Herotale

First World: Pacifist Run.

Chapter 1: My poor child.

-Auch-you say when you finally awake from the fall.

Slowly and with a bit of difficulty, you open your eyes. In front of you there is only the light that comes from the surface, is so bright that you need to put a hand over your eyes to not hurt them. Your body hurts a little, but you feel right. This is too weird, considering that you have fallen from so high. Well, at least, that means that you´re lucky. You know you could die from that big fall or got hurt, so you´re really happy that you´re fine.

Suddenly being aware of the softness beneath you, you stand up and look at the beautiful yellow flowers surrounding you. They look splendid but…why there are blooming here? Wasn't this a type of flowers from the surface?

You look around you and see nothing else but this little space of flowers, blooming at the light that comes in from the big hole high above you. Near the end of the light, there is a (not so dark) way that leads you to a kind of ¨entrance¨ to a different place. You walk near the entrance with slow but determined steps. You really feel a bit scared of all of this, but you know that now you´re here there is no way of going back (because the nearest exit is too high). Through the entrance you can only see an almost completely dark room. Calmly, you pass in and see that there is a flower in the center of the room, where is all the light. You walk to the flower and it looks kind of...strange. It seems like it has a face.

-Howdy! I´m Flowey. Flowey the flower! -says to you with a smile.

-Ah…-you could only say at your disbelief. What the hell was thinking about the person who gave that kind of name to this ¨flower¨? Probably it was just lazy OR didn´t have any sense for naming. At this thought, you feel sorry for the talking flower. Wait a minute! Talking flower?

You look again at the flower and without doubts see its mouth and eyes move, just like it was alive.

-HYAH! -you scream in surprise. Since when flowers can talk and smile just like human beings!?

-Augh, that hurts, you know? -states Flowey after your scream, touching its ¨head¨ with its leaves as it were hands, trying to recover from what you have just did.

-O-Oh, I-I´m so sorry! -you hurriedly apologize. What a weird feeling is, huh? You´re now talking and apologizing to a flower. Probably nobody will believe you if you told it.

-My, my, it seems like you´re a little confused about all this, so I suppose it´s my duty to make you things clear-pronounces Flowey with a decided expression- Ready? Here we go!

In a blink of an eye, you see a red heart coming out of your body after tinkling a bit with a weird noise, and you scream again, scared of seeing your ¨heart¨ out of you.

-Arsh, stop being so loud! –complaints Flowey at your reaction-That heart is your SOUL, not your truly heart, so don´t be afraid!

Although you still feel scared, you listen carefully to Flowey´s words and look again the shining red heart. That heart is…your SOUL? No many humans believe in the existence of such a thing like a SOUL, but now you´re indeed seeing yours! So…that means that…the horror stories about monsters eating and taking your SOUL out of your body that Itell once told you are true!? At this thought, you start shaking in fear.

-Can see the LV words and the number one besides your name? That´s your actual level, which tells how much strong your SOUL, body and health are-continues saying Flowey ignoring your shaking body- You´re still very weak, but that doesn´t matter. To make your SOUL stronger need to level up!

At hearing the instructive and calm words of Flowey, you stop shaking. There´s no way that such a cute and gentle monster flower that is taking so much of its time to explain you this kind of important things, could harm you or even try kill you by taking your SOUL. You sigh in relief, feeling happy that all Itell´s stories were wrong about the monsters. Now that you think of it…Does all the monsters look like Flowey? That could be a little weird.

-And how can I level up? -you ask, putting out of your mind that strange ideas of a lot of talking flowers like Flowey chatting with you at the same time.

-That´s easy! All you need to do is collect some ¨friendship¨ from monsters-exclaims Flowey with enthusiasm and a bright smile- Here, I´ll give you some, so try to catch as many ¨Friendship Petals¨ as you can!

You assent to Flowey and then you see a lot of ¨Friendship Petals¨ coming near you. At trying to catch the nearest petal that comes to you by raising your arms, you see and feel your heart, no, your SOUL, move and fly to it. It´s just like your mind is controlling it! WOW, it just feels like…magic.

Excited with this new experience, you happily let your heart touch a ¨Friendship Petal¨…but at the moment you do so…you feel an incredible pain running through your whole body. Your SOUL tinkles again and makes a new weird sound, now all the rest of the ¨Friendship Petals¨ are gone. From your mouth comes down a trail of blood and your sight goes a bit blurry. All your strength seems gone in a sec. For a moment, you watch the strange words in front of you and notice that there´s also a line on it. The line is almost completely red with only a bit of yellow and there are some numbers on it. According to it, you have 1/20 HP now…but…what does that even mean? It seems like they are related to your actual ¨state¨ but…you still don´t get it too well. Suddenly, you fall down on your knees and then look at Flowey confused. Then, you see him smirk. Now its smile and eyes looks different…and is just so…terrifying.

-YOU´RE SUCH AN IDIOT-says Flowey to you with a scary expression-IN THIS WORLD, IS KILL OR BE KILLED.

After this words, a lot of its ¨Friendship Petals¨ surrounds you, forming a circle around you so you could no escape…if you could only do so…Now you understand all…Flowey had just tricked you and now…you´re going to die…paying the price for being so foolish…

-DIE-after this single phrase that leads to a maniac laugh from Flowey, its ¨Friendship Petals¨ start to come near to you with the purpose of give you a final strike and kill you.

Without the strength to move so much around, you can only see how the petals comes to you and hear Flowey´s laugh. Your body starts to shake again, filled with FEAR. You´re scared, so scared that you want to cry. You don´t want to die, you really don´t want this to be your end but…it seems like you can´t stop it. You think on everybody. They are probably worried about you now. How worried and sad will they feel if you never come back? You feel sorry for them…You feel sorry for not even being able to tell them a ¨Goodbye¨…You feel sorry for not come back to them just as you promised to yourself…You feel sorry for couldn´t see them a last time…Now that you´re going to die…all the things you thought…and the feelings you have…doesn´t matter much at all…It´s all just…THE END for you…

Just when all your hope was gone and the petals were just about to touch you, they disappear in the air. Surprised, you look around you and your sight stares for a moment at Flowey who looks very confused and disappointed. All of a sudden, you see a fire ball fly and hit Flowey´s back, making it vanish from your sight (but you don´t see it burn it). Then, you see a new ¨monster¨ in front of you. It looks like a…goat?

-What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth…-says the monster to you, apparently angry about Flowey´s actions.

Now that you see this monster clearly, it seems like is a…female anthropomorphic goat kind monster? It´s kind of weird, but at least at first sight looks gentler and cuter than Flowey, that´s for sure. Right, Flowey! You cannot be so trustful with the monsters down here, or you may got hurt and tricked just like Flowey did to you. Insecure about this new monster´s intentions, you move away a little and keep an eye on her, determined to not let your errors happen again.

-Ah, don´t be afraid, my child-speaks the monster, her voice is soft and sweet, just like a mother´s sounds like. The way she looks at you…seems like she is truly worried about you- I´m TORIEL, and I´m a caretaker at here, the RUINS. I always look around to see if someone have fallen and take care of them.

She kneels down at you, one of her big and fluffy paws cleans the trail of blood coming from your mouth and then she puts the other one over your hair. Suddenly, a bright and warm white energy comes out from her paw and you start to feel better, recovering all your strength. Does this mean that she is…healing you? WOW, you heard from Itell´s stories that all monsters have magic and strange powers, but it´s way too different to hearing it than to feeling it.

-There, you should be fine now-declares Toriel with a smile.

Now you can stand up, you´re no more in pain and don´t have the less trail of blood. WOW, magic is really cool and useful…¨And also dangerous¨-you say to yourself in your mind, you should not easily forget that just a sec ago you were about to die by a monster´s magic. You must be more careful for the next time.

-Now that you´re already alright we can go-Toriel says standing up too- Come, follow me-she reaches you one of her paws.

Still a bit insecure, you look at Toriel´s paws. She TRULY doesn´t seem like a bad monster at all (in comparison to Flowey), besides, she healed you. You´re sure that if she didn´t heal you, you probably would have died here, cold and all alone, so she deserves at least a bit of your trust. You take her paw, determined to trust in Toriel and her good actions for now. You really want to trust without any doubts on her, but that´s impossible for you for a while.

After you take her paw, Toriel leads you through some rooms, all painted with different tones of violet, with different objects and kind of switches all around. While you walk along her side, you watch her more carefully, observing the details of her clothes. ¨She looks like some kind of nun¨-you thought. Her clothes are colored with purple and white, and has some details painted in yellow. Also, there´s a rare symbol on it. It´s a circle with wings on its sides and three triangles down it. What does this symbol means? Is some kind of religious symbol? Because if it is then all her nun like looks make sense. Finally, you two get into another violet room, but there´s only a dummy in it.

-Here in the Underground there´s a lot of monsters and many of them don´t like…humans, you know? -declares Toriel a bit insecure of completing her sentence.

You slowly assent to her, remembering Flowey and its attacks.

-But don´t worry, there´s no need to fight back to them! Many monsters will attack to you but that just because they fear you. There has been so much time since the last time that they saw a human that they are just a bit scared of them, you know? But nobody is really a bad person, so if you ACT in some way during a battle, you can make them stop attacking to you! –says Toriel and then reaches you to the dummy- Come on, try it with this practice dummy.

At the moment you´re near enough to the dummy, you hear the sound that starts a ¨battle¨ again and your SOUL is now out of your body once again. In front of you, there´s a strange screen with no only your name, LV and HP, but also some buttons that say: FIGHT, ACT, ITEM and MERCY. ¨This is getting weirder with every sec that goes on¨-you thought tiredly, but this is all your fault after all. If you haven´t fallen down here, you would never need to face such a rare situation. You sigh at this thought.

Calmly, you pass your hand over the buttons. The ITEM area is empty, so as your pockets. It seems like you can keep some objects inside it. The MERCY area has only two options on it: SPARE and FLEE. By its names and taking into account Toriel´s words, you could imagine perfectly what exactly does each one of the options. You see the FIGHT button with insecurity and decide to not even try to touch it, so now all you need to check is the ACT area that Toriel mentioned. You press the ACT button and then see the words ¨Dummy¨ on it, you press it and then shows some options. You select a talk option and then speak to the dummy (although you feel a bit weird at talking to a silent dummy, at least Flowey talked to you too). When you stop to speak, Toriel prices you and says that now you can SPARE it. ¨Monsters have strong magic and some physical strength, but their SOULS and bodies are kind of weak in comparison to humans¨-you remember Itell´s words. So that´s why there´s a MERCY option in this kind of battles. Humans are way stronger but at the same time weaker than monsters, and monsters don´t always want to take a human´s SOUL, so if they both don´t want to fight, it seems right to stop the meaningless conflict. At understand this, you sigh in relief. There´s a way to not being hurt, so you don´t need to fight, and that´s really a relief. You´re not so strong in battle and you really don´t like to fight, so this is the best option for you.

-Come on, let´s keep going, my child-states Toriel and makes you take her paw again.

Obediently, you follow her through more violet colored rooms but at some point of the way she asks you to stay there for a while and gives you a cell so you can call her if you need her. You try to wait for her as long as you can and sometimes call her just to chat with her, but at the end you get bored and start to walk around the RUINS paths. The RUINS are filled with traps and puzzles, but they are not so difficult for you so you keep going without problem. Sometimes monsters come and attack you, but you always ACT and SPARE them, dodging the attacks that they do so you no get hurt. There are times when their attacks touch you, but you do your best to not get so much damage. And when you can´t found a way to convince them to stop its attacks, you just FLEE. You really don´t want to fight back anyone.

You´re surprised for all the different types of monsters that you have found here in your path. There are really a lot of them and each one has a special magic and way to treat them. You even found a ghost! You never thought that ghosts were monsters, but now that you think of it, ghosts were typical characters of Itell´s stories, so it makes sense. Heh, although none will believe you if you say you saw and talked to a ghost. In the worst of the cases, they may call you crazy.

After a while, you get to a room with some spiders' nets all around and a weird post that says something about a…Spiders´ Bakery? ¨If Efear could see this, she would be in panic¨-you thought, laughing a bit while you imagine the scene. Although all of this is kind of weird and scary, you put some money (that some monsters gave you in your way around here) into the spiders´ net, ¨paying¨ for a donut. You get really surprised at seeing how a little spider comes out of the net and gives you your ¨order¨ and then take the (apparently) delicious donut. You open then that mysterious screen with the buttons and put the donut into the ITEM area. That´s the best way of keeping your ¨healing¨ desert for now. You were really amazed when you first discovered the healing effect that monsters´ food has, but now you´re getting used to it. Every time you may got hurt, all you just need to do is eat some monsters´ food and then all the damage will be gone by its healing power! ¨If Itell were here, he would really love these sweets¨-you thought and then feel a little sad and worried. How many hours have passed away since you fallen? Everybody may be looking for you right now, so you need to hurry up and find Toriel again to ask her if there´s a way to get out of the Underground. Lucky for you, you found Toriel near the spiders´ room.

This new and big violet room has a tree and a beautiful house in it, and it seems it´s Toriel´s home. When you enter the house, there are some mysterious downstairs that catch your attention. Although it´s rude, you feel curious and go downstairs, finding a rare tunnel, but when you try to walk a bit more into it, Toriel stops you and takes you upstairs again. You feel sorry for making her worry about you. She shows you her house and ¨your¨ room, she said she baked a butterscotch cinnamon pie for you (that´s why she asked you in your way here which you liked the most) but it´s too hot to eat it right now, so you should go to sleep a little. You slowly assent to Toriel, not being able to complain to her about her plans of you ¨staying¨ with her at the sight of her bright and cute smile. She strokes your hair and then goes to sit and read a book…When you look at her, you can only think just how much gentle and beautiful she is (for a monster) …She acts and looks just like a mother does…You ask yourself if…your mother maybe was someone like her…

After looking around Toriel´s house, you get into ¨your¨ room. It looks a bit childish for you, but you don´t care at all, so you just go to sleep a bit. You need to go out of here as soon as possible, but you need all your strength to do so, so is better for you need to go out of here as soon as possible, but you need all your strength to do so, so is better for you to take a little rest. When you wake up from your nap, you see something strange in the floor of the room. You get up of the bed and go near it…It seems like it is…a slice of butterscotch cinnamon pie! It really looks delicious, so much that you want to eat it right now, but you don´t. You don´t know exactly why, but you have the feeling that you should not eat it right now, so you open the mysterious screen and put the slice of butterscotch cinnamon pie in the ITEM area.

Your head is filled with only one idea and for it, you need to talk to Toriel. You found her in the same place that she was when you went to sleep, reading a book about snails, she really seems to like it. You don´t want to be rude, so before you ask her about how you can leave the Underground, you first talk a bit with her (principally about her book). Finally, when you think it´s the right moment, you ask her the fatal question. She only responds you with a worried expression and suddenly says:

-A-Am, wait here a bit. I need to do something-and then quickly disappear from your sight.

This is way too strange, so you follow her. She seems to go to that mysterious downstairs that you saw when you first entered her house. You remember that when you tried to go deep inside the ¨tunnel¨ that you found at the end of that downstairs, she stopped you…So…that means the tunnel is…an exit from the RUINS? But then…why would she stop you if you want to go away? She seems to understand your wish to return home, so…why? She is still…a good and trustful monster, …right?

Determined to discover what´s going on, you go downstairs and start to walk through the tunnel until you found Toriel. Now you can only see her back, but she seems really serious, too serious that start to feel nervous and insecure.

-At the end of this tunnel, there´s a gate that leads to the rest of the Underground-states Toriel, her voice is calm and soft although of her seriousness- I´m going to destroy it, so none can escape anymore from the RUINS.

You get shocked with these words. WHY!? Why she´s going to do such a thing? If she just wanted to keep you here, why she should break the only exit to the rest of her ¨world¨? Why she wants to stop you so badly? You cannot understand, you need to stop her.

-Please, go back upstairs, my child-says Toriel and starts to walk deep inside the tunnel.

You follow her, still a bit insecure of what should you do to stop her.

-I have saw so many humans before, just like you-starts to speak Toriel, noticing that you´re following her- They also wanted to escape from here. They all left and ended in the same way…-a long silence comes before she founds the courage to end her sentence-…They are all dead now…They all were killed by the other monsters.

You get stunned again. So…at the end…Itell´s stories weren´t wrong? Monsters…kill and devour humans…for theirs SOULS? ...But…the monsters that have attacked you weren´t so bad, after all, they leave you alone when you showed them that you don´t wanted to fight.

-I´m just trying to protect you, so please…be a good child and return to your room-she says while keep walking, her voice is almost suppliant- This will be my last advertence.

You stay in your position for a while, indecisive of what you should do. You fear at the thought of being killed by a monster…just how it was going to happen when Flowey tricked you…Maybe Toriel is right, you should stay here, it´s a safe place after all…but then…what will happen to them? You…you promised that you will come back soon…although you didn´t tell anyone where you were going to…A promise is something that cannot be easily broken and…if you really go back there…they probably will be very sad…You cannot even imagine how you could live without them…They just so much important to you…You can´t just leave them alone and make them sad because you disappeared. It´s decided: you will return, you must do it, no matter how hard and terrifying your way may be.

You´re filled with determination now, so you have the courage to follow Toriel once again. Guided by the sound of her steps, you reach to a bit small dark violet room and found her standing in front of a big door. It has the same symbol that is on her clothes. She turns back, facing you, and then declares:

-If you really want to go, then fight me, and show that you have the power to survive the trails of the Underground-her serious and decided expression makes you shiver a little.

You don´t want to fight her…and she doesn´t want too but…she thinks that this is the better way to change your mind about leaving the RUINS. This is the only place in the whole Underground where you could live safe and sound, completely in peace, without the necessity to fear the monsters…and without risk of dying by the attack of one of THEM.

-I´m sorry my child, but I just don´t want to lose you again-she murmurs slowly and then a pair of fire balls emerge from her hands.

-THE BATTLE BEGINS-

Sorry for you, it seems like there´s no other way of pass the exit until you face Toriel and her attacks. But you really don´t want to hurt her. She became a truly mother like to you in such a few time and had helped you a lot, you cannot fight her just because you want to return to home! Maybe if you…talk to her…she will understand.

You press ACT and select the ¨talk¨ option, but…you couldn´t think of any conversation topics. What should you say to her? You don´t want to leave her, living here seems fun, but…you need to go back home…because THEY are waiting for you.

Now that your ¨turn¨ have passed, Toriel throws a series of her magic fire balls at you and your SOUL. There are too many of them, but you do your best to avoid the flames. It´s your turn again, what you should do? If talk doesn´t work, there´s only a thing left to try. Filled with hope and determination, you press MERCY and then SPARE. You´re forgiving her for trying to stop you, because at the end…she´s just trying to do what she thinks is the best for you…and you´re happy for it…That´s why you should tell her…

-Toriel, please! I just want to go home! I don´t want to fight you, I really don´t, so please let me go! I promise you that I will do my best to not die like the other humans, so please let's just stop all this, it´s not right!

No response. Although Toriel keeps quiet at your words and looks at you with a serious expression, you still want to believe that you´re doing the right thing…and that your feelings…are changing her mind…

The battle keeps going and with every minute it passes it´s getting harder for you to dodge her attacks. You keep pushing the SPARE button in every of your turns, but you still haven´t any response, which makes you sad. But you stay determined and keep doing so, forgiving her and trying to make her forgive you and let you go.

You´re now really tired but you keep moving as fast as you can. Then, there´s a moment in where you see a fireball coming right straight to you, it seems impossible to dodge so you don´t, decided to take the damage but suddenly…the fireball changes its direction and then disappear in the air. ¨Huh, what was that? ¨-you ask to yourself, confused from what just happened. Toriel´s attacks had never do that until now…so…that means…she´s changing her mind?

As the battle keeps going on, the fireballs starts to avoid you, not even dare to come near you. You take this as a sign and keep pushing SPARE, and then, after a few more turns…Toriel stops attacking you…The room is now in completely silence and none of you both move, not even a bit.

-You could…live here peacefully…I promise I will take care of you…You always will be…happy…-she tries to convince you for a last time, her soft voice and sad request makes you feel sorry about her.

If you were her and experienced such kind of painful situations like seeing someone who you cared so much about just go away…to probably die at the end, you probably would do the same as her. Although you understand her pain, you cannot regret your decision now…

-I appreciate the offer Toriel, I really do but…sorry…I need to go back to the surface…

After you finished your words, comes a new and long silence that is finally broken by Toriel´s response:

-Heh, look at me. After all, I can´t even stop and protect a little child-speaks Toriel with a gloomy voice- I guess this is right…The RUINS can be very boring once you get used to it. It will be wrong to keep a child here.

At hearing her words, a smiles shows on your face and you feel like you want to cry for just how much thankful you´re now. Finally, you made her change her mind, and without fighting her!

-I see I can´t stop you, but please…at least…take this-suddenly, Toriel gives you a fluffy white cloak with yellow details.

You look at the back of the cloak, it has a symbol similar to hers, but different. It has only two golden detailed wings.

-Thank you but…what is it for? -you ask curious and a bit confused.

-This is an enchanted cloak, my child. It will help you stand in the cold or the amazing heat of the places that you will encounter from now on. It can also protect you from some damages-she answers you, giving you a worried smile, tears almost falling from her eyes. Then, as sudden as before, she hugs you and tells you in a low tone- Please, wear this as much as you can…That way no many monsters could notice that you´re a human, my child…

Shyly, you slowly assent to her. You don´t have the power to make any sound, because you´re feeling her pain, the pain that makes her let you go…¨If I haven´t already someone waiting for me…I would have liked staying here with you and be your true child, Toriel…¨-you sadly thought to yourself, you cannot say such a thing, not now, and even less to her. Truth to be told, you don´t deserve so much love and caring from such a good person like her. You don´t, and you never will deserve it.

After Toriel stops holding you in her warm embrace, she starts to walk away back to her home. Before she goes completely away, she requests one last thing from you:

-…And please, don´t come back-her words are filled with so much sadness that makes you feel guiltier about your decision of leaving her, but this was inevitable. You need to come back home, to YOUR home in the surface.

Then, you wear the cloak and open the big door in front of you, starting to walk into what it seems like a longer tunnel. Although every step you take makes you fear a little at the thought that all the monsters will attack you and may try to take your SOUL, you´re still filled with determination. You definitely will come back to the surface, no matter what kind of monsters, puzzles or challenges you should pass to do so.

Toriel looks back at you while you keep walking away and for a moment…she sees true wings on your back…She turns her head, surprised for what she had just saw, but there are no wings on your back anymore. ¨It was probably just an illusion¨-Toriel tells to herself, but then remembers the dream she had the night she found you. A dream where a human child (extremely similar to you) walks proudly through a road that leads to three different doors. The kid had wings on its back, it looked like an angel, but...something in its wings made her shiver a bit. Its first wing was of a pure white, filled with good energy around it. The second wing it was completely black and she could only feel scared at the dark aura that it was emanating.

When she had that dream, she told to herself that was just that: a dream, and that there was nothing to fear, but now...she has found a total different meaning to it. Her ¨dream¨ was a vision of your future, the destiny that have guided you here to the Underground…just like…the prophecy tells. After realizing that, she feels sadder about letting you go. Why such a poor and little child like you…should have to carry such a painful destiny on its shoulders? Why do you ¨must¨ free them…when you are still just a kid? This is not fine, specially knowing that you may fall into the darkness inside you along your trail…You…cannot become…an evil being, right?...

-My poor child…please be safe…and don´t go the wrong way…-murmurs Toriel to the air after you completely left the ruins, putting a hand over her chest and soul, hoping that the destiny you will encounter in your path…don´t make you suffer and cry.

-TO BE CONTINUED-

N.A: Hello, nice to you again! I´ve been kind of not-sick but also not well recently, so I´ve spent a lot time in home with nothing else to do than to entertain myself. During this time, my mom was so worried about me and have been taking so much care of me that I just realized once again in my life how much I love her. So, I wrote this chapter with her in mind while describing the feelings and actions of Toriel. As I said before, this story will be updated very slowly in comparison to my Spanish fanfics, so please, be patient! Without any words left to say: See you!