The trio of travelers had arrived at the heart of the temple, which had the same ethereal glow as the rest of the temple, although there was nowhere the light could come from. It also contained a giant statue of a dragon.
"Holy shit!" Karkat yelled, "that's a fucking dragon."
Sollux facepalmed, "It's a statue, idiot. FF, do we need to do anything special for this rite?"
Feferi shook her head, "Nope! Whale, you betta make shore my concentration doesn't waver."
"What would happen then?" Karkat asked.
"I would clam up and die," Feferi said, matter-of-factly. She then sat in front of the statue oblivious to what was going on around her. For the most part. The two boys looked at her, until they were sure she couldn't hear them.
"You like her," Karkat said.
"So what? You like Eridan," Sollux snapped.
"At least you have a chance with her," Karkat growled.
Sollux was silent. It was well known that Eridan would be we'd to a neighboring country's ruler. The official reason was to ensure an alliance, but it was rumored that the prince was collateral until the debts were paid off.
"Fuck this shit, I'm leaving," Karkat said, turning around and walking out the tunnel they entered.
As he left Sollux whispered, "It's just you and me now, FF. What the fuck am I doing? That sounded like some of the erotic shit KK is always spouting." Sollux sighed, glancing at Feferi's still form. "I'm glad you can't hear me, FF, that was embarrassing." He sat silently for a minute, "It's strange, FF, normally I can hear the voices no matter what happens, but when I'm around you they're silent. How do you do that? Is it wrong that I want to keep you around so they don't start talking again?" He sighed again, basking in the silence. It was strange, he thought, to be in such stillness. Unfortunately, that stillness didn't last for long, as the cavern began rumbling.
Meanwhile...
Karkat wandered the glowing halls of the temple. Going towards the heart of it, the place seemed maze-like, but going through like he was, it was a circle, with only one very twisted pathway leading to the center. That was also on the opposite side of the entrance. He was going clockwise from the heart, through passages that lead to other parts of the circle. Thinking of it like a timepiece, entering 3 got you to 7, with 12 being the exit, and 6 being the heart. 5, 2, 7, and 10 led to dead ends, 1 went to 9, 4 went to 11, and all that was left for him to search was 8. So, search he did.
The first thing Karkat noted about the tunnel was its peculiar size compared to the rest of the temple. Unlike the wide, sloping halls the rest of the temple held, this tunnel was less than half the usual size, easy to miss if you weren't looking for it. Especially considering the sharp turn it started with, making it almost blend into the walls around it. Karkat started down the tunnel, noticing it got brighter the farther he went into it.
It led to a dead end which annoyed Karkat. Instead of turning back, which actually made some sense, he hit the wall. Hard. It hurt. "Holy fucking shit!" Karkat screamed, clenching his injured hand. He then hit the wall again. This time with armor on. It hurt significantly less, and was a good way to vent frustration so he hit it again. And again, and again, until, somehow, he found a sweet spot that made the wall crumble down. At least, that's what he'd tell people. Really, the wall was a door, and, somehow, he managed to hit the trigger that caused it to open and continued down the hall, as it twisted and turned, slowly growing brighter as he went deeper in. Until he was stopped by a wall. Again. He attempted to punch to wall (with armor this time. You only make that mistake once) when something surprised him.
His hand went through the wall.
Karkat couldn't hide his surprise. How did his hand go through a wall? He slowly pushed his hand through the wall, and, given what happened before, it was no surprise that it did. He continued to move his arm through, shocked to find no resistance as it moved across the "wall." He took a cautious step towards it and put his other arm through, trying to get a baring on the size of the place. Eventually, he decided it was big enough for him to fit into the room, and stepped through the "wall." What he saw when he got to the other side was an egg. A strange, glowing egg about the size of an adult cat. Karkat gaped, a security system for an egg. An egg. Granted, it was a large egg, but why all the protection? He picked it up.
That was a mistake. The cavern shook, and Karkat, not realizing the egg was the reason for the rumbling, sprinted out of the cavern, still holding the egg.
When he got to the exit of the tunnel, he saw Sollux running, carrying an unconscious Feferi.
"Why are you running, asswipe?" Karkat yelled to Sollux's retreating figure.
"Run, KK!" Sollux yelled.
"That doesn't answer my fucking question," Karkat muttered, turning around to face a dragon. "I thought that was a statue."
The dragon stopped, noticing that Karkat had its egg. It growled, as if warning him. Karkat stared at it for a moment, before running away. It chased him, wanting the egg, not that Karkat knew that. Karkat ran, going through tunnel after tunnel, trying to lose the dragon in the maze-like temple. Sadly, his plan didn't work. The dragon easily slid in the tunnels, chasing the knight that had his egg. Karkat, giving up on losing it, ran out the door to the temple. The dragon stopped short of the entrance, trapped inside of it by ancient magic. Karkat laughed, "Take that you dumb lizard!" The dragon growled, sending a puff of flame at Karkat. Luckily for him, the dragon egg was fireproof and made him fireproof, thanks again to magic. Upon seeing the flame, Karkat ran into the woods, to see Sollux kissing Feferi.
"If you're trying something stupid, like wake her up with a kiss, it won't work. That shit only happens in legends, dumb dumb," Karkat said, scowling.
Sollux froze, before turning around to face Karkat, "KK, what the fuck? Why the hell didn't you run when I told you to? Oh wait, your a dumbass that's why."
"You could've mentioned the fucking dragon, numbnuts," Karkat said, glaring.
"Buoys, don't fight," Feferi said, causing both males to jump. Feferi giggled, "I didn't mean to scare you. Anyway, what happened whale I was performing the rite? We aren't in the temple anemonemore. And why does Crabcatch have a dragon egg?"
Both of them stared at her, "Crabcatch is by far the worst fucking pun you have ever used," Karkat said.
Q: well, that took longer than intended, especially considering I had the basic plot of this chapter already written. Did I mention the first two chapters of this are based on an English paper I wrote? Yeah, I thought it would be more interesting with dialogue and, well, an actual storyline instead of whatever loose plot it was. I did well on the paper in case you were wondering.