"Ugh...I...Whah?"
Ginger opened her eyes. All she could see was yellow. She blinked to clear her vision; her eyes felt...weaker. Smaller in her head, even. She wondered why...
Her surroundings finally came into view; she was lying in the bed of golden flowers she'd come to investigate. The Pure One tried to recall what happened...She started a descent down the hole, and then when she passed the point that seemed to blur every so often, that was when she suddenly lost her ability to fly. Why did that happen? How did that happen? It felt as though her wings had been rendered completely useless, like those of a downy owlet.
She still felt off. Thankfully, she wasn't in a great deal of pain, so she couldn't have sustained any major damage, but she felt...different. Her wings felt heavy and cold, her talons were numb, she couldn't feel her tail for some reason, along with perhaps a dozen other foreign sensations...What was wrong with her?
At least she was alive, probably thanks to the flowerbed that had broken her fall. She recalled how nice they had looked; she hoped she hadn't ruined them.
Ginger stood to her feet to take a look at them; the flowers had looked a lot bigger from the halfway point of the hole, but now, they appeared no bigger to her than any dandelion she'd ever come across. Some of the ones in the middle looked somewhat pressed down, but judging by the looks of it, they would spring back to life soon enough.
She turned her gaze upward; the opening in the earth looked to be a good three hundred, or perhaps four hundred feet above, give or take. The redwood trees on the other side of the country were said to be similar in height, but it was still a massive drop. How had she managed to survive such a fall? Sure, the flowers did provide some cushioning, but they were hardly enough to break a fall like such...weren't they?
And how much time had passed since she'd come down here? The faintness of the light coming from above told her that it was still nighttime, so she couldn't have been out for that long. In fact, it looked a lot darker than usual up there. She could barely see any light.
It must have been really dark.
Ah, well, she reasoned, brushing off what seemed superficial. Best not keep everyone waiting.
She spread her wings and leapt into the air for a strong dry takeoff...only to faceplant back into the earth. Now, this was confusing; her wings refused to lift her off of the ground, causing no lift when they flapped. And they still felt heavy, cold, and oddly small...Something was definitely off. Ginger lifted one of her wings to inspect it.
And her eyes widened in shock and in horror.
Her wing-or what was once her wing-was completely void of feathers, and it their place was a layer of pale skin, too thick to belong to any owl. It almost resembled the arm of a...
No. No, no, no, this wasn't really happening. It had to be a dream. Any minute now, she would wake up and find herself back among her avian kindred, right? That was the only reasonable explanation for this! This was impossible! There was no way that she could wake up after descending down a hole to find out that she'd become...
A human?
She pinched herself-nothing changed. She tried to peck herself-she ended up biting herself instead, as evident by the unmistakable toothmarks left on her skin. And as a last resort, she called out to her friends, hoping that her words would work their way out into the real world so that she could be heard.
"Anyone! Kludd! Vaygar! Phillip, buddy? Uklah!? Where are you!? Nyra! Help! Wake me up! Get me out of this place! GET ME OUT!"
...
...
*But nobody came.
Ginger began to hyperventilate, still not fully convinced of what was happening.
"Okay, okay, okay. Calm down..."
She breathed deeply, then began to regain her composition.
"Okay...Think. One minute I was flying down the hole, then when I passed the blurry spot, that was when..."
The blurry spot. That couldn't have been...
The magical barrier spoken of in the legend, had it been?
"No, no, no, it couldn't have been. All that stuff. It's just a story, right? Monsters aren't real! That couldn't have been it..."
Ginger looked up, and she caught sight of what looked to be some sort of...gateway? She drew closer to it, finding herself going down a small corridor until she stood in front of it.
"...This is all just a bad dream," she reassured herself. "Just get it over with. None of this..."
The stone entryway was a soft shade of purple, ancient-looking pillars on either side of it. Just above the doorway was an odd symbol engraved in the stone; three small triangles sitting beneath a larger circle that appeared to have wings. This was no natural formation; somebody made this gateway. Was it a human that crafted it? Or could it have been...
Things were getting bleaker and bleaker by the minute.
"None of this is real," she reminded herself.
I have nothing to lose.
She peaked into the next chamber. From somewhere above, there was a tiny bit of light shining down on...
Another flower. This one was bigger than all the rest, and had a white center, as opposed to the uniform yellow ones of the flowers she fell upon.
Monsters...The stuff of monsters. The things they said really got my mind racing didn't they? Stupid dreams, she thought as she continued into the area, anticipating what something of the sort might look like. She fathomed a giant, black, hairy creature with the tail of an alligator and the head of a boar, readying to devour anything that crossed its path. If that was what these monsters looked like, then she wanted nothing more than to wake up and get out of this place. How long would it be until she came across something the resembled what she'd just-
"Howdy!"
The phantom voice nearly made Ginger jump out of her featherless skin. She turned around, but saw no one. Nothing but that flower.
"Who's there!?" she hollered, acknowledging the presence of...whoever made the greeting. Even without her wings and talons, she refused to go down without a fight.
"I am!"
The voice sounded...a lot less threatening than anything she'd anticipated, high-pitched and perky. She began to walk backwards, inching closer and closer to that-
"I'm down here!"
The voice was coming from almost directly down at her feet now. The Pure-One-in-Training looked down, and she saw the white and yellow flower.
And she screamed.
The cursed thing had a FACE!
"Hey, wait! Where ya goin, buddy!?" the flower called to her as she scrambled to get away from it.
Ginger could barely manage a verbal response, but what came out was what she wanted to come out.
"G-get away! You stay the sprink away from me, you freaky little weed!"
"Me? A freaky little weed? Naw! I'm just your ol' pal, Flowey!"
"'Flowey?'"
"Yep! Flowey the Flower!"
The former Barn Owl was without words. She just fell down a hole, was suddenly a human somehow, and now she was face-to-face with a sentient flower. What would this drug-trip dream come up with next?
"Hmm...You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha?"
"Um...Yes?"
"Golly, you must be so confused. Someone oughta teach you how things work around here, you know? I guess lil' old me will have to do!"
At least Flowey seemed inclined to be of assistance. What he'd be able to provide her with, however, was still in question.
Might as well just roll with it, she told herself. At some point, she'd be back in her nest, and all of this would go away.
"I...guess you can help me out here, if you like."
She was still very skeptical about the situation, but there was little she could think of that could help her out.
"Say no more! Are ya ready?"
"I...guess so."
"Alrighty, then! Here we go!"
"Whoa, whoa, hey! What's going on here!?"
"Don't worry, pal! You'll understand it soon!"
She felt a sudden light feeling where her gizzard used to be, and something appeared before her; a red, heart-shaped...thing.
"...What's this?"
"That's your SOUL, silly! The very culmination of your being!"
That thing was her soul? That's what souls looked like? She didn't think they could persist outside of a living body without killing it. She didn't even think that they could hold a phsycal form, like this one did, much less one so...simple-looking. All it looked like was a red heart, nothing else. It darted back into her chest, and the flower continued its explanation.
"Now, your SOUL starts off weak, but you can make it stronger! And you know how SOULs get stronger?"
"Erm...how?"
"By gaining lots and lots of LOVE! You want some love, don'tcha?"
"What!? No! I don't want love! I want ANSWERS!" she spouted. This was getting a bit too weird for her, now.
"Aw, come on! Just a liiiiittle bit? Who knows? You might learn a thing or two anyway!"
Flowey suddenly summoned an array of small, spinning, white seed-shaped objects. They hovered around the plant.
"Down here, we share love through these here!"
"And, uh...What might those be?"
"Oh, well, they..."
Ginger couldn't quite tell, but she could have sworn she saw the happy-go-lucky face on the flower falter a bit, as though trying to think up an answer.
"They're little, white, uh...'friendliness pellets!'"
"Friendliness. Pellets."
Ginger wasn't so sure she was buying this. Then again, she wasn't really buying anything right at the moment, secretly still hoping that it was all just some crazy nightmare.
"Yeah! Friendliness pellets!"
And as suddenly as they appeared, the "friendliness pellets" began to make their way towards her.
"Move around, why don'tcha? Grab as many as you can!"
Oh, you wish, flower-boy.
The pellets weren't moving very fast, so, despite coming at her from several different directions, she was very able to meander around them as they approached.
The smile on the flower's face seemed to waver yet again. And was that...just the tiniest prick of annoyance in its beady eyes?
"Whoopsie. Looks like you missed 'em, huh buddy? Let's try that again, okay?"
The plant pulled another set of the pellets out of nowhere, and aimed them. This time, they appeared to be moving slightly faster. Ginger had some more trouble avoiding them this time around; her seemingly altered posture and build made her feel clumsy. Despite these things, she kept herself from coming into contact with the foreign objects. Upon her dodge, she gave the plant her own 'evil eye.'
"I've had about enough of these racdrops," she spat, not at all minding her language. "What kind of funny business are you trying to pull?"
"'Funny business?' Is this a joke? Are you braindead?"
Ginger was actually somewhat taken aback by this. Out of everything the flower had said so far, this was what she least expected to come out of its mouth.
Flowey sent up yet another set of his white projectiles.
"Run. Into. The..."
He took a deep breath before continuing to send them at her.
"...friendliness pellets," Flowey finished, another smile plastered on his face.
Ginger's reflexes may have been thrown off some, but it didn't alter the speed of her mind. Right when all of the fast-moving seeds were about to make contact, she let her legs cave in underneath her, ducking and covering as the pellets swerved by above.
"Almost had me there," she teased the plant as she sat up straight on the stone floor.
"Heh...heh...Heh heh heh."
Ginger flashed the plant a victorious smirk...then watched in utter horror as its cutesy face contorted into a devilish image that would make the terrible Kreeth herself cower in fear.
"So...you know what's going on here, do you?" it rasped, its voice suddenly scratchy and crazed. "I should have known you wouldn't cooperate."
"Not in whatever game this is," she replied, standing her ground against the possessed flower. "I had an offish feeling about you from the start, you know that?"
"So, you just wanted to watch me suffer, didn't you?"
"Honestly, no...But in hindsight, it was pretty amusing to watch you fail at...whatever you were trying to get at."
"Well, human...How's about a little taste of your own medicine?"
He surrounded his still-sitting victim with the most of the little white projectiles he could muster at once. Ginger stared at the barrage of perhaps three score pellets above her, readying themselves for impact.
"DIE."
The flower let out a demonic cackle as he sent the pellets in, and they grew closer and closer.
"You wait until I get out if here! I'll send colliers from all over just to dump bucket loads of coals over-"
"Spare your breath! You'll never see the light of-"
All of a sudden, Flowey's projectiles fell to the ground and dissipated, as though disrupted by some unseen force.
"What? How..." the flower wondered aloud at his failed attack. Ginger was thinking the same thing.
It was then that she caught sight of what looked to be...a ball of flames, no bigger than a human's fist, hovering just to the right of the wretched weed. In a split second, it rammed into the flower, sending it up in flames. Flowey emitted several pained screams before retreating into the patch earth he was planted in. Ginger sat back up, completely dumbfounded. What had just happened? Where did that flaming ball come from?
The unmistakable sound of footsteps interrupted her train of thought, and they stopped just a mere few feet away from her. Ginger braced herself for what she was about to see, the legends of the monsters inhabiting this place flooding back to her. Would she look up and see a human, a fellow bird trying to awaken her from the dream, or something else entirely?
She looked down to her side. There, staring her right in the face, was a pair of furry white paws, not unlike a polar bear.
"What a miserable creature," an unfamiliar voice remarked. "Attacking a poor, innocent youth."
She scanned further upwards; the creature was clothed in royal violet robes, with some odd symbol embroidered on the front of them, and it's head was like that of a white mountain goat, the only obstruction of similarity being the two sharp canine teeth jutting out from the upper jaw.
Ginger froze, paralyzed by her own fear. Was she really looking up at...
...a monster?
"...My child," the humanoid goat continued, a twinkle of concern entering her soft, burgundy eyes. "Are you alright?"
Ginger was blinded from her gentle gaze by her own horror, and the eyes of the young general rolled back into her head, and she collapsed onto the floor into a dead faint.
...
The first thing Ginger noted when she began to regain her senses was how warm and comfortable she felt. It was almost as though she had been enveloped by the soft wings of Glaux Himself. She stared up at the ceiling; it was...oddly smooth for the top of a tree hollow, she noted.
"Ugh..." she groaned, a small grin spreading across her face. "That was a crazy dream."
She sat up and stretched. Instantly, the warm feeling fell away; an unpleasant sensation. Her wings flopped in front of her-
And landed on an unfamiliarly soft material.
"Wait...What? What is-"
She looked down at her wings. They were still bare, and still dense, just like before. And the fabric they'd landed on turned out to be a comforter; something that owls, or any bird for that matter, didn't regularly use, especially during the heat of the day, when owls normally slept, even in the autumn, when it began to cool down.
She took a look around; the room was dimly lit, but her trained eyes could make out a few things; a wardrobe, a desk, a lampshade...All things that owls had little use for.
But humans did.
She looked down at her not-wings again; they did very much resemble human arms. She sat up, and mentally examined herself, realizing several differences in her physicality.
Her knees felt like they had shifted to the front of her legs, and her talons felt numb and stiff; she couldn't even feel a back one. It was almost as though they'd been reduced to nothing but stubs. And she didn't even want to contemplate the apparent downgrade her once acute senses of eyesight and hearing had received. She could barely see in this dimly lit room; as an owl, she would have been able to make out everything probably twice, if not three times better, or even more than that.
She grumbled, untangled herself from the bedsheets and planted her now flat feet on the floor, wondering when she would finally awaken from this hagsmire of a dream...if it even was a dream.
If she had woken up in a bed and not a nest, paired with the fact that she had no recollection of going to sleep in the first place, the odds of this all being fake were growing slimmer and slimmer.
As she fumbled around the room, searching for a light switch, another question entered her mind; one that she realized was probably more important than any of the one's she'd been asking so far if this were all indeed real.
Whose house was this? And how did she get here? The last thing she recalled was...
Did it belong to that white goat-like creature who had supposedly saved her from the wrath of...Flowey, was his name? The next time she saw that flower, she promised herself she would give him a good trampling before he sent a barrage of his quote-unquote "friendliness pellets" her way. But anyways, the creature had been the last thing she'd seen before blacking out; granted, though, it was the reason she blacked out.
If this was indeed her house, than the only explanation was that she'd carried her here. And if this was the case, what were her intentions? Yes, the creature did apparently save her from that horrible "Flowey" creature...but for what reason? Had it been a genuine act of kindness...or had she only done away with the flower because it was stealing her chance to do something worse?
As much as the fear began to accumulate in her gut, she couldn't help but want to know more. So she made up her mind that she would explore what she could, and teach herself more about this place, whatever it was, and then find out how to escape it. And if she ran into trouble, she would simply send her claws flying across whoever tried to...
Wait.
She...didn't have claws anymore.
Ginger ran one of her fleshy hands across her face, which also proved to be featherless(and shaped much differently as well.) and was quick to realize that she'd lost her sharp beak, too.
And flying was completely out of the question.
So, then...what could she use?
Humans did have teeth, didn't they? She could bite instead of peck. And fingernails; they were a far cry from the hooked, black claws she used to have on her feet, but they could probably still do something.
Finally, her hand brushed against what felt like a doorknob. Some of the more private chambers of the Tytonic Palace had them for extra security, instead of being normal hollow openings, so she was familiar with them. She turned it, wondering what was on the outside.
Ginger was instantly washed over by light. She blinked for a few moments; the contrast between the lighting in the bedroom and the hallway was messing with her eyes, and she quietly shut the door behind her. To the left, there was more hallway, and what looked to be a wide mirror at the end of it. To her right, she could see that the room she'd just come out of was at the end of the hall, and lead to what appeared to be a stairway, then another door, and further down was a living room-dining room area, and she could hear the faint crackling of a lit fireplace from far down. Perhaps, if she were lucky, she could snag a look at herself before checking to see if that door lead to the outside...or before she were caught by its owner.
Just to see what I might have going for me.
She walked as swiftly as she was able to across the hardwood floor without making too much noise, passing a few potted plants on her way there. Once she reached the mirror, she approached it, fearful of what she might see.
No doubt, she was a human.
Great. This is just great...
She continued to look at herself.
Well...If I had to be a human, I guess it could have been worse than this.
She was grateful, at least, that she wasn't an ugly human. She was fair-skinned, and slim, but still particularly toned for her age; a result of rigorous training with her fellow Pure Ones. And she was tall, even for a human, and especially one of only twelve years; she estimated, from the ground up, she had to be five feet, if not more than that, and she had donned an orange short-sleeve shirt, which sported two broad, white stripes wrapping around her middle, and two thinner ones around each of the sleeves. Her shorts were a solid, earthy brown, and her shoes were similarly colored, except for the lighter orange streaks running across them. It almost looked as though they had been slashed by a pair of battleclaws that left colored markings instead of tears. Overall, she didn't think it looked all that bad.
But the silver lining was nothing compared to the growing storm cloud in Ginger's head that it tried to shine through. She was still upset at the unexplained change, and she developed an almost mournful longing to be her old self again. The only things that bore any resemblance to what she looked like before were her hair and eyes.
The long, flowing, yet slightly unkempt locks were a tawny shade of ginger brown; the same color her feathers had been. And while the color wasn't the source of her name, she had to admit, it had been quite coincidental that her parents had decided to name her after a color that wouldn't show itself until after she had grown in her first flight feathers. There were other factors, but it still seemed somewhat strange.
Her eyes had also retained their original color; a very bright, very deep shade of sky blue. But they were so small now, and so much weaker. She sighed deeply, massaging her temples. How was she going to deal with this?
"Is that you?"
The voice made the owl-turned-human jump, and she scrambled backward towards the end of the hallway, emitting panicked screeches, and pressing herself against the wall as best she could. After what seemed like an eternity of wide-eyed hyperventilation, Ginger finally began to see who she was actually looking at.
It was the same caprine creature from before, and it looked just as startled as she was.
"Child, what is wrong?" she questioned, beginning to approach the young human. "You-"
"Stay back! Stay back, do you hear me!? Get back!"
She lashed her arm out, trying to bare the claws she forgot weren't there. To her satisfaction, the creature stepped back again, though more out of will than of fear.
"My dear child, you have nothing to be afraid of," she reassured. "I wouldn't dream of bringing you any harm."
"You wouldn't..." she countered, refusing to fall into any sort of trap. "What makes you think I'm going to believe you? For all I know, you could be some sadist trying to lower my guard so you can deal the killing blow when I least expect it, like that hags-spawn flower back there! Is that why you brought me here? Is that what you are!? Some sort of MONSTER!?"
The creature backed away even more, covering her slightly agape mouth with the paws she had for hands in the place of cloven hooves. As she stood there, speechless, Ginger closely analyzed the goat's expression, searching her wine red eyes as well as she could for a glimmer of mischief, a spark of deceit, the dull glow of insanity...but she found nothing of the sort.
All she could see in her gaze was pure emotion; concern, shock, a tad bit of hurt...and love.
A soft twinkle of instinctive, unconditional love, one that Ginger had only ever seen in her own mother and, on occasion, the Ablah General Nyra. It was all she needed in order to know that the creature really was true to her word; she wanted to help her.
And she'd just called her a MONSTER.
"I...I didn't mean that. I just...After what happened, I..."
"No, no, I understand," she responded, her voice as gentle as a dove. "You..."
A look of realization spread across her white furred face, and she placed a paw on her head in shame.
"Oh, how silly of me...You must think monsters are bad, don't you? You were only trying to protect yourself, were you not?"
And that was when she remembered the stories, and how the hidden race of monsters was trapped underground after the war. She wasn't a figurative monster, she was...
"So...what you're saying is...You're an actual, literal monster?"
"Why, yes."
"So the legends were true...But..."
She looked down at her hands again.
"How...how did this happen?"
She wasn't talking to the goat monster anymore, rather herself, but she was still listening.
"You've fallen down; there's a very large hole in the mountain, and every so often, someone falls through it and ends up here," the monster explained, re-approaching the young human and bending down to her eye level.
"Yeah, I know. I know I fell down the hole," she spat. "I just don't know how this..."
She looked back down at her fleshy hands, things that she never dreamed of having, in utter disgust.
"I'm not supposed to be this...thing! And how am I going to get out of this place!? I fell down a three hundred foot hole, and I have no wings! How am I going to get back home!? What am I going to do!?"
The monster got down onto her knees; the human was breathing heavily, and on the verge of tears. She saw so many things in the girl's eyes; fear, grief, longing, anger. She seemed so desperate to go back home...it only broke her heart even more knowing...
"Dear child..." she soothed, wrapping the human in an embrace. "Everything will be alright. You're safe here."
It took Ginger a few moments to comprehend what was happening.
No...no. I will not let myself fall apart. Not now. Not when anyone can see. Keep it together...
It only took a handful of seconds for her to regain her composure, and she let out a deep sigh before pulling herself away from the monster.
"Well...I, ah...don't suppose we've properly introduced ourselves yet, have we?" she remarked, trying to maintain professionalism by courteously extending an arm for the monster to shake; it was almost as though she'd been completely fine the whole time
"Why, no. I don't believe we have," the creature replied, meeting her halfway with one of her paws. "My name is Toriel; keeper of the Ruins."
"Pleasure. And, uh...Ginger; commanding general of-"
She quickly covered her mouth, as though to prevent the words that formed in her head from escaping. How could she be so stupid!? She couldn't go around telling random people-or monsters in this case-about the Tytonic Union! It would put the entire organization in jeopardy!
"'Commanding general?' My goodness; is this true?"
Just when she was about to correct herself and tell the monster-"Toriel," she said her name was-to forget she'd ever said anything like that, Ginger remembered another detail; the monsters were trapped underground by some sort of magical barrier, so there was no way any information could get up to the humans, was there? Still...just to be careful...
"Ma'am...How well can you keep a secret?"
She had already begun her explanation, so it was no use covering it up with a blatant lie now. She would have to answer any question she may have carefully, though; one slip concerning owl civilization and the entirety of birdkind could be put at stake. Even if the monsters were sealed underground, what would happen if they escaped somehow and carried the sensitive information with them to the surface?
"Quite well, I believe, if the need ever arises. But for whatever reason?"
"I'll explain it to you...but ONLY if you don't tell anyone. I could end badly for my...workforce. And that place is my whole life. You understand, right?"
"...Yes. Yes, I understand. I'll keep whatever secret you have to tell me."
"Alright. So, a long-"
"Oh, just a moment, dear; why don't we take this out into the dining area? We can sit down there, instead of having to stand around the hallway like this."
"Erm...Okay, I guess..."
As glad as she was that Toriel had only pure intentions, Ginger still found the whole situation...odd. Everything that had happened so far since her fall had been odd; she tried to fly down to the bottom of the mountain, got turned into a human halfway down, somehow survived the additional two hundred foot drop, was nearly murdered by a psychotic, sentient flower, and had been rescued by this humanoid goat monster that was now leading her over to a set of antique table and chairs. Whatever she had just gotten herself into...
She knew she had to get out of it. She didn't know when, and she didn't know how. But she promised herself she would; not just for her sake, but for the ones missing her on the surface.
And the objective filled her with DETERMINATION.
A/N: Soooooo, what'chall think? Yeah, yeah, it's probably not going to be the best, and since it's got links to the O.C.'s original franchise, it's not going to be 100%, completely canon. But writing stuff like this is fun, you know? And when I start writing, one thing, it makes me want to work on other stories, too, so it's a good motivator for my other stories. I've got two other projects I'm currently working on to get the next chapter finished, and this is helping me get those done.
But if there's any chance that SOMEBODY actually likes this, let me know. I know the Undertale fandom is pretty much dead, so this probably won't get a whole lot of views. I never hopped onto the hype train when it first came out(because a CERTAIN FRANCHISE about possessed entertainment robots held me back and I never got interested, *wink, wink ;P*) and I only found myself getting into Undertale when I(for some reason) got a recommendation in my YouTube for all of the possible Neutral Endings. Maybe I was browsing too many spooky skeleton memes those few months ago? Megalovania's still a fairly strong meme, I think, and there were a few mixed in with the spooks...yeah, I was watching spooky memes in May, what'chu gon' do 'bout it?
But that's how it went for me. I dove into the wormhole and there was no going back. And now I'm writing this.
Later, sprinktards!