The child wakes up on this, the fourth day Underground. Toriel is nowhere to be found today. In her absence, Home feels empty. No bakery fresh smells. No gentle flipping of book pages. But, at least she left the fire crackling gently. It is in this setting the human discovers a note on the table.
Greetings, sleepyhead!
I trust you slept well. I am sorry, but I must leave you by yourself this morning. I left some pie in the fridge if you are hungry. Worry not about checking for fallen humans today. I shall take care of that while running my errands.
Should you become bored, I have many books to read. Or perhaps you would prefer to play explorer? You have yet to discover my room, do you not?
Your friend and guardian,
Toriel
P.S. The basement is still off-limits. Please do not explore down there.
Ha ha. Off-limits. Take a guess as to where the kid's going first? That's odd... They actually went to the bookshelf and picked up a book? Turning to a random page, they discover the tale of how the Ruins first came to be settled by monsters, fearful of humans. And lamentations of a King's inability to name things.
The child wonders if this could be the same King whom Toriel spoke of, back when the two waited on Spider Cider to go with their donuts. It most likely it is. After all, isn't that how these kinds of stories always tend to work out in the end?
On that same bookshelf, the child reaches for yet another tome. "72 Uses for Snails." They smile. This one seems familiar. There's even two cute little bookmarks hanging out from it. One is the same shade of purple present everywhere in both the Ruins and her outfit. The other is two large bars of green, separated by a single yellow stripe down the center. Toriel seems to really enjoy this book for some reason. They could try to discover why now. But, in the end, they return the book to the shelf, deciding it would be best to let her share this book of her own will.
Done with reading for now, the child decides to check out some more of the Ruins. They have yet to explore the areas southeast Home. The first room is a small corner with a door on the north end featuring a Froggit sitting about, doing nothing much. It doesn't seem to be running away from the child. Brave one? Foolish one? Nobody knows, as it merely blocks the middle path between Home and the doorway, calmly croaking towards passerby. Fortunately, it is small and this path is large, so going around the Froggit should pose little difficulty for our tiny adventurer.
Pressing on to the next room, the child discovers a wonderful vista of a city off in the distance below. As far as the eye can see, warehouses, miniature skyscrapers, regular houses and more, all clad in the Ruin's signature velvet. This city looks huge, as if it could hold thousands of monsters.
Yet, they can not make out any inhabitant nor hear the constant chatter or ambient noises consistent with a bustling town. Perhaps they just need to get closer? They consider approaching closer to investigate. But the idea they may actually become lost and alone scares them too much to actually head down and try to explore it.
Dedicating themself to asking Toriel for a field trip tomorrow, they begin to turn around. Something catches their attention from the corner of their eyes. A knife? In a place like this? Upon closer inspection, it seems this knife is a toy. A child's plaything, made of plastic instead of metal.
The child has little use for weapons, having last used their Stick to playfully poke about a training dummy. Still, even in Toriel's newly found world of peace, this knife may have some uses. Toriel seems to have hidden the knives of Home. And a cutting instrument would be nice to have, should they ever be alone and intimidated by the size of a pie or something.
The child pockets the Toy Knife and returns Home. They seem a bit down over not being able to convince themself to explore the town below. Still, there are three parts of Home they have yet to explore. The first option is to brave the dangers of the forbidden basement. But, should that prove too scary, there is also the recommended choice of Toriel's room. But there was also a third option. What mysteries could lie within forgotten room under renovations?
The child heads to the hallway and walks to the very end. They try to open door number three, but the sole entrance to the world of renovation is securely locked. They repeatedly attempt to twist the knob back and forth to no avail. Perhaps, if they were older, they may have known how to jimmy the lock with their newfound knife. But this child appears too young, too inexperienced, too naive. They don't seem to appreciate the full utility hidden within their simple tools.
Having decided to give up on the renovation room for now, the child heads on over to Toriel's room instead. While the rest of Home was covered in an inviting yellow, Toriel's room seems to be blue. No, no. The room isn't crying, silly. It's just that the color palette is centered around the color blue. As the door closes, a loud sound can be heard echoing. Guess that's what happens when one gets excited and closes a door with too much force in one's excitement.
Straight ahead is a bookshelf. On there lies many books. The one that piques the child's interest concerns local flora. There's a good number of both golden flowers and oblong, brown seedpods throughout this building. Perhaps learning about gardening would give them another common interest they could share with Toriel? With this thought in mind, they chose to open the book. Ooooh. That's interesting. The brown plants that can be found here seem to be called "typha." The book goes on to call it by another, more layman, name as well. That name being "water sausage." There seem to be nothing in this old book concerning the golden flowers. That's sad, but not really surprising.
Looking to the left, the child notices a huge bed. They seem to recognize it as definitely bigger then a twin-sized bed. But it's not as big as a King size. Oh, what's that on the other side of the room. Her dresser? Oh no! Dear child, please don't look there! Ha ha. They looked anyways? Scandalous! It's Toriel's sock drawer. What a silly kid.
Wait? What? They can't stop looking at the socks. Or is there something else inside too? Alright. What kinds of secrets could Toriel be hiding? Let's find out!
Looking closer, the child reaches out and picks up something small. It seems there's a little of green and gold debris of some sort, probably leftovers from handling some golden flowers. She even has one in this room, though it sits high atop her bookshelf, far above the young child's limited grasp. That's a little disappointing. There looks to be no real secret hidden here, just an inconsequential accident that went unnoticed.
Well, there's not much left to this room. Just the area by the table. Next to good ol' Chairiel lies an empty top of Toriel's desk. It's a great writing desk, but it doesn't seem anyone uses it. This is perplexing, as Toriel seemed to be the type that would keep a diary.
There is but one thing left to examine in this room. The child sees a bucket. Perhaps Toriel DID write a diary and simply became dissatisfied with it? Hoping to find her diary, the child looks into the bucket. Sadly, it is just a regular old bucket… of snails. They make a funny face and turn away in disgust. Guess it's a good thing Toriel decided against making snail pie.
Satisfied with their exploration of Home for now, the child heads back through the hall to grab the promised piece of pie from the fridge. But, as they pass by the main entrance, a faint and distant sound startles them. What was that sound? A few seconds later the noise returns. It sounds like somebody is crying. But from where?
The basement! The one place declared off-limits. That is from whence this noise came. Slightly panicked, the child scurries about Home, desperately seeking Toriel. But nobody came. Hoping against hope, they go outside to make one last effort towards finding her.
Yelling her name next to the leafless tree outside Home, the child sighs. It seems they have given up on finding her for now. But still. Someone needs help. Toriel will not be happy when she finds out about this. Contemplating the consequences, the child looks down upon their shirt, the one Toriel made just for them. Her words echo from within their mind. (Consider it a reminder of sorts, for the both of us. Of the person you are, and the person you may yet become).
As they are reminded of the kind person they yet wish to become, their eyes light up. Their head is now held high, gazing upon Home sweet Home one more time. Seeing such a cute, tidy house in the Ruins gives them the resolve to change fate.
Author Notes
July 27, 2016 (release): There should be three more chapters left in the Ruins. I am planning to release all three close to eachother. So, it may be a few weeks for Chapter 12 to show up, but 13 and 14 will show up soon after.
