Underearth/Book 1/Chapter 2

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Toriel called down to Frisk from the summit of the staircase, snapping him out of his trance. He then rushed to meet Toriel at the top of the stairs.

"Come, my child. The Citadel can be dangerous. Stay close"

Toriel walked through a doorway located in the center of the wall, closely followed by Frisk. On the other side of the doorway was a room containing six large buttons in the ground, and a lever on the right far wall. There was a path of stone that was lighter than the surrounding brick leading straight into the far wall.

"Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Citadel."

Toriel proceeded to walk over four of the six buttons, then pull the lever. The moment she pulled the lever, a section of the far wall opened to reveal a doorway. Toriel walked over to the opening, then looked back at Frisk.

"The Citadel is full of puzzles. Ancient fusions between diversions and door-keys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them." Toriel said before moving on through the opening.

Frisk lingered a bit in the room, looking around. The room was composed of some purple brick, just like outside. Frisk, during his investigations, saw a plaque on the wall near the opening. Upon further inspection, it was written in a language he didn't understand. Frisk then hurried after Toriel, into the following room.

The following room was long, not in front of Frisk, but long going to his right. Toriel spotted him as he walked through the doorway.

"To make progress here, you will need to pull several levers." Toriel informed. "Do not worry, as I have labeled the ones that you must pull."

Toriel then walked along the path, which followed to the right-most wall into another doorway. Along the way, there were two deep trenches full of flowing water, with a bridge spanning each one. Frisk followed the path, taking him across the first bridge. Once on the other side, Toriel pointed to the lever that needed to be pulled. Frisk approached the lever. There were words written next to it, with big yellow arrows pointing straight at it. "Please pull this lever". Frisk reached up and grabbed the lever and pulled down. After a few seconds, the lever came down into the 'flipped' position. Frisk looked back at Toriel, who was smiling as some previously unseen spikes retracted behind her. She then followed the path down the corridor, arriving at another set of spikes. Frisk ran back to the path and crossed the second bridge. Toriel once again pointed to the lever. When Frisk approached this one, he saw that there were two, though only one had the big fanfare of yellow words and arrows. Frisk reached up and pulled this lever too. Behind him, Frisk could hear the spikes blocking the way retract.

"Splendid!" Toriel cheered "I am proud of you little one. Let us move to the next room."

Toriel walked into the next room. Frisk took one last look around, then followed suit.

The next room was small, at least when compared with the last one. Within the room was a cotton dummy, which stood adjacent to the path. Toriel stood just inside the doorway.

"As a Human living in the Underground, Monsters may attack you." Toriel warned.

Frisk lost focus and began to look a bit worried. *I could be attacked while down here? I guess some things never change, no matter the species?* Frisk thought to himself.

Toriel gestured to the dummy, causing Frisk to snap back into focus. "Practice talking to this dummy." said Toriel before walking to the doorway.

Frisk was so confused. What had happened between her telling him that he could be attacked and her telling him to talk to the dummy? Frisk wished that he'd listened instead of going off on a tangent.

Frisk approached the dummy. When he got in front of the dummy, he looked up at Toriel. "Go on" she re-assured. Frisk looked back at the dummy, staring right into its button eye.

"How's your day been, Mr. Dummy?" Frisk asked the dummy. The dummy didn't respond, of course. Frisk stood there silently for a moment, waiting for Toriel to approve. When the approval never came, Frisk decided to just blurt something out, not really paying much attention to what they were saying. Once Frisk had done that, Toriel gave that awaited approval.

"Ah, very good. You are very good." Toriel said before moving through the doorway into the next room.

Frisk looked back at the dummy, trying to remember what they'd said, though failing to do so. He then just shrugged it off and followed after Toriel.

Within the next room, the path ended abruptly at the end of the doorway. It started back up in the middle of the room, then turning a corner just inside. Toriel stood just outside of the doorway.

"There is another puzzle in this room. I wonder if you can solve it." said Toriel before moving towards a corridor in the middle of the wall.

Frisk looked at the new strange the path was taking before following after Toriel. By the time he made it into the corridor, Toriel had already crossed a few of the corners. When Frisk entered the long part of the hall, a large object fell from the ceiling, almost landing on Frisk.

Frisk dashed back moments before it landed on him. When he looked up to get a look at the object, he found it to be a rather large frog-like creature. Frisk concluded two things in his head, one: this was a Monster, and two: this Monster just tried to kill him. Without even thinking much on it, Frisk closed his right hand into a fist, and punched the Monster in-between it's two large, round eyes. The Monster flew back, hitting the wall behind it, and turned to dust. Frisk looked shocked, not that he just killed something, but at how easy it was, and how comedic it flew backwards. Frisk looked down at his hand, which was partially covered in a few particles of the Monster's dust.

At that moment, Toriel called back to Frisk, asking if he was alright. Frisk called back that he was fine before hurrying after her. As he proceeded through the long part of the hall, he passed another plaque, written in the same alien language as the previous plaque. When Frisk reached the end of the corridor, he saw Toriel standing in the bottleneck leading into a room with a wooden platform positioned amid a waterway.

Toriel looked over the room. "This is the puzzle, but..." she said with a hint of worry in her voice. She then held her hand out to Frisk. "Here, take my hand for a moment."

Frisk took her hand. As soon as he did so, she started leading him through the spike-maze. When they reached the other side, Toriel looked back at Frisk and said, "Puzzles seem a little too dangerous right now." before moving through the doorway right behind her. Frisk looked back at the spike-maze before following her through the doorway.

On the other side of the doorway was an extensive hallway. Toriel, like always, was standing just outside the doorway.

"You have done excellently thus far, my child." Toriel began. "However, I have a difficult request to ask of you." She took a deep breath, then a cleansing exhale. "I would like you to make it to the end of the room by yourself. Forgive me for this."

Toriel then move swiftly towards the end of the hallway. Frisk looked on as Toriel moved, then followed her. Frisk didn't find the task at all arduous, as he'd been alone for a very long time, ever since *that mongrel* had abandoned him and his sister. While deep in thoughts of anger, Frisk arrived at the end of the hallway, where Toriel revealed herself from behind one of the many pale-grey pillars.

"Greetings, my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you." Toriel soothed. "I was merely hiding behind this pillar the whole time. Thank you for trusting me." Toriel paused for a moment. "However, there was an important reason for this exercise." She then got down on her knee to look Frisk right in the eyes, though she was still much taller than him. "... 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." She once again paused, scratching her head. "I have an idea, I will give you a cell phone. If you ever need anything, just call. Be good, alright?" And with that, Toriel turned around and proceeded through the doorway located behind her.

Frisk took a seat for a moment, primarily to think about what had just happened. He looked down at the cell phone she'd given him. It looked to be ancient, older than it should be, anyway. It was a small black box with a screen taking up the top third. The number-pad below didn't use the Hindu-Arabic numerals Frisk had been used to, and instead used some other numerical system. After investigating it for a bit, he figured out that it was in the same layout as the typical Human number-pad. The entire interface was written in the same alien language as the plaques he'd seen earlier. Frisk put the phone in his pocket and looked around the hallway. Toriel hadn't come back yet, and he was beginning to get bored. After another minute had passed, Frisk decided to just ignore what he'd been told, and go through the doorway.