Chapter 4
After the night in the bathroom you started leaving the room during the day. Slowly at first, only once a day and only ever to the bathroom and back, but you made progress. With all your courage you went to the living room. Toriel was sitting on a chair near the fireplace, and looked up with a warm smile, before offering you food. You nodded, and she led you to the kitchen.
Eventually you were only in your room to sleep, and spent the whole day with Toriel. You helped her with the chores around the house, learned how to bake pie, muffins, and cookies. You surprised her with your ability to cook simple meals, normally with only one or two ingredients, but she ate it as if it was a feast. She took you out on walks with her everyday, introducing you to the monsters who lived in the ruins, and showing you the different puzzles. She seemed hesitant to let you do the harder puzzles, but you didn't really worry about it.
She also started teaching you, and you soaked up whatever she taught. Math was fun, history was new, and you especially loved art. She never tried to force you to talk, though would occasionally ask questions you were unable to answer, only to correct herself quickly, or gave you a piece of paper to write out your answer. She also taught you how to evade the magical attacks of monsters, how to run away from a battle with your soul, and how to bring your soul into and out of your body. You didn't really like bringing out your soul, because that meant putting yourself at risk, but knew it was important to learn.
Mentally you had kept track of the days, and when you had been there for just over three months you knew it was your birthday. 9 years old, it seemed almost unimportant, but you knew you had to be going. You needed to get above ground, and staying down here with Toriel was selfish of you.
You gathered your few belongings and put them in a backpack Toriel had given you. A couple pairs of clothes, the terrible knit mittens you had made, all the joke-notes she had given you, and a picture of her you had found in her room. You felt guilty about taking that, but you desperately needed something to remind you of her, of the good in the world. Picking up a pen and paper, you wrote out a quick note for Toriel, shrugged on your bag, and went to find her.
It wasn't hard, with the ruins being so small, to find her. Barely out the front door, in the garden picking snails. You took in every detail, trying to burn it into your memory, before walking up to her and giving her the note. She smiled at you before looking down to read it, and slowly her smile faded.