Coo-coo coo-coo

"WAbhlawhagh-I'm uP!?" Martlet's wings flailed around a bit as she was rudely awakened. Momentarily she did freak out, though that moment was about half a second. "Huh... Huh that's weird? Usually don't wake up that easily."

She rubbed her eyes as she looked around the room, wondering if there was anything important she had to do today... "I mean, I've gotta be forgetting something right?" She mumbled right as she got to preening herself.

She thought about it for a moment longer, shrugged and opened the door. "Hmmm... Well, if you're forgetting about something it's probably not that important-"

She glanced to the side, looking at her guest room and blinking a few times... "What am I... Oh... OHHHHHH riiiight!"

"Clover! I sure hope you're feeling better!" She chirped as she flung the door wide open, though Clover was still just as unconscious as they had been the night before.

"Well... Maybe your stats have at least gone up a bit...?" Martlet worriedly looked at Clover, starting yet another battle with the kid. Their SOUL was still damaged, heavily so. The cracks in it looked about the same as the second to last time Martlet had seen it, though she supposed that was a good thing given the last time she'd seen it the cracks had been even worse then they were now. Also, the white lines that she'd seen before were now noticeably more dim, Martlet figured that was a fairly accurate representation of how long Clover's SOUL had left before it needed more magic?

Clover - ATK 2 DEF 1

Fading.

"Wait-why did they go down?! That is less defense then yesterday-right?" Martlet ended the battle as usual and began to pace around, mumbling to herself about what might've happened, though she did come to a conclusion fairly quickly. When Clover's SOUL had cracked last, that must've been the cause of it, weakening the child as much as he'd healed. Right? Right. It's the only thing that made sense. Oh and the second part of that conclusion?

"Food, food, food wait-am I seriously out?!? Ohhh that's not good, that's really really not good! I uhm... Crap!"

...

It would seem Martlet had a fairly busy schedule today. At least, that's what the townsmonsters of Snowdin would tell you. The usually carefree bird was running all over the place! Whereas she'd normally stop to hold a conversation with, well, anybody-

"Martlet is everything alright?"

"Shorrecahnttahlkrhightnhowbhye!"

-At the moment she was sprinting all around town! A bag in her beak, on a wing, the other wing too... For somebody who was generally never up this early it was definitely drawing attention. Though, she might not have stopped at all if Doggo hadn't happened to be in town.

"Martlet, what's with all the movement? Shift isn't for another few hours."

At first she was going to run right past Doggo, currently having been on her way back to her house, on foot instead of wing because she didn't want to risk dropping anything she just bought, though when she realized who it was talking to her... If you were there you would've been able to swear you heard tires screeching.

"Mhahlehohdah-"she slipped the third bag onto one of her wings. "Martlet of the royal guard reporting, sir!"

"We're not on duty, Martlet. No need to treat me like your master. Is everything, alright? You're normally not so, fast." Doggo glanced around again, not even looking at Martlet or asking her any important questions, but all the same she still felt incredibly nervous.

"Uhhhh, nope, no sir! Nothing at all and nothing to worry about!"

"Then what is all that, stuff, for?" Doggo eyed one near one of the bags Martlet was carrying. "Restocking the pantry? Having... Guests over?

"Uh... Y-"

"Or is this about that, pack member of yours from yesterday?" Doggo lined up another side eye, this time landing right on Martlet's face.

"Ye... Yeees! That's exactly it, right on the nose Doggs! They're staying with me for a few days before they get back to normal, yup!"

"I smell... Well, bring them around town when they're feeling better, the royal guard, never misses out on the chance to help out." Doggo nodded to himself, and once again slunk away. Not before saying one last thing. "Remember Martlet, keep it moving, be there in two hours."

"Yes sir! ...Oh my god, why did I tell him that Clover is here now?!"

Though, she was also fairly glad that Doggo couldn't actually see what was in one of the bags, being child sized clothes and what not... Though, a whole lot of the monsters in town did...

...

"Clover?" No response.

"Drat. Figured I should've asked before doing anything." Martlet sighed, and unwrapped a monster candy, getting ready to do exactly as Ceroba had told her. "Magic, and more magic, and you should be fine, right?"

...

"Of course you're not going to respond, alright Martlet get it together!" She lightly slapped her own cheek, and then knelt down to Clover's level. "Alright, in goes the candy... And... In goes the magic?"

Martlet held her wing against Clover's neck for a few seconds as the monster candy dissolved in their mouth, channeling magic through her wing all the while. Clover stayed still for the process, their chest still quietly rising and falling. Martlet stepped away from them, and watched them for a few seconds just to make sure nothing was wrong.

"Clover? I'm gonna start another battle, say something if you're awake? Move at all?"

Still nothing.

Martlet sighed again, and started yet another battle. She was starting to grow really worried for the kid...

Martlet half expected to see the same thing as last time, but their SOUL was very different now. She almost freaked out when she saw the fractures spreading out from the center. They now reached from the center all the way to the edges of Clover's SOUL. A dozen tiny fractures spreading from the center out all the way. Though they were just that, tiny. The cracks certainly covered more distance, but they were far less prevalent than they were before. It was that fact that gave Martlet pause.

She also could've sworn there was just the faintest outline of white around Clover's SOUL... But that couldn't be right, right? It wasn't like cracks could just perfectly form like that, no? "Alright... And next, a check up, heh..." Martlet let out an uneasy smile at her own joke, still rather concerned for Clover's well being.

Clover - ATK 2 DEF 2

. . .

"Fading is gone? Fading is gone! That's gotta be good, it has to be! I mean... Nothing at all is generally still pretty bad..." She sighed and rubbed her head a bit. "But, it's still probably better than "fading", whatever that means. Well... I've gotta do some sorting, but I guess I can leave a note for Clover if they wake up some time soon since I won't be in the house. Right! Get to it Martlet!"

...

Ceroba continued to scratch her head over her recent conundrum. Why had the human's SOUL rejected her magic? Martlet had been able to do it without any struggle, and the first time she'd done it had been without any CONSCIOUS struggle! She continued to run checkups on the vials of blood that she'd taken from the human, maybe blood was like to humans what magic was to monsters? Was it a compatability issue? She grabbed records of their SOUL, which she had recorded during her impromptu research and laid them out on the desk. What could it be? What could have possibly stopped her from trying to save that human?

The first checkup she'd made, their SOUL was the most damaged that Ceroba had seen it all day besides when she'd tried to refresh the magic in it. The magically sealed cracks threatening to break the soul to pieces, yet never actually going through with that aforementioned threat. It STILL baffled Ceroba how that had even happened to begin with. Nothing seemed wrong with the SOUL at that point, so Ceroba moved onto her second recorded instance of the SOUL. It was about forty minutes after the initial damages, still nothing.

She frowned, and continued to move further and further down the pipe-line of images. An hour, hour and a half, two hours, three hours, three and a half, and her final record... Four hours after the initial check up. There were minor changes to the level of the cracks in Clover's SOUL during this, but aside from that Ceroba still had no idea why that would stop her attempts... She looked through the records again... And noted exactly HOW the cracks mended. They didn't just... Vanish, no. The damage to Clover's soul thinned, stretched out, instead of simply disappearing. Overtime, it would still completely purge the damage, but it seemed like Ceroba's analogy of glue... May have held more merit than she thought.

For some reason, Martlet's magic didn't actually "disappear" when the SOUL finished using it to heal itself. Now that Ceroba was actually looking for it, she realized that the trace amount of magic in Clover's soul was never exchanged for anything... None of Martlet's magic was traded out in any way, or it was more accurate to say, none of it had actually turned into Clover's original SOUL matter. All of it had still been there, holding Clover's soul together. She only had memories to go off for this one, she hadn't thought to make a record but... When she removed Martlet's magic, Ceroba began to think she may have only removed the surface level of it.

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All of this was of course speculation, but if Ceroba was right... It was almost as if the human's SOUL was making the magic a part of itself. Maybe it was a matter of coexistence between Martlet's and her own magic? Perhaps the human's SOUL had at this point identified Martlet's magic as it's own, and tried to reject Ceroba's as it viewed it as somehow... Invasive? She leaned back, almost toppling the chair she was in as she sat in her lab.

"I'm... Going to need more data on this."

...

Their eyes blinked open very slowly, they almost felt like going right back to sleep with how snug they were, but they could feel it in their very SOUL... They'd slept long enough, and justice...? What did it do again...? Oh right, justice never sleeps. But why does justice never sleep?

The child looked around as they very lightly stretched in bed. It really was pretty comfortable... But... No! Resist the urge!

In a tremendous effort, the child sat up, panting and heaving as soon as they managed to get themselves out of their trance. They felt... Very tired. They moved their hand to scratch at their head, but felt a grievous lack of a hat upon reaching their scalp. Their eyes widened and they redoubled their efforts of searching, and immediately found a familiar hat on a stand next to their bed. They grabbed it with fervor, and put it on with a similar level of energy. They sighed, and let their eyes settle forwards, stopping on a closed door. There was something on it, with words. They squinted at it, but couldn't quite read it from their distance.

So, with a level of effort that they didn't feel was normal...

Why would they feel it wasn't normal?

The child stood up, and almost immediately collapsed to their knees, barely keeping themselves on their feet. They clutched at their chest, their heat was beating way too fast.

Is that not normal...?

They breathed in and out for a few seconds, before standing back up to their full height, which was short. Shuddering footstep after shuddering footstep, they began to make their way to the door clutching at their chest the entire time.

At last, after what felt like hours they finally managed to reach the door, catching themselves as they almost fell with their free hand, holding themselves against the door. The child's body continued to shiver, they felt something was deeply wrong. Though, now that they were here, they read the note.

"Heya clover! Sorry, but I had to go to work today. I know, it sucks, but hey! I can either work this job, or get a real one! Anyways, if you're reading this, I'm probably not home... Unless you're reading this about five seconds after I wrote it. In which case, just holler! I'm, kinda sorta running out of space here, so I'll try to wrap this up! If you're up before I'm back, feel free to help yourself to whatever's in the pantry, but stay inside please! I don't know what'll happen if any monsters see you, just, whatever happens stay inside! I'll be back in a few hours! Feel free to laze around, live the dream!"

-Martlet

Clover... And Martlet... They knew those names but, from where...? The child thought on it for a few seconds, and realized-no, knew who Clover was.

Clover pushed themselves back up and readjusted their hat, wondering how it was that they could've possibly forgotten their own name? Martlet was... Martlet had... Promised to protect them? But, who was Martlet? They thought hard, and then it came to them. Martlet was a monster, some sort of bird... Clover thought that it was a bit antithetical for a monster to say they'll protect you, but Clover knew what Martlet had said had been genuine.

"Mmm, wait, why would it be antithetical for a monster to protect you...? What am I..." Clover struggled to take another breath, before finally succeeding, standing up straight again. "I do live with Martlet, don't I? That's... Definitely written like I do? Well... If I do live here, then I've gotta take care of the chores before anything else. Even if I don't finish before they're back, it's better than not trying at all..."

That was another thing Clover didn't know, why exactly it was that they felt that way, but it was one thing which they were a bit less inclined to question.

Walking around was... Difficult. To say the least, but Clover could tell they were at least getting a bit better at it over time. They frequently got light headed, felt weak in the legs, but moving was possible. Though, Clover faced their first challenge when faced with their mortal enemy... The STAIRS...

At first, they wanted to just keep moving, but when they almost fell face first down the flight when a sudden bout of light headedness had struck them, Clover thought better of that particular plan. "How can I...?"

Clover thought about it for a bit, about how exactly they'd be able to make their way down, and eventually, they had a plan.

They sat down, and very slowly scooted their way down the stairs. Yes, that was it. That was their grand plan. And hey, lo and behold it worked! They reached the bottom of the stairs with minor issue. Now, they needed to scope out what exactly needed doing.

Nobody ever just told Clover how to get something done, they'd given him the basics, some extra practice, and from there he was on his own with chores, well, ever since. He'd like to think he was pretty good at figuring out what needed doing on his own... He had to be, to avoid... Clover couldn't figure out what it was he had wanted to avoid...

So, he got to it! Better to not figure it out, better not to question it either. That's what Clover's gut feeling was telling him and goshdarnit a cowboy goes with their gut!

It was a bit messy today, Clover's streak of bad luck continued. He was sick, and it was even more work then usual... Clover grabbed onto their hat and tilted it down, whispering out something from the heart.

"...Give me strength."

They... Didn't know why they said that, or who it was even addressed to, but it just... Felt right. Things felt just a bit more bearable after he'd said it too, so Clover figured it must've worked. Just another reason why cowboys are the best, he supposed.

First things first, Clover went about figuring out where everything should be. Food, refrigerator, trash, sink, literally anything that he could do inside. The note had explicitly told him to not go outside, so... He trusted physical works more than his nerves, so he'd leave anything outside for the future. First things first, Clover found a broom and a dust pan. He immediately got to work sweeping, even though he had to take a break every thirty or so seconds... After half an hour or so, the floor almost had a shine to it! Clover on the other hand, felt like shit.

His entire body felt like it was going to break apart, once again he was reminded of how... Unnatural this felt, this... Was not Clover. He'd almost never felt so weak in his entire life... His entire life... Why didn't he remember anything?

He continued to ask himself this as he pulled a stool out and sorted some things in the pantry, making space for the new items that had to go into it. After he finished with that, and almost took a tumble from the stool as his breath caught again, Clover moved onto the dishes. He was only a little bit taller then the counter, so he had to pull up the stool again, which took him another five minutes as he actually collapsed on the way from the sink to the stool.

"Just... A little bit more to go..." Clover weakly mumbled as they stepped down after finishing the dishes, leaving them in a neatly stacked pile, squeaky clean. His heart had started beating even faster, and as he took another few steps towards the closet... His vision went out and he collapsed to the ground, for good this time.

...

"Cmon, cmon!" Martlet sat at her post, tapping the ground, an impatient wreck. Seconds seemed as if they blended into hours, and the hours before that blending into weeks... Even though it had literally only been three hours and fifty eight minutes, "fifty NINE. Come ooooon can time pass any slower?!"

She was about ready to burst through the roof of her post as soon as the clock hit twelve, any moment... Just a few seconds... Threeeee, twoooooo, ooooone GOOOOOOOO!"

And she almost did just that, leaping backwards and taking off as fast as she possibly could. Clover! Clover, Clover, Clover! It was a gut feeling but she just needed to check up on them! What if the absence of "fading" meant they'd wake up? She couldn't just leave them alone again, they might leave before she could get back to them, and Martlet promised to get them to Asgore safely! Plus, she wasn't sure if Clover would even be able to survive without her help anymore!

Within seconds, Martlet was gliding at FULL SPEED towards her house! Brace for impact aaaaand, boom!

"Alright! Stuck the landing, nice one Martlet!" Without further adieu, she flung the door open!

"...Was it always this clean in here?" Martlet raised an eyebrow when she first stepped inside. Had she in her haste somehow mistook somebody elses home for her own?! Oh no, that'd be awful-"Wait, nope. Duh of course not, that's my kitchen right there! And also-OH MY GOD CLOVER!"

And she laid eyes on Clover's sprawled out body, completely unconscious on the kitchen floor.