A/N: wow, the last chapter of the first arc already. Hope y'all are ready for the beginning of the next arc.
Many months later than that which was mentioned in the first author's note of the previous chapter, but not necessarily many months after the previous chapter. Confused? This is Homestuck.
In a palace situated over the sea, a great troll stared frustratedly at her tablet. The open article was on an alchemy blog, talking about how a troll had turned up mysteriously from an ancient cistern. She stood, an impressive 15 feet, and left the grand throne room.
She entered the library, a dozen strides away, and passed straight through to a large, dusty book with lock on the front. She took a key out of her hair, inserting it into the lock. Flipping through the pages, she reached one with calligraphy scroll adorning it. The writing read, "The BARD of RAGE".
Drawing her manicured finger down the text, she reached the section on the Bard's downfall, locked in an icebox and kept safe in the hideaway of the his rival, the seawoman Marquis Mindfang. She was going to drown him, but her accomplice, Luz, known as the LIGHTBARER, convinced her to simply lock him away.
It was said that he would escape when the time was right, and his return would signal the next era, and the return of the Heroes of Old.
"And," she said, smiling, "whoever controls the Bard controls the next era. That's how all the prophecies work."
She pressed the button on a comlink attached to the front of her shirt, and spoke into it.
"Gemma here. Hades, please get the guards ready. I'm emailing you a link, please bring me the troll discussed in the article."
It was a freezing autumn morning. The sky was a brilliant pink fading into dark blue, a frigid wind tossing dewdrops off the grass and trees.
A dead, wet leaf slapped and stuck to the kitchen window like a hospital window cling. It joined several others.
The TV's volume was up fairly loud, as laughter unrelated to the cartoon often rang out.
Mkenzi was attempting to get Bug into one of his shows, but Nairuu, who had seen it already and knew the jokes, kept wisecracking.
It was starting to get on Mkenzi's nerves.
Just in time, Freyah poked her head in. She had on elaborate winged eyeliner and a delicate copper flower crown.
"Nai, are you ready?"
"For what?"
Freyah stepped into the room with Medusa right behind her.
"Girls day?"
"Uhhhh."
The elaborate outfits made more sense now. In addition to the tiara Freyah was wearing a black floor length skirt with turquoise embroidry and a gingery turtleneck with creamy sparkles on it. Under the skirt were lovely sandals that definitely did not look warm enough for the chilly weather. Medusa was wearing a silver coat trimmed with white fur and a knee-length pencil skirt in the same color. Glittery tights and fur-trimmed white boots adorned her legs and feet.
"Ha ha of course I'm ready." Nai said, grinning stupidly. From sitting on the floor, she reached under the couch and pulled out a jean-jacket with an intimidating embroidery pattern on the back.
She put it on over her tank top and put her hands in the pockets, pulling out a black choker and a bandana, which she donned.
"Took you long enough." Medusa said jokingly.
She breezed over to the sleeping Meioxi, who took up one of the couches, kissing him on the cheek.
The women bustled out, chattering.
A joke about Nai's Apple Bottom Jeans matching Medusa's Boots With The Fur floated back into the quieter living room.
A couple minutes of silence followed.
"So... so that's why she was wearing shoes."
"Hmm?"
"That's why she was wearing shoes in the house."
"Oh. Heh. Yeah."
Ramses snored squeakily from his little nest on Meioxi.
They went back to silently watching the anime.
"Wait, who's that?" Bug asked shortly after, waving his hand at the screen.
"That's Chiyo."
"But where'd he come from?"
"She."
"Sorry, where'd she come from?"
"She came from the shadow realm. It acts as a fast travel, since you can move quicker through it. She's coming to protect Masaru since he's the chosen one."
"Oh. Why is Masaru the chosen one again?"
"Because he's the last of the royal blood. But if he can survive for long enough and find Kronos Cave then he can summon the titans and save the world."
"Oh, alright, I gotcha. How does Chiyo know about all this?"
"The legends. They're not very widespread, but Chiyo's family has been keeping up with them."
"Huh. That's real neat. Who wrote the legends?"
"The- uhh, that's kind of spoilers."
"Oh, shoot, sorry."
"Oh don't worry! I'm just happy you like the show."
"Me too. i'm sure glad I like this show too."
They watched in silence for another minute and a half until Meioxi snorted and woke up. He stared at the screen for a minute before saying,
"Wait, who's the one with the blond hair?"
Mkenzi facepalmed and Bug tried to hide his laughter.
"YOU'VE SEEN THIS SHOW BEFORE!" Mkenzi said, exhasperated.
"BUT I ALWAYS FALL ASLEEP, NOT MY FAULT IT'S BORI-"
To which the case of the anime was hurdled at near-lethal speeds at the violetblood on the couch.
A/N: So yeah, the last two chapters have really just been filler, but stuff's getting interesting again next chapter. I wanted to add a little more body to Arch 1 before I moved on, I guess.