Max opened her eyes. "Uuurrghhh," She mumbled. Pain shot up her legs and her head throbbed. She tried to focus, but her vision was tunneled. The last thing she remembered was tripping on that broken vine and falling down.. Damn it.
Pilot! She remembered chasing her cinnamon cockatiel up the mountain in the first place.
"Pilot! C'mere boy, where are ya?" She called. She couldn't move. Or see. But she knew that Pilot had flown down with her. Soon enough, she felt a small body hop onto her stomach. "There you are!" she sighed.
Max opened her eyes again, and this time she could see. She tilted her head with a grunt to see Pilot pecking at a broken piece of plastic. Wait, that was her phone. Her broken, split in half, and screen-shattered phone.
Max forced herself to sit up. Her beanie was on the other side of the cavern she had fallen into, tangled with some vines on the pillars holding up the place.
Max's hands stung, and she realized that she had fallen on a patch of yellow flowers with thorny stems. The area around her was littered with trash and broken glass.
Guess i'd be dead if it weren't for these flowers..
Pilot chirped at her and his head feathers went up.
"Look what you did.." Max muttered.
Pilot fluttered on top of her head and pecked one of her ears before settling down. Max got up and walked over to her black beanie.
"Shoo," she said to her bird.
Pilot hopped onto her shoulder after she put it on. Max winced. Everything hurt.
She twisted around and looked at her tail- a small brown piece of dog fur. It had a thorn stuck right in the middle of it. Max pulled it out and flicked it into a tin can stuck in the ground.
She looked up at the giant hole providing light and glared at it.
Stupid hole. Stupid mountain, she thought. Wait.
Mountain. Max remembered stories about a mountain that monsters were trapped in. She recalled the tale of a war that happened many years ago, between monsters and humans. Mt. Ebott.. Could this be the same mountain?
Max pushed the thought away. That was just a story. Plus, the tale didn't specify where the mountain was, let alone if it actually existed.
Either way, there didn't seem to be an exit the way she came, so Max scanned her surroundings.
There was a single, dark path to take. Max walked down it and discovered a pillared doorway. Someone's definitely been down here, Max thought, or maybe a lot of someone's. A whole race of 'em..
Max limped past the stone and entered a room with a light coming from a small hole in the roof. It cast a ray of light on a patch of grass. There was a single yellow flower there.
That's not creepy.. Max thought.
She made her way around the flower, until she heard someone speak.
"H-hey!"
Max looked around. No one was there. She assumed someone was speaking through the hole in the roof, so she went over to it and looked up.
"No, i'm down here!"
Max looked around again.
"No ya aren't!"
"I mean DOWN here!"
Max looked at the flower and saw a face on it. She yelled and jumped away.
"P-please don't hurt me!" The flower said, "You a human, aren't you?"
"No duh! And you're a TALKING FLOWER!" Max shouted.
The flower flinched away, "My name's FLowey. Flowey the flower."
"Very creative.." Max mumbled.
"Listen to me- humans in the underground don't survive long."
So I'm in 'the' underground, huh? And Flowey's obviously a monster.. Max thought, shuddering. I guess it wasn't a myth after all.
"So I'm going to teach you how to fight," Flowey continued.
Max shrugged to herself and accepted the fact that she was trapped under a mountain with monsters who probably wanted to kill her.
"I can already fight," Max said, "And judging on your torn up petals, ya don't look like a good teacher."
"Well I'm all you've got, besides her!"
The flower paused, then sighed, "You know what? Nevermind. I thought you'd be more confused and want help- but if you're this stubborn, you may as well just figure it out on your own."
"That's right," Max said.
Pilot chirped and fluttered over to Flowey, landing on his head.
"Hey!" Flowey yelped.
Max sighed, "Traitor! We're not letting that thing help us."
Pilot chirped angrily and his head feathers went down.
"Just.. at least let me warn you," Flowey started, but then looked at her, "What's your name?"
"Samantha," Max lied. She wasn't going to give this monster her name.
He nodded, "Samantha, at least let me warn you. The Ruins have traps and puzzles all over. I can help you get through them."
Max considered. What could this flower do to hurt her anyways?
"Fine." Max said, holding out her hand for Pilot to perch on. The bird fluttered over and tilted his head.
"You don't get scratches," Max said, and he looked back up to glare at her.
Flowey smiled, then frowned.
"You don't look so good yourself."
"I mean, I did just fall the length of a mountain onto a bed of flowers." Max said, then thought, Would that offend Flowey?
But he didn't seem too bothered. "I can heal you," He said. Small white pellets appeared around Max, spinning in the air.
Pilot hopped onto her shoulder.
Suddenly, an orange, cracked heart emerged from Max's chest. She froze, freaked out. Before she could do anything, the pellets rushed towards it and made a noise. The cracks healed up, and so did her wounds.
"Wh-what the hell!?" Max shouted as the heart went back into her chest.
"That was monster magic," Flowey explained, "Most monsters have harmful weapons for magic, but I just used 'friendliness pellets',"
Max nodded. "And that thing that just came out of me?"
"That was your SOUL, the very existence of your being. Down here, Different soul colors mean different things about someone." Flowey said.
"Mine was Orange.. What's that mean?"
"Orange is Bravery,"
"What's yours?"
"Mine is silver," Flowey said, "Monsters have silver, grey, or white souls. Silver is kindness, white is love, and grey is compassion."
"Huh," Max said, feeling like she was in school again. School.. I might not get out of here.
"But since you're a human, with a human soul, monsters are going to attack you."
"That's soul-ist." Max commented.
"You guys need seven souls to get out of here.." She muttered. "How many do you have?"
Flowey closed his eyes and sighed, "Five. At least that I know of."
"Cool," Max said, "So how do I not die? Just kill them first?"
"Well.. yes, but there are other ways to-"
"Okay, This is boring. Let's get through these 'Ruins' so I can get home." Max said. Pilot chirped.
Before she could ask how Flowey got around, the flower seemed to be pulled into the ground, disappearing from view.
Max exchanged a glance with Pilot and shrugged, heading towards the exit on the other side of the room.
She met Flowey on the other side of the door in a room with reddish bricks and vines.
Turns out everything in the Ruins was made of the red stone, and Flowey wasn't lying when he said there were a lot of puzzles. Max concluded that most of them were stupid, so she made Flowey do them while she thought.
If what they say is true, it'll be awhile before I get back to the surface. If i make it at all..
Max thought of her mom. That would be the only person she missed. All the kids at school were assholes, her brother and sister ignored her, and Max's dad had died a long time ago. It's not like she needed any of them anyways. Max doubted anyone would miss her.
Pilot rubbed his beak on her shoulder and chirped.
"I got you, don't I?" Max said, scratching his neck. Pilot chirped again and spread his wings before fluttering and settling on her beanie.
Max made her way through the ruins, demolishing a dummy, almost stepping on spikes, and teasing Flowey untill she was sure he'd snap.
Max ran into a Toadit and managed to get past it without killing it.
Soon enough she was heading into the next room when Flowey called her back.
"Don't go in there! She's RIGHT THERE-!"
But it was too late. The monster had made eye-contact with her. And the monster, which was a standing goat lady in a black and red dress-robe-thing, startled Pilot, who started fluttering and chirping on Max's beanie.
"Chill out!" Max hissed, picking Pilot off her head and cupping him in her hands. The bird settled down.
"Child," said the goat-lady on the other side of the room.
"I am toriel, caretaker of the ruins." she introduced.
"Samantha, RUN!" Flowey whispered behind her.
Max turned her head to glare at him. Toriel noticed this and said, "Oh, that little weed is with you? You poor, poor child. Lost, confused, and being harassed by that horrid plant. Max heard Flowey plop back into the ground. Coward, Max thought.
Max turned to Toriel, "I'm just fine, thank you very much."
Toriel shook her head, "No, no.. You don't understand how dangerous the Ruins are if you don't know them well. Especially for a youth such as yourself." Her voice was raspy, like a witch.
Maybe she's just lonely, Max thought. She seemed nice enough, anyways. Besides, Flowey was scared of everything.
"Let me guide you to my house, small one." she said, "It lies at the end of this path."
Max stared at her. She didn't want to trust her, but it seemed to be the best option. Her stomach growled. That monster candy wasnt going down very well.. She needed actual food.
"Alright," Max agreed.
"Follow me, my child."
"My name's Max, actually,"
"Oh! What a wonderful name!" Toriel cheered.
Max was once again led through the Ruins, Toriel scared away what seemed to be an angry ghost on the way. Soon they reached a giant, dead tree. Red leaves were scattered beneath it, shriveled from time. Toriel turned to Max.
"Please wait here, Max."
She nodded, and Toriel walked off into a house up ahead.