The sunlight was warm against your face, a distant sound of birds far above you. After a moment, all was quiet. The ringing in your ears began as you started to come to your senses. Opening your eyes, you could see the light at the top of the cavern. As you sat up, ignoring the pain in your neck, you looked around. The cavern was dark, except the bed of yellow flowers you were sitting in.
Something about the scene was familiar. As you stood and started to walk down the hall towards the door, your sense of deja vu was going crazy. As you glance back at the flowers, you get a feeling of what might happen next. Though you can't exactly remember, you feel a bit uneasy about it.
As you walk through the door and into the dark room, you look all around. It's completely dark, except for one light lighting up a patch of grass in the center. You stand in the light for a moment and wait.
"Howdy! You're new around here, aren'tcha?"
You turn back and automatically look down. The little flower seemed happy to see you.
"Oh, hi there. You're a flower," you said.
The flower's expression changed a bit, before going back to a smile, "That's right! I'm Flowey the flower! I'm your new best friend! I can teach you how things with down here. It's not the same as on the surface. Ready? Here-"
"Uh, no thanks, Flowey," you side step carefully around Flowey, keeping a smile, "I think I can figure things out for myself."
You aren't sure why you felt the need to lie to Flowey, but you knew you had to get away from him as soon as possible. You quickly turn your back and begin to run to the opposite doorway. But, before you could get far, something grabs your leg and pulls you back. When you look back, you see a thick find wrapped around your ankle.
"You know what's going on, don't you?" You hear Flowey say, "I'm surprised. The other kid seemed to know as well. But I won't let you get away. I may have lost one chance, but I won't lose this one."
Looking at Flowey's face, you feel a sudden rush. Something deep inside of you starts screaming out instinctively. This can't be how it ends, there's something you can do. You hold your hands in front of your face to block yourself as Flowey pulls you closer. The silver key around your right wrist floats up and begins to glow. As you notice the glow, you remember what it is for. Taking hold of the key, you swipe at the vine around your ankle. Flowey let's out a cry of pain and releases you.
"You... You hurt me!" He said. With an angry look, he recedes into the ground and disappears. Quickly, you scramble back to your feet and run off.
In the next room you run until you reach the stairs and collapse into them. As you try to catch your breath you look at your little key. You were suddenly very aware of the power surfing through. It made you feel good, it felt safe. You smiled and let it hang again as you stood. Looking up the stairs at t he door to the ruin, you start to wonder about this world. You so couldn't quite remember why you were here or how you fell down. You shake your head and decide to worry about it later.
Just then, the door opened. A tall white, furry, monster entered the room, looking solemn. When she spotted you, she blinked in surprise, doing a double take behind herself.
You smile at her as you doing the stairs to meet her. It was somehow a familiar face, even though you knew you didn't know her, "Oh, it's you!" You exclaim.
She blinks in confusion, "I'm sorry, child, have we met?"
You shake your head quickly, still smiling, "No, I don't think so. But, I feel like we have. You're... Mom, right?"
She blinks, her face turning a bit red beneath her fur, "Mom? Would that make you happy, child? To call me 'Mom'?" She laughed a little and just rubbed your head, "In any case, I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins."
As she leads you through the Ruins, you ask her little questions about herself, just trivial little details. She tells you that her favorite animals are snails, that they are also her favorite food, and that she loves to go but hunting. She a also tells you she had a family with a child just kind you before. Once she finishes, she goes quiet. The memories cloud her eyes as she leads you through the rooms and lakes without explaining them.
When you reach the little house, she stops. She turns and smiles at you, "I apologize, my child. I think it's been some time since I have talked so much."
You smile at her and shake your head, "Its not a problem. I did ask you a lot of questions."
Toriel smiled, "I told you so much about myself, but never learned a thing about you."
"My curiosity gets the better of me, I guess." You shrug.
"Well, you must be tired after such a long fall, and after that walk."
You nod, yawning a bit as you follow her inside, "I could use a nap really." Inside, you catch the scent of butterscotch and cinnamon and smiled, "I'm pretty hungry, too."
She just laughed and rubbed your head, "Go rest, I'll have a nice treat weight for you when you wake up." You agree, excited for sleep and food at the same time.
As you run to the room, you look around curiously. Next to the bed there are so many dusty toys and a tall armoire filled with striped shirts. Looking down at your own red and yellow striped shirt under your crown necklace, you decide you don't need to change. With a shrug, you look at the dresser beside it.
On top is an old looking photograph of a couple of children. Or were they monsters? You couldn't tell. Shrugging, you turned away and laid in the bed. Though you knew you could sleep forever, you were wide awake. You stared at the ceiling through the dark, trying to figure out what you should do. Holding your little key over you, you can remember that you came here to help. Something about this place drew you to it, as all worlds do.
"The Keyblade is my guide," you tell yourself. You remember hearing those words before. Someone always told you to believe in the light and the Keyblade will show you the way. With a sigh, you rolled onto your side and closed your eyes. It was no use wracking your brain trying to figure it out. Maybe when the time comes, the Keyblade will make itself known. It always had before, rightt?
When you awoke again, you could smell the pie in the floor. Rubbing your eyes, you sat up and looked at it. Even in the dark you could see the steam coming off of it. With a smile, you picked up the plate and carried it with you as you walked out of the room.
To the side you noticed the hall went on, there were two more doors not far off. You sat the pie down on an end table next to some weird oblong pod plant and tried the first door. It swung open and you started to wonder if you should go inside. Shaking the feeling off, you walk in and look around.
It was a bedroom, assumed to be Toriel's. There was a little desk, a bigger bed then yours and a dresser. It was a simple little room.
"Oh, you're up," you hear Toriel's voice behind you, "was there something you needed, my child?"
Hearing her suddenly made you jump a little. Turning to her, you just smile "Oh, no, I was just looking for you, mom."
Toriel smiled, delighted to hear this, "Oh, how wonderful. Come along then."
Toriel took you back to the sitting room by the fire and told you all sorts of stories. Most of what she told you had to do with snails, but they were interesting anyway. She had stacks of books that seemed to all be either about snails or some sort of old history book. You took one off the shelf and handed it to her.
Toriel smiled, "oh this one is about us monsters. You see, we don't have very much written history since we've been underground. Nothing down here changes much, so there's no need to write everything down. But, this book tells our story of how we came to be in this position."
You smile, eager to learn more, "Will you tell me about it?"
"If you wish, my child. Monsters and humans at once lived together in peace. Both sides trusted that the other would not betray them. But the humans became paranoid. They knew they had the advantage over monsters, but were afraid that somehow we might somehow find a way to overcome them.
"So, they began to fight, " she sighs, "So many lives were lost as they drove us down into this dark place. Once they had us cornered, seven of their best magicians put a barrier around us so that we couldn't escape. Afraid, we stayed in the dark, hoping they finally left us be. And they did. They left us trapped in the dark."
She paused, looking to the side, "King Asgore wishes to take the surface back from the humans, so that all monsters can go free. He believes an eye for an eye when it comes to strategy. They took everything from us, so we must take everything from them."
Toriel looks at you and holds a finger up, speaking a bit more sternly, "But, an eye for en eye simply leaves the world blind, Sora. It is not the right way to do things. Fighting is not the answer. Kill them with kindness, my child."
You tilted your head as you listened to her. She ended her speech with a sort of sad smile. You got a feeling in your gut that you knew what the look meant, what made her so sad, "Where is the other like me?" You ask ,her.
She seems surprised by your question for a moment, but then realizes something, "Oh, you must have noticed the things in your room," she smiles that sad smile again, "They left not long before I found you. I tried to make them feel welcome here, but I suppose this place is simple too small. It can be quite lonely in the Ruins."
"Why don't you ever leave then?" You ask her. It seemed to you like a simple question. There didn't seem to be anyone else here she could really talk to.
Toriel smiled, shaking her head, "I have my duties here, the same I have had for a very long time. I can not simply leave."
You tilt your head and frown a little, "Doing the same thing all the time since really boring."
Toriel laughed, "You get used to it. Now, if that is all, my child, I better go out the pie away before a little dog gets to it."
She stood and patted your head before heading into the kitchen. You follow her for a moment, watching her around the corner. As she took the pie off the counter and opened the fridge, you could see a little weird dog spring up from the bottom shelf at the pie. Toriel gave it a frightening, stern look.
"No! This pie is not for you!"
She dodged the dog, trying to keep the pie just out of reach as it tried is hardest, leaping higher reach time. You can hardly good been your laughter as you watch them. So, during not to get on Toriel's bad side, you head back to your room through the main room.
You permit yourself to laugh once you were out of earshot. Rubbing the tears from your eyes, you notice your little Keyblade start to glow. It was pointing across you to the stairs as you pass them. Curious, you stand at the top of them and look down. You can't see anything in the dark, but your Keyblade seems insistent as it pulls at your wrist.
"Whoa!" You try to resist, but it pulls you harder, forcing you to descend, one step at a time, "I'm supposed to be the one in control here, aren't I?"
You hang onto the key, trying to pull it back as it drags you down the stairs. Once you are at the bottom in the darkness, it finally releases, making you stumble a little. With a sigh, you look up, trying to make out shapes in the darkness. Down the long hall you could make it the light from a torch. It seemed to be much further away as you stared at it.
You look down at your Keyblade, "Why did you bring me down here? Won't Toriel be worried?" The key lights up a little for a moment, then fades back to its normal silver sheen. As you look up, you clench your fists, "Well... Might as well see what's down here."
You hesitate at first, then, one step at a time, start down the hall.