Waking up from what seemed like a long nap, Frisk swings her feet out of the warm blankets, shivering slightly to the cool touch of the Ruin's air. Walking forward, she bumps her foot against a plate, and bends down, catching the scent of butterscotch and cinnamon. She's not very hungry, so she puts it in her pocket, thinking it's a bit messy, but not willing to leave the food behind. It would be rude to refuse? Right. I can't just leave it there when Toriel made it for me. Searching the room, she finds it's decorated and filled to the brim with toys, books, and children's furniture. Toriel must get a lot of guests, if she keeps a whole room in her house for them.
She walks out of the room into the hall, and turns left, finding another door and deciding to explore. Opening the door and walking around the room, she locates a big bed, a bookshelf, and a desk with a book, which she scans briefly with her mind's eye. It's a diary signed by Toriel, and is full of bad puns, remarkably heavy on skeleton-related topics. Odd.
Walking back out of the room, she carefully closes the door behind her and heads down the hallway the other direction. Moving past the stairs, she pauses, then goes down into a place where the homeliness of Toriel's house gives way again to the decrepit roughness of the Ruins. Frisk hesitates, unsure about leaving the safety of, as Toriel called it, "home." Forging ahead, she casts her fear aside and heads down the dark, featureless hallway. Before she's taken her tenth step, she hears Toriel's padding footsteps, and her soft voice saying quickly "Child, I think you should play upstairs instead," as she takes Frisk's hand and leads her back.
Following Toriel upstairs and into a warmly-lit room as she sits down in a comfortable-looking armchair, she listens to Toriel read snail facts out loud and plays with a toy knife she found in the Ruins, plucking irritably at her bandages. Suddenly, she decides to ask a question;
"When can I go home?"
"What?!" Toriel's eyes open wide, shock written on her face before she relaxes and says "What do you mean? This…this is your home now."
Frisk shakes her head, and asks again "How can I get out of here? I want to go home."
Even as she says this, she realizes she doesn't even remember if she has a home. Even if I don't remember, I must have had a home once. I have to leave, to find it!
Toriel ignores her, going back to reading her book aloud. More snails.
Getting a bit scared, Frisk asks one more time "How do I leave?"
Her face hardening, Toriel stands and folds her book. "…I have something to do. Stay here," before she rushes out of the room. Looking out the door, Frisk catches a glimpse of her practically leaping down the stairs to the tunnel. Following at a careful walk, she descends. As she cautiously follows Toriel, she hears the once-patient voice say coldly "You wish to know the way to return home, do you not? Ahead of us lies the end of the Ruins. A one-way exit to the rest of the Underground. I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again. Now, be a good child and go upstairs."
Frisk stands her ground, hearing Toriel's footsteps receding down the corridor. Following as they fade, she hears them pause once more, and Toriel speaks again. "Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die. You naïve child…if you leave the Ruins…they…Asgore…will kill you. I am only protecting you, do you understand?"
Frisk remains motionless and silent
"…go to your room," Toriel repeats, this time with a tinge of sadness coloring her voice, before she walks away again.
When Frisk encounters her again, the sadness is gone, replaced by something akin to frustration.
"Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning," Toriel declares, as if her words are a wall beyond which nothing will protect Frisk from the dangers of the world. As she follows Toriel, they suddenly come upon a door, set in the cool shadows of a thick wall.
"You want to leave so badly? Hmph," a jaded Toriel says. "You are just like the others. There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself…Prove to me you are strong enough to survive."
The darkroom fades into existence, and Frisk reluctantly prepares to defend herself. Unable to think of anything more to say, she draws the stick she's held since she awakened back and strikes Toriel with all her might, determination weakly sputtering in her chest. She's horrified when Toriel brings up her arm to block the blow and the bone shatters under Frisk's desperate attack. She clearly can't attack anymore without risking Toriel's life.
She's only trying to protect me…but she can't keep me here forever! I refuse to be locked up, even if it is for my own safety. There's no time left for thought, as fireballs flare to life around Toriel and blast towards Frisk, snaking back and forth like lightning. Frisk takes one hit, and screams as the flames sear her skin, charring it in several places. Unwilling to give way, she braces herself and feels her determination burn white-hot.
As Toriel prepares more flames, Frisk feels her muscles tensing beneath her skin. She feels the draft from the outside on her cheeks, the pain of her wounds, the faint memory of the sunlight that streamed from the surface before she fell. As Toriel flashes wave after wave of fireballs at her, Frisk begins to dance among the snapping jaws of light and heat. A rush of exhilaration like icy water flows through her, and she allows the flames to wrap around herself, never harming her. She revels like the child she is, forgetting her injuries, forgetting Toriel, forgetting even the loss of her memory. All that she is, all that she ever was, and all that she ever will be is in her in these fleeting instants, as she spins, jumps, and slides around the licking tongues of fire cast at her. As she closes her eyes, feeling the sheer pleasure of her power, the flames die a little. As she continues to dance, her determination burns brighter and hotter, and Toriel's magic doesn't hold a candle to it. As Frisk finally comes to rest, soul glowing with joy and fearlessness, she sees Toriel looking at her with frustration. She launches another barrage, but Frisk doesn't even have to dodge. She knows it's not going to hit her. She simply looks at Toriel peacefully, but commandingly. Her will is almost palpable, and Toriel refuses to meet her eyes, simply continuing to intersperse poorly-aimed barrages of flames between despairing pleas for Frisk to go back.
Finally, she stops firing, looks at Frisk and says "I know you want to go home. But please…go upstairs now."
Frisk stands quietly, looking straight into her eyes.
"I promise I will take good care of you here," she assures, a sad smile rising to her face. "I know we do not have much, but…we can have a good life here. Please, go upstairs."
Frisk stands motionless.
"Ha ha…" she chuckles after a few moments. "Pathetic, is it not? I cannot save even a single child."
She's quiet for a bit longer, then continues. "No, I understand. You would just be unhappy trapped down here. The Ruins are very small once you get used to them. It would not be right for you to grow up in a place like this. My expectations…my loneliness…my fear…for you, my child…I will put them aside."
The darkroom fades out of Frisk's view as she hears Toriel continue.
"If you truly wish to leave the Ruins, I will not stop you. However, when you leave, please do not come back. I hope you understand."
She paused a moment, then bent down and hugged Frisk's small body to herself. "Goodbye, my child," she said, and walked back into the Ruins.
As Frisk faced the door, there was no trace of doubt in her mind. She took a deep breath, stepped forward, pushed open the door into the Underground…
Well. That was…something. Sorry to leave you guys on this bit of a cliff-hangar, but we're finally out of the Ruins. I'm hoping to continue with a pattern of 3-5 chapters per area, with at least one of those dedicated mostly to that area's boss-fight. The Ruins are pretty small, so these chapters are a bit on the short side. By these numbers, there should be about 25k-45k words in this story by the end, if you count the True Lab). Feel free to let me know if there's anything you'd like to see more of, less of, or included in the story.