Honesty: The Next Fallen Child

Bravery

May 30, 2004
"Yeah mom, I'll get the gardening done!" Nine year old Ben yelled into the house as he closed the door snugly behind him. Adjusting his hot work gloves, he surveyed the back garden, riddled with weeds and growing almost as wild as the forest next to it. Ben sighed and tightened his pink leather gloves around his wrists. 'Well, it's time to get to work.'

Stepping off the red rickety porch, he started toward the garden. It was amazing it looked this good after two years of neglect. Don't get me wrong, it still looked bad, but not as bad as one would think after that long. It still had a basic shape and even a few plants growing, like tomatoes and raspberries.

As Ben approached the garden, a flash of light caught his eye. Looking up, he saw a faint outline of a star. Rubbing his eyes he looked up again, but it was still there 'Not a mirage, ok'

The star, sensing that he saw it, dashed into the woods, covering her face, almost ashamed, and almost crying.

"Wait!" Ben called after it, following it into the woods despite the warning of how a girl a little younger than he was disappeared after she went into these woods. It's just superstition, after all, this is Mt. Ebbot. Or at least, that's what he told himself.

His combat boots clunked heavily on the ground as he followed the almost spirit-like light. It was mesmerizing, the light send to reflect warmth and happiness. With very step the feeling became more and more intoxicating, driving Ben faster and faster.

"Wait!" Ben called again, adjusting his bandana he had doodled on in class so long ago. He never went anywhere without it, and always added to the doodles. One of his favorites was also one of the most recent, a pair of buff arms with explosions behind them in the corner, next to a roaring Dinosaur.

The light stopped at the mouth of a cave, almost hesitant to go in, but then it saw Ben crashing along behind, and dove into the cave.

Ben entered the clearing just in time to see the light dash into the cave. "Alright then" he breathed, still trying to catch his breath, "into the cave we go" he walked into the cave and almost instantly regretted it.

It was a dark, wet cave with vine like weeds growing everywhere. He stopped about half way in. The light was gone, and instead there as this weird shadow on the wall, with slow steps, he walked toward it, intrigued.

Suddenly the head of the shadow jerked up, making Ben squeak like a girl. The shadow had a face, more specifically eyes. The eyes bored into Ben, drawing out the one emotion he was battling, Fear. It pressed down on him, bringing him to his knees. As his hands hit the ground, The world seemed to become weightless and Ben was falling through the air, wind whistling in his ears. He hit the ground seconds later, his vision going black.

After a few seconds he heard a gasp and realized his eyes were actually open and that was a cave ceiling above him. Slightly flushed from embarrassment, Ben sat up, finding himself in a field of buttercups with a girl.

He flushed even deeper as he realized she was staring at her with her bright red eyes. Instead of focusing on her face, her looked at her hair, which was short and a pretty maroon brown color, barely reaching the edge of her yellow and green sweater.

"Hello?" Ben stood and took a step toward the girl, who seemed to be picking absently at the flowers, no longer looking at him.

"Hello Ben! I guess you fell into the Underground?" The girl looked at Ben with a sad pity, but at the same time, hope.

"Underground? What? Who are you, and where am I? And how do you know my name?" Ben took another step toward the girl, hoping to press her for answers.

"It's where the Monsters live, and I'm Chara, nice to meet you. I know your name because well, in this realm your technically dead, so yeah" She extended her hand, a smug look on her face to rival Ben's utter confusion.

"So I'm dead?" Ben asked, tentatively taking her hand.

"Not exactly, but that's not important, I don't have much time so let me talk and hopefully a friend of mince will help" 

"Well Ben, Welcome to the Underground where everything will try to kill you. The solution to avoiding death is something called a Save File, which may or may not work since you haves Bravery soul type" Chara poked Ben's chest and a orange light glowed from his chest. "That's your soul, protect it with your life, because it is your life. Um, watch yourself in Snowdin, there's someone who would like nothing more than to kill you, well, that's actually most everyone. Just he's a little more powerful than most. Which reminds me, make sure not to tell anyone your a human, they'll kill you for sure"

"Wait, what?" Ben tried to stop Chara to get some answers, but she kept going.

"Anyway, look for little stars of light to 'Save', or copy your memories and save a point in time so if something goes wrong, you can go back, but it may not be compatible to Bravery, it wasn't for Patience...oh well, wouldn't hurt to try! Anyway I'll be watching out for you! Bye!" The meadow disappeared in a flash and Ben was looking up into a bright light from the hole he fell into.

"Ugh, what happened?" Ben shook his head, his short-ish dark brown hair fluttering behind his bandana. 'Man I fell really far, how am I not dead?  Scanning the room, he saw nothing he could use.

Looking down, Ben found himself in a little patch of flowers. "Flowers, really?" He scoffed, kicking a few of the buttercups and ripping them out of the ground. He was so sick of gardening, that's all he ever did at home.

After another quick scan of the room, he saw an archway, which was the only exit from the room. Standing, Ben started towards the arch, adjusting his pink gardening gloves as he got closer.

Crossing the archway, he was faced with a single flower, wilting so the petals covered its center. And then it spoke.

"I suppose you're here to kill me?" The flower said, lifting itself up to look at Ben. It's face was sad, and almost angry. A hint of violence was hidden in its beady black eyes. "Please say yes, then I won't suffer anymore. Please, help me"

"I will if you don't tell me where I am and how to get home" Ben said, adjusting his stance to a more fighting position. He did this a lot, fighting that is. He was kind of the 'hero' of his school.

The flower paused, almost as if it were listening to someone "Ah! Your a Bravery Soul? Well, watch out for smiley-I mean Sans. He's, well, not the most fun to fight. Also, be careful not to kill anyone? Acting is usually better than Fighting-" the flower twitched, it's face becoming a little grayer and its eyes becoming more white.

"What are you talking about? And I'll repeat, Where Am I!" Ben shouted to the flower, making it twitch again, it's eyes becoming deep red and it's face a true grey.

"It's Kill or be Killed–No! It's not! Sorry Ben-agh! Got to go!"  And the flower disappeared underground.

"Um, ok? Thanks for all your help" with a roll of his eyes, Ben moved to the arch on the other side of the room. As soon as he crossed underneath it, a white hand shot out and grabbed him around the waist pulling him into a hug.

"My Child! I mi- your not Asriel." A goat creature in a purple and white dress stopped crushing Ben in a hug. "I heard him! Where is he?" The goat woman who had pulled Ben into the attack hug pushed him an arms length away, frantically looking around the room.

"Um, I don't know who Asriel is, or who you are, so, I'm just gonna go-" Ben took a step back, and the goat grabbed him firmly around the shoulder.

"You must know, you were just in that room!" She looked at Ben with such desperation, he felt bad that he didn't know anything.

"I'm sorry lady, I don't know any Asriel" Ben shrugged of the crashed woman's hand and started running down the hallway away from the crazy goat.