The following day, Papyrus got a call from Undyne, saying that she back found a new recruit for the empty post.  However, since she felt that Papyrus hadn't suffered enough, she decided to make him train the new recruit and make sure he did his job right.  So Papyrus was meeting the recruit today, which frustrated him to no end.

Upon arriving the border between Snowdin and Waterfall to escort the new sentry from his home to his post for the first time, so that other monsters would not bother him due to Papyrus' presence.  Undyne was in her armor, and it made the captain of the Royal Guard look utterly more intimidating.  The monster next to her didn't immediately look like Royal Guard material, what little he could see if the monster's actual skin looking sort of scrawny and weak, but Undyne was the captain. 

"Like I told you earlier, dust this one and it's demotion," she restated to Papyrus.  "Just make sure he knows where to go and what to do.  As well as not slacking off like Sans." Papyrus grew tense upon hearing her mention his brother, his soul clenching slightly when he heard her call him a slacker, despite it being true.  However, he kept his calm outward appearance, concealing his inner emotions. 

Undyne left shortly after, her stomping echoing off into Waterfall.  Papyrus turned to the new recruit.  He was shorter than he had anticipated, shoulders meeting the bottom of Papyrus' armor, with a helmet concealing his head.  Two rounded horns stuck out from the top, but Papyrus couldn't tell if they were his, or the helmets.  He wore a long dark coat, reaching to his feet, which was not buttoned up, allowing Papyrus to see some evidence of armor beneath.  He wore large black boots, probably for the snow.  The temperatures between Snowdin and Waterfall differed so greatly, he wondered where he had gotten the boots and cloak if not from Snowdin at an earlier time.  It would have been hard to find anything of the sort in the other sections of the underground due to Waterfall having so much humidity and Hotland being so, well, hot that water evaporates within seconds.

"The name's Dulio, Dulio Mercer," the monster said confidently, saluting Papyrus.   "Ready to go sir?" He asked in an orotund tone.  Papyrus nodded and turned to start walking, the other following on his heels.  On the way, he saw monsters eying Dulio, but looking away when Papyrus was seen in front of him.  To hold his own here in Snowdin, the new monster would probably have to pick through some fights first.  The people of the town were often untrustworthy in general, and did not take kindly to strangers. Especially those trying to boss them around.

Although the station was all the way across the snowy area, they made good time there since Papyrus always walks quickly and with purpose, and Dulio was good at learning to keep pace without at least showing signs of struggling or growing tired.  The station was still as Papyrus had left it before and it hadn't even seemed to have snowed on the station.  The lieutenant of the Royal Guard gestured to it, telling him how this was his station, the times his shifts were, and how his only job for the time being was to sit at his station and watch for humans. 

Dulio seemed unchanged by the boring job, almost excitedly saluting to Papyrus and saying that he understood fully.  "Also if you see any suspicious activities, tell me immediately after you get off your shift," Papyrus said clearly.  "Of course, sir!" Dulio responded, saluting again and moving to take his seat.  "Like I am sure you heard Undyne say that if I find you slacking off, it will be my head."  He looked at the monster with a glare.  "And if it is my head, then it will be yours next.  Got it?" Dulio nodded.  "Understood sir." 

'Maybe Undyne did make a decent choice,' Papyrus thought to himself.  'This kid does seem to have an unphasable state of being, good for high intensity situations.  Like encountering a human.'  "You are dismissed to your station.  You will stay at the Inn in town tonight.  I am going to make my rounds, so do not let me catch you off task."  Papyrus spun as he said this, turning the direction of a deeper part of the forest, away from the direction of town.  His true reason was that he had not yet looked there for Sans or even his dust, but his mind tried to tell him that he was just feeling like walking the other direction.  He would have to watch himself around Dulio...

Walking into the forest, he at first saw nothing suspicious, before spotting some footprints that just appeared from nowhere, heading toward the bridge. They looked a few days old, but without anyone else here to bother them, and the close trees above to protect them from the snow, they must have been preserved to some degree.  By which it seemed as if whoever's footprints they were had not been having a good time, with the tracks messy and slightly dragged.  They were even noticeably different depths, which seemed to imply that the maker of the prints had been limping.  Sans has taken severe damage to his legs, and would probably have limped on one if out of sight from other monsters.  But Papyrus did not know that for sure, since he had slammed the door on his brother after kicking him out, only allowing time for Sans to weakly lift his battered skull from the ground and look at his younger brother. 

The next thing he took notice of was the red on the wooden boards of the bridge that laid there.  Bending down, he looked at the stains.  It was dark and slightly crusted over, like several day old blood.  One thing he knew from having beat his brother time and time again, was that he bled.  Papyrus had never questioned how magic skeletons could bleed, but then again, before now he hadn't cared about his brother or his well being.  And if he had cared, he did not realize it soon enough.  Guilt stabbed at his soul, making him ever more desperate to find his brother.  Hopefully alive. 

The trail of red grew, larger spots staining the snow after the end of the bridge.  It even followed along with the footprints, never straying too far into one print to have been from some later encounter of who knows what.  It was when Papyrus saw his brothers phone laying in the snow that he truly began to lose hope.  He picked it up, shaking the frost from the device.  Papyrus had told Sans to always have his phone with him and that was one thing that Sans was actually good about remembering.  He had only ever left it somewhere once or twice as far as Papyrus knew. 

The bloody tracks continued in the snow, leading to a large purple door with the delta rune symbol painted on it.  The tracks led straight into the door and if Sans had in fact been the one to leave those tracks, then the only conclusion that made sense here was that he went opened the door and went inside, or was let in by another.  Who that other could be, if there even was someone else, Papyrus had no idea.  But he pushed on the door despite this.  It opened slowly, leading into a dimly lit hallway.  Feeling as though he had no other choice, no other chance of finding his brother, he prepared an attack, and began his walk into the unknown.