"Quickly now! Through this door!" Toriel urged them. She was pointing to another purple door. She didn't notice that she had run by a sparkle on the ground. Sonic and Shadow saw the sparkle. They gathered around it.

"Toriel, what's this?" asked Sonic looking at the sparkle.

"That's still there too?! Erm... Sorry, just remembering something. I'll explain when we get to my house. That's a saving device. It's a life saver. Those are really useful! If you die here in the Underground, you come back to life at the last time you touched the sparkle! Why don't you use it?" asked Toriel.

Sonic and Shadow touched the sparkle. It lit up and they felt a little more determined and motivated to continue. Toriel nods and runs through the purple door. Once through the door, they saw that there were plants everywhere and that everything was either a dark color or purple. It was almost downright gloomy, yet it was beautiful at the same time. Shadow felt his guilt return. He had sealed them in a dark, dreary place. It was all his fault.

They walked into another room and a dummy was sitting within the room. Toriel stood by the dummy and pointed to it. "If you're going to live in the Underground, you'll have to learn to defend yourselves from monsters. You will need to be prepared for this situation. Don't worry! The process is simple! When you come across a monster, you will enter a fight and your soul will appear. While you are in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation and stall for time. Eventually, the monster will lose interest in battling you. I will resolve the conflict for now."

"Strike up a conversation?" asked Shadow as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"That's right. It may seem silly, and sometimes it is, but it does work. I want you to try talking to the dummy here," Toriel told them.

"You want us to talk to the dummy?" asked Sonic.

"Yes."

"Okay!" Sonic chirped.

Sonic skipped up to the dummy and grinned. "Hello! My name is Sonic! What's your name?" he asked.

The dummy didn't say anything. It didn't seem much for conversation... Shadow laughed at Sonic's attempts to have a friendly conversation with the dummy. He stopped when Toriel glared at him. He never realized she could be so scary...

"That's why I like chili dogs! What about you? What's your favorite food? Well, I guess that because you're a practice dummy it would be hard for you to eat... Never mind!" Sonic said.

"Very good, Sonic! You are naturally very good at this! Your turn Shadow!" Toriel said.

"Wait! I have to do it?! I'm not really good with talking, you see... I'm better at fighting," Shadow explained.

"Well, you can always learn! Just talk about what you want with the dummy!" Sonic answered.

Shadow sighed. He walked up to the dummy. The dummy wasn't much for conversation... Shadow knew that now was a good of a time as any. "Um... Hi. My name is... Shadow. I'm a hedgehog and I rock a mean guitar if I have to... I can also ride a motorcycle, I guess... Well, what about you?"

The dummy wasn't much for conversation.

"Sheesh, Shads! You really aren't good at talking are you?!" Sonic yelled with disappointment.

"Now, now! It was a good start. A little bit more practice and he should be fine. Come on! On to the next room!" Toriel told them as she headed out the door. Sonic and Shadow followed.

The next room was even larger. A weird floor pattern was on the ground. Shadow noticed, but Sonic didn't. He stared at the floor as Toriel began to talk to them.

"There are many tough puzzles that you'll have to solve here. You see, there is a puzzle in this room. I want to see if you can figure it out!" Toriel told them. She walked to the other end of the purple room.

Sonic followed. A frog jumped out at him! Sonic jumped back away from the frog. "What's that?!"

"Oh! That's a Froggit!" Toriel answered.

"In our world, they're called frogs," Sonic explained.

"That's kind of short... Froggits deserve to have longer names! You should try talking to it!" Toriel encouraged.

Sonic stepped up to the Froggit. "Hello! I'm Sonic! I just wanted to tell you that I really like how you have such an amazing jumping ability! The fact that you jump with grace and poise! I can never seem to quite get that down, you know," Sonic told the Froggit.

The Froggit blushed deeply. It had no idea what Sonic said, but was flattered anyway. It was about to attack when it looked over at Toriel. She glared at it sternly. The Froggit shrunk back and hopped away. Sonic didn't get what the big deal was.

"Why did you scare away the Froggit?! It seemed like we were getting along!" Sonic whined.

"Didn't you see? It was going to attack you!" Shadow snapped.

"I think that we should work on dodging attacks later. I don't want you to get hurt! Come on! The puzzle is over here," Toriel said as she pointed to a bridge covered in spikes. Sonic and Shadow stared at the bridge. They had no idea. There was a sign right next to the bridge. Shadow read it out loud.

"The west room is the eastern room's blueprint... Wait a second! The floor plan! It's a map on how to walk across the bridge! We should just have to walk across only stepping on the spaces that are the same pattern as the floor in the western room!" Shadow pointed out looking back at the floor behind them.

"That's very good! You are good at puzzles, I see. However, because you might forget the floor plan, I want you two to follow close behind me. Only step on the spaces I do. Watch closely now. Follow me!" Toriel told the two hedgehogs.

The hedgehogs watched as she stepped onto the space in front of her. The spikes disappeared! She continued to move through the puzzle. Sonic and Shadow followed and made sure not to stumble or step on the wrong space. Finally, they arrived at the other end.

"Great job! We are about halfway to my house. The next room will be a little bit more difficult for you. Come," Toriel explained.

They walked through the door. Toriel turned and faced them with a serious face. "Listen, I have an important thing to ask of you... I really don't want to do this, but I'm afraid I must... I want you to walk to the other end of the room by yourselves. I really am sorry to have to ask...," Toriel explained. She bolted off away from them. At first, the two hedgehogs got a sudden feel of fear because they suddenly realized that they were alone and didn't know their way around. Was Toriel never going to come back? Was something dangerous in the room with them?!

Once the moment of terror passed, they finally just decided to just walk to the end of the room like she asked them.

"It's just walking to the end of a room. We've done this many more times than we can count! Right Shadow?" asked Sonic giving Shadow a nudge as they walked.

"Yeah. Don't nudge me ever again."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Gee, I'm sorry Mister Grumpy!"

"Don't call me that ever again."

They walked in silence. Nothing happened for a long time. It made both of them antsy. Was something going to happen or not?!

The end of the room was in sight! They were almost there! They approached and got closer... Closer... Closer... and... nothing happened. Shadow huffed with disappointment and Sonic exhaled slowly. They looked around. Toriel appeared from behind a pillar that was leaning against a wall.

"What?!?!?! You were just behind that pillar the whole time?!?!?! How could you?!" demanded Sonic.

"I'm sorry. I beg that you forgive me for doing this. However, I had to test you of your independence. That's why I had to ask that you two walk to the end of the room without me," she answered them.

"I still think that's a dumb reason," Sonic huffed.

"I could have tested you in a more dangerous way, I suppose," Toriel replied.

Sonic straightened up. "I guess that's true! I'm good! No more tests today!"

"Actually, there is one more thing I wanted you to do. I need you to stay here in this room. Don't worry, I'll come back and get you in a little while." Toriel begins to leave the room. She looks back with eyes of concern. "Understand? I don't want you to leave this room. Hmm... Tell you what? I'll give you two a cell phone!" Toriel said. She hands them her number and leaves with a quick goodbye.

"Well, that was fast. Not to mention, we're alone again. What now?" asked Sonic turning to Shadow.

Shadow wasn't there. He had dashed out the door and moved on to the next room. Sonic sighed and ran after Shadow.

"Hey Faker, what if she isn't going to come back to that little room? What if we get stuck there and can't ever leave because we listened to Toriel? I don't know how good these monsters are at fooling people. They aren't going to fool me! Not after what the flower did," Shadow explained.

"Shads! She saved our lives! She showed us how to deal with monsters! She showed us how some traps work! Why shouldn't we trust her?!" demanded Sonic.

"Think of it this way, she can read our minds and is trying to trick us. She's just another Flowey. Come on," Shadow growled.

"B-But..."

"No buts! Let's move!" Shadow yelled.

After a few minutes of Shadow dragging Sonic, they came across another puzzle. Shadow figured it out instantly. Sonic didn't say a peep about anything. Not even the ghost they ran into by the name of Napstablook. He was a fun, music loving ghost! Sonic actually smiled when he met the ghost.

All of the monsters in that area were nice and their attacks were easy to dodge. Neither of them even got hit once. Shadow wasn't exactly positive about anything. They walked for a good twenty minutes before...

Ring! Ring! Ring!

"It's my phone! Toriel didn't forget about us! See?!" demanded Sonic.

"She's just really good at betraying people," Shadow stated.

Sonic answered the phone. Toriel's voice spoke immediately without even waiting for Sonic to say hello.

"Sonic, Shadow, would you rather have cinnamon or butterscotch?" she asked.

"Which do you want? I don't care," Sonic said to Shadow.

"Um... Butterscotch," Shadow answered.

"We choose-"

"Cinnamon!" Shadow yelled over Sonic.

"Okay! Well, will you eat butterscotch if I were to give it to you as well?" she asked.

"Yeah," Sonic replied.

"Alright! I'll be seeing you later then!"

Click!

Sonic put his phone away and glared at Shadow. "Shadow, why did you do that?! That was rude!" Sonic yelled at the dark hedgehog.

Shadow merely laughed. "I wasn't doing that because I didn't trust Toriel. I did that because I just wanted to make you mad."

"Well, you certainly did that...," Sonic answered.

They continued on their quest to find Toriel's house. Well, that or whatever Shadow was hoping to find. Sonic had no clue. Shadow didn't really have a clue himself. He didn't know why he wasn't being so non-trusting to everybody in the Underground. Sure, he was right to doubt the flower. He suddenly realized that Toriel probably was a trustworthy person. However, he knew that if he were to admit it, he'd ruin his reputation and would be humiliated if his first hypothesis was right. He just kept his mouth shut.

Finally!!! After what seemed like years, they reached Toriel's house. They walked through the door that was unlocked. A sweet scent drifted through the air. It smelled like butterscotch and cinnamon. Sonic suddenly realized he hadn't eaten anything and his belly growled and complained when his brain figured out what the smell was. Shadow looked into the living room. There was a room beyond that where the smell came from. They assumed it was the kitchen. Toriel was sitting in a rocking chair waiting for the delicious product in the oven to finish baking.

"Hey Faker, I'm going to go explore the house. Coming?" asked Shadow. He knew that Sonic wasn't going to get that. He was too busy trying to find a way to appease his empty stomach. Shadow grabbed a hold of Sonic's ear and dragged him down the hallway.

The last room was under renovations. The room next to it was Toriel's room. Shadow went snooping through her stuff. Sonic tried to stop him, but it was no good. After looking through a plant book, he figured out that the plant in the hallway was known as a water sausage. He also looked through her diary expecting to find something interesting to read. However...

"IT'S A BOOK FULL OF KNOCK-KNOCK JOKES!!!" Shadow yelled. Sonic's hand was over his mouth in an instant. Shadow closed the diary. He didn't get why Toriel was so into knock-knock jokes. He told himself that it wasn't important. He moved on to the next room.

The next room was actually rather nice. There were two beds and new shoes of many different sizes, and, not to mention, NO TV!! :D No. That's actually quite horrible. Shadow actually thought that the room was a little boring.

Sonic looked at the bed. He wanted to fall asleep so bad. His stomach grumbled again. He figured he could eat what was in the oven after he had a quick nap. He approached the bed to the left side of the room next to a brown, wooden dresser. He flopped onto the mattress and allowed his face to melt into the feather pillow. He pulled the blanket over him and was out in mere seconds. Shadow never knew Sonic was the fastest at falling asleep as well.

"Well, the bed does sound comforting... And... Well, I'm sure that Toriel won't mind. I guess a nap will do me some good," Shadow said to himself.

Turns out, the bed was so soft that he thought it was silk! The thought of closing his eyes was so tempting that he couldn't resist. Just as Sonic did, he fell asleep.

Sonic yawned. He sat up and looked around. What time was it? It was even darker than it was before. Shadow was still asleep. A wondrous scent was charming his stomach at once. Just on the floor by his bed was a piece of pie. It was butterscotch cinnamon pie. A slice was by Shadow's bed as well. Toriel must've left it there for them.

"Shadow, Toriel is the nicest goat me or you will ever meet. She gives us a room for free, she teaches us the ways of this world without killing or hurting us like Flowey, and she even bakes us a pie. Why don't you trust her?

There was a pause. Shadow sat up in his bed as well. Sonic glanced at the hedgehog's thoughtful face.

"Faker, believe me, or not, I actually do trust her. It's just, I didn't want to admit it."

"Why not?"

"I wanted to make sure that she wasn't another Flowey..."

Sonic stood up and smiled. "You know, if everybody didn't give anybody any trust at all, we wouldn't have any friends would we?"