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-Chapter 4: Year 1: Chara of Monsters-
Funny how fast time could pass. The first day found me refreshed by a truly dreamless sleep. The morning was spent learning more about the ruins, my new home now, and the others I would be sharing it with. The froggit were the most common, of course. I hadn't put a name to the other ones I encountered yet however.
One type was called a Whimsun. An extreamly shy and sensitive monster looking somewhere between a ghost and a fairy. So sensitive that they simply couldn't fight even if they where in real danger. The easiest to deal with peacefully, they could be deterred by a simple word of comfort and reassurance.
Another was the Moldsmal. A type of relatively inert monster resembling a lime jello mold. Very simple things, they were not exactly dangerous and could simply be discouraged by jiggling back at them a little. Good to know.
Migosps are a beetle-like monster that can be a bit unpleasant and snippy at times, but are actually surprisingly friendly and just prefer some alone time and a bit of dancing. It's generally better to approach them when they're by themselves than around others.
Among those there where also the radish-like vegitoids who insisted on feeding you home grown vegetables (Pretty good actually. Great source of food.), the horned and singled eyed Loox, and the myriad intelligent spiders who seemed to run a constant bake sale in a corner of the ruins.
Their cooking... left something to be desired. I had made the mistake of trying a spider cider from them once. It was a sharp and sour thing with a worrying texture that I dare not drink again. I'd take snails over it any day. Good thing mom cooked snails really well.
In a few weeks later and I had all the monsters of the ruins memorized. By then I was halfway through the book as well. I now knew more about the war than ever before, as well as the barrier, the great exodus, the founding of 'Home', which was now the ruins (Whoever the king was, he really needed to think of a more creative name than 'home'. Still it had a nice sentiment to it.), the delta rune which was the emblem of the royal family but also far older, and most interestingly some details on the human mages. Could I possibly learn magic?
The idea of wielding magic both excited and terrified me. Would it be like monster magic? I hoped it could. Mom's magic allowed her to heal. Everything I read about human magic seemed to suggest that it was only capable of bringing destruction and pain. Monsters where different from humans though... in many ways. The most apparent being that monsters had very little physical matter compared to a human, and what they did have was bound together by their magic.
I also got a better understanding of how fights work in the coming weeks. After a few more I began to realize there is a sort of 'area' that my soul is limited to move to avoid attacks. I decided I'd call it the 'bullet box'. Simple, descriptive, and to the point. If most monster attacks could be called 'bullets' then it stood to reason.
Two weeks later, I'd mastered the ruin's puzzles enough to be able to pass through them fairly freely return to where I had fallen. It took some time to memorize the spiked path and the location of all the leaf pitfalls. The switch puzzles and rock pushing ones where simple, even a kid could do them though. Well except for that one weird room that would change perspective. I wasn't sure what magic was at work with that one but it still gave me a headache at times.
By small fortune I'd not seen Flowey again. Not yet at least. I had found my lost knife again though after poking around the area, so if worst came to worst I would in fact have an option to defend myself besides my bare hands. The other monsters, I felt safe around now since I knew I could handle them peacefully, but Flowey? Flowey was a whole 'nother beast entirely. Flowey was vicious, deceptive, and dangerous.
I had met a few 'Floweys' on the surface. People more than willing to play at being sweet and friendly while happily tearing your throat out when they see the chance. You see enough of those people, you start to get a feel for them.
It took me several more months to actually figure out what kind of monster Toriel was. I'd never actually thought to ask and it had never come up. It turned out her kind was called a 'boss monster'. Long droopy ears, visible fangs (Which according to Toriel are mostly for cracking snail shells), a pair of horns, humanoid bodies, and paws at the end of their extremities. It all matched up.
The majority are apparently of royal blood, and I even overheard one monster mention that they can't age unless they have offspring. That's what scuttlebutt was at least among the ruins. What if it was true though? How old was Toriel really, then? Did that mean she'd always be there for me, even when I got old?
Eventually June came around, though it was a little hard to tell given there was no sun to work off of. It was time to celebrate my birthday, June 24th. In a few short years I'd be a full adult and be unable to wear striped shirts anymore, a tradition i've found is common among both humans and monsters for indicating that someone is not yet an adult. Today though, I could enjoy my youth. We ended up baking a cake together. I think it came out really well, but then again it was the first real birthday cake I'd ever had so I had no frame of reference.
The gift she got for me was a book on the basics of magic. I had expressed some slight interested in magic, but not enough to let on that I'd have been interested in trying to learn it, right? Maybe she had noticed how much I'd watched with curiosity when she would use her fire magic to cook. She did remind me that the likelihood of actually learning any magic was incredibly low.
As she explained it, magic came more easily to monsters because they had less physical mass than humans which made it easier to connect with the soul and draw power from it. Since I was human, it would be very difficult, if not impossible... but I was determined.
I began to train regularly, getting into a routine that exercised myself both physically and mentally. I decided to make regular patrols through the ruins as well, to make sure nothing dangerous was putting anyone at risk, almost acting as a second caretaker, or perhaps more like a member of the royal guard I had read about. It gave a bit of a sense of purpose to me.
A regular among my patrols was rather interesting sort, which really stuck out among the other monsters. A ghost by the name of Napstablook. They looked like... well, a bed sheet ghost you'd see in a cartoon really. A bit on the depressed side, but friendly enough. Very fond of music as well. Almost gave me a bit of a 'starving artist' feel. Y'know, if ghosts could starve.
They made for nice conversation, and I couldn't help but feel I brightened their day a bit when we talked. It seemed they came from somewhere outside the ruins, though I never really got around to asking where. Apparently they came here to say hi to the dummy. That was... something. Apparently the dummy was actually some type of monster as well? Then again we had a living rock down here so who was I to judge.
One day I noticed a strange object on my patrol through the ruins. A small golden yellow star-like light. Kneeling down and touching it, I felt myself reflecting on the ruins. How they had resisted the ages and still stood. It filled me with determination. The object seemed to preserve that thought.
Touching it again, I felt a rush of determination as it caused me to reflect on the thought. A moment later a small black and white window of sorts similar to the 'bullet box' appeared, displaying my name, the current time, and my current location... interesting.
It also displayed in a tucked away spot 'LV: 1'. 'Lv' I presumed was short of the LOVE thing Flowey mentioned. It almost reminded me of something out of a videogame as well. I didn't trust the flower to be honest about something apparently important, so I was pleased to see that it sat at what was probably base value. If Flowey thought it was good, it probubally wasn't.
It felt like I'd done a good thing, but I couldn't shake an unsettling feeling about it. Another piece of the picture I was missing. Just what was this SAVE? I had theories, oh did I have theories. But they where much too dangerous to test. Perhaps if it had been when I first had fallen... but now? Not so much.
Instead of dwelling upon it I continued my daily routine, roaming the ruins, doing favors for the locals in exchange for some small amount of coin, getting groceries from the former capital, and taking care of the golden flowers where I fell.
I worked the strange four pointed golden star into the routine, touching it as I passed every now and then and feeling a fresh swell in my determination as it reminded me that just like these ruins, despite all my hardships I was still standing... and still me.
My thoughts on that matter however had been blindsided by the fact I finally learned what lay down the stairs. Toriel finally felt ready to let me know about what it was. A door leading to the rest of the underground. I knew the next zone of the underground, Snowdin, was close. I had no idea it was on our doorstep.
Toriel explained to me that she had not told me about it before, because she was worried if she did I would rush head long into it without knowing what I needed to. Now that I had spent some time here though and proved myself to be a responsible person, she felt safe to address it.
Apparently most monsters outside of the ruins still had resentment for being sealed down here by humans. Once I was old enough, I could go see for myself if I chose to. Perhaps she was afraid that if I knew of an exit I would try to leave first chance I got, and would have ended up... Well it didn't bear thinking about. The idea of how my death would affect her... I couldn't imagine it.
I started getting the feeling I wasn't the first human to come through here. Determined not to make her worry, I redoubled my efforts. Summer passed, and I was starting to gain some a healthier build, putting some desperately needed muscle on my bones. The occasional dream would crop up as well.
I found myself sucked into the routine of things, making gold, spending it on small personal things or stuff to help out Toriel, and generally feeling good about myself for once. I had a place to live, a purpose, and a family, however small it was.
Before I knew it, it was winter. You really couldn't tell with the underground though. The ruins always felt like they where in perpetual fall. It did become slightly chillier though, so I finally had an excuse to wear my mended hoodie. I'd sewn it back up myself with lessons from Toriel.
One day I had noticed that one of the doors at the end of the hall, which had always been locked wasn't. It had a small sign saying 'room under renovation' on it. I... let the curiosity get the better of me.
Slowly opening the door, I found it was another bedroom, similar to mine, though a soft shade of green in this case. Everything was dusty with age however. It hadn't been entered in a long time. It was quiet as the grave inside. Walking cautiously I entered.
Discarded crayons and papers sat in one corner. Sifting through the aged papers, I found that some of them lined up with the style of the drawings in the book. Some of them scrapped attempts at the same plan outline even.
My hand stopped on one. Older than some of the others. It seemed some real effort was put into it though. Two drawings. Two different hands. One was of a young boss monster, and the other a human. Underneath them it read 'Me and Sis. Best friends forever.'
I don't know what drove me to do it. I probably should have left it where it lay. However I instead rolled the picture up and tucked it away in the inner pocket of my jacket. Not even the moment I started putting it in my eye caught a glint of something on the bed sheets.
Creeping over, as if afraid that making any noise would awaken a vengeful spirit, I came to the side of the bed. A small heart shaped locket made of red gemstone with a fine gold frame overlay on it. With a shaking hand I gently took it.
It was a pretty little thing. Something told me I was meant to find it. That I should take it where it belonged. I didn't have any clue where that was though. Pocketing it as well, I crept out of the room and slowly shut the door behind me. Just in time too, since Toriel came home minutes later.
The incident passed from mind as preparations for the monster equivalent of Christmas began. A lower key affair than with humans, with far more emphasis on the togetherness than the giving of gifts, though that was a part of it. She even made a surprise for me. A chocolate pie!
Taking the splendor of chocolate and melding it with the wonder that was her cinnamon-butterscotch pie, the result was to die for. It was to be savored however, unlike the cinnamon-butterscotch pie which I felt could be enjoyed at any time. This was something for special occasions. In this case to mark our first year together.
It came around to time to exchange gifts. For her, I had sewn her a new robe. A good portion of my budget had been sunk into it, so I was glad it actually fit her and she liked it. In return she gave me the sewing pattern for the delta rune emblem. Something I had been finding myself wanting to give a go at since I thought it looked cool.
It wasn't anything terribly complex or fierce looking really. A simple sphere between two feathered wings with three triangles beneath it, with the middle triangle inverted. First thing in the morning I was adding it to the back of my hoodie. The local monsters told me it was used as an emblem of the royal guard, and they had started to jokingly call me 'the human royal guard'. I had decided to embrace it in full.
Laying against mom, and enjoying the warm fireplace, I started to daydream about what it would be like to be a member of the royal guard. A very unlikely possibility considering I was human, but I could dream. A small spark of red danced from my finger tips as my eyes fully closed and sleep took hold. The beginnings of magic perhaps,or just a product of my mind's exhaustion? The idea of protecting innocent monsters from the wicked filled me with determination.
MsYakumo: And that's another chapter down. A bunch of world building and character development in this chapter. I wasn't sure if doing a full overview of the year in one chapter was a good move but the people helping me beta this said it was the best chapter yet for them. Hope you all enjoy it as well. Feel free to leave a review. They really help, I swear. Next chapter is more of an interlude than a proper chapter, so it might be a little shorter than the others. Remember folks, stay determined!