The waves of the ocean rolled onto the sandy beach with more force than they would on clear days which today was not as storm clouds hung menacingly in the late afternoon sky. Sitting on the beach, counting the time between the flashes of lighting and the powerful thunder that followed, were two young kids, a boy with curly black hair and a girl with straight brown hair and pretty sun dress, a bit ironic since it was cloudy outside. The two sat just far enough from the waves that if a stray lightning bolt hit the ocean they wouldn't be fried. Definitely the girl's idea to do this.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…" they practically chanted before the crash of thunder shook the land.
"Its getting closer." the girl noted, largely in wonder as she saw another flash of lightning in the sky.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…." the boy began again before the next sound of thunder hit, "Yeah, I still think it's so cool that you can guess how far a storm is just from the thunder and lightning!" he smiled, "How does it work again?"
The girl took a brief moment to compose her thoughts before turning over to him "Well, for every five seconds that we count it means that the storm is a mile away."
"One, two, three, four, five, six….." he said after the next strike of lightning and the following thunder, "So it must be really close then, right Connie?"
She nodded in confirmation, "Right it's almost here." she said, "We should probably head inside actually."
He frowned, putting down the donut he had been chewing on in between counting breaks for the past few minutes, "Awww, but it's so nice out here, and like you said, it's at least a mile away right?"
"Yes but sometimes the wind may shift and it may come faster-" another bolt of lightning, "One, two, three, four, five…." she said, "And my mother would kill me if I caught a cold from getting wet from an unexpected shower."
"Okay, how bout we stay until it reaches three? That way we'll have a little bit extra time to get to the temple. Then we can watch Under the Knife if the cable doesn't go out. "
"Hmm, alright, but only till then okay Steven?"
"Okay." he smiled.
Behind Steven and Connie, up on the cliffs watching the two kids was three, rather unusual woman who seemed to be focused on the storm as well. The tallest of the three especially so as she didn't even turn her gaze away.
The second tallest seemed more concerned with the two kids, Steven mostly, "Shouldn't we tell them to come inside, that storms getting very close and I don't want Steven to get sick." she said.
"Come on Pearl, relax, what's the worst that will happen? Steven will get the sniffles?" the shortest laughed at Pearl's quite overprotective nature.
"Amethyst, Pearl may be right." the tallest said, her stoic appearance hardly breaking, "Something isn't right about this storm, and my future vision can't even tell what it is." she said.
"Is it broken or something?" Amethyst asked, a tone of joking still in her voice but the way she still said it still conveyed worry, Garnet's future vision didn't just break.
"I don't even think that's possible, but it's not safe down there." she said, preparing to jump from the cliff as the lightning and the thunder hit at the same time now.
"That's it we're bringing them inside!" Pearl said as she went for the less dangerous way of getting down by taking the path already in the land.
The rain had begun pouring by now and Steven and Connie were already running to get to cover as a large tidal wave approached in the distance.
Garnet was not particularly worried about not reaching them in time as they were already almost up the cliffs but without her future vision she had no way of really knowing for sure or which outcome was the most likely, Pearl on the other hand was frantic as she saw the tidal wave picking up much too much speed for an Earth wave.
Before either gem could arrive however, Steven slipped on the rocks leading up the cliff and Connie in an effort to catch him was pulled down with him into the water of the wave that had come much faster than expected.
"Steven!" Pearl and Garnet exclaimed in unison while they watched the two get pulled into the sea.
Garnet only wasted that one moment of time on that word before diving into the water herself to look for him, fearing the worst yes but also hoping for the best as lightning and thunder continued to crash in the sky.