Chapter 6: Impossible Choice

Macie learned a lot.

A bed of golden flowers clustered together and stretched their pale faces towards the surface. Macie stood in their center, turning her own face towards the warm beam of light from above. The entrance to the Underground was so far overhead that it shined like a sun against blackened skies. But the sky wasn't suppose to be black. And she wasn't looking at the sky.

"My dear," Toriel moved beside Macie, daring with her amber eyes a single glance upward towards a surface she could never see. "This is... where you… fell. I found you. Here."

Macie sighed and slumped forward. She pressed her hands into her knees for balance. Her chest felt heavy. It hurt to breathe. Thinking was too much right now. Even standing was starting to become too much. Her knees buckled and Macie crumpled down further until she was sitting on her ankles. She found herself staring into the face of a golden flower. It stared back. Slowly, she reached forward until she touched its yellow petals. When she pressed down on them, the whole flower shifted under this new pressure. The flower sprung up livelier than ever when Macie pulled her trembling fingers away. She curled that hand into a little fist and tucked it into her chest. She forced herself to take a deep breath and focus. Everything here was real. It wasn't some lucid dream. It was a waking nightmare.

"That fall should have-" Macie swallowed. She twisted her neck so that her wary gaze settled on the monstress hovering over her. "...I should be dead."

Toriel's eyes widened, shocked by the notion, before creasing downward angrily, "No." She stated curtly. "That was not your fate." Toriel leaned forward, gripping Macie's shoulder gently. "You are safe here. With me." It sounded like a demand.

Macie looked up at the goat-like creature, resisting the urge to shift away from the hand resting too-heavily on her shoulder. There was too much added pressure in that grip.

Macie gave her hostess a too-wide smile and pushed herself from the ground, deftly shrugging that clawed hand away. But this loss of contact did not go unnoticed. Toriel frowned and stepped backward to widen the space between herself and the human.

"You can be safe here." The monstress repeated in a meeker whisper. "With me." It almost sounded like she was begging.

"I- …I know." Macie responded softly. "You've already proved it. And I trust. Trust that- I am safe with... You." And the words were… mostly true.

Their short journey from the spider bakery demonstrated several times over that Toriel cared deeply for Macie's safety.

The guardian of the Ruins had already defended Macie against several smaller monsters. She had scorched the ground where a frog-monster had stood bravely and threateningly against the human (the Froggit, as Toriel later clarified, had at the last moment, hopped away to avoid incineration). Another, more gelatinous monster that Macie had the misfortune of stepping in, (though, perhaps it was the Moldsmal that was the misfortunate being - having been stepped on) chose to simply melt into non-existence under the withering stare of Toriel.

Toriel was protecting her, teaching her how to survive down here. Macie was certain of that much.

She had educated Macie on the existence of puzzles during their walk to this little patch of flowers.

"Please adjust yourself to the sight of them," Toriel had said while dragging the reluctant human over a bridge covered in spikes like- spiked bridges were a common occurrence! Heh, well. It's because they were. Common. Puzzles practically littered the Ruins. "Leftover from the war. But puzzles have always been integral to Monster culture, Macie. We pride ourselves on their unique designs!"

Toriel had managed to coax Macie across several other spiked bridges on their path. Though the human's hesitancy and her very-reasonable fear of death by impalement made the entire process slow. Macie tried to feel safe with Toriel. She wanted to relax- to drop her guarded, suspicious behavior. But then- what she said before-

"Macie... for humans to leave, they must take the soul of the strongest monster down here. A boss-monster. Asgore is the last boss monster."

The words echoed in her mind like a cursed prophecy. How could she relax after hearing that? Knowing immediately what those words implied. If she wanted to get out here- well... she wasn't getting out of here. Asgore's soul was the only ticket out and it was only good for one human. And that human, she decided, would be Frisk.

It was an impossible choice. Kill the monster that both threatened war against humanity and had enough power to free Frisk. Or be killed by the monsters so that her soul could break the barrier trapping everyone and restart a war so terrible it had been excised from humanities' collective memory.

How could she relax knowing-

The yellow flowers bobbed around Macie's legs in an odd sort of dance, pulling the human from her thoughts, as a soft breeze whirled around the dark cavern. Macie removed her gaze from the tall goat-monster and scanned the crumbling columns around them. Beside a half-standing pillar, tangled in vines, she spotted her bag.

Pushing to her feet, Macie stepped towards her belongings. Vines coiled around the straps of her bag and acted reluctant to let go when Macie gave the sack a rough yank. The green tendrils ultimately uncoiled themselves and dropped to the floor with dull, soundless thuds. It was strange- how quickly the plant-life had grown around her things. She'd only fallen… what? Yesterday, according to Toriel.

The plant writhed at her feet in thick, thorny, vegetal ropes. She shivered and kicked the tendrils away before darting back towards Toriel.

"You have found what you are looking for?"

Flipping open the bag, Macie rummaged through her items. Everything accounted for. She threaded her arms through the canvas straps and gave Toriel a jerky nod. "Yeah- most everything." The only thing left to find was Frisk and they definitely would not be hiding in her bag.

Toriel hummed in response and poked a hand into the thatched basket she'd previously abandoned. Macie's eyes fell into the container, landing on the mollusks rolling around the basket's bottom. She turned her head in confusion, sending a questioning stare up towards the Caretaker.

"Uh, starting a collection?"

Toriel let out a girlish giggle, somewhat embarrassed. "Oh! Yes. For our dinner: Snail pie. Though I will need to find a few more." Macie pinched her lips together uncertain how to answer. Well- she knew how to answer, but telling her hostess, "ew, no thank you" didn't seem like the right response.

Her indigo eyes spotted a lone snail peering up at them from the flowers. She clenched her jaw, plucked it from the ground, and dropped the creature into Toriel's basket with the others. When in Rome …or... the Underground, she thought, pressing her lips tighter to smother the would-be-scowl forming on her face. Macie shot the monstress another too-wide smile and wiped her slimed-fingers against the fabric of her jacket.

The beginnings of a smile peaked at the corners of Toriel's mouth, gradually growing before the expression took over her entire face. She looked at the human with fondness. Her amber eyes glittered. "Oh! We can look in my favorite spots- they are always full of snails!"

The fangs in Toriel's radiant smile, the fangs that had made her entire body shiver in terror, no longer looked so terrible. Macie found her self momentarily awed. She found herself dazzled by the warm cheer Toriel suddenly emanated. What absolute luck Macie had: to stumble upon such a creature in a place where humans were sooner cracked open for the soul inside.

Macie looped a tentative arm into the basket-free arm of Toriel. The action's attempted affection seemed to fill the monstress with even more joy. Toriel happily pulled the human tight against her.

"Woa-AH-ck!" A thorned tendril clenched at Macie's ankle, digging into her skin through the fabric of her pants. "Uhg." Macie leaned heavily against Toriel's side as she clicked the clinging vine away. "-gah, Sorry. These plants are so- uhg- clingy!" Macie kicked again and the vine seemed to recoiled angrily. The glow of Toriel's smile faltered. The monster quickly scanned the room. Macie did not notice.

"They can sometimes, um-" Toriel pulled Macie away from the roiling foliage. "- be that way. Let us go." Macie steadied herself against her much larger companion, grabbing at the monstress's forearm as it wrapped around her waist protectively.

Angry, black eyes watched as Toriel near-dragged the human away from that room.

Once our of earshot a shrill voice hissed.

"You should be dead."

A/N:

This chapter felt a bit clunky as I wanted to focus more on Macie learning what she needed to survive underground rather than give a play-by-play on her walk with Toriel through the Ruins. The result? Macie sits in some flowers and thinks about recent events while Toriel awkwardly tries to hang out with her. Uhg.

ArtsyReader, thanks for the review (I really, really appreciate it)! That being said. I planted some corn in this story and it's gonna to show up sooner or later. You have been warned...