Ch. 1 And along came the red heart
It's been a few weeks since that strange weather phenomenon over Mt. Ebott. It never got out of Frisk's mind when he saw it happen, and he just couldn't leave it alone. He knew of the legend of Mt. Ebott, that those that climb it never return, but he just had to figure out if anything was going on at the mountain's summet. If anything, Frisk could show the legend of Mt. Ebott was pure garbage and those that climbed it simply went to the other side of the mountain and the huge place wasn't some death-trap.
As Frisk stood at an enclave at the huge mountain, he gazed at the town below. He couldn't believe how far he came from just a few hours ago. He could only guess that he was about a good few miles high. It felt great to be so high up, there was no way anyone in town would've believed him, and it was going to be hard to get anyone to believe what he's done. It felt great to be able to be so high up, it felt freeing to the young boy.
Turning around to the enclave, Frisk decided that it would be interesting to see if the cave had anything cool. If anything, maybe there was something in the strange enclave held something of value, like treasure no one knew about. As Frisk entered the cave, he started to hear a distant voice somewhere in the darkness.
"Closer, come closer."
"H-Hello?" Frisk cried out, worried. "Who are you? A-are you okay?"
"Just, come closer. Please, I need you to come closer."
Frisk knew it was a bad idea, but he just had to figure out who, or what was calling to him. If the caller was hurt, Frisk just couldn't let them rot there and possibly die. He ran further into the cave, only hearing whoever calling out to him to "come closer." It was creepy, someone was up in the mountain and no one knew they were even up there. Even if he had no idea who was calling him, he had to see if they were alright.
"Where are you?" Frisk yelled, looking around. "I don't see you, are you ok—uh oh!"
Before Frisk knew it, he fell down a large hole in the ground. As he fell, he saw the world rush before him before he hit something soft. He was more surprised that he didn't see the huge hole as he stared up at it. Getting up, he saw that he managed to fall quite a distance, he was just glad he miraculously survived. Looking around, he saw that he fell on a patch of slightly burnt yellow flowers.
Frisk found that he was in a huge room with a corridor off to his left. He was glad that he wasn't dead, and he was really hopeful that the corridor wasn't some dead end. Taking a few steps away from the patch of yellow flowers, he heard a voice behind him.
"Over here," it was a girl, from what Frisk could tell. "Please, turn around. I need your help."
Turning around, Frisk saw nothing but rock. At first, he thought he was hearing things, but then a figure slowly appeared right in front of him. It was a ghost of a girl that looked similar to him, so much so that he thought she was his twin. He knew he was an only child, the only people that he could call siblings were the friends he had back in town. For a moment, he wondered if he was truly seeing a ghost, or he was just seeing things.
"You'll do," the "ghost" said with a smile. "I'll be using your body for a while, at least until my goals are met. Don't worry, it won't hurt, much."
"Who are you—"
Before Frisk could voice his concerns, the ghost rushed into him. He was pushed back and landed hard on the ground. For a moment, he wondered what was happening. Frisk slowly got up, but something felt off, like a part of him changed. It felt like someone was fully engulfing him, like a pair of hands on a controller. He couldn't describe it, but he could tell that what he was feeling wasn't good at all. The best way Frisk could describe what he was feeling was similar to having controlling copilot in the cockpit that's constantly trying to pushing what they can do.
Frisk got up and made his way down the large corridor, hoping he could find someone. Part of him knew that he could find a way out as long as he kept moving. That hole looked man-made, so there must've been another way to get out of this huge area. If he could find a way out of the area, he could possibly find a way out from under the mountain.
"Two guys fell down some time ago," Frisk heard in the back of his head. "They went down this corridor, I hadn't seen them since they left."
Frisk didn't question the voice; he survived a huge fall only seconds ago. Whenever he would get out of the mountain, Frisk knew he had to get his head checked. As Frisk walked, he saw a large doorway. It felt strange to him that there was a door in a cave, there was no way anyone would be living in the cave, at least not long enough to be making doorways.
After going through the doorway, Frisk saw a yellow flower staring at him. As Frisk got closer, he noticed that the flower had a face, and a strange smile. The small flower started to chuckle a little when the young boy got close.
"Howdy!" The flower said in a cheery tone. "You're lost, ain't you? My name's Flowey, Flowey the flower. You look like you're new to the underground, but don't worry, your new friend here will help you along. Newcomers to the underground usually start out weak, their level is so low that any Froggit could come in and beat them without any hassle. You need to gain a lot of LOVE to 'level up' down here."
"Okay, but how do I exactly gain 'LOVE?'" Frisk asked, walking to the flower.
"I'm glad you asked! You gain LOVE by getting Exp. You have to get rid of monsters in the underground. The more monsters you beat, the more experience you get, and the more experience you get, the more LOVE you get. Makes sense right? Considering you don't have any experience right now, I'll be more than happy to give you some since I have a decent amount of it. See these pellets?" Just then, small white pellets appeared around the small flower. "These are bu…Friendlyness pellets. They'll make everything a lot easier down here in the underground. Just collect them and you'll grow stronger."
Frisk felt like the flower was hiding something. Part of him knew that the "Friendlyness pellets" were dangerous in some way. The "Friendlyness pellets" started to move towards the boy, only for him to step out of the way of them. Flowey lowered his eyes a little, almost like he was annoyed.
"Hey, I'm trying to help you here." Flowey said in annoyance. "Run into the bull-Friendlyness pellets."
Frisk had a bad feeling about the flower, and an even worse feeling concerning the things Flowey was throwing at him. A small part of him had told him that the flower was lying to him, but his lies were slipping fast. When Frisk dodged a few more "Friendlyness pellets," Flowey summoned a circle of them around the young boy.
"You've been through this, have you?" Flowey asked, anger emanating from his voice. "Do you think you're being clever, trying to fool me like that? Not that it matters, because you'll be gone. Die you stupid idiot."
Flowey laughed as his attack drew closer to Frisk. A fireball quickly flew through the air and hit the ground near Flowey, sending the flower away. The attack disappeared, and Frisk relaxed a little as he took a deep breath. Looking around, the young boy saw a huge female goat walking to him with a smile.
"What a vile creature," the goat said. "Attacking such a defenseless child like that." The large goat had looked over at Frisk, a smile rose on her face. "Hello little one, I'm Toriel, I'm the caretaker of the ruins here. You must be lost and so scared. Follow me young one, I'll help guide you through the ruins, there's no need to be afraid."
Toriel turned around and walked towards a huge doorway, gesturing Frisk to follow. Frisk looked at the huge goat as she disappeared from view, then at where Flowey was. For a moment, he wondered what to do; if leaving meant following the huge animal, then he should do it, but there was no telling what she could do to him. Since the flower wasn't around, and he had no other choice, Frisk decided to follow Toriel. Just as he started moving, he felt the strange presence of the person he saw earlier.
The strange person was floating right behind him, unseen to everyone except Frisk. He had no idea who this person was, nor why she was attached to him, yet he felt like whoever this was had been connected to him in some strange way. As Frisk walked, he decided to try and ignore the strange woman.
When Frisk passed through the doorway, he saw Toriel standing next to a few buttons on the floor. The buttons on the floor were in a strange pattern that Frisk has never seen before. Toriel had smiled when the small child got closer to her.
"While in the ruins," the goat said. "You'll come across puzzles. At first, they'll be confusing, but just as long as you take your time and think, you'll be able to solve them easily. Take the puzzle in this room for example, it may seem hard, but it'll be incredibly easy once you know the solution."
Toriel then walked onto certain buttons in a circular pattern. Just as just she stepped on one of the upper buttons, the door farther in the room opened. For a moment, Frisk wondered how anyone would be able to solve the puzzle since there was nothing to hint at the solution. Toriel had then stood in the middle of the room with a motherly smile on her face.
"Come on child," the huge monster said. "I believe that you'd be able to solve the next puzzle. Just follow me into the next room."
Toriel then walked into the next room, Frisk cautiously following right behind her. The next room was far larger than the previous, looking more like a hallway than an actual room. A few waterfalls dotted the room, with a few bridges going over the small streams they had created. There was a series of levers that dotted the wall in front of Frisk.
"This puzzle may be hard," Toriel said. "But I'd think you'd be able to figure it out on your own."
Frisk looked at the levers, they were only things in the room that looked strange. For a moment, he saw that there were a couple of levers that had multiple arrows drawn around them. After pulling the first lever, Frisk heard some clanking behind the walls, which lead to a strange group of spikes that were right behind Toriel. When Frisk had pulled the second lever that had arrows pointing to it, nothing happened at first. Just then, in a blink of an eye, the group of spikes had dropped into the floor and Toriel had nodded at Frisk with a smile.
"Good work child," the huge goat said. "Let's go, things will only get harder from here. You really don't want to linger too far away from me, there's some dangerous monsters that would be a hazard to your health."
As Toriel made her way into the next room, Frisk stood where he was and thought for a second. He had no idea why she was so kind to someone she just met. There's no way she'd be this nice if she was a human. She was the kindest person Frisk had ever met, he had only hoped that she'd stay that kind.
"Stay focused," the strange person asked. "She's going to try and harm you if you don't do as she says. I'd recommend that you be cautious around her. She might seem nice, but she's a monster. Just keep in mind that the entire underground is filled with monsters, and you need to get rid of any you see."
"But why?" Frisk asked, looking around. "She didn't do anything wrong, that goat has been nothing but nice so far. Give me one reason why I need to harm her."
"Just watch, she'll try force you here and she'd want you to have nothing to say about it. Make sure to give her a reason to allow you to leave; just kill every monster you see and she'll be begging you to leave."
Frisk didn't know if he could trust the strange woman, but he wanted to get out of the Ruins. As he walked through the doorway, he saw a dummy. A training dummy was just standing out of the way in the room. For a moment, Frisk wondered why a dummy was just randomly in a random room, and not at a training room somewhere.
"Sometimes monsters would jump out and attack you," Toriel said. "Try and start up a conversation, I'll come and settle the problem. Any problem can be settled without violence, please remember that. Try starting up a conversation up with this training dummy here."
Frisk walked up to the training dummy and stared at it. As much as he wanted to try and speak to it, it doesn't seem much for conversation. After a few seconds, Frisk grew angry and wanted to attack the dummy. He grabbed a stick and bashed the dummy over its "head." Even though the training dummy was on the ground, Frisk continued to hit it with all his strength. Every hit caused some of the dummy's stitching to come loose.
After a while, Frisk stood over the training dummy. The dummy was broken, its stuffing was everywhere. Toriel stood there, shocked that a kid would show such hatred. For a moment, she wondered why he quickly attack something, especially without reason.
"I said to strike up a conversation," the huge goat said, shaking her head. "Not to strike the poor thing down."
Frisk shook his head, wondering what had happened. For a moment, it felt like he lost control of everything in his body. He looked down, and saw the strange ghost woman's hand on his shoulder. Looking over, Frisk saw that the woman was smiling almost sadistically. For a moment, the boy was about to ask Toriel about the strange woman, but when he turned to the goat, he realized she was gone.
"See, she left you when she saw ou—your nature." The ghost woman said, entering Frisk's sight. "It's best that you leave everything to me. When an enemy tries to confront you, I could deal with them for you. Even down here, it's best to allow violence to take over. Inactivity is what caused me to die, I'll gladly help an actual human out of here. Come on, you could trust me, I was once human, until the royal family—"
"Come on my child," Toriel said as she re-entered the room. "It's best not to dilly-dally. Monsters down here in the underground are dangerous, if you try to strike up a conversation, I'll come and have them leave you alone. Please follow me, I know a place for you to stay for a while."
"O-okay." Frisk softly said, slowly walking past the ghost woman.
After walking into the next room, Frisk saw that the room was a huge hallway going to his right. Toriel patted the boy on the shoulder and quickly shepherd him down the hall. Frisk looked behind him and saw the ghost girl floating right behind him. The woman was just following him, a hint of small indifference written on her face as she examined her body. For a moment, Frisk wondered what was going on in her ghostly head, that's up until his foot slammed right into something, and he fell forward.
Looking at what Frisk had tripped on, he saw a strange frog-like monster rubbing it's head, then looking over at him in anger. Toriel was nowhere in sight. Quickly getting up, Frisk started to wonder what he should do. On instinct, he quickly gripped the huge stick from the other room and slowly backed up. Before he knew it, Frisk saw the ghost woman fly into him.
Before Frisk could possibly think, he leaped forward and attacked the frog monster with all his might. The frog hopped out of the way, only to hit a wall. Frisk quickly got to his feet faster than the frog-monster and he immediately hit the monster with all his might. The frog then made a strange high-pitched groan and turned to dust. As the dust settled, Toriel finally rounded the corner, only to tilt her head in confusion when she saw the young boy panting.
"Are you alright child?" Toriel asked, walking up to Frisk. "I heard a Froggit ribbiting, so I came running. A Froggit didn't attack you, did it?"
Frisk looked over to Toriel, slight anger in his eyes. For a moment, he wanted to attack the woman, but the anger and adrenaline left him the moment he saw the ghost woman. After taking a deep breathe, Frisk put the stick in his pocket, and then walked to Toriel. Not even thinking about it, Toriel took Frisk's hand and lead him to a huge bridge. Frisk tensed up when he saw huge spikes protruding from the bridge, only for Toriel to smile down at him.
"Don't worry child," the goat said. "As long as you stay with me, I'll protact you. I know the path through here. But remember, I can't always be there to protect you."
Toriel walked to the bridge, and a few spikes descended to the floor. As Frisk took a deep breathe, he tried to figure out if there was a pattern to the descending spikes. As Toriel led Frisk through the huge bridge full of spikes, the young boy noticed that the huge goat only walked in a strange pattern. Although he had no idea if he should learn the pattern, something said that he might come back to this area later.
Frisk looked at the strange ghost woman, wondering who she was. It was strange, he had no idea that monsters and ghosts were real in the world, but he was more surprised that the goat woman wasn't trying to immediately kill him. As he looked at the goat monster, he noticed she looked down to him and smiled. It should be comforting to have a soft-spoken woman smile at him, but Frisk felt a cold chill as he saw the huge goat.
When the two got to the other side of the bridge, Toriel turned to Frisk and kneeled down. Frisk was about to take a step back, but he didn't want to get impaled by the spikes if they decided to quickly ascend.
"Listen child," Toriel said with a frown. "I need to test you in this next room. It's nothing too big, this next room is long, but I just need you to get to the end of it without my help. Just go into the room in a few seconds after me."
Frisk didn't think too much of what Toriel asked of him. The strange ghost figure on the other hand fazed into him as Toriel entered the next room. Frisk quickly entered the room and followed Toriel to the other end of the hall. The hall was huge, for a moment, Frisk wondered if the hall was endless.
Toriel had quickly ducked behind a huge pillar. Frisk slowed down and looked at the huge white pillar that the goat had hid behind. He wondered why she thought it was a good idea, wondering if it was a prank.
"I know you're behind the pillar," Frisk said. "Please come out."
Toriel quickly walked out from behind the pillar, her eyes widened in shock. She couldn't believe that she was immediately caught in her plan.
"It appears you've caught me," she said. "I just wanted to see if you're independent. It appears that you're smart to see through my ploy. I'm sorry that I had to fool you, but I'll gladly give you a place to stay so you could live happily down here. But before I go, I'd like to give you this phone. I'll need to leave you here, I'm being truthful this time, honest. I need to grab some food so we could eat something tonight. If you could just stay here for a few minutes, I'll come grab you after I'm done with everything."
Toriel handed Frisk a small flip-phone, which looked ancient. Frisk stared at the small device with confusion, not knowing what to say. Looking up at Toriel, the small boy saw that she was already walking through into the next room.
"See," the ghost woman said. "She left you, but with me, and I'll help you out of here, and I'll also be able to leave this place as well."
Frisk looked at the ghost woman, and then at the entry to the next room. For a moment, he wondered if he could trust the woman, but then he heard a strange ribbit noise. Next thing he knew, a couple of Froggits appeared from the other side of the entryway.
SO, what do ya'll think? Sorry it took so long, I've had a bit of writer's block since I got done writing another book. Review if you want. I'd appreciate it.