Alright, beauties. The updates might come slow at first since I'm still finishing "The Recovery", but it'll speed up once that's finished.
Note: I know Frisk is a 'they', but it became difficult to write like that as it messed up my point of view ('they' generally being used for groups) so I hope 'she' will suffice. I hope it won't change your personal view of Frisk.
Anyways, enjoy~
xXLoveThatAccentXx
Frisk opened her eyes, mind still hazy from the long sleep. She lie on her back on something soft, gazing directly into the bright light that had woken her. Dazed and confused, she lifted her arm to rub at her eyes.
She didn't remember much. Only fragments came when she called… she remembered climbing the mountain out of curiosity… stumbling across a wide hole in the ground… crawling on her hands and knees to peek over the edge…
Falling in…
Frisk looked up again, gasping as she came to the realization. Sure enough, the bright light she'd woken to was far, far above her, the source spilling through a dilated hole that, judging from how small it looked, boasted an impossible distance. She'd fallen into the mountain.
In shock, Frisk lowered her head to get a grasp of her surroundings. She'd woken in a big cavern, dusted with leaves and kissed with overgrowth of various plants. Frisk's hands touched something soft beneath her, and she looked down to see she'd landed on a bed of golden flowers. They were beautiful, and had grown thick. It seemed that was what had broken her fall.
Frisk pushed herself to her feet. She was still disoriented from her fall, and she stumbled, falling back into the flowers face-first. With a muffled squeal of frustration, she pushed herself back up, this time holding steady.
There was a potential exit to the left; a gaping mouth of a hole in the wall, filling Frisk with a hope that she wasn't trapped down here after all.
Wobbly, she made her way to the hole, abandoning the comforting light of the surface she could never reach, and peered inside.
It looked like a pathway of sorts. The rocky, time-worn mouth opened into a tunnel, leading deeper and deeper into the mountain; a decent size, lit by the sunbeams pouring in from the cave Frisk was about to leave, and dark and void near the back. Frisk looked around. There was a large, hollowed out crevice directly to the left, lit also by a bottleneck opening to the surface world.
The light in this cave illuminated a patch of shaggy green grass in the corner, and a boulder leaned up against the wall to form a miniature cave, filled with dry plant material. The walls of the cave were lined with little scratches.
Curious, Frisk investigated this little cave. It was a very clean cave, being void of spiderwebs or debris. The bumpy ground even looked as if it'd been swept. It was as if the cave was being cleaned every so often… As if someone had been living here. Now that Frisk thought about it, she noticed a new smell; the cave smelled sweet, like cookies.
Suddenly, as she watched, the ground in front of her broke, crumbling a little bit, and from a newly formed hole in the ground popped a flower.
The stem of the flower was thick and long, a healthy green, as if light and water had never been out of its reach. The head was big; perhaps an entire hand's length across, but it was facing away from Frisk, so she couldn't say much more about it yet. Its petals were large and droopy; yellow, like the flowers in the other cave, shining golden in the sun. As Frisk watched, the flower turned around to look at her; literally.
The flower had a face. Big green eyes and a little mouth shaped like an 'o'.
"Aah!" Frisk and the flower squealed in terror at the same time, with Frisk falling backwards onto her bottom and the flower sticking its head back into the ground. However, the flower didn't completely leave; its big spiky leaves and long stem still poking out of the crumbly earth, trembling every few seconds.
Frisk blinked to ensure her vision wasn't failing. Nope, there was definitely a living breathing flower in front of her, sticking its head in the earth like an ostrich and making definite whimpering sounds. It was completely mad, but to be honest, falling around two hundred feet into a mountain without injury was far-fetched by itself, so Frisk didn't really know what else she was expecting.
Frisk pushed herself into a sitting position, staring wide-eyed at the plant, shock dispersing into curiosity. She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, did I scare you…?"
The shaking stopped, and slowly, the flower's eyes peeked up from under the dirt. Seeing that Frisk wasn't planning on hurting it, it straightened up, cocking its head and giving Frisk a weird look.
"What in the blazes are you doing down here?" The flower inquired, seemingly in disbelief. The flower's voice was high toned like those chipmunks in the movies, but low enough it could be distinguished as male.
Frisk shrugged a bit awkwardly. "I… fell?"
"Well, of course you did! I wasn't here expecting you to float down, was I?" The flower seemed a lot braver now, even arrogant. "What I meant was, why did you even come here?! Don't you know the super famous legend of humans mysteriously disappearing up here? Weren't you the least bit intimidated?"
"Well, I…"
"It's been so long… You'd have thought humans would have gotten the point by now… Now I'll have another one weighing on my conscious… I don't know if I can take much more of this…." The flower seemed upset, babbling senselessly as Frisk tried to explain. Finally Frisk just stood up and flicked the flower on the face.
"Ouch!" He yelped, recoiling a bit with a somewhat offended expression. "That hurt!"
"Can you please help me? I don't know what's going on." This was more of a plea than a request. Ten minutes into the underground and already people (plants?) were speaking nonsense.
"What is there to know? Shouldn't it have crossed your mind that a big scary mountain is a bad thing...? Ugh, fine. Let's start from the beginning, shall we?" The flower cracked its neck (if that's possible) and straightened up with a bright smile. "Howdy! I'm Flowey the flower! You're obviously new to the Underground, so let me learn you a thing or two."
Frisk suddenly felt a tugging sensation from her chest, and when she looked down, she was surprised to see a glowing heart hovering in front of her. It was small and humble, drifting modestly a few inches from her face, and Frisk smiled in spite of herself.
"See that? That's your soul. It's the very culmination of your being. That gets broke, and you're dead as dirt. Monsters get to rip it out of your body and absorb it for themselves." Flowey put it plainly, not bothering to sugarcoat it. "You see, when a monster absorbs a human soul, not only can they cross the Barrier that keeps us down here, but they can become really powerful. And trust me, you don't want that to happen. So I'd try to keep that little heart inside you if I were you."
"A Barrier?"
"You know, from the story? 'The humans trapped the monsters underground with a magic spell'? That Barrier is the magic spell. A human soul and a monster soul can cross it together. More on that later. What we have to focus on now is self-defense. If you encounter a monster, more than likely will they go straight for your soul." With a wave of Flowey's leaves, the ground broke and several little seeds popped out to hover in the air beside him.
"These are bullets." Flowey explained. "Dodge them!" And with a swipe of his leaves, the pellets flew straight toward Frisk's heart.
Frisk yelped and jumped to the side, the bullets narrowly missing her heart and nicking her on the shoulders. She gasped and grasped her shoulders in her hands, sinking to her knees, trying to squeeze the pain away.
"Ah… I hit you… sorry, but you've really got to work on that." Flowey shook his head, but Frisk could see a bit of guilt written on his features. He didn't meet Frisk's eyes. "Welp, looks like you've got the basics. The tunnel leads to the edge of the Ruins, then keep going straight until you reach the King's castle. That's where the Barrier is." He turned around and began digging a few snail shells from dirt. "Send me a postcard from the Surface."
Frisk blinked once. Blinked twice. "I-I'm going... alone?"
The flower visibly flinched. "I'm not much of a traveller."
Frisk felt something within her die a bit, and at the same time felt a rush of shock. "B-But… I don't know where I'm going! I don't want to get lost!"
"I've told you all I know. Besides, it's not my problem where you end up. I've got myself to worry about." His voice was more of a growl than a squeak now.
Frisk was hurt at the flower's choice of words. She thought Flowey might be a potential friend, but now she wasn't so sure. "You know, you're not very nice."
"I'm not very nice?" Flowey gave a haughty laugh. "Just you wait till you meet everyone else. 'Mean' is an understatement. Compared to them, I'm the best friend you've got."
Frisk narrowed her eyes, upset. "Then act like one! I need your help. Please."
The flower bit his lip at Frisk's tone, and suddenly, he looked skittish. He turned back around, just a little, his petals curling inward. He stuttered under his breath, Frisk barely being able to hear.
"No… not again…" He muttered, with a shaky breath. "I… I can't…."
Then he sighed. He turned around completely. He gave Frisk a long look. "...I suppose… I could take you to the end of the Ruins. Yeah. But no farther! You hear?"
Frisk sighed in relief and nodded. As crazy as the flower seemed, talking to himself and muttering under his breath, he obviously knew the ropes. At least he was better than the alternative; a murderous monster intent on ripping Frisk's soul out.
"Wait a moment." The flower instructed, and picked up the snail shells in his mouth, diving into the earth again and popping up next to the miniature cave next to the cavern wall. He carefully placed the shells inside. When Frisk leaned over to see inside the little cave, she saw that it was full of lush green grass where the flower could sleep, lined with shells and pretty rocks. Up on the ceiling of the little cave, which couldn't be more than three feet tall, were some hanging decorations; flowers, vines, feathers. In the very back, Frisk could just make out the most surprising features; a faded ribbon, a worn plastic knife, a dirty blue jacket in a crumpled heap, and a paperback book, burned along the edges.
With a squeal of delight, completely disregarding respect, Frisk dove forward to get a closer look at the objects. Flowey made a strangled noise of indignance, but Frisk ignored him as she pulled out the ribbon.
"What do you think you're -?! Oh, never mind." Flowey groaned. "It sure was nice of me to lend you that, wasn't it? What do you say?"
"It's so pretty!" Frisk giggled, and Flowey rolled his eyes. She tied the ribbon into her shoulder-length hair and twirled around the cave. "Where'd you get it? Where'd you get all the human stuff?"
"They fall." Flowey looked up at the hole to the surface, so high above. Frisk nodded in understanding.
"Can I keep this?" She asked, touching the ribbon.
"Might as well. Here, take the jacket too. Might get cold later on. We are underground after all. Besides," He sighed, a bit absentmindedly. "...It's not as if I can wear it."
Frisk shook the jacket out and slipped into it. The goosebumps on her arms disappeared as the thin fabric trapped in her body heat. Zipping the jacket, up, Frisk looked at the walls of the cave again. The little marks seemed to stand out a lot more now, as if they wanted to be seen. They lined the walls ominously, too many to count: scratches not more than an inch long. Tally marks.
"What are those?" Frisk asked Flowey, pointing.
Flowey gave the scratches a weary stare with a faraway look in his eyes, and for a moment, he seemed older than he let on. "...I'm counting the days."
He said nothing more about them.