Chapter 2: Fallen Down
The girl was slow to regain consciousness, awakening with a groan. She kept her eyes shut against the light trying to bore holes in her head.
*Is being dead supposed to hurt this much? Everything ached, and the back of her head and arm throbbed in time with the heartbeat she shouldn't have. But, if she was to be honest with herself, she supposed surviving her fall should've hurt much worse.
Assuming she was actually alive, of course. She wasn't convinced a human could live after a fall like that with just some bruising and a headache.
Groaning again, she started checking herself. (If her brain was going to insist she was alive she might as well act like she still was.) Her arm hadn't gotten any worse, and she had a bump on the back of her head. Her neck was still bruised, all around, but she could still breathe. The scrapes on her knees had scabbed over. The bruises on her left elbow and shoulder (protected from abrasion by the thick wool sleeve) stung a bit as she moved her limb. Moving her spine didn't hurt so she hauled herself into a sitting position, opening her eyes (as much as she ever did) at last.
She sat upon a bed of golden flowers. They must have broken her fall. Their scent reminded her of the place she'd fled from, but she told herself what happened wasn't their fault. Especially these flowers, growing so far away.
Looking up, she found crystals shining almost like the sun. Was that how the flowers grew, all the way down here? It didn't seem very feasible… but surviving that fall wasn't, either. And she didn't know what kind of radiation those crystals were giving off, so who was to say it couldn't trick flowers into blooming? Was it safe for her to be sitting under them? Well, as safe as one could be with ultraviolet radiation soaking into their skin…
The girl mentally scoffed at herself. She had more important things to worry about. She brought her eyes down, blinking at the room she was currently in. A "room" was the only thing she could call it, because it wasn't the untouched stone cavern she expected.
Now that she wasn't looking directly at it, the light turned out to be weaker than it seemed. It barely lit the flowerbed and not much else. Even so, she could see tall, carved pillars ringing her in a semicircle. The only exit she could see went down what appeared to be a hallway. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom she could almost see more pillars at the end.
The girl considered her options. She couldn't see any way to climb back up, but that wasn't a viable option, anyway, given her injury. She could stay right where she was, but starving to death wasn't exactly ideal. Whether she was alive or hallucinating it felt real enough, from her pain to the softness of the flowers brushing her legs. It was probably prudent to avoid such a demise. She just had to get off her behind and do so…
She rose to her feet and shuffled forward, cradling her arm as she left the room through an archway, pausing long enough to examine the pillars and the angel-like design carved into the stone above her.
Walking down another hallway she found yet another ring of light. This one only had a single golden flower sitting in it. There was something odd about it, so she stood just outside the light to examine it from there. Her mind reeled at what she found, though her face remained impassive.
The flower had a face. It had. A face. A face ringed by six golden petals and with two beady little eyes set above a wide smile. The mouth moved…
"Howdy! I'm Flowey. Flowey the Flower!"
And now the flower was talking in what almost sounded like a little boy's voice. The girl said nothing in response, struggling to process all the new information and hypotheses that suddenly sprang to life in her brain. After a few seconds of silence "Flowey" cleared its throat (*Do flowers have throats?) and continued speaking.
"Hmmm… You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha? You must be so confused. Someone ought to teach you how things work around here!" The girl let out a sharp bark of laughter before she smothered it. One of Flowey's eyes twitched but its tone of voice stayed friendly as it asked, "What's so funny, new friend?"
Muscles the girl hadn't used in a very long time strained as her mouth quirked into a half-hysterical smile. Everything made sense, now…
"I'm dreaming," she croaked, her voice rusty and breathless because of injury, dehydration and stifled humor. "I have to be. That's the only explanation that fits. Flowers can't talk!"
"Golly, now that's just rude," said Flowey. "Do you think a dream could do this?"
The girl (who really needed a new name) gasped as something happened inside her chest. The hallway somehow darkened further as she suddenly felt very, very vulnerable. When she looked down something red was floating before her, shaped like a Valentine's Day heart and glowing bright red. A yellow bar declaring to indicate "HP" also appeared. The girl didn't know what it was for, but the fact that it was only half full worried her. It made her neck and arm throb looking at it. She had the sinking suspicion that "HP" was somehow tied to her well-being.
"Now, to start your lesson…" The girl snapped her attention back to Flowey as its voice reached her. It used a leaf to gesture at the red heart. "That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being. It starts out weak, but can grow if you gain a lot of LV."
Something about its saccharine tone was ringing false, all of a sudden. The girl's bad feeling deepened as she asked, "What is 'LV'?"
Flowey's spread its leaves, like a human spreading their arms in an expansive gesture. "It stands for LOVE, of course! Don't worry. I'll share some with you!" It winked, a little fleck of pollen flying from its eye. The girl was repulsed, but before she could protest tiny, white, ovoid shapes surrounded Flowey. "Down here, we share LOVE through 'friendliness pellets'. Go ahead! Soak them all up!"
The "pellets" slowly floated toward her and the girl sidestepped them. She could see Flowey's cheek(?) twitch as she said, "I'm not interested in partaking of your 'love.'"
She tried to leave and walk around Flowey, but a white square had appeared on the ground at some point. It turned out to signify the borders of an invisible wall, halting her progress. Not wanting Flowey to see how scared she suddenly became she raised her chin, straightened her shoulders and puffed her (laughably meager) chest out. The outward display of confidence helped to strengthen her voice as she looked down her nose and issued a command.
"Release me at once!"
She didn't like the way she sounded, at that moment. It reminded her too much of… certain people, but it was better than letting Flowey see how much it was starting to scare her. "Never show her tears and never show her fears" was the only worthwhile piece of advice she'd ever received. It helped her to survive, thus far. It had to work, now…
Unfortunately her display didn't impress Flowey. It chuckled before saying, "Sorry, friend, but I'm not letting you go. Not until you accept my LOVE."
The girl's brow drew downward, slightly. It was the only sign of irritation and confusion she permitted herself as she said, "I already told you I'm not interested in any of it."
The smile on Flowey's face chilled her exposed soul as it said, "Don't you get it, yet? You don't have a choice. Now DIE."
The walls closed in. She couldn't move as she was surrounded by a ring of pellets. She used her good arm to bring her soul closer to herself, holding it and her injured arm at the same time, but it didn't make her feel any safer. She shivered as Flowey's face morphed into the most grotesque, inhuman smile she'd ever seen. It looked like some thing that didn't belong in any decent world.
She was staring Death in the face, again. It kept getting uglier and uglier, every time…
Flowey's demented, maniacal laughter echoed off the walls, filling the girl with dread. She closed her eyes as the "pellets" inched closer. She hugged her arm and soul tight, the pain making the nightmare she was trapped in feel all too real. She held her breath and prepared to die…
…but the ill intent in the air vanished. The girl peeked through her lashes to find that the pellets were gone. Flowey looked just as confused as she felt. A blur of orange light streaked toward Flowey in a rush of heated air, knocking it away from the girl. As it disappeared so did the HP bar, the white square at the girl's feet and the peculiar darkness that'd settled over her. Her soul disappeared as well, concerning her until she realized she no longer felt so vulnerable. It was probably back where it belonged. She calmed herself down with that thought as a new voice made itself known.
"What a terrible creature, torturing a poor, innocent youth."
A very tall figure stepped into view, standing seven feet tall at the very least. There was something goat-like about it's long face, short horns and floppy ears, but it wasn't a perfect comparison. It was fanged, for starters, and its eyes faced forward as it glared at the place Flowey disappeared to. It's short, pristine white fur looked soft as it practically glowed in the half-dark. It had paw-like hands and feet sticking out of the its billowy white dress. It also wore a forest green overcoat with the same angel-like design the girl had seen earlier, embroidered in yellow thread.
The creature (clearly one of the fabled monsters that'd been trapped beneath the mountain, centuries ago) turned to her and smiled. In a motherly timbre it said, "Do not be afraid, my child. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins."
The girl blinked, forcing herself to think and remember her manners. She owed the monster at least that much, if not more for saving her life! And she wasn't an "it," either!
Mentally castigating herself, the girl made herself say, "Thank you, Miss Toriel, for saving me from that… thing. I'm-"
She hesitated, cursing her lack of foresight. She should've thought of an alias sooner! Too many options flashed through her mind before she latched onto, "Fr…is…k. My name is Frisk."
The girl now called Frisk winced internally. She'd used bits of her old name, which wasn't something she'd wanted to do, but at least making a hash of it had created something that sounded neither masculine, nor feminine.
She didn't know if monsters limited people by their gender the way humans did, but she'd had quite enough of that nonsense in her old life. She was done letting others tell her who to be, what to be, what she was permitted to learn and what she was capable of. She wasn't going to be the person she once was.
She was determined to be "herself," for the first time in her life.
Either Miss Toriel didn't notice the pause in her introduction, or chose to ignore it. She tilted her head, just a bit, still smiling as she said, "Frisk, is it? It is a pleasure to meet you, my child. I am glad I was able to intervene when I did. I pass through here every day but you are the first human to fall into this place in a long, long time."
"Is that so…" Frisk suddenly felt numb and lightheaded. Was the adrenaline rush from Flowey's attack wearing off? The room began to spin and grow cold. She was hungry, and tired, and everything hurt… She probably wasn't safe, yet, but all she wanted to do was lay down and sleep.
*Sleep sounds so… good…
Toriel let out a gasp as the child collapsed. She was quick enough to catch the poor human before they hit their head on the ground, but she was gravely concerned. She Checked Frisk… and admonished herself for not noticing the child's poor health sooner. It was rather obvious, from the mud-splatters and bits of leaves stuck to their clothing, to the scrapes and bruises on their exposed skin. Not to mention the gauntness brought on by poor nutrition, or a lack thereof…
She set aside her speculation of what brought the child to this place. After conducting a quick physical examination she found an improvised splint and the fracture it was trying to stabilize. Healing that restored about a third of Frisk's missing HP. Healing the horrific bruising on their neck healed over half of what remained.
*Did someone try to strangle this poor child?! she thought indignantly. If those marks had truly been made by someone's hands, they were rather large. Human males were typically bigger than the females, so…?
She shook her head. Speculation wasn't going to heal Frisk, so she went to work on the minor injuries, bringing them up to full health.
Nothing Toriel did awakened them. Judging from darkened skin under their eyes, they'd probably been beyond exhaustion before being attacked by that flower-shaped creature. She knew humans were very determined beings, often pushing themselves beyond their physical limitations to accomplish great feats when things seemed dire, but those limits could not be pushed forever. Somehow, for whatever reason, Frisk had gone even farther than that.
A mere child, who could not be more than twelve years old (at most) had pushed themselves to the brink. But why…?
Questions she longed to ask the human about their origins crossed Toriel's mind, but they were not important. For the first time in too long a child needed her to take care of them and she was not going to fail them. Carefully, gently, she cradled Frisk in her arms. They continued to sleep as Toriel carried them through the Ruins, all the way back to Home.
Lessons on puzzles and Fighting would have to wait. Frisk had clearly been through enough, for one day.