Chapter Text
They followed Toriel through the large door in front of them into a larger, more room-shaped… Well, room. It was tall, with walls made of purple bricks. Ahead, there were two large stone staircases that met in the middle in front of another door. Between the two staircases, there was a pile of red leaves. Toriel was already making her way up one of the stairs, when the two children noticed something in the middle of the room.
It was quite hard to see; A small, barely visible golden light hung at about hip height ahead of them. It was much more noticeable now that they were aware of it, like it wanted them to see it.
Penny approached the strange light. as she got closer, it seemed to radiate a certain warmth. Similar to their souls, almost. She let go of one of Florence's legs, reaching a hand out towards it. Her fingertips phased through it, but when they brushed the center, she felt a strange sensation flow through her. Starting at her fingertips, and spreading out through her veins, was a strange tingly feeling that made her feel what could only be described as safe. She felt calmer, her stress washing away with the warmth that washed over her. Muscles she didn't even know she was tensing relaxed, and she exhaled.
Then, there was something else. In her chest, she felt an intense burning take hold. Something akin to… Not anger, no, something else. Something different. It was a feeling that pushed her. Wanted her to move forward, and keep moving forward. A drive. She's only felt this a few times in her life—but never this intense.
She felt Determined.
Florence had felt it too. The strange tingly feeling coursing through his veins, washing away any stress he'd had. The feeling of safety, and a warmth that made the growing pain in his ankle subside, until it was just a dull ache in the back of his mind. He felt more relaxed. Calm.
He felt the burning in is chest next, as well. the resolve, the drive to keep pushing forward. The push to find his friends. His little sister. To keep them all safe. To get them home no matter what.
Penny pulled her hand back, slowly. Putting her hand back on Florence's leg, she looked back up towards Toriel. With the small hint of confusion in her expression as she looked at them, it seemed she couldn't see the strange light that they could. Huh.
Quickly, Penny dashed up the stairs after Toriel, not wanting to keep her waiting.
The next room was smaller. There was a stone plaque on the wall, words inscribed on it that they couldn't quite see from their distance. Toriel began to speak as they walked in.
"Welcome to your new home, young ones. Allow me to show you how things operate here in the ruins." She walked over to several stone plates on the ground, stepping on a few of them before flicking a switch on the wall. She turns back to them. "The ruins are full of various puzzles. please accustom yourself to the sight of them."
They follow her into the next room, which was more like a large hallway than a room. There were a few rivers that ran across it.
Toriel stops again. "To make progress in this room, you must trigger several switches. I have labeled the ones you need to flip, so do not worry about flipping the wrong one."
They follow her across a bridge over one of the rivers, and see a switch with yellow arrows pointing at it on the wall to their left. Penny walks over to it, allowing Florence to reach out and flip it. Teamwork! They walk back over to the path, cross the second bridge, and two more switches sit on the wall. Only one of them is labeled with the arrows this time. They walk over and flip it.
In the doorway Toriel stands in front of, a row of spikes they didn't even notice were there at first descend back into the ground, allowing them to continue on. Toriel tells them how proud of them she is, before they continue on to the next room.
They enter another small room, Toriel stepping to the side. The room is mostly empty, except for a singular training dummy that sits slightly off to the side.
"As humans living in the Underground, some monsters may try to attack you. You must be prepared for this situation." Toriel gestures towards the dummy. "The process is quite simple. When you encounter a monster, you will enter a fight." The two of them must have showed worry on their faces, because she quickly added, "Do not worry, you will not have to actually fight. Instead, try to strike up friendly conversation, and I will come to resolve the conflict. Practice on this dummy here."
The two of them approach the dummy. When they get close, the atmosphere around them darkens once again, and the warm buzzing of their souls return to their chests. The two of them stare at the dummy for a moment. Penny couldn't quite tell why, but something about it unsettled her slightly. She almost felt like those beady little eyes were actually seeing her. She shook her head. Thats stupid, its just a training dummy, it can't see. What did Toriel want them to do, again? Talk to it? She had no idea how to do that, its an inanimate object.
Luckily for her, Florence is far better at socializing than she was.
"So, uh, come here often?"
…
"I, um, I think you, uh, really add to the overall vibe of the room, y'know?"
…
…Yeah, maybe not.
Toriel seems pleased though, so they guess it was good enough for her. She leads them into the next room, the path of which is an odd shape. It winds around in an odd pattern, instead of a straightforward line.
Toriel mentions there being another puzzle in this room, but neither of them see anything that could be considered a "puzzle." They follow behind her when she continues walking, but they're stopped in their tracks by another encounter.
This time, a small frog-like creature sits in front of them. They stand there for a moment, staring at it. Toriel fixes it with a glare, causing it to get scared and flee. They continue walking, before Toriel stops in front of a room entirely filled with spikes. She looks uncertain.
"… This is the puzzle, but," She glances towards them for half a second, before looking back at the puzzle. "Here, Take my hand for a moment." she offers her hand, Penny hesitantly taking it. Toriel begins leading them through the spikes, which retract as she walks. Florence realizes the path they're walking in follows the path of the previous room. That must have been a hint, then.
They reach the end, and a long hallway stretches ahead of them. Toriel turns back to face them.
"You have done excellent, children. But I have a difficult request of you two," she looks away briefly, "I want you to get to the end of this room by yourselves. Forgive me for this." Before either of them can say anything, she speed walks down the hall.
They stand there, stunned, still processing what she'd asked them.
"She… Just wants us to walk to the end of the hall?" Florence asks.
Penny shifts his weight on her back. "I… Guess? I don't see how that's a 'difficult request' though,"
She feels Florence shrug, and she begins down the hall.
As Penny walks, Florence rests his chin on the top of her head. Being carried around everywhere is pretty boring, he finds. He absentmindedly rotates his ankle, then pausing when the expected sting doesn't come. Furrowing his brows, he rotates it in a wider radius. When there's still no pain, he sits up.
"Hey, Penny, I think I want to walk again,"
She stops.
"Huh?"
He lifts his leg so she can see, and rotates his ankle again. "My ankle feels better. I want to try and walk on it."
"Florence, you sprained it. That doesn't just go away in a few hours."
"Well, okay, yeah, but like, has anything else down here been normal?"
"I don't see how that has anything to do with how humans heal, Florence. No, you aren't making it worse by walking on it." she starts walking again.
He sighs, putting his head back down on top of hers.
They reach the end of the hall, and Toriel steps out from behind a pillar.
"Greetings, children. Do not worry, I did not leave you. This was merely a test of independence." Penny opens her mouth to speak, but Toriel cuts her off. "I must attend to some business, so you two will be alone for a while. But it's too dangerous to explore on your own." she reaches into a pocket, and hands them something. "Here. I will give you a cell phone. Please call if you need anything." She smiles at them, before leaving them be.
Florence, who took the phone because he was the one with his hands free first, looks at it. It's certainly… A phone. It's more like a brick, if he's honest. He shoves it in his left pocket. As he does, he feels his hand brush something else. He inhales. Riiigght. Pulling out the object, which used to be his old phone, he winces. He definitely landed on it when he fell. Its mangled beyond recognition. Yikes.
Penny takes them to the next room. The phone they were given rings, and Florence answers it.
"Hello? This is Toriel. You have not left the room, have you?"
Penny stops.
Florence smiles nervously. "Ah, no, haha, we are still right where you left us!"
If Toriel caught his lie, she doesn't comment. "Oh, good. There are a few puzzles ahead I have yet to explain, and it would be dangerous for you to attempt to solve them yourselves."
There's a click as she hangs up. Florence puts the phone back in his pocket.
"Penny, shouldn't we listen and stay put? Why are we moving?"
"We don't know how long she'll take, and we don't really have all the time in the world to find the others."
"Ah, right."
They fall into an awkward silence, before Penny starts walking again. A room to their left catches Florence's eye.
"Wait, I want to see what's in there," he points at the room.
Penny turns to look, before walking over. They enter a small room, where a pedestal stands in the center. a bowl of what appears to be candy sits on top.
Florence thinks for a moment. "Penny, can you put me down yet?"
She sighs. "Florence."
"Whaat? You've been carrying me this whole time. This looks like a good spot to rest for a few minutes, don't you think?"
"And I am perfectly content to continue carrying you. You really aren't as heavy as you think you are." He can hear the smirk in her voice in that last sentence.
He lightly bonks her on the head. "What-ever. I still want down, though."
She sighs. Again. "Okay, fine. but you sit and you stay."
He smiles. "Okays!"
She shakes her head, smiling. "Yeah whatever, you dork."
Penny sits Florence down on the ground, before walking over to investigate the candy bowl. Florence attempts to stand while she has her back turned. He tests his left foot. Huh. It still hurts slightly, but not like a sprain he suffered should. Sitting back down, he twists his torso. That didn't hurt like it did earlier, either. Weird.
Penny turns back around, two pieces of candy in hand. She hands one of them to him. He takes the candy, looking at it hesitantly.
"What if monster food is like, deadly to us or something," he voices, not looking up from the piece in his hand.
Penny, who was halfway through opening the wrapper on hers, pauses. "I dunno."
Another thought crosses his mind. "What if we starve down here."
Penny whips her head towards him. "Florence!"
He finally looks up from his candy. "What? It's a valid concern!"
"We aren't going to starve. You barely eat anyways."
Florence pretends to be shocked. "Hey! Just because I forget to eat sometimes doesn't mean I'm immune to starvation!"
Penny giggles. "Just eat your candy, silly."
Florence looks back down at the candy in his hand. He glances as Penny as he unwraps it, watching as she pops the candy in her mouth. She doesn't immediately look disgusted, so its probably fine. Once he gets the wrapper off, he puts the candy in his mouth. Mm. Butterscotch.
After a bit, Penny stands back up. "We should probably get moving again," She stretches, pushing her arms out in front of her and twisting.
"Okays, can I try walking on my own though?" Florence looks up at her from where he sat.
She drops her arms to her sides, and looks at him with an expression of slight annoyance. She rolls her eyes. "Fine, go ahead. I'm not catching you if you fall," she lies. She definitely would, they both knew that.
Florence smiles, before attempting to stand. He pushes himself to his feet, wincing slightly at a small bit of leftover pain in his side. Once standing, he looks at his sister. She stares at him, expression a mix of confusion and awe.
"See? I'm totally fine! Nothing to worry about here," he gives her a thumbs up.
Penny opens her mouth, only to shut it again when no words comes out. They stare at each other for a few minutes.
"Well, what was it you said? We should get moving? I agree!" he starts walking out of the room, stumbling only slightly on the way. Penny sighs.
"Just be careful not to hurt yourself!" she begins following behind him.
Florence walks back out into the room they were in prior, making a point to walk through the piles of red leaves scattered about. One particular pile catches his attention. Above it, yet another strange gold light from earlier lingers. He approaches the light, allowing his fingers to gently brush against it. The same feeling from before washes over him. That's when it clicks.
"Hey, Pens," he calls over his shoulder to her, not taking his eyes off the light. "Back when we found one of these things earlier, I think it maybe healed us. Maybe that's why my injuries were healed so fast."
Penny walks over to stand next to him, investigating the light. She tilts her head. "You think?" she squints at it in thought, "That certainly would explain it."
Florence thinks back to their first encounter with it. "Yeah, now that I think about it, that is about when I stopped noticing the pain," he puts his hand back to his side.
The two of them stared at it in thought for several moments. Florence reached out again, this time cupping the small light with both hands. He tried to move it, but his hands just went straight through it. He puts his hands back down.
"I wonder if they're will be more," Penny's voice clears the silence that hung in the air. Florence turns to her.
"I hope so. If this place is as dangerous as Toriel says, it would be nice to have a steady magic-instant-healing-thing to rely on."
"Especially if any of the others get hurt somehow," Penny adds, "The younger ones are the ones I'm most worried about."
Florence just nods in agreement.
Just then, the phone rings again. Florence fishes it out of his pocket and answers it.
"Hello?"
"Hello! This is Toriel. Apologies, my errands are taking a bit longer than I thought. I need about five more minutes."
Florence decides against telling her that she doesn't need to say her name every time she calls. "Of course! Take all the time you need. we don't mind waiting."
"Thank you for being so patient." The phone clicks.
He puts it back in his pocket, before turning to Penny. "Should we keep moving?"
Penny nods, turning to continue forward. Before they can get very far though, another frog creature jumps out of a nearby leaf pile at them, pulling them into another encounter.
They stand there, waiting for it to do something, though it seems like its doing the same thing. Florence remembers what Toriel said back in the dummy room.
He flips his hair out of his face as he sends a finger gun towards the monster. "I've never met another frog with such beautiful eyes," he finishes off with a relaxed smile and cracks an eye open slightly to emulate a wink.
He could tell the frog had no idea what he'd said, but it seemed flattered anyway, so he takes it as a win. It scampers off. He noticed Penny shoot him a glance out of his peripheral, and turns to look at her.
"What was that."
"Hm?" He tilted his head, smiling.
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, lets just get going. Hopefully with no more distractions."
They made their way into the next room. Penny had noticed something and stopped, putting her arm out in front of Florence who had almost kept walking. He looked at where her gaze was fixated, and noticed the floor in front of them was littered with cracks. Florence pulled his old phone out of his pocket and tossed it onto the cracked section of flooring. Not like he needed it anymore anyways.
Upon making contact with the phone, the floor crumbles into a pit below. The two of them look at it, before Penny takes a few small, careful steps forward. She peeks down into the pit, noticing that there's a pile of leaves that she assumes are there to catch the fall of whoever were to step on the crumbling floor above. She can't imagine it would do much, but the flowers at the beginning of the ruins seemed to break their falls. For the most part. Looking at Florence there.
She stepped back to where she stood before, and Florence noticed she seemed to be looking for a way over or around the pit. He looked at the distance across, squinting. He thinks he could probably make that.
He looks at Penny, then back at the pit.
"I could make that."
Penny whips her head towards him. "Are you insane? Florence you can't—"
Too late. With a quick two-fingered salute, he sprints towards it and jumps. He does land, just barely. His foot lands a bit close to the ledge, but he stumbles forward and away from it. He turns to look at her with a smile.
"See? Its fine. Leaf it to me!" He giggles at his own pun.
Penny just shakes her head. "You're an idiot," she jokes.
With a deep breath, she sprints forward, also making the jump. Florence stood ready to catch her, but she didn't really need it. Because somehow she can jump farther than him. In heels, no less. He was constantly being given reasons to admire just how cool his sisters were, and this was definitely one of those times.
They made their way to the next room, Toriel calling them and mentioning something about a dog stealing something, and then asking them whether they preferred butterscotch or cinnamon. After the brief intermission, they continued on.
A row of spikes ran through the middle of the room. What appeared to be a floor switch sat in front, along with a large rock. Penny walked over, and pushed the rock onto the switch. The spikes clicked back into the ground, and the two pressed on.
The phone rang again. Florence decided to talk while they walked this time.
"Hi Toriel!"
"Oh, hello! I was just calling to ask, neither of you have any allergies, do you?"
"Uh, like, food based? Or just in general? Because I'm allergic to pollen—"
Penny grabs the phone from his hand. He glares at her. "Sorry about him. No, we don't have any allergies." she paused. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh. No reason in particular." Click.
They stop in front of another crumbling floor. This time, it covers the entire floor.
Penny glances towards Florence with a smirk. "Still think you can jump this?"
He nudges her shoulder. She giggles at him.
Florence walks over to the edge of the stable floor, and toes at the cracks with his foot. they crumble on contact, as expected. But in the room below, he notices something.
"Hey, Pens! There's a path down there!" he points down through the hole. "Do you think that's the safe path up here too?"
Penny walks up beside him, peeking down at where he's pointing. She shrugs. "Worth a shot."
With that, she walks over to approximately where she remembered the path being. She tapped the ground in front of her with her foot, until she found a spot that felt sturdy. Cautiously, she began putting more weight in the step. She glanced back at Florence, who encouraged her with a thumbs up.
She began the slow and tedious process of walking where she remembered the path being, along with Florence telling her where the turns were. Eventually, she made it to the other side.
She turned back around to look at Florence. His turn, now. He began following the same path she had, careful not to overstep onto the unstable ground near the turns. He almost fell once or twice and gave Penny a heart attack, but eventually made it with no issues.
The next room had another rock puzzle, this time with three rocks. Penny began pushing the ones to the left, while Florence went to push the one to the right.
"WOAH there, pardner!"
Florence nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Who said you could push me around?"
It took Florence far too long to realize that the rock was the one talking to him.
"Oh, sorrys! could you um, maybe move over there?" Florence points in the direction of the switch.
"HMM? So you're ASKIN me to move over?"
Florence nods.
"Okay, just for you, pumpkin." the rock then proceeds to scoot over a few inches.
"Uh, maybe a little more please?"
"HMM? You want me to move some more?"
Florence nods again.
"Alrighty, how's this?" it then moves a few more inches. In the wrong direction.
Florence pinches the bridge of his nose. "No, no, the other way."
"HMM? That was the wrong direction?"
Another nod. He can see Penny watching with mild amusement in his peripheral.
"Okay, I think I got it." the rock slides over onto the switch.
"Thank you!" Florence begins walking towards the door, where Penny was already standing. Just as he was about to step over where the spikes were, they shot back out. He whipped back around towards the rock, which was now sat right next to the switch.
"Hey, would you mind going back to where you just were?" Florence tried to mask his irritation, but it still bled into his voice slightly.
"HMM? You wanted me to STAY there? You're giving me a real workout." the rock finally slides back onto the switch, where it hopefully will stay.
Florence approached the spikes once again, and once making sure he wouldn't be surprise impaled, finally caught up with Penny.
The next room had a small wooden table with a singular wedge of cheese sat on top, as well as a small mouse hole in the opposite wall. There was another one of those little lights between them and the table.
Florence let his hand pass through the light as they walked by. They walked through into the next room, where their path was blocked by what appeared to be a ghost sleeping on the ground.