I woke up on something soft, with something hard right underneath it. I squirmed a little, feeling like grass was tickling my skin. This alarmed me enough that I opened my eyes and quickly looked down, noticing two very disturbing things. One, I was wearing nothing but white briefs, underwear. Two, I appeared to be only ten again. Puberty is gonna suck.
Getting up, I hugged myself. I appeared to be in some kinda cave, with flowers under me and the walls a strange purple. My only real source of light was a ray of sun, coming from above me.
I was in a strange place, in a semi-strange body, with no idea where I was or how I got here, so I did the thing any child would logical do in this situation. I started to cry. If I was in my right mind I might be embarrassed about this, but all I could think about at the time was how I was alone, and scared, and just really wanted anyone to protect me.
I didn't know when, but at some point I'd curled back up on the flowerbed and sobbed, somehow the yellow flora not breaking and dying under my body as I did. After a bit I hear footsteps on stone, making me freeze in fear.
Whoever it was was silent as they slowly approached me. "My child, are you alright?" The woman, evident by her voice, softly asked me as I felt her kneel behind me. I let out a choked sob as a response, which had me swiftly picked up and cradled into a chest.
I didn't even care that this was a bit strange, or that I didn't know this person. This stranger was comforting me, and that was all that mattered to me at the moment as I clutched the robe, purple with a strange symbol, the person wore. I buried my face in her chest and sobbed again as I did so.
"Shh, it will be alright, my child," The strange woman gently cooed to me as she rubbed my back. Her hand felt fuzzy, but I didn't really notice nor care for that at the moment. I felt it as she stood, curling into her as she carried me.
I don't know how long she carried me, or what was really going on. All this uncertainty made it hard to calm down, doubly so since I was younger and had less control now. After a long walk, and going through two doors, we ended up in a room. I peeked from where I hid my face, sniffling as I took the room in.
The room seemed to be a light red. There was a picture of a flower on the in the left corner of the room, a small lamp on a stool under it and further to the left. There was a chest a little to the right and under the picture as well.
After the chest was a small bookcase with a picture frame on top and random things, mostly books, in it. After that there was a dresser and a bed, stuffed toys near the bed and a toy chest at the foot of the bed.
Another feature of the room was a rug in the middle of it over wooden flooring. The stranger brought me over to the bed, tucking me in. When I looked up at her however, my eyes widened. She had white fur and small horns on her goat-like face.
"W-what a-a-are you?" I asked with fear in my voice, scared of this creature despite her just having helped me.
The stranger seemed to be taken back by my sudden fear, before giving me what I thought was a reassuring smile. "My name is Toriel, young one. I am something called a 'monster'. I promise that I do not mean you any harm," She said softly, rubbing my head. "But no matter of that for now, rest and I shall clean you in the morning."
Confused, I simply nodded. She seemed to take this as her cue to go, because she got up and turned the lights off before leaving the room. I was just curled there, laying in the bed tucked in for an hour before sleep finally came to me.
I don't know how long I slept, but when I woke up I was refreshed. I reluctantly got up, turning and seeing a note on the floor, having slept on the edge of the bed. I got up and kneeled down on the floor, picking the note up to read it.
'-Child, there are clothes in the dresser for you to wear. Please clothe yourself and come to the living room, it is to your right after you leave your room,' Was what the note said. I smiled a little at the lady monsters kindness and went to the dresser.
There was all different kinds of clothes in different shapes and sizes, as if she was ready for anyone that fell. I guess that made sense, if she checked the spot I ended up in often then it'd be logical to be prepared.
Finally, he pulled out a dull red shirt with a buttoned collar, white stripes in the middle of the shirt, grey shorts and some similarly colored sneakers for when I went outside. I collected these and went into the hallway, looking for a bathroom.
Soon finding one, the door next to the one across from me in this golden hallway, I went inside. It was a average bathroom, even having a toilet though it didn't seem to get much use. Odd.
Shrugging this off as monsters simply not needing to go to the bathroom as much as humans, I set my clothes on the counter and turned on the bath after getting naked. There were towels on a rack on the wall near the door, so I planned to use one of those.
Hearing footsteps from the hall, I hastily got in the tub. They were sudden, and startled me enough to make me hide a little in the tub, pulling the curtain to cover myself. After a couple of moments, I heard who I assumed to be Toriel come in.
"My child? Is that you?" She questioned with worry evident in her voice. I peeked from behind the curtains.
Gulping a little to swallow my nerves, I smiled a little shakily. "Y-yes, Ms Toriel," I said back to her, making the goat monster turn to me and relax. Evidently she had been very worried for me.
"I see you have started the bath, my child. I will get you some toys," Toriel said as she turned, rummaging through the lower part of the bathroom sink. I simply sat and waited as she brought some generic toys, a boat and duck and stuff, and put them in the water.
The lack of other children currently here made me briefly question their existence before chalking it all up to her wanting to be prepared. Deciding to just relax, or try to, I played with the toys and found that they were so much more fun now that I was a kid again, playfully splashing in the bath and childishly giggling a little as I did.
Eventually, however, came time for me to get clean. Toriel told me that she was going to, and I almost rebuked her… but she just looked so happy to be doing this, not in a weird way, but like she never really got much chance to before or something, so I let her.
Didn't stop me from being embarrassed as she did though. I mean, I may have the body and brain of a ten year old, but my mind is more like eighteen. Eventually, the embarrassing event was over.
Well, over after the tub was emptied and she'd dried me. To be honest, it felt… nice, in a non perverted way to have someone taking care of you. She even dressed me, which made me squirm.
"Now, let us go get something to eat, my child," Toriel said as she stood, me taking her hand when offered and following her into the dining room, being seated at one end of the table as she went into the kitchen to cook.
And this was how it went, for a while. I'd get cleaned during the beginning and end of each day, meals in between, and, when we found out, got taught magic. My magic was super varied, and very strong. No, really. I straight up took out part of the cave outside when practicing with Toriel… on the plus side, there was now more room in the Ruins, the wall I had taken out leading to more of it that wasn't accessible before.
However, I couldn't stay here all the time. I was a child, and needed people my own age to play with… something that wasn't possible in the ruins.
"P-please, can we go outside for a bit? O-out of the Ruins?" I asked her one day, nervous and squirming. Toriel seemed shocked, looking down at me and seeming to examine me. Eventually, she let out a sigh.
Standing from her armchair, she put her book that she'd been reading before I asked her to the side. "I… will be right back, my child," She said before moving on downstairs, somewhere I was forbidden to go.
I don't know what she was doing, but when she came back up she seemed a little more at ease, but also a little resigned. "I… cannot go out with you, my child," Toriel said after a moment, giving me a small smile. "However, I have acquired somebody who I believe will look after you where I cannot," She said. I knew what this meant, some kinda babysitter or something.
Nodding to her, she continued. "However, in case that is not enough… you may keep this," She said as she handed me a broadswords handle, seemingly without the blade. The blade was special, able to adjust size and fold in for easier storage at it's lowest size.
I nodded to my mother figure. I wouldn't hurt anyone if I could help it… but being prepared was always nice. After that it was another could weeks for basic training with my sword. Wanted to make that I knew what I was doing, after all.
And then we were at the door to exit the ruins. In addition to the other clothes, I had a white hoodie with my same colored stripes for the cold weather outside, the hood enchanted. The final strange thing we'd found out was the color of my SOUL.
It was a mixture of red and blue, swirling like yogurt. I'm not even kidding. For some reason, I felt like the word 'Tenacity' fit it well. I guess, while there's all this SOUL talk, I should also talk about my magic.
I seemed… versatile. I literally knew every kind of magic, to different extents. I could only get five strings currently for purple, my green was decent because of my adoptive mother, I was stuck on blue and yellow though. Not that I minded. I could summon copies of weapons I held or my own personal weapon… whenever I found out what it actually was.
With all of that done and settled, Toriel took me and hugged me tight before opening the door. Taking a deep breath, I took my first step deeper underground.