After the burst of determination, the trio followed Toriel up the stairs and through the door, into a tiny room with a set of buttons, two on a path and two on either side of the path, a closed door with the same symbol as Toriel's dress (Sam could tell by now the symbol had some importance), an inscription by the door that couldn't quite be made out from this distance, and a switch on the other side. When they all caught up to Toriel, she began to speak.
"Welcome to your new home, innocent ones."
Dean smirked at that. Innocent? If only she knew… Sam, however, had a different reaction. New home? When did they agree to this? The child was stoic as ever, and at this point was just going with it.
"Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins." Toriel suggested cheerfully, and stepped on the four buttons that were not on the path, and flipped the switch, causing the door to open, "The Ruins are full of puzzles. Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them."
Puzzles? Sam thought, I could get used to this.
When Dean saw the gleeful expression on Sam's face, he rolled his eyes, "Nerd." Which prompted an elbowing from the taller Winchester.
Toriel went into the next room, followed by the child. Sam stayed behind to read the inscription by the door.
"Only the fearless may proceed." He read, "Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not the middle road." He looked at the buttons that were pressed down, "Oh, I get it, step on the buttons that aren't in the middle… Clever."
Dean tugged at his arm, "Come on, braniac, they're waiting for us out there." And he dragged a reluctant Sam away into the next room.
Toriel had already started explaining the next room to the child, "To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. Do not worry, I have labeled the ones that you need to flip."
"I doubt that's really necessary, Toriel…" Sam said, eager to solve this puzzle on his own (with Dean and the kid's help, of course).
"Oh, I insist, the puzzles will only get harder from here." She crossed to a farther section of the room, leaving the three of them with the puzzle.
The child grabbed onto Dean's sleeve and yawned. "Getting tired, kid?" Dean asked, "Here, ride on my shoulders for a bit." He knelt to the ground and let them climb on. They seemed to weigh almost nothing, but that may have been the determination giving him strength.
Sam walked up to the inscription that was much like the last one, "Stay on the path. Well, that sounds easy enough." They all started down the path, until the path crossed into two sections one leading to a bridge, which Toriel was standing in front of, and the other to the first switch. The switch had yellow arrows around it, and there was a message next to it reading "Please press this switch. –Toriel" Sam took the advice and pressed the switch. Toriel started further down the room then.
This time when the path branched, there were two switches, one at the end of the path, and one right next to it. The one at the end of the path had yellow arrows surrounding it, and a message that read "Please press this switch too. –Toriel." Dean leaned over just enough so the kid could reach out and press the switch. This caused the spikes Toriel was standing in front of to sink back into the ground.
"Splendid! I am proud of you, little ones. Let us move to the next room." The three humans then followed her into the next room, which had no puzzle, but had an open door leading outward and what looked like a training dummy.
"As humans living in the Underground, monsters may attack you." Toriel explained, "You will need to be prepared for this situation."
Dean looked at the gun he brought with him, "Oh, I'm prepared, all right." The child looked scared to see it, and jumped off of Dean's back to hide behind Toriel.
This caused Sam to elbow him again, "I don't think she means prepared in that way."
"No, of course not! There is no need to hurt anyone. The process is simple." At this, Dean put his gun away and listened, "When you encounter a monster, you will enter a Fight." Dean still didn't quite realize why his gun wasn't needed, but he let her continue, "While you are in a Fight, strike up a friendly conversation."
"Wait, what?!" Dean asked incredulously, "A friendly conversation during a fight?"
"Of course. It will allow you to stall for time. I will come to resolve the conflict."
"I can handle fights on my own, thank you."
"Dean…" Sam muttered to his brother, "She was able to heal the kid from near death. I'm pretty sure this lady could kick your ass."
Dean grumbled, but in the end conceded, "Go on."
"Why thank you, dear boy. Now if you don't mind, practice talking to the dummy." She gestured towards it.
Dean, Sam, and the child all approached the Dummy, "Man that is one ugly looking dummy." Dean pointed out.
"Wow, you are sucking right now, Dean…" Sam said. The child grabbed Sam's hand and pointed to the Dummy, "What, you want me to talk to it?" They nodded. "Okay, I'll give it a shot." He knelt in front of the Dummy, "So… How's it going?"
The Dummy obviously didn't respond.
"It doesn't seem much for conversation." Dean remarked.
Toriel seemed happy with them, "Ah, very good! You are very good, Sam." They all followed her into the next room, "There is another puzzle in this room… I wonder if you can solve it?"
"Challenge accepted." Sam examined the strange looking path in the room as they all walked farther down. He saw a panel on the wall, and when he started forward to look at it… A weird-looking frog thingy attacked him (Somehow, he knew it was called a Froggit), and his soul came out of his body for the Fight.
Dean and the child were too far away to be included in the fight, and they both watched Sam worriedly, "Sammy, it's okay, I'll come getcha."
"Dean, it's fine, I've got this." He decided to take Toriel's advice, and talk to the Froggit, "You're actually a pretty cool looking little guy, aren't you?"
Froggit didn't understand what he said, but was flattered anyway. Toriel heard the commotion and approached the Fight, giving the Froggit the evil eye until he left.
"Thank you, Toriel." Sam breathed out, "That was a weird experience." And it truly was. Sam had gone soulless before, but to still be able to feel and control his soul while it was outside of his body… That was a different feeling altogether.
"You're welcome, my child. Now everyone, follow me." And she continued.
Sam stopped to read the panel, "The western room is the eastern room's blueprint."
"The hell is that supposed to mean?" Dean asked as he caught up.
"Really, man? A kid is riding on your shoulders".
"Oh, right…" He turned to look at the child, "Sorry." He received a shrug in response. They followed Toriel to a spike-covered platform completely surrounded by water.
"This is the puzzle, but…" Toriel trailed off, and offered both of her hands to the brothers, "Here, take my hands for a moment." And she led them all safely across the spikes, and the ones that matched the path of the western room would disappear into the platform as she walked.
"Well I could have figured that out." Sam remarked.
"Even so," Toriel began, "Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now." She led them into the next room and said, "You have done excellently thus far, my children. However… I have a difficult request to ask of you."
"Well, what is it?" Dean asked impatiently, putting the child down.
"I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourselves. Forgive me for this."
"Wait, why do we need to forgive…" But before Dean could finish his question, Toriel was gone. "Why do I sense a trap?"
"Because we've faced this situation way too many times before." Sam responded. This time, he was the one who took the kid's hand, "Come on, we'll be ready for whatever lies ahead." And they walked through the long, seemingly endless room until they approached a pillar.
"Is… Is that Toriel behind the pillar?" Dean asked as he saw some white fur poking out behind it.
When he said this, Toriel stepped out, "Greetings, my children. Do not worry, I did not leave you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time. Thank you for trusting me."
Dean had an incredibly confused look on his face, "So… This wasn't a trap?"
"Oh goodness, no! I only wanted to test your independence. I must attend to some business, and you three must stay alone for a while. Please remain here. It's dangerous to explore by yourself."
The older Winchester laughed, "We're both grown men, I'm sure we can handle watching a kid for a bit."
"Yes, but it still concerns me to leave three humans alone… Oh, I have an idea. I will give you a cell phone." She handed the phone off to the child, "If you have a need for anything, just call." She gave all of them a steady look, "Be good, alright?" And she left them all alone.
The child started to tug on Sam's sleeve, and pointed to the next room, "You want to keep going?" Sam asked, and the child nodded, "But Toriel said to stay here."
"Ah, come on, Sammy, what's life without a little adventure?" He started towards the other room, "Come on, we can protect ourselves, and you seem good at making friends with these guys already."
Sam sighed, "Fine…" And let the child and his brother take him to the next room. Just as they entered the room, their new phone started to ring. The child handed it to Dean, and he answered it and put it on speaker.
"Hello? This is Toriel." Her voice rang out, "You have not left the room, have you?"
Sam glared at his brother, but Dean answered, "Of course not."
"Well, good. There are a few puzzles ahead that I have yet to explain. It would be dangerous to try to solve them yourself."
Dean mouthed, Are you happy now? To Sam before answering, "You don't have to worry about that."
"Well… If you say so. Be good, alright?"
Rolling his eyes, Dean responded, "Okay, Mom." And hung up.
"I told you so." Sam said.
"Shut up." Dean snapped back, "Hey, look, there's one of those little frog-looking things… Do we have to fight it?" The child approached it and sat in front of it, "I guess not." Dean shrugged and followed them.
"Excuse me, humans." The Froggit began, "I have some advice for you about battling monsters."
Sam approached the scene as well, "Oh… Well thank you, we really appreciate it."
"If you Act a certain way or Fight until you almost defeat them…They might not want to battle you anymore."
"What do we do, then?" Sam asked, curious.
"If a monster does not want to fight you, please…" the Froggit pleaded, "Use some Mercy, human." And it hopped off.
"Mercy on monsters?" Dean pondered.
"It's worked so far." Sam pointed out. As they were talking, the child ran over to a pile of bright red leaves with another glowing star inside of it, and began to play in those leaves. Sam and Dean smiled and walked over to them, and the three played together. And as they were all tossing leaves at each other and stepping on them so they made that scrunching sound, the Winchester boys both wondered if this might be the most fun they've had in a long, long time.
(Playfully crinkling through the leaves fills you with determination.)
