Notes: The story should start to pick up at this point :)

Chapter 3

Trial By Fire

Toriel's House

The smell of butterscotch cinnamon pie wafted in the air as Amber awoke in her new bed. The pie was left carefully placed on the floor beside her bed, and Amber felt hungry enough to eat several pieces of this delicious looking confection. She ate quickly, not exactly the type to savor her food, but she regretted it when she realized how much she wanted more.

"Wow, Goat Mom sure can cook," Amber smiled to herself, "I should probably leave before tomorrow though. Snail pie sounds disgusting!"

Amber left the room, not really knowing where she was going. Normally she used the bathroom after she woke up, but for some reason she didn't feel the urge this time. Not only that, but she couldn't actually find a bathroom anywhere. Maybe aliens lent themselves to intestine-saving technology…? Nah, that sounded stupid, even in Amber's groggy mind.

When Amber made it to the living room, she saw Toriel sitting beside a cozy fireplace, reading a book. There was no TV in sight, which wasn't great, but Amber didn't plan on staying long anyway.

"Hello, small one," Toriel greeted her warmly, "I just want to say how glad I am to have you living here."

"Living here?" Amber asked with a side-eye to Toriel.

"Yes. I have so many old books I want to share," Toriel cheerfully continued, "And I can show you my favorite bug hunting spots. I have also developed a curriculum for your education. This might come as a surprises to you, but I've always wanted to be a school teacher."

Amber didn't reply, not really knowing what to say to this new bombardment of information.

"…Or, maybe that isn't a surprise at all," Toriel giggled sheepishly, "So, was there something that you wanted?"

"Uh…yeah, actually," Amber replied, a little nervous but trying not to show it, "I don't think this whole 'me living here' thing is going to work out. Don't get me wrong! You're a very nice lady, but…I don't belong here. I'm a grown woman, and I need to go home."

"What are you talking about?" Toriel asked, hurt, "This is your home now. Um…do you want to know about the book I am reading? It's called 72 uses for snails."

"I'm guessing one of them is pie?" Amber asked flatly, "Or maybe a snail trail mix?"

Toriel laughed, a surprisingly boisterous sound from a voice that up to this point sounded very gentle and reserved.

"Oh, you are a very good child!" Toriel exclaimed happily, "I can read the chapter all about the radula, a line of tiny razor-like teeth that snails use to collect food into their mouths."

"Um, no thank you," Amber replied as diplomatically as she could, "I need to leave this place. I need to go home. My home. Where humans live. Am I making myself clear?"

"Um…excuse me," Toriel hurriedly said as she stood up, "I need to do something. Stay here."

With that Toriel ran out of the room, and Amber's suspicions sent shivers down the back of her neck. She knew something was up with that goat monster, and she needed to know what it was.

Discarding caution, Amber followed Toriel down a set of stairs that likely led to a basement. She only hoped she didn't find some sort of slaughterhouse at the bottom or something.

The room was, like everything else in the ruins, a long purple stone hallway. Toriel stood there, seeming to collect herself for some grim task, and Amber slowly approached her, fearing the worst.

"At the end of this hallway is the exit to the ruins," Toriel announced, "I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again. Be a good child and go back upstairs."

"Destroy it?" Amber asked incredulously, "Are you insane? We'll both starve down here if you do that! You can't just keep me here forever!"

"Oh, you poor naive child," Toriel sighed, "Don't you understand? It's not safe out there. I've seen it far too many times with other human children just like you. They come. They leave. They die. If you leave, they…Asgore…will kill you. I am doing this for your protection. Now, go back upstairs."

Toriel then ran for the door, and Amber was close on her heels. It wasn't that Amber wasn't afraid of whatever was out there. It's just that she knew starvation was a more prolonged painful death than whatever type of cruel demise the monsters could cause her.

"Come on, lady!" Amber pleaded, "You don't have to do any of this! I'm not your responsibility! Just let me go!"

"You really want to leave here so badly?" Toriel asked gravely, "Fine then. Prove yourself to me. Prove you are strong enough to make it on your own…"

Amber didn't know what Toriel meant, but she soon found out. The giant goat monster turned around, and out of the blue, fireballs started shooting out from her hands!

"Aaahh!" Amber screamed as she tried to dodge the fire hurtling toward her.

Amber danced like someone being shot at in an old western, but it wasn't enough to prevent a few of the fireballs from making contact with her. She felt a burning sensation that was somehow worse than when James's computer crapped out, and she screamed again from the pain.

"Come on! Stop it! This is crazy!" Amber shrieked, but Toriel only gazed ahead beyond Amber, unwilling to listen.

Amber tried to run past Toriel to get to the door. If she could just escape to the outside world, then she would have more places to run and hide. Even as she panicked, thoughts of herself being cooked into a pie complemented the burning feeling that was overtaking her.

For some reason she could see her soul, that tiny red heart in a box, just like the flower had shown her. That was what was getting pelted by fireballs, and yet her body felt the sensation, felt the burning. She could see something else too…a yellow health bar. It looked just like a video game hub from some old Super Nintendo game or something. Every time she was set alight, the bar ticked down.

"What is going on here?!" Amber shouted as she lost the strength to stand up.

Amber fell to the ground, and one more fireball shot out at her. It hit the red heart, and her health bar hit zero. The last thing she saw before the world faded to black was the shocked and horrified face of Toriel…

…Such a cute cottage in the ruins fills you with determination…

Amber was alive. Amber was awake. Amber was in front of the house's entrance, right next to the last warm star she saw.

That didn't make sense. She remembered the burning, the battle screen, the…the dying. She died. Amber's very soul was burned to a crisp, and she died. Toriel didn't mean to do it, but she did. That monster was so crazy that she would rather kill Amber herself than allow her to be free.

Amber knew Toriel would probably hurt her again, seeing her in her house again. There was no choice, however. The entrance was destroyed. There was nowhere to go. All Amber could do was beg for mercy and hope Goat Mom still saw her as a child instead of a nuisance.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, Amber went inside, where Toriel was standing there smiling as if she had been waiting for her.

"Do you smell that?" Toriel asked excitedly, "I baked you a butterscotch cinnamon pie! I want you to feel welcome in your new home, so I'll hold off on snail pie for tonight. Come, small one. Follow me."

"Huh…?" Amber grunted, confused.

Wasn't that what Toriel said before? Didn't she already make the pie? Didn't Amber already eat it? Wasn't she already threatened with snail pie? Something about this interaction felt off…

"Surprise!" Toriel lightly shouted when they made it down the hallway, "A room of your very own!"

Toriel then petted the top of Amber's head affectionately. Yep, this is exactly what happened before. That didn't make sense. Amber already knew about the room. She already ate the pie. The next thing to come would be…

She's going to open the door.

Toriel opened the door.

She's going to leave to tend to her burning pie.

"Oh, what's that smell?" Toriel asked, "Oh, excuse me, I think my pie is burning!"

Hm…

Well, even for someone as dense as Amber, it was obvious what was happening here. Amber went back in time. She went back to before the fight, before she was burned alive. She suspected those star pieces she kept touching had something to do with it, but she wasn't sure exactly how it worked.

Still, this was a blessing for someone in such a dire situation. She was given another chance to fix her mistake. So…what was her mistake?

"I took a nap, ate the pie, asked Goat Mom about leaving, and set her off," Amber summarized to herself, "Okay, so…clearly the part I need to do differently is not agitate the crazy goat lady. I still need to escape though. Hm…well, I know where the exit is now. I guess I can just wait until she goes to sleep, and then sneak out. I better be careful though. Just because I time travelled once doesn't mean it'll ever happen again…

"I can't afford any more mistakes…"

Snowdin

Sans returned home from a surprisingly uneventful day of work. This was the most time he could remember having to write in his notebook, and yet he didn't really know what to say. According to his notes, a human was supposed to arrive in Snowdin today. That was what happened the past 400 or so times this day played out. Human arrives, shenanigans ensue, followed by the possible slaughter of everything Sans ever knew or loved.

Today however…nothing. No humans. No timeline corruption. The absolute present had somehow been tampered with.

What did this mean? Had the anomaly destroyed everything in space/time already, and this was just the world's most boring dying dream? Did Sans, in trying to communicate with the anomaly, accidentally kill it? Well, if so, good. That being was clearly malicious, and only good things could come from its death. Sans only hoped that his hypothesis was true.

"Sans! I picked out my bedtime story!" Papyrus shouted from upstairs.

"Be right up, Bro," Sans hollered back.

Sans released a contented sigh. The day ended with him and Papyrus safe at home. Nothing bad happened. In fact, not much of anything happened at all. Same old underground, same old puzzles, same old life. Yet, something felt fresh about this night, like a weight had been lifted. A new day would happen. The anomaly was gone, at least for now.

Sans walked upstairs knowing that for once he wouldn't just sleep, but he would finally get to rest.

Toriel's House

Did this hairy pie-baking monster ever go to sleep? Amber kicked her feet as she sat in the large chair at the living room table. The small chair fit her best, but it was the principal of the thing at this point. She was tired of being trapped in a weird child's body, and she wasn't going to conform by acting like a little kid.

Toriel, meanwhile, busied herself with cleaning the kitchen, sweeping the floors, and reading another book. Every now and then she would ask if Amber needed anything, but Amber always said no, for a couple reasons.

One, she was kind of afraid of Toriel now that she knew about the fire powers. Two, she just…really didn't want to talk to her. Amber didn't want to acknowledge that this place could be where she would spend the rest of her life, and if she didn't talk to Toriel, then she wouldn't have to think about it.

Amber expected that at some point she would be forced to choke down some of that promised snail pie, but dinner time came and went with no slime-forsaken confection in sight.

Amber considered asking about it, but she didn't want to remind Toriel about such a horrible dinner idea, so she held her tongue. In fact, this was the quietest Amber could ever remember herself being. That death by fire incident really shook her up. She just didn't want to get hurt again.

"Perhaps it is time for another nap, my child?" Toriel suggested after closing her book and standing up, "You must be so tired at such a late hour."

"Um…sure," Amber smiled a wide, uncomfortable smile, "Anything you say…Mom."

"Did…did you just call me "Mom"?" Toriel asked, more shocked than flattered, "Well, of course, you may call me whatever you like. If it makes you feel more comfortable to call me Mother, then please feel free to do so."

In truth, Amber was just trying to conform to the goat lady's weird fantasies to avoid retribution. She wasn't entirely sure how far gone Toriel was at this point. Besides, she couldn't actually remember Toriel's name.

Toriel took Amber by the hand and led her back to her room. Amber was actually getting pretty sick of that bed and those dusty toys she was never going to touch. She just wanted to go home to her crummy job, her crummy family, and her crummy life. It wasn't much, but it was hers.

Toriel rubbed Amber's head just as before, and Amber tensed. She knew she probably wasn't in danger, but she couldn't help herself. Once burned, twice shy. Literally in this case.

As Toriel turned to walk back to the living room, Amber noticed the goat lady was staggering on her feet, trying to walk steady.

"Are you okay?" Amber asked.

"Oh, yes. I am fine, my child," Toriel shakily replied, "Just a little lightheaded is all. I will be fine. I will…I am…"

Before she could finish her thought, Toriel suddenly fell to the floor and passed out! Amber jumped back in surprise, and then went over to check on Toriel. The old woman groaned lightly, and seemed to be going in and out of consciousness. Amber's kinder side said she should stay here and help Toriel recover. Her survivalist side though…

"Sweet dreams, Mom," Amber smirked as she walked away.

Amber knew she couldn't just escape, however. This was a land of monsters, and even if she looked like a Simpsons reject she still looked human enough to attract attention. She would need a disguise before venturing forth into the unknown world she found herself in.

In her room, she took the white with blue polka dotted sheet off her bed and cut two eye holes out of it with a pair of scissors she found in Toriel's room. Sure, it was the lamest ghost costume in the world, but in a world where ghost-like creatures were actually a thing this would at least make her blend in to anyone not paying close attention.

As she walked back into the hallway, makeshift costume in hand, she couldn't help but look down at Toriel's prone form. She felt a pang of sympathy for the goat lady. Sure, she didn't know why Toriel passed out, but clearly something was wrong and she needed help.

Sighing to herself, Amber found a pillow in Toriel's room and placed it under her head. She also placed a piece of monster candy next to her in case she woke up hungry. It wasn't much, but it was all Amber was willing to do. After all, she might never get another chance to escape unharmed.

She slowly, trepidatiously, made her way to the basement.

There it was. The big door that blocked her from the rest of this strange new world. Amber took a deep breath to calm herself down, put on the sheet, and pushed the door open with all her might. It was quite heavy, but she managed to get it open.

A wave of bitter biting cold rushed in as the door opened, and Amber realized there was snow outside. She struggled to close the door behind her, mostly because she was too stupid to make arm holes in the sheet. When the door closed, Amber was finally left alone with nothing but her thoughts and the white nearly crystallized snow. She couldn't help but wonder why there was snow in a cave.

Amber's footsteps crunched loudly amid the airy silence as she walked, her main protection from the weather being a thin sheet and brown boots that didn't even match the blue pajamas she was wearing. She shivered as she slowly walked, feeling more alone than she ever remembered feeling in her entire life.

Whatever else existed in this strange place, Amber just hoped she could find some food and shelter somewhere. As much as she wanted to go home, at this point the only thing on her mind was survival.