Were We Doomed From The Start?

4.- Encountering Monsters

"Hello?
This is Toriel. You have not left the room, have you? There are a few puzzles ahead that I have yet to explain.
It would be dangerous to try to solve them yourself. Be good, alright?"
She hung up, and Ninja went to the right, as Shadow explored to the left.

Patches of leaves were scattered along some parts up against the wall, looking incredibly crinkly as he strolled on by, which filled him with determination.
He went through the corridor and saw Shadow on the wall smiling at him, hands behind his back.
Shadow reached out and handed him four candies, signing that it was "Monster Candy" that he found on a dish lying about.

Ninja took it, put it in his pocket then continued walking, before briefly pausing and staring at the ground. The ground seemed unstable, so he motioned for Shadow to step on it.

With a nod, Shadow came off the wall, his feet slightly in a 3d form and stepped on the spot in front of Ninja, instantly falling down onto a patch of leaves then using a tunnel kind of way up.

Ninja hummed, then got a bit of a running start before jumping over the unstable spot, skipping that puzzle entirely. He stepped out of the room and immediately got a call again.

"Hello?
This is Toriel.
For no reason in particular...
Which do you prefer
Cinnamon or butterscotch?"

Ninja took a moment to think, then spoke lightly, his voice almost cracking after having not spoken for so long.
"Butterscotch."

"Oh, I see.
Thank you very much!"
She hung up immediately.

Ninja sighed, and started to walk away when she called him again. Shadow materialized in front of him and watched intently.

"Hello?
This is Toriel.
You do not dislike cinnamon, do you? I know what your preference is, but...
Would you turn up your nose if you found it on your plate?"

Ninja hummed.

"Right, right, I understand.
Thank you for being patient, by the way."
She hung up again.

There was a rock and a pressure plate in the room, close to some spikes in the floor which went from one side of the room to the other.
Shadow went over to the rock while Ninja dealt with another call from Toriel, pushing the rock onto the pressure plate, activating the spikes making it retract, allowing them to pass to the next room.

"Hello?
You do not have any allergies, do you?
Huh?
Why am I asking?
No reason...
No reason at all."
Ninja didn't have time to answer her.

Shadow turned to look at Ninja and smiled, then signed asking about something.

"Annoying, isn't she? Each room we go to, she calls us."

Ninja smiled back in response, then continued walking to the next room.

It was a long corridor, with a whole room packed with unstable flooring. Shadow floated over, testing what spots were safe as Ninja observed the leaf pattern below them, having been exposed due to Shadow's attempts.
He noticed how the leaves indicated where to walk, and tested his hypothesis, passing Shadow and completing the puzzle.
In the next room, there were more rocks and pressure plates, three this time. Shadow pushed one rock and Ninja pushed another, before trying to push the third, which started talking.

They convinced it to move for them, stepping on the pressure plate and staying there, allowing them to pass. The adjoining room had a table with a piece of cheese on it, with a small hole on the other side of the room, fit for a mouse.
Ninja moved on to the next room, but Shadow took the cheese and put it next to the mouse hole. Knowing the mouse would eventually get the cheese filled them with determination.

There was a weird layout of the next room, being open yet converging into a small pile of leaves, of which a ghost rested on.
Ninja went up to it, leaning over and simply watching, looming.

The ghost kept saying "z" out loud pretending to be asleep. Shadow floated over and tapped the ghost on its shoulder to ask if it could move, accidentally triggering a fight in the process.

This caused Ninja's soul to appear in the box once more, ready to dodge any attacks.
Ninja looked at the buttons under the box, labelled FIGHT, ACT, ITEM and MERCY. He pressed the ACT button, showing the stats of this ghost.

*Napstablook – ATK 10 DEF 10

*This monster doesn't seem to have a sense of humour...

Ninja moved his soul to dodge the ghost's squiggle tears who protested against what the stats said about his humour. Barely grazing past the tears which kept changing the axis it was on, Ninja pressed the ACT button again, this time picking cheer.

After three tries of cheering, having dodged more tears and sat through its grey text, Napstablook showed Ninja something, crying upwards tears that formed a top hat, calling it "dapper blook" then waiting for Ninja's response on if he liked it or not.

Tapping ACT once again and choosing to "cheer", Napstablook seemed a bit surprised, quitting the battle entirely and telling Ninja how he visited the RUINS because nobody was around, yet that he met someone nice.
Cutting himself off a bit, he claimed he was rambling again, saying he would get out of Ninja's way then disappearing.

Ninja looked at Shadow, who shrugged. Ninja looked through both doorways waiting for him, picking the one straight ahead with cobwebs, which had a sign asking for 7G, with the bigger cobweb having a sign asking for 18G. The main sign in the middle of the room read:

"Spider Bake Sale
All proceeds go to real spiders."

Shadow briefly disappeared before returning quickly with some collected Gold from an unknown location. They placed 7G down into the web, and some spiders crawled down to give them a donut.
Shadow put the rest on the other web, and some more spiders crawled down to give him a jug of cider. Ninja ate the donut, saving the jug for later in his backpack as they went to the other room, reading a sign directing them back to the bake sale, which they went by.

There were a few frogs in that room, in a line. Shadow acted like a natural shadow and Ninja walked by them, not looking or paying attention to them. Heading into the next room, which was up ahead, Ninja got another call from Toriel.

"Hello?
I just realized that it has been a while since I have cleaned up. I was not expecting to have company so soon. There are probably a lot of things lying about here and there.
You can pick them up, but do not carry more than you need. Someday you might see something you really like. You will want to leave room in your pockets for that."

She hung up again.