What Is This?

'THUMP'
...

'... ugh, everything's fuzzy. Why is it so dark?'

I crack my eyelids open and the first thing I see is gold.

'flowers? Where am I?'

I look around, trying to get my bearings and notice I'm in some sort of cave.

'what? How'd I get here? ... where is here?'

I try to stand but collapse in a groan.

I slowly pick my head up and look around again. There seemed to be an opening to the cave right above me.

'I fell? Why can't I remember anything?'

As I was looking up I notice a small movement out of the corner of my eye. My head snaps quickly to look at the owner. It was a child, Not much older than 7. Brown hair, tan skin, blue and purple shirt, blue jumper. I notice something else, blood. Lots of it. Ignoring my muscles screaming in protest I jump onto my knees and crawl over to the child's side.
I put my hand to their head and softly pushed them onto their back.

"Kid?" My voice sounded weak. I reach forward and softly shake them, their eyelids flicker slightly. 'signs of life. Good.' I lean back on my feet and look around again. This time, I see an opening to another room.

I sigh and pick the kid up in my arms, they groaned softly on pain. I made my movements as soft as possible.

"Let's get some help." I walk towards the opening and see it lead to an open space with a single grass spot. And in the grass spot, secluded from the rest of the room. Was a golden flower. It had a face, it seemed to be sleeping. A chill went down my back when I saw the flower and an urge to move on crept through me.

'but we need help.'

I opened my mouth to say something to the sleeping flower, but a hand was placed on my mouth. Stopping any words from escaping. I look at the owner and see the child awake and wide-eyed. They looked at me in surprise as if I wasn't supposed to be there. But that's ridiculous they're just a child.

'besides. I Don't even know why I'm here.'

I look at them curiously and they point on, towards the door across the room, past the creepy flower.

I look at the door, my eyebrows furrow and I nod with determination.

Slowly and silently I creep across the room, hugging the walls. My body shielding the child from the flower. I finally reach the door when a voice calls out.

"Well, well, well." The voice chills the air. "Looks like you don't know the rules of the game."
I slowly turn around and look at the owner of the voice.

"HoWdY... I'M FLOWEY" an evil face takes over the flower. And a menacing laugh echoes in the air.

"DIE!" Pellets swirl in the air, surrounding me and the kid. I throw my body around the kid to protect them. My chest tugs and for a second it's almost as if something was about to come out.
The pellets beat against my back and sides and I take a step forward towards the door but some invisible force keeps me back. 'what the -'

I turn back and see the flower with his evil face surrounded by menacing vines. One of which were wrapped around my ankle. Forcing me to be still.

I wiggle my leg, balancing carefully while trying to break free. I rear my foot forward and slam it onto the vine, splintering it slightly and making the flower screech in pain. I quickly limp to make my get away. I run out the door with the kid in my arms and almost run into another monster, except this one was goat-like.

"Oh, my!" It (she?) Exclaims. "Are you okay? You're both injured!" I take a deep breath and jerk my arms back when she reaches for the child.

She had a glimmer of hurt but understanding. "I'm not like that horrible creature. I believe in Mercy." She says definitely.

I let out the deep breath and look her over. She had a long purple gown on that fell just before her large fluffy claw feet. She has lighter colored sleeves that end at her furry wrists. She had a long snout, horns, and floppy ears. She had a kind smile on her face, slowly she reached her hands out towards the kid who was once again unconscious.

I reluctantly hand them over to her. My arms fell to my side and relief washed through sore muscles that I didn't notice I was over using.

The goat monster starts walking forward with the child in her arms. She pressed a few buttons and a door slid open, just before she went through the doorway she twisted her head around to look at me. "My name is Toriel. I'm the caretaker of the ruins. You can trust me."

I bit the inside of my cheek and followed her at a distance. She seemed to have puzzles all over the place. One of the puzzles I had to stand next to her in order to safely get to the other side, which I was okay with. She smelled pleasantly like cinnamon and another scent I couldn't place.

'it's a good thing I'm not allergic to cinnamon like-' a foggy memory surfaces. But something blocks it from clearing.

'...'

'like... who?'

A pain spikes through my head the more I think about it. I immediately change my thoughts to something else. 'Oh! Toriel is talking.'

"-stead of fighting you can talk to the dummy. Mercy is the best way."

'she sure seems to talk about mercy a lot. 'I look at her with a blank face but listened intently. Soon we continued on. Eventually, she decided that she should disable all the puzzles to get to the house quicker I shrugged and she left me on my own.

I was exploring when a ribbet tore me from my thoughts. I look around in confusion and hear another below me.
I look down and see a frog-like monster stare at me, a moth-like monster fluttered shyly nearby. I smile at them and almost said hello.

The frog ribbeted again and the shy moth flew away.

Flies the same color as the pellets from earlier floated around me strongly. They didn't seem to touch me just flit around, buzzing softly.

I still flinched back in fear. The pain on my back and sides, from the bullets, still ache.

I looked around the purple brick room before looking at the frog again, it seemed to be waiting for something. I awkwardly clap my arms to my sides and waited, it looked at me knowingly before ribbeting again.

I rock back and forth on the balls of my feet watching the Frog. It stared into my eyes, as if through me like it was looking at my soul. So I did what any sane person would in a situation like this.

I wiggled my eyebrows.

The frog blushed and hopped away, the flies following after.

I half smile then turn to go on my way. Along the way, I met another monster, this one was like jelly. Was it also covered in mold? And it was so small.

It wiggled over and just jiggled and wiggled to me as if making conversation. So the obvious thing to do would be to wiggle back. And so I did. The Jelly Monster seemed pleased with my wiggling and jiggled off.

I got stuck on a maze puzzle with leaves, I kept falling and landing in a pile of red leaves. I was close to the finish before I fell and landed on something. Er, next to. It was sticking out of the ground and had green leaves on its top. It seemed carrot-y. It lifted its head out of the ground and stared at me for a second.
'great, they have vegetable monsters too.'

I just got up and brushed the leaves off, This probably isn't very good for my leg the flower grabbed earlier. All this falling, I'm sure there's going to be bruises later, and I'm certain I saw blood earlier.

I walked over to the thing to take me back up to the maze and made my way through, without falling. The carrot followed me, however, once I got to the other side, it confronted me. Standing there, not saying anything or moving, just smiling creepily at me.

"Hey," I said to it. The vegetable looked at me as if surprised and literally said.

"Vegetables cant talk." Turned around then walked away, leaving me in my bewilderment.

I turned around as well, with my -questioning-life- expression and took a moment to let that sink in.

'What.' "I'm sorry?"

I continue on till I find myself in front of a... ghost? It didn't seem to be doing anything. I stepped forward to approach it, he tilted his head to look at me.

"H-" I stop myself, Is he going to be like 'Are you crazy? Ghosts can't talk.' then float away or something?
I guess I do have to go through, to get home. Figure out this whole memory thing. And that kid, I have to check on that kid.

So I step forward and open my mouth to speak. "H-" I was interrupted by the ghost.

"Hey....." He said. his voice sounded sad and alone.

I stare at him in surprise before half smiling, I walk over to the opposite wall and slid down to sit across from him. "Hi"

I take a moment to take in his appearance. He had a long black nose and large black and white eyes, he had a small black mouth, which made sense because of his white see through body. His eyes were empty, he looked lonely yet at the same time, innocent and cuddly.

"Oh.... you answered..... That's nice...." He seemed genuinely surprised. He sits up and leans against the wall looking at me thoroughly. I half smile at him again.

"Ya know, you're like the only one who's actually made conversation."

He nodded knowingly. "yeah...... The Froggets only ribbet and not many understand that........ Whimsoms are too shy to converse............ heh, the Moldsmol think wiggling and jiggling's the way to go...... I'm not very good at wiggling............. and the vegitoids believe in the vegetable silence...... oh.... I'm sorry, I rambled on.... I'll go now~.... bye...." he started fading away and I jumped to my knees and reach towards him.

"No, Wait I-" but he was gone. I sigh and drop my arm and head. "Dang it." I get up all the way and brush the leaves off my butt then stretched up to the sky or in this case, the cave ceiling. I walk forward and see two openings, one to my left and the other straight ahead. I shrug and went forward and immediately regretted it.

I leap backwards out of the room screaming, "OF COURSE THEY'D HAVE SPIDERS!" I shiver and frantically wipe nonexistent webs off my arms and back. I shudder and hold my elbows close to my chest, a couple beats past before I take a deep breath and slowly took a step back into the room. I saw a couple spider webs and items in it, as well as a sign that said. 'Spider Bake Sale, All Proceeds Go To Real Spiders.' I look at the spiders and notice that they don't really look like real spiders, they look like cute little plushie spiders with little legs. Still gave me shivers. I walk over to one of the webs and noticed some food and drinks inside. I pulled out 15 gold coins which admittedly I found when I fell all those times in those red leaves. I walk to one of the webs and bought some 'spider cider' I hope I don't regret it. I set it in the crook of my left arm and waved good bye to the spiders and left the room heading to the left doorway and found a hallway.

It was full of Froggets, or it had like 3 Froggets. I saw two at the end, talking to each other and the one closes to the doorway staring at me.

Straight across from the doorway was a sign, it said 'Check out the Spider Bake Sale d-' I didn't bother reading the rest since I already knew about the bake sale. I shifted the sliding jar of spider cider more onto my hip and looked back to the Froggets, I caught them staring at me, the two at the end jumped and started ribbeting to each other again. But the first one was still staring, I looked at him and wiggled my eyebrows once again, and that seemed to work. I chuckle to myself before walking down the hall, I immediately stopped when something caught my eye. There was a crack in the wall and something inside the crack this peaked my curiosity. I wander over to it and kneel down in front of the hole. I literally saw, a teeny tiny, Itty bitty, Frogget. It peaked out of the hole and waved at me.

I cracked up laughing, something about the tiny frog in the wall and the waving just got me laughing. I got up and hugged my sides one still holding the jar and the other wiping nonexistent tears from the corners of my eyes. I smile and left the room still chuckling under my breath.

I found myself at another crossroads, A room straight ahead and the other was to the left. I went to the left room, deciding the other room was probably another bake sale. I enter and see Toriel distressed and looking at her cell phone, she went around a large tree when she saw me and smiled her face flooded with relief.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry. I meant to get your number to call you and check in, I'm glad you made it through okay" I smile softly at her.

"Don't worry about it.... I forgot I had a phone." I gasp and make a mental note to check it over to see if I can remember anything. I look at her arms and saw blood on one of her sleeves, a frown took its way over my face.

She saw where I was looking and shook her head. "The child is alright. I patched their head up and they are resting in a spare bedroom. Come inside. It's nicer in there." she turns around and walks into the house.

I look at the tree and my eyebrows furrow. 'Trees? Underground... why not.'

I saw a cozy looking home behind the tree, windows in the front and a door in the middle. A 'welcome' mat out front.

I walk up to the door and opened it. I first noticed a staircase, to downstairs. And I got chills. Why do you need a downstairs when you're already under ground. To get further underground? I shook my head out of my thoughts and looked further around, I noticed a door way to a living room area where Toriel sat in a chair perfect for her, reading a book. I couldn't read the title from the distance but decided it was probably something goat related. I see, behind her, another door way. Probably to a kitchen or bathroom or something. I turn the other direction and see a hallway of doors. I notice the very first door was slightly cracked open. I softly walk over there and see the kid, safely tucked into a soft and comfy looking bed. I see a bandage wrapped around their head and I grimaced. 'why did they fall too? and why were they surprised to see me?' I was jumped out of my thoughts by a hand onto my shoulder. I look up and see Toriels tall figure towering over me. She had a small smile and a knowing look."

"Come. You must be hungry." and as if being called, my stomach growls lowly.

I nod and slowly close the door to the kid's room before following Toriel to the living room area.

"H-Hey thanks."

She looked at me in surprise then smiles widely.

"It's my pleasure."

Toriel seemed to have food already done. She pulled out a sandwich and handed it to me, it didn't have any ingredients I recognized. But it still seemed edible. I quickly chowed down on it. She seemed content on making sure I was well fed. The food was surprisingly delicious. I smile at her when I hand the plate back. "Thank you again." She smiles at me before disappearing into the kitchen to put the plate away. She came back and I just wanted to say something.

"I-..." I try introducing myself but when I tried to think of my name, all that came up was static. "I can't remember my name."

Toriel seemed befuddled by this. "Oh, dear.."

" I can remember a letter, though... A.... It could mean nothing, but it could mean.. more... I don't know, I think I just need sleep. You got an extra room?"

She frowns for a second before shaking her head. "Only mine and the child's room." I shrug

"I'll stay in there then. I hope the kiddo doesn't mind."

I walk through the hallway and muttered good night to Toriel before yawning. Hoping for a good night rest. I open the door to the kid's room and see them sleeping snuggly. I found an extra pillow and blanket and made myself a bed on the floor next to the kid. Soon after my head hit the pillow I was caving into a deep slumber. But it wouldn't last long before the nightmares came.