Chapter 1

Flowers for your thoughts?

Your alarm clock buzzed on your nightstand, signaling a new day of your life. But you groan a little, twisting your body away from the sound and hide your head under the thin pillow. You can still hear the buzzing even if your pillow muffled the sound slightly. You sigh, trying to get a few more minutes of rest in. But before that can happen, you feel your blanket tugged off your body.

Knowing what will happen next, you brace yourself. Sure enough, you feel weight on your legs, feeling something bob up and down on them. You keep your eyes shut, trying very hard to ignore it for as long as you can. You stifle back a groan when another weight was added to your legs, bouncing along with the first weight. You take your arms and placed them on top the pillow, sighing heavily into the fabric.

"Come on! Come on!"

"Wake up you silly!"

Even with the pillow over your head, their voices still manage to reach your ears. You do nothing, just lying there being still as possible.

"Silly goose! Wake up!"

"Yeah! Time to get up!"

You let out a loud fake snore, hoping it would give them the hint to leave you alone. It doesn't work.

"Come on silly goose! Nana says you need to get up!"

"Nana says she making pancakes this morning!"

The bouncing stops, but the weight crawls up to your lower torso, making it hard for you to breathe.

"She says that she's putting in your favorite."

"Blueberries and chocolate chips."

The thought of your two favorite items in pancakes makes your mouth water a little. A growl emanates from your stomach. With a sigh, you give up trying to get some more sleep and sit up in bed, reaching for the alarm clock. After missing it a few times, the thing finally shuts up.

"Good morning!"

"Morning silly goose!"

You stretch out your arms, feeling you muscles tense slightly before letting them flop to your sides. Taking your right arm, you part your black uncombed hair slightly so that you can see the ones responsible for waking you up.

Two identical short blond haired boys smile eagerly at you, the one on your left leg wears a yellow and red striped shirt and the one sitting on your right leg wears a blue and green shirt. You smile, reaching out and pulled the boys into a tight hug. They giggle and squirm in your arms but you hold onto them tightly, your smile only growing bigger by the second. They know you're only playing with them, you've done this for over four years now with them that it was like second nature to you.

"Noooooo!" The yellow and red twin whined out playfully as you nuzzle his head.

"We've been captured!" The blue and green twin giggled, bursting out in laughter when you do a small raspberry against his neck.

If only you could laugh along.

After a while of playing, you release them, smiling to yourself as they tumbled back into the mattress of you bed, swinging your legs out carefully to the side and eased up out of bed. You hear the twins jump off the mattress, landing on the floor on their feet, and soon, tiny hands grasp each of your hand. You give a warm smile to each twin by your side as they smile up at you.

"Come on silly goose!" The one on your right is practically hopping with eagerness, pulling on your hand.

"Yeah! Breakfest is gonna get cold!" The one on your left exclaims, pulling on your hand, hoping to drag you along. Even at five years old, he still manages to mess up a few words here and there at times.

Your smile grows warmly, allowing the twins to pull you along. You don't even have the heart to stop them so you can get dressed for the day. Not that it would matter today. Today is Saturday, which meant that there was no school today.

"OH! Wait!" The twin on your right, the blue and green one, suddenly exclaimed, letting your hand go suddenly. You and his twin watch as he runs to your dresser, grabbing the middle drawer and pulled it out far enough for him to reach in and search for something. You glance at the twin next to you. He shrugs, making a cute little sound. "Here!"

You look back at the other twin as he comes back, holding up a hand with something in it. "You almost forgot about this silly goose!" He holds up his hand, opening them to reveal a hair clip. A gasp of surprise leaves your mouth. That's right! How could you have forgotten? You take the hair clip taking a moment to look at them. It is a clip on hair clip, with a white heart directly in the middle of it. Smiling, you ruffle the boy's hair and clip the hair clip in to your hair on the left side of your head, just as it has always gone on. You can comb your hair later, right now breakfast awaits you three.

Your last breakfast together with them.

The twins smile up at you.

"There's silly goose!" The blue and green shirt twin giggled.

You'll never hear his sweet laugh ever again.

"Yeah! No way you're you without the hair clip!" The yellow and red twin smiled, winking at you with his emerald eyes with a special shine in them that no one could hold or break.

You could the shine in his eyes fading.

They hug your legs, looking up at you with admiration. You smile fondly at them, placing a hand on each head. It was their smiles that got you going each day. No more smiles from the twins. Their happiness and eagerness to see you each day and every day. Can never see them again. Their energy that kept you on your toes. Falling. And the utter joy that they brought you since they day they came to live here, smiling with sunshine in their faces. There was no forgiving yourself is you ever saw either one of the twins cry, but you knew that would never happen as long as you were there for them.

You can see their tears, reaching out to you, mouths open wide and fear mixed with terror on their faces.

You reach out to them, tears going out your eyes, opening your mouth. You want to shout for them, say their names, reach for them, comfort them, snuggle with them, and hold them close to you as much as possible and never let go.

You can't.

You never said a word in your whole life.

You're falling.

You can only reach out to them, shouting out a silent scream, tears falling out your eyes as you fall.

The last thing you see are their crying face as they watch you fall.

And then… darkness.

"…"

"…"

"…e …"

"H…!"

"He…! Co… …n!"

"…ak…p!"

"HEY!"

With a jolt and a gasp, you suddenly sit up, clutching your chest over where your pounding heart is, thudding loudly against your chest that you can feel every vein in your body pulsing at rapid pace. Air goes in and out of your lungs as you breathe heavily trying to calm yourself as best you could. You're hardily aware of anything at the moment except for your knowledge that you suddenly woke up and your heart is pounding fiercely for some reason.

Once your heart slows down a bit, taking in a final big gulp of air and letting it out slowly, your head starts to clear up… and suddenly realize something isn't right. The first thing you notice is that you're not on your bed, or on any furniture. You're on the ground, splayed out like a limp toy on the ground. The second thing you notice is how dark this place is. Glancing around to your sides, you're very aware that you're in some sort of cave. At least, that's what you think it is. The walls that you could see in the light were made of stone and looked to be smooth with edges made by time and nature.

Wait a moment… light?

You glance up. Above you, a light shines down at you from a faraway distance, so far that it's only a small circle far above you. Slowly, pulling your hand away from your chest, you hold it out above you, covering your view of the light with only small rays pouring through your fingers. You blink your eyes slowly, putting your hand down but continue to gaze up at the light. Something… didn't seem right.

Light, cave… something wasn't fitting into place. You're in a cave, or maybe it's a hole? Maybe. You're sitting in a hole, you're heart was pounding after suddenly waking up for some reason. How did you get here? Why did you suddenly wake up to find yourself here? When did you get here? Why were you here?

"Hi there!"

You flinch, looking away from the light and look around. That's strange, for a moment you thought you heard a—

"So glad that you've finally woken up! I thought that you were dead!"

Your body kicks into gear and you stand up. The moment you stand however, you suddenly fall to your knees, letting out a small pained grunt. Your body feels terrible and weak.

"Oh golly! You shouldn't try and stand up so quickly! After all you did have a nasty fall there."

Nasty fall? What were they talking about? Who was talking anyway? You look around, this time you look behind yourself. All you can see is more of the cave and a large patch of deep red flowers, some of which you are sitting on right now. You take a moment to stare at them, and recall how little light there is for them to grow.

"Good thing these flowers were here to cushion your fall!"

That voice, it sounded so close.

"Otherwise."

Like it was right next to you.

"You would have died!"

…

You look down at your side.

A flower, which happened to be a small blue rose, stares up at you with a smile on their face. "Howdy!" It chirped, waving a leaf at you. "I'm Petals! Petals the blue rose!"

…

"…"

…

"…"

…

"…"

…

"… You're not dreaming this kid."

You jump away, scouting as far as possible away from the rose till your back slams against the hard cold rock wall. Limbs instinctively pull close to your body, hands trying to grip the wall, eyes locked on the flower as it watches you.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting how easy new comers can scare. Especially the kids…" The flower squints its eyes at you, making what you assume what looked like a frowned face. "… You, are a kid… right?"

Your mouth is practically hanging open, wide enough that butterflies could fly into it.

"… not much of a talker, are you?"

Slowly, you close your mouth, opening it up again at just the same speed and close it again. For a full minute you keep opening and closing your mouth repeatedly, mind black and numb, eyes only focused on the flower as it watches you. Its face starts to show signs of boredom and impatiens.

"… Ssssssoooooo." It finally talks, probably out of boredom for waiting for you to say something. "As I said before, I'm Petals the blue rose." It, Petals, points one of their leaves at themselves, putting on a small smile. "And I'm here to welcome you to the Underworld! Or as some of us prefer to call it, the Undersky!" They move their eyes off you and look sideways, their voice dropping low to a mumble that you barely hear them. "Undersky, typical. Who would name this place Undersky? Yesh." Their eyes were back on you a moment later. "Anyway! I'm sure you're very confused right? About this? About me? About how you got here and why?"

Slowly you nod your head, relaxing a bit. So far you were very skeptical of this flower, but so far they hadn't done anything but talk to you. And if… Petals, had some answers to your questions, maybe they could help you out?

"Well, I'll be honest with you. I don't really understand a few things here myself. The first being is that you fell from waaaaay up there!" They lifted their head up and you follow their gaze, looking up at the far away light you were just looking at moments ago. "To down here! And I gotta say, not most people survive falls like that." Slowly, you look back at the flower with confusion all over your face. You fell? From that height? Impossible! Surly you would have remembering falling or gained an injury or some—

Oh, wait.

Your body felt terrible.

Mostly in your back.

Slowly, you push yourself to stand up, using the wall behind you for support as you do so.

Petals watches you carefully, whether in concern or awareness, you're not really sure. They just stay still and watch you.

With one last push, you're on your feet, though unsteady and in a bit of pain, you're standing. A smile crosses your face, feeling the accomplishment of your task swell in your chest. You look at Petals, seeing them tapping their leaves together like a clapping motion.

"Nicely done! Guess you're not too badly injured then huh?"

You shrug a little, wincing slightly in pain. It wasn't too bad of pain, but you knew you still were injured slightly and had to be careful for a while.

"Anyway, back to the questions. I already answered one of them, so it would be only fair if you answered one of mine!"

You tilt your head a little, but nodded. It seemed only fair to do so.

"I'll make this an easy one for you." They bent up and down, looking like they were bouncing in place. "What's your eye color?"

You blink at them.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Petals chuckles a bit in what you can assume is embarrassment. "I have this thing with eye color. It's a… bad habit that I can't seem to shake."

Slowly, you nod.

"So, would you be kind enough to let me see your eyes?"

You ponder a bit as Petals stares up at you expectantly.

Will you let Petals see your eyes?

Thinking a bit, you think it would be a kind thing to do and let them look at your eyes. Bending a bit, you hold back some of your black locks, letting Petals see your eyes.

"Wow! They're pretty!" Petals complimented, smiling bigger. "Thank you so much child!"

You smile at them, standing back up.

"Now I'll answer another question." Petals winks at you, doing another bouncing motion with their stem. "You're probably wondering what I am, right?"

You nod.

"Well, clearly I'm a flower." They point out in a matter of fact tone. "But I'm also a monster!"

Confusion crosses your face. A monster? As in sharp teeth? Blood red eyes? Ugly skin? Long jagged claws?

"… Juuuudging by the look on your face, you don't seem to get it."

You shrug.

Petals sighs, motioning you to sit down with one of their leaves. You comply and sit cross legged in front of them. "This isn't my first time explaining this, so please excuse my tone when I explain." They said in a slight monotone. "Clear your head of any thoughts of monsters you may be thinking about right now. Down here, you may see weird or strange things, but let me tell you something, none of those things you may have heard or seen about monsters doesn't compare to down here." They motion one leaf towards the light before tapping the tip to the ground, eyes never leaving them. "We monsters come in various forms and shapes. Some recognizable, some not some much. But let's just say we all have one thing in common… magic." They wink at you.

Your face scrunches a little. Magic? You hardly believed in such thing, even when you were very young.

"That's right! Magic! It's in all monsters down here! Without the magic following through us, we'd be dust in a matter of seconds!"

You shake your head, not believing them.

"Don't believe me?"

You nod.

"Figures. Should've expected that." They shook their 'head', sighing loudly. "Well, I would explain what magic is, buuut I'm no expert when it comes to that type of field. Now the royal scientists, ho ho, they're magic knowledge FANATICS." Their face scrunches a little, casting their gaze off to the side. "… If you can stand them talking for hours about anything science related that is… and avoid becoming one of their science projects." Petals tilts their 'head' down slightly, dropping the volume of their voice that you have trouble hearing what they say. "Especially that no good spider. What's his problem with glaring at everyone he sees? Shesh!"

You watch them in confusion as they keep on mumbling under their breathe, only picking up a few words here and there as they talked. As much as you would like to stay and listen to them mumble, you can't help but feel that you needed to be somewhere. Somewhere… important.

"ANYWAY!" Petals suddenly shouted, gaining your attention again. "I just remembered that I have to be somewhere! I promised him how to prefect this battle move that he's been lacking on, and I'm not the one to back down on promises."

A frown crosses your face. They were leaving you? Just like that?

"Aww, don't look at me like that." Petals looks at you sadly. "I know this is sudden and rude, but I mean it when I say that I never break a promise." Their eyes glance to the side. "Especially promises that I make for him. Heh." They look back at you again. "But, hey, if you ever need me, I'll be around. Just look for a patch of any type of flowers and I'll be there." They wink at you, and before you know it, they disappear into the ground.

You sit there for a moment, thinking about what had just played out just moments ago. It suddenly dawns on you that you have fallen down a hole, somehow managed to survive the fall, woken up and found a talking flower, and for some reason you can't find any reason why you're down here in the first place. Sighing heavily, you brush your left hand through your hair. You blink a bit when your fingers hit against something in your hair. Carefully taking it out, you bring it in front of your face.

It's the hair clip with the white heart on it. Your special trademark that you never went a day without it on because it was important to you. Tracing a thumb over the top of the heart, you smile sadly. At least you didn't lose this when you fell, otherwise it would be hard to tell the twin—

Your grip tightens on the clip as a memory crashes down on you.

The twins.

The fall.

Their faces.

The height which you had fallen.

Everything comes into place as your heart rate quickens. You, a young kid, had fallen into the forbidden place where legend has it that monsters were sealed away underground. You have fallen into the realm of monsters. Monsters that you were sure to attack you because you were a human and humans were the sole reason why they were trapped down here.

Your body begins to shake. This was bad! You're probably going to die down here and no one will remember you, or morn you, or even think that existed, and the twins would have a hard time adjusting living without you and—

You stop shaking.

The twins.

No one was taking care of the twins!

They depended on you for almost everything!

You were their sole light to the dark cruel world up above!

They needed you!

You had to get to them!

Suddenly filled with energy, you put the clip back in your hair on the left side where it always goes on, jump to your feet, glancing up at the hole high above you. The walls were too smooth and steep for you to climb up, and there was no doubt that you wouldn't have the energy to climb it all the way. You clench your teeth. There has to be a way!

"Hey!"

You jump a little surprise, looking down at the flower bed. You were almost glad to see Petals there looking up at you.

"Silly me. I almost forgot! You humans don't like to stay in one place for a long time. Believe me, I would know. It's horribly boring and dual." They twist their body, pointing off to a direction with a leaf. "Just head in that direction and you'll come to the entrance of the ruins."

You look to where their pointing, spotting a hole in the wall that was at least ten feet tall and eleven feet wide. How you had managed to miss that in the first place is beyond you, but at least that was start on how to get out of here.

"Just follow the path and you're sure to find your way."

You look down at Petals and smile at them, nodding your head in thanks.

They look back up at you and…

You frown in confusion. That look on their face. They were smiling, though it didn't hold that energy in it as before and their eyes weren't helping. It was almost as if they were smiling at you in a sad manor.

"…"

…

"… heh. It's… funny."

You tilt your head, your face looked even more confused now.

"I've seen this before. Heh. A human falls, they try to leave…" Their face slowly falls, and you notice that their body is shaking. "… and they never make it." Their voice cracks. "…" They look at you with a sudden fire in their eyes. "Promise. Promise that… that you'll be different from them. Just… please turn out like them okay?"

You're taken a bit back by this, but you smile and nod your head. If there was one thing about you that you knew yourself to be, it was that you never seemed to give up, no matter what in any way.

Petals takes a moment to keep looking at you till that sad smile returns. "Alright then. Just head into the ruins. I would give you some directions, but I can't. I've never been inside of the ruins before, the ground there is too tough for me to root through and the area is too cold for my body to stay there for long." They frown a bit. "And I bet the monsters that live there won't give you such a pleasant time to get through it either."

You bit your bottom lip. You figured as much.

"… Except…"

You raise a brow as a thoughtful look crosses Petals face.

"… Except… for the Ruins Keeper." A large smile breaks out across their face. "Yeah! The Ruins Keeper! They're sure to help you!"

A frown crosses your face. The Ruins Keeper? That… didn't sound too safe to you.

"I'm sure that they'll help you out of here in no time! I know them personally! I'll let them know of the situation that you have."

You shake your head. This really didn't seem like a good idea.

"Don't Worry!" Petals winks at you. "They've never harmed a human before! And there's no doubt that they would start now! Just look for the monster that comes to you with one of my petals with a white star on it! See ya!"

You can do nothing but watch Petals dive back into the ground, your hands instinctively shot out to somehow stop them, but it's far too late to stop them. You stay there, thinking about how you would do this. You could do as Petals suggested and go into the ruins and wait for this… Ruins Keeper to come get you, or you could go in and try to find your own way out.

Well, finding your own way would lead to many problems as one, you would have no clue on where to go, two, there were monsters in there that would probably give you a hard time, three, you don't like getting lost.

At.

All.

But waiting for the keeper to come get you, you couldn't help but feel that maybe putting your trust in them is a bad idea.

… But then again, Petals did say that they never harmed a human before and probably wouldn't start now. And you could easily avoid the other monsters since Petals said they would give the keeper one of their flower petals with a white star on it, so it would be easy to identify them with.

The more you thought about, the more it seemed that your option, even if you didn't like it much, was clear.

You had to go with the Ruins Keeper.

With a heavy sigh, you start walking to the exit, filled with DETERMINATION to trust this keeper and find a way back to the twins.