"It's weird...looking down and not seeing any talons."
She'd spent the last few minutes pondering what else humans were capable of, besides decent jumps; without any sharp natural weapons such as claws and beaks, they relied on crafting their own from scratch, each for different purposes; swords for slicing, spears for skewering, axes for chopping...Humans had come up with a very vast array of tools to assist them, and they were good at the art of craftsmanship.
But owls, especially those in the Owl Kingdoms, could craft weapons as well, although that was usually the only thing they made, and not so much tools for other things; being skilled hunters, and able to make a home out of nothing more than a big enough tree hollow, they weren't as dependent on technology as humans were. Besides a hammer and tongs for smithing weapons, there weren't many outright "tools" owls used regularly.
In her eyes, she had lost several of her best advantages, so she decided that, in time, she would have to make up for it somehow.
"Alright...time to get back to business."
Ginger got back onto her feet, then proceeded to push the rock in the middle onto its plate, and when she turned around to face the one to the left of it...
It was another monster, she assumed...though it didn't look much like a sentient creature. It was nothing more than a small, gelatinous blob of some sort. Did it even acknowledge her presence?
It stopped for a moment, as though it did know she was indeed there. Ginger wasn't sure if it would attack her, so she decided to say something, just in case.
"Eh...don't mind me, I'm just going about my business. Nothing to see here."
As though the blob understood, it turned its amorphous form and hopped across the floor, making a somewhat sickening "squish" with each landing. Ginger noted that the monster...didn't smell very pleasant.
Never mind, she thought as she pushed the second rock over to where it belonged, and then made her way to the final one. To her surprise, when she attempted to shove it, it wouldn't budge.
And to her even greater surprise...
"Whoa, there, pardner! Who said you could just push me around, hmm?"
She stepped back, alarmed. The voice had come right from the rock itself, but no mouth was visible anywhere. Was this rock...actually another monster?
"Um...hi, there? What kinda monster are you?"
"Well, I'm a rock, can'tcha see?"
"Just a rock...You, uh...got a name?"
"N'aw. Never did much need one."
A talking rock. Now she'd seen just about everything.
It was then that she recalled the sign in a previous room; the first one where she'd encountered a puzzle of a similar caliber.
"3 out of every 4 rocks recommend you push them."
Now she knew what that really meant.
"Well, uh...Mr. Rock. I hate to bother you, but in order to finish up this puzzle, would you mind moving down just a bit for me? It'll be quick, I promise."
"So you're ASKIN' me to move over? Well, okay. Just for you, pumpkin."
And the rock moved down towards the plate...but didn't quite get there before he stopped.
"Uh...I meant onto the pressure plate, but you've got the idea."
"You want me to move some more? Alrighty, then. How's this?"
And he moved the rest of the way onto the plate. The spikes ahead retreated back into the floor.
"Great. Now just stick around there until I cross the spikes. Thanks for the assistance, Mr. Rock."
"Ah, you don't need to 'Mr. Rock' me."
"You said you don't have a name, though."
"Well, how 'bout I leave that one up to you, kiddo?"
"Ah...Okay...How about something like..."
She thought for a moment.
"Something like...'Dwayne?'"
"'Dwayne,' huh? I like it; sounds like a name for a rock, alright. How'd you come up with that?"
"I dunno; first thing to come to mind, I guess."
"Well, you best be on your way. Don't wanna be a burden."
"Will do. And thanks again, Dwayne."
She hurried across the spike holes, then entered the next room. It was very small, and there were no visible puzzles; the only things in there were a tiny little table with what looked like a wedge of cheese sitting on it, and...
It was another one of those shimmering little stars. Ginger approached it curiously, wondering if she'd learn anything else from it if she inspected it further.
She reached her hand out at it again, knowing that it wouldn't hurt her; she wondered if she could pick it up. But the moment her hand brushed across it...
*Ruins-Mouse Hole
*File Saved
There it goes again...What does that even mean? And...Mouse Hole?
She turned around and looked down at the bottom of the wall; there was indeed a mouse hole there. She peered inside. While it was too dark to see, she did hear the tiny inhabitant.
"Squeak..."
She wondered, assuming it would eventually come out, if she could catch it by surprise and snag it for a light snack; she was getting hungry. But...
The chance that Toriel might have put the cheese on the table for the mouse to eat made her hesitate with the idea; if this were the case, the monster might be upset. Plus, remembering yet again that she didn't have claws meant the kill would be prolonged, making the mouse suffer. When owls' claws snatched a mouse, vole, or the like, their powerful talons sunk right into them, the claws puncturing vital organs and the grip snapping their spines, making work of the unsuspecting creature in a sliver of a second; the felt virtually nothing. Human hands were far weaker, and lacked the sharp, black hooks on the tips that owls had; to kill a rodent, she'd probably have to resort to strangling it...not exactly quick and painless.
Eyeing the cheese on the table, she opted for that instead; she'd never had any, but if it was so popular among humans, there wasn't much reason to doubt it. And the wedge was about as big as the mouse in the hole itself, so it could surely spare some. Unfortunately, when she tried to lift the wedge off the table, it wouldn't budge, and if felt stiff and stale in her grasp.
Apparently, the cheese had been there so long it had stuck to the table, and more so, it was dark and dry with age and exposure. It even sported a fine layer of dust over the top of it; not something she'd like to put in her mouth.
"Oh, forget it," she muttered, her hopes dashed and her hunger left unquenched.
She left the room, hoping she could find something to eat around these Ruins eventually, and directly in front of her...
There was...something lying down on the pile of leaves. Something white, and ever so slightly transparent. Ginger approached it; the entity didn't appear physical. It was like a phantom, a scroom...
A ghost.
"...ZZZZZZZZZZZZ...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...(are they gone yet)...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..."
But why was it saying "Z" over and over again? Was it even asleep?
The being was in her way, though; she wondered if she could just pass right through it, since it appeared to be a non-physical entity, but she hadn't anticipated a lot of the things that had happened to her so far down here. Could she, perhaps, lift the ghostly creature and move it more to the side?
She figured it was worth a try; better than stepping on it, if it did turn out to be solid. She carefully tried to slide her hands underneath the creature to roll it over...
And it bolted right up!
The specter was about a foot shorter than her, though it floated a few inches above the ground, giving it a taller look. Ginger expected the creature to be mad for disturbing it, but...
It looked a lot more gloomy than angry.
"...ohhhhhh...was I in your way?...ohhhhhh.."
The monster didn't seem up for much of a fight, yet it still aimed a series of white projectiles at her, just as she'd seen several Froggits do. Yet instead of flies, they streamed out of the ghost's eyes like giant tears.
"What the-..."
Ginger didn't ask too many questions, preoccupied with dodging the summoned ammunition. But when it ceased, she decided to speak, her mind now free to comprehend.
"Uh...Hey, there, bud," she said to it, managing a smile. "Look, uh...Sorry if I upset you. I was just passing by, and...I wasn't expectin' you."
"...i'm sorry I got in your way...ohhhhhh.."
"No, no, it's fine. You can go back to doin' your thing if you want right after a I pass through the leaves."
"...heh..."
She could just barely see the monster's mouth tun up, just a tad.
"Hey, there," she cheered him. "That's the 'spirit.'"
"...heh heh...I get it...because i'm a ghost..."
"So you are, huh? I though you looked kinda like one, and I was just makin' sure. Name?"
"...my name?"
"You got one, pal?"
"...Napstablook."
"Huh...Interesting. You know, Nabstablook, a couple rooms down, I met a rock. Like, a literal talking rock. He said he didn't have a name, so he asked me to take it upon myself and give him one."
"...what'd you call him?"
"'Dwayne.' How 'bout that?"
"...heh...Dwayne...heh heh heh..."
"Yeah, it's pretty funny."
"...hey...you...you wanna see something?"
"What?"
"...here...let me try..."
Another stream of tears came out of the specter's eyes...but they flowed UP instead of down and forward. And they accumulated on the top of Napstablook's head, forming...
A top hat?
"...I call it 'dapper blook.'...do you like it?"
"Whoa!" he human exclaimed, quite obviously impressed. "Well, HAT'S something I wasn't expecting! Not bad, man."
"ah...oh, gee..."
The monster's ghostly white face gained just a bit of color, and it turned away, flattered by the praise.
"...you know..." he continued. "...I usually come here to the Ruins because there's nobody around...but today I met somebody nice..."
"Well, if you plan to meet up with her some time, I wish you the best of luck."
"heh...oh...i'm rambling again, aren't I?...I'll get out of your way, now...ohhhhhh..."
Nabstablook didn't hover away, rather he just seemed to...fade. Did he turn invisible and leave? Probably; ghosts could make themselves known and unknown whenever they pleased, so it was said. But she'd never been to the Penninsula of the Spirit Woods to confirm this...
It didn't matter though; everything had gone well; enjoyable, even.
She passed over the leaves, seeing a dead-end room directly ahead and a longer passage to her left. Not caring what might be in the dead-end, she continued up the path. The next room lead to a long corridor, and the three Froggits she'd interacted with since the first one stood there, croaking, speaking amongst each other. They didn't pursue her as she passed through, so she gave them all a nod of acknowledgement and an appreciative smirk. She was just passing into the next room when the phone rang again.
"Hello?"
"Hello, it's me again, dear. I...have just realized that it has been a while since I have cleaned up. I was not expecting to have company so soon. Just so you are aware, there are probably a lot of things scattered around here and there."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes. If you like, you can pick some of them up for yourself, but don't carry any more than you need; someday, you might find something that you really like, and you will surely want to leave room in your pockets for that."
"Like, what kind-"
But the monster had already hung up. Ginger didn't worry about it much, and she would figure it out when she came across something.
The next room had a few different cracked spots along the walls, and there were narrow stairways leading down to different rooms. The entry leading into the next was blocked off, so she figured she'd have to find some sort of switch somewhere. The human wondered if here were other hidden rooms beneath the cracked flooring, and she stepped to the right, pushing her foot down on the second spot on the right to test her hypothesis.
And it proved to be true.
It wasn't a long fall, only a foot longer than she was tall, so, presently, she stepped all the way in, landing on the pile of leaves. And there on the pile's edge was...
"Nabstablook?"
"...i've fallen down a hole...now I can't get up. go on without me...wait. ghosts can fly, can't they?...oh well."
"Hey, wait, there, buddy. Do you happen to know how I solve this puzzle in here?"
"...the room right across from me has a switch...I know that because i've been here so many times before...it's quiet...ohhhh...i'm in your way again, aren't I?"
"No, napstablook, you're-"
But the ghost faded away again before she could finish. He was an odd fellow, Ginger had to say, but he seemed pleasant enough. She followed his advice, doing the same to the room across from them and successfully finding the switch, then ascending back onto the upper floor via the stairs.
And there was another monster right in front of her when she came back up.
One that, despite its short stature, looked particularly frightful.
"HEY!"
The human was taken aback; the round creature had a mouth full of sharp teeth, and its single, enormous eye gawked at her eerily. And, frankly, she was staring at it with the same look.
"...What're you lookin' at?" it sneered, sending a few strange-moving projectiles her way. She was able to dodge them thanks to their low speed, but the way the bullets seemed to move as though they were swimming through the air nearly served as a good distraction.
"Hey, there, pal. I'm not looking for any trouble. I'm just passing by."
"Then, what's with the big eyes? Is this one a problem to you?"
"You took me by surprise, number 1. Number 2, I've been living on the surface my whole life and I've never seen anything like most of you monsters; especially you and that...moldy-smelling blob back there. Ah, no offense, though; I've got some things to get used to, is all."
"...Fair argument. Alright, I'll leave you to it."
The monster turned and walked away. Ginger kept herself from staring at it; this monster was certainly the strangest one so far. At least she knew what to expect now in the event she ran into one or more of its brethren.
Just don't gawk at those ones...That's their job.
She was about to continue, but something on the ground caught her attention before she could turn around.
It looked like a small handful of gold coins; they each featured what looked to be the face of some sort of horned monster.
"Hey! Hey, fella!" she called. Fortunately, the monster hadn't left earshot yet.
"What's the big deal? And I have a name, by the way; it's 'Loox,' not 'fella."
"Yeah, you dropped something!"
"What? Oh...Keep it. It was takin' up space in my pockets, anyway."
"What...but you're not wearing any pa-"
"Don't question everything, alright? Some things are best left unexplained. Anyway, in case you're interested, you could probably use some of that for the spider bake sale goin' on in the room across the leaf pile back the other way; it's been there for god-knows how long, and I don't think they're closin' up shop any time soon."
"'Spider bake sale?'"
She put extra emphasis on the word "spider."
"You got a problem with that?"
"Uh..."
"Just take my word for it."
Loox turned again and left. Ginger scooped up the gold; it was heavy. Was it real gold? It sure looked the part.
Well...I won't complain.
She backtracked through the room and down the hallway, passing by the three Froggits again. When she got to the room she had thought was a dead end, she grinned and read the sign across from the two webs.
"Spider Bake Sale"
"All proceeds go to real spiders."
"Let's see what we got here..."
The prices were displayed on the wall in between the two webs.
"Spider Donut: 7G"
"Spider Cider: 18G"
She scanned over the handful of gold she had; only five.
The human groaned; her hunger was getting the best of her. Owls had it easy; just snatch a mouse and be on your way, but nooo, for some obscure reason, she just HAD to have been turned into a human, didn't she? She wondered how she'd ever taken for granted her lifetime of free meals, now apparently having to deal with BUSINESS in order to feed herself. It might not have been a dream, but she knew it was no doubt a nightmare.
She turned to leave, frustrated.
"Hey, pal."
"Gyah!"
It was another Loox, firing up another one of its flowy attacks.
"Alright, let me ask you something," she said to it as she avoided the slow-moving bullets. "What's the whole deal with you needing my SOUL to break the Barrier?"
"You're the last one we need," he responded. "We've accumulated six human SOULs so far, and we need just one more to break it forever."
"So, you've already killed six other humans already."
"You could say that. You don't sound very alarmed by it."
"Well...I could care less about them, really."
Despite her situation, she didn't see humans as her own kind; she'd be far more disturbed by the image of a dead bird than one of a human corpse.
"You guys don't seem very eager to kill me, though. Why?"
"Really, we wish there was another way to go about this, but there isn't one. We don't like the killing part; we just want to live on the surface...well...with one exception..."
"...One exception?"
"In the case you ever leave these Ruins, keep lookin' over your shoulder for the Captain of the Royal Guard."
"Captain of the Royal Guard?" Ginger repeated. "How, uh...What's he like?"
"'She,'" Loox corrected. "And she's not just a monster...She's a six-foot BEAST. And she hates humans with a burning passion."
The way he said it made it sound like he had every right to fear the Captain as the human did.
"...Noted."
"Alright, see ya later. Hey, and take this."
The monster tossed some things at her; she expected it to be another kind of attack, but when she caught it...
Another five gold.
"Those spiders...Everything's ridiculously priced."
The Loox turned and left the room. Ginger's appetite wavered somewhat as she reflected on the monster's warning; the Captain of the Royal Guard? She was sure she wouldn't want to run into her in a dark alley. And further more, if there was a Royal Guard, it meant there was a monarchy, at least consisting of a king, and maybe a queen. If the Royal Guard Captain was really that fearsome, what would the king and queen be like? For a long time, the most imposing image she could conjure was that of the Lord High Tyto himself, in all his battle-worn magnificence, mask, battleclaws and all. But a king and queen of monsters? The mere thought made Ginger shudder.
At least Toriel was a far cry from such a thing; despite her being able to get somewhat...attached quite quickly, she meant only goodwill towards her.
The sound of her stomach growling cut her train of thought short. Now that she had more than enough gold, she could get herself one of those spider donuts. She placed it right in front of the hole in the wall next to the smaller web and called to see if there was anybody inside; the thought of spiders making baked goods to sell was odd, but then again, a lot of things appeared to be sentient down here; frogs, rocks...flowers, even.
"Ugh...Flowey. Be prepared to be stepped on next time we meet," she threatened, in spite his absence.
She saw something come out of the hole; it wasn't one, but two particularly large wolf spiders, which wrapped their long legs around the seven pieces of gold and dragged it inside. They were quick to emerge with what was certainly the donut she'd purchased; it was baked to a medium golden brown, and coated with a semi-clear glaze.
"Ah...thanks for that."
One of the wolf spiders waved its front leg at her as the two retreated back into the hole.
She bit into the baked delicacy; it, of course, was sweet to taste, but she didn't expect the somewhat peculiar flavor and unnatural crunch, being almost like a cross between a cricket and a vole. This was the last thing she expected a donut to taste like, but she wasn't about to complain; crickets and voles were both favorites of Barn Owls, and she was glad to find that her taste hadn't changed along with her physicality.
Ginger looked at the bite she'd made in the pastry...What was that sticking out of it? It almost looked like a...
Spider's leg?
Then. she remembered; a lot of spiders were cannibals, a fact she'd gotten from her fellow Barn Owl, Uklah, just the previous day, as a matter of fact. She'd gifted her with this seemingly useless trivia fact when two small brown spiders skittered across the branch they were eating their muskrats on, one in hot pursuit of the other.
"Okay, Uklah. First, how do you know this? And second, WHY is this relevant?" she'd asked her.
"Well, among quite a few species, after mating, the females usually...eat the males. I guess it's ritualistic for them? And to answer your first question, I read it in a book about spiders once; one nipped me on the middle talon and I was making sure it wasn't one of those Brown Recluse things...which it wasn't to my good fortune."
"Aren't those the ones that..."
"That's right. The Glauxian Monks have been trying to conjure up a proper cure for he bite as of late, so I hear, but in the mean time, the only real effective treatment is amputation."
"Uklah...I'm eating."
"So am I?"
"Is this a proper dinner conversation topic?"
"I dunno? How about we talk about the time you smeared yourself with berry juice to make yourself look like a Spix's Macaw, instead, if that's what you prefer?" she'd joked.
Ginger had nearly gone after her for the remark, but seeing how much she was enjoying herself, she let Uklah fly off laughing uninterrupted.
She sighed; would she ever see her, or any of her fellow Tytos, again? Even if she did end up escaping the mountain, what would she do when she was out? Would she turn back into a Barn Owl? If so, then returning to her kindred would be easy. But she was pessimistic about the possibility. What would she do if she were still a human upon returning to the surface? And was there any way for her to change back besides the unbacked thought that she would turn back upon exiting the Barrier?
Ginger shook her head; if she were to plague her mind with thoughts such as these now, she'd be torturing herself. Best to keep going, and cross the bridge when she got to it.
She finished off the Spider Donut; it wasn't very filling, despite its favorable taste; odd for something so cakey. And it was strange, but the tender spot on her arm from where the Froggit had landed one of its bullet attacks seemed to have lost its ache.
"...Hm," she muffled curiously, swallowing what was left of it before returning to the last puzzle she'd solved and passing through the now unblocked doorway. The next room had three pillars situated in it, each with a differently colored switch behind it; one blue, one red, and one green. Ginger wasn't sure what they did, but there was only one way to find out.
Before she began haphazardly pressing switches, Ginger looked up at the plaque on the wall.
"The far door is not an exit. It simply marks a rotation in perspective."
So...did that mean that the next room was the same as this one, but rotated? Interesting.
She continued further down, searching for some clues as to which switches she need press, turning with the room and finding herself in the prementioned "rotated" room. She scwered the area, and, soon enough, came across a plaque on the wall, similar to the last one. But what the text inscribed on it meant was blatantly more obvious.
"If you can read this, please press the blue switch."
That simple? Well, if the whole puzzle was going to be like this, she'd have it done in little to no time at all.
She obeyed the sign, pressing the blue switch behind the first pillar she'd passed. She heard a clicking sound coming from somewhere; good. That meant she'd done it right.
She was about to venture into the next room to for further instructions, but before she could enter, the human was jumped by...
Not one.
Not two.
But a good THREE monsters at the same instance!
She recognized one as yet another Loox, but the other two were ones she'd never come across before; one looked vaguely like some sort of earthy-yellow plant root with an odd smirk, and the other looked very much like a beetle, standing on its skinny hind legs.
She was less concerned about the bug, and had more reason to be suspicious of the root's mischievous grin.
"What's with the freaky smile?"
"Heheh...Try your hand at this, human," the plant told her.
All three of them sent up an array of white missiles, each of different shapes and sizes; a group attack.
"What in-HEY. CUT-STOP THAT!"
The projectiles were coming in fast, and it was near-impossible to didge every one. A few of them hit her, causing the same, sharp pain she'd experienced before to be sent up in the impact zone.
And the root sent out a green one.
One that Ginger had become to dazed by the attack to notice before it was too late.
"Oh, no-"
But instead of causing pain upon impact, it actually RELIEVED some of it...What?
"Not bad for a human!" the plant praised. "Remember, human; green magic heals instead of harms!"
Saying this, the sentient vegetable bounced off.
"Well...there he goes," the Loox noted. "Don't mind Vegetoid; he's an oddball."
"FILTHY SINGLE MINDER," the bug sneered at her.
"What does that even mean!?" she snapped back.
"LEGION! WE ARE LEGION!"
They only responded with another flurry of attacks. Fortunately, with the Vegetoid gone, the bullets were fewer, and she managed to maneuver around them, using all the skill she had as the klutzy human she was.
I'm getting better at this, at least.
"You gonna go see what you're plant pal's up to?"
"Yeah, whatev'z. You and Migosop have fun."
He followed after the Vegetoid.
"Phew, there gone!" the insect cheered to himself. "Nothing like alone time!"
And he proceeded to do somewhat of a dance before the human.
"Should I...go now?"
"Oh, yeah, yeah! And, uh, forget what I said about you being a 'filthy single minder.' They think I'm out to take over the world, but really, I just try to impress people whenever I'm around them. All I really want is to be alone and do my on thing; just me, myself and I."
"Oh...um...okay."
"Hey, take this for the trouble; as a human, you're gonna need it for the rest of the Underground!"
The Migosop pulled something out, seemingly out of nowhere, and left it at the human's feet before leaping off like a grasshopper. At the base of Ginger's shoes was...
A whopping 11 gold!
"Hey! HEY!" she called out to the but monster as it hopped out of view. "Thanks for this!"
She got no response, but she was loud enough that he had undoubtedly heard her.
Okay. Back to business.
She went in through the doorway and searched for another plaque. Sure enough, she found one, right inside the doorway.
"If you can read this, please press the red switch."
She approached the red switch behind the pillar. Another one of those gelatinous monsters crossed her path, and acknowledged her by emitting a "squish" of a greeting before turning and sloshing forward again. Ginger figured that the creatures had the minds of slugs; not exactly sentient, and possessing primitive instincts, but very much alive; interesting.
Triggering the mechanism made another clicking sound go off somewhere. Ginger assumed that the next room would be the last one; they seemed to rotate ninety degrees with each one she entered, so the next should finish the circle.
The next sign was on the far wall.
"Let me guess..."
"If you can read this, please press the green switch."
Thought so.
Said switch was right behind her, and she pressed it accordingly. The clicking noise sounded louder this time around. Had she finished the puzzle?
She exited the puzzle room, and came to a branching hallway; one she recognized quite well. This was the area just outside of the house, just beyond the tree. Ginger, on a whim, decided to explore the other end of the hallway, which the goat monster had claimed to be a dead end, stepping over the green vines flowing along the floor that gave the royal purple walls a touch of extra color. The hall lead into another room, where yet another Froggit was standing, minding its own business.
"Hey there, fella," she greeted it. "What's past this room here, do you know?"
"Beyond this point is a balcony overlooking the Ruins," it replied. "Nothing much besides the view."
"Well, I think I'll go see what it looks like, anyway; I could use the sight of something like that."
"Whatever suits you...*ribbit*"
Ginger passed the white frog into the balcony and looked out into the beyond.
Wow...
The architecture of the Ruins was crude and medieval, and the only color she could see across the stretch was purple; a color with close ties to royalty, she realized. Perhaps these abandoned buildings had once been occupied by a monarchy...or THE monarchy, having assumed there was one established in the present. Ginger leaned against the purple dyed steel railing; never had she imagined she could feel so high above ground when she was so deep within it. Irony...Bittersweet irony.
She turned back around, ready to return, when she caught sight of something on the floor to her left.
Something was lying on the ground. Ginger went to pick up the object, and inspected it in her grasp; it looked like a small, fairly simple hunting knife, though the dull blade was made of plastic instead of metal. The only thing it could probably cut through was a cake.
But Ginger decided that she liked it; the plastic knife wasn't anything like a set of battleclaws, but it was the most she had for now.
Ginger got off the balcony, only to be ambushed by a pair of Vegetoids at the exit.
"Hello, human!" one of them cackled. "Care for some nutrition?"
"Eat your greens!" the other chanted.
Their array of attacks was...very strange-looking. The bullets looked like assorted vegetables bouncing around the battlefield.
As strange as they looked, they weren't very easy to dodge; Ginger found herself having trouble ducking underneath them as the sprang up, since as soon as she ducked, one came at her from the side. Mixed in with the white projectiles were just a few green ones, and the advice of a Vegetoid from earlier came back to the human.
"Green magic heals instead of harms!" it'd told her. And when she'd come into contact with it in the previous battle, it had relieved some of the pain the bullets had inflicted.
"So what you're saying is that I should try to hit the green bullets?"
"That's right!" the first one replied. "Alright, friend! I leave this one to you!"
The plant seemed to burrow into the stony ground and disappear from sight.
"Remember what he said!" it reminded, sending out another attack.
The amount of bullets had been halved thanks to the other one's absence, so Ginger found herself managing this attack more easily, and when the green bullets came into view, she didn't hesitate to run into them. The monsters were true to their word; the green attacks actually DID heal instead of harm, numbing and relaxing away the pain caused by wounds inflicted during previous battles.
"Excellent work, human! I must spread my gift to others, now, however. Until we meet again!"
The Vegetoid burrowed after his companion. Vegetoids struck Ginger as particularly odd; they had the most sneering, oozy voices, yet they seemed to want to offer nothing but a test for her to pass instead of a full-blown fight.
Ginger made her way back towards the center of the hall, turning up the path leading back to the house; Toriel would be in for a surprise.
Before she went in, though, she stopped...What would the monster think when she found out she'd been deliberately disobeyed? Then again, the reason she'd asked Ginger to stay put was her concern for her safety, and when she found that Ginger had very well been able to hold her own in the face of so many monsters, it'd make sense for her to be impressed.
And another thing; was Toriel even home, or was she of somewhere else in the Ruins?
Only one way to find out, she said to herself, and she passed through, scanning over the bare branches of the old maple tree as she went underneath them.
"Oh, dear...That took longer than I thought it would..." she heard.
Ginger looked back toward the house; the monster was just outside the doors of the house, her white face conveying worry. She drew nearer to the tree, and was just about to give the human another call on her phone when she spied her, leaning her side against the tree. She immediately approached the human, looking quite shocked by her arrival.
"How did you get here, my child?" she questioned, noticing the small red mark on her arm where she'd been clipped by a bullet. "A-are you hurt?"
"I've been way worse than this, trust me. I even got myself a little help along the way."
"Oh, thank goodness you're alright...I do apologize, dear; I should not have left you alone for so long. It was irresponsible of me to try and surprise you like this..."
"...Surprise me?" the human questioned, looking skeptical.
"Oh...Err..." Toriel stammered; she'd said too much.
"Well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer," she finally said, a smile spreading across her face. "Follow me back to the house, dear; you're in for something special!"
She started back to her house, Ginger lagging behind somewhat. The human approached the front door, and spied on the pile of leaves...
"Uh...Hey, Toriel?"
"Yes, dear, what is it?"
"What's that thing supposed to be?"
She pointed down at the small yellow star hovering just above the leaf pile.
"...On top of the leaf pile, you mean? Forgive me, but I do not see anything but the leaves themselves."
"That thing, right there," Ginger said, bending down to point from a closer distance. "I didn't know what it was, so I figured you would."
"My...my eyes must not have been as good as I once thought. I'm very sorry, dear, but I cannot see what you are addressing."
She couldn't see it; the thing was bigger than the fireball she'd conjured to sear Flowey with and she couldn't see it? How? Either the goat monster was going blind or...
Or Ginger was the only one who COULD see it? Was this possible? Then again, a lot of things were possible down here.
"Uh...Never mind it. I'll catch up; if you need to do anything else before I come back in, go ahead and do it, alright..."
"Well...Alright, dear. I'll wait for you."
Toriel re-entered the house, and Ginger stooped down over the star. She had a feeling she knew what would happen if she touched it.
*Ruins-Home
*File Saved
Yep...
If Toriel was unable to see the shimmering stars like she could, that meant that she probably didn't know about their existence in general; which meant that she'd have to figure out what the "File Saved" stuff meant by herself. At least it didn't seem particularly important; maybe she'd uncover some answers in a book somewhere, or the other monsters in the Ruins could fill her in with more information.
But in the mean time, she decided to stop worrying about it and go see just what the monster had done while she was away.
A/N: Horray! The boring part's finally over!
Next chapter's gonna be a little more tense, and we're gonna delve a little bit deeper into the lore and the situation with save files, loading, resetting, etc...and more feels are on the way, so beware the onion-cutting ninjas!