As promised, here's the second chapter in all of its glory and it's much longer than the first. I hope you enjoy!

Flowey, Toriel, And The Ruins

"Wake up! You cannot sleep now! You are the future of humans and monsters!" a voice echoes in the boy's mind, gruff and burly sounding. It stirs him from his unconscious state and he takes a sharp, deep breath in response. He opens his stunningly intense vivid green eyes to view the world around him, or rather, the lack of the world he was in mere moments ago. He sits up in the bed of golden buttercups he's fallen on and realizes that he took a pretty nasty fall as the pain of hitting the ground starts to manifest itself into fruition. He also notices that his backpack fell off of him, scattering his chocolate bars all over the place. He places more importance on his chocolate than himself and quickly crawls over to his red backpack a few feet away from him and proceeds to stuff it with the chocolate bars as fast as he can, seemingly worried someone or something might steal them from him. To his surprise, none of them broke on the way down here except for the one he was holding, which now belongs to the buttercups with various broken pieces scattered all over the place. He doesn't care as he has at least 10 more chocolate bars in his backpack, which he zips up tightly using the little metal zipper on the right side before putting his arms through the straps and standing up. He quickly dusts off his green hoodie that has two red stripes on his stomach and inspects himself for wounds. Besides a couple of minor cuts on his arms and a slight stinging sensation all over his body, he isn't in any immediate danger or in need of medical attention. His curious green eyes pan to the ceiling where a miniscule amount of sunlight peeks in, revealing little balls of grey dust floating around the room without a care in the world. The hole he dropped in from is physically impossible to reach without a ladder, jetpack, or the like, and attempting to climb it isn't an option as the rocks nearby are at too steep of an angle to hang onto. His eyes drop back down and slowly close themselves as he takes a listening to his surroundings. He can't hear anything besides his own breathing, nothing is watching him from the shadows at the very least. He can smell something sweet as well, and whatever it is is strong. Turns out, the chocolate he was eating before he fell had made a bit of a mess on his face around his lips, and even on his cheeks are bits of melted chocolate staining his pale skin. He's not worried about his appearance and simply ignores it in favor of walking forward towards a strange purple archway leading to somewhere he did not know. The only thing he DID know was that he had to find a way out of this place as soon as possible.

The sound of echoing footsteps is all that is heard as his black shoes push the boy through the archway and into another room where a single golden flower sits in the middle of a circular patch of grass illuminated by sun shining in through a small hole above just like in the room before. The young boy is slightly intrigued by this flower, completely unaware of the fact that they have a face and can speak. They slowly approach the flower, and their black eyes and wide smile pan up at them. The young boy stops the moment they notice the flower moving. It is also at this moment that this flower decides to speak. "Howdy!" This causes the boy to take a step back with his left foot, completely shocked and surprised to see a flower speak directly to him. His face clearly shows his surprise as this flower can see and understand it. "Gosh, am I really that shocking? A flower that talks! Little old me isn't really special you know, so stop playing it up like I'm really all THAT surprising." The young boy frowns slightly. He wasn't expecting a rude response, though he didn't care too much and brought his left foot back and stood normally. "I'm Flowey, Flowey the flower!" he takes a quick look at the boy and his smile disappears. "Hold on… can it be?" his eyes then beam with excitement. "It is! Golly, I almost didn't recognize you there, Chara! Have you grown up since we last saw each other? I thought our plan had failed back then… I guess it took you such a long time to finally wake up. I knew you'd come back for me, after all, I AM your best friend!" his face scrunches up with a frown. "I almost thought you had truly disappeared forever…" his smile returns. "It doesn't matter now because you've come back, and with your help we can finish our plan! C'mon Chara, let's get through the Underground and show them what this world is all about. What do you say, best friend?" his face contorts into a very evil looking one before letting out a crazed laugh and disappearing into the ground.

The young boy simply stares at the spot Flowey was in for a few moments before the sound of heavy footsteps coming from behind another purple archway grabs his attention. His closed eyes tense up and he takes up a stance with his body, preparing to fight if need be but secretly hoping he wouldn't have to hurt anyone. The footsteps give way to a white, bipedal goat lady with droopy ears, short, cute horns, and a dark red colored iris. She also wears a purple robe with a strange symbol in the center of it. Her appearance is friendly and serene though the boy doesn't trust her. She can clearly see that and speaks with a soft, reassuring tone. "Ah, do not be afraid, little one… I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through here everyday to see if anyone has fallen down." she smiles, a warm radiance coming from her. "It's been 6 years since the last human fell down here, and you are the first to fall within that time frame." she turns her back to face the way she came. "Come! I'll guide you through the catacombs." she slowly walks through the archway and the young boy eases up and slowly follows her.

The world goes completely dark for a moment before revealing a whole new location full of purple all over. Purple bricks, purple flooring, purple ceiling, purple everything… ALMOST everything, except for some white pillars, beautiful red maple leaves on the ground, and some vines on the walls and stairs leading up to a doorway with a sign on it. The symbols on the sign are faded and impossible to read, but the most interesting thing in this room is a shining, glimmering, yellow star floating near the stairs in the center of the room. Toriel waits at the top of the stairs for the boy, who is a bit busy looking at everything around him. As he slowly heads towards the glowing star in the center of the room, the maple leaves under his feet crunch as he walks over them. Upon reaching the star, he feels compelled to touch it and he does exactly that. He lifts his left hand up and slowly reaches for the star and the moment his fingers touch the center, it glows super bright and almost blinds him if it wasn't for the fact that his eyes are closed. This strange phenomenon makes him open his eyes, curious to see what that bright flash was and instead of getting answers, he gets an odd feeling that if something bad were to happen to him, he'd end up right here unharmed. Strange for sure, but he simply smiles, at least someone or something else is looking out for him. He looks up to see her still waiting on the stairs and decides that it's probably not a good idea to keep her waiting anymore. Since she doesn't appear dangerous, and the location around them is friendly enough, his subconscious worries and anxiety drop off and he quickly runs up the stairs, a smile forming on his face as he approaches them. She continues through the doorway behind her as the young boy ascends the stairs with a joyful spring in his step. He skips up the stairs and through the door, coming face to face with a puzzle serving as a means of navigating to the next room. She looks right at the switches.

"Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins." She holds one of her paws up to signify the importance of what she's about to do. "Pay attention, it's very important." she then walks over to the buttons and steps on four of them in a square pattern in a specific order, then walks over to a yellow switch near the door and activates it, making the door open. "The Ruins are full of puzzles, ancient fusions between diversions and door keys. One must solve them to move about the Ruins, so please adjust yourself to the sight of them."

The young boy simply nods in understanding and follows her into the next room, but a sign on the left side of the door grabs his attention and he quickly reads it. "Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones, both walk not the middle road." he doesn't know what it means, but it sounds cool to him. He heads through the doorway to the next room. In this room, there is a small stream that runs from north to south with both sides connected by a small wooden bridge enabling one to walk across.

Toriel speaks to the boy again. "To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. Do not worry, I have labelled the ones that you need to flip." She looks over her left shoulder at one of the switches on the wall behind her and notices that the label has faded away. "Oh dear, I guess I forgot to touch up the labels…" She looks back at the boy. "I think you can do it, little one, I have faith in you!" She walks over the bridge and stands by the exit of the room which is blocked off by spikes coming out of the ground, waiting for the boy. He wastes no time in trying to solve the puzzle despite not having any clues to the correct solution. He skips across the bridge happily and approaches the north wall where two seemingly identical switches lie in front of him. He takes his right hand and goes to grab the switch on the right, but he stops and realizes that this "switch" is a fake. Unlike the other switch, it doesn't have the switch handle mechanism extended back into the wall upon inspection. He immediately grabs the left switch with his left hand and pulls it down. The sound of something activating is heard and the spikes behind Toriel disappear into the ground, opening the path up for the two of them. "Splendid! I'm proud of you, little one! Let us move onto the next room." She walks into the next room and the boy follows right after. This next room has a single dummy tucked into the right corner. Her face becomes serious. "It's become a lot more dangerous here ever since the last human fell into the Underground. Since you're a human living here, monsters will attack you. You will need to be prepared for these situations in the event I cannot accompany you around the Ruins. Do not worry, for the process is simple. If a monster tries to attack you, attempt to have a friendly conversation and do anything that you can to stall for time. I will come and resolve the conflict." She motions her left paw towards the dummy. "Try talking to this dummy as practice." The boy's face melts into confusion. Talking to a dummy is quite weird, especially since it can't even talk back. He walks up to the dummy and stares at it, its black button eyes staring right back. He doesn't know what to say and his already slightly rosy cheeks begin quickly growing a deeper shade of red. He nervously puts his hands in front of his stomach and his feet point inward a little. She can tell he's having a hard time with starting a conversation so she helps him from the sidelines. "If you are having trouble coming up with a conversation topic, I can help! I usually start with a friendly 'hello', or, 'how do you do?'" her eyes look up towards the ceiling as she thinks out loud some ideas on what he can say. "You could ask them about their favorite book, maybe what they like to eat… Oh, using a joke is a great way to 'break the ice'." She shifts her attention back to the boy. "Here's one… What did the skeleton tile his roof with?" The boy simply stares at her blankly, not sure of what to say as a response. She smiles widely and nearly laughs before delivering the punchline. "... SHIN-gles!" He simply looks at her with the same blank expression from moments ago. It's clear that he might not have the same sense of humor or perhaps the situation is weakening the effect of the punchline, either way, she can tell he didn't find it particularly funny. "... Well, I thought it was amusing." He turns back to the dummy and his face becomes serious.

"Alright…" he says to himself quietly, and he thinks carefully about what to say to the dummy. After much thought and even some second guessing himself, he manages to squeak out… "H-hello…" in an extremely meek, soft, moderately high tone of voice. The dummy doesn't respond as expected and looks like it might even fall over, not seeming much for conversation. Toriel, however, is quite happy with him.

"Ah, very good! You are very good. Now, come with me, little one." She then leaves through the doorway heading into the next room. Feeling a bit awkward, the young boy meekly follows her. In the next room, the boy notices the pink floor below him has a slightly different shade in certain spots, making a path of sorts. "There is another puzzle in this room, I wonder if you can solve it?" Says Toriel before walking ahead. At first glance, it doesn't look like there's any puzzle, so the young boy closely follows her, however from out of nowhere, a frog type monster known as "Froggit" appears from the shadows and attempts to jump onto the boy. The boy reacts extremely fast, and he ducks to avoid what appears to be an attack from this monster. It misses, lands on the ground behind him, and croaks as it turns around, and although he's "prepared", he wasn't really prepared for a sudden ambush like this, so he prepares to properly fight, turning around to face them… only for the Froggit to suddenly turn tail and hop away quickly in fear of something. The boy looks over his right shoulder and realizes that Toriel's face has quite an intimidating look, which scared off the Froggit. He doesn't say anything, but he's glad that she was there to stop him from being attacked by that monster. He continues to follow her, going through a somewhat narrow corridor. In this corridor, there's a sign that piques his interest and he reads it.

"The western room is the eastern room's blueprint." which makes him think about the different shaded floor from the room before and he realizes that it's the solution to whatever puzzle there is.

Toriel has gone up ahead and he quickly runs after her to catch up, only to find her looking out across a sea of spikes sticking out of the floor. She turns her head to look at the boy. "This is the puzzle, but…" She thinks about it for a moment. He did solve the other puzzle without her help, but that one was much simpler than this one and less dangerous too. "Here, take my hand for a moment." She holds her hand out for him to grab onto. He blushes a little in response to this, but it doesn't appear that he'll be able to do this one by himself, so he reluctantly grabs hold of her hand. She slowly guides him through the Spike puzzle safely without a scratch. She releases his hand and turns around. "Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now." She leaves the room and he follows as usual.

This next room isn't a room at all, instead, it's a very long hallway with a single large white pillar at the end. Both Toriel and the boy walk through it slowly together. Along the way, she has a couple of things to ask them. "My dear child, I am curious about something… the last human who fell here had a name called 'Frisk' and I was wondering if you have a name or something you want to be called."

To her surprise, despite how shy and quiet he's been, he decides to answer her, looking right up at her. "I-I'm Skyler…" his voice is just as meek as it was when he talked to the dummy.

"Skyler! What an adorable name! And now that we're talking about it, Skyler, how old are you? Frisk never told me their age, but they were much smaller than you so I don't think you and Frisk are the same age."

"...21."

This surprises her, because he doesn't look like he's that old, then again, she's never really seen an adult human before. Comparing herself to him, he's about 3 feet shorter than her but he has the same smooth, soft, rounded face that Frisk had, along with their closed eyes. Although she's seen him open his eyes a couple of times, she hasn't been able to really see what they look like. Still, it doesn't matter if Skyler was 10 or 100, to her, a human is still a human, and she had to look over him. "I see… you might be the oldest human to have ever fallen into the Underground when I think about it. That's alright, I'll still make sure your time here is fine." She looks down at him with a smile for a brief moment, but it quickly disappears as she notices there's chocolate stains on his cheeks and around his mouth. They aren't too noticeable, but enough for her to notice. "Oh my… Your face is all dirty, did you eat chocolate or something?" For a moment, it reminds her of the very first human who fell into the Underground, and with that brief moment came the thought that, perhaps, Skyler is related to them… but that's highly unlikely. She puts this thought aside and takes out a handkerchief from one of the pockets in her robe. "Here… stand still for a moment…" she stops in front of him and he does as she says, allowing her to clean his face up and see him in all of his handsome grandeur. His closed eyes and poker face completely remind her of Frisk, but the little rosy red cheeks he has and the chocolate scent coming from him reminds her of the first human. It has to be mere coincidence.

"...Thank you." He says softly before walking forwards and around her. Toriel puts the handkerchief back in her robe and walks quickly to catch up with Skyler. She can't put the eerie fact that he looks like a combination of those two humans to rest, so to distract her from it, she decides to ask more questions but can't think of anything. It's quite unusual for her as she almost always has something to ask or say. She simply shrugs to herself and remembers that she has something to do.

"Well, my child, I really don't want to do this, but I have no choice…" She sighs deeply. "I have to leave you for a little because I have some things I have to do. I won't be long." She then thinks of something that will allow her to keep tabs on him. "I know, I'll give you a cell phone. I'll be able to call you in the event I need to let you know something or if I need to check in on you." She takes out her spare cell phone from another pocket in her robe that looks like it came from the 1990's but Skyler doesn't take it and shakes his head 'no'. Toriel goes to speak but stops when he grabs his backpack off of his back and from one of the pockets on the outside, he pulls out a modern cell phone. This surprises her a little but she doesn't dwell on it too much. "So you already have a cell phone… then here, I'll give you my number so I can call you." She gave him her number and it took him no time to register her in his contacts. With that done, she was ready to leave, but before she left, there was one last thing she had to say. "As I said before, monsters will attack you since you are a human. It would be very dangerous to try and explore the Ruins by yourself without anyone to protect you. I think it is a better idea to stay here and wait for me to return." She gives him a soft smile and a pat on the head with her right paw. "Be good, my child, okay? I'll be back." And with that, she walked all the way down the rest of the hallway until she took a turn and went out of sight, leaving Skyler to his own whims and desires until she returns.

That's the end of that chapter. By the way, feedback is highly appreciated as long as it isn't harshly criticizing my work (saying it's bad or stuff like that). Anything about where I can improve or even something as small as formatting issues being pointed out is highly appreciated. With that out of the way, I'll seeya in the next chapter!