You lead Karkat back to the barn after another day of training, sweaty and tired, the cooling afternoon air a relief on your damp skin. You don't turn your back on Karkat, though you don't think he would attack you. Not after last night.
You still can't believe he can speak Domunus. You'd always thought troll's were animalistic; that speaking was beyond their mental capacities. You'd read that they chirped and clicked to one another, but you'd always thought it was just like birds singing or wolves howling; animalistic communication. Now you're starting to think it might be their own form of intelligent communication; just a foreign language. You'd ask Karkat about it, except Bro is here, and you don't think he'd react positively to knowing Karkat can talk. He views the trolls as animals, and he's happy with seeing them that way.
This whole 'trolls being smart' idea is messing with your head. Because you'd also always thought trolls were on the same mental level as horses or dogs or whatever. And now that you've learned they aren't - well, it changes things.
You don't mean that trolls being smart suddenly makes it wrong to shove them around - it is wrong, but it would still be wrong if they were just as smart as dogs. You don't understand why Bro's cruel to trolls but good to his animals - it might be because the animals work with him, and the slaves against him. Or maybe because the animals are just his animals, while the trolls are from the lands Domunus conquers and fights; like they're his enemies, or rivals.
Either way, it's not right. When you said trolls being smart changes things, you aren't talking about the intelligence changing your views on abuse of trolls. No, you're talking about how it affects your relationship status with your troll - Karkat.
Before, you saw him as a owner sees a pet; kinda like a dog. A smart dog, but still just like an animal. You respected him, but as a being of lesser intelligence. Now that you know he thinks more like you than you'd ever imagined, you're seeing him more as an equal. Someone that can understand things to the same extent you do.
You walk into the barn with Karkat, the soft ground of the field giving way to the hard-packed dirt of the barn floor. Bro starts chaining his troll in, but it feels wrong to do that to Karkat. You stand for a minute, thinking. An idea pops up.
"Hey Bro, didn't you say there were some jumps for horses around here?"
"Yeah; some in one of the empty end stalls. Why?"
"I sort of wanted to take Tasha over some; you taught me to jump her when I was younger, remember? I was thinking about it the other day and I missed it," you lie. You'd liked jumping with your horse Tasha, but that wasn't why you were staying behind.
"Sure thing, lil' man. You need a crash course, or you got it?"
"I got it."
"Ok. Just put the jumps back when you're done, and don't forget to lock up your troll for the night", Bro replies, sliding his troll's stall closed and heading out.
"No problem. See you, Bro."
"See ya, kid." Bro calls back, swinging a leg over his own horse and trotting off.
As soon as he's out of sight, you turn to Karkat.
"You wanna go for a walk?"
Catz: I forgot I uploaded Chapter 10.
I've been reading Homestuck all day and just got to the famous "drawing scene" of act 6. I figured that was a Dave and Karkat interaction milestone worthy of putting to text~
Hope you enjoyed, my beautiful skittles, and leave a review!
Catz outski *ollies out*