“Chara…
wake up…
we’ve been saved…”
“Please…
wake up…”
“…Chara…
please…
wake up…”
“Chara…
please…
keep your DETERMINATION…”
She opened her eyes.
Above her was an unfamiliar ceiling, white, with light seeping through the walls, evenly illuminating the entire room.
She was lying on a bed.
Honestly, it was softer than anywhere she had ever slept.
The blanket covering her was incredibly comfortable.
She was wearing a light pink pajama set, loose and baggy, with wide cuffs.
The fabric clung to her skin, carrying a faint, unfamiliar scent.
She turned her head.
Flowey was planted in a flower pot by her bed, his roots and stem buried in the soil.
His petals looked a bit more lively than the past few days, and his color had returned to its previous yellow.
“You’re awake…
Chara?” Flowey’s voice trembled slightly, but quickly steadied.
“Thank goodness!
You nearly scared me to death.”
Chara propped herself up on the bed.
Her body didn’t feel hungry, and her stomach wasn’t growling anymore.
She looked down at herself.
Her skin was too clean, and her long brown hair had been combed, draping over her shoulders with the ends reaching past her waist.
“Where is this?”
“Um…
a train, I guess,” Flowey said.
“The kind that flies in the sky.”
Flowey sighed and explained the situation.
After they fell asleep leaning against the withered tree that night, a blue thing passed by in the sky and brought them onto this train.
Anyway, for some reason, it landed to take a look, found that she and Flowey still had a breath of life left, and brought them aboard.
Chara listened, several questions spinning in her mind.
A train?
In the sky?
She couldn’t imagine even in her wildest dreams that she was alive in this way.
He seemed to see her confusion.
“Their language is different from ours.
You’d better walk around and get used to it first.
I’ll explain it to you in detail later.”
She nodded, got off the bed, and took a step with her foot on the floor.
It felt a bit unfamiliar, but after two steps, it was much better.
● A cozy room makes you feel uncomfortable.
● This is a bed.
Nothing more ordinary.
There were two pillows placed on the left and right sides of the headboard.
She touched the bedsheets.
The fabric was finer than the best clothes she had ever seen in the village.
The indentations left by her body were slowly returning to their original shape.
● This is a window.
Outside the transparent glass was deep black space.
Countless stars were densely packed there, and clusters of colorful mist floated among the stars, slowly rotating.
● This is a mirror.
You look very cute in the mirror, but you feel it’s unreal.
She saw a little girl’s face reflected in it.
Her long brown hair was loose, her face somewhat pale, but her eyes were still lively.
That face had round cheeks with a bit of baby fat, looking much cleaner than before.
She only looked for a few seconds.
Not used to the clean version of herself in the mirror, she looked away and didn’t continue looking.
● This is an unknown doll.
It looks like a cute grayish-black little rabbit doll, wearing a tiny piece of clothing.
Chara stared at the doll for two seconds, didn’t touch it, and turned back to the bed.
Flowey watched her walk around in a circle and asked, “Done looking?”
She nodded.
She picked up the flower pot and held it in her arms.
Flowey’s roots and stem swayed gently in the soil, then stabilized again.
“Turn left when you go out.
They’re over there.”
The corridor was wider than she imagined, the walls a warm wood color.
She walked a few steps and heard voices from the carriage ahead.
It wasn’t any language she had ever heard.
Walking inside, there were a few people.
The most conspicuous was a woman with long pink hair, wearing a white dress, with blue-green hair accessories and light ornaments on her head: Dolly.
Seeing Chara come in, she turned around and smiled at her, then took two steps forward, saying a few words in a very gentle voice.
Chara took a step back, her shoulders tensing.
She couldn’t understand what the woman was saying.
She didn’t recognize a single syllable, and couldn’t even guess.
Seeing her reaction, the woman stopped.
The smile didn’t leave her face, but she didn’t step closer either.
She turned her head and said a few words to the person next to her, then turned back to Chara and said a few more words.
She raised her hand and took out a small thing from her pocket.
It was shaped like an earring stud, silver, with a small bead inlaid on it.
She pointed to her own ear, then pointed to Chara.
Chara hesitated for a moment.
Flowey whispered in her ear, “Put it on.”
She nodded.
The woman walked over and pinned the small thing onto Chara’s earlobe.
Chara felt her ear lightly touched by something, and then the woman’s voice became clear.
“Can you understand now?
Kid?”
The messy syllables from just now were gone.
The words the woman spoke turned into a language she could directly understand.
She could hear every word clearly and knew what it meant.
“Then let me introduce myself first.
My name is Dolly, and I am the navigator of the Astral Express.”
“Chara…”
“Chara?” Dolly repeated the name.
“And what you’re holding in your arms is…?”
“Flowey, a flower.” Flowey spoke up himself.
“My name is Flowey.
Anyway, thank you for saving us.”
Dolly looked at Flowey, her expression changing slightly, as if wondering why a flower had life.
But she quickly returned to normal.
“You’re welcome.
You were on the planet’s surface for a long time.
Your condition wasn’t very optimistic, but it’s stable now.”
Flowey turned his flower head toward Chara.
“Chara, I think what she’s saying is true.
When I was facing those bugs in that city, I felt something was off.”
Chara listened, her fingers tightening on the edge of the flower pot, as if she didn’t dare to confirm, nor dare to believe.
“Can you explain your situation in detail?” Dolly sat down in the chair opposite.
“Where are you from?
What happened on that planet?”
Flowey answered for Chara.
Starting from the hillside where he and Chara met, to the places they had walked along the way.
He just didn’t mention her wandering, afraid of making her lose face.
…
A person (Aeon) who had been standing nearby without speaking stepped forward.
Grayish-white long hair, wearing black clothes, with golden decorations adorning the shoulders and collar.
It was hard to tell if the face was male or female, and the voice was also indistinguishable in gender: Akivili.
“About two months ago, a massive swarm of bugs entered the orbit of your planet from the outer side of the star domain.
The bugs you saw are True Stings of the Swarm, a branch of the swarm.
They inhabited your planet for about a month, consuming all organic life and matter completely.”
“That planet has become a dead planet.
No plants, animals, or other natives.
You are the only two natives left there.”
Chara lowered her head and looked at the flower pot in her arms.
She didn’t know what to say.
Although she didn’t know what the Swarm meant…
she wanted to cry…
…
The carriage fell silent for a moment.
Dolly stood up, walked to Chara, and squatted down in front of her, bringing her line of sight level with hers.
She patted her little head.
“I know it’s hard for you to accept.
You don’t have to accept it right now.
Take your time.
You are on the Astral Express now.
You are safe.
No one will hurt you.”
As she said this, the other few people in the carriage also nodded.
Some said a few words of encouragement, while others just looked at Chara with very gentle eyes.
After all, it was hard for adults to accept this, let alone an ordinary little child.
Chara’s hands holding the flower pot relaxed a bit.
After that, Dolly chatted with her for a while, asking some details, and told her she could settle down on the train first and stay as long as she wanted.
In the middle of it, a short, grayish-black little rabbit wearing a conductor’s hat walked over and handed her a pink ticket stub.
“Pom-Pom is the conductor, pom.
Welcome, new passenger, pom.”
Chara took the ticket stub.
There was a line of text printed on it.
She couldn’t quite read it, but it felt like there were slight bumps when touched.
She turned the ticket stub over and saw a small star pattern on the back.
She put the ticket stub in her pocket.
Flowey reached a vine out from the flower pot and gently touched her finger.
“We survived.”
● You don’t know what impact this will have on you in the future, but you have started a new life.
This fills you with DETERMINATION.
● Save successful.