John groaned, blinking blearily up at the sky. The green light and the burning sensation in his back made his eyes water. He sat up slowly, the sharp black gravel that had been digging harshly into his back crunching beneath him. One raw hand came up to grip his throbbing head. Ow, shit. Note to self: Propelling yourself upside down and backwards through unfamiliar territory? Not the best idea. Before he had a chance to get a handle on his surroundings, a scratchy snarl pierced his ears, sending him instinctively into panic mode. The wind reacted automatically, as if it protected him of its own free will, obscuring his scent and any further sound as he scrambled back against one of the remaining buildings. He briefly shimmered in and out of visibility, flashing from solid to wind in his panic. A million possible terrible things crossed his mind as he settled on invisibility and peered out into the wide rubble field. He was surprised by what he saw.
It wasn't a giant beast or one of the Baroness' agents, or anything that he'd been expecting. Instead, it seemed to be a humanoid being, shorter than he was, with black hair just as messy, and odd gray skin. There was something orange on its head, peaking up though the loose hood of its long and tattered dark brown cloak. John was almost a hundred percent certain this was a troll. A bit of excitement sparked. He knew what trolls were, of course, but he'd never met one, and he knew almost nothing about them. They were supposed to be dangerous, but according to the Baroness, everything she didn't like was dangerous. You could never really know the truth of something unless you checked it out yourself. So, unable to resist the pull of curiosity, not that he was really trying to, he stealthily floated after the troll when it walked away.
John was pretty sure the troll was a boy. He just sort of looked . . . male? Not that he was all that familiar with the gender identification of trolls, but calling him "he" seemed better than "it." Initially the troll walked so swiftly John had to fly up above him in his invisible gusts of wind to keep from losing track of him, but eventually he slowed to a stroll. John took the opportunity to drop onto the nearest building and lay down flat, releasing his wind cloak, and peering over the edge. The troll was staring up, watching the sky with glassy orange and black eyes. John blinked and turned his head up, lifting a hand to shield his eyes from the low intensity of the green sun. There wasn't anything especially spectacular about the sky at the moment; it was relatively calm and only slightly cloudy. Personally, he thought the sky would look much prettier if it were blue or orange. This time of year, the yellow-green tone looked almost sickly. The only time it looked truly pretty was when the sun was going down, when the light would hit the clouds in just the right way and outline them in every color of the rainbow. He smiled, losing himself in his thoughts until the noise from below caught his attention again.
John turned his head down, pulling himself farther over the edge to peer down at the commotion. Several other trolls had moved into the alley way, and all of them were much taller than the lone troll he'd been following. He couldn't hear any of the conversation, but it didn't look like they were getting along. He leaned down even further, risking discovery in an effort to catch their conversation, and quite suddenly one of the larger trolls spun around and slammed their fist into the young troll's face. His stomach dropped like a stone and without a moment's hesitation he launched himself off of the roof. He stopped in midair, floating several feet above the ground, and sent the attacker flying with a wave of his arm. He saw the smaller troll stumble, but didn't give him attention for long.
Another of the trolls lunged for him, and he deflected the attack by knocking his aggressor through a wall. He skimmed over the female troll, because it wasn't right to hit women of any species unless you had to, and frowned at the remaining member of the group. The troll shook his head and held his hands up, indicating he wanted nothing to do with this mess.
Satisfied the attackers had been neutralized, but not for long, he dropped lightly back on his feet and spun to face the troll in distress. He seemed to be in a state of mild shock, but they didn't have time for that. John took him by the hand, and bolted. He didn't have a destination in mind or any idea of what direction they were going, but he ran as fast as his companion would allow, boosting their speed with wind as much as he could. As long as they were away, it didn't matter where they ended up, right? It took several minutes for the stranger to snap out of his daze, but when he did, he made his voice heard. John glanced back at him, gave the landscape a sweeping glance, and made a sudden turn behind a crumbling wall.
He stopped on a time, not affected in the least by the run. The troll, however, nearly tumbled head first into the gravel as he skidded ungracefully to a stop. John took a moment to eagerly examine the foreign boy. He was a good five or so inches shorter than John, with short messy hair that looked like a bed-head. The orange blurs on his head turned out to be short, candy-corn shaped horns in three different shades. His brown cloak was tattered, with the occasional patch, and it was clear he was fairly low on the social spectrum. He quite suddenly straightened, a determined glare on his face that flashed quickly to a startled expression. His eyes were a shocking shade of red, one that reminded John of his bro, who hid his own eyes behind a pair of dark shades. One hand was pressed to his face, likely guarding a broken nose. John realized he was staring, and broke into a wide and friendly smile, holding his hand out.
"Hello! My name is John Egbert, what's yours?"
The troll stared blankly at the offered appendage, until his face was overtaken by a scowl, as if somehow offended by the fact the human existed. He swatted the proposed shake away with his free hand, stepping around John and storming away. John was confused by the reaction, had he done something to upset the other? Hey, he'd just saved his life; he should at least get a thank you!
"Hey, where are you going?"
"Home." the troll said shortly, not bothering to turn around or pause.
John watched him for a moment, noting that the other did not seem very friendly at all. He also seemed angry, and a bit dangerous. And small and injured and alone. If he was smart he'd go home and forget he ever even saw the troll, before he landed himself in serious trouble. Then again, he'd never been known as the smart kid in the group. So rather than return to the relative safety of his home behind the veil, he followed the troll to his.
So sorry for the delay. I was distracted by an unrelated fantroll project. I was going to make this longer, but I decided the next part should be in Karkat's POV.