Chapter 3

The next room had no puzzle, but Toriel seemed to stop here so Frisk stopped as well. Looking about, she noticed a practice dummy- she had seen them before- near the wall to her right.

"Here in the Underground, humans may attack you. However, fear not, as I shall come and break up the FIGHT," Toriel said with a smile. "But until I arrive, stall by striking up a conversation. Here, practice with this dummy."

Tilting her head, Frisk wondered just what the woman was going on about. Of course she knew that humans were going to attack her- she was a monster with fur, horns, fangs, and a rather long tail- but stalling until Toriel came to break up the fight? That was a little… odd. Of course, Frisk knew many things about FIGHTs, she had been in quite a few. She never attacked, though.

Sighing to herself, she walked up to the dummy. However, when a FIGHT did not start- she knew that something was up with this thing- she checked the ground.

"Press [Z] to enter the Dummy FIGHT," was a little note, written in yellow chalk, above a Z button on the floor.

Oh.

Frisk pressed her paw onto the button, and her soul was quickly summoned. The color drained from the world, besides the bright red of her soul- and Toriel's eye color, oddly. The dummy had no soul, so Frisk wondered just how she was FIGHTing it.

First, Frisk pressed [ACT], seeing the two options. *Check, *Talk. She pressed *Check.

"*Dummy. 0 ATT 0 DEF. A cotton heart and a button eye," read out the mysterious voice of that girl.

The dummy's turn came around, but switched back to Frisk in a split second. "*Dummy stands around absentmindedly," the voice read.

[ACT], *Talk. "I like your buttons, they're cute!"

"*You chat talk the dummy. … It doesn't seem up for conversation. Toriel seemed pleased with you. You won! You earned 0 gold and 0 EXP!"

While Frisk tried to figure out who the heck was narrating her actions- it was starting to unnerve her- color returned to the world.

"Splendid! You did just splendid, my child!" Toriel said, clapping her hands together. "Now, let us continue." And off she went, into the next room.

Frisk turned back to the dummy, before looking down at the floor. For some reason, the Z button had disappeared. Shrugging, Frisk followed Toriel.

The next room had an odd pathway in the middle of the room. To the right, a hallway led out.

"There is a puzzle in this room…" Toriel said, seemingly unsure of herself for a moment. "I hope you can solve it…" And then she went down the hallway.

Not wanting to be left behind, Frisk followed her, down the hallway into a turn-

And then was drawn into a FIGHT, the attacker being a young boy wearing a frog costume.

"*Froggit attacks you!" the girl's voice chuckled.

[ACT], *Talk. "I like your… costume?"

"Froggit didn't understand what you said, but was flattered anyway," said the girl's voice.

For a second, before the boy's turn came around, he blushed. And then Toriel broke into the FIGHT and glared at him with such a glare that it made the voice- in the back of Frisk's head, apparently- whimper slightly.

"*You won…! You earned 0 Gold and 0 EXP…! (Gosh why does that still affect me,)" the voice groaned. Frisk could tell they were not really happy with this turns of events.

Then, the FIGHT ended as the Froggit… was that his last name?... hopped- literally bouncing off like a frog- out.

When color returned, Toriel continued down the hall. Frisk followed, stopping at the sign on the wall.

"The western room is the eastern room's blueprints."

Odd.

Frisk followed Toriel over to a… spike bridge?! Were they supposed to cross that?!

"Hmm…" Toriel said. "Puzzles seem… a little dangerous for right now." She then scooped Frisk up into her arms, and Frisk had to quickly grab her stick from her tail so that she wouldn't lose it. "I will take you across."

And then she stepped towards the spikes- and Frisk watched in awe as she crossed the spikes- the path of ones they were supposed to cross went down into the floor- to the other side. Then, Toriel put Frisk down. "Come along now, my child," she said, entering the next room.

"*Wow, mom sure is over… motherly now?" said the girl's voice.

"OK why am I hearing that voice still?" Frisk thought.

"*Wait you can hear me?! Geez, if I had known that sooner I would have introduced myself. I'm Chara, and you are?"

"Frisk? OK how are you inside my head?"

"*I'm actually floating to your left. I'm a… 'dusted' boss monster. I'm kinda a ghost now, though, and it seems that I am bonded to you. Sooo… why did you fall down?"

"I tried to grab this pendant off a vine at the top of the hole…"

"*Wow, that's… better than why I fell. Anyways… I guess I'm going to be your guide through the Underground. Also, don't know how you accessed my SAVE FILE, that should be gone by now but its not... meh."

What had Frisk gotten herself into.