Steven Universe
A KNIGHT AND A MOUNT
Characters
A few thousand years ago, an alien race called the "Gems" under the leadership of "Pink Diamond" invaded Earth in an effort to colonize the planet and exploit the planet's resources. 5,700 years ago, a group called the "Crystal Gems" rebelled against Homeworld to protect Earth. The war took place for a thousand years and ended with the Diamonds setting off weapon of mass destruction that would corrupt all unprotected Gems on Earth as a last ditch effort to win the war. Only a handful of Gems survived the weapon and were left on stranded Earth with no mean to return. Homeworld was confident that the rebellion was quelled and began to exercise new plans for the failed colonies.
-o0o-
Steven Quartz Universe: is the son of the Crystal Gem rebel leader Rose Quartz and Greg Universe. He is the first and only member of human descent and as well as a hybrid species of the Crystal Gem.
A human/ Gem hybrid as result of his parentage, Steven inherited powers beyond that of both Gems and humans. Though only a child, Steven had grown from a tag-along of the Crystal Gem into that equal of their ranks thanks to his good-hearted nature and resourcefulness. Though Steven is part of a monumental legacy, he is devoted to become the protector of humanity just as his mother did before him.
Pearl: is a member of the Crystal Gem rebel. One of Rose Quartz's closest followers and her sole confidant, Pearl is one of the last surviving Gems on Earth who joined the Crystal Gem rebellion against Homeworld. She spent her last millennia protecting Earth and cleaning up the remains of the war with her friends and later became Steven's tutor as he embrace his destiny.
Garnet: is the one of the last surviving Gems who joined the rebellion against Homeworld. She is the current de-facto leader of the Crystal Gem after the decease of Rose Quartz and had spent the last millennia fighting against the corrupted Gems that still roamed Earth.
Amethyst: is part of the Crystal Gem and the last Gem manufactured on Earth as part of the Homeworld "kindergarten" program. After being found by Rose Quartz and the other members of the Crystal Gem, she spent the last four millennia protecting Earth with her friends and aid in the shenanigan of the Steven, Rose Quartz's son.
Chapter One Steven's Lion-o0o-
"Water" Steven croaked crawled his way up the sand dune sluggishly "So thirsty for water..."
"I think it will be safer if you stand up and walk," Pearl suggested as she walked passed him.
"You don't under...stand" the boy replied with a groan as he inched across the sand. "This is how...you're supposed to act...in the desert!"
Pearl face-palmed herself as she looked down at the boy. "I shouldn't have let him watched that much Indiana Jones" she confessed. At first she thought it would be a good demonstration of what they were about to do but it turned out that Steven's only interested on the ridiculous acting at the 'crawling in the desert' part.
"Say it to yer-self P." Amethyst defended the boy as she came up from his right, "you're not able to stop watching it since it first came out decades ago!"
Annoyed, Pearl turned away with her arms crossed before her chest, a barely suppressed anger hung about her mouth. She never gets along with Amethyst, even though they're supposed to have cooperated for more than four thousand years together.
With a groan Steven pulled himself up the peak of the sand dune and stood up. It was here where he can see the desert in its fullest. "Is this the thing?" he asked. The once flat an quiescence landscape had now became the home to the rumbling sounds of sand gathering, turning themselves into great pillars, walls and stairs just to collapse in mere minutes after their birth. "The place?" he turned at Garnet.
"Yes Steven" she replied as she lowered her massive sunglasses to have a better look at what was displayed before her. "The power of this structure had become aimless"
"It is building columns without buildings, stairs that go nowhere!" Pearl commented frantically as she pointed at the larger structure sitting amidst the pillars, walls and stairs, "this is simply out of control!"
The locals had told them about the story of a legendary sand castle earlier when they were at the village. They said that every once and then the sand castle would collapse and rebuild itself in a different location around the desert.
"That looks a long way" Amethyst said as she threw her view towards what seemed to by the mythical sand-castle. She fell straight to the ground like a robot suddenly ran out of battery and rolled herself down the dune like a log. She landed perfectly at the dune's foot with both of her hands raised in the air for a victory cheer.
"Guess, that was...a bit unnecessary" Pearl said as she slowly descended. As much as Amethyst loved her bombastic stunts, Pearl felt more comfortable retreating into a more elegant manner in her movement.
A sound cracked from the desert. It was like a mixture of a rumble from a rolling thunder and a man's groan and more importantly it was unlike anything Steven had heard before and it made him afraid. He suddenly straightened up and looked around warily
"What was that?"
"Seemed like it's coming from the castle" said Garnet, "It would be better if you stay behind" she continued.
"But what if something eats me?" the boy asked, it was hard to tell if the worried expression that he wore was genuine or fake.
"There's nothing out here that can harm you..." Garnet bent down to play with the boy's curly hair just to find out that it was slicked with sweat, "Ugh...Wet-One"
The boy laughed at her words and Garnet smiled slightly also, breaking the solemn mask that he wore since the beginning of this mission.
The Gems departed and dove their way through the forest of forming and collapsing sand pillars and walls, leaving Steven behind on the sand dune. The red-hot sunlight showered over him and scorched his face, drying up the sweat on his forehead. Though he was accustomed to heat in beach city the longer he stayed out with it, the more its heat seemed to be unbearable
He descended from the dune and quickly finds a place to hide from all of this heat. He retreated towards a sand column and used its shadow to cool him down.
His face was reddened with the sun, and the heat began to turn him dizzy. Steven had seen various shows and movies that advised him to pour water over his head to keep consciousness. As there was no bucket of water within sight, he decided to pull his shirt over his head to cool himself down.
After a few minutes, having nothing to do, Steven began to grow bored and eventually...drowsy. With the blocked off from him, his eyes started to feel heavy and shut close before he could notice.
A terrifying sound had shaken him awake. The sound of the groan echoed across the desert again, the very sound he had heard earlier.
"What was that?" Steven asked himself drowsily as he pulled his shirt away from his eyes and took a peak around him. There was no beast insight, only walls and pillars that had over time grew, around him.
"Nothing could harm me" Steven reassured himself Garnet was probably the oldest and most knowledgeable person living on Earth and she had never failed him once in his time spending with her. "I'm the wet one" he added some humor to quell his own fear. But as he was about to convince himself to go back to sleep, he saw something in his peripheral vision...he froze, all his breaths trapped.
The shadow crept up to him; slowly turning what Steven assumed was its head, revealing a pair of shining ghostly eyes. He stared at it for a moment or two, cold seat struck his temple...he shot up and dashed behind the sand column.
The column was thick and tall and should offer him the minimal protection he needed calm himself down. "Good that there's a column here" he gasped as he struggled to regain his breaths. The Gems his mind screamed I need to call the Gems. A sound like a drinking glass cracking under heat made Steven turned around and regarded with horror as the column he had hidden behind demolished itself, crashing down into a lump of sand. The burning white eyes reappeared behind the blanket of sand, like the desert it drowned Steven inside it, burning into his mind.
"No no no!" a scream broke from his lips, he backed into desert, his pulses were screaming, confusion flashed around him.
He could no longer back away. Something hard and rough caressed his back. Another wall of sand had formed behind him, blocking his escape. Steven fell on his knees, his eyes not leaving the pair of white entities before him. The beast approached him, it's massive body blocked the sun.
"No no!" Steven muttered. He coiled into the foot of the wall, his eyes closed and his arms swung around his head. Five, ten seconds have passed. Nothing had happened to him...yet his heart wouldn't settle yet, there's something not right here. Gathering all of his courage peeked open and threw a gaze at the creature whose shadow had loomed over him.
A male lion was before him, its massive structure and muscular body gave it a stomach-churning look even now, as fear no longer clouded his mind. The animal of ferocity and royalty hesitated in front of him, cocking its head either side as it looked down at Steven as if to study him. It backed away a bit and opened its mouth, revealing the razor-sharp jaws built for pulling down its prey...but it didn't bite instead let out a mysterious noise like someone yawning. It dropped the ground, its forelegs coiled to supports its head while the back ones stretched to both side.
Steven opened his eyes fully and uncoiled himself at the strange sight displayed before him. Curiosity overpowered him and forced him sneaked towards the great beast for closer look at it. At a close proximity, this lion was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Unlike its cousins in the Empire-City zoo, which were tawny in color, this one had somewhat of a pinkish scheme pulled over it. Its mane in particular, aside from having a softer shade of pink from the rest of its body formed a star around its head as if someone had combed it every day.
The lion flicked its ear. Steven shot backward. "Don't kill me" he whimpered as he shot his arms out again like a taekwondo master. Nothing happened! The lion was as still as dead.
Steven came up to it again. The boy had joined the Gems in some of their less dangerous missions and had witnessed the numerous terrifying forms that the corrupted Gems partook or the various different shapes taken by the wild animals that Home-World had brought to Earth and yet there wasn't anything quite like this one. The lion was neither scary nor lovely and had this mix of both embodied in him, a grey part that is hard to define and feel about. The lion's head rose, its eyes opened to stare at him in a way that Steven finds it hard to comprehend. The boy stretched his hand out and touched the lion's coarse heart-shaped nose.
"Don't bite!" he shouted as he retreated his arm as soon as he sensed the movement of its snout. But the lion didn't lunge forward or even opening its mouth but instead it stayed put and unresponsive towards the boy.
His fear had gone down the drain after the touch, after he was certain that his life was no longer threatened. He touched the lion on the head, caressing its fur like how he had done with kittens. The pink lion seemed a bit confused but posed neither threat nor danger. The boy's frown soon turned into a smile as he thought he realized what the feline wanted.
"Aww" he exclaimed. The once ferocious, brave and king-like ruler of the savanna came across him as no more than a cat. "You just want attention..." he joked as he moved on and scratched the mammal's back and belly "didn't chu didn't chu" he repeated.
"Soo..." the boy said as he casually climbed the lion's back as if it was a pony, "You're from 'round here? I'm just here on business"
"I like your pink fur though, you're like...the cotton candy of the jungle" he said, "they're so soft!"
The lion rolled over and knocked Steven off its hind and into the sand. But Steven was quite persistent in nature and climbed up it again.
"You know," he said in a puff as he finished climbing the massive creature, "I've always wanted an animal friend..." The smooth fur of the feline caused Steven to slipped off it and slide down its belly.
He landed on the sand perfectly and rests his back against the soft mound of flesh and fur behind him. "But I thought it would be a goldfish," he then raised his hands into the air, "or a dinosaur...but it seems like fate has other plans for Steven Universe"
The lion swung its foreleg around the boy, the heavy shaft of bone and flesh knocked the boy off his feet then pulled him closer to the lion's mane.
"I've made friend with a lion" he jeered, "I had a best-friend lion" he said a bit louder.
An explosion erupted from the sand castle. It puffed a mushroom shaped cloud of dust into the air like an atom bomb. Its shockwave swept across the desert like a powerful fan, blowing away all the sand structures scattered around it.
Hundreds of walls, stairs and columns were demolished within seconds. Their remains traveled with the shockwave and created a sand-tsunami that swept over Steven and the lion, burying of their body underneath it.
Three figures emerged from the ruins of the sand castle.
"Amethyst, please bubble it away" Pearl's voice rose over the air, destroying the deathly silence created by the explosion.
"Stop being jealous P." Amethyst's playful voice replied "My kill, my keep"
A bright green gemstone embedded in a red pillow was held by the younger Gem.
"I'm not jealous" Pearl explained, her voice stressed out, "if you let the Desert Glass touches the sand, it will rebuild everything!"
Amethyst didn't respond to that but instead she juggled what seemed to be the prized 'Desert Glass' perilously into the air. Pearl's pale brows knitted as she watched her compatriot toying around with the artifact.
"Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl are back," Steven told the lion, his voice pumped with excitement. He wanted to show them his new friend and couldn't imagine the look on their faces once he had told them. "Quick put my head in your mouth"
The lion exchanged a confused look at Steven and his daft suggestion.
"Steven, what is that thing?" Pearl screamed frantically "What are you doing?"
Lowering her body into what she called a "Boar Stance" she summoned her weapon, a heavily decorated blue-tipped spear that is poised to attack.
"Steven, get away from that thing!" Garnet demanded as she clasped her gauntlets and stepped forward.
"Don't!" the boy shouted and stood in front of the lion, his arm stretched to both side in an effort to protect it. The Gems lowered their arms in shock, their eyes widened at the peculiar scene displayed before them. "Stop"
"It's completely tamed" Steven explained with a forced smile as he turned back and scratched the lion's mane.
"Impossible!" Pearl shouted at him, the tip of her spear was now glowing in bright azure light as she was about to zap the animal with her laser attacks.
"It can even say: 'I love you'" the boy talked over her then put his hand inside the lion's mouth, stretching its lips in different positions to resemble the words.
"That's so sweet" Amethyst tagged along, her hands were knitted at the side of her cheek as her head tilted a little bit to her right. Pearl charged forward and pulled the boy away, regardless that the lion appeared to be certainly docile.
"Why?" Steven frowned, trying to turn on his "puppy eyes" mode which he had used numerous times before to force the Gems to do as he wishes.
Pearl sighed as she put away her spear. "Steven get your hands off that thing's mouth" she demanded "Don't just stick around with anything you see! That thing is not even biologically possible...it's pink...hmm...must be something leftover from the Gem Wars...a corrupted gem maybe, and usually they are dangerous!" she scratched her chin for a bit as her inquiring blue eyes stared at the towering beast behind the boy.
"More importantly," Pearl said as she broke away from the lion, "let's get head home, we got to get the Desert Glass off the desert"
The gems turned and made their way to the warp pad, except Pearl who kept looking back at Steven and waved for him to come.
"Just gimme a sec" he told her which made her shot a 'disappointed' look at him.
"Hey lion" Steven confessed "I had a lot fun today! I got this feeling that you really get me...but I have to go"
He pushed his finger in front of the lion's mouth and made its eyes widened for a few seconds.
"I know it's already too hard for the both of us" he sighed then leaves with his body bent over like puppet missing some strings. "You better bubble it when we get home" he heard Pearl scowling ahead. "Don't worry, I know exactly what to do with it"
-o0o-
2 days later,
It was 1:30 pm and a 'pillow' fortress was erected in the middle of the living room, consisted of the cushions from the set of sofa that was left naked behind it. With two cushions acted as some sort of frame or wall and three other pillows on top to act as ceiling. The Desert Glass was placed on top of the fortress and obviously it was all Amethyst's bright idea. It will look good as a roof she had told him as when they were building the fortress.
Underneath the fortress and between the cushion walls were Steven and Amethyst lying next to one another and enjoying their snooze.
A strange scratching sound shook Steven from his sleep. His mind was fuzzy, the last remnant of his dream was chased away by the god forbidden sound had interrupted his sleep. He smiled though, remembering the dream, it was something about him under a blooming cherry-blossom tree with Pearl talking about some Gem related stuff he felt hard to understand.
The sound arrived again and woke him up fully, an annoyed face replaced his smile.
"What's that sound?" he turned at Amethyst.
"The only thing I can hear is your mouth" she replied with her brows knitted above her closed eyes and pushed Steven's face away from hers.
"I thought Gems don't need to sleep" he said as he gathered himself to stand up.
"We don't" Amethyst said as she turned herself over "it just feel good though"
The scratching sound bounced in his head once more and forced Steven to stand up and put an end to it. It was woody and sharp, as if someone had brought a knife up his door and try to cut it.
"Rabble, rabble, rabble" Steven mumbled, his patience running low, "Just some kid with lots of time to ruin someone's life"
Arriving at the double-glass-paned-pink-door, Steven yanked it open.
"Hold you bridges!" he shouted to whoever was outside.
There was no answer. A figure stood before him, darkened by the contrast with the bright afternoon sun behind it, towering over him almost two folds. Steven squinted at it, his eyes beginning to focus. A bushy mane formed around what seemed to be its head, and below, four legs started to form.
"Lion?" Steven gasped astonished, struggling to word his next phrase. Out of control, he squished his own cheeks, making sure that this is not a dream. "Oh, oh my gosh...this is such a surprise!"
Reaching out for the animal's soft pink mane Steven tilted his head away in embarrassment. He had always been loving and respecting animals he'd seen during his missions with the Gems but rarely do they come back for him. This is the first time! "You came all this way to see lil' ol' me?"
The Lion reached its head inside, trying to get inside the house but was pushed back by Steven. The boy closed the door behind him and made the lion looked back at him with confusing eyes. "We can't get in there, Amethyst is pretending to sleep"
"But whatever right?" the boy shrugged "now that we're together, let's do what best friends do!"
-o0o-
As the hill in which Steven's house stood was near the waters, parts of it was carved away by the furious sea, leaving just a thin path that stretched between the house's front door and the beach.
The parts of the hill that have been eaten away by the sea were now replaced with steep but short cliffs that surrounded most of Steven's house and the boy had just the best idea what to do with them.
"Catch me!" Steven screamed from the edge of the muddy cliff. He had seen people playing this game all over the internet...maybe not with an animal though but surely with their best-friends. The lion that happened to be standing just underneath it looked up having no idea what the boy above him was doing. Steven shouted for the third and then fourth time before he thought he need to be more serious.
With his belly sliding on the ground and his slopped arms hang loosely over the edge of the slope he screamed:
"Catch I'll die. Catch me...MEEEEE"
The lion was unresponsive.
"Obviously you're not into this..." Disappointed the boy stood up to walk around the edge. The loose stone beneath him flipped over and twisted the ankle of the foot placed upon it. Steven fell to one side. It happened so fast he couldn't see it, but he could feel he was falling.
Squat!
He hit the ground! His stomach first! It felt like someone had punched him the belly from one side of his body to the other. "...Game!" he groaned.
The boy sluggishly gathered himself up, his arms and legs still sting from the fall. He swiped the sand off his hair and head. The lion stared at him for while then turned away and licked its paws.
The sound of the waves crashing ashore made Steven realized they were now at the beach. Now since they're at the beach, Steven reckoned that they should do something here. He had seen tourists throwing ball for their dogs to catch it on the beach...and now since he had a lion, it would be ten times as fun.
Litter is left along the beach by the summer tourists so finding something to throw wasn't a hard task. A green tennis ball lied dormant near the waves, probably washed ashore when tide was high last night.
"Lion!" Steven shouted as he picked the ball up and blew the sand off its surface,"I'm gonna throw this ball!"
Steven swung his arm as fast and forceful as he could though maintained eye contact with his target. The ball flew off Steven's hand like a meteor and then...disappointedly landed just in front of the unresponsive lion.
"What!" Steven screamed. He face-palm with both hands in disbelief before running towards the lion and picked up the ball.
"That throw was so good!" He picked the ball up. "Lion, all you have to do is to catch it in your mouth" the boy lobbed the ball into the air and caught it between his teeth. "See?"
Lion turned away from the boy as clearly he shared no interests in either catching a ball or catching a boy.
"Aww" the boy frowned. He never really had a pet before and now, when he finds himself an animal friend, he is clueless about what he wants. You don't like that too?"
Suddenly, a bright idea shone through Steven's head. How could he forget? How could been so stupid?
"I've got something you gotta like" he suggested.