Everybody froze in their places. It was fortunate that Jade knew what not to do in these types of situations, otherwise she would've let out a very loud scream. As it was, she clamped her mouth shut and instead concentrated on the feeling of the life-saving hormone epinephrine starting to stir within herself.
Gamzee's grip on Jade, again, tightened. Perhaps he was afraid he would drop her in the ensuing chaos. Or more likely, he was trying his best to keep her secure; she had attempted to wriggle out of his clutches more than enough times. But she didn't want to go anywhere now. And no, that wasn't just because she knew she couldn't outrun whatever beastie was stalking them. It was more than that. She felt as safe in his arms as she had in her Grandfather's warm embrace.
How long had it been since she had had skin contact with another living creature? And how had she gone without? Well, whatever the answers to those questions were, she was glad she was being held close to the troll's body. She was protected.
"Everyone," Karkat whispered. "Everyone, stay calm. Fucking relax, okay. So, we don't have any weapons on hand. We're not going to run. That'd be fucking madness. Just hold your positions for a bit longer. Tavros, can you fucking commune with it?"
"Uh, um, working on it," Tavros said softly. Very slowly, he raised his hands and put four fingers to each of his temples.
They were all dead silent for a couple of minutes. More growls kept coming from the forest, though as far as Jade could tell, they were being issued from one animal. A lone hunter.
Tavros broke the quiet with his analysis, keeping his voice a murmur. "He's really, really, um, hungry. And, uh, he's sort of, um, deranged."
"Fuck..." Karkat muttered. "Sollux, can you, I dunno, fucking summon Equius or something?"
"I'm not Vrithka or Aradia, Kk. I can't control people'th mindth nor telepathically zoom thingth around... unlethth I'm high on fucking mind honey or thomething."
Karkat swore again. Jesus, did all of these trolls have filthy mouths? Well, she hadn't heard Tavros swear yet.
"Shit. Uh, you g-guys..."
Jade retracted her previous thought.
"H-he's gonna j-jump. On J-jade."
She barely had time to think 'Oh shit!' before several things happened at once.
The beast struck, lashing out at Jade's head with its marvelous claws. Karkat, it seemed, was ready to go at it. Armed with a sharp stick, the Cancer stuck it right through one of the creature's eyes. Gamzee, at the same moment, passed Jade to Sollux, who was just as surprised as the girl. Luckily, Sollux managed not to drop her (probably because Jade clung to his neck for dear life). Then Gamzee kicked the animal in the snout, which sent it reeling backwards. Its howls of pain reached new levels of volume. Jade could feel its shrieks of agony trill down her spine.
"Run, motherfuckers, RUN!" Gamzee shouted to Sollux and Tavros, who both immediately took off sprinting through the forest. The Gemini, in a moment of clarity, slung Jade across his back, piggyback-style, while continuing to run.
Jade's reaction was to bury her face in his neck, but when she heard animalistic snarls she whipped her head in the direction where those two brave, stupid trolls were fighting the prehistoric predator.
There was a split-second before the trees obscured her vision when she could see something large, green, and reptile-like slash at something small, grey, and humanoid.
"No!" she cried out.
But then the trees blocked the fight from her view and all she could do was hope that one of them had not been taken down permanently. Not before she had gotten to know him. Oh god, don't dwell on Rose, don't think about Rose...
Too late. Jade began to think about Rose and her untimely death and she just couldn't stop the tears. She turned her face back to Sollux's shirt and cried onto it, soaking a good portion of it. But minutes later, thinking it rude to get the Gemini's shirt so wet (and that it definitely wasn't the time for tears now), she forced herself on to other thoughts.
She understood why Gamzee had handed her off. Sollux was a very fast runner, and he didn't seem to mind the extra weight. Tavros, too, was keeping pace with them, despite his short legs.
Sunset was almost upon them. What little light shone through the cracks in the trees was rapidly changing hue from gold-blue to violet. She knew that they would make it to the camp in time, but the falling darkness still unsettled her.
In a few more minutes, they arrived at a large clearing in the dense forest. And within that clearing, there was the camp.
It was, like Karkat had said, a miniature village. There were nine two-story log cabins built around a central fire pit. Four of the cabins looked to be in their preliminary building stages; they each had one story but no roof.
There were several of what seemed to be drying racks around the fire pit. Many had meat on them, a few had skins. Not furry animal skins, mind you. They were scaly dinosaur skins. Whoever had gone through all the trouble to kill a dinosaur just to get a couple of rugs, Jade was sure she didn't want to meet him. Or her. Come to think of it, now that she thought of it, where were the rest of the trolls? John and Dave too, where were they?
But there was someone. By the light of the fire, it was another troll. He was sitting on one of the logs close to the pit, warming himself and keeping an eye on a hunk of meat that was roasting.
He looked to be fairly tall and thin. His hair defied gravity; it was styled upwards and, if Jade squinted, looked like a pile of whipped cream. He had a long blue on blue scarf wrapped around his neck, and a long-sleeved black sweatshirt with a light fuchsia colored Aquarius symbol on the front. She noted his thick-framed hipster-style glasses. His pants, strangely, were stripped blue and navy (they looked like pajama bottoms to Jade) and he wasn't wearing shoes.
His horns bent sharply at two points, making them wavy like his hair and astrological sign. His face had a mean look to it; he scowled as he stared at the dancing flames. Jade noticed he had two fin-like protrusions in front of his ears. She wondered why. Of all of the trolls she'd seen so far, none of them had these appendages on their faces. Maybe they each had them in different places? Mmm... wait, why the hell was she even thinking about that? There were more important things at hand to worry about!
Sollux and Tavros jogged to the fire pit. The troll sitting there looked up and greeted them with a deepening of his frown.
"Eridan! Where'th Equiuth?" Sollux demanded. His voice warbled slightly as he said it.
"Wwhat? Wwhy do you wwanna knoww?" The troll spat back. Clearly, he was not in a good mood. And what was up with his weird accent?
"Uh, um, er, there was, um," Tavros stuttered and stumbled over his words too much, so Sollux took over.
"There ithn't time to talk, you dipthhit. Where the fuck is Equiuth?"
Eridan sneered but provided an answer. "Far as I knoww, he's upstairs in his respiteblock."
Jade barely had time to question the word 'respiteblock' before Sollux handed her none too gently to Tavros, who crumpled under her weight.
"Thorry, Tav- I've got to hurry. Take care of Jade!" Sollux dashed to one of the cabins and within a minute he and another troll rushed out of it and into the woods. Eridan watched them go.
Jade groaned. Her head throbbed. She put her hands to her temples and rubbed them, grimacing. She ached and her throat was dry and she was scared for Karkat's and Gamzee's safety. She felt like crying again, but she knew that wouldn't help the situation.
"Um, Jade? Could you please, uh, get off of me?" Tavros wheezed.
'Oh, right! Oops.' Jade rolled off of the small Taurus. She didn't trust her legs just yet. She tried to say sorry, but nonsense came out instead. Damn, this was frustrating.
"It's, um, okay," Tavros said, standing up and smiling at her. He really was tiny, for a male. An inch shorter and they would be the same height.
Tavros helped her sit on one of the logs by the fire pit, but her equilibrium was still off and she almost fell right over. Tavros supported her with one of his hands on the small of her back, but she was still wobbly. Finally, she decided to sit in front of the log. She was closer to the fire this way anyway, and this was cool with her, since she could feel the temperature was beginning to drop steadily.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, with Eridan glowering, periodically turning the spit and Jade trying not to cry and Tavros throwing little sticks into the fire, the Aquarius spoke.
"So... wwhat the fuck is goin' on, Tavv?" He asked in a frigid tone. Jade got the feeling that this Eridan guy didn't get along with the others so well. Or maybe it was the other way around. But then again, perhaps the feelings were all mutual. Damn, troll relationships are confusing.
"Well, um, Jade woke up today, uh-" Tavros started timidly.
Eridan's lips curled. "I can see that. Wwhat I meant wwas, wwhere the fuck did Sol an' Eq scuttle off to just noww? Wwait, wwait, don't tell me. To break up a fuckin' cock-fight betwween Kar an' Gam? I alwways kneww those twwo imprudent landdwwellers wwouldn't make it as moirails."
"...uh, no, um, that's not what happened. Gamzee and, um, Karkat are fighting a, uh, clawbeast. Sollux, um, and Equius went to help. They should, er, be back soon."
For some reason, this seemed to make no impression whatsoever on Eridan. Indeed, he only sighed heavily and poked the hunk of roasting meat with a sharp two-pronged stick.
"Wwhatevver."
'"Wwhatevver?"' Jade thought angrily. 'Oh, I mean: "Whatever?" Grrrr, this guy... if I could speak, I'd give him such a tongue-lashing!'
As it was, though, Jade punched him hard on the tender skin of his upper thigh.
"Oww!" The Aquarius yelped, turning his glare from the meat to the green-eyed girl. "Wwhat'd you do that for, you bitch?"
Jade made a face and whacked him again. If she could've stood up, she would've given him the best shiner, with or without his stupid hipster glasses on his smug alien face.
"Whoa, Jade, um, stop please," Tavros pulled her back by her shoulders, but she wrenched out of his grasp and tried to beat Eridan again.
However, Eridan simply moved to another log on the other side of the fire. He stuck his tongue out at her. If she had cared enough, she would've mustered the surprise to see that the muscle was a light fuchsia color; like the symbol on his sweatshirt.
"Stupid bitch," Eridan said, though without any real feeling behind the insult. "Hey, I used to knoww a girl like you... then I killed her."
He sneered. Jade could see all of his razor-sharp teeth. But she glared right back at him, willing her oncoming tears to hold back for just a bit longer.
"Jade, um," Tavros said quietly, "It isn't, uh, a good idea to, um, rile him up."
'Thank you Tavros. I know that now.' Jade glanced back at the Taurus, trying to communicate with her eyes. 'I just thought I'd take some of my sadness and anger out on him because he looks like such a pussy (and he speaks like one too), but I guess he has the guts and enmity to compete with the big dogs, eh?'
It seemed, however, that Tavros could not understand what she was conveying to him telepathically. After her stare had lasted longer than a few seconds, he became flustered and chose something else to regard. Jade noticed that he had blushed again and puzzled over that fact. She didn't recall any previous conversations with him that would cause him to act so nervously around her. Perhaps he was just shy by nature. D'aww. Well, she could help him with that. She used to be extraordinarily shy herself.
The tears that had been threatening to flow free slipped silently down her face now. She was too tired and parched to choke on huge sobbing gasps. Speaking of hydration...
Jade wiped her face clean with her sleeve and then put a hand on Tavros's knee. He started and his gaze turned towards her once more.
"W-what is it, Jade?" he asked.
She made a cup with her hands and brought it to her mouth, pretending to drink from it.
"Oh. Sure, I can get you some, um, water." Tavros smiled at her. He stood up. "I'll be, mm, right back. Don't get into any, um, trouble, you little rascal."
Jade grinned back and nodded.
Tavros walked off to one of the cabins, and Jade was left to wonder if Equius had already installed indoor plumbing for his troll-mates. She let her mind wander to what Equius might be like. She hadn't gotten a good glimpse of him when he and Sollux had raced into the forest. Oh well. They'd all be back soon... hopefully.
