Frisk followed Toriel into the first room of the Ruins where she saw six odd stepping stones on the floor and the locked door at the end of the room. "The Ruins are filled with puzzles which are connected to the opening of doors. In order to go from room to room you must solve the puzzles that unlock the doors or lead to a safe path to cross the room. Follow me." Toriel instructed as she walked over four of the stepping stones then flipped the switch that unlocked the door.
The next puzzle was easy as Toriel had marked which switches were necessary to trigger the way through. In the room after Frisk saw a dummy of sorts sitting off to the side. "Being a human down here in the Underground is dangerous. I cannot lie, there will be some monsters that will attack you because of who you are." Toriel warned as she glanced at Frisk out of the corner of her gaze.
"I don't want to fight them…" Frisk replied looking with wide eyes at the goat woman who gave her a relieved smile.
"Then do not fight them. Most monsters can be reached with kind words and actions, although for some it may take some time, but you seem to be a smart child… this dummy here is an immobile monster, however you cannot exit this room until you have spoken to him." Toriel said in a gentle voice.
Frisk looked at her with a quizzical gaze before looking to the dummy then approaching it feeling silly talking to a dummy of all things, but if the door wasn't going to open until she did this then she would have to. "Um… uh, h-hi there?" Frisk spoke in an uncertain tone as she looked at the dummy, which just looked back at her with a blank stare. Frisk stared at it with a curious look and just shuffled her feet slightly.
"Keep talking to it dear." Toriel encouraged as she waited.
"Uh… you, um, look nice?" Frisk said uncertainly again, the dummy hummed softly and the door next to Toriel opened.
*DUMMY WAS SPARED*
Frisk froze in mid step as she glanced down at the injuries she had gotten from Flowey. They tingled slightly, like pinpricks against her skin. It didn't really hurt but it was uncomfortable to feel, although she did feel a dull pain spread through her entire body for a moment before it faded away
Brushing her finger tips over the area on her arm where it tingled; she felt a faint heat that slowly faded, a look of worry was given but Frisk shook her head trying to ignore the feeling before looking to Toriel with a slight smile.
"Very good, the Dummy was happy that you were so nice to him, that's why the door opened." Toriel smiled at the human before leading them through the door.
The next couple of rooms were easily passable as Toriel explained how the puzzles worked. Frisk followed behind her as she walked. Taking in the Ruins, she began thinking of asking Toriel if there was any way to return to the surface. She had to get home somehow; after all she couldn't live down here. Passing off the thought, Frisk told herself she would ask Toriel when they arrived wherever the woman was taking her.
Toriel chatted happily to the human about this and that as Frisk followed behind quietly, she was really worn out from today and just wanted to curl up and sleep. "Frisk, you look exhausted, child. Why don't you stay here and rest a bit? I will go on ahead and prepare a room for you back at my house. I can come back and get you shortly." Toriel suggested looking at the sluggish human who gave a nod of her head. "Here I have a spare cell phone you may borrow, I'll give you a call when I'm coming back to get you." Toriel dug around in the pockets of her dress before handing the phone to Frisk.
"Oh… that's okay I have my own cell phone I…" Frisk paused as she reached into her pocket to grab the phone before realizing it wasn't there. "Oh… I… I guess I'll have to borrow yours after all, mine is missing…" Frisk spoke in a disheartened voice before managing a small smile to Toriel and taking her phone.
Once Toriel was out of the room, Frisk gave an exhausted sigh as she sat down on the ground looking at the phone in her hands. She thought for sure she had brought her phone on her hike, so it was either up on Mt. Ebott, back down on the flowers where she landed or… perhaps she had left it in her car after all. She couldn't remember now if she had grabbed it or not, and now she didn't have a way to contact anyone once she found her way out of here.
Suddenly the phone in her hand vibrated and a soft ringing sound came from it. Hitting the answer button, Frisk put the phone up to her ear. "Hello?" she said in a soft voice.
"Hello Frisk, sorry to bother you while you're resting. I was just making sure you were still alright. Also I thought maybe I'd make you something special to help restore your energy. Do you prefer Cinnamon or Butterscotch?" Toriel's voice came from the phone causing Frisk to smile slightly. Toriel was very motherly; it made her feel a bit at ease about the situation.
"I like them both Toriel, but if you're asking me to pick one I'd say Cinnamon." Frisk answered politely.
"You would eat both of them though?" Toriel asked in a hesitant tone.
"Of course they are both delicious." Frisk responded with a nod.
"Wonderful, I will be back to get you shortly Frisk." Toriel's tone was a happy one as she heard Frisk's reply.
"Thank you, Toriel." Frisk said as she hung up the phone. The young woman sighed again and stood, she felt a little better now, but something was still not right and she could tell. "Maybe I'm just tired…" she tried to convince herself that's all it was but glanced at the cuts on her arms from the petals.
She inhaled sharply when she thought she saw little dark purple lines on her skin where the injuries were. "My imagination…" Frisk tried to convince herself as she shook her head although her hand subconsciously touched the injury on her neck hoping that the dark purple lines weren't there as well.
Frisk stood quickly to her feet finding she didn't want to sit still anymore; she wanted to make her way to Toriel's home. The puzzles so far hadn't been bad and Frisk was positive she could solve them on her own. Giving a confident nod Frisk tucked the phone away and made her way through the Ruins.
The next three rooms were pretty easy puzzles as Frisk made her way through them, although one of them involved a talking rock of all things. A few monsters did appear in the rooms but Frisk managed to run away from them without needing to fight them, which made her thankful.
After passing through a room containing a table and a very old piece of cheese Frisk cautiously entered the next room looking around. There was only one path through the room, and in the middle of a bridge laid a white ghost looking monster. Frisk hesitantly approached looking at the monster that appeared to be making "zzz" sounds to imitate snoring.
"Hello there." Frisk said in a pleasant tone as she looked at the monster that stopped making the sounds for a moment before continuing. "May I pass through here please?" Frisk tried again as the noise paused again for just a moment before continuing. She blinked her eyes looking at the ghost and gave a slight sigh.
"Are they gone yet?" Frisk looked up as she thought she heard the ghost murmur something, she saw a watery eye peeking open looking her way. The ghost realized he had been caught and floated to an upright position. "You dare challenge Napstablook?... That's me by the way…" the ghost spoke in a depressed sounding tone as he peered at Frisk who took a step back.
"N-no I'm not challenging you. I'd just really like to pass through please." Frisk replied looking at the ghost who looked like he was crying, the puddle of tears at his feet rose up and formed tear shape projectiles, much like Flowey's petals. Frisk easily dodged the tears however as they shot towards her slowly and Napstablook had his eyes closed the whole time.
"Oh… I missed…" Napstablook said in a depressed tone as he cried some more, he looked even more dejected if that was possible. Feeling bad for him Frisk blinked her eyes with a troubled frown.
"Um… maybe try attacking me with your eyes open? If you can see where you're attacking you should be able to get me." Frisk said trying to cheer him up.
"Oh… thanks… I'll give that a try." Napstablook said as tear projectiles rose up again this time he kept his eyes open and shot the projectiles at Frisk again who still managed to dodge the attack.
"Good job Napstablook! You almost got me, maybe try not just aiming at one spot that way I can't avoid all of them." Frisk said with an encouraging smile at the ghost. Napstablook blinked his eyes in surprise, his sad looking mouth turned up just a little with a hint of a small smile on his face.
"Heh… thanks… say you want to see something cool instead?" He asked in a tone that sounded just a little less depressed.
"Okay…"Frisk replied looking at the monster curiously as he began pulling his tears upwards out of the puddle but they went up past his head. Something was forming at the top of his head.
"I call it 'dapper blook'." Napstablook said in a gentle tone as a top hat began to form out of his tears a top his head. "Do you like it?" a hint of eagerness was in his gentle tone.
"Oh wow! That's really cool Napstablook!" Frisk said with an amazed look on her face as she enjoyed his cool trick.
"Oh gee…" there was a faint hint of a blush on Napstablook's cheeks as he looked at Frisk. "I usually come here to the Ruins because there's nobody around… but today I was able to meet you… you're really nice… thank you." Napstablook spoke with a faint cheerfulness in his tone, even though it was hard to detect.
"You're welcome Napstablook, I'm glad I could help you." Frisk replied with a cheerful smile on her face.
"I'm sorry I'm holding you up when you are going somewhere. Here I'll get out of your way…" the ghost said with a hint of a small smile as he faded out of sight. "I hope I get to see you again…" his voice echoed faintly as he vanished from sight.
*NAPSTABLOOK WAS SPARED*
Frisk gasped slightly as the tingling sensation from before returned to the cuts on her body; she crossed her arms over her stomach as a small surge of pain shot through her body, this one a bit stronger than the last. "W-what?" she gasped softly as she was immobilized by the pain for a moment, barely able to even breath.
Gasping slightly as she tried to get her breath back, Frisk stood up and looked around. What was happening to her? Looking at the cuts, Frisk bit her bottom lip swearing the dark purple lines had began to spread just a little bit. "I need to get out of here…" Frisk whispered as she made her way quickly out of the room and through the next one.
She looked hesitantly at the Froggits that sat in the hall but they all just stared at her curiously.
"Thank you for being merciful…" one of them croaked just as she passed through the door out of the room, glancing back over her shoulder Frisk smiled slightly before continuing onwards.
The puzzles that came next were not too difficult; it didn't take long for Frisk to figure them out. In the process she found a cute old faded ribbon hidden amongst the leaves. Feeling a strange connection to the object she picked it up and stuck it into her pocket, deciding to look at it later.
She now found herself in a room that went one of two ways. As Frisk turned to go north she could smell the scent of cooking food, meaning that Toriel was probably over there, looking the other way Frisk continued on down the hall to the right out of curiosity.
She saw another Froggit sitting near a door, it looked at her curiously. "Toriel just came from here recently, she should be back home by now." It informed her as she walked up to it.
"Thank you." Frisk replied pleasantly but continued out the door anyways.
Her eyes grew wide as she stepped outside of the Ruins for the first time since the fight with Flowey. The outside of the Ruins showed the Underground in all its glory as a giant city filled the horizon. She could see towers and walls in the front and in the distance tall buildings filled her sight.
"Amazing…" Frisk whispered softly as she looked out over the balcony she stood on. Glancing over as something caught her eye, Frisk noticed a toy on the ground and picked it up, thinking maybe it belonged to someone Toriel knew.
Turning around Frisk made her way back to go in the other direction quickly. Entering the room she saw an impressive but bare black tree in front of her and heard Toriel say something in a panic from beyond the tree. It was then the phone she borrowed from Toriel rang in her pocket and the goat lady looked around the tree surprised to see her guest had made it all this way. "How did you get here, Frisk? Did anyone hurt you on the way?" Toriel said in a slightly panicked tone as she looked over the young woman with a worried gaze.
"No, no. Everything is fine Toriel. I'm alright." Frisk replied smiling at the woman in front of her.
"I apologize for leaving you alone for so long, I just wanted to make sure everything was in order before you arrived. You should have called me…" Toriel looked at the human with a worried and slightly hurt gaze.
"I didn't want to be a bother Toriel, besides the puzzles were not that hard, and the monsters here aren't that scary. I actually rather liked their company, and in the end they seem to like me at least a bit…" Frisk replied trying to calm Toriel down. The goat lady blinked her eyes at Frisk before managing a weak smile.
"Well why don't you come in child, I can help tend to those wounds that horrible flower gave you." Toriel suggested as the two of them walked towards the entrance to her home. Toriel handed Frisk a golden star like charm on a chain and then pointed to a similar statue near the front of her house. "This is a magical healing spot. As long as you have that charm on your body you can step up to the healing spot and press your hand against it and your injuries and weariness will heal." Toriel explained to Frisk, who stepped forward now and placed her hand on the stone statue.
She closed her eyes as she felt her whole body grow warm, upon opening her eyes a worried look crossed her face as she saw the wounds had not fully healed, a scar remained for each one as a reminder of the attack. Frisk saw now that the dark purple lines were indeed spreading from the injuries, they were small now, but it still worried Frisk as she looked at them. The woman didn't want to worry Toriel though so ignoring the problem for now she looked back to Toriel and gave an appreciative smile.
"Thank you Toriel, I appreciate the help." Frisk bowed her head in appreciation before following her into her house.
A delicious smell teased Frisk's nose as she walked in. "Can you smell that? I am making Butterscotch-Cinnamon pie just for you, child." Toriel smiled brightly at her guest as she gave a soft laugh. "I was hoping maybe we could celebrate your arrival here. I want you to have a nice time living in the Underground, so I thought snail pie would be a bit too over ambitious." Toriel clapped her hands together happily missing the look of surprise that crossed Frisk's face.
"Uh… b-but Toriel I…" Frisk started only to be cut off by the goat lady's enthusiastic voice.
"I also have another surprise for you, Frisk. Follow me." She said cheerfully leading a stunned Frisk down the hall. "Here it is a room of your very own! I hope you will like it." Toriel gazed fondly at the door and looked as if she was remembering something as she patted Frisk on the shoulder.
Frisk opened her mouth to speak again, feeling the need to argue with the goat lady about her staying here. "Oh! I think something is burning! Please make yourself at home, dear!" Toriel said as she ran off towards the kitchen to check on her pie, Frisk looked after her blinking her eyes in confusion as she took everything in that had just happened in the last five minutes.
Giving a sigh, Frisk opened the door to the bedroom and looked inside. It was a child's bedroom, the bed looked a bit small for an adult, but at the moment Frisk wasn't going to complain as she lay down on the bed staring up at the ceiling before putting her hand over her face and giving a soft groan of despair. What was she going to do about Toriel? She couldn't stay here… she wanted to get back to the surface. The pathway to the way up must be somewhere in the ruins. "I… I have to talk to Toriel. I need her to understand that I'm not a child and she cannot keep me here." Frisk said as determination shined brightly in her eyes.