Frisk examined the tall creature in front of them.
He looked like a sort of anthropomorphic goat. He was extremely tall and imposing but his face seemed like one you could trust. He wore a beard that fit him quite well and his clothes were both good looking and very class.
It didn't take the human very long to manage to connect the dots together, he was most certainly one of those monsters Chara had mentioned previously. He certainly had the looks for it and he did seem to be quite nice to them.
However, considering that Chara had made it clear they didn't want them anywhere near monsters, this whole situation was most likely something they wouldn't appreciate when they would come back.
Realising that they still hadn't answered the monster's question, Frisk finally told him their name.
"Frisk ? That's a nice name." The bearded monster smiled at them as he made his comment. "I am Asgore." He added.
As he was trying to avoid scaring off the child, Asgore did not say anything about his royal status.
"Tell me Frisk, how did you end up here ? For how long have you been there ?" Asgore didn't want to engage the subject directly but he was quite worried about the injuries he could see on Frisk's lower body. Those couldn't have been older than a few days old, maybe less. How did they get those ?
The human child lowered their head, they did not answer the king.
They had accepted all of this so that Chara wouldn't hurt them again. By talking to this monster, they would be going against what Chara wanted. As much as the other child's fears were totally irrational, that didn't matter as Frisk was not the one who's opinion on the matter counted to Chara. They didn't want to upset them, which made Frisk very reluctant to engage in conversation with the boss monster.
How would they explain themself to Chara if they were to come back now ? Well, they hadn't said anything or given any sign, the monster was the one who found them on his own. It wasn't Frisk's fault. Would Chara see it that way though ?
Besides, how would they even explain that story to him ? If they told him about a tale filled with attempted murder and time travel, they had a hard time imagining that he would believe them. He would probably imagine that they were tired or something and thus weren't in their right mind. It wouldn't achieve anything but to risk getting on Chara's wrong side again. If they weren't already just by having met a monster.
Asgore had half expected something like this, if they wished not to bring up the subject yet, he could give them some time. They had only just met after all. Chara wasn't very talkative either at first, it took some time for things to get better.
"Would you like me to bring you somewhere safer ? We could discuss it over a cup of tea if you wish." The king proposed to the young child.
As much as this sounded good to Frisk, if they were to leave this place with a monster… They were as good as dead.
They were about to try to find an excuse to refuse when they thought of something.
Maybe they were looking at this the wrong way. If Chara didn't trust them because they thought Frisk would hurt monsters, then they could prove them wrong by following this one and well, not doing so ? Then maybe they would see that there was nothing to be afraid of and hopefully would no longer see locking them away as necessary ? Or perhaps this was just wishful thinking.
Well, objectively, Chara's idea to prevent them from getting any chance to be alone with a monster had already failed. Clearly whoever this was wasn't it on Chara's shenanigans. In all cases, the news would spread that they were here wouldn't they ? Chara would have to let them go no matter what at one point or another. They hadn't even done anything wrong, surely not everyone down here would agree with them to be imprisoned for basically no reason for an unspecified amount of time.
This was a tough choice really. Going with him overall made much more sense but disobeying Chara this way was something that every part of their body screamed at them to be a bad idea based of their previous experiences.
Seeing Frisk appeared to be hesitating, Asgore tried to reassure them.
"Don't worry, there's nothing to be afraid of. My wife and i can take care you until you get better. Then you can tell us more about what happened if you wish."
The closest thing Asgore got to an answer was the sound of Frisk's stomach. This made Frisk blush in embarrassement. They had been in the underground for almost an entire day now and they hadn't eaten anything aside from some monster candy.
"If you are hungry, im certain we can find something for you to eat as well." The monster commented with a slight chuckle while rubbing his beard.
Listening to him became more and more tempting by the second. But Frisk did their best to not listen to it and focus on their own safety.
"We already have experience with taking care of human children. You aren't the first human to fall down here." The king explained, still trying to convince Frisk that they could trust him to help them. He only had the purest intentions but it seemed like the human was still doubtful.
This part actually picked up Frisk's attention. Asgore noticed this, and thus began elaborating on it further.
"Perhaps even you have already met them ? They have been spending a lot of time here recently. Their name is Chara, im sure the two of you could be great friends." The king wore a large smile, blissfully unaware of the situation.
That… changed a lot of things… This monster and Chara knew each other ? Not only that, but he had taken care of them before the same way he was proposing to Frisk right now when they first fell.
Was he some sort of caretaker for humans that fell ? If so, then it meant that listening to him might be the better choice after all. If he had taken care of Chara when they fell as well, surely he could convince them to give Frisk a chance ?
They chose to ignore the question about Chara, they'd rather let this question be settled in time. However, they decided themself to grab Asgore's hand. Although they weren't certain this was the right thing to do, they wanted to believe that things could get better this way.
"Thank you, please follow me little one, i will guide you to our home." Their hand felt so tiny in comparison to the size of Asgore's palm. He really made them feel small.
The king guided them out the room. However, before taking the way downstairs, Asgore took the time to take a pen and some paper.
He wrote down a sort of note. Frisk couldn't see what it was about, but the boss monster took his time to finish it and stick it above the staircase before apologising. "Im sorry for the delay. Are you ready to go ?"
They still weren't quite certain of what they were doing. But they did want things to change for the better, and this felt like a more logical course of action than merely staying here. They were still quite apprehensive of what Chara would think or do when they inevitably learned about this. Frisk just hoped that they wouldn't do anything… reckless.
Somehow, they felt a bit sorry for them despite everything. They had clearly taken a lot of effort into trying to keep them away from monsters, only for it to amount to nothing in the end.
Frisk took one last look behind them before disappearing downstairs, holding Asgore's hand as he took them towards the unknown.
Chara wore a frown as they once again went back through the ruins. It would be a lie to say that they weren't a bit annoyed, but they were also curious of what Frisk was on about.
Golden spinning things ? What did that even mean ?
Chara believed that they would have noticed if there were some big stars floating above the ground in the ruins like Frisk described.
Thinking about it made them realise that the human had never given them any indication of their size either. They didn't even know if they were meant to be looking for something the size of a pebble or the size of a grown adult which made the search for it all the more difficult.
What were they even doing here ? Why did they even bother with this ? Truth was they weren't quite sure themself. It was probably some weird mixture of curiosity and wanting to verify if the human was lying to them.
They said there was one near the stairs next to where they fell, that was where they'd get the verdict.
The first fallen human passed by some of the puzzles they had reactivated earlier. They should probably clean up some of this mess. Especially the one that was tainted with Frisk's now dried blood. If anyone passed there in the future, they would ask themself some serious questions about what went down in this place.
They'd deal with it later, for now they had something else on their mind.
When Chara finally made it to the room Frisk had mentioned, they went down the stairs to be greeted by… nothing.
They looked behind them to see if they had missed it, they still couldn't notice anything close to a golden spinning object with four points.
Maybe it was just small as they had wondered earlier, it was a bit early to jump to conclusions for now. Chara tried to look more carefully and even went through the room a second time after failing to see anything the first time.
But no matter how hard they looked, there was nothing to be found. They had to come to the conclusion : Whatever Frisk was talking about did not exist. Just as they had thought when they first heard it. They would have known if such things existed.
Despite this, Chara was still unable to understand why the human had lied to them. What did they have to gain by wasting their time like that ?
They had a bad feeling about this.
Chara ended up choosing to simply go back now and confront Frisk about the inexistence of those star thingies they had rumbled about as if it was some important detail one way or another.
When they made their back to the residence, they spotted a note around the stairs. This made their previous bad feeling double in strength. Who left that here ? The human ? Did they lie to them in order to escape ? But they why didn't they leave while they were in New Home ? Why now ?
They quickly rushed to take the note and read it.
They froze when they recognised the handwriting of their adoptive father.
"Howdy Chara, it seems we have missed each other. When i made I here, you were nowhere around. However, inside of this home, i found one of your kind !" Chara winced as they read this… This couldn't be happening, not after all they went through...
They kept reading.
"They were afraid and seemingly hurt, so i took them with me back to New Home to help them. Have you by any chance already got the chance to meet them ? I believe you could get along nicely."
No... nonono... No ! Why did things have to do this way ?
They couldn't believe this… How could they get so unlucky ?
Chara went on to check on Frisk, and as they expected, they found nothing but an empty room with no one inside.
So much for listening to them wasn't it ? It was just as Chara expected. They were only obedient for as long as it suited them. The moment they felt like they had more to gain by not obeying them, suddenly they didn't care about their promise anymore.
This was bad, it was really bad, Frisk had been found after all and they were alone with Asgore, a boss monster and the man they saw like a father. If Frisk dared to lay a finger on him they'd regret it for a very long time.
...What were they meant to do now ? Just go back to New Home as well ? They had no reason to be here anymore and the thought of leaving Frisk alone there was one they couldn't bear.
Damn it… Why couldn't things just go their way for once ? Chara hurried themself downstairs, they had to find them both as quickly as possible.
Frisk put one of their fingers in the water, it was very cold.
They didn't know what else they were expecting really, considering that they had gotten in this boat from Snowdin, which did not have a particularly hot climate. They put their finger back out and dried it by shaking it a little bit then rubbing it on their shirt, their clothes were already partially torn anyway so they weren't really worried about dirtying them..
"Tra la la. The storm will let its place to a calmer breeze. " The river person spoke in prose. It made Frisk tilt their head a bit but they didn't really think much more of it.
They found it rather odd that they were hiding their face behind this much clothing. Or maybe it was part of them and not actual clothing ? Their knowledge on how monsters worked was still very limited.
They had only met two aside from Asgore and the river person when the furry monster showed them the way to Snowdin town. Asgore had told them that this was due to some sort of festivity going on in a nearby place called "Waterfall" and that most of Snowdin had gone there for the duration of it.
What few monsters they did see looked quite different from Asgore. One was a blind dog who could only see people by sensing the movements of their 'souls'. He addressed Asgore very politely. Frisk asked themself if being this polite was the norm among monsters down here.
Afterwards, they asked Asgore about how this whole 'soul' thing worked. They had heard a little bit about it from Chara but the concept of it was still confusing.
He explained to them that one's soul was the culmination of their being. The nature of what a soul was at its most essential was unknown but it was as important for a human as their heart. Asgore explained to them that humans like them had very strong souls compared to monsters without elaborating further. Unaware that Frisk had already been told about the barrier and what it took to pass through it, he had decided to leave this detail out until he considered that they were ready to hear it.
The second monster they had seen was a bear inside of Snowdin that had started making some type of comment about politics and a king as they passed by before Asgore for some reason must have made some sort of sign to him that they hadn't seen as the bear never finished his comment for whatever reason, instead starting a small talk about overpopulation in 'the city' and waving them goodbye.
As all the monsters they had seen so far were some type of anthropomorphic animals, Frisk had assumed that this was common for monsters. This assumption was put into question when Asgore told them that they could arrive quicker by taking a boat, and that they saw the river person.
Perhaps they also looked like an animal but was just hiding behind this costume, perhaps not, Frisk didn't know better and they felt like asking would be rude so they just sat in the boat and waited as the tall monster asked if they could be transported to somewhere named 'Hotland'. Frisk was getting lost with all these names.
Despite the way it looked, this boat was actually very solid, it was transporting three people including Asgore and yet it didn't seem to be slowed down by the weight it was carrying.
Finally, the boat slowed down as it reached destination.
"Tra la la. Please come again someday. Or maybe not." The river person told them as they got off the boat. Frisk noticed that they suddenly felt much hotter, it seemed that this place wore its name pretty well.
"We are almost there. A couple elevators will lead us to New Home now." The king explained as he led the way forward passing by some sort of laboratory, instead prompting them to follow him into an elevator cage. The bearded monster pressed a button after a surprisingly short time, it opened next to an odd building.
The main hall of it felt surprisingly empty. Were there usually more people here too ? Before Frisk could ask themself more questions, they had reached another elevator cage.
"Are you tired ?" Asgore asked them when he saw that they were starting to slow down.
"No im fine." They responded. "Im just looking around."
"Oh." The boss monster smiled. "Well the underground is full of interesting places, perhaps I could give you a tour sometime if you want." He proposed as the elevator reached its destination.
It wasn't more than two minutes before they got to another elevator.
Why did this place have so many elevators ?
"Hotland, the Core and New Home are all organised vertically on top of each other." Asgore answered, having guessed what question they were asking themself after seeing their face as they entered the next elevator cage. "This one leads to New Home. It is the last one." He added as they began ascending.
The ambiance of New Home was very different from the rest of what they had seen of the underground. It wasn't very colored and each of their steps resonated through the long corridors.
Finally, they saw what they could only assume was the place Asgore had wanted to bring them to. The first thing that they noticed was that it looked strangely familiar. From the outside, it was very similar to the house in the ruins they had been in previously.
Asgore knocked on the door and Frisk reflexively hid behind him.
"There's no need to be shy Frisk. Come out and say hi." He reassured them. Frisk peeked their head from behind Asgore as the door opened to reveal a lady that looked fairly similar to him. They could only assume that this was Asgore's wife as they looked like they were the same type of monster.
She didn't notice them at first.
"Did you find Chara ?" She asked Asgore. Frisk was intrigued to see Chara being brought up again. Was Asgore supposed to be searching for them ? They felt like they were missing a piece of the story here.
"No, but i have found something very special instead." He gave Frisk a little pat on the head and encouraged them to show themself.
Frisk awkwardly stepped forward and timidly gave the monster lady a little wave.
"Oh dear…" Toriel exclaimed as she saw Frisk. She certainly hadn't been expecting this to happen today of all things. Another human child...
"Greetings my child, i am Toriel." She quickly got back her manners and introduced herself properly. "I hope that you can enjoy yourself down here, you may stay here for as long as you'd like".
Wow, Chara hadn't been exagerating when they said monsters were nicer than humans. She had met them merely ten seconds ago and she was already offering them to stay for as long as they wished ? She didn't even know their name yet !
They were all being so nice to them… even though their kind had locked them all down here and that the only way Frisk could leave would by murdering one of them.
"Do you still have some remaining slices of pie ? I am certain that Frisk needs to recover some energy." Asgore asked the queen with his hand on Frisk's right shoulder. Toriel took a second to process that Frisk must be the name of the young human.
"Oh, of course." Toriel quickly turned around, she took the path on the left after entering the house. Just as she was about to leave Frisk's vision, she stopped and asked her husband another question.
"Can you bring Frisk to the kids' room ? They might want to take a nap afterwards." She suggested.
Frisk was about to protest as they considered that they were way too old to take naps like a baby, but a combinaison of not wanting to complain to people who were being so nice to them and not having gotten very good sleep on the floor last night made them decide to consider it after all.
Asgore led them inside and towards a room on the right. Frisk noticed whilst passing by that this home really did look a lot like the one in the ruins, they looked behind them for a moment before entering the room. It was a pretty messy room with a few toys but mostly just drawings laying around everywhere. There were two beds that looked pretty comfortable, the fact that the sheets were not properly laid indicated that this room was not vacant.
This made Frisk turn to Asgore, wondering if it was really okay for them to be here. The king invited them to climb on one of them, believing his kids wouldn't mind their room being occupied for a few hours at most.
They obliged and got on the closest bed, they still felt uncomfortable knowing that this was somebody else's but that worry faded away the moment Toriel got back into view with a plate containing a slice of delicious looking pie.
Right after posing it next to them, she suddenly remembered something.
"You don't have any allergies do you ?" The queen asked them, wondering wether what she had brought them was actually something edible for them.
As far as Frisk knew, they didn't think that they were allergic to anything.
"I don't think so." They answered, this was actually the first time she heard their voice. "what is in this ?" Frisk added while pointing at the pie. It did look tasty but they were unsure what monster cuisine was like.
"It is butterscotch-cinnamon pie, i often make snail pie as well but i'll hold off on it for now." She explained. Frisk had to admit to themself than the idea of snail pie didn't sound very good. The one in front of them however...
They took a bit of the pie and immediately smiled. It was as good as good at it looked. With that, Toriel and Asgore left them alone to finish their food for a while.
Once they were done, Frisk laid backwards for a bit. They had a difficult time to believe how much better things had gotten for them in the span of a couple hours. From being locked away in an abandoned room, they traveled through the whole underground and now had a place to stay and people who looked out for them. Even if all of this took place in such a short time, they felt like it had been much longer.
Frisk took a few long breaths and closed their eyes, before they even realised it, they were falling asleep.