Disclaimer: I don't own Homestuck or Fairytail.

Chapter 3: Trial of the Lion

The team was rather taken aback by the troll's appearance. She looked younger than the other troll, wore an oversized green jacket, black t-shirt with the Leo symbol and gray pants, but that wasn't the weirdest part. The girl also appeared to be wearing the furs of some unknown blue creature as a hat and footwear, and a tail had been sewn to the back of her pants. Oblivious to the guild member's shock, she continued speaking excitedly to them.

":33 I was wondering when someone would show up!" she exclaimed. ":33 how many of my furiends have you met?"

"Did she just make a cat pun?" Natsu questioned under his breath. Gray just shrugged in response, still slightly at a loss. Lucy managed to grasp the situation first and reply to the oddly excitable troll.

"We've only been in one chamber before this one," she explained. "The other troll was a little taller than you and he really liked swearing." She tried to think of any other distinguishing features of the Cancer troll.

The Leo troll frowned and thought hard. ":33 Do you know anything else? A lot of my furiends enjoy swearing…" The rest of the team sweatdropped at this.

"He had a symbol that looked like this," Erza stated, pulling out her sword and carving a shaky Cancer symbol into the wall.

At this, the female troll's eyes lit up and she grinned widely, exposing sharp teeth. ":33 Oh, you've met Karkat!" she exclaimed, bouncing up and down.

"Yes…" Lucy said, trying to calm down the troll. "And perhaps we could know your name as well?"

":33 *ac looks horrified at her own actions* where are my manners?!" she gasped. ":33 my name is Nepeta Leijon!~"

"Anyways," Gray started, impatient to get pleasantries out of the way. "Shouldn't we get a task or something?"

":33 Of course!" Nepeta beamed. She raced over to the wall on the other side of the room. ":33 I wrote it down somewhere over here…" she began looking through the wall's various drawings. The guild members glanced at each other and went over to give the wall a closer look.

"Did you draw all these?" Lucy asked, running her fingers over a grid that contained images of a heart, diamond, spade and club.

Nepeta looked up and grinned. ":33 *ac nods furiously*"

"Why do you do that?" Gray asked bluntly.

":33 *ac tilts her head in confusion* do what?"

"That!" Gray exclaimed. "Like, talking about your actions! And who or what is 'ac'?"

Nepeta's eyes lit up in realization. ":33 Oh, it's beclaws of my typing quirk! The 'ac' part is my troll tag, arsenicCatnip."

"Typing quirk?" Erza asked, looking up from a drawing of three trolls around a club.

":33 Like on a husktop?" Nepeta said slowly, frowning as the humans didn't seem to recognize the term. The troll let out a sigh, dismissing the topic. ":33 Anyways, all of us," she pointed to the drawings of trolls. ":33 have a typing quirk that comes out in our sp33ch. Though sometimes it isn't noticeable."

Gray tried to understand what she was talking about. "You mean that foul mouthed troll in the other room had one? He was just talking normally, though a bit louder than necessary."

":33 *ac beams in amusement* Karkat types in all caps so he's pawlways yelling!" she stated. The guild collectively grimaced at the thought of the last troll's obnoxious sound level.

"These trolls that you draw," Erza began. "Are they your friends?"

":33 yep!" Nepeta walked over to examine the drawing Erza was looking at that consisted of two trolls with a diamond hanging over their heads. ":33 That one is me," she said, pointing to the one that resembled herself. ":33 The other is my meowrail, Equius!" she tapped the drawing of the other troll who looked somewhat frightening.

"What's a 'meowrail'?" Lucy asked, curious about troll culture.

":33 Well-" Nepeta began, only to be suddenly interrupted by a loud crashing noise that made the room's occupants drop to the floor and cover their ears. After a few minutes, their ears stopped ringing and they all got warily to their feet.

"What the heck was that?" Natsu growled, looking around for an intruder.

"I believe the Celestial Spirit King just wants us to get on with the task," Lucy answered. She turned to face the troll. "Can you give us our task now?"

":33 *ac sighs* I liked talking, but I guess I can…" she stated disappointedly. ":33 Your task is to…" The troll glanced back at the wall for reference. ":33 Figure out which one of my furiends you will m33t next and also find all their ships on the wall!"

The team's watches beeped. "Task: troll identification."

"What do we do first?" Gray muttered, looking at the disorganized charts on the wall in confusion.

"We should figure out what the next troll's sign is," Erza stated matter-of-factly. She nodded towards the door to the next chamber.

Natsu was already at the door, squinting up at the horoscope sign above the entryway. "It looks like an 'M' with a tail," he said, jogging back to his guild mates.

"Is it… Scorpio?" Lucy asked, recalling the symbol that appeared on her Celestial Spirit's belt.

"We should try to find a matching symbol on the wall." Erza reasoned, striding back over to Nepeta's drawings.

"These things go all the way up the wall," Gray frowned. "How did she even manage to draw all the way up there?" He made himself some ice stairs to glance at the top drawings, combing through them to find the sign. "Found one!" he yelled down to his guild mates.

"What's the other troll's sign?" Lucy yelled back.

Gray struggled to see the sign on the drawing. "I can't really tell. It kind of looks like a circle with two lines sticking out of the top… the other troll has huge horns like a bull if that helps."

"A bull?" Lucy muttered. "Sounds like Taurus."

"What is the symbol that represents the relationship?" Erza yelled up.

"A spade!" Gray said, lowering himself back to the ground.

"Are there any more drawings we need?" Lucy wondered, examining the wall.

"Hey guys!" Natsu yelled, a few feet away. "The symbol's also over here!" The team raced over to where the dragon slayer was standing.

"Looks like you're good for something after all," Gray muttered, looking at the image.

"What was that you-?!"

"Boys," Erza said coldly, shutting them up. She went back to examining the drawing next to Lucy.

"The signs are Scorpio, Libra and Virgo," Lucy said. "Why are there three?"

"Perhaps it's because of the club?" Erza said, pointing to the black symbol. Lucy nodded in agreement.

"Alright, let's just get to the next chamber already!" Natsu grumbled, stomping back over to Nepeta. The troll was drawing various symbols on the ground by her feet using some very sharp claws attached to her gloves.

"Where'd those weapons come from?" Erza said, hand twitching towards her sword.

":33 *ac looks up and puts claws away* Nya?" she grinned. As soon as the troll had finished speaking, the claws disappeared.

"Woah!" Gray jerked back from the troll as if she was about to attack them. Nepeta frowned.

":33 I just put my claws back in my strife specibus…?" She said, looking around.

"Right…" Lucy said, warily staring at the troll. "Anyways, we have what you asked for."

":33 That's pawsitively fabulous!" Nepeta squealed, forgetting about how uncomfortable the humans were a minute before. ":33 So who is the next troll?"

"The sign was Scorpio," Lucy said, drawing the symbol in midair with her finger. Nepeta nodded, encouraging her to continue. "And the drawings said that she was in a spades relationship with Taurus and a clubs relationship with Virgo and Libra."

The troll giggled. ":33 That's all correct!" The guild members sighed with relief. "I knew that they'd be in blackrom! I called it so many sweeps ago!"

"Forgive me for asking," Erza said, interrupting the girl's celebrating. "But are these charts representations of relationships in your society?"

":33 Of claws they are! The heart and diamond are redrom, mainly pawsitive f33lings, and the spade and club are blackrom, mainly negative f33lings!" Before the troll could continue explaining the intricacies of the relationship quadrants, the room was flooded with a bright white light. As soon as it was over, Nepeta was gone and all that was left was a golden key where she had been standing.

Lucy strode over to the key and picked it up, examining the symbol. "Just like the last one," she muttered, pocketing the Leo key. "I don't understand why I have these if I can't use them."

"Perhaps you should try using one, just to test it out," Erza said, thinking hard. "They wouldn't give them back to you without a reason." Lucy nodded, drawing out a key.

"Open! Gate of the Crab Palace!" Lucy commanded, watching the key glow with a golden light.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" a gratingly loud voice yelled.

"Not him again," Natsu growled, baring his teeth at the foultempered troll.

"I'M JUST AS THRILLED AS YOU ARE TO BE HERE," Karkat spat, crossing his arms. "I THOUGHT THAT MY TASK WAS DONE ONCE I GUIDED YOU ASSHOLES THROUGH THE DOOR BUT NO. I'M STILL STUCK HERE WITH YOU INCOMPETENT WRIGGLERS."

Lucy rubbed her temples to stop her headache as Natsu and Gray began arguing with the troll. She sighed as she glanced at the door to the next chamber, hoping the troll wasn't too crazy.

~~~~~In another universe~~~~~

EB: hey dave?

TG: what

EB: i think something might be wrong.

TG: why

EB: well, vriska hasn't contacted me in a while

TG: look im sure shes just busy or whatever im not sure why youre worried about her

EB: well, she's helped me out a few times

TG: whatever you say bro im sure shell turn up eventually

EB: i guess youre right

TG: im always right

ectoBiologist [EB] has ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG].

A/N: I know, short stupid chapter... Nepeta's hard to write for, okay? :/ Yeah so maybe all the characters are OOC... well, since there wasn't really any action, it was complicated to write for Natsu and Gray because they're all about fighting and action. So, once again, sorry for any and all OOC-ness. I haven't really read Fairytail in a while and Hussie's on a longass hiatus so...

Anyways, Please review! :D Thanks to everyone who has reviewed/followed/favorited this story so far! :D