Chapter 5:

The King shifted his cane from his right paw into his left paw. The day had been going well, not many meetings had been planned and he finally had time to take a breather. He sat down in his throne, his white cape falling around him. Sighing, he lounged back and tilted his head to look up at the ceiling. White butterflies flew around him in beautiful arcs, leaving trails of light in their wake. It was calming, seeing them circle around the room in brilliant patterns.

"King Agreste, sir."

He lowered his chin to see who had walked into his throne room. It was the protector of the snowy district, Julekyne. Her spear was firmly clenched in her hand, reflecting off of her battle armor. She stared at him with her single red-yellow eye, the one that wasn't covered by her bangs. She was waiting for a response.

Straightening, King Agreste pressed the butt of his cane to the floor. "Yes, what is it?"

She stepped further into the room. As she did so, her black and tipped purple high-pony swung behind her. "Forgive me for intruding, but there has been word that an unidentifiable creature appeared on the far west side of the Underground."

The King raised an eyebrow. "And why do you bring this matter to me?"

Julekyne straightened. "Because it is believed to be a human."

The word 'human' hung in the air like a fog. Eventually, the King rose to his feet, tapping his cane on the ground as he thought.

"This is a troubling matter..."

"What is our course of action, sir?"

King Agreste lifted his head. "I want you to intercept this so-called human. Capture it, and bring it to me here."

Julekyne paused to think, but before the King could assume she would deny his request, she merely asked, "Are we going to use it for the Barrier?"

The King lowered his head, hoping his rimmed glasses hid his eyes from her view. Coldy, he said, "Yes. What choice do we have left?"

Though he couldn't see her, he could hear her armor clank together. It was safe to assume she had clenched her fists and turned away.

"You're right, sir. The human will be intercepted as soon as possible."

The King nodded, then raised his chin to watch one of the butterflies land on his arm. It flapped his wings twice before taking off again.

"I want the human here in less than three days time," he said, his tone stiff. "The Barrier must be broken."

"Understood, my King." He heard Julekyne bow, thanks to the clanking of her armor, before walking out of the room.

Raising his head again, King Agreste gazed at the butterflies. Though they filled him with awe at times, but now, they only reminded him of pain. It was time to shut down the Barrier, and a puny human wasn't going to stop him. It hadn't stopped him before.

* * *

"This is going to be loads of fun!"

"Yeah. Whoop-dee-doo."

Tikki turned to look at Marinette, her arms folded. "Are you not excited for the adventures ahead of us?"

Marinette shrugged. "I dunno, I guess so. I just don't think that we should be enthusiastic about it. After all, if all of the monsters out here are as powerful as Master Furiel, I'm not sure I'm in the mood to go skipping through fields of flowers."

Tikki laughed. "You sound so much like Plagg when you're grumpy."

"I'm not grumpy, I'm just... concerned. That's all."

She giggled, her wings fluttering. "Whatever you say."

Marinette sighed and readjusted her backpack straps. "The thing is, Tikki, I'm not sure I can do this. I have to travel all the way across the Underground. I guess I'm just upset that I'm not exactly ready." She muttered, "I may have jumped the gun a little bit."

Tikki smiled. "Well, I can't say that I don't agree with that." She placed a hand on Marinette's shoulder. Marinette looked up to find Tikki's blue eyes staring into hers with such intensity, it struck a chord deep within her. "But I know you can do this, Marinette. And don't worry! I'll be by your side the whole time. You won't be alone."

Her words brought a growing smile to Marinette's face. "Thanks, Tikki. I'm glad you're here."

The two traveled in comfortable silence as they strolled through the snowy forest they had found themselves in. Marinette was surprised that such a thing like snow could even exist under a mountain. Then again, this whole world was magic, so she couldn't complain. It honestly just made no logical sense, but Marinette was slowly learning that logic wasn't always how this world worked. The fact that monsters existed was enough to prove her point.

As they walked through a dense patch of trees, Marinette stepped over a log only to find that there wasn't ground on the other side.

"Mari, wait-!" Tikki started, but it was too late.

A sharp inhale of breath, her heart climbing into her throat, and a scream later, Marinette found herself falling through thin air!

CRASH!

Snow was all she could see. Pain flared up all down her left side - the one she had landed on. She coughed and tried to pull herself up. After brushing snow off of her face and shaking her head back and forth like a dog, she looked around.

She was in a very, very deep hole.

"Are you alright?" Tikki called from above.

"I'm fine," Marinette replied, craning her neck up to see the Kwami peering into the hole.

"I'm so sorry, Marinette!" her monster friend said. "I didn't mean to lead you into one of my human traps."

Marinette blinked. "One of your what?"

Tikki fiddled with her scarf. "King Agreste told me that I had to set up human traps, just in case any of them got into the Underground again. I'm sorry, Marinette, but there wasn't anything I could do. There are hundreds scattered through the forest. To get out, you're going to have to go through the puzzles." She sighed dreamily. "Puzzles build character after all, so you'll be full of character once you're done."

Marinette held up her hands. "Woah woah, hold on, Tikki. Why does King Agreste want you to set up traps again?"

Tikki tilted your head. "To capture humans. Why do you ask?"

"Is King Agreste the reason all of the human children Master Furiel talked about went missing?"

Tikki's wings fluttered and she shrugged. "I can't be sure, but that does sound right."

Marinette sighed. Great, now she had to return home AND survive a deadly king's attempts to come after her. This would be fun.

Getting to her feet, Marinette brushed herself of snow. "Alright, Tikki, how am I supposed to get out of the traps?" she called.

"You can't," she answered sadly. "Unless you want to trigger all of them."

Marinette blinked a couple times. "What?"

Tikki nodded, then pointed to the area behind Marinette. "If you keep walking toward that wall, the rest of the traps will appear. If you make it through to the end, you'll be able to escape." She then beamed. "But hey! At least you'll be getting some character building experiences!"

Marinette sighed and shook her head, muttering, "Of course, because I need some character building at this point. Trekking across a land I don't even know wasn't enough, was it?"

"What did you say?"

"Nothing!"

Rubbing her temples, Marinette turned and walked toward the wall. She sure had stumbled her way into this mess. However, thanks to her frustration, she pushed the wall without fear. Immediately, the ground shook violently. It sent Marinette stumbling backward and made her land on her butt. The snow underneath her began to pull apart like a little kid scooping a snow cone. Scrambling back, Marinette barely made it out of the way safely before the wall split open and the ground dropped open. A huge puff of snow went into the air, leaving Marinette coughing.

After a few moments, she was able to get her breath back and pull herself to her feet. What she saw didn't surprise her. A set of stairs led downward about ten feet before leading into a long narrow path. A moment passed as Marinette collected herself, then she surged forward with determination. By the time she hit the 7th step, the snow in the air cleared a little bit more and she could see what lay ahead of her. It made her stop in her tracks.

The passageway was filled with all kinds of scary traps.

Well, that's what they were supposed to be.

With a puzzled look, Marinette cautiously approached a table with a plate of cookies on the table. A note was taped to the wood table. Squinting, Marinette read: 'Do Not Eat The Cookies'. Shrugging, she continued forward with no consequence. That was easy. She was only grateful she wasn't hungry.

The next one she stumbled into was a maze of X's and O's. Marinette tilted her head, wondering what they were supposed to mean. There was a straight line of O's going straight across the maze. Taking a small step forward, Marinette cautiously dropped a foot on the first O. Nothing happened. She took another step, then another, and another, before realizing that it was truly a straight path to the opposite side. Without any problems whatsoever, she crossed to the other side.

The next one seemed to be much more difficult. It was a gigantic floor of multicolored tiles, each one the length and width of her foot. A machine stood next to the crazy dance-like floor with the letters CT. Attached to the screen was a note. Marinette walked up to it and plucked it off the machine. A long list of colors was listed down one side while, beside each color, a horrible punishment was given.

Blue - Shark Attack

Yellow - Electrocution

Red - Burned by Flames

Green - Spits Acid

Purple - Loss of Oxygen

Pink - Safe/No Effect

Cautiously, Marinette set the note on top of the machine and looked at the floor again. The tiles were all gray. Maybe it would be safe enough to-

As she took a step forward, the machine next to her lit up and the floor panels flickered to life. She stumbled back in shock, staring at what was now a seizure-like show of rapid flashing color. Eventually, the colors all stopped.

They were all pink.

Blinking in shock, she took another step forward. Nothing happened. Before she could lose confidence, Marinette took off across the pink tiles. No harm came to her as she crossed to the other side. Furrowing her eyebrows, she looked back at the puzzle and wondered to herself how she had made it this far without dying.

"'Sup, bug."

Launching ten feet into the air, Marinette spun around toward the voice. Leaning against the wall, Plagg had his hands (or were they paws?) buried deep into his hoodie's pocket. His green eyes were trained on her, a small smile crossing his lips.

Marinette let out a huge sigh. "Plagg," she complained, "what was that for? You almost scared me half to death."

He chuckled. "Figured I would come check on you, just in case you needed any help with the puzzles."

Marinette scoffed and folded her arms. "These traps aren't that hard."

"Yeah, they're pretty much useless," he agreed.

Tilting her head, a sliver of curiosity crept into her mind. Her arms dropped to her sides as she asked, "Plagg, does Tikki know you're here?"

His gaze dropped to the snow. He kicked a drift with his green slipper. "Tikki shouldn't have to worry about me. And besides, that's not important right now. I came here for me, not for her."

She blinked, completely lost. "What do you want from me? I have nothing that I can give you."

Apparently, her words were funny to him, because he cracked up. "That's the biggest lie I've ever heard, human." His eyes lifted to stare at the wall in front of him, appearing to be lost in thought. "Marinette," he said, his tone now serious, "do you know the story of the two children of the Underground?"

Marinette took a step back, her eyebrows furrowing. "Of course I do. It's one of the few bedtime tales my mother would tell me."

A lonely smile lifted on Plagg's face. "So, you know who Bridgette is?"

She nodded.

"And Felix?"

She nodded again.

Plagg couldn't help but grin and shake his head. "And yet, you still push your way through these pointless puzzles and try to survive the Underground. You humans, so unpredictable and rash."

Marinette balled her fists. "I don't appreciate being called rash."

"Oh, but you are. If you know the stories so well, then why are you following their path? You know how it ends, so tell me, human, why do you press forward like a lost puppy?"

"Because I'm not like Bridgette or Felix!" she shouted. "I'm not killing people nor am I trying to befriend anyone! I just want to get home to my family. Is that too much to ask?"

Plagg's head twisted and his gaze caught hers. For the slightest second, his eyes were no longer green. They were a sharp lavender purple.

"You'll find out the truth soon enough, bug. I suggest you keep your head low for a while. Once you lose your innocence down here, the truth will hurt more than any puzzle Tikki can throw at you."

He turned away and the serious moment vanished. As he started to walk away, Marinette finally realized how drained she felt. Did that purple gaze have something to do with it?

"Oh, and by the way," Plagg called back, tossing a paper over his shoulder, "here are the answers to the Monster Kidz Word Search. Should save you some time later on down the road."

Marinette caught the paper and looked at it to confirm that yes, indeed, it was solved. By the time she looked back up to thank Plagg, he was gone.

---

*ULTIMATE SCREAMING*

I can't believe it! I actually found the time and the gumption to write MiraculousTale! AHHH!! I can't believe this was even possible! 

Oh man, I feel so good. Even though it's, like, 1:18 AM where I am. 

Who cares, though! I just feel so blessed to be here sitting at my computer typing out this message. It's such a great feeling... 

Well, needless to say, I hope you guys liked the update and I have plans for the next chapter, so stay tuned! 

Favorite comment: 

By: Sailor_Sama0209

I'm in love with this and I don't know anything about Undertale! Keep up the good work!

Don't worry, I will. *wink*

And, as always, Stay Determined.