A small explanation: I can sort of picture there not always being enough grubs for all the lusii to take home, so Crabdad had come to the cavers quite a few times before and left empty-handed. And I almost wanted to put that Crabdad debated on eating little Karkat, but that would have been weird. ._.
The Longwinded Biography of a God
Chapter 3 ...in which Karkat meets his lusus.
The next time Karkat awoke, he was still in the hole. There was a light shining into it, which presumably was what woke him. Looking up, Karkat saw that the creature was back, peering inside the hole. There was an outstreched hand just beneath the small opening. Karkat blinked. Was it helping him?
He cautiously climbed from the hole and into the hand, fearing that it was some kind of trap, that the now decidedly female creature was going to kill him if he made a wrong step. She didn't, of course, and instead held him close to her flat chest, cooing and scratching his head. Karkat produced an involuntary purr, burying his head in the soft fabric of her shirt. She began walking, taking him somewhere, away from the horrible place she had kept him in.
Karkat had to blink several times as she stepped into a brightly lit room. There were loads of large white creatures around, all holding, or in some cases struggling to hold, a brightly colored grub. Most of the creatures were leaving, the grub in their possession either asleep or wailing rather pathetically. Karkat noticed that there weren't any that didn't have a grub, as far as he could see, which saddened him for reasons he couldn't quite understand.
The creature passed all of the white beings, instead continuing into another room, and another, until Karkat had lost track of how many rooms they had passed. She was still petting him, though, so he wasn't too worried.
Eventually, she came to a halt in front of a boulder. This struck Karkat as odd, but he didn't make any noise other than his continuous purring. The boulder moved suddenly, revealing another large white creature. Karkat paid it no mind, though. He was getting way too into this petting thing. Suddenly, the petting stopped. What was it with these people and not letting him enjoy himself?
Karkat was held out in the air. He writhed and squirmed in her hands, as he was very uncomfortable with the situation. The white creature held out what looked to be a pair of pincers, and he was carefully set inside. Karkat squirmed even more, wanting to stay with the nice lady who petted him. No such luck.
The white creature let out a screech, bringing Karkat up to eye level. All four of its eyes looked down on him with curiosity, and Karkat looked up with the same expression. The female said something, and the white creature screeched again and began to float off.
Karkat let out a displeased squeal, reaching out for the girl with his stubby little legs. She simply smiled and waved, then turned and went back the way she came, leaving Karkat with the terrifying white creature.
The thing let out a few clicks and a screech, then rubbed a claw along the top of Karkat's head. He calmed a little, pausing in his desperate cries to look up at the thing. There was unbridled joy in its four large eyes, and what almost looked like sadness. Karkat, a little startled, just sort of settled in the thing's claws, hoping it didn't crush him to death in his sleep.
The large white creature floated through the halls at a steady pace, not even pausing when it came to split hallways. It must have come here often, if it knew the halls this well. Karkat suddenly found himself outside. The sky was dark and filled with stars, the grass a crisp-looking green, even though it had been repeatedly trampled on by god knows what. The entrance to the caverns was standing ominously behind them, and Karkat wanted nothing more than to get away.
As if hearing his thoughts, the white creature began floating down a well-worn path that led through a series of forests and small towns, not that Karkat would notice. He would be too busy learning, sleeping, eating, and growing to notice.
The creature, the lusus, as Karkat had finally decided to call it, wanted nothing more than for the grub to mature, so it didn't have to carry it all the damn time. No matter how cute grubs were, once they started growing, they became ridiculously heavy. Though with a grub as adorable as this, the lusus wouldn't really mind getting to cuddle before it matured.