Chapter 4. A Storytelling
"Her name was Paolo Ruiz. She was a beautiful young girl with olive skin and purple glasses. She wanted to go home to see her mother again."
"It took me a while, but I eventually decided to let her leave the RUINS."
"I never saw her again. I like to believe that she made it home safely, but..." She shook her head. "That's a story for another day."
Clara gulped. Her class had been cautioned about the dangers of Mt. Ebott. Her teachers had made an example of Paolo, who had disappeared on the mountain years ago.
If Clara was being honest with herself, that was probably part of the reason why she had climbed in the first place.
"Toriel, listen."
She froze in her tracks. "Yes, my child?"
"Paolo Ruiz was declared missing the day she climbed the mountain. No one ever managed to find her. Now she stands as an example to everyone else to never climb the mountain."
Toriel blinked back tears, choosing to focus on the present instead of the demons of her past. "If that is true, then why did you climb the mountain?"
Clara bit her lip. "I guess it's my turn to tell a story, huh?"
"My parents died a long time ago, only a year or so after I was born. I live at an orphanage now.
"I guess I just wasn't happy with what happened. I liked the idea of disappearing for a while."
"Oh, my child!" Toriel kneeled down and hugged Clara tightly, nearly suffocating her in the folds of cloth.
Clara's eyes widened. "Thanks, Aunt Toriel."
Toriel's hug only tightened as she embraced the intimate term.