Waking up before Karkat, Dave realized that two things needed to happen. One, Karkat needed to move his head because one of his horns was digging into Dave's side. Two, they needed to get back to camp before the others woke up and realised they were missing. Gently removing himself from Karkat's octopus-like hold, He's a cuddler, huh. Who knew? Dave stood and fixed his glasses, which had become skewed in the night. He stretched causing his back to crack, aw fuck, note to self, sleeping only on the ground equals a stiff back.

"Hey, grey and gritty. Rise and shine." Dave yawned and nudged Karkat's side with his foot.

Karkat just rolled over and pulled the cape tighter around himself, and bringing the cape above his head.

Dave huffed and kicked him a little harder. "Hey. C'mon we have to get back."

"Izb'ight." Came the grumbled reply. Dave cocked an eyebrow, Was that english?

"Dude, I didn't get any of that." Dave reached down to pull the cape off of Karkat.

"It's BRIGHT." Karkat growled as he gripped the cape tighter, keeping his head firmly under the cloth.

"Yeah. It's morning, the birds are singing, the sun is….oh," Dave finally caught on. Nocturnal. Ok no big thing, we'll just give him a hood.

"Yeah. 'Oh', just lead me to some shade or something, fucktard. My eyes are burning." Karkat sounded miserable.

Dave helped him stand and led him to the shade of the trees, all the while Karkat had the cape over his head.

"Ok, just. Um" Dave tried to move the cape from Karkat's head to put it into some position to block out the light but the troll hissed as soon as the sunlight came into view, "you know what, here." Dave took off his sunglasses, and put them into Karkat's hand, "wear these while we figure out how to fix this."

Karkat silently accepted Dave's glasses and allowed him to take the cape off of this head and together they arranged it into a covering that left all of Karkat's face in shadow, as well as hiding his horns.

"There. Better?" Dave asked, once they were done. He rubbed his eyes, damn it's bright without sunglasses.

"Yes. Take these, I don't know how you see out of them." In truth Karkat would rather have kept them on but he could see how uncomfortable Dave was with having his glasses off. He gave the glasses back to Dave, and they both looked around as they heard shouting from close by.

"Whoops, guess they woke up. Race you to camp." Dave said and he turned and started to run.

Karkat growled and quickly followed, making sure to hold onto his hastily made hood to keep the sun from getting in his eyes.

Arthur woke up and looked towards the two strangers. Or, he would have if where the two had been the night before wasn't empty. He shot up into a sitting position, and yelled for everyone to get up and start looking for the two teenagers.

"Merlin! Get up, they've escaped!" Just as Arthur was telling his knights to go and look for the two he heard a voice pitched with annoyance quickly approaching.

He looked towards the loud voice, and motioned for everyone to surround that area. Everyone drew their swords and got into a much practiced fighting position.

The 'knight' came through the tree line first and simply nodded at them in greeting, seemingly unworried about the armed knights. His grey skinned 'friend' could be heard noisily making his way through the brush a few feet behind them. Arthur noticed that the cape that had been on Dave was now wrapped around Karkat's head in a makeshift hood.

"DAVE I swear to Gog! Slow the fuck down, you DIPSHIT!" He came out and pushed 'Dave' out of the way. Arthur saw the deep scowl and could almost feel the agitation coming off of Karkat. He shook himself and tried to look intimidating, straightening up his posture and squaring his shoulders.

"Where have you been." His voice remained steady even as he resisted the urge to fidget as Karkat's eyes locked on his from under the hood. in the light he could see their yellow colour, which made the grey irises stand out and look threatening when paired with Karkat's ever present glare.

"Ask that one," Karkat growled, pointing towards Merlin. He matched Arthur's posture and narrowed his eyes, "he saw us last night."

Arthur turned towards Merlin, furious that his idiot servant would leave unknown threats alone in the night. Merlin refused to meet his eyes, staring instead into the dense forest around them as he moved from foot to foot.

"They were star gazing! You always tell me about respect, I figured I'd leave them!" Merlin's voice was pitched higher as he tried to defend himself. The next part was a grumbled,"Besides they're here so it's not a big deal."

Arthur opened his mouth to yell again when Dave's voice interrupted him.

"Dude, calm down," he gestured to Karkat," He couldn't sleep."

Karkat joined in, "Where would we go exactly?"

When Arthur faltered in his response, Karkat just cocked an eyebrow, "Exactly. Now if you fucks don't mind, we would like to go to your house...?" He looked at Dave who nodded before continuing," and find out where we are and how we can get back."

Karkat pushed through the line of knights, not even appearing phased by the weapons in everyone's hands. He walked towards the fire and sat down.

"What do you eat here?" He directed the question at no one in particular, "I haven't eaten since the meteor."

The group had decided to head back to Camelot shortly after eating. The knights and Merlin were surprised to learn that neither Dave or Karkat knew how to ride horses. They had to Double up with Gwaine, and Percival in order to ensure the party make it in under a day.

Being on horseback for half a day -as it turned out- was boring as fuck. Boring as fuck, and slow, in Dave's humble opinion. He almost fell asleep but caught himself before he could fall. The knight he was sharing with -Gwaine, Dave remembered- Seemed amused by his lack of riding knowledge, seeing as how he had to hide a laugh behind his hand when Dave couldn't get on the horse without help.

The whole time Dave was thinking; I can fly. Why the fuck are we doing this when I can just fly and meet them. Fucking, backwards ass, magic hating….What the fuck is that.

The citadel came into view, effectively cutting off Dave's internal monologue. It looks like cinder-fucking-ella. He thought What with it's gleaming white stones, and tall towers. Jegus. This is real I'm actually going to Camelot, holy fuck. Ok, Dave, calm down. He covered his almost squeal of excitement with a cough that had Gwaine checking to see if he was ok.

"You alright there?" The knight asked more out of politeness than anything.

"I've never seen a castle like that before." Dave said truthfully.

"Yeah, i was impressed to the first time around." Gwaine patted him on the shoulder. "It looks bigger than it is, don't worry."

Dave kept his focus on the castle that was slowly growing bigger, thinking to himself that Gwaine must be lying.

Karkat had pulled the hood tighter around his body. He was sweaty, but the sun burned his sensitive eyes. When he caught sight of the castle his breath caught.

Flashes of mandatory history lessons came from his memory. Sea-dwellers who culled low-bloods and mutants like him. Castles that promised torture, and cruel unspeakable acts. Emperors and Empresses that felt superior just because of their blood. He shrunk further in on himself, and his breathing picked up. Oh, fuck. I can't do this. They're going to kill us! He began to shake.

Percival had noticed his riding companions change of demeanor, from his quick breathing and shaking the knight assumed Karkat was scared of the castle for some reason. He tapped the troll's elbow softly, taking note of the flinch it caused.

He leaned down and lowered his voice, "I don't know why you're afraid but no harm will come to you in Camelot. I promise you."

His words seemed to have the desired effect as Karkat nodded and his shaking lessened, although he still kept a defensive posture, ready to flee or fight at any sign danger.

The lower town was just in sight when Arthur called a halt. He turned his horse towards Karkat and Dave. Gwaine and Percival had been talking to each other and had pulled up to ride close together as they usually did.

"Ok look. One of you is clearly some kind of beast…." Arthur stopped when he noticed Dave's look of unease, as well as the horses moving away from Karkat and Percival. Their own horse was acting very strange, stomping in place with eyes wide. He then took notice of the growl emitting from the troll.

Karkat had had enough of being treated like he was lesser than by this colossal dick. When he spoke his voice snapped like a whip "Just because I'm not pink or human doesn't give you the right to talk about me that way. I'm sentient. I come from a society more advanced, and tougher than yours. I will not hesitate to beat your ass into the ground. So shut the fuck up with all this "beast", and "magic creature" talk because I'm done with it. I'm a troll from Alternia. Not a troll from some forest that you can just waltz into," He took a shaking breath, closing his eyes. hiding his blood in shame, never going outside, learning to fight alone, it's not Safe. Karkat remembered his fears before sburb. When he opened them again they were cold, and dark, "I won't be treated like I'm lesser by you or anyone else ever again."

Stunned by the outburst Arthur and the knights just stared at Karkat. The troll didn't break eye contact from Arthur until the prince looked away first.

"Ah. Ok, So you fucked up. Now that that's out of the way we should get moving because I really want to see this castle." Dave kept his tone light attempting to break the tension, "Besides we have to find the others, right Karkat?"

"Yeah. Whatever." Was Karkat's grumbled reply. Dave elbowed Gwaine.

"And King Uther will want to know about the bandits." Arthur looked at the knight before nodding and giving a silent signal to move forward.

Once the party had started moving, the silence that settled over them was awkward and tense. However there was an unspoken question amongst the knights and Merlin; What others?

Please leave a review and have a good day/week c: