The monsters living in the ruins of Home were not accustomed to much excitement. Most of the population had moved on to other parts of the underground, including the King and Queen. The few who remained saw so little variety in their routines that anything out of the ordinary, no matter how small, was a point of interest to everybody. The small form lying unconscious in the cavern where the sunlight shone down certainly qualified as out of the ordinary. A young whimsun came across it, and soon a small crowd of their friends had gathered around to stare.
"What is it?" croaked a froggit.
"I'm not sure..." said the whimsun. "But I think it fell from up there," they said, pointing to the roof of the cavern. The monster children looked up at the hole far above them that was the source of the only sunlight they'd ever seen.
"So...does that mean it's a human?" asked another froggit.
"Maybe..." a vegetoid mused. "Remember that thing that was found here last week? My mom said that it was a human, and this looks kinda like it."
"I guess so," the whimsun said slowly.
The creature stirred suddenly, and the children yelped in surprise. It shakily pushed itself onto its hands and knees, wincing as it did so. It looked around, rapidly blinking its eyes. It looked startled to see the strange assortment of monsters around it, and shrunk in on itself a bit.
The children huddled in a circle, whispering to one another frantically and occasionally glancing over at the creature with a mixture of curiosity and fear.
"Is it a human?
"I think so."
"What do we do if it's a human?"
"King Asgore wants human souls, right?"
"How do you get a human's soul?"
"My dad says you have to be really strong."
"Didn't the king get the last one that fell here?"
"Yeah, we all had that big party to celebrate."
"Do you think we should tell someone?"
"H-hello?" the creature spoke tentatively, jolting the young monsters out of their whispering. "W-where am I? W-who...what are you?"
They all looked to the whimsun who had found the creature fallen in the first place.
"Um...we're monsters?" it said slowly. "What are you?"
"I'm...a human."
The children looked at each other, and they all suddenly remembered what their parents had told them.
Humans are dangerous. Humans want to hurt monsters. Humans are the reason we're trapped.
The human started to stand up, and their face contorted into a terrible expression. They made an awful, frightening cry and leaned heavily on one leg as they rose.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!" The children collectively screamed, and scrambled over one another trying to run away. They ran and ran, all the way to their homes, not daring to look back at the horrible human behind them. They rushed to their parents and cried in their arms about the human coming to kill them all, and as the adult monsters comforted their children, they steeled themselves for whatever may come.
_
The little girl was having trouble piecing together what had happened. The last thing she remembered was she was running...running up a mountain, slipping and stumbling as she went. Then she'd tripped...and fallen. She didn't remember landing, just falling down down down, further than she'd ever fallen before. Then waking up, with dirt on her face, twigs in her hair, a rip in her dress and surrounded by...she wasn't sure what, exactly. The huddle of whispering creatures around her reminded her of huddles of kids on the playground. They had whispered too, throwing glances her way and scattering when she approached them. They would run off to their games, games that she was not invited to join.
"H-hello?" she asked, interrupting the creatures' whispering. "W-where am I? W-who...what are you?"
The creatures stopped whispering abruptly. They looked at one another, and seemed unsure of what to do. One, a small bug like creature meekly stepped forward and answered.
"Um...we're monsters?" it said slowly. "What are you?"
Monsters? Like in the fairy tales? The little girl swallowed nervously.
"I'm...a human," she said cautiously.
The monsters seemed nervous, a feeling shared by the little girl.
She started to get to her feet, and grimaced. Her head felt like there was huge metal spike driven through it. She put weight on her left foot first and cried out as a shot of pain climbed up her limb. Leaning on her right foot, she looked down. Her left leg was swollen and discolored, and she could barely put weight on it without her stomach churning violently. Her vision began to swim in front of her, and she almost collapsed.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!" the monsters screamed and scattered away, running as fast as they could away from her.
"Wait!" she called after them, but it was too late.
She was alone.
"I need to get out of here," she thought. "I need to find some help..."
She tried to take a step, and winced in pain. Carefully, she eased forward, leaning heavily on her right leg.
"I can do this," she thought to herself, sucking in a breath as she limped along.
The girl hadn't gone far before she encountered more monsters. They were bigger than the ones who had found her when she fell, and they were scary. Strange frogs, vegetable creatures, giant bugs, strange beings with terrifying eyes and sharp teeth, even what looked like living jello, all tried to block her path. At first she tried talking to them, asking them for help. But she quickly realized that they weren't interested in talking. They wanted to hurt her, to 'give her soul to Asgore,' whatever that meant. She didn't want to stick around long enough to find out. She quickened her pace as best she could, limping through the ruins, running from every monster she encountered.
Every now and again, something like a trap or puzzle would keep her from moving forward. But they were all fairly simple, and the girl had always been good at figuring things out.
Eventually, she reached what seemed to be the end of the catacombs, as far as she could tell. An old tree sat in the middle of a cavern, with what looked like a house built at the far end. Looking around apprehensively, she limped into the house, bracing herself for whoever, or whatever, she would find inside.
But what she found was...nobody.
The house was empty everywhere she looked; in the bedrooms, the living room, the kitchen. There was no food in the fridge, and the fireplace looked like it hadn't been lit in a long time. The girl climbed into the enourmous armchair by the fireplace, and took several deep breaths.
"This place is abandoned. But I can't stay here. What if those monsters come here looking for me? I have to get away...I have to find somewhere to hide."
She looked over at the staircase leading down to...she didn't know exactly. She'd been afraid to go down in case she couldn't get back up with her leg the way it was. But it was the only way to go from here, if she wanted to go forward. And going back wasn't an option.
"I can do this," she thought. "I have to do this. It's the only way."
Slowly and carefully, she eased herself off the armchair and began making her way downstairs. Once at the bottom, she was greeted by a long, dark corridor. And at the end...
Was a door.
Tall and imposing, the door was purple and emblazoned with some kind of emblem. The girl reached out and laid her palm against it. She looked behind her at the empty corridor then back at the door. She felt so small and insignificant, up against a door like this. It would almost be easier to go back upstairs and face the monsters in the ruins again.
"No."
The girl took a deep breath.
"I have to go forward. I can do this."
She pushed forward on the door, which swung open fairly easily despite its size. She stepped out into the unknown, the door swinging back shut behind her with a decisive thud. There was no turning back now.
