Sable shrieks. She doesn't have a knife, why doesn't she just carry one at all times like Father...

It bursts through the loamy soil. It's...

a flower. With a little face, one that somehow manages to be cute instead of plummeting into the Uncanny Valley. Its petals are glossy gold, just like the ones beneath her, but this one's seem almost to gleam with inner light.

"You're new to the Underground, aren't you? Goodness, you must be so-"

It stares at her, seemingly recognizing someone in her eyes. "Chara?"

The flower looks at her for another long moment. Then it blinks rapidly. "Sorry, you reminded me of- an old friend. Doesn't matter! As I was saying, you must be so confused! I'm Flowey the Flower, and I can show you around if you like!"

He smiles endearingly. That face belongs on a teddy bear.

Within her chest shines a red light. It rises to the surface of her skin and floats into the air without her input.

"Do you see that light? That's your Soul. The very culmination of your being. Try to move it around!"

"How are you moving it around?!" she exclaims.

"Oh, I only brought it out! But you're in control now. Just keep it safe, and you'll have tons of fun! Now try moving it around!"

It bounces off of her skin with a sickening jolt through her body and spirit, and it flickers in the air.

"Don't go knocking it into things," Flowey chides. "I just told you to keep it safe! But I can see you've gotten the hang of it!"

"How do I put it back?!"

He giggles. "Time for our next lesson! Right now, your soul looks so pathetic and weak, doesn't it? But you can make it big and strong by getting lots of Love! Doesn't that sound nice?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Well, you want to become strong, don't you? Everyone wants to become strong. But right now you're weak. Your soul's fragile and dull. I can help it to grow stronger by giving you some Love! Down here, Love is shared through these..." He waves a frond, and several glowing orbs appear around him. "Little white... 'friendliness pellets.'"

They float towards her soul lazily. "Try to catch them all!"

The collision before felt bad.

This feels like a blunt, serrated, rusty knife being driven through her spine. She's left hanging on to life by her teeth and nails.

Flowey's adorable little face twists into a hideous grin. "You IDIOT. Did you really think someone would help you, down here? In this world it's kill or be killed."

In the distance, there's the sound of paws running towards her. Flowey looks to be too busy cackling to notice.

The flower crumbles to a fine white dust.

And the owner of the paws careens into the room.

She looks like something between a woman and a goat and a very sleek bear, and she is enormous. Sable's father standing next to her would look shorter than Sable herself looks standing next to him. And, incidentally, her paw-hand cups a magnesium-bright ball of fire.

The fire dissipates when she sees Sable. "I thought I heard-"

She stops in her tracks. Her eyes go distant. "Chara?"

"Who the blight is Chara?!" gasps Sable. She feels less like death now that the flower-thing's brilliant ground is being absorbed into her own, but this restorative comes with its own complications, namely an all-consuming agony as her damaged ground fails to reconcile with the foreign material.

"I-"

She shakes her head. "My adoptive daughter. She died. You look like her. Sorry."

She looks sharply at Sable's soul. "Who did this," she snarls, and makes a complex motion with her hands.

Energy suffuses Sable, mending her spiritual wounds and brightening her soul until it shines again. Her ground feels soothed.

"Some sort of... flower... creature," she says, gesturing vaguely at the pile of petals. "Um. Thank you? What did you do? What is happening?"

"You're welcome," she says, returning to her usual clipped tones. "I healed you. It's not very difficult. 'What is happening' is a broad subject, but currently relevant is that you are the first human to fall here for multiple centuries, you obviously had no idea that monsters even existed, and that you look exactly like my deceased adoptive daughter, which is moderately distressing. In light of this I would like you to accompany me to my home so that I can protect you from harm."

"...that... sounds like a better idea than waiting here for another horrible flower creature to attack me, admittedly... I'm sorry about your daughter."

"It has been several thousand years. I have had time to adjust."

She looks at Sable's comparatively short legs. "Would you like to ride on my shoulders? I suspect that I walk faster than you."

"...that would be... okay, but um, what do I do about my, this," and she gestures at her glowing red light of upsetting vulnerability.

"...Oh. You're new to this. It will follow you without collision if you don't concentrate on moving it."

She hefts Sable gently and places her on one of her massive shoulders. Reaching into a pocket, she pulls out some kind of candy wrapped in rice paper. "Have some candy. It tastes good and is generally soothing to traumatized children."

"...okay."

The candy tastes strongly unlike licorice.

The candy feels like being suffused with the same restorative light that the strange woman cast over her earlier. Threads of wholeness spread slowly through her ground. It feels good.

After a few seconds the candy melts and evaporates into nothing, but the wholeness stays. Its job is not yet done, but the work yet accomplished stands firm.

The woman sets off at a loping jog, apparently unaware of the miracle of medicine that has just taken place on her shoulder.

The woman strides past piles of leaves, marble pillars, and numerous very large frogs. One of the frogs tentatively croaks a greeting, which she summarily ignores.

"Tell me about this flower monster. It does not sound like something I know, which is troubling, because I know more or less everything."

"I fell through a sinkhole onto that pile of flower petals and a flower with the same kind of petals popped out of the ground and asked me if I was Chara and pulled my soul out and threw 'friendship pellets' at it and," then she killed him, "then you showed up."

"He knew her?"

"Apparently!"

"That is... profoundly impossible. There is exactly one other person alive currently who knew Chara, and he is not a flower. Although he would certainly try to kill you." She pauses. "Also, he has been known to call his bullets 'friendly pellets'. Hm."

She stops running and places Sable gently on the ground between two pillars. "Please stay here. I need to make a phone call, and possibly wring my ex-husband's miserable fluffy neck."

"Um?"

"I suspect that King Asgore Dreemurr, my filthy rat of an ex-husband, may have somehow been behind this attack. He is a terrible liar. I plan to interrogate him over the phone, and if he is responsible, light him on fire. Please stay here while I do so."

"What's a phone?"

She pulls out a flip phone. "You can use it to communicate over long distances with other people who also have phones. You should take this one; it was Chara's, and she has no use for it anymore, because she is dead. You can use it to contact me if you become lonely or are in some form of physical danger. Press the following buttons to contact me."

She helpfully demonstrates the use of a phone.

"Yes! Now I am going to use mine to figure out if I need to kill Asgore. Please remain here, in the safe room where there are no monsters or ancient traps."

"That sounds good. Thank you," she says. "Um, my name's Sable, by the way."

"My name is Toriel," she replies, and without further comment she leaves the room.



Some minutes pass.

The phone rings.

"I do not need to inflict any physical harm on Asgore at this moment. However, since I am going to be housing a human I will need to do some shopping, since I am in town. Do you have any food allergies?"

"No."

"Excellent. Should you become hungry, there is a bowl of candy in the next room."

She pauses. "The pedestal on which it rests reads 'take one'. There is no need to feel guilty if you need more than one. We have run into problems with that in the past."

"...Is the next room also safe?" she asks, since monsters and ancient traps were mentioned.

"Almost entirely."

Toriel hangs up.

Okay, well, that will have to do. She opens the door to the candy room.

"Well, thank you," she says. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Ribbit," the frog demurs.

"Toriel mentioned a bowl of candy in this room; is that it over there?"

"Excuse me!" she exclaims, dodging. "What's this about?"

"Well, if you're sorry then why are you doing it?"

"Croak," it says desperately. There's a suggestion of some greater purpose, one for which her soul must be taken.

"How sure are you of that?" she asks sharply. "The world is full of people who thought they needed to do something awful for the greater good, only to find the greater good better served by a different intervention. You seem like a very nice frog and I'm sure you wouldn't be doing this if you didn't think it was important, but I won't accept that there's no other solution before I've even heard what the problem is."

"There, there," she says, approaching cautiously.

The frog does not produce further glowing flies. It does produce more tears.

She very carefully pats the frog. And eats some candy for herself.

It continues to taste entirely unlike licorice, and it continues to soothe and reinforce her ground. After a few pieces, though, diminishing returns set in. There's only so much candy can do, apparently.

She can pocket a little of it for later in case the relief is temporary. There's still plenty left in the bowl even so.

... Sable frowns at the remains of the bowl. This seems incorrect.

Sable smiles and offers the frog more gentle headpats. Since the bowl was so unstable on its pedestal, she leaves it on the floor next to the pedestal instead.

This has been enough adventure for the moment. Sable sits by the candy bowl.

The large fluffy woman eventually does return. "Excellent, you found the candy bowl. Thank you for waiting patiently. We will return to my home now, if you have no pressing needs."

"I, um, yes, that sounds good," she says.