One morning, as Gregor Samsa woke up from a deep slumber, he found himself in a bed surrounded by monsters. He lay with his hard, armored back facing the ceiling. He turned his head a little, and saw figures the likes of which he had never seen before.

One looked most like a large frog, but made out of cloth, with a face painted on. Other eyes peeked out from under it, but when he looked directly, they retreated. The body of another was taken up almost entirely by a single eye, and Gregor couldn't help but wonder if its skull had room for anything else. In the back, on a chair, reading, but nevertheless dominating the room, sat a tall woman - if that was indeed what she was. She was covered in white fur. Horns grew out of her scalp. Her ears draped the side of her head. Her eyes were red. Overall, she didn't strike him as animal, or human, but as something else entirely.

"I must have died," he thought. "I have died, and gone to hell. The devil doesn't look the way I thought." He pondered this turn of events. "I should stay quiet," he decided. "When they notice I am awake she will surely start reading me my sins." He closed his eyes, and was soon asleep again.

When he woke up, the room wasn't as crowded. Only the woman in the back remained, still reading the same book. He paid attention to the room instead. It was barely furnished. There was the chair, and his bed, and an empty nightstand. More unusually, there was a boulder in the middle of the room. It wasn't decorated, or used as a table, or in any way remarkable compared to other boulders Gregor had seen before. But unlike the others, this rock was right in the middle of the room. It would have seemed out of place, but it was much too massive to get there accidentally. It looked like it was right where it was supposed to be.

A voice he could only describe as gravelly spoke up. "Hey. Are you awake?"

It hadn't come from the woman. She reacted to it, putting down her book and standing up. When the rock slid aside to make room, his suspicions were confirmed. The rock had talked.

"Thank you, Second," she said. "Can you give us a moment?" The rock slid toward the door, and pushed it open. She waited until the door was closed again before she continued. "My name is Toriel. Do you understand me?"

He nodded.

"Good. Can you tell me your name?"

He could not. His transformation had rendered his speech incomprehensible. He hadn't been able to make himself understood to his family, or his manager. This would be no different. He talked anyway, to show her his situation. "My name is Gregor Samsa. I apologize, but my mouth is not fit for speaking, and I can't answer your questions."

"Good morning, Gregor," she said. She silently moved her lips, trying to follow what he said. "I am afraid I did not catch the rest. Can you repeat it?"

Gregor was stunned. He talked more slowly this time. "Can you understand what I say?"

"Of course," Toriel answered. "I had to adjust to your accent, but it is nothing I have not heard before. Are you from outside Home? Nobody recognized you, and you were found in an unusual place. With unusual injuries, I should add."

He needed some time to absorb this. She called his deformed speech, that nobody before had even identified as speech, an accent? And what was "Home?" Where had he ended up? He played it safe. "I am from Prague."

This shocked her. "You are from the surface, then. How -" She stopped herself. "I am sorry. You must be so confused. Do you know what monsters are?"

She told Gregor about monster history. The war, the treaty, the banishment. It was hard to believe that an entire species had been sealed away, and was living in a mountain, forgotten by everyone. But he had already seen enough things that didn't allow any easy explanation.

"Now, can you tell me about your history?" she inquired. "It must be unusual. Are you a monster? While I treated you your body seemed mostly animal."

So Gregor told her about himself. About his sudden transformation, and how it had cost him his job and left his family without his support. How they had, quite reasonably, confined him to his room. About the kindness with which his sister kept treating him. How he had disturbed his mother. How he had continued to be a pest, and a problem for the people he loved. He explained up to the dawn, after a particularly troubling day, when he felt he slipped away. After that, he remembered nothing, and it was a mystery to him how he ended up at Mount Ebott. Toriel didn't interrupt him once, but frowned the entire time.