Ebott (located around the mountain that has the same name) is a town that seems out of place in the modern world. It seemed that Ebott was firmly set in the twenty-first century, where most settlements on Earth had skycrapers, shuttle traffic, and glowing displays from the twenty-third century; it was filled with old, privately-owned homes, mom-and-pop shops, stone-paved paths and cement roads, and old-fashioned automobiles that were powered by standard energy sources rather than fossil fuels.
It wasn't that the technology wasn't available; the Alliance offered their assistance in 'upgrading' Ebott on several occasions. The mayor even asked the citizens to take a vote on it, and every time the new tech was turned down. There was the occasional modern computer in the private ownership of tech-savvy residents, and the local doctors had all the latest medical equipment, but for the most part Ebott townsfolk preferred their town as it was, with its well-tended gardens, old homes, friendly neighbors, and of course, the large fruit orchard just outside of the town.
The Ebott orchards produced a wide variety of fruit, some native only to the city, such as crab apples. Not to be confused with crabapples, crab apples are about the same size and shape as normal apples, but are covered with a sheath of leaves that dry and separate as the fruits grow ripe, giving the faint appearance of two big claws and several sets of tiny legs. the crab apples were just growing ripe enough for the claw-like leaves to unfurl when the door bearing the sign 'Please use Other Door' appeared in the side of one of the trunks, the smooth bark shifting until it looked as though the door had been there forever.
Glen stepped out of the doorway, her arms extended behind her as she stretched her stiff muscles. Jake followed shortly thereafter, the robot dog bounding out of the doorway and running around the clearing.
Chuckling at Jake, Glen glanced around for a few moments before she spotted the ancient stone wall surrounding the city proper.
"Look at that, Jake." She said, smiling. "Got us right next to the town."
Jake trotted over to Glen, a curious look on his cartoon face.
"Well, travelling in the CPD can be a bit ... random." She said, "I'm ironing it out, but sometimes I don't exactly end up where I want to end up; last time I tried moving it to a starship, it appeared on the outer hull. That was a hell of a day."
Shaking her head, she said, "Still, we're home."
Jake let out a questioning woof.
"Well, my home. C'mon; if I remember right, the gate's over that way." Glen patted the side of her leg as she walked with the wall on her left side.
Jake followed soon enough. He ran around, sniffing at every passing tree with the curiosity of a puppy seeing the outside world for the first time. Glen shook her head, a smile on her face at her friend's reaction.
As they approached the main archway that led into the city, she felt like she'd come home again after a long time. Yes, she was born in Bridges, and she eagerly looked forward to the day she'd return to her wife and home in Longshore, but after living there for hundreds of years under one alias or another, Ebott was the place she'd always think of as her hometown.
Of course, there was something else about Ebott she liked, the same thing that made the place very unique. It wasn't her friends or the festivals, it wasn't the way the city hall was built to resemble a small castle, it wasn't even the golden flowers covering the town that always seemed to be in bloom. No, what made Ebott truly unique were people like the guards currently approaching Glen. She put her hand out to stop Jake.
The first was a tall, slender fellow with no visible arms and a slightly reptilian look about him. The second was a skeleton wearing ceremonial armor. The skeleton prodded the reptilian guy forward, nodding at Glenda.
Gulping audibly, the slender fellow said, "H-halt, h-h-human. What is y-your b-b-b-"
Letting out a sigh of frustration, the skeleton said, "No, no, no! Your doing it all wrong! You have to be firm! Confident! Resolute!"
Strolling up to Glenda, the skeleton drew himself up to his full height and said, "HALT, HUMAN! YOU NOW STAND BEFORE THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAPTAIN OF THE EBOTT TOWN GUARD! STATE YOUR BUSINESS IN THIS FINE CITY, OR BE ON YOUR WAY!"
Resisting the urge to wince at the skeleton's loud voice, Glenda drew herself up and said in a voice mimicking that of the skeleton, "I'M HERE TO RACE SNAILS, EAT PIE, AND HAVE FUN!"
"IS THAT MOCKERY?" Papyrus said, his eye sockets narrowing. "HOW DARE YOU MOCK ME!"
"I'm sorry." Glen said, feigning a look of apology. "I don't know what came over me. I usually mountain an air of civility when speaking with guards."
The skeleton's eye-sockets narrowed into a look of annoyance.
Glen gave Jake a pat on the head. "Me and my buddy here just want any trouble. How's Ebott we start over, eh?"
Papyrus's boney face twitched again, his eyes now bulging out slightly.
"After all, I know you guards already have it-"
"DON'T YOU DARE FINISH THAT-"
"Ruff!" Jake said, a wide grin on his cartoon face.
"OH MY GOD!" Papyrus screamed, clutching his red-gloved hands to his skull. "JUST STOP ALREADY!"
Glen and Papyrus met each other's gaze for a moment, the younger guard looking nervously between the two of them until Papyrus broke down laughing, Glen following suite a moment later.
"Glenda Adams!" Papyrus said as he met her with a hug. "It has been far too long! Where have you been troublemaking?"
"Artemis Tau." Glenda said as she patted the back of his armor. "Been cracking a particularly big egg open for a friend."
"Really? Wowee! He must be making some omelette!"
"In a manner of speaking." Glen said, thinking briefly of her friend Finn Cresste and the trouble he was no doubt currently getting himself into. "Gotta say, though, it's nice to be back. There really is no place like home, you know."
"I don't know." Papyrus said, rubbing his jawbone. "I thought New Home to be quite similar!"
"It's an expression, Pap." Glen glanced at the new recruit. "Hello there! New to the town guard?"
"Yes sir!" He said, standing straight. "Guardsman Kid, sir."
"He's my protoge!" Papyrus said proudly, hugging the nervous guard to his side. "I'm grooming him to be my successor! Not that I'm planning to retire anytime soon, of course. This place would fall apart without my guardianship!"
"It would indeed." Glen said with a smile. "Well, Kid, you couldn't ask for a better Teacher than ol' Pap here. Listen well, follow his example, and you too might make sub-standard spaghetti one day."
"Exactly!" Papyrus said, missing Glen's jibe. "And now, we need to return to our training! I'm guessing I'll be seeing you later, Glen. Until then ... FAREWELL!"
Glenda watched as the skeleton and the lizard boy ran down the road, the former still nervous and the latter filled with boundless enthusiasm. Chuckling to herself, she shook her head and walked down the road, pausing only to smile wider as she heard a distant shout of , "WAIT! WHAT DID SHE SAY ABOUT MY SPAGHETTI?!"
Glen walked slowly down the main road of town, taking in the sight of new homes, shops, and parks. The town had plenty of parks, each one lovingly tended by those around. In many places, it was hard to see where parks ended and private gardens began. The homes were old affairs for the most part, arranged into small neighborhoods. Rosewood Avenue, Cherry Lane, Torchwood Drive ... each street sign brought with it a wave of nostalgia.
The town hall was the tallest building, standing at a proud four stories. They had an actual town square, with a large bell hanging above a garden of golden flowers. Once upon a time, the citizens of the town would ring the bell when there was a danger to the town. Now, the bell stood in peaceful silence, a healthy growth of ivy covering it so thickly that it was likely the handle would no longer turn. Glen gave it a playful tug as she passed by; she never could resist giving it a go.
Her path eventually led to Butterscotch Grove, a nice neighborhood arranged around a large garden filled with yellow flowers and well-trimmed topiary bushes, with a single oak tree in the very center. Glen planted that tree when she first bought the land, back when Ebott was just a village of a few hundred. There had been no monsters then, yet she remembered the townsfolk warning her away from the mountain. They claimed that anyone who tried to climb the mountain would vanish. She'd always meant to investigate that, but her own work eventually made her forget about the rumors ... at least, until the day the monsters returned.
Glen stopped and stared at the tree. For a moment, she thought she saw a short, shadowy figure standing beside the tree, peeking at her. As she squinted at the tree, however, the figure was gone. She continued staring at it for a long moment, looking for the tell-tale shimmer of a cloaking field or invisibility enchantment. When nothing was forthcoming, she shook her head and continued on her way.
The homes were well-maintained and sturdy ... as they should be, considering that Glenda had built them herself. She headed for the largest, a three-story affair with a large porch and wooden supports covered with thick growths of ivy. A wooden sign beside the door read, "The Cherry House".
Glenda smiled as she pressed the doorbell and stood back. After a few moments of silence, she heard the faint sound of the doorknob rustling, followed by a creak as the door was pulled open to reveal a woman in a modest blue dress. Had she not known better, Glen might have mistaken her for being a Tauren, one of the many tribes of Longshore on the distant world of Vinta. While the woman standing in the doorway had white fur, two horns, and a certain goat-like quality to her face, she was what the people of Ebott referred to as a Bossun, or a Boss Monster.
Her curious expression quickly turned to delight. She quickly opened the storm door and welcomed Glen with a wide-armed hug. "Glenda! My goodness, it's been a long time!"
"Hi, Tori." Glen said, returning the woman's hug. Glen was a big woman, mostly owing to her time as a Builder coupled with training for the Longshore Melee with her wife, yet even she felt small in the bossun woman's arms.
Tori held Glen's shoulders, a wide smile on her face as she looked Glen over. "My stars ... you haven't changed! Not one little bit!"
Her eyes fell to Jake. "And I see you brought a friend!"
"Ah, yes." Glen said, rubbing the top of Jake's monitor. "This is Jake. He's ... a little under the weather."
"Well, hello Jake!" She said, giving Jake a pat on the head. Jake barked happily in reply.
"You're looking well yourself, Tori." Glen said. "Sorry I didn't stop by sooner; you know how it is."
"I may know how it is, but don't think that'll get you out of telling me all the details." Tori said, guiding Glen into the Cherry House. "Come inside, and tell me all about your latest adventures."
The inside of Glenda's old home looked much as it had when she'd lived there. Oh, there were new furniture, and Toriel had moved a few things around, but for the most part it still felt like home.
Toriel guided her to the living room and into a cushy seat before hurrying off into the kitchen. Smiling, Glenda took the opportunity to glance at the books occupying the shelves beside the stone fireplace. A few were hers: 'Twelve Tribes', 'Thomas Schrade and the City of Dreams', 'Explosive Inspiration: How to become a full-fledged inventor in five explosions or less'. Most of her collection, however, had gone to her friend Mkrobi of the League of One, but Tori hadn't left the space unfilled; several cookbooks filled the once-empty space, along with a well-worn copy of a rather ominous book entitled, "72 Uses for Snails".
Toriel returned a moment later. Glenda smiled with delight as her old friend handed her a plate with a generous slice of pie that smelled faintly of cinnamon, a healthy dallop of whipped cream on top of it. .
"I baked it this morning." Tori said happily as she sat down in her own chair, right across from Glenda. "I guess part of me just knew you'd be stopping by."
Glen didn't respond; her mouth was full of butterscotch-cinnamon pie. It didn't matter that she was a Dreamer or that she'd been gone for awhile; if she talked with her mouth full, she knew Toriel would give her a scolding.
After swallowing, Glen said, "Delicious, as always."
Tori's blush was faintly visible beneath the white fur of her cheeks. Before she could say anything, however, another voice Glen would never forget asked, "Mornin' Tori. Oh, we've got company?"
Glen turned to see a short skeleton in a red floral shirt and a straw hat. His grin widened, despite the fact that just as with the guard Papyrus, it was all bone with no skin or muscle. "If it isn't the only person in Ebott who sees more of the Dream Realm than I do!"
"Hey, Sans." Glen said, shaking the skeleton's hand. "Sorry for dropping by unannounced. I hate tibia nuisance."
Tori and Sans both chuckled at this for a moment before Sans said, "Yeah, well, it's always nice to have a visit from such a humerus friend."
"Well, I hate to have been so distal. but you know how it is."
"Don't leave us in suspense; talus what you've been doing."
"I dunno; if Pap happens to walk in, you know how sternum he'll get."
"He's only like that when he's in cuniform."
"I know. Ulna-ver get over the fact you two are brothers."
"I guess I am a bit of a numb-skull."
Glen struggled mentally for a few moments before letting out a sigh. "All right, I'm out of bone-related puns."
"Really? Do you mean that?" Sans asked, the ridge above one of his eye-sockets rising. "Or do you just not have the spine for any more?"
Glen hung her head in defeat. Toriel had long since dissolved into giggles at that point. Sans chuckled for a moment as well. "Good to see ya, Glen. What kinda trouble you been up to?"
"Well, lately, I've been helping a guy named Finn Cresste take on some baddies."
"Finn Cresste?" Sans asked. "The kid who busted into the Council? Nice."
"Yeah. You know about that?"
"I think half the galaxy knows about that, Glen. It's the Council. Hey, just 'cause we don't have all the fancy technology doesn't mean we don't get the news. Besides, we've been thinkin' about taking a little space trip to Blessia."
"Might want to give that a miss for the time being." Glen said, wincing. "At least until the whole Reaper/Cerberus thing is resolved. "
"Eh, fair enough. With you helping, I'm sure they'll be on the run soon enough." Sans said with a shrug. He sat down in the chair next to Tori, his hand curling around hers.
Tori smiled at Sans for a moment before turning her attention back to Glenda. "So, are you settling down for awhile? I'm sure everyone would be glad to see you again."
"Hard to say." Glen admitted. Leaning forward, she said, "I'll be honest; I don't really know why I'm here."
"Join the club." Sans said.
Toriel gave her husband a playful smack on the arm. "Oh, Sans!"
Chuckling, Glen said, "Truth is, I came here because ... well, something seemed to want me to come back here."
"Well," Toriel said, "You have been gone awhile."
Glen shook her head. "No ... well, yes, it has been awhile, but that's not why I came back. Tori, are you missing any of your knives?"
"My cooking knives?" Tori asked, a perplexed look on her face. "Well, I don't think I'm missing any. Let me check."
As she rose from her chair and walked toward the kitchen, Sans leaned forward and asked, "How long were you really gone this time?"
"Five years." Glen said. She knew better than lying to Sans; he always knew.
"Damn. You've been busy, eh?"
"Oh, you don't know the half of it. Ended up halfway across the universe tryin' to go to Texas, ended up helping a time traveller stop a bunch of robot trash cans armed with plungers, and eventually managed to lose my damn doorknob on the krogan homeworld. That's where I met up with Finn and his crew; they were looking for an old buddy of mine. I helped them, then kinda just stuck around with the group until their most recent escapade. That's where I picked up Jake."
Jake let out a small woof before rolling over.
"Schnauzer here, huh?" Sans said.
Glen chuckled, but before she could reply, Toriel returned to the room.
"Glenda, dear, I don't know how you knew, but I am missing one of my knives."
"Fairly big one, right?' Glen said, reaching into her backpack.
"Yes, one of my serving-" She stopped as Glen pulled the knife from her pack and held it up. "My word. How did you-"
"I found this." Glen said, handing the knife back to her hilt first, "In the back of an android soldier, one from a whole troop that was massacred around the same time a psychically sensitive friend of mine started saying things she couldn't have known."
"Like?" Sans asked.
"Like, 'Do you think the worst person can change? That everyone could be a good person if they just try?'"
"That certainly sounds like Sans." Toriel glanced at her husband, only to find him staring back, a faint glimmer of blue in his left eye. "Sans?"
Sans shook his skull, the blue light quickly fading. "Sorry. You were sayin'?"
"She also recited that old jump rope rhyme the kids here made up about me. Y'know the one that goes: 'Those with darkness from her do run, one of many, and yet still One.'" Glen sighed and said, "Cerberus doesn't deal in magic, and I know they haven't got any ghosts floating around over there. This was somethin' else, something that really wanted me to come back here. The knife was the clencher. Nice knife like that, with a purposefully dulled blade? That means it's only good for pies and cakes, and that definitely made me think of you Tori."
"I don't understand." Toriel said, a worried look on her face. "Do you think that we had something to do with this?"
"No." Glen said instantly, shaking her head. "But something definitely wanted me to come back here. I'd really like to know why."
"Ah, come on, Glen." Sans said, giving a chuckle that had just a hint of nervousness in it. "It's like you're trying to scare us or somethin'. If this was some psychic thing, maybe they got it from your brain, eh? Cerebrumsly."
"Maybe." Glen said, "But there's one other thing; it was tied around the hilt of the knife."
She pulled out the folded paper and handed it to Sans. He slowly unfolded it and stared at it for a few moments. "Okay." He said, handing it to Tori, "Now that's just creepy."
Tori looked for a long time. "Sans." She said, her hand reaching for his.
"I know." He said, taking her hand. "I recognize it too."
"What?" Glen asked.
"This picture was on our fridge, Glen." Sans said, handing the paper back to Glen. "We thought someone threw it away by accident. That means whatever's been messin' with you's messin' with us too."
Glen stared at the picture. It was a drawing in colored pencils of most of her closest friends in Ebott, with an odd image of a crying flower shrouded in darkness below the smiling monsters.
"This is just too weird." Glen said, scratching her head. "It's like someone was pointing me back here, to you guys specifically. I just wish I knew why."
After a long moment of silence, Sans rose from his chair. "Let's go ask the artist."
ns 15.158.61.54da2
