"Wow," I said, still stunned at how lucky I'd been in even the short time I was down here. What a helpful guy to run into right when I got here!
"Goodness, is that a human?" I heard a motherly voice asking from the darkness. The owner of that voice approached, revealing herself as a kindly-looking humanoid goat wearing a tabard. "Do not be afraid, my child - I am Toriel, caretaker of the ruins. I pass through this place every day 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. This way." She started walking.
"Oh, wow, thanks," I said, catching up to her. "You've been really helpful already and I just got here. This place is pretty awesome. When I read in an old book that there were monsters under this mountain I was expecting things that would try to eat me, not demihumans and flowers."
"You like the flowers here?" Toriel said, "I do too. They're quite beautiful, and they grow everywhere in the underground the sunlight reaches. Anyway, welcome to your new home, the Ruins. This place is full of puzzles - ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. You'll need to solve them to move from room to room. Get used to seeing them." As she spoke, she walked over a number of switches and opened a door.
"Oh, cool. Good to know," I said. "There a puzzle in this next room too?"
"Yes, child. You will need to hit some switches - I labeled them for you."
"Oh, that seems easy enough," I said, looking over the room. "Uh... two out of three switches? That's not much of a doorkey. It would seriously not take long to figure that out by trial and error. I guess most of the underground's security is from the giant pit at the start, isn't it? Or just killing people who show up."
"Don't speak like that. No human who's come down here has deserved to die," Toriel said, a cold edge in her voice.
"Oh man, I'm sorry," I said as I flipped the switches. "Did they die from the fall? Or are some of the monsters here just... jerks?"
"It's nothing you need to concern yourself with," Toriel said briskly. "Don't worry about it. Good job with the switches! Come, I need to show you to this combat dummy."
"You want to train me for combat?" I asked. "Because if your idea of training me for puzzles was that switch room, then... yup. That dummy looks like it's about to collapse. Looks like it'd be more challenging to keep it from falling apart than it would be for me to break it."
"Break it? Oh heavens no! I'd like you to talk to the dummy. You might get into a fight with a monster, and you'll need to stall for time until I can come save you."
"Uh." I looked at the rickety dummy, then at the expectant-looking Toriel. So... expectant. I walked over to the dummy and carefully started adjusting it to try to get it to hold together a little better. "Wish I had some tools on me," I mumbled to myself, "or even a sewing kit. The stitches on this thing look like they're gonna give out any time."
Toriel's face lit up. "Oh, it'll be so nice to have a little handiman around! Maybe I could even try using the stove."
"Aww, I don't know all that much. Just what I picked up from my friends back home. I love learning new things."
"Oh, well! I can definitely help with that," she said as she escorted me to the next room. "I love teaching! There's another puzzle in this room - perhaps you can solve it?"
"Cool," I said. I spotted a frog down the hall ahead and waved. "Oh, hey, another monster! Sup, frog guy? What's your name?"
The frog looked at me, then looked at Toriel... then slunk away, his eyes locked on Toriel. "Huh. Toriel... are the other monsters here afraid of you?"
"No, nonsense," she said. She stopped before a room full of spikes on the floor. "Here's the puzzle, but... here, take my hand."
"Well, okay," I said, taking her hand. She started promptly leading me through the room, the spikes retracting as we went.
"Puzzles seem awfully dangerous for now," she said as we walked.
"Uh. Look, Toriel... how young do you think I am? I may look short, but I'm sixteen years old. I think. Hard to keep track these days."
"Well," she responded curtly, "I am hundreds of years old, so I know best."
I frowned as we moved into the next room. I'd gotten this attitude before - and I didn't like it then either.
"Well," she said, "You have done excellently so far, child. However... I have a difficult request to ask of you. I would like you to walk to the end of this room by yourself. Forgive me for this."
"What? Walk down a hallway?" I asked, frankly offended by how childishly I was being treated, when she turned and started running down the hallway. "Oh is that how it is? Well... this should be as easy as just getting a good grip on the earth..." I dug my toes in and lept forward, crossing tens of meters per step using basic shunpo technique and getting across the room in a few seconds. I positioned myself before the room's exit, intending on looking smug, and I turned around to see Toriel still running, at a glacial pace compared to my shunpo, continually looking back as she ran.
Rather than reaching the end of the room and facing me, however, she slipped behind a pillar of the ruins and peeked out back the way we'd come. "Really?" I mumbled to myself, and I walked over behind her. "Toriel."
"Oh!" she spun around, raising a hand to her chest, palm facing forward, before lowering it as she noticed it was me. "Child! You... you did very well. You are as fast as you are clever. But... I wanted to test your independence, and... I suppose it's fine. If you get into any danger, I'm sure you could run from it. There's something else I'd like to ask of you - I must attend to some business, so I must leave you alone for a while. It would be dangerous to explore, so please remain here. In fact..."
Toriel stopped a moment, pulling an old-looking cell phone from a pocket. "I have an idea. I will give you a cell phone. If you need anything, just call. Be good, alright?"
I shrugged. The cell phone I had on me didn't work in this world anyway. "All right, I'll take it."
"Great! Now, be good." She walked away.
And I followed suit a moment after.