"Miss Leijon pawses to look at the strange new troll on her land."
"...uh, huh?"
"Oh! The troll speaks! Miss Leijon senses the purrfect moment, and pounces!"
"What? Ouch!"
Tavros had never been so rudely awakened, and she wasn't sure if she enjoyed it that much. In fact, she hadn't expected be woken at all, having crawled from the place in the back alleys where Jade had left her, and into a more residential area. She shuffled into a barn, and fell asleep in a pile of hay just as the sun had set. Now the sun was barely even risen, and she was being awoken again by something squirming and rolling around on her.
"Nepeta greets the newcomer to her barn by giving her a nice rub with her cheek!" The girl who was suddenly ontop of her cried, before rubbing her face all over Tavros's arm.
"BLUH!" Tavros found herself suddenly on her feet a few feet away, and the girl on the floor looking up at her with curious, giant eyes, "uh, I'm sorry, but, uh, who are you?"
"Hee hee," the girl giggled, "my name is—uh, I mean, the young lady explains that her name is Nepeta Leijon, Village Stable Hand," she thrust out a gloved hand, "but you can refurr to me as Nep if you want!"
"Oh, uh, hi," Tavros smiled, takeing Nepeta's hand, "I'm Pri—er, Tavros."
"That's such a purretty name!" Nepeta squealed, causing Tavros to flinch a little. The cat-girl giggled, wiggling with excitement, "sorry, Equius always tell me I get too furriendly with strangers, but I can't help it. Hee hee!"
"I'm sorry for stealing your barn, uh, well I didn't really steal, it, uh, I mean, sleeping in it," Tavros looked around her surroundings for the first time; it was a muscle-beast stable, with stalls where the animals were milling around, eating hay and grain, and looking curiously at Tavros. She had never seen a beast close up before, since King Dave was allergic to any animal that had anything but feathers. She drifted over to the closest stall, gingerly petting a brown muscle-beast on its ferocious snout. It whinnied, but for some strange reason, Tavros knew the animal enjoyed it, "oh, uh, that's cool."
"Hmm?" Nepeta asked, making a sound like a purring cat. She had wandered over to the stable wall, and was trying to lift a giant muscle-beast riding device off a high hook, "oh, it is no purroblem if used our stable. Er, Miss Leijon doesn't mind, and she hopes she can talk her silly-willy meowrail into letting the beautiful young lowblood to live in their house!" she giggled, "sometime he doesn't like the lower bloods, but he once was waxing red for a red blood! He's super silly." She hefted the riding device off the wall, setting it down on a wooden bench. She pulled some wax out of her overalls pocket, and started waxing the device with the force of a thousand kitties. Tavros stayed next to the beast, petting it with one hand and playing with the necklace around her neck with the other. The chain had no clasp; it had disappeared once Eridan had gotten it around her neck, and she couldn't get it over her horns without nearly strangling herself. She had tried breaking it the night before, but, that didn't really work too well and just ended up with her smacking herself in the face by accident.
"Ooh, what's that?" Nepeta leapt across the space between them, and was staring at the necklace like a cat-nip-laced plaything, "are you an aquarius? Miss Leijon would like the tell you that this is the symbol of the Also Evil Wizard, Eridan Ampora!"
"Yeah, uh, I know, I was, uhm, cursed or something," Tavros's face was awash with chagrin ("Woah, bro, what's that fancy shit mean?" "Uh, disappointment, I, uh think if I'm using it in the right context or something like that.") as she looked up to the girl, "do you remember the Princess?"
"Purrincess Feferi?"
Tavros's heart sank. So Eridan had done well; no one who had known of her recalls her at all.
"Yes, uh..."
"She's mean and nasty. But Miss Leijon likes her more than that pawsitively terrifying Queen Vriska!" Nepeta giggled, "is she the one who put a curse of you? 'Cause Miss Leijon and her Meowrail Equius would be happy to assist you!"
"Wow, really? I, uh, I'm not sure," Tavros's face went brown from blushing. He never knew anyone would be so helpful to a lowblooded stranger, "are you, uh, really super certain you'd want to take in, uh, someone, like me?"
"Nepeta, I have finished that ridiculous commission for that Mr. Captor, therefore I am proposing I escort you—oh," Suddenly a large shadow appeared in the doorway, his voice grinding to a sudden, smug halt when he saw who was in his presence aside from Nepeta. He glared at Tavros with clenched, seeing the brown stain across the Troll's cheeks and sneered, "Nepeta, who, may I ask, have you been associating yourself with now? I cannot believe you have let this gutterblood into our barn!"
"Nepeta greets her meowrail with a friendly POUNCEGREET!" Nepeta cried, suddenly flying through the air and tackling the large troll to the floor, "ew! Equius, you're all sweaty!"
"Nepeta! I will kindly ask you to get off of me. In fact, I order you to get off of my chest right at this instant!"
"Hee hee!" Nepeta picked herself up, "oh, pawlease, can we keep her? Miss Leijon earnestly tells her favouritist troll in all of Camternia how sorry she feels for the poor cursed girl in hopes he'll let her stay!" Her eyes got really big, and she smiled, making a strange purring-like noise that Tavros had never heard come from a troll before.
"Nepeta!" He frowned, putting a lot of effort into gently shirking her off him, "you know how I feel about—"
"LET'S GO INSIDE AND DRINK SOME TEA!" Nepeta cried, grabbing Tavros's hand and pulling her across the barn and through a door, breezing past Equius who was still lying on the floor since no one had, uh, offered him a hand up. He'd probably end up ripping their arm off by accident anyways.
"W-who was that?" Tavros whispered as the pair entered a cozy little food preparation block. There was a fire-burning nutrient heating device, a steaming pink kettle sitting on top. Nepeta grabbed it, and started pouring it into a hastily-mended teacup and serving it to Tavros. There was a window letting in a cool breeze and warm, spring time air, and in the corner, a trash receptical pilled high with broken pieces of metal.
"That, Miss Leijon explains purrfectly, is Mr. Equius Zahhak, the most wonderful meowrail ever! He's a bit silly sometimes, though, and doesn't like the lowerbloods, but I don't mind being friends with them! He's the blacksmith here in Camternia, and sometimes likes to make inventions! But a lot of the time just breaks them! Hee hee!" She poured herself a cup of tea aswell, before carefully setting down the teapot and taking off her thick leather gloves, "but sometimes villagers come around and ask for commissions, which is just a special word for requests, but Equius gets paid fur it! He lets me stay here with him, 'cause I'm also the horse trainer, and 'cause he makes enough money for both of us! So I'm sure you can stay here fur a little bit! Until we get your curse all straightened out!"
"That's really, really, actually nice of you," Tavros smiled, taking a sip of the cameowmile tea, "but I'm not sure how I'll get this curse, uh, cured, or whatever you, uh, do with a curse, I think."
"Don't let her drink out of my teacups!" Equius stormed in, hay stuck in his hair. Nepeta stuck her tongue out playfully.
"No! All you do is break 'em!" She giggled. The larger troll scowled, fixing his blacked-out, cracked goggles lamely. He brushed the dust and hay off his apron, and sat down next to Nepeta, who was already pouring him a cup of tea, "now be careful!"
"I'm always careful," Equius said, taking the fragile cup in his meaty hands. It shattered almost instantly, "...fiddlesticks."
"Awh, Equius~" there was a knock at the door in the other block. Nepeta smiled and jumped up, "oh! I'll get it!"
She pranced out of the room, Equius frowning after her.
"Probably just Mr. Captor looking to pick up his knight's new sword," Equius grumbled, probably more to himself than to Tavros, who he still failed to acknowledge. He got to his feet and started sweeping up the shards of broken teacup, when a piercing scream caused him to drop the ensemble all over again, "N-Nepeta?"
"Equius! Come here!"Nepeta screeched. Equius was out of the block and by Nepeta's side in an instant.
"Yeah, bro, I just f-found her in the woods, all beat up and shit like this...I wasn't sure what the motherfuck to do so I just brought her here 'cause I know you do miracles and shit..." Tavros could hear the most defeated voice imaginable drifting in from the other block. Curious, she got to her feet and slowly joined the others, keeping her distance, but watching the action from the doorway.
A handsomely dressed troll was standing in front of the door that opened to the outside, having just come in through it. He was wearing a large, royal purple hat, with one large, white plume fitted in one side, his horns sticking out from the top of it through lazily cut holes. He wore a purple satin coat, with white ruffles on the wrists and chest; dyed red with blood. In shaking arms he held a beautiful woman's body; even Tavros, who had never seen a dead body before, knew this troll no longer breathes. Her beautiful face was smeared with blood, her expressioned pained, and her dull eyes still wide open although unseeing. A large gaping wound tore through her middle, making a mess of her peasant dress. Red blood was everywhere. She was a peasant, a nobody, and yet this man who wore nice, purple clothes held her with tearful, hooded eyes. His hands were shaking, and he was pleading with Equius.
"Please, man, you gotta do this, you gotta do something for her, she's gonna die and I don't know what I'd do without her," he said, his voice fluxuating from a panicked loud to a hushed quiet, "please, bro, bestfriend, I'm mothefucking begging you!"
"...You could order me to do it, highblood," Equis said, his forehead beginning to glisten, "however, I do presume she is already dead...and by the looks of it, for a few hours, now."
"Equius! Lady Leijon begs you to do something fur the poor Mr. Makara!" Nepeta cried, wringing her hands and playing with the whip attached to her waist, "maybe you could make something out of those metal parts you always have lying around!" She rubbed up next to Equius, staring at him with big yellow eyes. He frowned, though Tavros was almost sure this was his default face. He looked torn, before saying, with a sigh:
"Fine, Mr. Makara, I will certainly try my best to appease you. If my work is not satisfactory, however, feel free to punish me..."
"Just help her, man...please." He handed the body over to Equius, who took it gently and disappeared with it into a different block. The newcomer was left now with Tavros and Nepeta, who twitched like a cat high on catnip. Tavros stared at the new troll, who had taken off his hat and was stroking the feather as if it were a pet. Then, he looked up at Tavros. She gasped; his face was so tragic; his eyes were rimmed with red, and remanants of face paint had been washed away by tears. He wrung his hat in his hands and said, "I was thinking that she never took so long to go to the market before...so I went to find her there and she wasn't anywhere...and then I looked all night and I found her this morning...I hope she'll be alright cause she was a nice motherfucker and..."
"What's your name?" Tavros asked, before looking down at the floor and saying, "oh, uh sorry, I mean I'm, uh, sorry for your loss, I'm sure Mr. Zahhak can do something for you, from what I've, heard."
"My name is Gamzee Makara," Gamzee said, giving a slight bow, "motherfucking poet extraordinare. What's your name, my lady?"
"Oh, I'm uh, Tavros Nitram," Tavros smiled. She wondered vaguely why Gamzee was being so nice to her, since he was a highblood, and she was...not, "nice to, uh, meet you." Maybe he had lost him mind to grief.
"Tavros Nitram," Gamzee's brows furrowed, "yo, man, that name sounds familiar. Who's your dad?"
"Oh, uh," Suddenly all words dried up in her throat, and she wasn't sure what to say, "K-King Dave...?"
"No, shit man?" His eyes lit up and his eyebrows nearly rocketed off his face, "I thought your name sounded familiar. You're Princess Tavros!"
"You remember me?" Tavros gasped. Nepeta tilted her head to the side curiously.
"Princess Tavros? Who are you talking about? In Camternia there's only one princess, and that's Feferi—"
"Nah, man, Tavros was the nicest princess in all of Camternia," Gamzee took a curious step closer, "you're definitely her! What a motherfucking miracle, to see a Princess here!"
"Oh! Then, the lovely miss Leijon cried, is your curse! No one can remember a Princess Tavros!" Nepeta cried, curiously studying Tavros all over again, "There must be a way to reverse it!"
"You were cursed?" Gamzee asked. Tavros nodded meekly. Gamzee shook his head, "I know someone who can help you! Man, she used to deal me sopor slime, but now she does magic tricks and prophecies and motherfucking miracles like that, man!"
"Oh? Who's that?" Nepeta purred curiously. The faintest smile reached Gamzee's lips.
"Terezi Pyrope!"