Author's Note

Now I understand that this is a bit different then my usual style of story, but the idea really struck me. I'll get back to continuing my other stories soon, but in the meantime, I hope you all enjoy something new for a change.

I am currently bedridden with an illness, so I haven't the time or energy to fully beta read this. There might be some errors here and there but bear with me on this, I'll get to correcting them once I'm better.

That being said, I do hope you enjoy.

Legend below

"Oh hello there." = Normal speech

''I wonder what he meant...'' = Normal thoughts

Chapter One
The beginning

It was the year 20X1X, approximately two hundred years after the end of the brutal war between humanity and Monsters. After the war's tragic end, some of humanity's strongest champions combined their powers to seal the monsters underground forever, to prevent a war like that from ever returning. From that day forward, humankind became the rulers of the overworld, while the monsters were forced into a life of solitude underneath the surface.

The power of human souls were overwhelmingly powerful, and the weaker monsters souls stood no chance against those odds. When the six champions of old came together to seal the monsters underground, they used the combination of all six of their souls to create a barrier that would be indestructible, and would forever seal them away. The only way to destroy that barrier would be through the use of six or more powerful human souls, but the monsters had no way to acquire them, and thus had no hope of ever returning to the surface. The few monsters that remained on the surface had resorted to hiding their true forms, lest they suffer the same fate as their brethren.

With the threat presumably permanently out of the way, humanity was left to thrive by themselves on a surface world untouched by the hands on monsters. Years passed by, and the history behind the war between monsters and humanity began to fade. Less and less knew about the real cause of the war as the years passed, and even the use of magic began to vanish. Eventually, everything just settled down. People learned to live their quiet normal lives with each other, and live out their days peacefully. Everything seemed fine for a long time.

But things didn't turn out so perfectly for those trapped underground. The monsters, fearful for their lives, had made themselves scarce and hid themselves deep within the underground caverns. Most of the monsters dispersed throughout the tunnels, separated from each other. There was still those that wanted to fight back against the humans that cursed them to a life of darkness, but their power was not strong enough to even put a dent in the barrier. They were trapped through and through.

Eventually a kingdom was built underground, with the royal family residing as the rulers of the monsters. Monsters eventually grouped back together in an attempt to create a more peaceful society within their limited confines, and they slowly but surely made a place worth living for down there. It wasn't the surface, but they made it home.

As time passed, some began to give up the hope that they would ever see the light of day again, and started to come to terms with the reality that they might never leave the underground. Many found this reality a bit difficult to accept, while some quickly came to terms with it. Every monster knew what it would take to breach the barrier, and they knew that it was almost literally impossible.

That all changed one day. One day, seemingly out of the blue, a human appeared in the underground. No one knew how it got there, nor why it was there. But one thing was for sure. There was a human on their side of the barrier, trapped inside of it with them. And it was alone. When the king learned of this, he demanded that it be brought to him. When the human arrived, he had it killed against the queen's wishes, and he captured its soul. Now suddenly, there was a chance again. A chance for them to be freed from their confinement.

Not long after the first human arrived, a second one appeared. That one too was to be brought to the king and killed. It didn't matter that this human was afraid or that it didn't want to hurt them. All that mattered to the king was getting his people back to the surface, no matter the cost. Many of the monsters thought along the same lines, and were eager to assist in any way they could. But some felt that what they were doing was wrong, and the queen was one of them.

Then came the third human, this one a child. This one had nothing to do with the war, and had never harmed anyone. It was completely innocent. It offered no resistance when the monsters came to bring it to the king, and it had no idea what was happening until it was too late.

When the child was brought before the king and queen, the queen couldn't bear to see such innocence slaughtered just for the sake of freedom. She begged the king to stop the killing of innocent humans, but he was abstinent. This child too, was killed.

The queen couldn't bear to witness the continued murder of such innocence, and so she left the kingdom to live out a life on the far side of the underground inside the ancient ruins of the old kingdom. Some of the lesser monsters followed her, but most stayed in the kingdom alongside the king.

Eventually a fourth human child appeared, and it was clear now where they were coming from. Deep into the ruins there was a gap. A breach in the barrier. It seemed only one way, and it was a rather painful one. Atop a mountain there was a ravine, and this ravine led directly into the ancient ruins. The humans had been entering the underground via this mountain, and ended up stumbling into the new monster's kingdom.

The queen knew what fate lay ahead of this human if it continued forward through the ruins, and so she tried her best to prevent them from progressing forward. But try as she might, the child wanted to leave, and she couldn't stop it. She had to watch as another child walked blindly towards its demise. It hurt to watch them go, her heart pulled in pain to see them leave.

A month later another human child came down, and the same fate lay in store for them just like all the last. The queen pleaded with the human, and offered them a nice comfortable life in the ruins with her. She would care for them to the best of her abilities, but they would eventually leave her in search of their home. And then they would die. She greaved for the them, and she cried over them in the night.

A sixth child eventually found its way into her ruins, the same thing happened to it as all the rest. She warned this one of its fate if it left the ruins, but it didn't listen to her. It left the ruins in search of the barrier, but was attacked by monsters. When it ran back to the ruins, all it found was a large immovable door blocking it access. That child too, was killed.

With six human souls now in the king's possession, all they required now was one more human soul to destroy the barrier and free themselves from their curse. The monsters were over joyed, knowing that their time trapped underground was about to reach an end. All they needed now was for one more human to wander down into the underground.

But it never did. Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and months into years. The monsters that were eager to leave had to sit through another disappointing realization. As the years passed by, the monsters began to lose hope. Many began to give up on the hope of a future on the surface. And as more and more years passed in silence from the surface, the thought of leaving became more of a dream then an actual reality. It was as if the humans were taunting them from the grave, giving them six souls when they needed seven. They would never leave, the humans would never allow something like that...

Thunder roared in the darkened skies above, lighting up the black expanse momentarily before the darkness returned in full. There was a heavy wind blowing through the open plains, bringing with it a freezing wind that threatened to overtake her. Rain poured down from overhead, soaking her pink striped blue long sleeve shirt and wash away her own tears. She hugged her arms to her chest to try and salvage some form of warmth within the extreme weather conditions.

She knew that she shouldn't have listened to him. He always meant her harm, and she never realized it until she suffered because of it. You think she would have learned the error of her ways by now, but no. She still fell for the same stupid pranks every time. She let his stupid words get to her again, and now she found herself wandering through the forest of mount ebott alone crying. Not that she really minded being in the woods, she naturally loved the forest more then the city, and usually spent her days out here.

But on a night like this, it was dangerous to be out that late. It was freezing out, and there was an unnaturally intense storm overhead. But she couldn't find it in herself to care at the moment. She just wanted to be alone right then, away from all the people. All the people that called her weird because of the way she looked, how she was too unnatural to be human. She must've been a descendant of the monsters of old. All the other humans disapproved of her, and did everything they could to turn everyone else against her.

There was no denying that there was a strange otherworldly aura about her that wasn't normal for a human. Her long brown hair hid the two pointed fur covered ears that rest atop her head. Her teeth were unnecessarily sharp, and her canine teeth were longer then normal for a human. Her cheeks were decorated with these thin lines that seemed to imitate whiskers of some kind, perhaps a cat's. And a long brown furry tail protruded from her posterior, and would twitch about randomly, flicking left and right. And her eyes. Her eyes were probably the strangest. Her eyes were the deepest blue, accentuated with catlike eye rises that seemed to glow in the dark.

Yes, there was definitely something not fully human about her. Not that many knew this mind you. She was very good at hiding her unnatural atributes from the world around her. Ears could be hidden, her tail could be wrapped around her waist, and her cheeks could be waved as simply birth marks. Now if only she could retain her catlike reactions and mindset.

But that didn't matter. She didn't care what they said about her. They didn't matter in the end. And she only wished that she actually had someone that actually cared about her, and didn't hate her. If she could have someone that loved her, then she could die happy.

Someone to hold her when she was hurting. Someone to tuck her in when she was tired. Sometimes protect her when she was injured and someone for her to protect. Someone to care for...

Tears fell from her eyes at the thought, before being washed away by the freezing rain. She was tired. She wanted to just sit down and sleep. She didn't want to keep walking through this stupid mountain. She just wanted to go home, not that she had anything to call home anymore. She hugged her arms under her chest tightly, stifling another quiet sob.

She didn't know where she was going right then, and she couldn't really see. A thick fog had rolled in an hour ago, and had only gotten worse with time. She couldn't even see three feet in front of herself. It was extremely dangerous, and if she wasn't careful, she might end up tripping...

Which is exactly what she did merely moments later. Her foot caught an uprooted tree root and knocked her off her feet. She tumbled forward down a steep slope, hitting her head on the way down. She blindly swung her arms out to try and stop herself from tumbling. She screamed as she suddenly fell head over heels over a ledge, her eyes widened in horror when she realized she couldn't even see the bottom. She screamed in terror as she fell, the air around her whipping by at a rapid rate. Her arms flailed wildly as she fell, unable to stop herself. Was this it? Was she really going to die here? Scared and alone, tripping over a massive cliff and into a ravine?

The last thing she saw before she hit the bottom was a blur of yellow...

Silence echoed throughout the abandoned hallways of the ancient ruins, with the only source of sound emanating from the light breeze that seemed to drift through every now and again. There was a waterfall on the far side that created a small river that ran through the ruin's expanse, in it a few stray froggets swam, tending to their own business and ignoring the outside world. It was just another day in the ruins for her, queen Toriel.

She was currently on her usual morning route, tending to the froggets that lived in the area and checking for anything out of the ordinary. Today was no different then the last it seemed, as she completed her usual routine with minimal effort. She was on her way back to her house when she passed by the yellow flower grove. She had to do a double take at what she saw. There, face down in a large patch of yellow flowers was a.. was a..

"A human..." She muttered in shock, almost not believing her own two eyes. It couldn't be could it? An actual human? It had been so long since she last saw one, she feared that she'd never see one alive again. Her breath caught in her throat when she realized that it wasn't moving. Could it be dead? Her heart clenched in worry as she slowly approached the downed human. ''Please...'' She begged, ''Don't be dead...''

She stopped suddenly when the human stirred, slowly awakening from whatever caused their state of unconsciousness. She watched in concerned curiosity as a smiling yellow flower appeared right in front of the human's face, seemingly waiting for the human to awaken. The human's head slowly lifted up, their eyes blinking slowly as the blur started to clear and a smiling yellow face came into focus.

"Houdy!" The flower suddenly greeted. Like an animal that was surprised without warning the human jumped backwards with a sound akin to a cat's hiss, before landing on its back after slipping on a flower petal. "Woah there, didn't mean to scare you." The flower exclaimed with an eerie smile, leaning forward to examine the human. The human's eyes narrowed down at the flower, and lay down on its stomach to get a closer look.

"A talking flower?" The human questioned with a tilt of her head, her voice identifying her gender. The little flower just smiled in response.

"Yep! I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower!" Flowey greeted. The girl's face lit up at the response. "That was a long fall you suffered. I'm glad you landed on those flowers, otherwise you might have died." Flowey informed cheerily. Flowey looked off to the side, a smile growing on his face. In doing so he missed the human's face light up in joy. "Boy! You must be so confused right now. But I'll-"

"You.. You saved me!" She exclaimed suddenly, a wide smile quickly growing on her face. Flowey turned back to her in confusion only to be pulled into a bone crushing hug as she rubbed her face against his.

"W-What the!? N-No! Let go of me!" He demanded, struggling uselessly in her arms. "L-Let go of me you freak!" Flowey shouted, before summoning bundle of white sharp pellets to fire at her. She opened her eyes too late to find white hot death rushing right for her. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized that she had been tricked once again, and this time she was really going to suffer for it. She dropped the flower by reaction and fell back as death surrounded her on all sides.

"YOU FOOL! IN THIS WORLD, ITS KILLED OR BE KILLED!" She could only stare in shocked silence at the horrific face that the flower donned as it shouted in her face. She curled up into a ball to attempt to block everything out, covering her ears to try and block out his horrible laugh that would haunt her dreams. "DIE!" This was it. It seemed as if this was her fate, to die at the hands of a possessed flower at the bottom of a massive ravine, cold, alone, and scared for her life.

She stayed like that, curled up into a ball crying, waiting for it to end. But after a few seconds passed she realized that she hadn't been killed. She looked up in time to spot someone or something chase the flower off with fireballs. She curled back up in fear when the new being turned her way. She could hear the footsteps getting closer to her. She didn't know what to do! She was terrified for her life. She just wanted to go home!

"My goodness! You poor thing! I hope that brute didn't bring you any harm." The first thing she heard was that of the most motherly and caring sounding voice she had ever heard. She bleary opened an eye to see someone kneeling down in front of her. Her heart reached out to the new woman in front of her, and before she knew it she jumped into the much larger furry woman's embrace, crying her heart out.

"Oh dear, it's alright. I'm here for you now. I won't leave you." The woman said quietly into her ear as she tried to calm the poor girl down. Slowly but surely the girl be an to calm, and slowly drift off to sleep. The poor thing was tired and exhausted, and the stress of the day had finally gotten to her. Toriel felt the human go slack in her arms, and looked down to find her sleeping quietly. She went to gently pick her and that was when she noticed something odd about her.

"Now look at that.." She muttered in quiet shock. She hadn't noticed beforehand, it was apparently obvious now. This human had a tail, and ears atop her head! Definitely not what she remembered as normal for a human. But that wasn't going to change her views on the poor girl, not one bit.

"Come now, let's get you cleaned up..." Toriel said softly as she carried the human away...

Consciousness slowly returned to her, blue eyes blinking slowly as they took in their surroundings. It was quiet, but not a bad way per say. It was warm too, something she hadn't felt in a while. She took in a deep breath, her lungs filling with the smells of a fresh baked pie. She shifted around under the cozy confines of her blanket, snuggling deeper into her pillow. She didn't want to wake up, but something told her she needed to. She couldn't go back to sleep now, even as she lay there half awake.

Eyes half open she pushed her covers off, slowly climbing out of bed. She realized that she was covered in only an extra large long sleeve shirt five sizes to big for her that barely went past her knees. While her puffy pink striped blue shirt and tan leggings were nowhere to be seen.

Her tail swung lazily a few inches off the ground as she looked around the room. She blinked tiredly as a large yawn escaped from her lips. Her ears twitched randomly as a breeze blew in from the open window. She looked around in confusion. She was in a bedroom that she had never seen before, wearing clothes that didn't belong to her.

Another yawn escaped from her as she made her way to the door. She felt oddly short, as the door handle was much higher up then seemed normal. Maybe the house owners were tall? Opening the door, she found herself in a warm colored hallway with potted plants lining the doors. She still didn't know where she was, but there was this heavenly scent that was pulling her forward down the hall, and she didn't have the will power to pull away.

Following her nose led her to a living room fitted out with all the basics. There was a book shelf, a coffee table, a lamp, and large chair for one. What really got her attention was the large goat like lady that was busying herself with a book in said chair. Frisk watched her curiously from across the room, quietly observing her. She didn't think she make any noise, but it seemed like the slow wave of her tail gave her away, as it bumped into one of the potted plants. Her tail went ramrod straight in surprise when the goat lady suddenly turned to her.

"Oh, you're awake." She spoke up, gently placing her book off to the side. She offered the cat-girl a soft smile that she hoped would ease the tension a little. And much to her joy, her gentle demeanor was exactly what worked on the girl.

"W-Where am I?" Frisk asked quietly, slowly approaching the monster. Toriel hummed softly, bringing her hand to her chin.

"You're in the underground." Toriel stared simply, no doubt confusing the girl. She could see that the girl was completely clueless as to what she was talking about, and let out a sigh. "Here... Let me explain." She said as she motioned to herself, urging the girl to her. Frisk hesitated for a moment, before giving in and walking over to her. What Toriel wasn't expecting for the girl to climb up into her lap, looking up to expectantly. Seeing that she was waiting for an explanation, Toriel began to try and explain it to her.

"Well... How do I say this..." Toriel started, stumbling for words. "The underground is a sort of different world that lies underneath the surface, where you fell from. Down here, you won't find any humans, as the only inhabitants here are monsters." She stopped momentarily to look down at her to see if she was following. Frisk was sitting on her lap quietly, paying full attention to what she was saying.

"The monsters here aren't very fond of humans, and given the chance... They'll try and steal your soul." Toriel felt Frisk involuntarily shiver at the reminder of the events that recently took place.

"M-My soul...?" Frisk asked quietly, not liking where this was going. Toriel placed her hand atop Frisk's head, gently rubbing her ears to try and soothe her.

"Your soul is the very culmination of your being. If you were to lose it, or have it stolen, you would die." Toriel informed gravely, before placing a hand over the girl's chest. Frisk watched the furry hand curiously as she felt a tingling sensation in her chest. Her eyes widened in shock when she felt something gently pulled out from her. Floating in front of her eyes was an almost cartoonishly designed heart, humming with a strange energy.

"This," Toriel said, gesturing to the floating heart before her. "Is your soul..." Frisk eyes grew wide with panic, believing that her soul was being taken away. Sensing the human's growing panic, Toriel was quick to assure her of her safety. "Relax child, I am not going to steal your soul." She said softly, petting the girl's head. "Take it into your hands." She requested. Frisk saw no harm in her request, and so she gently took it into her hands.

"I'm scared..." Frisk uttered quietly, hugging her soul to her chest. "I don't wanna die.." She turned up to the large monster woman. "Please..!" She begged. "Let me stay here with you!" Frisk pleaded, looking up into the monster's eyes. Toriel couldn't help the skip of her heart when she heard her say that. This was the first time that any human wanted to stay with her instead of leaving.

"You want to stay here.. W-With me?" Toriel asked, as if to make sure she wasn't hearing things. The pleading look the girl gave her could have melted the coldest hearts, and Toriel knew that there was no chance that she could ever deny her what she wanted. "Yes, yes of course you can stay here!" Toriel felt like crying in joy. She had tried so desperately to keep the other humans there with her, only for them to leave anyway. But this one. This one wanted to stay with her, willingly. She couldn't have been more happy in that moment.

"Nya! Thank you, thank you!" Frisk cried out with unabashed joy, hugging the furry monster woman tightly. Toriel hesitated for a moment, before returning the hug in full, pulling the cat-girl into her warm inviting embrace. Toriel was too happy to call her out on the fact that she just meowed, filing that down for later instead.

Frisk glanced up to the goat-like monster woman, a slight questioning look on her face. Toriel was confused for a moment, but had a feeling as to what the girl was asking for.

"Ah, you must forgive me for not introducing myself earlier." She exclaimed with a smile. "My name is Toriel Dreemurr, caretaker of the Ruins." She said, a smile of pride radiating off of her. "What is your name?" Toriel asked in return. The girl couldn't help but smile back in response.

"My name is Frisk."

Chapter one

END