Slowly, Peridot's eyes began to open, and she saw that she was still in the same tree that she had chosen to hide in before she fell asleep, meaning that no one had found her and captured her. It was now in the early hours of the next day, and as she exited the tree and stepped onto the ground, she could feel that it was incredibly cold during these hours. That wasn't really the worst of Peridot's problems at the moment, though- since she was so focused on getting as far away from Garnet and Pearl without really focusing on getting anywhere, she had forgotten which direction she needed to go in. So, she just turned in a random direction where she saw some light shining through the trees and began journeying to get out of the forest.
"This is just spectacular," Peridot muttered to herself as she shooed away birds and bugs that flew around her, "I have no way to contact Homeworld, the only Gems around here want to poof me or worse, and I don't even know where I'm going!"
In anger, she proceeded to shout and kick a nearby log, not expecting it to be so sturdy. Soon, she was hopping on one foot to try and ease the pain, nearly tripping over the log and tumbling down a hill. Something distracted her from her struggles with minor foot pain, though- she heard the sounds of small footsteps, and she noticed they didn't sound very fast or loud, indicating she wasn't being chased.
She got behind a nearby tree and began searching for who could be nearby, and found it odd that the sound suddenly stopped. Then, she turned and gasped upon seeing a human-ish child standing in front of her, shorter than Steven was, with a small tuft of hair, a white sweater, a blue shirt tied around his neck, and a baseball bat in his arms.
"D-don't attack, I am not here to harm any of you humans, I swear!" Peridot exclaimed, shielding herself, and after a moment of waiting she saw that the child had not moved, still staring at her. "Um, should I introduce myself?"
The child gave a small nod, lowering the baseball bat slightly to indicate it was not trying to threaten her.
"O-okay, then- I am a Peridot, Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG, serving under Yellow Diamond's authority from Homeworld and… I'm going to assume from that look that you don't know what I'm talking about," She realized upon seeing how the child was looking knowledgeable on her terminology. "Let me make this simple for you, since it'd be quite difficult to explain all that I know without making it sound incomprehensible- Homeworld is a planet in a nearby galaxy where an 'alien' race known as Gems are made, although here on Earth many are created in certain areas, but anyways, I was created there and sent here to check on progress on something being formed deep in the Earth's crust."
This time the kid seemed to understand better, and was rather interested. However, he looked up at the sky to see clouds were forming, which was slightly troubling. He then looked at her and gestured for her to follow him before he began making his way through the forest.
"Hm, either follow a strange child I just met who might be familiar with this territory or hope that I can make it out of here safely on my own… HEY, WAIT UP!" Peridot shouted as she ran over, and she realized that he really wasn't moving all that fast, since she caught up to him in two seconds.
Never in her wildest dreams or nightmares did Peridot expect that she'd one day be wandering through a forest with a small human with no visible ears and footie pants leading her, but she was growing to realize that nothing that happens on Earth is going to be very ordinary. She was quite grateful that this child seemed to show no fear toward her, though.
It took around ten minutes, but Peridot and the small bat-wielding child left the forest, stepping onto a gravel road.
"Ah, thank you for- OH NO LOOK OUT!" She suddenly shouted when she saw a car driving down the gravel road, and the grabbed the child and jumped into the grass to avoid a collision.
The car came to a stop and the driver's window rolled down, with the driver in question being the current mayor of Beach City, and he asked with concern, "Are you two children alright? I assure you that I was driving at a safe speed without the intention of causing any harm."
"W-well, first of all, I am not a child," Peridot replied as she got up and dusted herself off, "and secondly, we are both okay, although I am still currently filled with anxiety over impending danger regardless of how safe I am."
"Hey, you look like one of Steven's moms," A teen in the passenger seat remarked to Peridot.
She gasped and asked, "D-do you know where he is? I kind of don't have any other place to go, although I don't know whether I can trust his guardians to not attack me."
"Hmm, I know where he lives, yeah- but if you need somewhere safe to stay at for a while, I know someone who'll be cool with that."
This intrigued Peridot, and she decided to press on about this.
Ten minutes later, she was driven to the place the teen explained would be a good temporary place for her to stay until she is able to get back to wherever her home is, or until she feels like she'll be able to trust the Crystal Gems; as she soon found out, it was also the young baseball bat-wielding kid's home, as well as his brother and parents. She decided it'd be important to introduce herself to the residents of this place, so she was led by the small child to his brother's room where she knocked on the door nervously.
Soon, someone a bit taller than her answered the door, wearing a grayish-blue hoodie with a grey shirt underneath, orange pants, green tennis shoes, and some spiky white hair going straight up in a way reminiscent of Pearl's hair.
"Oh hey, nice hair- who're you?" The teen asked Peridot asked her.
With a nervous look, she muttered, "I-I am Peridot, I was told you'd be alright with me staying here…? Not permanently by any means, I don't expect that I'll need to stay on this planet forever, but-"
"Alright, alright, that's chill with me Peridot- do you have a nickname or is is just Peridot? My name is Sour Cream, you can sleep in my room or the living room, there's enough room for either but I know some people prefer sleeping alone," He interrupted, seeing that she seemed a bit self-conscious about asking at all.
She thought for a moment before deciding, "I think I'll need someone to talk to, so…"
"Sweet, I love company- come in, I can play you some background music while I listen to you," Sour Cream replied before heading into his room, the door wide open to show him getting his game consoles down from the shelf so he could start hooking them up to play his tunes.
At first the small green gem was nervous about being in the room of someone she just met, but she began to feel at ease, both because of his demeanor and the soothing music he started to play. She hopped onto his bed and sat down and decided to admit to how she was feeling.
"Okay, so, I feel like all my plans have completely fallen apart, and I don't know how I'm going to fix any of it, and I know that hiding from it won't make it go away but I feel like that's the only thing that I can do! I don't have powers, I lost the things that made me who I was, and the only people I know anything about in this town are the ones who want to capture me!" She ranted in a huff, and she realized that he had stopped playing his music in the middle of it.
Leaning against the wall, Sour Cream admitted, "I don't know a lot about Gem stuff, but I think I got the gist of what's wrong; when I have a problem that I don't know if I can solve, I get my friends to help me out, so who do you know that can help you?"
"Heh, that's not a very long list… and most of the list is comprised of the Crystal Gems, with the other person being completely missing."
"It sounded like you're not friends with those guys, but it also seems like they're your only option for help. Maybe you can compromise, give them something they want in exchange for something you want," Sour Cream offered.
She thought about this for a moment and then sighed with her head down. "I don't know if they can get me what I want at all, either a way back home or my prized possessions back from the bottom of the ocean… wait, maybe if I give them the information I need I can use it as bribery so they can keep me safe from Homeworld when they realize I failed my mission!"
The chill teen was taken aback by her sudden spark of inspiration, but was at least glad he helped her out of her funk, and just laid back and let her come to her own conclusions.
"Okay, if this works out I get to have some new bodyguards, and if it doesn't, well… I can always stay here, right?" She asked him, and she was happy to receive a thumbs up. "I'll possibly see you later, then!"
She headed out the door and began to make her way from Sour Cream's house to where she could remember seeing the house- it was behind a cliff, so she looked for that cliff and began heading in its direction. All was well… until she heard a strike of thunder upon getting a hundred feet from where she started.