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The bright light of the sun peeked through the trees, casting strange patterns over the hives of those who lived within the confines of the woods. Had this been Alternia, the trolls living inside would have stayed away from the light, but this world, a refugee world, was out of Alternia’s system. The trolls, one of many species inhabiting this particular planet, found themselves unaffected by the sun, seeing as it was much less harsh than the one of their homeworld.
A small troll crept through the trees, avoiding the spots of light that wouldn’t harm her, but would certainly give away her location. In her mind, she was the mighty huntress, stalking a small, harmless, unsuspecting prey.
Of course, in reality, her prey was not harmless or small; in fact, he was a skilled fighter who stood a head taller than she. But he was plenty unsuspecting.
The “mighty huntress” continued her stalking, following after her prey as he walked through the forest. She giggled to herself, the soft noise drowned out by the sound of the wind through the leaves. It was hard to not be giddy at times like these; usually, a “mighty huntress” stalked her prey to eat, but this time, she was targeting because she liked someone. It was her way of flirting.
As the forest took on a more familiar landscape, she had to step up her game; the target was almost back to his hive. She closed in, just as the hive came into view between the trees, and tensed up. And then…
She purrounced.
“Karkitty!”
The body that she impacted did not support her; Karkat pitched forward with a shriek of “Oh fuck!”
Both trolls found themselves in the dirt.
“Nepeta! What the fuck!”
Nepeta laughed, rolling off of Karkat. “You should have said you would be back early. I almost missed you!”
Karkat groaned, sitting up and rubbing places that would certainly have bruises tomorrow. Nepeta grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet, dragging him towards town. Karkat was just glad that he saved face by not being tacklepounced in view of anyone.
“What are you doing here, anyway? Don’t you have work?”
“More people left. Without as many people around, there’s not as much work to do! We don’t have to purroduce as much food or supplies, and Mewlin’s been sick, so I got to stay home with her because there wasn’t anything fur me to do!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Sick?” Karkat stopped. “We’re heading back to your hive, aren’t we? Nope! I don’t want any of that!”
Nepeta pouted. “Don’t be rude, Karkitty. Mew’s not contagious anymore, and you haven’t seen her in such a long time! We always end up going to your hive, but Kankri’s not home yet, so you’re just going to have to come with me!”
Karkat sneered, but put up with the circumstances. He’d have to wander around town alone if he turned Nepeta down; Kankri always locked up their own hive.
Meulin was outside when the two younger trolls reached her hive.
“Karkitty! Hi!” she called. “You’re back early! You should’ve sent message ahead; sorry, but Kankri locked up your hive.” She frowned.
This was certainly not news to Karkat.
“Yeah, Meulin, Nepeta said that I could stay here until Kankri gets back. Unless you’re, you know, sick, ‘cause if that’s the case, I’ll leave.”
“Oh, no! You can stay! I’m feeling much better now.” Meulin beamed.
“Well that’s good,” Karkat said, but, attributing to his general lack of social skills, chose that time to exit, preferring to talk to his peer than his elder. In this manner, the three passed the time.
By the time Kankri returned, the setting sun had given everything an orange tint. Meulin, Karkat, and Nepeta had long since retired inside to continue their conversation while fixing dinner. Kankri, breaking away from his normal route, detoured to the hive.
“I got it!” Nepeta called when the knock sounded from the door. She bounded over, throwing open the door to reveal, to nobody’s surprise, Kankri.
The mutantblood nodded his greetings.
“Karkat, you should’ve sent message that you’d be returning early.” He chided.
“That’s purrecisely what I said!” Meulin affirmed, much to Karkat’s irritation.
Kankri looked like he was about to say something else, but thought better of it. He shook his head lightly, sighing.
“Meulin, can I talk to you for a minute? Alone,” he said, motioning to the door, “Unless you don’t feel that you can because of your health.”
“Sure!” Meulin bounded up, ignoring Kankri’s insistence that she should stay calm, for her recovery. She skipped outside, and Kankri followed.
Meulin spun to face Kankri as soon as they were alone, and her cheerful expression fell at the sight of his own.
“Kankri?”
“I should start by warning you, what I’m about to say could be triggering. The triggers include, but are not limited-”
“Kankri,” Meulin frowned, “I won’t hold it against you if I find something you say triggering, but I don’t think we have time fur all of that.”
“We need to prepare to evacuate.”
Meulin’s mouth dropped open as her eyes widened. It occurred to Kankri that Meulin may not be quite as well as she let on, but he needed to say what had to be said.
“The Condesce has moved into our galaxy. We need to leave before she reaches us.”
Meulin curled her lips over her teeth. She looked like he was about to be sick.
“Meu…?” Kankri reached out to her.
“How do you know? Why hasn’t news spurread?” Meulin recovered, shaking her head from side to side and moving to the defensive. “How could you purrosibly know before anyone else?” She froze, locking eyes with Kankri. “Was it your furriend?”
Kankri switched to the defensive then, knowing how Meulin didn’t always trust his friend. “She’s never told us wrong before. Why would she lie to us now?”
“I don’t know, Kankri, but how would she know this?”
“Meulin,” Kankri took on the tone that he usually used when he was lecturing Nepeta or Karkat, “She just does. We shouldn’t take the chance, if she’s right.”
Meulin caved, knowing that Kankri was right. She cut her eyes worriedly towards her hive. Karkat and Nepeta were still inside. “Purrhaps we should go ahead and tell them?”
Kankri sighed, closing his eyes. “Karkat came back early today; I imagine his friend told him the same. If we’ve left them alone, I have little doubt that Nepeta has coaxed the reason out of him.”
~~~
“Karkitty?” Nepeta said cautiously. When Meulin and Kankri left, the conversation inside the hive had stopped.
“What?” Karkat looked up to find Nepeta crouching in front of him, curiosity and worry clear in her dark eyes. His face twisted in concern. Nepeta pushed upwards, so her face was very close to Karkat’s, and she had his full attention. She frowned.
“What’s going on?”
“Uh…” Karkat stalled, but Nepeta was having none of that.
“You weren’t suppurrosed to be back until late, late tonight. Why did you come back early?”
Nepeta had never been someone who needed protection. When she and Karkat went to the refugee school in town and were made fun of for their race or bloodcaste, it was almost a race to see who would attack first; Karkat or Nepeta. But they-all four of them-had a life, had roots in this miserable refugee planet. The last thing anyone, least of all Karkat, wanted was to have to dig up everything they had on the basis of what may be a rumor. But Karkat’s mysterious friend, a fellow troll who had been giving him information for nearly a sweep now, became the bearer of bad news to tell him that he needed to return home early; evacuation preparations needed to be made. She had never been wrong before.
Karkat sighed. “According to a fucking reliable source, we need to get the hell out of here.” His voice rose in pitch. “The Condesce’s moving in, and we’re all fucked if we don’t leave.”
Nepeta’s expression lost its worry, confirming Karkat’s ever-constant suspicion that the girl simply could not get her priorities straight.
“A furriend of Karkitty’s?”
“Yeah. She’s been helping me and giving me really fucking useful advice for a while. That’s how I’ve known about some things happening in town.”
“Oh.” Nepeta looked to the side, thinking.
“Look, I know that you’re probably suspicious, but you’re going to have to trust-”
“Okay!” she said. “If Karkitty trusts her, so do I!”
“Whoa, fuck, what?” Karkat was taken aback. “Just like that?”
“Of course!” Nepeta beamed.
“Well, you know what this fucking means, don’t you? We’ve got to fucking evacuate!”
Nepeta jumped up. “We need to tell the others!” She dashed for the door, dragging a significantly annoyed mutantblood along with her. “We need to-”
She ran smack into the other mutantblood.
Kankri looked down at Nepeta and opened his mouth, probably about to launch into a lecture about how dangerous it was to be running at high speeds with blatant disregard for the safety of others, didn’t she know how that could be triggering, but before any of those words left his mouth, Meulin stepped forward. She knelt down, taking Nepeta gently by the arm and pulling her upright.
“Did Karkitty tell mew?”
“Karkitty” had only halfway fallen to the floor, not being directly impacted by Nepeta’s collision. He spoke from his half-kneeling state.
“Tell her what, that our fucking lives are about to turn fucking upside down? That we need to get ready to leave before the entire population of this shit-ass planet does an acrobatic fucking pirouette off the handle when the news spreads?” Karkat looked like he wanted to go off on another one of his tirades, but Meulin shooshed him.
“Language, Karkat. And yes, we do need to evacuate. I was just filling Meulin in on the details. I’d like to go over our mutual information, to see if either of us knows something more than the other. Perhaps you’d care to-”
“Kankri, we don’t have the time!” Meulin huffed. Nepeta frowned. The two olivebloods were getting tired of the continual need to interrupt their friends. “We’ve purrpeared the shuttle for this furry reason! We need to use it!”
“Sooner, fucking better. We don’t want to get caught up in the shitstorm that’s bound to happen when all of this hits the whirling device.”
“We should prepare tonight. If we decide to leave now, we should.” Kankri nodded to his own words and set off to his hive. Meulin went back to her respiteblock, leaving Karkat and Nepeta alone. Karkat said goodbye and turned to head back to his hive as well. When he reached the doorway of Nepeta’s hive, though, he heard a sniffle behind him.
“I don’t want to leave.”
~~~
When Meulin returned to the common area of the hive, she found Nepeta curled on the ground. Meulin put her own packed bag next to Nepeta’s and sat next to the younger troll.
“Nepurrta?”
“Mmm?” The mumbled reply was paired with a choked sob.
Meulin grabbed Nepeta by the shoulders and pulled her into her lap, wrapping her in a hug. Nepeta dried her tears on Meulin’s sweater, snuggling up to her. Meulin shooshed her, rocking back and forth as if Nepeta was a wiggler. Normally, Nepeta would fight against such childish treatment, but this time, she enjoyed Meulin’s comfort.
“Mew, I don’t wanna go.”
Meulin rested her head on Nepeta’s. “You knew we couldn’t stay here long. We never planned this.”
“I know…” Nepeta purred, “But I hoped that we wouldn’t have to run anyfur.”
“It’s going to be okay, Nepurrta,” Meulin cooed, “Efurrything’s going to be okay, as long as we’re togefur.”
~~~
Everything was not okay.
The Condesce had unexpectedly sent a scavenger ship ahead, packed full of carapaces eager for blood. When the first hive in town was overrun by carapaces and the flames burned over the horizon, Meulin sent up a word of thanks to the higher powers that Kankri had warned them when he did. Then, she grabbed her bag, called to Meulin, and ran for Kankri and Karkat’s hive.
The mutantbloods were waiting outside.
The escape shuttle had been the four’s means of transport from one planet to the next. Since Meulin and Kankri had teamed up, their lives and the lives of their siblings in mind, to escape the Condesce, they had relocated to five different locations on three different planets. This time, they had stowed the durable machine at the edge of a forest outside of town, half-covered by a small alcove.
A forest that, they found out too late, was crawling with carapaces. Always the forests.
They stuck together as a group, doing their best to sneak past the carapaces. The plan was to get to the shuttle without detection; once inside, they were practically home free.
But when Nepeta felt something slam into her back, forcing her to the ground, she remembered a human saying, something about “best-laid plans”.
Before the carapace could begin to attack the prone Nepeta, though, it was beheaded. Karkat, the one behind the beheading, hauled Nepeta to her feet, the latter already preparing her claws. Kankri and Meulin, know that their covers were blown, prepared to fight their way to the shuttle. Kankri unsheathed a scythe not unlike Karkat’s.
“I don’t condone this sort of violence. I act solely in self-defence.”
“Kankri…” Meulin growled, “Shut up!”
The four slashed and sliced their way through the army of small, devilish carapaces, fighting in unity until Karkat pushed Kankri back, since he wasn’t helping much, anyway.
“Go around! Start the fucking shuttle!” he growled. This was in part a strategic move as well; Kankri knew the most when it came to most things, and that included operating the shuttle. Kankri sheathed his scythe and ducked around a tree, making his way quietly around the outskirts of the fight until he had space to break clean away for the alcove.
There was an unexpected lull in the fighting, a time in which the remaining three headed towards the shuttle site, but the calm before the storm ended when a particularly nasty carapace charged from behind his cover and buried his knife into Karkat’s side.
“Mother of fuck!” Karkat fell.
“Karkitty!” Nepeta leaped, skewering the carapace with her claws. Karkat struggled to his feet with her support, still managing to swing his scythe in a cataclysm of terrible force. However, the damage had been done in regards to both his physique and their group force; without Karkat at full capacity, Meulin and Nepeta began taking harder hits.
Nepeta had never seen Meulin act this way. Her normally kind and caring sister fought with a ferocity that made her different from her scrappy younger sibling. Karkat noticed this, too; having witnessed many of Nepeta’s fights. A more poetic person would compare Nepeta to a series of firecrackers and Meulin to a fire tornado; though Karkat had an expansive vocabulary, he never applied it to those sorts of things.
But Meulin had never taken much to aggression. In fact, besides Kankri, she was usually the most useless in fights. An untapped force propelled her now, a desire to protect, to save.
Finally, the treeline broke unexpectedly, and Karkat and Nepeta, not expecting the fall, tumbled over the side of the alcove and onto the roof of the shuttle, a few feet from the roof opening. Beneath their bodies, the metal of the shuttle buzzed from the engine.
Karkat made it to the trapdoor first, hefting it open and making to go inside, but he turned. Nepeta had also gotten to her feet, only to face back towards the way they came.
“Nepeta, get the fuck over here!” Karkat called. When she didn’t respond, he staggered to her, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the hatch.
“No!” Nepeta pushed back against him, gently, so as not to disturb his wound. “Mewlin’s still up there! We have to wait fur her!”
“Nepeta!” Karkat spun her around so she was facing him, placing both hands on her shoulders. “We have to get inside the fucking shuttle! It’s a fucking shitstorm out here!”
“We can’t abandon Mew!”
“I’m not about to fucking leave both of you!”
Nepeta turned back, looking towards her sister’s probable location. “I’m going back to get her.”
“Like hell you are!” Karkat yanked her arm, pulling her back. “If you think I’m going to let you fucking waltz back onto that battlefield, you’re fucking wrong.”
“I know,” Nepeta sighed. She knew Karkat was just worried for her, but she couldn’t simply leave her sister behind. “That’s why…”
Nepeta lifted her hands and pressed them against Karkat’s chest, wincing when her fingers met the blood from his wound. She shoved with all of her might.
“Nepe-fuck!” Karkat shouted as he fell, heading straight for the open hatch. He crashed hard through the opening, falling all of the way to the floor. The hatch remained open.
Over the din of the engine, Karkat could hear a ferocious shriek.
He was still reeling from the impact when his situation got much, much worse. A swarm of carapaces overtook the shuttle, pouring in from the open hatch.
“Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck,” Karkat repeated as he pulled himself up, facing off against the dozen carapaces that had already made it inside. He did his best to climb over the mongrels, fighting his way to the ladder and climbing up, reaching up and pulling at the door. He climbed up enough to see over the top of the hatch, trying to see if either Nepeta or Meulin were still in sight.
They weren’t.
Another few carapaces tried to make their way into the shuttle, and Karkat was forced to shut the hatch.
Inside the shuttle, Kankri was struggling with the many carapaces that had made their way inside. Karkat stumbled in swinging, slicing up carapaces right and left as Kankri did his best to incapacitate the ones closest to him. However, his objection to using excessive violence, merely a hindrance before, cost both mutantbloods dearly when one carapace damaged the control panel.
To both Kankri and Karkat’s horror, the shuttle started to accelerate, lifting off.
They were both helpless to stop it.
~~~
Meulin was still in the forest, bravely taking on multiple carapaces when Nepeta showed up to help. The two sisters struggled against the growing forces. The odds were against them, but they continued their battle long after both were nearly exhausted, and long after the shuttle had left them. The realization did a number on Nepeta’s resolve.
Nepeta fell first, her body simply giving way from fatigue, and crashed to the ground.
“Nepurrta!” Meulin pounced, landing in front of the younger troll in a protective position, growling and hissing a the scant few carapaces that remained. Nobody would touch Nepeta, not while Meulin could do something about it.
The last few carapaces were disposed of and Meulin fell to her knees beside Nepeta.
“We did it? Karkitty’s safe?” Nepeta whispered.
“Yes. We purrotected them.” Meulin bent forward, brushing through Nepeta’s hair. Nepeta smiled, the knowledge that Karkat was safe being enough for her.
“Good.”
“The two of you have furrought valiantly.”
Meulin and Nepeta both gasped at the new voice. Nepeta pushed herself onto her hands and knees, and both girls turned towards the source.
A bright, fuchsia light washed over them.