to their right and a bunch of shoes and toys in drawers in the middle. There were no windows and the only door out was a wooden one. The outline glowed showing that whoever owns this house is probably still awake seeing as the lights are on. Frisk walked over to the door and found that both their brown boots and leather bag were there. They put their shoes on and equipped their bag before trying the wooden door. Surprisingly, the door opened up. It made a creaking sound which frisk cut off by grabbing the door and steading it. Frisk thought that whoever lives here probably isn't dangerous but decided that they would rather not take their chances.

Outside the door was a light wooden hallway with an orange and golden yellow carpet leading from one end which seemed to be a dead-end and to the right of the door which Frisk poked their head out to see. The hallway opened up to a large living room made up of slightly darker planks of wood. Frisk spotted a Tv, a big light blue couch that can fit t what must be four to five people facing the Tv, and a coffee table with a still warm and steaming mug of coffee on it. Frisk stopped and listened for any sounds but the only sound that they heard was the sound of trees swaying in the wind and birds calling out to one another.

Frisk stepped out of the doorway and entered the living room. Straight ahead was an open kitchen that had counters of a sandy color and white and black square marbled floors. The wind kicked up, making a creepy howling sound. Frisk had their classic tan-colored light jacket on which was made to keep people warm even in the wintertime yet Frisk still felt a slight shiver as the wind blew past her. It was summertime and Frisk was in the tropics so shouldn't the temperature be warm? Frisk was halfway through the living room when a loud cawing noise made them jump and spin around to face the open windows on both sides of the Tv. Now that Frisk was looking at them, there were no glass planes in the windows and no blinds or curtains. The windows were just open.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

On the window to the left of the Tv was a crow. It was perched and just staring at Frisk. For some reason, Frisk felt that the crow was sizing them up and was much more intelligent than they look like. The crow then started looking around the room before flying into the house and into the kitchen out of sight. Frisk stared after it and saw that the backside of the crow was brightly colored, like a rainbow with more gold.

Before Frisk could think any more on the subject, a loud cawing came from the window the crow was at. Frisk turned to look and saw two ravens fly into sight, circling each other and fighting. The backside of the birds was covered in a fleshy substance and the wings had black claws on the middle. The ravens even had sharp tiny teeth and a long and vicious-looking tongue. They hissed and the bigger one seemed to have the upper hand, coming from below the smaller one and its beak opening up. That was when the smaller one opened its mouth and fired a white light that moved too fast for Frisk to see what it was. The light hit the bigger bird and with a caw, it fell from the sky. The smaller one hovered for a bit, looking at the spot where its foe fell, before letting out a surprised caw and did a barrel roll in the air out of the way of three pairs of three green-colored boomerangs with a dark center. The big bird flew back up and the battle started once again. The two ravens went out of sight and eventually, their cries stopped and both of them flew down together. The smaller one stopped at the window and looked at Frisk with a look that sent shivers down Frisk's spine before flying after the bigger raven.

Frisk decided they needed a breather and took a seat down where they were. The floor was surprisingly nice and clean and comfortable to sit down on. Frisk took a long two minutes digesting the information on what the hell just happened! before getting back up with a long sigh.

'So I am in a radiated area. Great. I really need to get out of here.'

Frisk had read and seen movies about mutated people from radiation leaks that are cannibalistic too many times. They had a feeling they know how this ends.

"What if I'm the beginning kill? The poor soul who entered the lair by accident and dies!?"

Frisk felt sick thinking that. They hoped that wasn't true and continued on, deciding to follow the mutated crow. It looked much friendlier than the other two birds Frisk saw. Before they went into the kitchen though, they turned left and saw a large black wall with a strange grey and black symbol on it. Frisk made a mental note to keep that symbol in mind. They might need to know about it later.

Frisk entered the kitchen and was that there was a fruit bowl left out on the kitchen table which was hidden by a pillar or "wall" when they were in the living room. There was a sign in the bowl with red words on top and orange on the bottom. It said,

"For the person who wakes up,

this is for you!"

Frisk decided to not eat the fruits now, even though the bowl contained blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, and even strawberries and the bowl was a fun-shaped purple color. Better to be safe than sorry. Frisk moved on and noticed that there was a white door that was open with grey stairs leading down and to the left. This section seemed to be made of stone. Frisk went inside, thinking the design of this house is very weird when they stopped by another open window and looked outside. They noticed this earlier but with the fight between the ravens, they had forgotten. Now the truth was right in front of them and undeniable. Outside was a tall mix between a forest and a rainforest and tall mountains in the distance. To the left was a beach with what looked to be a town build into a cliffside with a snowy forest on the top of the cliff on the far side. The other half of the forest, the one closer to the town, wasn't snowy. It made no sense logically. But the biggest surprise was the simple fact that Frisk was hundreds, maybe even thousands of feet high. In other words, the house was a treehouse.

Frisk stared out the window and back to the stone walls of the house. It was quite clear that they were having an epiphany. How is a house this large with working electricity and even with thick stone walls be able to support itself on a tree!? It makes No Logical sense! Frisk just shook their head and backed away from the window. The tree is probably mutated...but that still doesn't explain it, does it? Is it really that simple? Either way, Frisk decided that right now, how the tree holds up the house doesn't matter. Getting out and hopefully finding out if the person who brought them here is friendly is a must.

Frisk finally reached a room. It only took four more steps. The room was still made of stone that was grey but there was another living room or more of a gaming space there. The games seemed unused and the console looked to be old. There were even dust and cobwebs on the Tv and controllers. Frisk didn't think most of them were made of spider webs and were more made of dust. The windows here also have glass and space carved out for them. In one of those spaces was an old photo with the picture of a white angel-like figure made of shapes with no legs. It was clean which meant that whoever lives here must come through here. Though why only clean the picture? Frisk didn't know that one. If it was such an important picture, why put it in this room and not somewhere more open?

Frisk reached the other side and noticed that once again there were more stairs. After reaching the end which took a bloody while, Frisk stopped with a little less pep in their step at an iron-grey door. Frisk tried it only to find that it was locked. As Frisk saw no other way to go besides down here, Frisk let out a sigh mixed with fear and anger. They don't want to die like this. They had so much they planned to do. And Frisk even survived the shipwreck! They really did not want to survive a shipwreck to only die in some radiated place right away!

Frisk then heard the sound of the door unlocking. They jumped and crawled away from the door as it slowly swung open...to reveal the crow from earlier with a ring of keys in its mouth. It seemed to give Frisk a haughty look which somehow pissed them off before flying away with the keys. Frisk got up and dusted themself off.

"Smart bird."

Frisk went out the iron door and realized that they were now outside...and there were wooden planks sticking out of the tree in a downwards spiral. In other words, more stairs.

'Great. Oh, fiddlestickles.'