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Beneath The Mountain
Chapter 2: The Kid and The Cowboy
We entered the room in front of us, ignoring our guide's directions. Suddenly almost as if on cue, the phone let out a series of electronic beeps resembling the bells of a real telephone.
"Hello?" Frisk answered.
"Hello! This is Toriel. You have not left the room have you?"
"No ma'am." She replied. I was actually a bit on edge, since the timing of the call made me wonder if Toriel was watching us somehow
"Ah, good. There are some puzzles up ahead that I have yet to explain. It would be dangerous to try and solve them yourselves."
"Don't worry about us, we're staying right where you told us. We would never disobey you, no ma'am." I chimed in.
"Thank you. Be good, alright?"
Click
"That went well." She observed.
"It did." I replied. "Still, doesn't feel right lying to the old lady like that."
"Relax, we'll be gone for 15 minutes tops. It'll be like we never left."
"Whatever you say, kid.
We began to venture further in when one of those froggit things hopped up beside us.
"Ribbit ribbit, excuse me humans."
"Yes?"
"I saw how you spared my cousin back there. It seems that you two are quite merciful, so I'd like to give some advice on fighting monsters."
"Go on."
"If you ACT a certain way or FIGHT until you almost defeat them, they might not want to battle anymore. If a monster does not want to fight you please show them mercy, human, ribbit."
"Will do."
"Thanks for the information, mister."
"Ribbit, you're welcome human, ribbit"
The froggit hopped along his way and we went forward, entering the room on the left which contained nothing but a couple of rushing canals and a bowl of what looked to be candy resting on a pillar. I took a closer look and sure enough, it was a bowl of wrapped hard candies with a note in front of it saying Take one please.
"Ooh, is that candy?" The kid asked.
"Looks like it."
"Get me a piece, please."
I tossed one to her and took one for myself. I noticed that the water in the canals looked pretty clean so I filled up my canteen, taking a few swigs before refilling and putting the cork stopper back in. After I was finished, I noticed the kid had already left the room, walking outside I found her playing in a pile of leaves.
"Having fun?" I asked while popping the piece of candy into my mouth, noting a pleasant clove-like flavor.
The kid stopped, noticing my presence and gave a slightly embarrassed smile.
"Hey now, you ain't gotta stop having fun because of me. Unless you want to continue this little excursion of yours of course."
She got up and dusted herself off. "No, you're right."
"Thirsty?" I asked, offering her the flask. She nodded and accepted it, taking a few swigs before handing it back to me.
We exited the room and entered a corridor. We were walking through it when suddenly, the ground gave out from under the kid and she fell.
I went up to the hole and yelled "Kid! Are you alright?" No response. I looked into the hole and my eyes were met with an empty room. "Frisk? The hell did you go?"
"I'm right here." I heard from right beside me, causing me to jump in surprise.
"What? How did you..."
She pointed to a rectangular opening in the wall.
"Oh. Right."
Could've at least told me you were fine.
We continued on into the next room and the phone rang yet again.
"Hello?" The kid answered
"Hello! This is Toriel, again. For no reason in particular, which do you prefer, cinnamon or butterscotch?
"Cinnamon." "Butterscotch." We both said almost unanimously, causing us to simultaneously look at eachother.
A chuckle came from the other end of the line. "Ah, I see. But neither of you dislike the other flavor, do you? I know what your preferences are, but would you turn up your nose if you found it on your plate?"
"Nope." We replied almost in unison.
"Right, right, I understand. Thank you for being patient, by the way."
Click
We were both silent for a moment.
"What do you think that was all about?" the kid asked.
I shrugged. "Perhaps she's cooking something."
The room we entered had a narrow row of spikes blocking our way. I got closer and examined the row. It was enough to stop someone like Frisk, but a person my size could easily step over them. I'd have to either carry the kid with me, or vault her over-
THUNK
The spikes retracted.
I looked back, and saw that she had pushed a rock onto a pressure plate.
Or we could do that.
We continued on through the ruins, and I began to notice that we weren't the only ones down there. Despite it clearly being some sort of derelict city, there were still all sorts of monsters of various shapes and sizes all around.
I managed to spot another froggit, a stubby cyclops-looking thing, a roach standing on its hind legs, and what looked like a moving green Jell-O dessert that just bounced around.
However, I could never get a closer look at them as whenever they'd notice us they would run, or in the case of the Jell-O monster, bounce for the hills. I guessed they weren't used to seeing humans.
Maybe they were just afraid of me, thinking back to what Toriel said about me being the first adult to have ever fallen down here.
There was one monster that did come up to us though. It looked like a moth, was breathing really fast, and wouldn't look me in the eye. It looked as if it was absolutely terrified.
"Howdy." I greeted.
It immediately burst into tears, screaming "AAAH! IM SORRY IM SORRY PLEASE DONT KILL ME IM SORRY!" before fluttering away.
I scratched my head in confusion.
Alrighty then.
We went along, carefully treading through a room with a noticeably unstable floor, until we reached another room, with another canal and a bridge of spikes.
"Hey, push that rock over there. I think that'll take care of the spikes."
"Sure thing." I replied.
I took a look at the puzzle, noticing a few pressure plates with adjacent rocks. I pushed one while she pushed the other, I was about to handle the third one when... it spoke.
"Whoa there, pardner." It said in an accent that almost sounded like a mockery of mine. "Who said you could push me around?"
"What in the godda-"
"That's right pumpkin, I'm talkin' to you."
"Yeah I can see that." I said, regaining my bearings. "Do you think you can move over just a smidgen?"
"You want me to move over? Well alright, just for you pumpkin." it said in a slightly flirtatious manner.
The rock moved to the side a bit.
"A little farther."
"More? Alrighty, how's this?"
It moved to the side, off of the path.
"Wait no, wrong way."
"Hold on, I think I got it."
It finally moved onto the pressure plate, causing another loud THUNK as the spikes retracted.
We made our way towards the bridge, and I was about to thank the rock monster thing when it suddenly moved off the plate and the spikes came right back up. I'll admit, I was getting a bit frustrated at this point, but I managed to suppress it.
"Hey, do y'think you could stay on that plate for just a little bit longer?" I asked.
"You're giving me a real workout, but sure thing."
The rock moved back on the plate, and the spikes retracted again. We began making our way out of the room.
"Thanks for the help."
"T'aint no problem, anything for you pumpkin." it replied, again in a flirtatious manner.
We exited the room, and walked a little ways down the corridor before I finally asked "Is it me or did it sound like that rock was just hitting on me?"
She giggled, "I think it just liked your charming personality."
"I ain't sure if I should take that as a compliment or an insult."
We passed by an alcove containing a table with a disgustingly old piece of cheese on it, only pausing so she could "save" again. Continuing on down the corridor, we entered the next room where our path was blocked by... a ghost.
Yes, a ghost. It looked like one of those halloween costumes that a kid would make out of some old bedsheets. Except this was no costume. Whatever it was, it was blocking our way. The ghost appeared to be sleeping, but on closer examination it was obvious that it was just playing possum.
"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" the ghost said.
No, it wasn't snoring. It was literally saying "z" out loud over and over again.
"Pardon me mister, but we need to get through."
"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
"Uh, mister?"
"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
"Sigh Look mister, just let us through and we'll be out of your way."
"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz(Are they gone yet)zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
I had neither the time nor patience to deal with this ghost's antics.
"Well mister, if you're not gonna move..."
I walked closer to the ghost.
"Guess I'll just have to move you myself."
FIGHT INITIATED
Everything went black and our souls ejected again, the ghost stood before us.
"Well great, what now?"
"Hold on, I think I have an idea." the kid said.
She gave the ghost a smile.
"Heh..." it said in a timid and ghostly voice as it began... crying?
But instead of falling down, the tears flew right at us.
"I wouldn't let those touch you if I were you." Frisk said matter-of-factly.
We began ducking and dodging the various tears that flew in our direction. It wasn't too difficult, and the barrage was over pretty quickly.
"Alright kid, you seem to know what you're doing. What should I do?"
"Try complimenting him or something like that."
I began thinking up a way to compliment a sheet ghost, eventually settling on "You look very… ghostlike today, partner."
It blushed "Heh heh..."
This time, no tears flew toward us, instead a message reading REALLY NOT FEELIN UP TO IT RIGHT NOW. SORRY. came up.
Our turn came, before I could think of acting, the kid said "Wait. He wants to show us something."
I mustered a friendly face. "Lets see it partner."
"Let me try..." came his forlorn and ghostly voice. He started crying again, but the tears went upwards and began taking the form of an old stovepipe hat.
"I call it 'dapper blook'. Do you... like it..?"
"Yeah!" "Lookin' good, partner." came our responses.
"Oh gee..."
The fight ended and everything went back to normal.
"I normally come to the ruins because there's no one around. But today, I met someone nice... Here, l'll get out of your way.
He disappeared, clearing the path in front.
"Well. That was... something."
"Mmhm."
We went through the opening at the end of the corridor, which led to a dead end. I was fixing to turn around, when I noticed a sign at the end of the corridor.
"Spider bake sale?" I said, reading the sign. This raised a few questions and I was curious. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a coin.
"Are you really about to... ?" the kid asked.
Ignoring her question, I walked over to one of the webs and dropped the coin in it, a spider lowered itself down and handed me a doughnut. I looked it over for a moment before reluctantly taking a bite of it.
"Hey, this ain't half bad."
She sighed and we walked out of the room, going into another big and cavernous room with another sign in front of us.
Did you miss it? Spider bake sale down to the right. Come eat food made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders!
I stopped and looked closer at my doughnut and the kid stared intently at me. I examined it for a few seconds before shrugging and taking another bite out of it.
She gave me a disgusted look.
"What? It still tastes good."
She just shook their head but had a slight grin on her face. "You are a strange man."
"Hey, says the child psychic." I playfully retorted.
Her grin suddenly faltered, and she went silent. Something about what I'd just said was clearly bothering her. Not wanting to upset her any more, I dropped the subject and didn't say anything else.
We trudged on, encountering a few more of those froggits along the way. They were very talkative, but they rambled on about complete nonsense. Save for the third one, who gave us some much-appreciated advice about sparing monsters. We even got another call from Toriel, reminding us not to carry too much unnecessary junk around.
Luckily that wouldn't be much of a problem for us. If there's anything my Uncle Arthur's satchel was good for, it was carrying around random junk.
I looked around, noting that the entire place was bare and a row of spikes blocked the exit. I looked around, but didn't see a switch anywhere. Seeming to pick up on my confusion, the kid answered my question before I even thought of asking it.
"I think the switch is somewhere under the floor. We'll probably have to fall through those unstable spots." she said while pointing to unstable parts in the floor that lined both sides of the corridor.
"You can't be serious." I concernedly replied.
"Relax, it's probably not too far down.
"Alright then. I'll take the one on the right, and you get the one on the left."
"Got it."
I went over and stood on the unstable spot, sure enough the ground collapsed and I fell, luckily the fall was only a few feet and I landed without a hitch. Looking around, I didn't see a switch or a button and was about to make my exit when I noticed something laying on the ground in front of me.
"What do we have here?" I asked out loud while picking up a dusty old ribbon. Just junk I thought, yet something compelled me to keep it. As I put the ribbon in my satchel, I heard a muffled Thunk come from above.
Looks like the kid found it.
I climbed through the opening leading back to the top floor where the kid was waiting.
"Find anything?" I asked.
She shook her head. "What about you?"
"Nothing. Well, not exactly. I did find this old thing." I said while taking out the ribbon.
Almost immediately she eyed the ribbon. "Can I see it?" she asked.
"Sure, knock yourself out." I replied, giving her the ribbon.
She examined it for a while before tying it into a bow in her hair.
"How do I look?" she asked expectantly.
"Fine I guess, are you really gonna keep that dusty old thing in your hair?"
"Yep!"
After exiting the room. There were a couple of more spike rows to deal with, but they were about as challenging as opening a can of salmon.
We continued further down the corridor, leading to a doorway and another froggit.
"Ribbit ribbit, hey human."
I tipped my hat. "Mister."
He hopped a little closer to us and brought his voice down to almost a whisper. "Hey, just between you and me, I saw Toriel walk out of here just a little while ago. She was carrying some groceries. I didn't ask what they were for, we're all too intimidated to talk to her. Ribbit."
"Well, thanks for telling us."
"You're welcome, ribbit."
The froggit hopped away, leaving the kid and I standing in front of the doorway.
"So... What do you think?" I asked.
"Well... If she came from there, then she won't be there now, right?"
"Right."
"So if we went in there, we won't accidentally run into her."
"I reckon you're not wrong."
"Am I ever?"
I don't know, kid. I've known you for probably an hour.
"Shouldn't we get back to that room with the pillars? We've been gone for a while."
"Relax. Let's just check out this room and we'll head back."
"Fine."
We went through the doorway and walked onto an overlook where a magnificent sight greeted us.
A city.
A massive city.
At the time the biggest city I'd ever been to was Saint Denis, and this place looked just as big, if not bigger.
The buildings looked like they belonged in those stories about King Arthur, built out of the same purple bricks. It looked like it must've been abandoned for centuries, with most of the buildings looking empty and decrepit, a few had even collapsed from probably centuries of neglect.
Holy horseradish. Archaelogists would have a fucking field day down here.
I badly wanted to get a closer look, to walk its streets and explore, but we didn't have the time. I wasn't sure how long it had been, but I was pretty sure we'd spent too much time exploring and we really had to get back to that room before Toriel was finished with whatever the hell she was doing. However, there was one thing I wanted to do first.
I took out my journal, and flipped through the various pages until I found a blank page and sketched the view from the overlook. I finished and took a quick look at my work, before labeling it "Forgotten city" and putting it away.
"Hey! Check this out!" I heard the kid yell out.
I looked in her direction and saw her pick up a knife that was lying on the ground.
"Easy kid, that thing's dangerous."
"Relax, it's only a toy." she tapped it a few times, making a noticeable thunking sound, indicating it was only made of wood.
"Wonder what that's doing down here."
She looked over it a little before putting it back down and we finally began making our exit.
"Sooo... What were you drawing?" she asked inquisitively.
"Oh, just a sketch of that city."
"Whoa! Are you an artist too?"
"Not particularly. It's more of a hobby or a tradition I guess."
"Oh... May I see it?"
"Sure." I said, showing her the journal.
"Whoa, this is really good." She said, taking the journal and looking at the sketch.
I chuckled. "I guess. There's more, but most of them ain't mine." I flipped over a couple of pages and stopped on a few drawings that were of noticeably poorer quality. "My father drew these."
She giggled in response.
"He was a good man but... not the best artist."
"Was this his journal?"
"Sort of. Belonged to my Uncle Arthur first, before he..."
I flipped through a few more pages, landing on some drawings done by him.
Her eyes widened at the stark increase in quality. "Whoa."
"Like night and day, ain't it?"
"That's amazing..."
During our talk about the sketches, we aimlessly walked along. For some reason we ended up going right instead of straight and went into a room with a giant naked tree in the center.
After putting away my journal, I noticed we'd taken a wrong turn.
Before we could turn around though, a familiar voice came from the other side of the room.
"Oh dear, That took longer than I expected."
I froze, the kid did too. We were caught, and we both knew it.
"Bust-ed." I heard her whisper.
Suddenly an electronic RING betrayed our position after she must've called us.
Toriel, understandably surprised, ran over to us.
"What? How did you get here?"
"Oh you know. Walked a little bit, solved some puzzles." I replied.
"Are any of you hurt?" she asked while looking over the two of us.
"Don't worry, we're fine." the kid protested.
"I see. Perhaps I should've trusted you more. Still, I should not have left you two alone for so long, it was irresponsible to try and surprise you like this. Well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come! I have something to show you."
Toriel walked into what appeared to be a small house. I was fixing to follow, when I noticed that the old tree would be another good thing to sketch. I took out my journal yet again, and noticed the kid at the front of the house, doing that "save" thing again. I shrugged it off and went to work, drawing a nice sketch of the tree. While I was sketching, the kid came up beside me and took a good look at the tree.
"Every time this old tree grows any leaves, they fall right off." She observed.
I said nothing about her psychic quote and finished the sketch, labeling it "Forlorn tree". After putting my journal away, I turned around and looked at the house.
"Shall we?" I said.
Together, we made our way into the strange little house in the ruins.
When I stepped through that door, the first thing I felt was shock.
The inside looked... normal. Like any average house you'd find on the surface. It felt warm, cozy, and a heavenly aroma filled the air. It was just so... out of place.
Toriel was right at the door waiting for us. "Do you smell that? Surprise! I baked you a pie."
"A pie?" Frisk excitedly asked.
"Yes! A cinnamon and butterscotch pie to be exact. I thought it'd be a nice way to celebrate your arrival."
I'll admit, I was licking my lips. The last thing I'd had was some salted venison and eggs for breakfast, and the smell was making my mouth water.
"I want the both of you to have a nice time living here, so I will hold off of the snail pie for tonight."
Thank you. I thought while trying to picture whatever the hell a snail pie looked like.
"Here, I have another surprise for you."
She took the kid's hand and led her down the hall on the right, I followed along, walking by a staircase, until they stopped at the first door.
"Here it is... A room of your own! I hope you like it."
She turned towards me. "And I have something to show you as well, please follow me."
I followed her to the door at the end of the hallway that was next to a large mirror, a sign reading Room under renovations hung on it.
"This room is for you, however..."
She unlocked and opened the door, revealing a dusty room that looked as if this was the first time it had been opened in god knows how long. It was almost bare, containing only an empty bed frame and a few other pieces of furniture that you'd normally find in a bedroom.
"I am afraid it is not quite ready yet. I have not used this room in... A long time. I will need to do some work to it, I hope you understand."
"It's alright, ain't no problem!" I replied.
Because I ain't intending to stick around for that long.
"Worry not, I'll try to have it ready for you soon. But in the meantime, where would you like to stay?"
"I'll stay with the kid."
"Are you sure? There's only one bed in there and I'm afraid it's not quite your size."
"It's fine, I'll just sleep on the floor. Don't worry about me, I've slept in rougher places."
"Alright then. Well, If you need any blankets or pillows they're in the hall closet, 2nd door to the left." pointing to a door that was across from Frisk's room.
"Thank you."
"You are quite welcome! Now if you will excuse me, I should check on the pie."
She walked off towards the kitchen and I went to the closet, picking out a pillow and a blanket and even finding an old bedroll lying in there before entering the kid's room.
Upon entry I could tell the room was meant for a child. It was brightly decorated with a few stuffed animals and a toy chest lying around a small bed where Frisk was seated. The room looked cute and friendly, yet I swear I could feel something tragic about it that I couldn't quite make out.
The kid looked at me and giggled when she noticed the stuff I was carrying. "What, didn't like your room?"
I shook my head. "Wasn't ready. Didn't have a mattress or anything."
I laid the bundle down on the other side of the room, unrolling the bedroll and placing the blanket and pillow on top.
"Of course, Toriel promised she'd get it ready for me soon but..."
She slowly nodded, understanding what I was hinting at.
"When should we tell her?"
"Sigh I don't know kid, I don't know."
"Jack, what's wrong?"
"It's Toriel. I don't think she gets too many visitors and well, I wouldn't feel right leaving her so soon."
She said nothing, but I could tell that she understood and maybe even agreed with what I was saying.
"What should we do then?" She eventually asked.
"Stay here I guess. Maybe for a day or two, give her some company and maybe give us some time to figure out where exactly we are and how to get out, then we leave."
I opened up the wardrobe, which was full of striped shirts not unlike what Frisk was wearing. I pushed them aside and hung up my coat, obviously no longer needing the extra layers. I also took off my hat and hung it inside the wardrobe after remembering what my mama said about wearing hats indoors.
"Sounds like a plan. But do you think she'll let us just walk out of here?" Frisk asked, bringing up a very good point.
I thought about it a little and shook my head. "I don't know about that. We might have to end up sneaking out of here..."
I was interrupted by the voice of our hostess coming from down the hall. "Jack, Frisk! The pie is ready!"
"...but let's worry about that later. I'm dying for some of that pie."
"*Yawn* You go ahead, I'm gonna get some shuteye." Frisk replied, sounding pretty tuckered out.
"Hitting the sack already?"
"Yeah, I'm sleepy."
"Well alright kid, I'll save you a piece."'
"Mmm, thanks."
She laid down and out of kindness, I pulled the comforter over her before switching the lamp off. I was a bit surprised that the place had electric lights, but I guess that must be standard when your civilization has things like portable telephones.
I opened the door and began to exit the room.
"*Yawn* Goodnight Jack." she said tiredly.
"'Night, kid." I replied as I gently shut the door.
A/N (February 2024): As stated in the previous chapter, I've done a few updates to this one, fixed a few details I wasn't too keen on mostly.
Aside from that I haven't changed too much.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you've enjoyed this chapter.
Until next time.