Clearing his throat around his momentary swell of pride, Dean gestured forward as he asked "Well, now. Shall we go?"
Looking back to Seth, Roman, and Sasha to see that they all had fairly eager looks on their faces, Bayley nodded as she said on behalf of the others "Yeah, Dean. Let's go on this quest to help heal Sasha!"
Laughing at Bayley's eager excitement, Dean turned to look at what lied ahead for the group of Gems. "Here goes! To helping heal Sasha. Let's go!"
So, with the last chapter having the niceness of Dean and the other Gems letting Bayley tag along in their quest with Dean to help heal Sasha/fix Sasha's Gem, just how will their quest go? Well, here's...part of their journey onward. Read on to find out just what happens to our Gems and I hope you all enjoy, my loves. =)
(Heads-up: This chapter has actiony parts ahead, so I hope you all like the action that I've included in this chapter. =) )
Walking forward, the group of five filed through the doorway and into the lush greenscape that awaited them. After making it through, Dean closed the door before going back to join the others. "OK. Now that that's taken care of, let's begin the journey."
While Bayley had heard what Dean said, she couldn't seem to contain her overall surprise at the area surrounding her: She could clearly tell that they weren't in the house anymore as, all around Bayley, there was lush grass covering the ground and trees all around, some of which had vines covered in flowers of different colors and sizes coming down from the higher branches. Just seeing all of this-and this all came from them stepping through a door in the house-had Bayley feeling absolutely amazed.
Seeing the look of pure amazement on Bayley's face, Seth, Dean, Roman, and Sasha all shared a look that seemed to mirror the same feeling; and that feeling was happiness that they were getting to show Bayley a bit more in the way of the world they were once fully apart of. So, seeing the look on Bayley's face now...it was something more in the way of validation for what they were doing now.
Clearing his throat, Roman said "Dean, maybe you should start to lead us on the way to where you plan to go. After all, we can't forget why we're here."
"Right, right. I hear you, Rome," Dean nodded, his goal back on his brain. "OK now, everyone. Follow...me!" Beginning to make his way down a path that was in the middle of the trees in front of the group, Dean led the group's way through the trees as he led their way to where he hoped he'd be able to help heal Sasha and her Gem.
The group's walk started out fairly calmly enough. ...It wasn't until they had gotten a fair distance into the trees that it seemed like trouble wanted to rear its head. And that trouble came in the form of...
"Oh my god! What is that thing?!" Bayley tried, but ultimately failed, not to scream as she pointed at a section of the trees ahead.
Looking ahead to where Bayley was pointing, the other four Gems immediately summoned their weapons as they all braced themselves for the giant dark red two-tailed Gem scorpion that was slowly inching its way towards the group as it cleared down trees left and right with its two tails. As seen as the hulking creature saw the five, it let out an almost deafening growl as it sped over to where the Gems were.
Seeing this monster heading their way, Roman pushed Bayley behind him as he said "Stay back." With Bayley now behind him, Roman gave Seth, Dean, and Sasha the go to launch an attack on the scorpion, with Dean making the first move and lashing out with his whip with a yell in the hopes of grabbing hold of one of the beast's tails. Seeing that this was a success, Dean shouted "Sash, I need yours, too!" Hearing this from Dean, Sasha lashed out with hers in a similar manner as hers grabbed hold of the beast's other tail. With Dean and Sasha having firm holds on the Gem scorpion's tails, Seth charged in with his staff raised and ready to slice off whatever he could, this whatever being the stinger of one of the scorpion's tails, which drew a screech of pain from the Gem beast. Seeing that the creature was a bit incapacitated, Roman decided that now was his chance to make a move as he charged in and, leaping into the air, came down with a yell as he struck the beast through an exposed area on its back. His gauntlets connecting with the area he was aiming for, Roman flew back as the beast let out one last screech before exploding into a cloud of smoke, only leaving behind a dark red hexagonal Gem that landed on the ground. Walking over to the Gem, Roman knelt down next to it and, holding one of his hands over it, encased it in a sky blue glass ball before shrinking it down to a size that he could carry in his pocket. Standing as he turned to look back at his fellow Gems, Roman said "Good work, everyone. That Gem scorpion was no joke."
"You got that right, Ro," Dean agreed. Looking back to Bayley, who was fairly surprised by what all just happened, Dean couldn't help but snicker at the ponytailed brunette. "Thanks a bunch for the heads-up, Bayley. You really helped us out back there."
"I-I-It was nothing, Dean," Bayley just barely managed to get out, still feeling surprised by the fight she just bore witness to. Even though she had seen Dean, Seth, and Roman take care of Gem beasts a few times before, actually getting to see the other Gems work together as such a cohesive and powerful team...it just left the ponytailed brunette feeling fairly shocked and surprised.
Seeing that Bayley still seemed surprised by all of what she just saw, Seth couldn't help the snicker that seemed to come out of him. "Dean really did mean it, Bayley. Thanks for letting us know about the Gem scorpion. Chances are we probably wouldn't have seen it before it was too late."
"Like I said, it was nothing, Seth," Bayley smiled with a blush, a feeling of pride in what she did to help starting to rise in her a bit.
Sharing another smile with Roman and Sasha, Dean again began to lead the way onward to where the destination he had in mind was hopefully still standing. Making their way through another section of trees with the only thing in the way of other Gem creatures they came across being some fairly harmless Gem insects and the occasional Gem rabbit or Gem squirrel-that Bayley couldn't help but want to stop and pet before remembering the objective at hand-the trek through the trees went fairly without a hitch. The group was almost to the edge of the forest they were walking through when a low hiss could be heard coming from behind the group.
No one seemed to hear this at first until Seth looked over and saw Sasha spin around, her whip at the ready and Bayley turning back to look with Sasha, a look of nervous fear coming across her face. "Bayley, Sasha? What is it? Did you two hear something?"
Hearing Seth ask this, it was Dean and Roman's turn to feel confused before turning around along with Seth and seeing just what it was that the other Gems were seeing. And what the others were seeing was a rather large dark green and white Gem centipeedle heading their way. The taller Gems had summoned their weapons, but they weren't quick enough in trying to launch an attack as, the next thing they knew, the centipeedle lashed out with its tail and tried to go for a straight sweep of the Gems.
"Everyone, move!" Roman barked upon seeing this. While he, Dean, and Seth were quick enough to leap out of harm's way, the brunette Gem had forgotten about Bayley and Sasha on the ground. Seeing the two Gems still on the ground, Roman yelled "Bayley, Sasha, get out of the way!"
Looking up to see and hear Roman yelling down at her and Bayley, Sasha looked over to see that Bayley was fairly frightened of the Gem beast that lied before them. Making a judgment call as the centipeedle's tail got closer to them, Sasha yelled "Bayley, watch out!" as she dashed over to the ponytailed brunette. Once she was close enough to Bayley, Sasha shoved Bayley out of the tail's way. ...But, what Sasha didn't factor in was how quickly the centipeedle would lash out, so, before she knew it, the magenta-haired Gem felt a section of the Gem beast's tail connect with her back before sending her flying into a nearby tree.
Seeing this had Bayley feeling worried enough. It wasn't until she saw what happened after Sasha hit the tree that her worry basically flew through the roof: Watching as Sasha collided with the moss-covered bark of a nearby tree, Bayley watched in horror as Sasha let out a scream of pain before exploding into a cloud of smoke and her cracked Gem fell to the forest floor. Not even caring that there was a dangerous centipeedle nearby, Bayley couldn't help but scream "Sasha, NO!" as tears began to roll down her cheeks.
...*nervously scratches the back of my head*...OK, to anyone that I may have freaked out with how I ended this chapter, it honestly felt like something that would work in the chapter given what I'm covering in this arc. Now, fear not, dear readers! Sasha will be...mostly okay. Yes, she got poofed (to borrow a term from Steven Universe) back into her Gem, but she'll be okay...honest! As for poor Bayley, I think the poor cinnamon roll saw something that's definitely going to stick with her a bit. Hopefully, the other three'll fly back in to help out soon before the centipeedle sets its sights on Bayley (which definitely wouldn't be good). Until next time, which shall bring about the resolution for this fight and how the others are going to handle Sasha being back poofed back into her Gem, don't forget to R&R please. =)
