The stick hit the Dummy with a loud smack sound, and the dummy crumpled into ash.

"See how easy that was?" Chara said while smiling, "Don't you feel better?"

Frisk looked down at her hands and the powdery ash on them and then looked at Chara before nodding.

"Ah! The dummies are not for fighting! They are for talking!" Toriel began to chastise. "We do not want to hurt anybody. Do we?.. Come now." She turned and walked through the door, with one last glance over her shoulder at the human child.

"Chara?... did I do bad?"

"No of course not Frisk. There's nothing wrong with wanting to take out a few frustrations."

Chara's hand felt heavy on her shoulder, but she let him lead her after Toriel anyway.

"There is another puzzle in this room. I wonder if you can solve it." She kept walking through the room. Frisk looked around, tugging Chara around with her, and as Toriel turned a corner-

A frog lept out at her. She startled backward and Chara took her hand holding the stick and brought it down hard onto the head of the frog. 20 gold coins clattered against the floor as the Froggit disintegrated into dust.

"Don't worry. I'll always protect you."

He helped her kneel down and gather up the coins.

"Look here Frisk, gold coins. They're pretty. Let's take them with us."

She smiled and gathered the coins up before rushing after Toriel.

"There you are! This is the puzzle but…" Toriel stopped and looked at the spike bridge before deciding against it. "Here, take my hand for a moment"

Frisk reached out and took Toriel's hand. It was warm and fuzzy and definitely not a human hand, but Toriel led her through the puzzle with a frazzled mention that puzzles seemed a bit too dangerous for now. Whenever they were on solid ground Toriel released Frisk's hand and Chara quickly snapped it back up in his own.

Toriel is speaking again, but Frisk is too absorbed in what Chara is saying to hear her.

"You need to be more careful. Your glasses are broken, what if she had led you incorrectly? Always keep hold of my hand."
"Sorry Chara" She mumbled in response and turned her attention back to Toriel.

"I must ask you to walk to the end of this room by yourself. Forgive me for this." Toriel turns on her heel and starts walking quickly away.

"What? Wait! Chara come on!" Frisk began to run after Toriel, tripping over her own two feet, and tugging Chara behind her.

Frisk didn't see the way Chara smiled at how her face fell when she realized Toriel had abandoned them. It took them five minutes to get to the end of the room, at which point Toriel came out from behind a stone pillar.

"Greetings my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time. Thank you for trusting me. However, there was an important reason for this exercise… to test your independence. I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a while. Please remain here. It's dangerous to explore by yourself. I have an idea. I will give you a cell phone. If you have need of anything, do not hesitate to call. Be good, alright?" Toriel handed Frisk what looked like a brick and then turned and left.

"She called me… her child?" Frisk said, turning to squint at the blurry boy in front of her.

"Yeah, she does that. Put the phone in your pocket. Hey look, there's some leaves over there. How about we go play?"

"Yeah. That sounds fun."

Chara led her over to the leaves and they began to play in them, Toriel called to make sure she hadn't left the room, and Chara had her lie and say that she hadn't, because what was the harm in playing in the leaves? When her tummy grumbled he led her into a room with a bowl full of candy with a sign saying "Take one!"

Frisk stood up on her tiptoes and put her hand into the bowl, grabbing a small handful of the little candies and pulling back with her prize.

"I never get to have candy!"

"You can eat as much as you like here. There's no humans to tell us what to do." Chara smiled and ruffled her messy hair as the candy bowl fell onto the ground.

"Come on Frisk, let's go play."

She giggled and chased after Chara, batting away any monsters that leaped out at her with her stick. Toriel called several times to ask a few menial questions like if she preferred cinnamon or butterscotch, and Frisk who had never had either gladly told Toriel she would like butterscotch but cinnamon would be okay too. Then Toriel called to ask if Frisk had any allergies, which she didn't particularly know. Chara would shake his head at her and continue guiding her hand to cut down all the monsters that would leap at them.

They came across a small table with a crystalized piece of cheese stuck to it, and when Frisk peaked in the mouse hole there was a small squeak. She giggled and followed Chara along.

"Oh. There's a ghost blocking our path, Let's move it with force."

He took her hands in hers and together they shoved the ghost out of the path, and with her hands still in his, they swung four, five times at the ghosts. Frisk getting hit by it's tears leaving little burn marks on her hands.

"Uhm…. y-you- you know you can't kill ghosts right we're all incorporeal and stuff… s-sorry I just made this more awkward… pretend you beat me… oooooooo" The ghost faded out of existence.

Frisk squinted up at Chara who shrugged and led her onward after doing a sweep of the rooms.

Toriel called again, mentioning that there might be things lying around, Chara seemed interested in that so Frisk let him lead her along on a search for lost things. A quick tumble into some leaves had her finding a faded ribbon, which she had Chara tie into her hair, the bandage she had on her cheek started peeling so she just pulled it off and threw it away.

"Chara you seem to know your way around, but how come no one else can see you?"

"Well, it's because I used to live here, and that's because you're special Frisk. Only you can see me because you and I are a lot alike" He tied the ribbon in her hair, humming quietly in the dust-filled corridor. "You and I have something called Determination, our will to survive no matter what, and see look! No more monsters in this area. Let's look around a bit now that it's safe alright?"

Frisk nodded and he helped her to her feet she skipped through the empty hallways, humming a little song Chara taught her, until they found their way to Toriel, who brought Frisk inside and gave her her own room.

"Take a rest, Frisk, you must be exhausted. I'll be right here. Don't worry."

"Okay, Chara." She said while climbing up into bed. "Chara?"

"Yes, Frisk?"

"I love you."

"I know. Sleep well." He patted her head, and waited in the dark while she slept, brushing a bit of her blood off her cheek and looking up as Toriel walked in and set down a big slice of butterscotch cinnamon pie.

Hello readers! Tamwyn here. I hope you've enjoyed the story so far. Just a quick message on future updates: they'll be a bit slower than I would like, but fear not! The creative flame is still there. However, I have been going through some health problems recently and just can't find the time to sit down and write. Thank you for understanding, and remember to follow, favorite, and review.