Edited!
"Do you think she's coming back?" Evelynne asked, staring up at the rock ceiling.
Toriel, the goat women who had saved them from the demonic flower, had asked them to wait for her in the ruins while she ran some errands.
...This place was the pure definition of insanity.
Sure, Toriel had explained everything briefly, leading the two humans through the ruins. Monsters, the Barrier, the Ruins...the Underground. It was only a rough sketch of the situation, but it was enough to clue Evelynne in on the fact that she and the kid were stuck, maybe forever, in a place full of beings with a mastery of magic.
Or, at least, she assumed so. Toriel and Flowey seemed to have a good grasp of it.
Evelynne pushed herself up into a sitting position, looking to her left at the girl. They seemed nice, but they weren't very talkative. Evelynne could understand that behavior. It was one she employed often when she was upset or needed to recharge. Dealing with other people took a lot of energy, and being nonsocial honestly made a difference. Or, at least, she was assuming that's what the kid was doing. They certainly wasn't mute. They had talked to the Dummy that Toriel showed them, their voice quiet and the slightest bit raspy.
Occasionally, Evelynne would see them staring, as if they were trying to figure her out. Nonetheless, they seemed content to let Evelynne make decisions and take the lead. Which may be why, twenty minutes later, they were still sitting in this one room.
"Hey, kid?" The girl looked up at her, eyebrows raised in question. "What's your name?" Silence passed for several moments, and Evelynne thought they were going to ignore her. As it was, they had looked back down at the ground. Evelynne sighed, pushing herself up off the floor. She took out the cellphone Toriel had given her, checking for any messages. "Well, come on. We've been waiting long enough." Evelynne looked back at her, responding to their grin with a smirk. "I'm sure we can handle a few puzzles, right?"
Immediately upon leaving the room, the two entered a hall. To the left was another archway, and to their right, a hall covered in red leaves. Evelynne froze, looking for any indication of which direction was correct.
There was nothing. No map, no footprints or obvious paths in the leaves, nothing.
Evelynne began reconsidering her actions. Perhaps she could call Toriel and convince her they would be alright? The woman would give them direction then, wouldn't she?
Evelynne reached for the old phone in her pocket, but the child moved toward the archway on the left without a sound, catching Evelynne's attention with a silent glance over their shoulder. Okay, nevermind. Raising an eyebrow, Evelynne followed.
The room they entered was small, but ornate in that the stone was carved in flowing designs. Vines climbed along the back wall, happily feeding on the two slow moving passages of water on each side of the room. In front of the vines sat a pretty white pedestal holding a bowl of...candy? The pedestal was surrounded by rose petals, and Evelynne felt a strange sense of calm.
The girl was already at the bowl, taking two pieces of candy. They pocketed one before turning and holding the other up for Evelynne. Looking down at the wrapped piece of candy with curiosity, Evelynne looked back at the bowl for any indication of what exactly it was. After all, monster candy might be something entirely different, right? It was then she noticed the note.
Take one.
Evelynne's eyebrows shot up as she read it, looking down at the girl. Sure, it was just a note. But in a world where flowers talk and goats walk around on two legs while using fire magic...you don't disregard the notes.
"Oh, thank you, but...it says to take one. You can keep yours. I don't really care for candy, anyway." Evelynne said, smiling as she took the candy from them and put it back in the bowl. The girl stared at her as she walked back toward the door, one eyebrow cocked.
"Frisk." Evelynne froze in her movements, the quiet voice catching her by surprise. Frisk? She turned back, looking at them with curiosity. They looked at her with a mixture of curiosity and trust, smiling at her as they made eye contact.
"Frisk? Is that...is that your name?" She asked, smiling when the girl nodded. "Oh…" She turned back around but stayed still for a moment, registering the new information. "Well, thank you, Frisk. Let's get going!"
Had she done something to prove she could be trusted? Frisk had seemed so cautious of her before, not talking to her and always keeping their eyes on her. Had such a simple action really proven that she was trustworthy?
To a child? Probably.
The puzzles were not as difficult or dangerous as Toriel had made them out to be. Somehow, Frisk seemed to know the solution to them all. Whenever Evelynne didn't know where to look, or which switch to pull, Frisk would point it out to her or solve it immediately. Occasionally, Toriel would call and ask strange questions, even predicting Frisk's answers occasionally. It was...strange. The more time Evelynne spent around Frisk, the more she felt like something weird was going on. Frisk always seemed to know what to do, almost like some strange intuition...especially with the monsters.
They had only met a few. Monsters called Froggits were abundant, and Whimsums appeared often as well. There was some sort of monster that reminded Evelynne of the green jello molds the hospital would offer….Moldsmal? Yeah...that one was weird. Regardless, they were all different. Evelynne learned that the…'friendliness pellets'... were actually monster-specific attacks. The froggits would summon flies to do their bidding, and the moldsmals would send mold spores at them. Occasionally an actual physical attack would be made, but it seemed they preferred to use their magic, instead. At least with the Froggits.
Whimsum...would cry and run away before Evelynne could even get a word out.
But Frisk always knew what to say or do. In seconds, the monsters would trust both of the humans and leave them be, sometimes even giving them gold as a token of friendship!
Gold!
Maybe Frisk had been here before. How else would she know so much? But, then….why would no one remember her? Too many pieces of the puzzle were not fitting together.
And Evelynne did not like it.
Eventually, they had made it to a fork in the path. Green vines traced through the cracks in the floor along the horizontal path, red leaves scattered along the vertical path. Frisk moved to walk ahead of Evelynne, looking back at her expectantly when she didn't immediately follow. Now or never, right?
"How do you know where you're going?" The question obviously took the girl by surprise. Frisk turned fully back toward Evelynne, staring straight at her. Silence sat thickly between them for several seconds, but Evelynne was willing to wait. She had to know. Sure, Frisk had not given Evelynne a reason to feel in danger. In fact, if it weren't for her, Evelynne didn't think she would have made it this far. A person could only dodge so much before making a mistake. But if there was something more going on here, Evelynne wanted to know.
She didn't like secrets. Secrets had always been bad, for her.
Still, it didn't seem like Frisk was going to answer. They simply stared at eachother, and Frisk looked as if she was waiting for Evelynne to take back the question. Still, she pressed. "You seem so comfortable here," Evelynne began, looking around at the crumbling walls surrounding them. "You know how to deal with the monsters. You went right up to Toriel. You weren't the least bit worried about Flowey, or your soul...What's going on? If you've been here before, why doesn't anyone remember you? Why am I the only thing you give a weird look to, here?" Frisk stared blankly at her for a moment before their gaze turned thoughtful. But still, no answer came.
Instead, Frisk gestured for Evelynne to follow before turning and continuing on the path. After a moment, she disappeared around a corner, and Evelynne sighed. Nothing. No answers, apologies, or hints. She could accept this wasn't a dream. She could accept that humans had forced monsters underground. But this nagged at her. It was almost...unnatural.
Shoving her hands into the pockets of her jeans, she slowly followed the path that Frisk had taken. If she was here, she should stick with the kid. Afterall, Frisk knew how to get them out of tight situations, but...could she let a kid run around this place on her own? What if something happened.
After a few more feet she walked through an archway, finding herself on a balcony. Evelynne's eyes widened at the sight before her.
It looked like they were in some abandoned city. Of course, it made sense that it was called the ruins. Tall buildings crumbled and groaned, the occasional sound of rocks smashing into the earth meeting their ears. Beyond that, in the distance, silhouettes of more buildings stood tall. She could even see the twinkling of lights from them, like stars in the velvety black sky.
Frisk stood next to her, looking out at the scene as well. Why had Frisk wanted to show her this? Shrugging off the questions rising in her mind, she put her arms on top of the stone railing and leaned forward. The two stood in silence for a few minutes before Evelynne sighed. "Those lights remind me of the stars…I wonder if we'll ever see them again." Evelynne didn't realize how much this thought would impact her. She felt some sort of strange pang in her chest, and suddenly felt a heavy sadness. She had just fallen in love with the moon. Would she never see it again?
Frisk patted Evelynne's arm, a happy smile on her face. It was contagious, and Evelynne felt her own small smile forming on her lips as she pulled back from the railing. "Come on, let's go find Toriel."
