The Little White Dog

"A talking flower?!" Frisk was startled. Had Sans met Flowey too?

Sans sighed and answered... "Yes, Echo Flowers. They grow all over Waterfall. Say something to them, and they'll repeat it over and over."

Frisk relaxed. Apparently, it wasn't that flower... She didn't really want to talk about that flower. It always made her deeply uncomfortable.

But what Sans said next caught Frisk completely off guard.

"Actually, one day, my brother Papyrus told me something interesting... When no one's around, a flower pops up and whispers to him. Praise, advice, encouragement... and predictions, too. Creepy, right? Someone must be using an Echo Flower to play some kind of trick on him. Keep an eye out for me, okay?"

Frisk broke into a cold sweat. It's Flowey, isn't it? He's definitely talking about that little flower, right?!

Linde nodded. Sans smiled and nodded back, then stood up. "Whoops, I forgot to bring money. You two mind covering the bill?"

Frisk froze for a moment. She looked at the 428G listed in her inventory, then finally nodded.

"That's 10,000G." Sans closed one eye and chuckled at Frisk's constipated expression. "Just kidding. Put it on my tab, Grillby's."

Then, amid the dogs' laughter in the bar, Sans slowly walked out.

Linde patted the embarrassed Frisk. "Haha, all right, let's go too. I'll take you somewhere interesting in Snowdin Forest."

"Huh?" Frisk thought Linde was making a dirty joke, and her face immediately turned red. "Y-you... wh-what do you mean..."

"What are you thinking?!" Linde flicked Frisk's forehead. "I didn't mean anything like that!"

"Ugh..." Frisk clutched her forehead and angrily pinched Linde's waist, hard. "Only because you used to do that all the time..."

"All right, come with me."

The two made their way through the forest, suddenly turning left at a fork.

"Huh? This is..." Frisk looked puzzled.

"Follow me." Linde smiled faintly and walked up to a strange door.

Then, following the feeling in his heart, he sent the character for "release" toward the door.

With a click, the door, which normally required completing the special thanks without taking damage to unlock, opened on its own.

A little white dog lay right in the middle of the room, taking an afternoon nap.

"Aha, Toby the dog!" Linde exclaimed happily.

"Toby?" Frisk didn't understand. "I've never heard of that breed."

Just as Linde was about to tell her that it was actually the dog's name, the dog suddenly woke up and trotted over to them.

"Hello, Toby." Linde smiled and rubbed the little dog's head.

The little dog seemed to like the name and gave two happy barks.

"Can't he talk?" Frisk asked, then suddenly felt that it was a strange question. "Uh, I mean, all the other dogs can talk..."

"I can talk." The little dog lay lazily on the floor.

Frisk tried to check the little dog, only to find that it didn't work at all. She couldn't help growing nervous.

"Toby, let me ask you..." Linde began curiously.

"Hmm... Little girl over there, could you step outside for a moment? I have something to discuss with your friend in private." Toby hurriedly interrupted Linde, sending Frisk away first.

"What is it?" Instead, Frisk leaned closer in curiosity.

Left with no choice, the little white dog waved a paw. Frisk instantly appeared outside the room, and the door slammed shut at the same moment.

Frisk kicked the door twice in annoyance. "If you won't tell me, then don't. Like I care..."

Then she pressed herself against the door and tried to listen, but she couldn't hear anything. Just then, she suddenly sensed someone approaching from behind...

[Old Trickster]

[Attack: Extremely high][Defense: Extremely high]

[He refused to reveal any more data.]

"Ah?! What the heck?!"

Meanwhile, inside the room.

"Well, it's been a long time, Linde." Toby sat up, his eyes full of nostalgia.

Linde looked puzzled. "Have we... met?"

Toby nodded. "We met about forty thousand years ago. But you probably haven't gone back to the past yet, so naturally, you don't know any of this."

"Uh... aren't you afraid telling me this... will change the past?" Linde felt a little nervous. I'm actually going to go back to the past someday?

"No. Since the present exists naturally, that means the past won't be changed." Toby looked up at the ceiling, his eyes seeming to peer through it at something outside.

"Hmm..." Linde stared at Toby. "So you're this serious? I thought you..."

Toby the dog gave a remarkably human smile. "You're the one who told me to act a little more serious around you back then! Ahem, all right, down to business. Like you, I only know everything that was originally supposed to happen in this world."

"Ah... I see..." Linde was a little disappointed.

"Still, I need to warn you. There's an entity in this world that strongly rejects your presence. In your words, it's called the Game Bug Detector, and you're the bug. It'll do everything it can to drive you out of this world. And once it realizes it can't expel you..."

"Then? What happens?"

"It'll do everything in its power to kill you, then erase you completely."