"The watermelons are coming in nicely this year."
Rose couldn't help but smile at Greg as he stood beside her, surveying the fields. He worked as a travelling bard before he settled in their quaint little village. He didn't know much about the nuances of gardening, but Rose had been doing this for years. He tried his hardest to help out whenever he didn't have work, especially now that Rose was pregnant. Which is exactly why she refused to tell him that the crops were not coming in nicely. At least not to her standards.
Since she only grew watermelons, Rose had to use her magic to make sure the soil did not lose its fertility and dry out, and that pests would not interfere with their growth. However, her pregnancy is hindering her magic's usefulness. The watermelons were average at best. The other villagers would be ecstatic to try them, however, if they were ever allowed to have any at all.
"So, why are we doing all this?" Peridot asked. She was new to all this Crystal Gem stuff and some of their traditions still made no sense to her. That sure as hell didn't stop them from doing it and acting like it was normal anyway. She had been dragged out of bed at the crack of dawn, far too early for anyone to be awake in her opinion, and was now walking along a rocky path with seven lions carrying watermelon carts in tow.
"Oh honestly, we've explained several times already." Pearl was getting snappy. Having one lion around her was tolerable. Having seven of the beasts in one place was too much.
"Well excuse me for being too tired for this garbage! It's way too early to concentrate on your voice when I usually tune it out anyway!" Peridot snapped back.
Before it could evolve into a full-blown argument, Garnet placed a hand on both of their shoulders. "We can rest later." She said, turning her attention to Amethyst, who was resting in one of the carts. Amethyst couldn't tell if Garnet was glaring at her or not, because of her omnipresent shades, but it was obvious that she wanted her down with the rest of the group. She sighed, climbed down, and stood next to Peridot.
"Duh, P-dot, everyone knows. If we don't sacrifice a buttload of watermelons, a giant monster will come down and eat you!" she said, making exaggerated movements with her arms.
Peridot looked unimpressed. "Yeah, right. I may be short, but I'm not a child. Those stories don't scare me."
"No. Amethyst is right." Garnet said. "Every year, we need to sacrifice watermelons to Malachite, goddess of war, to stay in her good graces."
"The last time we failed…" Pearl trailed off. They don't talk about the last time they failed.
They walked on in silence. Soon enough, they heard the sound of waves lapping against the shore and smelled sea salt in the air. A mountain of jagged rocks towered above their heads. The gems ushered the lions into a wide cave entrance at the side of the mountain. Inside was dark except for the center, where sunlight filtered down from a hole in the ceiling. The whole mountain seemed to have been hollowed out. It was damp with large pools of clear water scattered about. Stalactites dripped droplets of water onto the floor. Peridot scowled at how the water soaked through her shoes and got her socks wet. Of course no one would let her know to bring her boots.
"She lives here?" Peridot asked while looking around. To put it lightly, this place was huge, but empty. You would think a war goddess would be more decorated than this.
"Oh no, she can't live here." Pearl said with a wave of her hand, "This is only one of her respite caves. This place is too small for her to stay for long periods of time. Her real home is the ocean."
Peridot looked confused. "This place is too small? How big is she anyway?"
She was answered when the sound of loud splashing and thudding came from just beyond the cave entrance. Their attention turned to the noise. Some of the lions began to roar. Malachite crawled inside, having to duck in order to fit. The water around her rippled and swirled as she passed by and calmed when she was through. She sat, if you can even call it that, near the illuminated center pool with her arm-legs splayed out like a spider. All four eyes moved from the humans to the carts of food they had brought. She smiled a too-wide, toothy grin when she saw them.
Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl stood awkwardly. Amethyst and Pearl had wary looks on their faces, but Garnet had on her usually stony expression. Even still, you can tell her aura of authority shifted once Malachite entered. Amethyst pushed Pearl out closer to the beast. Pearl stumbled, looked back disdainfully at her, and turned back to face the goddess.
Pearl cleared her throat and kneeled down. "O wondrous Malachite, queen of the seas, slayer of-"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it. Just hand 'em over." Malachite interrupted.
They looked at each other and shrugged. The lions stepped forward. Some held growls deep in their throats, others had seen the goddess enough times to care less about her presence. Malachite watched intently, shifting from side to side and tapping her fingers on the ground. Done with waiting, Malachite reached out and plucked a handful of fruit from an oncoming cart. She picked one out, holding it between her thumb and index finger. Her grin fell.
"What is this?" she scowled.
Garnet, Amethyst, and Peridot looked at each other with a mixture of confusion and concern while Pearl kept her gaze on Malachite. Malachite searched through the fruit in her hand, her frown growing as time went on. She dropped the handful in anger, turned her attention to another cart, and picked it up. All four eyes frantically looked over the cart's contents. Finally, they all locked onto the confused gems in the corner.
"What the hell is this?! We had a deal, your harvest for my guaranteed protection. You dare forsake your whole village by disrespecting me?" she crushed the whole cart with her bare hands. She crudely flicked the red juices, seeds, and splinters off her forearms.
"I don't understand! That is our harvest!" Pearl piped up.
"You're keeping the good ones for yourselves, aren't you?"
"Oh my stars, that's all we got, you clod, take it or leave it." Peridot blurted out. She instantly regretted it. Her hands flew to her mouth and she looked at the goddess with a wide eyed expression. She maintained eye contact with her, daring not to look at the startled faces of her peers. Malachite looked taken aback for only a second before she became calm. Eerily calm.
"Very well then. I'll leave them. But I can no longer guarantee the safety of your village."
Just then, the water in the scattered pools started bubbling up. Small waves rolled up onto the cave floor. What was once shapeless formed a body smaller than, but otherwise identical to the goddess controlling them. Now a small army stood before the humans. Peridot backed up slowly while the rest of the group brandished their weapons and took up a fighting stance. With a snap of her fingers, Malachite commanded her troops to charge forward. Amethyst struck with her whip, Garnet punched with her gauntlets, and Pearl slashed with her sword. However, it was all for naught. The water clones ignored them and continued forward, out of the cave.
"Once your village is leveled, you'll have more space to grow your sacrifices to me. That should make up for this. Look forward to it." She smiled again as she back out of the cave. Everyone stayed still for a moment, tense for the battle that never was. After they calmed down, they shot Peridot a disapproving look.
"Whoops?" Peridot responded sheepishly.
"We're gonna need help." Garnet stated simply.
Malachite's water clones had sent the village into chaos. Houses were ripped from their foundations. People screamed and ran in panic as water from the wells were used to create more soldiers. Perhaps the most targeted area was Rose's plot of land for her watermelon crops. Where the land was beginning to dry out, it was then soaked and ripped up. Rose tried to create plant soldiers to combat Malachite's but she couldn't muster up the strength to keep them going for very long. Bismuth, a close friend of hers, gathered a small group to fight back, but only managed to keep them from spreading to other parts of the village while everyone else evacuated.
Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Peridot looked on from the path leading back to the village. Amethyst and Pearl readied their weapons, ready to charge into battle. However, Garnet held them back. She was bristling, too, but charging in wouldn't help.
"We need Alexandrite. Only she can stop this for good."
Amethyst and Pearl looked resolute. Peridot looked confused. Garnet didn't wait for Peridot to ask. "Alexandrite is the goddess of discipline. She and Malachite have battled before."
"Great! So this Alexandrite can totally beat Malachite, right? No problem." Peridot said.
The others looked at each other again. She was getting really tired of them doing that. It only meant more bad news.
"Well, last time was an incredibly close call. Malachite was relentless. We only won because we had Rose's help. Now that she can't help us, we don't know what will happen." Pearl said.
"So, what, are we just gonna give up?" Amethyst piped up.
"No. We need to trust in Alexandrite. Come on, it's another long walk to find her." Garnet said.
Peridot threw her head back and groaned. She leapt onto the back of a lion and kicked its flank to get it moving. The lion immediately threw her off and ran back home to Rose with the rest of the pride. Ok, walking it is.
Fortunately, the walk wasn't as long as the last one. They couldn't use the warp pad in town, so they had to go a good distance out to the countryside to find another working one. They used it to warp to the Strawberry Battlefield, where Alexandrite would most likely be found. They had to stop several times, since Pearl wouldn't stop talking about the battles that took place there and about which weapon belonged to which gem, not to mention Amethyst almost choking on a giant strawberry she found on the floor.
At the end of the long walk was a row of floating platforms broken apart from the rest of the field. On top of the largest one was who Peridot could only assume was Alexandrite. The jumps were a bit too large for her, so she begrudgingly let Garnet carry her across. The four of them stood before the giant goddess.
Alexandrite addressed them without turning around. "She's at it again, isn't she." It wasn't really a question. She already knew.
"You know it, big girl." Amethyst replied casually.
"Please. We need your help." Garnet said.
Alexandrite hummed in response and lowered her gaze, as if thinking her answer through. Suddenly, she turned her torso around to face them without moving the rest of her body. She simply nodded. No more needed to be said.
"Alright, but how are we gonna fit her on the warp pad?" Peridot asked. Alexandrite answered by picking each of them up and turning back towards the horizon. She kicked off of her platform and ran towards the village.
Malachite was perched atop a high mountain overlooking the small village. Her lower set of eyes stayed trained on her water clones while the upper set of eyes looked all around for any opposition. Controlling this many clones at once takes a lot of concentration. If Alexandrite returns, she would have to be ready. As she scanned the horizon, she missed the weapon leveled at her right under her nose. An unseen catapult launched a watermelon right into her eye. She growled and closed all of her eyes. The water clones fell apart. As she wiped the watermelon remains out of her eye, she looked down at the attacker. She believed her name was Bismuth? Doesn't matter. She'll be dead in an instant. The puny (by her standards) blacksmith wore a smug grin, even as Malachite poised herself for a strong punch. The question of 'why?' was answered before it was asked.
Malachite never saw her coming. The damned human had distracted her! Within seconds, Alexandrite was at her throat. She was knocked off the mountain into the dirt below. Alexandrite pinned four of Malachite's wrists to the ground. Nevertheless, she wasn't worried; she still had hands free. She always had hands free.
Alexandrite scowled at the goddess below her. "Malachite!" she hissed her name like a curse.
Malachite grinned. "We've got to stop meeting up like this."
She summoned her helmet and head-butted her. Alexandrite faltered, allowing Malachite to shove her aside. Trees toppled from beneath her weight. Without missing a beat, Malachite grabbed her by the ankle and tossed her closer to the ocean. Instead, however, the other goddess twisted around in mid-air, wielding a large bow. She fired a shot. Malachite flew straight up, dodging the hit. She repositioned herself and rocketed forward, slamming Alexandrite into the ground. She pinned her beneath her weight, holding two of her hands above her head.
"Well, well, well. It seems the tables have turned." The water goddess cooed.
Alexandrite ignored her comments. She was always like this when they fought. She lifted her head to expose her second mouth and let loose a spray of fire. Malachite quickly backed off, laughing and scrambling back with a skip in her step. She flared open her wings and took once again to the skies. Alexandrite stood defiantly in her place as Malachite went for another dive. As soon as she got in range, she released a fireball at one of Malachite's wings. Her giddy expression faltered as she spiraled off course and into the ground. Alexandrite worked quickly, tying her fallen foe's hands behind her back with her studded whips.
"Oh my. I knew you had it in you, Alex." Malachite said, licking her fangs.
"I know you don't like getting tied up, but it's for your own good."
"It's different when it's you." Malachite replied, the grin never leaving her face. Alexandrite knew it really wasn't different. She could feel her struggling against her bonds. She flapped her one remaining wing uselessly. Alexandrite sighed and dissipated her weapons. Malachite's limbs fell limply.
"We can't keep going on like this. Every time you get mad you attack a village and wait for me to show up, just so you can fool around like this is some sort of game."
"Hello? Goddess of war over here? It's kind of my thing."
"Not when it's just you attacking the defenseless people you were supposed to protect. You don't even need to eat."
"You don't know anything about what I need. You don't know anything about me!" Malachite roared. Rumbling was heard from behind her as the ground began to shake. A hand made out of water, bigger than Malachite herself, launched itself at Alexandrite. She was knocked back several hundred feet. The hand turned to solid ice. The fingers branched off into hands of their own and assaulted Alexandrite from each side. She tried to retaliate using her gauntlets, but the fingers were too fast for her.
Malachite stared at the battle intently. She concentrated hard to make sure each of her hits would land. Alexandrite was wearing down. Good. She would pay for trying to cross her. She and all the people in that backwater town.
"Fire!" a distant cry yelled out.
As soon as Malachite turned her attention towards the noise, she was met with another eyeful of melon. Dammit! Speaking of those pests, they had repositioned so that they could target her again. And this time there was more of them. She kept her lower set of eyes trained on her real opponent while she wiped the rind and pulp out of her other eyes. It wasn't long before they started launching boulders. The distraction was just enough to give Alexandrite the upper hand. She punched the icy hand into pieces and summoned her war hammer. She lunged at Malachite and struck the side of her face. The blow left Malachite disoriented, face down in the mud. She tried to lift herself up, but Alexandrite's boot slammed her head back down and held her there. She held her spear so that the tip was just digging into Malachite's lower back to discourage her from trying anything.
"Surrender."
Malachite didn't move for a while. Finally, she moved her arm to tap out. Alexandrite sighed and sat next to her. She could hear the cheers of the villagers in the distance. Malachite still hadn't moved. Alexandrite tried to lift her face out of the mud gently, but the other goddess quickly turned away. She wiped her face frantically, whether from just mud or tears, Alexandrite didn't know.
After a prolonged silence, Alexandrite said, "The strawberries are coming in nicely this year. Have you ever had one?"
"No." Malachite's voice cracked. So she had been crying.
In reality, Alexandrite had no idea how nicely they were growing this year. She had always felt a strange temptation to eat them, but could never stomach it. She ignored them as best as she could, but she felt as though it would be a nice experience for Malachite.
"Well, you can come over to my place if you want some."
Malachite sat up. She refused to meet Alexandrite's gaze. She mumbled what Alexandrite could have sworn was a 'thank you'.
"And I guess I'll have to check up on you from time to time, just to make sure you're on your best behavior." Alexandrite gave a small, but rare, grin.
Malachite looked shocked, but then smiled her usual smile. "No promises there, Alex."