Note: Next chapter will be released later this week!


Chapter 8

"Frisk?!... FRISK?" Toriel was calling out to him when Frisk came back into his senses. She had already opened the front door of her house and was already inside. Toriel noticed that Frisk was deep in thought for the whole time. "Is something wrong, Frisk? You seem to have something on your mind."

"No, it's nothing, Toriel. I'm okay" Frisk reassured Toriel as he came inside her house. "It's okay. I really am fine."

Frisk took a good look inside the house this time, as he was too busy looking for Toriel the last time.

Frisk noticed that there were pictures of different monsters that he did not recognize. "This place must be some sort of used castle." Frisk thought as he observed the large variety of ruined walls and towers around the big mansion-like structure.

No wonder why there were so many ruins near the mansion-like structure. It had not looked like a castle at first glance, because a lot of parts of it were damaged and unrecognizable.

Frisk, however, did not care about the fact whether it was a ruined castle or not. He cared about escaping the monster realm more than anything.

Frisk then looked around to see where Toriel was. She was not there for him to see, but Frisk knew that she was somewhere in the house.

"What would you like for dinner, Frisk?" Toriel inquired Frisk as he looked at the sunset through a window. "Butterscotch and cinnamon."

Frisk got excited at the mention of cinnamon. Frisk LOVED cinnamon rolls. He first had cinnamon rolls when he was in a study session with Jack and Rachel.

Rachel prepared very good food, which Frisk continuously complimented and admired her for. He always liked her homemade cinnamon rolls.

"I'd love to have some cinnamon rolls." Frisk replied with a smile on his face.

"Okay, Frisk." Toriel nodded. "It will take a few minutes. Take a seat in the living room while I prepare your meal."

Toriel trotted towards the kitchen right after she mentioned that.

Frisk knew exactly where the living room was as he had wandered around in the house before. "This is exceptionally small for a castle to be honest." Frisk thought as he relaxed on a comfy sofa in the living room. There was no TV in the living room. There were many bookshelves.

Frisk figured that Toriel was a book lover. He got up from the sofa to check if there were any books with helpful information in the bookshelves. He looked through it for a bit, and realized that there were only novels and recipe books in the bookshelves.

Frisk gave out a disappointed sigh and then went back to sit on the sofa again. It took only a few minutes for Toriel to come in the living room.

"Dinner's ready, Frisk." Toriel informed him.

Frisk then followed the female goat monster to the dining room. The dining room had three chairs in total. Frisk thought that it was strange for a monster who lived alone to have three chairs.

"Do you have guests that often?" Frisk asked as he seated himself.

"Well, not really." Toriel answered as she did the same. "I just keep these just in case."

Frisk did not say anything back, because he had no words to speak. He was still thinking about asking Toriel for some information on how to get out of the monster realm.

Frisk did not want to ask for more than Toriel had provided him. But at the same time, he did not want to be stuck in the monster realm forever. His thoughts were conflicting as the silence carried on.

"Frisk." Toriel broke the silence, calling his name. "Aren't you going to eat your cinnamon rolls?"

Frisk did not seem to hear what Toriel just said. He was too absorbed in thought to hear what she said. She noticed this.

"Um…. Frisk?" Toriel was getting worried. "What's the matter?"

Frisk flinched at the sound of Toriel's slightly raised voice.

"What?...Yeah…..I'm okay." Frisk declared.

It was obvious to Toriel that Frisk had been hiding something from her. She had thought that Frisk was just frightened because of his second encounter with Flowey, as he would have been dead if she had not showed up at the right time.

"Don't worry, Frisk… Everything will be alright." Toriel assured Frisk.

"Uh… Okay?" Frisk was confused about Toriel's assurance, but pretended to know what she was talking about.

Frisk then took his first bite from his cinnamon roll. He lightened up as soon as the cinnamon roll touched his taste buds. It was a long time since he last tasted a cinnamon roll.

Frisk saw Toriel eat something that looked like a sort of bun. But it was very different from the buns that humans made.

"What is that, Toriel? It looks like a totally different kind of bun. It is totally different from the ones that we humans made."

"Yes, this is a bun made by a monster. It's very delicious. Wanna try some?"

"Well, sure, why not." Frisk complied with Toriel's offer.

"Okay here you go." Toriel gave one of the buns she had.

Frisk noticed that the bun that Toriel gave him smelled a bit strange.

"What's this smell?" Frisk asked.

"Oh, it's the smell of bugs. You should try it. It tastes just like chicken!"

Frisk immediately gave it back to Toriel. Toriel could clearly see that Frisk was completely disgusted.

"Eww…. I can't eat that." Frisk declared, filled with disgust.

"Huh? You won't eat it?" Toriel looked puzzled. "We had other humans here before. Some of them liked the bug bun."

Frisk got shocked by the sudden revelation. "There WERE humans other than me? Does this mean that Flowey really killed countless of them?" Frisk thought. His expression turned into a more serious one as he looked directly into Toriel's eyes.

"So…. Did…. Did Flowey kill all of them?" Frisk asked.

"No, not really. Though he did kill one or two humans who fell here before." Toriel answered.

Frisk believed what she said, because she did not seem like she was lying about it. It raised yet another question in Frisk's mind.

"Did… Did you meet them like you met me?" Frisk asked a question that he had been holding inside.

"Yes… Yes I did..." Toriel said as she tried her best to hold back her tears. "But… But… They all..."

Toriel could not finish the sentence. Frisk figured that it would be better to not ask her about it further. Before he knew it, his plate was empty and had run out of cinnamon rolls to eat.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments. Frisk found it very difficult to break the silence. Toriel seemed very sad about something. "Something might have happened that she's not willing to tell me." Frisk thought.

"I...I have to go check on Daz and Dolo. I wanna see how they're doing now." Toriel finally broke the silence with a weak voice.

"Can I come?" Frisk politely asked her.

"S...Sure you can come, Frisk." Toriel said with a forced smile.

They both got up at the same time and drank some water from the water tank near the sink. Soon, they made their way to the front door, and Toriel opened it. It was already night.

"Oh right..." Toriel said, remembering that she forgot to bring her lamp with her. "I'll go get my lamp real quick. Stay here."

Toriel quickly hurried upstairs, leaving Frisk at the front door. "I wonder if Daz and Dolo are okay, with all that fighting that they just went through… Because of me." Frisk thought as he waited for the female goat monster at the front door. He looked outside. It was pitch black outside, with no visibility whatsoever, except for the light provided by Toriel's house. It was obvious why it was pitch black there. No one lived in the neighborhood. It was all ruins.

And Toriel had been living there all alone. With no neighbors, no one to talk to regularly. Frisk felt sorry for Toriel. She had been bearing it all along. "If I was in Toriel's shoes, I would have gone crazy by now." Frisk thought. He looked at the sky. There was not a single star in sight. That was the only thing that was 'normal' here, in this dimension.

It did not take too long for Toriel to come trotting downstairs. She looked like she came as fast as she could.

"Sorry, I'm a bit late." Toriel said. "I forgot where I put the lamp, so I spent some time looking for it."

"No, not at all." Frisk assured Toriel. "There is nothing to be sorry about…. Shall we go now?"

"Yes. Let's go." Toriel said as she nodded.

Toriel held out the lamp as they started to walk. There was an awkward silence again. Frisk felt very uncomfortable about it. Frisk kept thinking about topics to talk about, but he could not think of any. He thought about asking Toriel how to get out of there, but she seemed like she was not in the right mood to reveal it to him, so, he stayed silent.

"You know, Frisk..." Toriel started to say something. "I have been thinking of this for a while, but..."

"But?" Frisk was puzzled. "What is it?"

"Would… would you come live with me?" Toriel managed to get the words that she had been hiding to her mouth. "We will have a peaceful life here. No one… No one can bother you here. You'll be safe here, Frisk. There will not be any reason to fight nor risk your life."

Frisk stayed silent for a while. He had to wait until Toriel's words sunk into his brain. He shook his head in disagreement. Toriel had already known his answer because of his expression.

"I'm sorry, Toriel… But, I can't stay here for much longer… I have to get back home."

Toriel looked definitely upset because of Frisk's answer.

"No, there is no way that you can escape Underground, Frisk, I already told you that. "

"Underground?" Frisk asked, forgetting that he had been underground the whole time.

"Yes, that's what we call this realm. Underground." Toriel said. "Because this place is still Underground below earth. Even though this is a dimension made out of pure magic."

"Huh?" Frisk was puzzled by Toriel's explanation. "What do you mean? It doesn't look like it's actually underground."

"That's because of the magic that was put here. This underground portion is removed from the real world and is replaced with the magical one, that has the barrier surrounding it. "

"Then how is it able to make humans fall in here?"

"The magic of both the barrier and this dimension is very unstable, so… Sometimes it shoots up parts of the dimension to the Surface, from what we analysed. That's what's causing humans to fall into this dimension. They fall through these 'holes'. "

"In that case, shouldn't there be parts of the dimension everywhere? From what I have known, there are no people who have disappeared in other locations. The only place where people disappeared is Prairia Mountain."

"No, from what we know, it seems to be shooting up parts of the dimension from this area. We suspect that it was because both the dimension and the barrier were made here. There is some anomaly in the barrier that causes this behaviour, but we haven't found out exactly what yet. Well, anyways, as I was saying, you can't escape from here because of the barrier that traps us all. I need you to understand that, Frisk."

"I do understand that it would be hard to esca-"

"No, Frisk. You don't get it… If you try to leave Underground, you probably will die. Because… Because there are a lot of monsters like Flowey who would be itching to kill you out there. Even if you do manage to avoid them, you CAN'T break the barrier."

Before Frisk could say anything else, they reached a brightly-lit house. Both of them had been too busy to notice the brightly-lit house from a distance. Frisk decided to not say anything.

Toriel knocked on the front door a few times.

"Coming!" a familiar voice answered.

It took a few minutes for someone to open the door. The door opened slowly. The one who was standing behind the door was one of the monsters that Toriel had entrusted Daz and Dolo to. The monster looked like a human girl, the only difference was that it had cat ears and a tail. She had no fur, unlike Toriel, who was covered in fur. The cat monster had medium black hair and wore a black tank top and black long tights. She was slightly shorter than Frisk. She stared at Frisk and Toriel with her bright brown eyes. Frisk was very surprised to see that there were monsters who were so close to humans in appearance. "There must be some connection between humans and monsters." Frisk thought.

"Oh hey Toriel!" The humanoid cat monster spoke.

Frisk had the expression that pretty much said 'Nothing can surprise me anymore.' Frisk stayed silent, without mentioning a word. The humanoid cat monster then spotted Frisk right away and moved closer to him.

"Hey, you were there back then weren't you? I like humans." The cat monster declared as she brushed against Frisk. "We all love humans here."

"Catty, stop it." Toriel said as she gently pushed the cat monster away from Frisk. "You honestly love humans too much."

"Awww…. You always push me away like that… No fair." Catty said in a disappointed tone. "...Well, anyway, come inside."

Frisk felt a little weirded out by Catty's behaviour towards him. "There are all sorts of monsters, I see." Frisk thought as he went inside the house. Toriel followed him inside. Catty did the same. They were inside a small hall that had 4 closed doors. It was very strange for a house. Catty closed the door behind them.

"Oh and by the way..." Catty turned to Frisk. "My name is Catalina. My friends call me Catty. Nice to meet you… Uh..."

"Frisk.." Frisk answered. "My name is Frisk. Nice to meet you two, Catty."

Catty and Frisk shook each others' hands. Catty smiled at Frisk, who then forced a smile on his face. Frisk did not know what expression to make on his face.

"How're they doing now?" Toriel asked.

"They're okay, we were able to save them from danger at least." Catty answered. "Though they're not awake yet."

"I see…" Toriel sighed.

She knew that both Daz and Dolo went through all this trouble to save Frisk from danger. Frisk was the first human that the duo was successfully able to protect.

"They're awake! " Another cat monster came bursting out of the room to the left side. "Both of them… Are finally awake!"

"That's great news!" Toriel said, with a smile lighting up on her face. "Thank god, they're safe."

"Come inside." The other cat monster said, referring to both Frisk, Toriel and Catty.

"I saw you with Daz and Dolo earlier today. You looked like you were trying to protect them. That was cool." The cat monster praised Frisk as they entered the room.

"Oh and by the way, Frisk." Catty said as she got close to the other cat monster. "This is my sister Saphhira. I always call her Sap."

"Oh, my name is Frisk." Frisk said as he shook hands with Sapphira. "Nice to meet you, Sap."

"It's nice to meet you as well, Frisk. I am sorry if my younger sister bothered you in any way. She's such a goofball." Sapphira giggled as she referred to her younger sister Catty.

Sapphira had medium length auburn hair, She was wearing a white tank top and white long tights. She stared at Frisk with her brown eyes.

Frisk glanced at Catty, who was frowning at the statement, but never said anything back.

The room was medium sized and there were a few pictures that were hanging on the wall. There were several types of monsters in each of the framed pictures that were hung on the wall. And then, Frisk's glance at two beds near the corner of the wall. Daz and Dolo were on those beds, unable to get up.

Frisk and the others went up to Daz and Dolo. They looked weak. It was to be expected since they were defeated, and almost killed in a fearsome battle with Flowey.

"Hey guys." Frisk said, referring to Daz and Dolo. "How're you feeling now?"

"We're doing okay. It's good that you're unharmed." Daz said as he smiled at the human.

"Well, it was thanks to you guys and Toriel. I can't thank you enough for that." Frisk said, filled with gratitude towards his saviors. "Really, thank you."

"Hah." Daz giggled. "Don't mention it, human. We just didn't wanna see anyone else dying here."

"Yeah, don't mention it." Dolo said in a weaker voice.

"But…. You guys were injured that much because of me!" Frisk finally released his pent up guilt. "If… If… I wasn't there, you guys wouldn't have been hurt."

"Nah, don't worry about it, human. We just did our duty." Daz said with a broad smile on his face.

"I agree with Daz. Don't be so hard on yourself. We chose to do this on our own." Dolo said.

"Yeah, Frisk. Don't blame yourself. They…. They did it on their own accord. You're not to blame for this. I am so sorry I was late. I took too much time repairing the seal. Someone broke it." Toriel said, with a guilty conscience.

"What did you say, Tori?!" Daz's eyes widened as he said that. "The seal..."

"Yes, a part of it was destroyed." Toriel said, filled with worry.

"That's impossible!" Dolo said. "No one can do that. No one should be able to do it."

Frisk could sense the fear oozing out of the three of them. This made Frisk very uncomfortable even though he did not know what they were talking about.

"Do you have any idea who broke it?" Daz inquired.

"No, we haven't found out who the culprit is yet.. We're still investigating." Toriel said.

Frisk suddenly started to feel sleepy during this part of the conversation. Catty, who was listening to the conversation the whole time, noticed that Frisk was sleepy.

"Frisk, you're feeling sleepy." Catty whispered into Frisk's ears.

Frisk got startled for a bit and glanced at Catty.

"Come with me, Frisk. I will give you a place to sleep." Catty said in a whispering tone.

They got out of the room and wall in the small hall again. Toriel and the others did not even seem to notice Frisk because they were too absorbed in their conversation. They entered the room to the right. This room did not have any picture frames, to Frisk's surprise. Frisk saw one bed near the right corner of the room.

"There, Frisk… You can sleep there tonight... Call me if you need any help." Catty said in a kind tone.

Frisk laid down on the bed. It felt very comfortable to Frisk. And he watched Catty as she walked out of the room and closed the door. He then slowly fell asleep.