And so they arrived.

[Gamzee Makara]

Karkat stared at Malon from what he assumed was a relatively safe distance away. She held his gaze, unblinking. What a strange creature, she must have been thinking to herself. Grey skin. Little candy corn colored nubs for horns poking through a crop of messy jet black hair, and his shirt bore a strange symbol that she didn't recognize. She went to ask him about it, but the expression on the boy's face gave her cause to reconsider. Then, the smallest of smiles pierces her lips. Malon crossed her arms, purposefully copying her new companion, and a squeaky little 'hmph' escapes her throat.

"If you're going to travel with me," she begins, small little smile ever present, "then you're certainly going to have to have a better attitude about it. Or at the very least be much more polite."

The troll scoffs in disbelief. The utter gall this human girl had caught him plainly off guard. He opened his mouth to return fire with his own snarky little comment, but something stole his attention before he could manage.

There, far closer to the two of them than Karkat was comfortable with, was a small, furry...creature. It had a red-orange coat of fur, no doubt soaked by the blood of its enemies. A bushy tail swished back and forth, and a snout painted with black lips and a mouth full of sharp teeth was clearly visible.

That creature was grinning at them, intelligent eyes of amber piercing their very souls. The predator, it would seem, was sizing up the prey. It couldn't have been more than 10 yards away, sitting there, just watching them. Menacingly

"Stand back, human girl," The alien says softly, eyes wide and wary. He reaches around his back and yanks his sickle loose from the straps.

Malon tilts her head, looking at Karkat as if he had sprouted an extra limb or five. Then, she lays eyes on the target of his vehemence.

"It's a... fox," She says plainly.

"Yes, yes, fuck, that's what I said too. Shhhh," he hushes her, "It can sense fear."

What.

"HYAAAAAAAH!" Karkat leaps, sickle raised for the kill.

What?!

Malon sprints into a leaping pounce, tackling Karkat to the ground a safe distance away from the poor woodland critter.

"WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?" Kar shouts, struggling against the girl's pin. "It's gonna fucking kill us! It's-"

The Hylian slaps a hand across the boy's mouth, silencing him for a moment. The utter GALL this girl had!

"That is a fox."

Karkat strained and craned his neck to get another good look at the monster, that horrendous looking thing she called a fox. He was positively sure that it was going to shred them to ribbons at any moment now, but the painful, gruesome death at the claws of a fox never came. Instead, Malon rolled off of him and put her hands on her hips.

"Look! You probably scared the poor thing half to death." She says while gesturing to the fox. By the inquisitive look the creature was giving the two of them, Karkat had done nothing of the sort.