Were We Doomed From The Start?

5.- Finishing The Puzzles

Ninja put away his phone and went to the next room, reading the sign. "There is just one switch."

Six patches of unstable flooring were to the sides, three on each. The vines indicated where they were, and the door was blocked off by spikes. Ninja tried the first one to the right while Shadow tried the one to the left.
Ninja fell down, landing on his feet and finding a Faded Ribbon, with small patches of the vibrant red colour it used to be. Seeing how it granted +3 DF, he attached it to the right side of his head, its ribbon strands curling with his hair.

Shadow on the other hand, had encountered a Vegetoid and was engaged in combat, trying all the different ACTs he could do to properly escape.
Ninja intervened, ACTing and tapping on "Dinner" to which one of Vegetoid's attacks was green, with the ability to heal one HP, which Ninja caught and then spared Shadow, noticing how when Shadow was in combat, that there was a soul in the box, not of Ninja's own.

Climbing up the tunnel way up and checking the next unstable spot, Shadow found the switch and flipped it, while Ninja found Napstablook, who claimed to be stuck since they fell down a hole, telling Ninja to go on without him before realizing ghosts can fly, fading away to a different place.

Going past the now retracted spikes, they were now in a corner room with 3 different colour mushrooms, with a sign that contained the instructions.

"The far door is not an exit.
It simply marks a rotation in perspective."

While Ninja sketched the room out in his journal, they both slowly walked into the next room where Shadow found the instructions on what switch to press, opening the room and going into a consecutive room with an adjacent room containing the same thing but a different switch needed to be pressed. Shadow pressed said button and Ninja hardly looked up from his journal the entire time, busy adding details to his description of the rooms and how they functioned.

Following the vines in the next room, Ninja was led up to the roof, Shadow hiding on his back to steer clear of the Froggit that was there. A view of a city like place was visible from the roof, the breeze bringing some fresh air that they both stopped to smell, Shadow taking a small break to sit on the ledge and observe the view as Ninja found a Toy Knife on the ground. With an AT of 3 and made of plastic, Ninja kept it for the time being but didn't equip it.

Ninja went back down and into the next room, Shadow staying for a bit longer on the ledge before materializing right behind Ninja, on the floor as a normal shadow again.

The room had a decayed tree in the middle, surrounded by the normal red patches of leaves despite it looking like it had been dead for decades. And right in that moment, Toriel showed up, muttering how it took longer than she thought.

"Oh dear, that took longer than I thought it would."

She walked up to the tree and was next to it when she took her phone out of her pocket, calling Ninja then hearing the ringtone near her, immediately hanging up and running over to him to make sure he was alright. He only had the initial bruises and cuts from the fall which Toriel healed a few of while asking how he got there.

"How did you get here, my child?
Are you hurt? There, there, I will heal you. I should not have left you alone for so long.
It was irresponsible to try to surprise you like this."

Ninja looked away from his cuts, up at her with a confused look on his face.

"Err...
Well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come, small one!"

She said, leading him to just up ahead, to the entrance of a small looking house deep in the Ruins with patches of leaves right under the empty windows.
Seeing such a cute, tidy house so secluded in the Ruins filled them with determination.

Going into the house, Shadow looked around a bit from the floor as Ninja had to listen to Toriel some more.

"Do you smell that?
Surprise!
It is a butterscotch-cinnamon pie. I thought we might celebrate your arrival.
I want you to have a nice living here. So I will hold off on snail pie for tonight."

Shadow pretended to retch when Toriel mentioned snail pie, then creeped up Ninja's back to observe his response to how Toriel wanted him to live there. He stayed silent.

"Here, I have another surprise for you."
She went to the room on the right, and Ninja followed behind.
"This is it..."

Toriel said, grabbing Ninja's hand and bringing him over to a door, standing in front of it. Ninja briefly tried to pull his hand away as she kept talking.

"A room of your own. I hope you like it!"
She said, patting his head as Ninja froze in confusion.
"Is something burning...? Um, make yourself at home!"

Toriel said, running off as Shadow pushed Ninja into the room, closing the door behind him. It was a cute little orange themed room with a bed, a toy box, and even some stuffed monsters. In the corner was a lamp, a box of kid's shoes in a disparity of sizes, a dusty old empty photo frame and a closed wardrobe.
Ninja snapped out of his shocked state and slowly turned to look at Shadow, creeping him out in the process. Shadow tried to explain how if they stayed, they would have to eat snail pie so they needed to leave. Ninja continued to stare, unamused.

"We have to leave either way."

"But you heard her, she already made preparations for us to stay, we can't just walk out of here!"
Shadow signed as he sat on the bed, already starting to doze off on it.

"It's easy to leave, you will see."

Ninja said as he went over to the bed, putting his backpack down at the end of the bed then pushing Shadow off, getting into the bed and tucking himself in. Shadow sighed, went to turn off the lamp in the corner and lied down on the edge of the bed, carefully trying to grab some of the blanket for himself as Ninja fell asleep, curling up in the blanket like a burrito.