You kept your hands raised in front of you defensively as did the rest of your party. The ones before you were a bunch of weird guys dressed in over elaborate clothes. Seriously, who takes their time to embroider their clothing? You barely take the time to mend yours.
One of them, a woman with a tightly done bun and a very cold expression didn't hesitate to hold her spear a little to close for comfort to your neck. She then proceeded to say something to you in a very strange language that you had never heard before.
"What he fuck are you saying?!" you frowned, well aware of your situation but not willing to put up with bullshit you couldn't understand. She muttered something else and spat at your feet.
Her companion, a blond man with the stupidest hairstyle you'd seen in your life and the weirdest eye color to match, stopped looking at Gamzee like he was some oddity. Not that he wasn't.
He told something to her in that same language though his accent sounded a lot more different. Probably better than hers. She sneered at him and probably said something nasty but lowered her spear looking very annoyed.
He turned to you.
"Are you a Middle Eastern envoy by any chance?" the blond asked.
"Do we look like warriors to you?" you retorted dully. He looked you over.
"No, you look like a bunch of brats with the look of middle Easterns," he mused.
"So you held us at spear point for that?" Terezi piped up.
"Orders from the Lord, not my fault," he said carelessly. "He suspects the Empress is harboring them here, allowing for them to hide."
"What the fuck kind of stupid idea is that?!" you snapped.
"I just folllow orders, little man," he shrugged. He turned to his companion, speaking in that same language.
She gave you a passing look but glared at both Gamzee and Terezi before finally nodding her head. She said something to the blond and he agreed to whatever it was she said.
"To make up for the scare," the blond mused, "We'll take you to your destination."
"Thanks but no thanks," you scoff. The idea of walking around with strangely clothed
"Karkat, shut your mouth," Terezi sighed.
"But-"
"No buts!" she growled, then looked seriously at the blond. "We gladly accept the offer."
"Cool."
The trip was a lot faster than you would have expected, hell you were actually scared and maybe even a bit sorry for the poor horses that the rider was hitting mercilessly. You learned her name was Damara and although she was part of the Eastern Kingdom, she was terrible at her native language and her English was even more deplorable. Also, she hated horses but refused to let the blond, Dirk, drive.
"You can't beat them like that!" Dirk protested to which Damara laid a heavy string of poorly constructed insults. Dirk only frowned and repeated her chain with some corrections which made her frown.
"This is stupid," Terezi grumbled, though she looked rather fascinated by the strange Easterners. You couldn't agree more, well you could if you weren't busy nursing the nausea this stupid ride was giving you.
You tried to distract yourself, pushing aside the rolling hills slowly being replaced by rockier structures even taller than the one's you'd seen before. To achieve this, you decided to go over your history knowledge.
There are two existing kingdoms, previously there were three until the Empress decided she didn't like the strange people from the South and burned their kingdom to colorful ashes. The South now served as a black market and a hide away for pirates or home to some insane archeologists obsessed with the rich past of the fallen lands.
The Eastern Kingdom was rather secretive, though apparently not small in the least, expanding to the eastern end of the known sea. The kingdom is massive and is usually ruled by a male ruler which the Empress seems to dislike or maybe fear just a bit.
And lastly, there was your home where your loyalties lied, the Empire. The Empire was pretty large, extending from frozen coasts down to the manny scattered isles in the sea. It was also far from perfect. You'd always known about the recent revolt where an insubordinate radical spoke out against the Empress' iron fist rule and lack of mobility in the social hierarchy. At first you thought the guy was really stupid to even consider going against the powerful Empress, and regardless of your recent findings, you still think he was pretty stupid to risk so much and die so mercilessly.
You pushed that thought aside. You didn't want to think of that as your father, you liked the idea of him just being another name in history, albeit recent history. It was easy to ignore his importance, well almost.
Thanks to said rebel, a movement was started. In secret, but none the less, a movement that "threatened" the Empire. It wasn't much of a secret, rather underground as everyone knew it existed, just didn't know who operated the damn system. At least, as far as you knew. You wondered if Terezi or Gamzee as higher citizens would know more about the matter than you. You grit your teeth and ignored the intrusive thought.
"Damara, one thing's insulting me, another is calling out my sword," Dirk grumbled which snapped you out of your thoughts.
"Your sword bad. It fact," the woman replied in her broken English.
"Give me the reigns," Dirk demanded,
"No," she said indignantly, a whip cracking viciously. You winced. You really felt bad for those horses. As did Dirk apparently because he shoved her back, landing her on top of Gamzee and took the damn reins, slowing down on the bumpy fast pace. Damara was obviously not very happy, and you learned a hell of a lot of colorful language in a different language. Great, now you weren't limited to your overly creative insults!
The rest of the ride went more smoothly, with Damara complaining and muttering curses and death threats. Terezi didn't look too happy with her and Gamzee had gone back to his care free mode, asking Dirk a ridiculous amount of questions which you were sure were already irritating him. If you didn't feel miserably sick, you'd do something but to hell with it. They could deal.
"So what's the plan when, or if we get to the Capitol?" Terezi asked after scrunching her nose distastefully at Gamzee's comments about the Eastern Kingdom.
"Well, mine's still the same," you shrugged. "I'm going to go enlist for training."
"You're still on to that?" she raised a brow. You frowned, feeling defensive and offended, though of course, your expressions were wasted on her.
"Yeah, why?"
"I just thought...Never mind...It's not even important."
She looked almost sad by that, maybe even confused. That softened your defense.
"What is it?" you asked, honestly concerned for your friend because after all that hitch hiking, walking, meeting random, insane strangers, there was nothing more she could be than your friend. Even if you did think she was really cool and kinda pretty and pretty funny if cynical. Okay, she was your friend even if you harbored the tiny bit of an extra affection.
Terezi looked up at you, her dark eyes somber and hard. She shook her head blinking her eyes shut. But there was something there for a brief moment. A look of despair and pity and a hint of fright. That put you on edge. Then you remembered Gamzee saying he got weird creepy dreams sometimes and you wondered if the rings under Terezi's eyes meant she'd been plagued by nightmares as well.
She glanced at Damara who was busy glaring at Gamzee and Dirk with smug satisfaction on her face at seeing the blond so annoyed. She wasn't listening to the two of you at the back of the cart. She couldn't be bothered to.
You both turned to each other, Terezi taking a deep breath like she was ready to drop the weight of the world in just a few words.
"Karkat, I think," she began but was abruptly interrupted by the sudden stop, which sent her sprawling to you and knocking both your heads with an echoed "ow!"
"We're here," Dirk announced his voice filled with relief. "The Capitol. Well, outside of it. Everyone out."
Gamzee was the first to clamber out, though rather unenthusiastically, you followed next a bit dazed and let Gamzee help Terezi down, for once the girl not protesting. You couldn't believe it. You'd made it here. You had actually made it,
"Where are you headed?" Terezi asked Dirk.
"The embassy," he replied, "Diplomatic affairs you know?"
"I thought you were a patrol," she frowned.
"We're understaffed," Dirk said.
"But you have a larger population than-"
"It's been a pleasure, sunshine," Dirk waved, getting the horses to go into the city at an easy trot. Terezi bit her lip.
"I don't like this," she murmured.
"It's weird," you agreed. You both looked at each other, a mutual feeling of dread taking over that small victory. Those two had been odd to say the least and you doubted it would be getting any better.
"You won't get anywhere just standing around," Gamzee commented, the dread obviously not touching or dampening his spirits. Maybe you should worry about him. Or you should actually stop worrying in general. Yeah, that last part sounded good for the moment.
Gamzee was a surprisingly decent guide. He told you about some history of the buildings, which you honestly didn't think he'd know anything about. And so the three of you wandered the city, Terezi jumping at any voice she thought sounded familiar. You suddenly remembered why Terezi had come along with you in the first place.
To be honest, the whole tour was boring so you'll just skip to the good part of the confusion it was to enlist and how much of a pain your more experienced bunk mate was. Arrogant bastard. Terezi and Gamzee slipped away to who knows where, possibly to continue searching for Terezi's sister.
Well, that wasn't important, because you saw her again and she was part of something even stranger than you could have imagined. A prophet. A blind girl seeing and telling the future. Well, the Capitol was insane.
A/N: I'm sick of delaying this so much, I'm going to skip the description of the capitol and the majority of Karkat's enrollment process as it's not that impressive anyway. You will get a chapter summarizing how it went for him for the most part and then we get to press a little fast forward button!