You yawn sleepily as you rouse yourself from bed. You can hear Toriel already working in the kitchen fixing up breakfast for the both of you while humming cheerfully to herself. She seemed so much happier than when you first met her. It must have been really lonely living by herself in the Ruins.
Slowly you slide off your mattress and amble over to the dresser full of striped sweaters in kid's sizes. Perfect for you, almost suspiciously convenient, which had prompted you to ask Toriel why she had these clothes. She said her son used to have a similar taste in clothes as you, then changed the subject to a random fact about snails without saying where her son was now.
Today you made your way to the living room where Toriel had set out a stack of pancakes for you and pan fried snails for her. You secretly hoped she had cooked the pancakes first, because sometimes the snails would leave a weird after taste on whatever was next on the pan.
"Good morning, my child." Toriel greeted warmly as you sat down at the table. "did you sleep well?" You nodded as you doused your pancakes in syrup. "I'm glad to hear that."
You picked up a fork and bit into you pancakes as she continued talking. "I hope your are looking forward to today's lesson. We will be looking at some literary classics." You nodded again as you drenched your pancakes in more syrup to mask the snail flavor. "but before that is there anything you wanted to do today." You thought for a second and pointed out the window towards her favorite bug hunting spot, never being much for words.
"Um, maybe we should hold off on that today." Toriel said hesitantly. Last time you went bug hunting you had accidently caught a Whimsum in your net. It took almost an hour for Toriel to get them to stop crying. You sighed, there was not much else to do in the ruins aside from puzzles and bug hunting. "Oh, dear." Toriel said suddenly, "I almost forgot. We are running low on groceries. I'll have to go out and get some. I think it would be best if you stayed here in the mean time."
Toriel was always over protective, never wanting you to leave the house without supervision even though you had walked all the way here on your own before. She was also reluctant for you to meet any new monsters and left you behind when she ran errands, and today you found out why.
When left alone in the house there was not much to do. The toys in your room were not any fun to play with alone. So instead you shuffled through her books for something you had not read already. Passing over some history books you found the book you would be reading today for classic lit. It would not hurt to get a head start, but it was always more fun when you read with Toriel; She would give funny voices to all the characters.
You looked back at the history books and paused for a moment. Over the past few weeks Toriel had given lessons in reading, math, art, magic, and cooking, but never touched on history despite having plenty of books to cover the subject.
Curious you opened up the book to be greeted by an illustration of a few lone monsters standing on ground coated thick with dust being forced back by humans on horseback with various weapons.
"The humans had begun to fear monsters for their greater ability to use magic. Relations became strained as councilmen from there government were less and less willing to meet with the king. Finally a brief meeting settled an uneasy agreement where the two parties would stay to their respective boarders, and the monsters experienced at what the time seemed to be peace. For two months the monsters and humans had no conflict, as well as no contact. Then on October 3rd, war broke out.
The human forces came down hard on the outer villages of the monster territories, destroying farmlands, burning stored goods, and pouring filth into the water supply. They had crippled the monsters' resources and terrorized innocent civilians. Based on the strategy and how well equipped the humans where it is believed that they had been planning this attack for quite some time. The king quickly sent forces against them, but with no time to create a defense plan the monsters did horribly. Witnesses described the aftermath of the first battle as an ashen shower. The dust left from civilians and soldiers alike coated the ground until it looked like the village was based at the edge of a volcano. Eventually the king managed to gather up enough magic to force the humans back, but while they had kept the humans at bay that day, it was but a small start to a long and devastating war."
You grimaced at the passage and flipped ahead for a hopefully for a less bloody resolution only to find first person accounts of the day the barrier went up, lamenting the loss of loved ones and the fact that they would never see the sun again. The loathing of the humans for having taken away literally everything they had was unsurprising.
You thought over some of the monster's reactions when you first arrived here and suddenly found the barrage of attacks you experienced explained. You tossed aside the book with a sour feeling in your stomach. You did not feel guilty for something that happened long before you were ever born, but at the same time you were not feeling too happy about being human. The door opened and then shut with Toriel holding a bag of groceries.
"Hello, my child. I have returned with enough ingredients for some butterscotch pie tonight." You looked at her silently, no gestures given or words spoken in response to her arrival. You simply sat there, looking at her while wondering how she could be so immediately friendly to you when all the other monsters had to be convinced that you were not dangerous.
After putting away the groceries she walked over to you and knelt down. "My child is something wrong?" she said noting your serious expression. You pointed to the history book you had laid haphazardly on the floor. "Oh, my." she said bringing her hand to cover her mouth. She picked up the book and put it on top of the shelf, presumably to keep it out of your reach. "You need not worry about that. That is a time that has long since passed." Still seeing your unhappy expression she clapped her hands together. "Maybe we should skip todays lesson and go straight to making pies, then we can go bug hunting if you would like." She took your hand and lead you to the kitchen. You looked over your shoulder to the history book on the shelf as more questions formed in your mind. Questions that Toriel was unlikely to answer.
Was the monster population really that small? The entirety of them were forced underground, but you didn't see that many around. Where were the king and queen? You had not seen a big enough gathering for there to be any system of government. Or any villages in the ruins. Why was the place in ruins anyway? While initially depressed by the contents of Toriel's history book you soon found yourself curious for more as you realized how little you knew about this place you were now calling home.
The next time Toriel went out you pulled a chair from the dining table and pushed it against the bookshelf so you could reach the top. You plopped down in said chair and began flipping through it, looking for the time right after the barrier went up. You found another first person account.
"Trapped behind the barrier and fearful of further human attacks, we retreated far, far into the earth we walked until we reached the cavern's end. This was our new home, which we named... "Home". As great as our king is, he is pretty lousy at names." You giggled slightly at that and flipped forward some more. There was description of the construction of new houses and the monsters becoming accustomed to their lives' underground. It mentioned the birth of the prince and the joy he brought to the underground. Then the earthquake struck.
"The walls of Home shook violently as the buildings collapsed around the population. Witnesses saw the rocks crack open, expanding the cavern further. While the quake only lasted two minutes the affects were traumatic. Falling debris crushed some monsters and when it was all over many structures where in shambles. Fearing the structural instability caused by the quake monsters fled deeper still into the cavern to avoid being crushed by their own houses and, once again, started to rebuild. The monsters found that the further into the underground they traveled the colder the climate became as they passed through layers of permafrost. The name of this snowy cold settlement was called, "Snowdin".
Nearby Snowdin a underground river was found, kept from freezing by a magma cavern not to far from that. This came to much joy to the monsters as the diversity in the climate allowed them to live more comfortably in the environment best fit for them. The settlement by the river, with water constantly pouring down from above was called "Waterfall" and The hot land of the magma caverns "HotLand" The king's naming skills were as sharp as ever." You chuckled at that. "The last to leave from the old settlement of Home was the royal family. As they prepared to leave for their new, new home's capital, "New Home" the prince discovered an unexpected resident, wounded in the ruins." The front door opened. Toriel probably wouldn't like to see you reading from the book again after all the discomfort it caused last time and you threw it back atop the shelf and pushed the chair back to the table.
"My child what are you doing?" Toriel asked as she entered the room, having heard you drag the chair across the floor. You glanced around quickly, trying to think as you pulled the chair out again and hopped onto it. You jumped from the dining chair to the table, back to the dining chair and then onto Toriel's armchair like you were pretending the ground was made of hot lava. "Oh, my child. I told you it is bad for the furniture when you play like that she said picking you up of the chair and setting you on the floor. "Now go wash up dear, I shall have dinner ready when you are done."
That night you could not sleep very well. You could only think of how your world just expanded. You had become used to living in the ruins, that were mostly void of all but the occasional froggit or whimsum, and it had begun to feel quite small, but now you have come to learn that there is a world beyond that filled with a lot more people and buildings and places. You wanted to see it for yourself, not just go by what brief descriptions the book had to offer.
But how did you get out of the ruins? You did not see any extensions of the cavern since you arrived. Toriel would probably know. You would ask her in the morning.
The next morning Toriel went rigid as you brought up the question. She almost dropped your breakfast plate. After so long she did not expect you to ask that question. "My child, it is much safer if you stay here. Now we could go bug hunting today, I have a feeling that there will be a lot of snails out there today." She said quickly changing the subject. You could handle a lot more than she realized. You commented on her protectiveness. "It's only because I love you and don't want to lose you." You don't know what made her so certain that you could be torn away at any second, but you had the feeling it had something to do with her son. Was he one of the casualties of the war? She said monsters live really long so She might have been alive then. You thought about asking, but thought maybe that would lead to too many painful memories. Instead you decided to settle with simply going on your bug hunting as usual.
Your net bounced on your shoulder slightly as you hopped down the empty hallways with Toriel walking behind you, willingly forgetting the tension from earlier for the time being. You dove for the nearest pile of leaves and rolled around in the crinkling mess as all sorts of little insects ran out to avoid the disruption. There were the usual bugs like roly polies and crickets and spiders, (you were told to never touch the spiders for some reason, probably the one's holding the bake sale would get mad at you) Occasionally you would come across a butterfly, but those tended to hang around close by whimsum, which is how you accidentally netted one. Today you saw an underground rarity, a lady bug, crawling from the pile. The bright black and red shell shined stark against the cool purple-greay stone of the ruin's ground. It was easy to keep an eye on as you went bounding after it full speed, leading you closer to one of the puzzles.
"Be careful, my child." Toriel called after you. You bounded away carelessly as the ladybug took flight, not noticing the thin cracked ground of the near by puzzle. You swung your net in the air while jumping up and subsequently landed on the crumbling earth roughly. It quickly gave way under your weight and you went tumbling into the cavern below hearing Toriel shout after you in worry.
You landed with a thump on a pile of leaves in a familiar small room with a small archway.
"Oh, hello there." a quiet, timid sounding voice murmured. You looked over to see Napstablook lying in the pile next to you. "It's been a while." You waved eagerly at Napstablook, making extra sure he knew you were happy to see him, otherwise he might assume that he was ruining everyone else's time.
"Things in Waterfall have been kind of busy lately, I thought I'd come down here to stay out of everyone's way for a while. I hope I'm not bothering you." You shook your head with a smile. Then a thought occurred to you. Napstablook lives outside of the ruins, so he would know how to go back and forth. You ask him about it. "Oh, well I heard that there is a passage underneath the king's old house. I don't know where it is though. " You look at him confused. "being incorporeal, I just faze through the walls." he explained sadly, "Sorry for being so useless. I wish I could help more." and with that Napstablook floated away to prevent his uselessness from plaguing you further.
"My child are you alright?" Toriel's voice called down to you from above. You nodded, although you were not sure if she could see that well from the distance. You walked through the archway that lead to the upper floor and dropped into the room from a slot in the wall. "I told you to be careful," she chided as gently as she could while getting her upset across.
She took your hand and lead you back while you thought to yourself. The kings old house? Most of the houses down here were in ruin, there was no way to tell which one belonged to whom or if they were even a house or some other building... but maybe... the text book did say that the royal family was the last to leave the ruins. Did they stay longer because they still had a place to stay and their house was mostly intact? But the only house down here was Toriel's. Was she living in the abandoned house of the royal family? You thought about the stairs in the living room, Toriel once caught you poking around down there and said that you should be playing up stairs. You did not check it out further afterwards because from what you saw it was nothing but a dark empty basement. The darkness did not let you see that far in, but maybe there was something hidden in the obscured depths of the house. The thought that a whole new world had been under your feet this entire time made your adventurous spirit giddy.
That night you lit a candle and slipped out of your room and down the hall. After making it down the stairs you found yourself in familiar darkness, your candle only allowing for a few feet of vision. You wished you could have found a flash light but this is the best you could do. You traveled down the hall having to occasionally feel around to make sure there was not anything in your path to trip you, eventually coming to a dead end. You waved the candle around to see your surroundings and caught sight of the pattern in front of you. You ran your hands over it, feeling the material was different than the stone walls. Was this a door? You got a better view of it when the room was bathed in an orange glow and found that it was indeed a large door.
"What are you doing, my child?" You turned around to see Toriel, surrounded by her illuminating fire magic. She sounded afraid. You looked at the door and back to her with a quizzical expression on your face. She briskly walked past you putting herself between you and the door. "You must not go out there; it is too dangerous." You frowned. She seemed to think everything was too dangerous for you lately and you handled yourself fine. How was this any different? You were getting tired of being babied and you made this clear with a petulant glare. "Please just go back to your room." You do not comply, instead you ask if that is the exit to the ruins, "Yes it is, but you cannot leave here. Go back to your room." you stayed. "Then you give me no choice." Toriel summoned up more fire magic, swirling around her like a halo. You could not decide if the image looked more hellish or angelic. "If you will not stay away from this path willingly then I will have to destroy it to prevent anyone from leaving the ruins again."
Your expression changed from disgruntled to saddened, almost pleading. You just wanted more world to explore, it was not that you did not like living with Toriel, but you just wanted a little more to fill your days than bug hunting and her lessons, and she responded by trying to destroy any chance from that happening. She hesitated, seeing your shift in emotion. "Please, just go back to sleep." You still stayed. You still looked sad.
The fire lessened as she knelt down in front of you, placing her hand on your head in an attempt to be comforting. "Please understand young one, I do this not out of malice or to control you. I just wish to protect you." A hint of your petulant glare from before edged back onto your face briefly and it did not go unnoticed. "I know you think I am being over protective, but it is only because I care for you. Maybe I have been too watchful when you explored the ruins, but it is not like the ruins out there. There are far more monsters, ones that think hurting you maybe there only way out." She paused, clearly pained by something, "...Asgore... Asgore would kill you." she looked nearly on the edge of tears, her voice shaking. "it has happened before, you are not the first human to have fallen down here. So please, my child, stay here, stay safe. I can't handle losing another one." Her entire body was trembling now. You walked over to her and clung to her shoulder in a sort of half hug. You found yourself completely enveloped in her warmth when her large arms returned the gesture.
"I am sorry, my child." She spoke after holding you in silence for a while. "I did not mean to make you feel so constricted." After another moment of holding that position she took your hand and the two of you walked back up stairs. "Come it is late. We may discuss matters further in the morning , after a good night's rest." She sighed, clearly exhausted by the emotional ordeal. As Toriel's fire light receded away from the door you only briefly glanced over your shoulder at the passage in the growing darkness, still intact despite Toriel's threats to destroy it.