Horrortale - Back to the beginning [eng]

Chapter 3

We walked, I walked, in this case.  Flowey was in my arm, telling me in detail about what he saw in the meantime here in the underground.

He told me a little more about the girl who had recently fallen, Aliza.  From what he said, she was tall, pale with long, messy hair, a shade of chocolate brown.  She kept her eyes closed, which reminded him of me. How cute, huh? I asked if he followed Aliza's journey through the ruins, or if she had already left here.  He told me that he saw her make it to Home, Toriel's house, but he didn't know if she had passed it on to Snowdin, or if she had decided to stay.

We kept walking until we reached the first puzzle of the ruins.  I tried to remember the right sequence to step on the platforms, but my attention was taken when analyzing the conditions of that room.  Everything was falling apart.  The walls had a very worn color, vineyards and leaves all over the floor, cobwebs and many cracks too.  That reminded me of Muffet, I didn't know why.

"Hey, Frisk, do you remember that puzzle?"

It was the first of several that we would find, and I didn't even remember the right order.

"I was hoping you would remember."

"What- why me ??"

"You've been here a lot longer than me!  Don't you even remember the order?"

"No!" he looked ahead and saw a sign "can you read that?"

"Read you yourself."

He looked at me seriously.

"Okay, okay."

I went to the sign that, by the way, was cracked and very dusty.  I blew off the dirt, which made me sneeze.  As soon as the sign was read, which was not the case, it was very broken and unreadable.

"Oh shit."

"And now?"

"Jump through the thorns?"

"Are you crazy?!"

"We can do it!"

"Frisk, you're wearing jeans!"

I walked to the back of the room, to get a boost.

"Frisk ... you're not going to jump, are you?"

"Hell yeah."

Its roots stuck tightly to my arm, which hurt a little.  I picked up momentum, ran and jumped over the spikes.  I must admit that halfway through the race, I rethought all my life choices, but when I hit the ground, a feeling of relief washed over my body.  Luckily, I hadn't fallen on Flowey.

"ARE YOU STUPID??!"

"But it worked, see...?" Before I finished, a painful shock took over my body, it was my ankle.  I think with the fall, he was hurt by the impact.  I wrapped my hands around it, pressing it, trying to lessen the pain.  My hp was 17/20, I don't know how that would have taken so much away with just a twist.

"Hey, what happened?  Did you hurt yourself?" Flowey asked, seeing my situation.

"Nah, I'm fine." I answered, determined.  I tried to stand up, but supporting myself with both legs wouldn't work, it hurt.

"Do you want to rest?"

"I don't think we need to, we haven't spent an hour walking, we have to at least find Toriel."

"Do you really want to meet her?  She's cray cray!"

"But I bet she's still loving. She had done so much to help me! It can't have changed so drastically ... can it?"

Flowey gave what appeared to be shoulders, but as he had no shoulders, I was confused.

"Do you have food there?  In your backpack?"

"Ah, well remembered.  But I think it's best to leave it for later, don't you think?  I will need to recover more hp later."

I started walking again, with difficulty, trying to put as little force as possible on my ankle.  We went through several puzzles, and some I even remembered the order, and others were marked.  Flowey had said it was because of Aliza, which made it easier to go through some challenges.

We also passed through that little room where the dummy was, but I felt great pity when I saw it shattered, and with such a distant look.

"What a brutal ending this little friend had :("

"Yeah, but he didn't speak before."

"Sheesh, Flowey."

I approached dummy and started talking to him.

"What are you doing?  You really went crazy in that time outside, didn't you?"

"Stop."

I kept talking, told a few jokes, and nothing.  I flirted, kidding, and nothing.  Flowey even looked at me weirdly "you flirted with a torn dummy. Wow."  but I didn't care.  I sat down in front of it.  I don't know why, but at that moment I felt free to tell the it about my life.
I talked about my experience on the surface, I talked about how my adaptation was and how difficult it was to have to live surrounded by people wondering what it was like when I fell.  Like I still mattered.

I didn't care if Flowey was there, beside me.  I didn't mind him listening to me, or the possibility that he might make fun of me later.  I just wish I could have someone I could open up with.  I was so well talking about my not-so-distant past with the dummy, that I didn't even hear the heavy steps behind me.

Someone had been humming a tune, I turned and saw it.  It was Toriel.  She hadn't noticed me at first, but with a brief movement, I got up, which caught her attention.  She looked startled, studying my face.  He didn't say a word when tears streamed from his eyes, with a sad look.

"F-Frisk?"

I smiled and ran to her, hugging her tight.  I didn't think about the possibility of her attacking me or doing any harm, I just wanted to be able to hug her again, because I missed her.  I felt her arms wrap around me, in a warm embrace, and I could hear her crying.

After a few moments, we pulled away and she smiled at me. She was a little different, with some scars on her face and her eyes that were once red were now green.  I didn't understand how, but it didn't matter. She caressed my face with her light, soft hands, and I held them.

"You really came back ... I ... you don't know how much I missed you." she hugged me again.

"I came back, Mom." I replied, smiling.