Authors note: if this seems shitty-er than usual, then it's because I'm a huge procrastinator and it's a bit of a rush job. Also the next few Chapters may or may not be from not just Cassidy and Bethanys perspectives. If that makes sense. I know the next one won't be but after that... well I rarely plan anything beyond... anything. Whatever. New chapter. Enjoy or critique or something.
Chapter eight: of trolls, runaways, and houses.
You wake up and your head feels groggy. Like you're coming out of a dense fog... or something. You look out the window and oh shit it's already afternoon! You try to get up and get to work on making yourself look more presentable but your almost jerked backwards by your arm. You, on your back, look up and see that your wrist is tied to the bed post. After fooling around for a bit you realize that you aren't going anywhere. After freaking out a bit more than a bit Miss Curly Horns comes in.
"Oh good, I was starting to think you'd never wake up. It's a pleasure to meet you my names Aradia." She says, holding out a hand for your free one to shake. She... doesn't talk like you thought a troll would talk.
"Hi Aradia, I'm Cassidy!" You say and shake your hand because you want to make a good first impression. "But, why am I tied to the bed?"
"Right. That. Um." She takes a seat on the bed and you sit up. "That's really more for your protection than anything. If you woke up and just walked outside, they would probably kill you before we could do anything. If you want I can take it off, if you promise not to leave the house that is." She says.
You nod and promise. Wait... ... Oh my- You're on the trolls side! How are you here? "How exactly did I end up on this side?" You say, absentmindedly rubbing your wrist after she'd untied you.
"Well, we wanted to get Bethany to come here and you two seem close so... we kind of kidnapped you." She says with a guilty smile.
"Are you one of the trolls that want her dead?!" You say followed by a gasp.
She says yes then a whole bunch of reasons why it's right that you already heard John say then she says she has to leave. There is no way you're staying here and contributing to Bethy's death! You look out the window to see if anyones guarding you. Yes, no ones out there! Wait. All the trolls here are trained guards and will kill you. Shit! Now how are you supposed to get out?
You dink around for a while and hope an idea hits you like a hammer to the face, except not because that would hurt. But it doesn't and you don't know if that's good or bad. What does happen is that a troll comes in and it looks like she's hiding. You hide from her because you're scared of trolls. Then you realize it's Fefer- the Princess. Bethy's harped on you enough by now for calling her by her name and not her title to make you try to break the habit. Wait, isn't she really nice and understanding? Hey, maybe she won't try to kill you! Oooh and maybe she'll help you get back home! This idea is starting to sound better and better.
"Um, are you here to kill me?" You say coming somewhat out of the closet. Wait... wow. You idly think that you've become more perverted since you met Bethy.
"Hm? Oh! No! I'd never hurt anemone! I'm just hiding from Eridan. He's been so overbearing lately." Her words stop when she actually looks at you. Only your head is showing so far.
You wait for her to freak out or something, but she just sits there beneath the window with her mouth open. You show the rest of yourself.
"Are you alright?" You ask.
"Are... Are you a human?" She asks bewildered.
"Yeah, that's why I thought you'd krill me. I mean kill." You say. Wow she's really pretty.
She laughs. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you. But I always thought humans were just a myth?" She says/asks.
"Well, we live in a different world. But there's a way to travel to the other world. But I was kidnapped here! So that my moirail would come so they could krill her! I mean kill!" You say getting slightly worked up about it.
"They fishnapped you?! ... Here, come back with me and I'll kelp you as much as I can." She says holding out a clawed hand to you.
You look at the claws for a moment. They don't look anything like what Bethy calls claws. For one, they're yellow! And they're long, and thick, and sharp, and yellow! You realize you've been staring and take her hand. She smiles and leads you out the door and runs.
By the time you reach her place, you've hidden in over fifty different places and seen a lot of new trolls, with the Princess giving a little story about each of them and their name. The inside of her house is... pink. Every thing in here is some shade of pink. The color scheme seems to be fuchsia.
"Oh, I don't even minnow your name yet! I'm Feferi by the wade." She says sitting down on one of her chairs.
"I'm Cassidy. But Bethy always calls me Cat." You say, looking at the weird tub-thing off to the side of the room that's filled with slime.
"Okay Catfish!" You giggle at the new nickname. "Wait, are you carping aboat Bethany?" You nod. "She's the one they want to krill?" You nod. "Well that's... weird. Sure she's a mutant, but if that was all then why let her live so long?"
"Bethy's a mutant?" You ask.
"Yeah. She doesnt have any horns, her eyes are reelly weird, and her blood color isn't even close to any on the hemospectrum. It's almost pike she's not even a troll." She says.
You decide not to tell her that she's an Omega. If she didn't tell anyone then it's probably for a good reason.
"So, how are you going to get back?" She says snapping you out of your thoughts.
"Well, there's a rip in the forest that'll take me back. But once they notice I'm gone they'll probably be guarding it. If it's alright with you, Princess, I think I'll just stay here and wait for Bethy to come. I'm not all that good at fighting." You say.
"I don't think that's a good idea. Bethany, pike the others low on the spectrum, seems to think that if they do so much as glub to me then I'll behead them. No it'd be betta if I took you to someone she trusts more. Gamzee!" She says.
"Oh, no. Gamzee's one of the ones that want her dead. How about Karkat? It's not... exactly trust, but he won't kill me. Right?" You ask.
"That... might work. Yeah." She says.
She tells you to hide and calls two others in. She tells them to get Karkat Vantas and even though Gamzees frowning they go. It dooesnt take long for them to come back with the small troll in-between them. She brings him into the room and closes the door, keeping out her guards. Karkat looks scared.
"If you're going to fucking cull me then why the fuck would you want to do it in your respite block? Unless you have some kind of fucked up fetish about seeing my blood on your walls or some other creepy fucking shit like that." He says. You think he was going to say more but then the Princess put a hand on his shoulder.
"Karkat, clam down, I didn't call you here to krill you. In fact, I actually wanted your kelp with something. You can come out now." She says in a soothing voice.
You come out from your hiding place behind her desk and wave. "Hi Karkat, my names Cassidy."
He stands in shock for a moment. Then you proceed to have a conversation that's very similar to the one you had with Fefe- the Princess. Then after Karkat's poked you a bit and made vulgar a comment about something, the Princess tells him about your little dilemma.
"No. Fuck no. There is no fucking way I am doing anything to help that raging bitch. I would rather die than help her. I would rather let Gamzee kill me than help her! I am NOT going to-" He gets cut off by Feferi's raised hand.
"Karkat, I'm ordering you to hide and protect her until Bethany comes to get her." She says.
There's a beat of silence before Karkat growls and yells and cusses a whole bunch of words that pretty much meant "I'll do it, but I don't want to." Then Karkat leads you to a little cluster of little shacks and shoves you into one. You try to make conversation with him but every thing you say he shoots down with a glare. Are all trolls this angry? He tells you to stay put, but with a lot more words and he called you a bulge slut. Whatever that means. Then he left. And you're left to waiting. You seem to be doing a lot of that lately. Maybe you should do something, but what? You could try to go back, but that's stupid because they're probably guarding it. You could try to takedown Aradia, but then she's a troll and has friends here. You could camp out by the rip and wait for her, but they're guarding it. Wow, there's really nothing constructive you can do. So you wait.
Feferi (She said that you can call her that, and that "lowbloods" only refer to her with her title because they think she'll hurt them if they don't.) stopped by a few times as the day wore on. You asked her about troll things like horns and luseses... lusi? Is it just luses? Who cares? Anyway, she talked with you for a while and asked about human things. Karkat came in once and you asked him why he hates Bethy so much.
"Why the fuck would you ask that? It's not like there's any baggage attached to the answer or anything." He says
"Sorry. I thought it was just... like she rubbed you the wrong way or something." You say.
"How the shit are you still alive?" You give him a confused look and he goes on. "Beth is the most violent, crazy, murderous, and defensive person I know. She also has just enough strength to back it up. You're a weak human with no weapons training, or training at all. You're even stupider than Tavros! Why the hell hasn't she killed you yet?"
"Um, maybe because I interest her? I don't know man. I don't even know how I became her moirail." You say.
He pauses at that and gives you a deadpan look. "You're fucking kidding me. You're her moirail!" You think he would have continued but then Feferi comes in and he stops talking.
"Catfish? We have a bit of a problem. You said that Bethany was going to come here because you were taken, right?" You nod. "Whale, if you two reely are moryeels, then she's probably out for blood." She says.
You realize she's right. With what little you saw of her actually killing, you know she likes it and you know she's good at it. You hope she doesn't try to krill these guys.
More time passes and the only mentionable thing that happens is that you found what looked to be a really old drawing set and started drawing murals on Karkats walls. That is until he came back and started shouting at you to stop. Then Feferi comes back around what you assume to be dusk and Karkat comes in to sleep. Then Bethy walks in with one of her swords drawn and looks like... like she needs to rest. You notice Fredrick trailing behind her. What really surprises you is when Dirk walks in behind her. She sees your company and stiffens momentarily before grabbing you and trying to abscond.
"C'mon Cat, let's get the fuck outta here." She says
"Oh my cod, Bethany what happened to you?" Feferi says, interrupting Bethy before she can leave.
"Princess, it would be in your best interest to not be involved in this at all." Bethy says
They argue some more, but where you're attention is focused is on Dirk. Once he got in here he's just been staring out the window. Then there's Karkat. You know Bethy hates him in some sort of weird troll romance way, but he's just looking out a different window and acting like Bethy isn't even there.
"They know that we know by now." Karkat says, interrupting the argument.
"Yeah, you two are essentially dead as of now." Bethy says. "C'mon lets go."
"Bethy, what do you mean Feferi and Karkat are pretty much dead?" You say stopping her.
She looks to Dirk. "The ones who took you here did it to lure Bethany here so they could kill her. They want to kill her because they don't want anyone to know about the humans, and she does. Now, they know too." Dirk says.
"Well then why can't they come with us, back to the human world?" You say.
"It's their problem, let them deal with it Cat." Bethy says.
"We can't just leave them here to die!" You say.
Bethy just raises an eyebrow, like she thinks you're stupid or something. "Bethy I'm not leaving here without them!" You say and yank your arm out of her grasp. You go over and hug Feferi. "If you're taking me, you'll have to take them too!"
Okay now she's looking at you like you're an idiot. Hmm, hugging Feferi feels nice. Wait, you're standing you're ground! Bethy sigh/growls exasperatedly. That doesn't seem like it should be a word.
"If we take them, our chances of survival are slim to none." Dirk says.
"I honestly never thought we'd be makin' it out alive anyhow. Cat quit yer fussin' and let's go. The Princess and crab ass over there can come too if they want but we really need to be goin'. Any signs of 'em?" Bethy says
"We're clear. For now." Karkat says.
You nod and let go of Feferi, well you kept ahold of her arm but you weren't all over her anymore. Bethy went out, followed by Dirk, then you and Feferi, with Karkat bringing up the end. She leads you all into the forest and towards the rip. As you thought before, it's being guarded. But by only one troll. Sollux. Dave's beside him. Dirk walks foreword.
"Didn't think you'd be taking sides in this Captor." Dirk says.
"Fuck you Thtrider. I've had a change of heart. I've dethided to cooperate for the time being." Sollux says.
Dirk looks at Dave, then Sollux, then back to Dave. Bethy walks briskly between them and through the rip, then the trolls hesitantly follow with you and Dirk bringing up the end. Surprisingly, neither of them question the fact that Karkat and Feferi are following you and neither of them even look twice at Bethy's condition. You might just have to force bed rest on her.
On the other side Feferi and Karkat immediately close their eyes in pain and Bethy says something about forgetting to warn them, even though it's only slightly brighter here than it was there. You think it's almost dusk. Bethy gives the trolls some information she thinks they'll need. Then there's the problem of where they'll be staying. Of course, you say that Feferi's more than welcome at your place. Then you say that Karkat should stay with Bethy, but they both immediately decline. He says he'll stay in the forest until something else can be figured out and leaves. You wonder how he'll see until night fall. You look around for Dirk, but he's disappeared like usual. Bethy say she's tired and is going back to bed then leaves. You lead Feferi by the hand too... Shit. Your burned down house. You tell her to stay where she is and go to find out what the hells going on. You find Jake first.
"Cassidy! Where the dickens have you been?! After Mr. Strider pulled you out of the flames you just vanished! With how often you've been missing I'm beginning to worry about you." He says while grabbing you.
"Jake I'm fine. Everything's going to be just fine. I'm not in any danger at all. But where exactly will I be sleeping?" You say and hope that you don't have to room with anyone.
"Yes, it was rather clever of the elder Mr. Egbert to see something like this coming. Exactly what I would expect from the man! He made preparations and had a number of spare cabins built quite a while back. He constructed them a ways away for some reason though." He says.
"Do you think you can show me to them?" You say.
With a righto he marches off and you follow. A while later you arrive at a beautiful clearing. You never knew the ground could be this soft. Looking back you can only barely see the village in the distance. This place is perfect for the trolls! He takes you in and there are two bedrooms in each. At least you think the other ones a bedroom. It doesn't have a bed though, just one of those tub things that you saw in Feferi's... okay. That's creepy. But you can't deny that they were made for them!
Later on you lead Feferi there, it's almost night fall by the time you reach it so she can somewhat see. You lead her to her room, the one with the recouprecoon in it. That's what she said it was at least. You think it's a funny name for a tub filled with slime, but then she probably thinks the word bed is funny.
You find that you're surprisingly tired when you get to your new room. Hm, all your stuff is gone. Burned in the fire. You guess you're sleeping in you're clothes again. You fall on the already made bed and feel a lump. You move and look to see what it is. It's folded up night clothes with a note on top that says "To Cassidy." on it.
And just like everything else in the house, it's covered in a thick layer of dust.