Connie and Steven laughed in joy as Lion warped them to a place the two had never gone to, at least, not together.
When they got out of the portal, Lion slid to a stop, right into a parking lot and inside the lines.
"Nice parking, Lion!" Connie giggled, patting her pet's mane. She slid off gently with Steven not far behind.
Steven carcassed Lion's nose with a smile. "Are you sure he'll say here, Connie?"
"If I ask nicely, he usually does." Connie grinned, petting Lion as well. "I've actually been training him to listen!"
"Really? Man, I don't think he'd ever listen to me if I was his owner!" Steven laughed.
Connie gave a small chuckle and then turned to Lion. "Okay boy, can you stay here for me?"
Lion have a slight growl in irritation.
"Please?" Connie begged.
The big cat really couldn't say no to her, she was just too sweet. He begrudgingly laid down with a huff.
"Thank you!" Connie beamed, and kissed his nose goodbye before heading up with Steven to the 'Buddwick Public Library'. They had both been there for separate reasons at separate times, but Connie was determined to help Steven study. As for the boy in question, he wasn't upset that he would have to study, he was just happy that he had his best friend to study with.
The two flung open the doors and relished in all the glory that was the library.
"Whoa!" Steven cried loudly when Connie pulled him away to the bookcases.
A stern-looking librarian nearby shushed him loudly.
"..Whoa…" Steven whispered softly in an apology. He then realized hadn't spent too much time in the library.
Connie was the near opposite. She remembered when she was younger, around six or so, and had first gone into the library with the Temps, they were all amazed at how one place could hold so much knowledge, Peridot especially. The girl had shown them all the sections, all her favorite genres, and her favorite table to read at with her father when they decided to come on dreary days. Even Jasper weren't bored of the place, because she had Connie entertaining her, just by being herself.
After grabbing a few books, the girl led Steven to her favorite table, one that had the perfect view of the sun out of a wonderfully huge window. She grinned in satisfaction.
"Ok Steven! Time to start beating the books!" Connie cried, putting the books down in front of him.
Steven gave a laugh. "What'd they ever do to you?"
Connie twirled around, opening a book and letting Steven sit down in the chair beside her.
"I'm glad you're helping me learn how to do this, Connie!" Steven gushed. He then looked a bit worried. "My teacher gave me a pretty bad grade when I researched on my phone."
"Why's that?"
"'Cause I may have written a paper on how polar bears can freeze you solid with their minds." Steven blushed nervously with a chuckle. "I really wanted them to!"
Connie held back a snort, but then Steven started to smile, and so she burst into laughter.
The cranky librarian shushed them yet again, making Connie cover her giggling.
"Ok, I'm going to go get some more books for you, why don't you try and get started?"
"Okie dokey." Steven mumbled, already starting to read.
Connie soon strolled down a long aisle of bookcases, searching for more to find to help Steven. When she reached the nonfiction, she knew she was in the right place.
She was hunting for a moment or two, quietly muttering what would and wouldn't be suitable. She bent down to the bottom shelf of one case only to have something catch her eye, right underneath it.
"I wonder what this book's called?" Connie muttered to herself, pulling it out. She blew off a sheet of dust and then gave a grunt in surprise at the leather bare cover. "It's blank…"
She opened it and flipped through a bit, skimming until she stopped abruptly. On the page, there was a hand-drawn picture of a familiar face. It had a large helmet and long hair streaming out from behind, with four pairs of seemingly bright glowing eyes… It was the fusion statue that made up the temple! What human or worse, gem, knew about the Temps existence!?
"Steven!" Connie cried in a whisper, running back to him with the book hugged to her chest. She punched up her arm, holding the book in a grand gesture. "Look!"
Steven glanced up and then gasped. "It's blank!"
"I found out something even more mysterious! It's the journal of first mate Buddy Buddwick!" Connie cried in excitement.
The boy gasped even higher. "No way! Like… the Buddy from Jamie's play? The one that we were in?"
"Exactly, exsept this is the real deal! It has gem locations in here!" The girl shoved off the books and papers she had before so carefully picked out and put down the journal. "Homework can wait! Let's take this thing from the top!"
"Yeah!"
They started to read, and their imaginations set the stage of the story as they read, looking at the amazing drawing of Beach City.
After narrowly escaping certain doom, Captain William Dewey and I, his first mate Buddy, founded the land of Beach City.
The children had never seen Buddy Buddwick in real life, so they both imagined their friend Jamie as the lead. Much like Buddy, he was a bit dramatic in writing.
On the beach, the young man wore a blue turtleneck and a tiny white sailor's cap on his head. He watched with slight worry as a bronzed statue of his captain was hoisted up by the newest citizens of the town… No one had even thought to make him a statue, of course, despite him nearly drowning in at the tentacles of a terrifying sea monster.
With Captain Dewey's legacy cemented — well, bronzed — I wondered what my legacy would be. Would anyone remember my name? Or will it be washed away by the ocean of time?
The saddened Buddy slumped down onto a log, thinking to himself as he grabbed a stick. Slowly, he spelled his name in the sand in a perfect cursive. But, the waves came in and washed his mark on the beach away… He gave a sigh in sadness.
Steven looked up from the book with a smile. "I'm picturing Buddy as Jamie being all sad."
"Oh, yeah." Connie smirked, realizing they had pictured the same thing. "Drama zone."
They both looked back to the journal to read more.
Buddy stood in determination, fists curled as he held his hands to his chest. "No! I shall not disappear! I shan't die a lowly first mate! I schwill do something great with my life!" He pointed to the sky, as if trying to tell the universe itself. "I'll comb the world in search of greatness!"
The man put on a traveler's coat, and replaced his tiny sailor's cap with an equally small explorer's one.
And so began a new chapter of my life — to explore the previously unexplored and to make my mark on the world!
I traveled for many days and nights until, I found myself in the most peculiar place, it seemed to be a cavern made of red sandstone, filled with many holes or caves, and strange pointy towers of some kind.
Buddy looked around at the Beta Kindergarten in wonder, what was this place?
He then walked up to a injector and started jotting it down at once in eagerness. He labeled the device and then glanced up, at once he saw an enormous hole. He gasped in shock. It was so much bigger than the others, and looked perfect compared to the rest!
This hole seems to be very different from the rest. I have no idea why...
"You! What in the stars are you doing here?!" He heard someone cry.
The cry was familiar. I turned to see one of the four Crystal Temps!
Buddy gave a gasp, turning to the screech. He then saw the small green figure on Peridot with her arms crossed, staring up at him in shock.
Connie glanced up from the book once more with a frown. "Peridot wouldn't be in her clothes from now, would she?"
"I don't think so." Steven replied with a hearty shrug.
The girl then remembered a picture she had seen so many months ago that hung above the fridge. That was the day she learned the gems were immortal by seeing how old the clothes in the picture had looked.
Peridot now in Connie's imagination wore a green buttoned up suit jacket with dark black pants. The buttons shone in the sun. She narrowed her eyes, making her rounded glasses slip down her nose a bit.
Buddy was trying to think of something to say, when suddenly, Jasper ran up and pinned him to the rock wall. "What are you doing here!?"
She wore a similar outfit to Peridot, except her red jacket was completely undone and the sleeves were rolled up. All she wore beneath that was a white t-shirt, so, not entirely in the style.
Buddy gave a cough, and then starting panting in panic. "Uh, um! I'm Buddy Buddwick, madam! Y-You and the other Temps save myself and my crew?"
Peridot piped in. "I know him! We thought he'd be eaten alive by that monster, remember?"
"I do remember." Jasper growled. "But I didn't ask for his name and life story, I asked what the chump's doing here, he and his captain meddled with enough with gem kind!"
Buddy gave a noise in terror, squirming to get out of her grasp. He then narrowed his eyes and stopped wriggling like a worm. He was an explorer now! And no one would stop him. "Crystal Temp, I'm just a humble traveler who wants my name to be remembered by everyone for all-" He then felt someone plunge their hand into his coat pocket and he looked down to see Peridot looking at his map in concentration. "Um, may I have my map back?"
Jasper finally dropped him in order to look over Peridot's shoulder.
Jamie ran up to see Peridot marking off many places on his map, while the man squinted in confusion.
"Jasper, I'm sure we can let this one live if he knows where not to explore!" Peridot said earnestly, giving the map back. "You see, I have marked every place where you should never, ever go, unless you would like to die a horrible death!"
Jasper glanced at it and then nodded in agreement. "Yeah. If you go there, you might be remembered…" She smirked. "if you even manage to live long enough to write it down."
Buddy still stared at the map in awe. All these places, undiscovered! Uncharted! Full of dangers!
Jasper glanced at Peridot and then back at the man. "Ok, I'm assuming you heard all that because I'm not repeating it. Peridot, let's go."
Peridot leapt onto Jasper's back and the big gem ran away like a bear, to who knows where.
Surely, if I do explore these places, I'll be remembered as brave and courageous!
Connie and Steven read in wonder as the man described the Sky Spire, including the tiny beetle home that rested at its top. He went to the Lunar Sea Spire too, seeing the beauty of it that Connie never could. They flipped to the next page and saw a drawing of the large tower that was the Communication Hub.
"This is the Communication Hub! I suppose he had to think of his own names, since he thought he was the first to discover them." The girl said matter of factly, seeing the caption was 'Steeple of Hubris'.
Going to the next page, there was a couple of drawings of what the Temps called Crystal Shrimp, and what Buddy called Sparkling Slugs.
"Whoa! Those are cool!" Steven cried.
Connie nodded in agreement, she then saw a drawing of a familiar item from her past, that was actually labeled correctly as 'The Moon Goddess Statue' "This one's right!"
The next page had the Inverted Pyramid, but Connie had noticed the drawing underneath, labeled 'A Mystical Mural' She saw that in the center, two women appeared to be fighting with beams of light, one had on a sharp helmet, it looked like her mother… and the other woman had sharp pointy hair that looked like a star, Connie had no idea who that could be.
Before she could think more on it, Steven eagerly flipped the page. He pointed to a picture labeled 'The Palanquin'. "Hey, what's this place?"
Connie looked at it for a few seconds in confusion. It appeared to be like some sort of caged throne, with spindly legs. The holes in the cage seemed to be shaped like diamonds. And, just in front of it, was a flower. The girl recognized it as a forget-me-not from reading facts about flowers as a child. The flower symbolized with undying love, even after death, and rememberance of those passed, earning its name. It was Connie's favorite flower. "I've never been there before, I couldn't tell you what it is."
Steven shrugged as he flipped the page. "That's okay!"
Buddy eventually found himself in the Strawberry Battlefield, drawing a picture of a ginormous axe as he munched on a giant strawberry. Despite having seen all these wondrous places, it didn't feel right that he was writing them down.
Suddenly, a loud twinkling sound came from nearby. He whipped around to see the thin blue figure of Lapis Lazuli in a beautiful victorian style gown complete with bows and ruffles. The only ways she didn't look in style was that the skirt length was just below her knees, because she, of course, needed movement, and she wore no fancy hat. Seeing her, Buddy knew if his captain were here, he'd be sweating and be nearly ready to faint.
When Lapis noticed him, she gasped and ran up to him. "What are you doing here?"
"Excuse me?"
Lapis gave a sigh. "I'm sorry, but you cannot be here. It's too dangerous."
"Then why are you here?" Buddy asked in confusion.
Lapis picked up a small pebble and made a tiny smile. "Well… I kinda grew up here. And these little guys were my friends, I mean, they're kinda like gems, just don't have life in them."
Buddy blinked in confusion.
"Anywho, why are you here?"
The man then gave a determined grunt, and spread out his map of places. "This! I've been traveling the globe as an adventurer and explorer! I've been on a journey to discover places no one has ever been before."
Lapis frowned and kneeled down beside him. "Who made this map?"
"Ah, it was drawn up for me by your compatriots." Buddy smiled.
Lapis seemed to furrow her brow. "If they made it for you, then you haven't really discovered the places, we have."
Buddy looked crestfallen, realizing that was true. His traveling was all for nothing. He stuttered slightly, looking for some sort of loop hole or work around. "Well, I uh... that is... Oh. Uh... Oh, dear. I haven't discovered a single thing on this map!"
"Um… sorry about that." Lapis mumbled, unsure what else to say.
Buddy gave a groan in agony. "And here I was, claiming to be a great explorer and adventurer when all I really am…is a tourist!" He collapsed onto the ground in a dramatic gesture, rolling over on his back, sobbing.
Lapis hurriedly flew up to look at him from above. "Ugh, don't cry! I am really bad at comforting people!"
"This is why my journey hasn't felt right!" He yelled, kicking his arms and legs like a toddler, at least, that's what Connie and Steven imagined.
The gem's mind raced, trying to find something to cheer him up and get him away from there. She then gasped. "Oh! The sand castle! You should try and find that! No one else has!"
Buddy gave a small sniff, opening his eyes. "Really?"
"Really!" Lapis laughed, falling back to the ground and helping him sit up. She then placed her finger to a region of the map. "Last I heard, it was around here, in this desert."
"Last you heard?"
Lapis smiled, spreading her hand out to stretch it in the desert region. "Yes, they say it's never in the same place twice. It's always rebuilding itself all over the desert!"
Buddy was amazed and now invigorated. He stood up, placing his hands on his hips. He was an explorer once more! "That sounds like the perfect adventure for me! And I'll be the first one to see it!"
"Good luck. And if you ever come back here, I'll drown you!" Lapis giggled in a joke. She knew that Peridot would have told her to drown him at first sight for knowing too much, but all the Temps knew they'd never actually go through with such a terrible deed. It was all for show to scare the feeble-minded humans.
Miles later, Buddy spoke to himself as he wrote, needing some sort of sound and something to do to distract him from the overwhelming heat. "I've been wandering this desert for ten days now…"
Sweat crawled down his forehead and he gave a sad sigh. "I suppose I could take off my explorer's coat for a bit of relief, but if I wasn't wearing this, people would see me and think, "Oh, just some man wandering around; not important at all. Why he can't even find the elusive sand castle!" He started to laugh, mainly at himself at this point. "Ha, ha ha" they'd say. "What a fool," they'd continue."
He than collapsed to the sand, feeling like he was about to die from the heat. He had felt his body had grown weaker as the water supply deplited, and food ran short. In a last attempt to regain some sort of closure of his death, he pulled out the journal, and scrawled down his last thoughts. "This is it, then - the end of my adventure. I've just followed a map to my own end…."
He glanced up then, hearing someone coming. There were silhouettes of a tall woman and several animals, lions, he presumed. "And this will be the last thing I ever see as I expire - and goddess and her... one, two, three... several lions, here for my soul." The man then collapsed, and the quill dropped like a stone into the sand. He was gone…
"What a tragic end…" Steven whispered.
Connie nodded somberly, flipping the page than giggled. "Oh, wait, there's tons more!"
Buddy later recorded on how he had gained consciousness by a few licks of a lion, and then he saw her.
As I slowly regained consciousness, I became aware of a tall figure in the shape of a giant woman. She held a stern gaze upon me, one that made my blood run cold. She was magistic, her entire person was garbed in what seemed golden armor with the sun upon it, and she wore a large helmet. I was in the midst of a warrior goddess…
"Mother…" Connie gasped gently.
The woman knelt down to the man with the same stern look that softened slightly with an arc of an eyebrow. "You're going to die out here if you stay much longer, you know. Humans can't survive this place for long."
Buddy squinted up at her in confusion, and then realized he was in the middle of a circle of lions and gasped in horror. "Seven lions?! Please, don't eat me!"
Yellow Diamond gave a slight chuckle. "Don't worry, they won't attack unless I order them
to."
Buddy stared in horror.
Her face then fell. "I don't plan to have them attack you. It seems you managed to nearly die on your own part. Now, tell me why you're here
Buddy gave a sigh in relief and stood to look up at the tall and towering woman, still rather intimidated. He took a breath and then explained it all rather quickly. "I was a first mate on a ship, but we found land. And then I realized I didn't want to stay in that land, so I went to find more land. But then I was told not to find that land because it was really dangerous, but I wanted to prove myself and…" He took out his journel and gave it to the Diamond. "Look. I wrote it all down here."
Yellow was slightly peeved at the human's rambling, and didn't exactly care too much about his backstory. She did, however, care that he knew about gem locations, and skimmed the book with slight interest as he ranted to himself.
Buddy then turned again to the woman, upset. "Why am I looking for the sand castle that probably doesn't even exist?"
Yellow Diamond listed her head to the side. "A sand castle? Why would you want to find that? There are thousands of more important things to spend your time on."
"Because it's undiscovered!" Buddy moaned in annoyance. "I've combed these deserts for weeks, and there's been no sign of one."
"That's a sign, I'm guessing." Yellow Diamond mused, rather bored and pointing to something in the distance.
Buddy turned to indeed see a magnificent castle of sand in the distance. His hope reignited at once. "That's it! I've gotta record this! I've got to…" His face then fell. He looked back at the Diamond with disappointment. "Wait. You saw it first. This doesn't count at all! I'm a terrible explorer."
He marched over to one of the seven lions and propped it's mouth open, placing his head inside in agony. "Eat me. It's all I'm good for."
"Please, tell me your joking." Yellow Diamond moaned, waving off the lion who happily trotted away.
Buddy sadly turned to her and she made him meet her eyes. "You are not as pathetic as you think. These places have all been discovered, but you wrote them down in great detail. Even I was interested for a moment or two with the passion you put into the words. I'm sure many others will read and see the paragraphs from these pages again and again. I believe you came out a bit defective, thinking you were to be an explorer, a scribe would better suit you."
And become a scribe I did, or rather, an author. I wrote up a storm, making book after book, so many until I realized I could fill a library with them!
Steven than gasped in realization.
"I get it!" Connie cried.
"The Buddy Buddwick Library!" Both children exclaimed, getting a very loud shush from the librarian.
Connie smiled happily, looking around at the place she loved so much, and now knowing how it came to be. "He really did leave a mark on this town."
Steven was happy too until he glanced away and saw a picture hanging high above a bookcase, as if a tribute. He pointed to show Connie the discovery. "Whoa. Hold the phone. Is that what he looked like?"
Connie glanced up to see a picture of a portly and short looking man with round glasses and bushy mustache. He looked rather regal, he was the real Buddy Buddwick. She gave a chuckle. "We imagined him way off. I kind of liked our version better."
Steven smiled, imagining Jamie as the picture. "Me too."