Peridot's eyes snapped open in a hurry, met first with a blurry blackness, and as her hands fumbled to detect and put on her glasses, a less blurry blackness.
Had she fallen asleep? Peridot shakily hoisted herself up onto her bottom, back aching plaintively from laying on the cold, compact earth for who knew how long. She checked the digital watch wrapped around her wrist to see it revealing that it was just about to be one in the morning.
Despite the darkness, and the dry, windless chill in the air- Peridot felt warm. She wondered sleepily why that was, bleary eyes moving around her to- gyAHhH!
Peridot shot upright, realizing that her personal space bubble had been thoroughly invaded by a messy head of blue hair, still snoring quaintly away next to where Peridot had succumbed to slumber. Had- had she fallen asleep next to Lapis or had Lapis fallen asleep next to her? Regardless, holy stars, what a way to wake up!
Even in the darkness, though, Peridot could make out the ample pour of freckles on what showed of her face through her hair, but she had her knees drawn in to her chest for warmth beneath the flannel she'd given her.
The sight made her heart wince for a weird reason.
She scraped the back of her dusty hand over her eye, then immediately regretted it when a few motes got trapped between her eyelids. With a low grumble, she swiped them away with her thumb, before looking up to see Garnet still positioned against the tree, staring outward at the quiet savannah.
Well, as quiet as the nightlife here could be. The sounds of the cicadas at bay was comforting enough, but Peridot was afraid it would mask the lower sounds of large paws crushing granite and twigs and render them shocked when a lioness burst through the bush.
Yeah. Not the most consoling feeling, that one.
Peridot heaved herself up onto her own two feet and moved quietly, minding where she put her feet as to not stomp on someone's unsuspecting fingers. She weaved her way in between two outstretched boughs and stumbled behind Garnet, stopping short when she nearly ran into her backside.
When there was no reaction from Garnet, or any indication that she was aware of Peridot's newly arrived presence, Peridot pinched her lips and snuck around her, staring up at Garnet's face.
She tried not to yelp when Garnet's eyes snapped open and a mellow smirk lined her lips. "Hello, Peridot."
"Uh- gyuh--" Peridot recomposed herself, shaking her head clear of the sleep-induced cobwebs she could feel gnawing at her intellect. "Hello."
"Come to take my place as night guard, have you?"
"Wh- no, I'm just-"
Garnet raised a hand knowingly, and Peridot found herself effectively rendered soundless as the land sank back down to rest at her hip. Peridot moved over, a hand rubbing over the fabric on her shoulder as she stared out into the night. She could make out splotches of darkness on the horizon but she knew those were trees. She looked sideways at Garnet. "Any sign of them?"
"Negative," Garnet consoled, and Peridot felt herself sink into her skin with relief. She didn't want to chance another sprint, not when it was practically dark enough to be unable to spot a lion even if it was only a few yards ahead of you. "Uh, good. What time did Greg say the others would be dispatching our rescue?"
Garnet shrugged placidly. "Didn't specify. He only said once the sun was up."
"Wonderful." Peridot sighed, arms folding to press into her back to alleviate the steady ache that was caught in her spine. Then her attention flipped back to Garnet, speculative, and almost a little skeptical. "Aren't you going to sleep?"
Garnet smiled slightly, like the thought of it was amusing. "Not when there's a camp to be watched," she mused. "Unless you're willing to assume that role until someone else wakes up to keep a lookout."
Garnet didn't sound too blighted by a night of deprived sleep, but Peridot thought it at least, to some moral degree, upsetting that one of them had to go more than a quarter of the night without some sort of rest. What constituted keeping watch, anyways? Staking out a place and keeping an eye out for the pride, or any other undesirable creatures, that might try to sneak into their little hideout and tear them up in their sleep?
Now that she thought about it, acting as look-out was somewhat stressful. Nevertheless, her moral compass still twitched uncomfortably, and she ceded with a resolute huff. "I will. You can. . . lay down, or something."
Peridot's features tightened behind her glasses as Garnet leaned away from the tree trunk and patted her shoulder as she brushed by, remarking something like, "I knew you would," before- in a pretty brisk, fluid manner- the woman fell stomach-first, catching her head in her crossed forearms and- stars, was she already asleep? Wow.
Peridot's brows tensed as she mimicked the pose Garnet had been maintaining earlier, the bark pressing into her shoulder as she let her eyes roam over the African wilderness, left to her own devices and thoughts.
She shouldn't have even agreed to attending such a primal event. They could have easily sent Jenny or Buck instead, but she supposed being at the top of her class had made her an immediate attendee for this sort of expedition- even if she knew next to nothing about surviving out in the wilderness with nothing but the clothes on her back.
Which, literally, was the predicament she was struck with currently.
Her mind then roamed to the others who were stuck in the same predicament. Garnet continued to be a. . . mystery character, to her, but she felt she could be trusted. She always seemed to know something the others didn't, and Peridot, begrudgingly, had to respect that.
Steven and his father were friendly- if not a little dense, in her eyes, at least. They seemed to know the others on the trip, so Peridot felt like she had the full liberty of claiming to feel like an alien in an already developed civilization. The simile she'd used made her chuckle.
Pearl and Amethyst- Peridot wasn't sure. Was it a love-hate thing? Pearl seemed to fluster and squabble with her, but behind each other's backs, their faces softened and they smirked like it was a game. Nonetheless, they seemed to both dote over Steven. Pearl seemed to assume the more maternal role, and Amethyst seemed more like the bigger sister who dragged him wherever she went. Peridot was suddenly thankful she had been an only child.
Then there was Lapis Lazuli. She let her eyes roam away from the horizon and find Lapis' form back where she had left her, noting that her arms had outstretched to lay where Peridot had been sleeping. Imagine if she'd still been there when Lapis stretched out like that! That would have been even harder to explain if they'd both waken up at the same time, wrapped up together like that. Just imagining it- no, no, I am not blushing, absolutely not.
Peridot shook her head clear and willed her gaze away, re-adjusting her glasses with a sniff. It didn't matter. The two of them would part ways as soon as the dispatch reached them in the morning, carted off to probable opposite sides of the world again.
. . . Why did that leave an odd, unsatisfactory feeling at the front of Peridot's chest?
Stubbornly, Peridot lowered her glower to the ground, staring at her worn boots like they had somehow greatly offended her. She willed her mind to, for once, be absent and still as her eyes rose to scour their surroundings.
As easy as it was to let her mind roam, it was equally as easy to quiet it down for the sake of preserving her uninvolved emotional state. She didn't need to be getting attached now. If 'attached' was even the adequate term to describe. . .whatever it was she kept finding herself pondering over.
Her stomach gave a discontent grumble, and her arm reflexively wrapped around it with a frown. Snacking only on dried apricots earlier seemed cloddy, in hindsight.
With that in mind, dubious green eyes roamed up to where she thought she could make out the outline of the two large acacias where they'd made their camp. She wondered. . . if Garnet hadn't seen any of the lionesses yet, what were the chances that Peridot would? A brief hike to the Jeep nearby there would be nothing short of five minutes, to-and-back. She could grab her pack, clean up the scuffs and scrapes she'd acquired throughout the day's misadventures, and probably patch up the others, too, if they'd needed it. Or get another layer and place it over Lapis, since she still looked a little cold, to top.
The do-gooder smirk that plastered itself to her lips was evidence enough of her newfound enthusiasm. Peridot stood upright, dusted herself free of any splinters she might have acquired from the ash tree, and began to march with quiet pride over to the silhouette of the Jeep. Jasper and the others must be gone by now, right?
About thirty yards into her march towards indefinite salvation and Peridot was beginning to seriously doubt that. For any careful step she took, she heard another behind her, pausing when she did, moving when she did. Like it was mimicking her.
Peridot gulped nervously, wondering if, in any of her lessons, her professors had explained the hunting habits of big cats. All she could think of in that moment was how the movement of their tails revealed their intentions- but it wasn't like she could see any tails in sight, and she sure as all hell wasn't about to turn around to check. So that bit of information was completely and utterly useless.
Still, to test her hypothesis that she was being followed, Peridot took a leap forward, and stopped. Just a heartbeat later, the sound of something else crunching the brittle grass sounded from behind her.
Okay, Peridot steeled herself. Okay. You can turn around and face a probable apex predator. You just threw fire at Jasper's face. And it's highly advised to never turn your back to one. But, stars, it felt so much easier to just keep her eyes on the Jeep like there wasn't some beast behind her waiting for a moment of disadvantage. A sharp inhale, and Peridot was counting with her fists taut at her sides. One. . . two. . .
"Three!" Peridot whirled around, only just managing to catch herself before falling for spinning around too quickly, and made eye contact with-
"Lapis!"
With her shoulders having been readied to pivot her arms outward and frighten off whatever had been following her, she hadn't expected a shift of her weight and thereby balance- making her fall flat on her behind as Lapis stood a few paces behind her, hip crooked and hands moved up to cover her lips. Peridot assumed she was trying to conceal her smile.
"What was that for!?" She spluttered from the ground, rubbing her hand where she'd scuffed it a little too roughly over a patch of grit. "I thought you were a lion stalking me!"
"Sorry," Lapis proffered, but she didn't look sorry in the slightest. "I just saw you, leaving the post. I was curious."
"Then why didn't you just call out instead of following me?"
Lapis rolled her neck around. "It would've been less funny than what happened instead." She strode over to Peridot, giving her a helping hand up, which made Peridot equal parts thoughtful and equal parts reluctant. She accepted it anyways, patting down her backside to get rid of the unwanted dust as Lapis asked, "where are you going?"
"The Jeep," Peridot informed. "I figured since there's been no hide nor hair of the pride since their attack they must have lost interest and went to hunt some other less difficult creatures. I wanted to get my pack."
Lapis was silent a moment, then hummed her concession. "All right. And you're sure that they're gone? You did say that you were a biologist earlier."
She'd been listening earlier? Smugness permeated Peridot's face in the form of a simpler for half of a heartbeat before she beckoned Lapis and began to move back towards the waiting vehicle. "Almost certainly."
Lapis smiled wryly. "That 'almost' makes me nervous."
"So should walking out at night in the middle of the savannah, yet here we are."
The two of them moved wordlessly then the rest of the way, successfully reaching the Jeep and checking its innards for any signs of large feline presence. There were none, aside from the lingering scent of musty fur and the stuffing torn up and out of the seats by huge claws, courtesy of Topaz.
She grabbed her pack from the seat furthest in the back, while Lapis went to retrieve her own bag. It was diminutive in size in comparison to Peridot's, but Peridot still prided herself on her diligence and readiness, despite the. . . callous situation they were in.
She digged in the front pocket of her bag, searching for a canteen to quench the thirst that made her throat itch- and frowned when only one container remained. Where had the others- oh. Right. Her first smaller container had been used to try to fix Greg's coolant system, and the other was presently sitting abandoned near the campfire.
She was thirsty, but, she knew better than to waste the last of her resources out of want, rather than need. So she tucked the container into her pocket and hoisted the gargantuan thing up onto her back. Her eyes found Lapis as she clambered sideways out from the Jeep.
Peridot stopped to sit on the edge of the seat, hands resting between her knees as she watched the other re-adjust the strap of her satchel. "What do you do," she realized she was saying, "when you're not. . here?" She gestured to the night with a tilt of her head.
For a moment Lapis was quiet, continuing to fix her strap before she seemed content with its position over her shoulder. "I coach," she said loftily, like her voice was teetering on the edge of a bleak laugh. "Not here, not in Africa. I live in the U.S., Delmarva. I'm a swimming and surfing coach in Beach City."
Now that Peridot had to respond with a stunned silence. Lapis Lazuli lived not here, but in a tiny, diminutive beach town not one hundred miles away from Peridot at university at the Delmarva capitol. She didn't tend to believe in coincidences, but internally, she was now praising whatever deity and manifested the concept of it to the earth's end. Apparently she'd been musing over it for a few moments too long, because Lapis was looking at her oddly. "Peridot?"
"I said that's a. . . notable coincidence," Peridot confided. "I live at the Delmarva capitol, go to the university there."
Lapis' facial features contorted and augmented as a coy smirk fell over it, and Peridot just damn near felt her heart ascend to the sky. "I swore I would've heard the geeky prattling from you across the state," she jestered. "Proud BCU drop-out here."
"Why'd you drop out of Beach City? I heard their technical and theatre programs are fantastic."
"Are you a thespian too, on top of a biologist and impromptu mechanic, Peridot?"
Peridot shuddered at the thought. "I'd prefer to keep to the computer science lobbies, thank you."
Lapis laughed through her teeth and leaned against the edge of the door in front of Peridot, fingers toying with her blue fringe. "Figures."
Peridot's brow arched with sportive interest. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, nothing." She was waved off dismissively by Lapis before the two lapsed, once again, into relative silence in their solitude. Then Peridot spoke up. "Why do you keep returning here? Doesn't being out here make you. . ." She drawled off, unable to think of a way to adequately word the idea she wanted to convey. Fortunately, Lapis seemed to register where she had initially been headed.
"I go with Steven and his dad when they come," she admitted with a sad smile. "They come from Delmarva. The others do, too. Small world, huh?"
"Small world," Peridot echoed with a chuckle that had no real humor to it. She realized something a moment after, and her face screwed up with confusion. "Wait- is Greg actually licensed to be a safari driver, then? If he doesn't live here?"
"Actually, yeah." Lapis scratched at her cheek, looking thoughtful. "Last year his old music agent was legally obligated to give him a check of ten million, since he recorded a jingle for a commercial that the agent had sold to a fast food chain."
Peridot was unconvinced. "What does that have to do with being a licensed safari tour guide?"
"He came down and took the thirty-day course with the wares." Lapis sniffed and leaned back, away from Peridot. Then she gave a sardonic little grin with humor in her voice. "You'd think he'd be a little more knowledgeable about surviving in the event of something like this, but, I think the fact that it's Nyumbani-Dunia is throwing him off."
"Why are the- Nyumbani-Dunia such a big deal, anyways?" Peridot deterred, steering the discussion to the most dire matter at hand. "Aside from the fact that they've chased us out of a camp. They're. . . just lions, right?"
She noticed that Lapis had become still, and her shoulders lurched back, as if trying to fold around the scar on her back and conceal it from the world even more. "They are, but they're dangerous. And smart." She gave a nonplussed, humorless chuckle. "Some of the indigenous peoples in the Kalahari say they have a hive-mind, like ants."
"Now I have enough confidence in my field to say that that," Peridot pointed her index at Lapis accusingly, "is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard."
"I thought you might say that," finished Lapis, biting knowingly at the tip of her tongue.
Peridot enjoyed this. They were practically two strangers, standing out in the middle of the African savannah, resting in a broken-down, vandalized Jeep just. . . talking. It wasn't that Peridot wasn't a sociable type of character- she had friends that she spoke to regularly, but those relations all felt a bit stale. Mundane, if you would.
This felt palpable. Even if it was an awkward, delicate kind of palpable, Peridot could feel it in their voices and in the way it made her heart beat faster.
But just like that, the moment was put to an end. Lapis stepped away, her face a deeper colour than before- it almost made Peridot feel smug.
"We'd better head back," Lapis muttered, fingers combing restlessly through her hair. "Before the others wake up and think we've just abandoned them."
Peridot's lips quirked contentedly as the two of them turned away from the Jeep, their arms full of resources to bring back to the brambles.
Then a long, foreboding creeeak of metal stopped them in their tracks.
Now stiffly upright, Peridot stared stolidly ahead, jaws ticked and grinding soundlessly as she tried to find her voice. "Lapis," she whispered uneasily. "Did. . did we check the roof of the Jeep for. . . possible unfriendly faces. . ?"
From the corners of her gaze, Lapis' face was hard with indeterminable thought. "No," she warned in a low, cautious voice. "No, we did not."
". . . What are the chances that a lioness is currently watching us from above at this exact moment?"
". . . Likely."
Neither of them needed to turn around to confirm that assumption, because as soon as the word spilled from Lapis' mouth, a low, guttural vocalization resounded above them.
They didn't wait for a second warning signal to begin high-tailing it back towards the "safety" of the bramble cove, hearts pounding in their throats with the ferocity and adamance of a jackhammer.
"Are we sure that running away from them is the best idea?!" Peridot half-wheezed, half-shouted over to Lapis over the rapid thundering of their feet, not wanting to believe that the there was a third, fourth, or- stars forbid- fifth set of paws joining in the trampling of the savannah grasses.
"Best one we've got!" Lapis hollered back, arms pumping as she gained a few extra feet on Peridot. This didn't go unnoticed. "H-hey! Wait up! I've got short legs and one is metal!"
Lapis' swift pace faltered at that, but only slightly. "Wake up!" She called out into the night, towards the brambles, arms flailing with alarm. "Nyumbani-Dunia!"
Peridot didn't know why she did, but calling out the pride's name made her feel inclined to shed a panicked look over her achy shoulder. The lioness she saw only a few bounds behind her gave her the stimulus she didn't know she needed. "On our tails!" She wailed, promptly regretting her glance backwards when she felt the weight of her pack tilt forward and then oh stars, she was falling-
There was an onslaught of a few choice expletives, a blur of something shiny, the ripping of nylon fabric, and then Peridot was being whisked off of her feet and into tanned arms. She yelped, clinging for dear life onto Lapis' neck as Lapis stormed on fast feet into the brambles, nearly stumbling over Amethyst who was being shaken awake by a Pearl at her wits' end. "Jasper's coming!" Lapis carped again, as if the distant chorus of confused snarls and frustrated chuffs wasn't indication enough.
Greg, Steven, and Garnet were already up on their feet, the latter staring behind Lapis and Peridot and at the lionesses at the edge of the brambles, who were currently tearing the living daylights out of Peridot's pack. It made Peridot angry in a funny sort of way, to see her things so openly vandalized and destroyed by huge jaws, but- she'd rather the jaws dig into her store of toiletries instead of her face.
"What do we do!" Pearl lilted, hands having found her face and gripping heartily at her temples. "They're going to enter the brambles once they're done with Peridot's belongings!"
"Standard procedure says to stay in the same place in the event of- lions attacking, but-" Greg was grabbing uneasily at his hair, pulling it back from the roots as his face flipped between twenty different shades of red and purple. "This isn't a normal pride!"
Honestly, what made Jasper and the rest of Nyumbani-Dunia so different than the standard, meat-headed lion? Peridot found herself frowning despite herself. Sure, they were smart, relatively vicious with what she'd seen at the campfire and presently as they tore open her-
"My documentations!" Peridot gasped, eyes blowing wide with dismay as she watched one of the lionesses tear her vanille folder up and into shreds, flinging bits of pale paper this way and that with what must have been a sense of pride. She fought against Lapis' grip to try to go and salvage all of her things now- her work!- her passport and travel papers!-her study forms!- but her captor was definitely not letting her run off to beat Aquamarine off of her destroyed things. "It's useless, Peridot!" She ordered, her brown eyes turning to find Garnet in the fray. "What do we do, Garnet?"
Garnet, despite how quite literally everyone else was panicking to some degree, stood tolerantly at the heart of the crew, and in the darkness Peridot couldn't tell if she was just idling or actually constructing a plausible means of escape.
She almost cried with relief when Garnet moved and gestured to the direction on the side opposite the lions. "We run for it," the de-facto leader of the crew decided. "Staying here will end in nothing but more misery. We need to put space between ourselves and them. But we need to move, now, while they're distracted."
"Then we'd better get moving, dudes!" Amethyst didn't wait for a second order to begin hiking out of the dense, prickly brush, Steven and Greg held just in tow. "'Cuz they're about to be finished tearing that sack up!" Sure enough, the lionesses had apparently found what they wanted in the form of Peridot's pack of jerky, but one shaggy, maned head was already staring bullets into the brambles. Peridot's heart picked up a few paces and she felt the side of her temple squeeze with stress. "Go!"
Lapis took off after Pearl, who had practically leapt with the urgency of a frightened gazelle over the edge of the bramble barrier, charging after the others who were a few wide paces ahead of them. Peridot didn't want to soil her dignity even further by allowing Lapis to carry her to their next location- not when she seemed to be slowing Lapis' brisk pace down. But she didn't want to chance running on her own leg either! She'd eventually fall behind and she'd be the first. She didn't want to be the first!
"Lapis!" She protested. "Lapis, you've gotta put me down- we're lagging behind!"
Lapis looked down at her like she had suggested they stop altogether so the pride could catch them and claw them to bits, and it was then Peridot inconveniently realized how very close their faces were for a second. She couldn't believe the flustered blush that crept up her neck. "No time," Lapis grunted, readjusting Peridot's weight in her arms. "I've lifted surfboards heavier than you."
"Then why are we falling behind?!"
"I-" Lapis spared a glance over her shoulder, and Peridot was sorely tempted to do the same thing when she saw Lapis' eyes go wide with alarm. "Garnet! Take Peridot!"
In only a moment Peridot found herself being man-handled over to Garnet's awaiting arms, and she had to admit that- well, as devastating as this was to what little dignity she had left- felt much safer here than anywhere closer to or on the ground. The grip was firmer, more sure- but Peridot definitely wasn't blushing here, despite the close proximity. She reflected on that for a moment before she saw a blur of silver-tinged blue strategically and meticulously darting strictly to the side, away from the rest of the group.
"Wh- what are you doing?!" Peridot shrilled after Lapis as the woman seemed to turn leeward, and to her astonishment, Jasper turned with her, put off by Lapis' sudden shift in direction. The lionesses following her followed suit, skidding in the cracked soil, as the rest of them pounded after Lapis. "Lapis!"
"Go!" Lapis hollered back, her trembling voice betraying the cold, taut expression pulling at her eyes. "I'll- I'll find you! Just go, run!"
Peridot would rather have been the first to fall if she'd known that Lapis was next in line.
"But-!"
"She knows what she's doing," she heard Garnet advise from above her, and Peridot couldn't help the surge of outrage that stormed through her tiny frame. "You don't know that! She's got at least five furious lionesses at her heels!" How in the living hell did Garnet think she could just- had she ever even been in a lion attack before? How was she even knowledgeable in the slightest- when Lapis was-
"Peridot."
Oh. She'd been shouting all that aloud.
"What," she snapped back, eyes stinging with unshed tears. She didn't know if the sensation was because of the dust scattering into her eyes from the dust flying up in everyone's wake, or if they were because of something else entirely. Garnet didn't miss a beat. "Lapis is going to be fine. Trust me."
Peridot wanted to retort about barely even knowing Garnet, but all of her acute deductions had been accurate before, and she was currently carrying Peridot to wherever they were headed next- and she didn't want to risk being dropped because she kept on bickering. So she kept her lips sealed shut, pressed into a firm line as she watched the blue head of hair disappear farther and farther into the distance.
The group kept on swift feet until they grew tired, stopping to receive pause beneath the old, gnarled boughs of a husked pine tree. Peridot's knee was aching from all the bobbing and jostling when she was set down by Garnet, and looked up to see four sets of round, concerned eyes directed at her. "Where's Lapis?" Steven was the first to ask, looking around Peridot and Garnet with a fearful frown that only deepened when there was no sight of his friend. Garnet bent down beside the boy, a warm hand pressing comfortingly down onto his shoulder. "Lapis is going to return, just like she has before."
Steven looked like he wanted to argue back, but Peridot saw him falter, whatever argument that he wanted to make becoming fruitless as his hands wrung fretfully together. Greg went over to console the boy, wrapping an arm around his shoulders in an act of reassurance. "Yeah, bud- Lapis is smart, she'll know what to do. Remember last time?"
Whatever last time had been (but Peridot could assume she was at least slightly knowledgeable after last night), the idea of it didn't seem to console Steven entirely, but he seemed mollified after a few more heartbeats of worry. "Yeah," he uttered at last, rubbing his cheek and crestfallen. "But. . . where'd she go? And. . . where's the Jeep?"
While the darkness that enshrouded them made it exceedingly difficult to make out the details of their environment, it was evident enough that they had run farther than they might have intended to, or even needed to. Peridot shifted her weight uneasily. "Not anywhere visible," she grumbled more-so to herself than to any of her counterparts. She turned, arm directed outwards.
"My guess is it's a long hike back. . err. ." Which direction had they come from? She hadn't exactly mapped the stars or the moon what with all the sprinting she'd been doing in the past six hours. And in the darkness, she couldn't make odds or ends of anything in the nearby area- even the two big acacias they'd camped by were out of sight. Stars, how long had they been running?
A heavyset seed of guilt planted in Peridot's chest for Lapis. She probably had no idea where the rest of them had gone- if she was still even. . . y'know. Alive.
When no one seemed to be able to make any accurate depictions of exactly where they'd come from- since it looked like flat, lazy grasses for as far as their tired eyes could see- they decided to give up their chase for the night and lounge. Amethyst and Pearl collapsed against the base of the pine. Steven was talking quietly to his father, their voices too low for Peridot to easily hear. Garnet was standing rigidly by a thick tussock of grasses, arms folded broodily over her chest as she stared out over the grasslands.
Peridot brushed her thumbs together, tapping their fingertips. She shouldn't have gone out to the Jeep. She could have easily stayed leaning against the bark of the ash, completely and blithely unaware of the presence of the beasts haunting the roof of the downed vehicle no more than a quarter-mile away. Did Garnet think similarly of her actions? If she hadn't left, Lapis might still be here, with them. She might still be-
No, Peridot reprimanded herself. Lapis was still alive. Both Greg and Garnet, now, had regarded Lapis as someone nothing short of a survivalist. Peridot, despite the culpability that gnawed at her insides, felt compelled to believe them. Lapis would persevere, wouldn't she? Even if the probability of surviving an attack of not one, not two, but five keen lionesses was devastatingly slim, or if she tripped and fallen and gotten-
She stopped that train of thought before it could chug any further with a disturbed shudder. There was no going back now that it had already happened. In all that pondering, the others seemed to have stopped fidgeting and chattering, now leaning either against one another or another object to support themselves with. How were they holding up? How was she holding up?
Peridot's mouth pinched. She wasn't dead yet, so that was a definite upside to this. She hadn't been torn into by teeth or claws, either, so another plus. Physically, she seemed alright. Well, her knee was still aching; athleticism had never been her strongest suit. Now, psychologically, she wasn't sure how to frame her present state of mind. She felt awful for, basically, being the cause of all. . . this. Guilt weighed at her heart and made her throat swell, but that could've been the thirst. She was tired, frustrated, and just wanted to sit on a cozy mattress somewhere with a semi-functional air conditioning unit.
Lapis' face flashed into her mind, brown eyes glinting as they made a split-second decision before Peridot had been thrust into Garnet's grip and Lapis careened away. Why had she done that? Looking back, she was sure that they would have made it this far without the lionesses catching up. . . but the Nyumbani-Dunia would still have been on their tails, wouldn't they?
She made them go after her so they wouldn't go after the rest of us. The realization sat heavily in the forefront of her mind. So she gave me to Garnet and. . .
"Hey, dad?"
Peridot's head shot upwards, the reddish imprint of her palm contoured into her cheek by all her agonizing, looking towards Steven, who was looking up at his dad. "Did you bring any water with you? I. . left my bottle at the brambles."
Greg nodded. "Sure, bud, let me just-" As his hands went down to his pockets, his face grew sullen, and he reached in to pull out nothing but a bit of lint and, weirdly enough, a few paper clips. "Oh. Sorry, kiddo, I think I left mine back there, too."
Steven managed to reign the disappointment that dampened his cheeks. "That's okay," he said in a soft tone of voice. "We'll find a watering hole in the morning, right? Or a spring, or something else that has water!"
Peridot's face scrunched at the thought of ingesting the dirty, gnat-infested waters of the savannah. Not to mention the fact that animals regularly bathed, drank, and did. . . other things within their depths. They didn't have a water purifier on them anymore, either, not when Peridot's things had been torn apart from the inside out earlier. No. Steven's demural wouldn't stand.
"Here." Peridot's arm dug into her pocket, taking out her last canteen of drinking water, and held it out to Steven. She couldn't quite make eye contact while she did it, so she focused on staring at Steven's pink sandals like she was offering his toes the beverage. "I can't guarantee that it's cold but it's better than you accidentally dying of dysentery."
Steven blinked up at her, mouth pulled into a surprised line, before it melded into something a little more affectionate: a smile, even if it was weary around the edges. He accepted the canteen, holding it in two hands and shaking it. Surely enough, there was at least three quarters of the stuff left. "Thank you, Peridot," the boy smiled, beaming up at her. When she nodded at him he took it as permission to drink, and when Peridot had turned away to stare pointedly at a thicket, she instead found Garnet and Pearl, subtly but definitely smiling sideways at her.
"What?" She inquired with a sniff, turning her cheek. "Dysentery is a very serious issue. Clean drinking water is critical for one's health."
She heard Greg chuckle beside Steven as the boy lowered the container, twisting it shut with a happy little hum before speaking. "Yeah, I've heard about it! I was a little addicted with the Oregon Trail! I'd name the characters after all my friends, but someone always died." His face twisted unpleasantly. "Not the best turnout, huh?"
"Nope," Amethyst chimed as she came in beside Steven and sprawled out on her stomach beside him. "But this isn't some video game; no one's gonna die, Steve-o. Especially not with P-dot here, making sure none of us die of dy- dysberry. ."
"Dysentery," Pearl helpfully chimed in as Peridot snorted, climbing in to sit across from Greg beside the smaller mechanic. "A disease in which-"
"I don't think we need the details, but, thanks, Pearl." Greg intervened before Pearl could possibly scare Steven away from any natural source of water for life. The entire group had gathered around in a haphazard circle, all facing one another. It looked like a bunch of high schoolers put into a circle for a game of truth-or-dare, except this version felt much more dangerous. As long as no one starting sucking faces, Peridot was fine with sitting among them, her legs crossed as they settled down.
"Don't worry, you guys," Steven chirped, colour kissing his cheeks as he handed Peridot back her canteen with another mouthed 'thank you'. "We're gonna get outta this! Dispatch said they'd be out at dawn, so- uh, what time is it?"
"Just short of 3:15 AM," Peridot relayed after a glance at her watch.
"So. . . the sun should be up in, like. . . three, four hours?" A nod of confirmation from Garnet spurred Steven on. "So we just- have to wait! Again. For them, and for Lapis."
Yeah, Peridot reflected with a hint of bitterness. Just wait.
