I had been with Nightmare's gang for four years and four months by this time, and everything seemed to be running smoothly. Papyrus and I were nearly inseparable, Killer's knife collection was growing, and it just seemed normal, really. We were still just an average, everyday family of murderers, and we loved eachother. Nightmare had taken it upon himself to add another class to our curriculum which he had deemed 'survival training.' This was supposed to prepare us for survival in the worst conditions imaginable, such as nearly uninhabitable universes. Mine was literally uninhabitable, but I didn't tell them that; I only told them that my universe wouldn't work out. In the end, Nightmare decided that the forest located in Horrortale would be the perfect place to have our first class, and that was where we currently were, without any supplies, and with no idea how long we would have to live off the land. We were equipped only with notebooks and pencils, and our only goal was to survive. We would, of course, stop, if we were starving or something, but that would take a while. Nightmare told us that survival training was very important, since we never knew what would happen in the near future.

Horrortale's forest was long, dark, and tall. The trees seemed to reach the roof of the cavern, and there was barely any light to be seen; we didn't have flashlights, either, so we were relying on our sight being attuned to darkness. Horror doubted we could survive for long out here, but Nightmare believed we could, which was what we were hoping for; we sort of wanted to live through this endeavour. Nightmare said he would introduce us to a variety of survival techniques few knew about, making this have a factor of fun. I already knew about most of the ways to survive in my universe, having been forced to try anything in order to survive; tree berries were not fun, but they did give an amount of magic, meaning I had to eat them. I actually developed a taste for them after a while; they didn't taste bad, per se. When we reached the center of the forest, Nightmare introduced us to the wilderness of Horrortale.

"All right, boys." Nightmare began. "Today, we're going to learn how to survive in a nearly uninhabitable environment. Any questions before we begin?"

"I got a quest'n." Horror spoke up, being looked to. "How exac'ly are we gonna survive here o' all places?"

"That's what we're here to learn, Horror. We're surrounded by plants; how do you think they survive here?"

"Eatin' monsters."

Nobody really had a response to that. We didn't want to be eaten.

"Well then." Nightmare coughed, after a few minutes. "We're going to be on the lookout for...bad plants.."

"I don't like it here." Killer frowned. "I wanna go home."

"Don't worry, Killer." Horror comforted. "Lived here all m'life an' still han't been eaten."

"Okay.."

"S-so where do w-we start?" Cross asked. 

"Right now." Nightmare regained his confidence. "What we need to do first is get food and shelter. Since we have a group, it should be easy to do both at once. Who wants to get the food with me, and who wants to create a shelter?"

"I can do either." I shrugged.

"I wanna make a shelter!" Killer jumped.

"I guess I'll come fer the food." Horror stated.

"I-I'll help Killer." Cross said.

"Very well." Nightmare was content. "Horror and Dust, come with me. Killer and Cross, you know what to do if you've been paying attention in class."

"Okay, Dad!" We saluted.

Nightmare led me and Horror through the forest in search of any kind of food he could locate, which was most likely scarce in Horrortale. Before too long, he bent down to a bush.

"Here is a common forest plant." Nightmare pointed out. "It does grow berries, but they would sooner kill you than anything else. Take a look."

Nightmare allowed us to study the small bush, and we noticed the bright yellow berries littering the plant. It was indeed a bush I had seen before, and I would have vouched for the toxicity of the berries if Nightmare hadn't; to put it simply, I had made a lot of mistakes in my time. I had also noticed that a lot of universe's forests are the same, having the same plants and trees for the most part, which made them easier to relate with mine. Not all of the forests were as dark as mine - actually, I didn't think any of them were quite that dark - or even covered with dust, but there were many similarities among each of the forests: enough of them to constitute a general theme of what a forest should be like. I couldn't quite describe the theme, or even the feeling I felt when I was in a forest, but it was there, nonetheless.

"Got ta know these quick, 'n the start." Horror lifted his gaze from the bush, followed by me. "Taste good when ya boil 'em inta poison, if yer inta that."

"Why would you drink poison?" I didn't understand.

"Pract'cal jokers tryna kill ya."

"Moving on.." Nightmare didn't want to continue that conversation.

We were led through the forest for a while before coming face-to-face with our next food item.

"This tree seems to be growing some berries." Nightmare looked up at the tree - tree berries, some of the last food there was in my universe. "They're perfectly edible, even if they don't taste too good."

"Ya mean ya can eat 'em?" Horror obviously didn't know about tree berries.

"Indeed."

We gathered some tree berries to eat later and returned to our camp, where we found Killer, Cross, and a shelter that could fit all of us; it was impressive, to say the least. They had created a small treehouse in one of the trees with remarkable speed; we wondered where they got the wood before noticing that Horror's axe had been missing during the food run. Killer and Cross were never known to fail at anything that involved weaponry, and an axe just so happened to be in that category. The treehouse was a decent-sized room with a ladder leading up to it. Killer probably suggested the treehouse, while Cross most likely just went along with it. When we had created a fire, we were about to witness the first reactions to tree berries; I had my camera ready. Nightmare had obviously never tried a tree berry, judging by his expression, and neither had the others. Every reaction was caught on camera, and it was wonderful. I ate my tree berries happily, having my developed taste.

"These are horrible!" Killer gagged.

"Starvin' monster wouldn't eat i.'" Horror refused to eat.

"C-can we eat ch-chocolate when we g-get home?" Cross didn't like the berries.

"Why did I say these were edible?" Nightmare had regrets.

"Well, they are edible." I responded. "They just have an acquired taste." 

"This is the point where I'm glad ghosts don't have to eat!" Chara was laughing.

"I remember the first time you ate one of those, brother." Papyrus reminisced. "I think you handled it better than this..probably."

After we ate - some of us unwillingly, - we went to sleep and waited for the next day to arrive. We learned a lot about survival during the few days we spent in Horrortale, and I learned a few things I didn't know; it was beneficial to our futures if we ever happened to be in a situation where we had to survive. After about a week, we returned home, and the first thing the others did was eat some real food; they still hadn't developed a taste for tree berries. Nightmare made sure to make something that tasted good, since he didn't enjoy the berries either. When Error heard the story of our survival training, he broke out into laughter at the part with the berries, which prompted me to force one into his jaw; he wasn't laughing anymore. 

The balance had slightly shifted in the past week, and we soon had to resume our work. We began in a nice universe, and we made good time, considering we had been out for a week. When our adversaries arrived, we faced them with our usual confidence and waited for Ink to start with his cliche line.

"Nightmare and gang!" Ink began. "Leave this AU, or we will use force!"

In response to this uncreative approach, Nightmare reached into his pocket, pulled out a tree berry, and chucked it at Ink. This confused our enemies greatly, and it somehow restored the balance, which none of us were complaining about.

"Is this supposed to be threatening?" Ink assumed. 

"No." Nightmare replied. "You're supposed to eat it."

"Why would I ever do that?"

"Maybe it will give you some real creativity! You're boring, Ink!"

"Are you going to fight or leave?" 

"Should we go?" Nightmare asked us.

"Dust and I were just playin' backgammon.." Killer shrugged.

"All right, we'll leave then."

We went back home without a fight, and Killer made me finish our game of backgammon before we could join the others. When we did, we found that Horror and Error had gone to their homes, leaving Killer, Cross, Nightmare, and I alone. I felt a bit tired after all those games, so I decided to go to sleep before anything else; I would have done that, if I wasn't pulled back slightly by Papyrus.

"What do you need, Paps?" I inquired.

"Brother, I was wondering something." Papyrus mentioned.

"I'm listening."

"Can ghosts use regular magic?"

"You mean like teleportation?"

"I mean anything other than flying and levitation." 

"Huh..we could look into it."

"Really, brother?"

"Anything to make you happy, Paps."

"Thank you, brother! Could we start looking now?"

"I don't see why not." 

I decided to sleep later; Papyrus was more important than sleeping, and I was only a little tired anyway. Nightmare had books on just about every subject, and finding one about ghosts wasn't hard in the least; it was finding a book about the capabilities of ghosts that was difficult. Most books had a paragraph or so about ghosts levitating objects, but nothing about other powers. Paps and I spent about an hour before we found a book that could help us, but we did eventually find it! Paps was the one who located the book; he's the best. When we found the book, we opened it and began to search for information; this resource had much more than levitation to talk about, even explaining that some ghosts could make portals between universes! Papyrus was determined to become the best ghost he could be, and he employed my help - I was more than willing to assist him - in doing just that. By the end of the hour, we had decided the safest and easiest next power for him to learn would be becoming visible to other people; he had been a bit lonely with only me, Cross and Chara to talk to. We got Killer to volunteer for this project, but we couldn't get him to see Papyrus before the day was through; we would do it eventually.

When Paps decided to take a break, I took this chance to rest, heading straight for my room. Papyrus wished me a good night and practiced for a little bit while I slept; he had infinite endurance, after all. When I descended into my dusty nightmare, I felt safe. Dust often made me feel comforted and protected; I didn't know why, but maybe it was because it was like my friends were watching over me. When I was surrounded in dust, it felt like I was surrounded in the ones I cared about, as weird as that may have sounded; I had killed them all, but they still comforted me. Dust made me happy, just like they used to make me happy, before I killed them. I believed I knew them better than I did before, since I could see every moment of their lives, experience every feeling they ever felt, and see how their choices affected their futures. Some were happy, others were sad, and then there were those who just didn't care. I wasn't sure which category I fit into, but I was sure I was somewhere; perhaps I was in the 'insane' category. It didn't matter.

I was with my family.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean camp.

Thanks for reading my family oriented writing!

Bye!