Chapter 1: Frisk

THUD.

The loud sound echoed through the empty cavern with a solemn heaviness. A lone monster looked through the darkness outside the doors of the ruins, searching for the sound's origin. His piercing blue eyes scanned the blackness surrounding him as the monster abandoned the Ruin's safety to search the area for other monsters. The monster slowly stalked into the furthermost chamber from the Ruins. The floor was coated in a blanket of golden-yellow flowers that grew thanks to the sunlight streaming down from the huge mouth of the crater which marked an inaccessible escape route from the Underground.

"Hello?" the monster called into the cavern, but received no answer. "Is anyone th-"

The monster spotted blue and purple stripes among the golden flower bed, and soon found himself kneeling next to the body of a small human child. He cautiously raised a hand and placed it on the child's head, gently ruffling the child's brown hair.

"Are you okay?"

The child gave no response; the monster sighed. He knew that the child was awake. He could hear the child's heart pounding rapidly in his chest. The monster slowly sat down cross-legged next to the fallen child.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he stated calmly, taking his hand away. "Please, just tell me your name. I know you must be hurt, falling all this way. Let me help you."

Tentatively raising his head, the child met the eyes of the patient monster smiling down on him. The two sat together studying each other for several minutes. The monster noted the human's brown locks of hair that matched his eyes; the human noted the monster's soft white fur and budding white horns.

"Tell me yours first," the child requested cautiously.

"My name is Asriel."

Asriel grinned broadly at the young human. He let himself fall backward into the flower bed and flipped himself over. Shaking the flower petals out of his fur, he rested on his knees beside the human.

"So, back to what you name is."

"M-my name… My name is Frisk."

"It's nice to meet you, Frisk," Asriel replied. "Are you able to move?"

Frisk gulped replying, "If I say no, are you going to eat me?"

Asriel chuckled, "Of course not! As I said, I'm here to help you."

The monster pushed himself up from the ground into a standing position. He stretched his back before stooping down and carefully scooping Frisk into his arms.

"W-wait! What are you doing?" Frisk asked frantically, trying weakly to struggle despite the pain coursing through his limbs.

"Relax, I'm taking you somewhere safe," Asriel said, "where you can rest and recover. Please stop squirming. I don't want you to hurt yourself more."

Asriel felt Frisk relax in his arms, although he could smell the sweat on the child's brow. Still smiling, Asriel stood and began walking back to the Ruins. Frisk tensed as the two were enveloped in the darkness of the path leading back, and Asriel tried his best to soothe them with soft rambling about his house in the Ruins and his kind mother. Frisk was very tired and too sore to move without wincing, so despite being afraid, Asriel's soothing voice and soft fur lulled the child to sleep.