Chapter Six
Welcome to the Underground
"Oh my goodness!" You look to where the voice came from and see a surprised Toriel standing in the shadows of the doorway on the far side of the room. You can tell that Frisk is about to break down and you grab her hand.
"Uh... Hi! I'm y/n, and this is Frisk. Do you know where we are?"
"Oh, yes," She steps out of the shadows and you take a step back, dragging Frisk with you, pretending to be surprised.
"Oh! Please, do not be afraid, my children. I am Toriel, caretaker of the ruins... I pass through this place everyday to see if anyone has fallen down. You are the first human to come here in a long time. Come! I will guide you through the catacombs." Toriel calls the last part to you over her shoulder as she walks back through the door she came from.
"Sooo, we follow her?"
"I-I think? I'm not sure, I still don't remember..."
"Huh- well Toriel is like the nicest person on earth sooo, I think we should follow her."
"Y-yeah, let's go."
"Come along children!" Toriel called from down the corridor. You take Frisks' hand and together you walk through the door.
You and Frisk emerge into a massive purple hall; Crumbling pillars line the sides, stretching up into the darkness above. Toriel stands patiently at the end of the hall, hands behind her back smiling at you.
"Keep up children~" She said, her voice echoing down the hall to you. You and Frisk start off down the path, about half way through, toriel turns and walks up the stairs behind her. You walk the rest of the way across the hall and up the stairs. At the top of the stairs you notice Frisk is no-longer following you, you turn around and see her at the bottom standing with her hand out, staring at space.
"The Ruins are full of puzzles, ancient fusions between diversions and door keys." Toriel told us while she stepped on buttons on the floor. "One must solve them to pass." She concluded, flipping a switch on the wall before continuing to the next room. You looked around the room you were in; it was square and made of the same purple brick as the previous one. On the far side was the door Toriel had exited through and on the wall next to it was a plaque with some writing engraved on it. You start to walk over to it when Frisk stops you and starts talking in a strange monotone voice,
"Only the fearless may proceed, brave ones, foolish ones, both walk not the middle rode." You look at her surprised before glancing over at the plack on the wall, sure enough. Sure enough, it said those exact words.
"Frisk! You're remembering!"
"I think your ri-... no, no it's gone again." She sighed. "Let's just go, don't want to keep mo- Toriel waiting."
"I- right." You glance over at Frisk. As you're walking, she seems so sad, she's nothing like her usual self. You clench your fists. You want to do anything you can to help Frisk, you want to do everything in your power to make her happy again. You're sure you can do it, you're sure you can, you're SURE.
Your filled
With DETERMINATION
"Press Z to read signs? What does that mean? y/n?" You snap out of your day-dreaming,
"Huh? What?"
"Nevermind." After making a joke about the other sign in the room you and Frisk continue down the path, after crossing a bridge across a river you reached Toriel,
"This is another puzzle, to continue you will have to trigger several switches. Do not worry, I have labeled the ones you need to flip." She gestures to the wall.
"Heh," You whisper to Frisk under your breath, "she sure did." On the wall next to the switch was a whole note telling you to press this switch and an excessive amount of arrows. "Would you like to do the honors?" You ask Frisk jokingly, she gives you a weak smile and walks over to the switch.
"y/n!" You give a small start before nodding for Chara to continue. "I think we may have a problem. Frisk's Determination is fading. if it's gone, I'll fade away too." Your eyes widen and you nod your head again in understanding.
"Okay, let's go." Toriel turns and walks further down the path to the next switch, you trigger this one and the spikes at the door retreat with a CLACK.
"Well done my children! Let us continue." Toriel turns and walks swiftly to the next room with you following behind. The next room is circular with a dummy on the far side, it looks somewhat worn and dusty. Toriel walks in front of the door to the next room and looks at the two of you.
"As humans living in the underground monsters may attack you. You will have to be prepared for this situation, when you encounter a monster you will enter a fight. While in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation, I will come to resolve the conflict. Practice talking to the dummy!" You glance at Frisk, who looks just as confused as you. She shrugs and walks up to the dummy, you speed walk to ketchup (AN: your welcome Sans) with her. As you approach the dummy the world flickers before going completely black and white. You freeze and look at Frisk, her eyes are wide with surprise and fear. An orange menu appears in front of you and Frisk seems to calm down a little bit.
"This is familiar..." You look at her,
"You remember it?"
"No, it's just familiar."
"My children~"
"Toriel looks like she is starting to get impatient" you look around and see a slightly
less-ghostly-than-normal Chara floating behind you, she smiles at you and you smile back.
"Alright Frisk, what do we do?"
"Hmmm," She selects act, and the menu disappears. "um, how's life mister dummy?" she says awkwardly,
"You talk to the dummy, it doesn't seem much for conversation. toriel seames happy with you." after a few seconds the menu appears again.
"You won! You earned: 0 XP and 0 Gold." The world fades back to normal and Chara disappears.
"Ah, very good! You are very good." After saying this Toriel turns and exits the room, you look at Frisk and she shrugs, following her.
"There is another puzzle in this room. I wonder if you can solve it?" Toriel gives you a mysterious look before turning and walking down the long room. Similar to the other rooms this one is made entirely of purple brick, with a lighter purple path going down the middle. This path in particular is very zig-zagy, it goes back and forth a couple of times before the end of the room where toriel stands waiting for you. you go back and forth excessively, following the path and Frisk smiles a bit. Upon reaching the end of the room Toriel turns and walks down a hallway behind her, she turns a corner and disappears. Following behind her, you are almost immediately attacked by a knee-high frog-like monster. As before, the whole world flickers and then goes black.
"Froggit attacks you!" the menu pops up again, prompting Frisk to once again select act.
"I, err," Frisk glances sideways at you, "think you look really good today Froggit!..."
"Froggit doesn't understand what you said, but was flattered anyway." The Froggit ribbits timidly and its cheeks somehow turn red despite the whole world being black and white. Froggit tenses to get ready to attack, before freezing and backing away.
"Yeah Toriel!" You follow Frisk's eyes to Toriel, who is giving Froggit a death stare that would scare the Devil. As soon as Froggit has turned the corner at the end of the hall, Toriel turns around and continues walking, as if nothing happened. The walls of the ruins return to their normal purple color and reveal a plaque that had been invisible in the black and white fight menu. You walk up to it and read aloud.
"The western room is the eastern room's blueprint... I have no idea which way west is." you look at Frisk,
"Well," she points forward, down the hallway, and back the way you came, "one of these must be west and the other direction must be east." You think on this for a second. You hadn't thought of that. You try to come up with a way to figure out which way is which.
"I guess if there's a puzzle in the first room, you couldn't get to the second, so the blueprint must be in the first room. That means that," you point the way you came, "That way must be west... unless it's talking about a different room."
"Good thinking! I would never have figured that out." You smile at her, proud at her comment. You suggest that you keep moving and the two of you start back up walking.