"What happened!?" Gasped Garnet, her eyes looking over the exhausted forms of Steven, Pearl, and Matthew, the latter of which being held limply by both Steven and Pearl.
Rushing past both Garnet and Amethyst, Steven and Pearl made their way to the couch where they gently placed Matthew.
Turning around quickly, Steven with tears welling in his eyes looked up to Garnet.
"We were ambushed by a corrupted Gem horse, it cornered us in my moms fountain room!" Stammering for words Steven's sights kept on switching from Garnet and then turning back to Matthew, his unmoving body weighing heavily on poor Steven's mind.
"Then Matthew, he..." trailing off, Steven still keeping his eyes on Matthew as he laid on the couch, Pearl looking him over intently trying to spot any visible injuries.
"Matthew, he saved us both." He sighed, the sound of a personal defeat heard clearly in his voice.
"Hey, it's not bad right P?" Amethyst asked Pearl, her voice shaking as the words left her mouth. Her eyes staring with strained hope as if she wanted to be wrong with the thoughts running inside her mind, that the human that laid there had just fainted again like last time.
Looking down to Matthew, gently scanning his entire body she stopped as she knelt there for just moment before standing up and turning around.
"I haven't found any sign of injuries anywhere on his body." Pearl said flatly as both Steven and Pearl felt their spirits lift at the sound of this, but Pearl looked up with a worried look as she bit back what she was about to say next.
"But for any internal injuries, I can't be certain...we're going to have to wait."
Looking up to the Gem, each of them fell silent as the tension in the room was razor thin as the unconscious human laid there with a slow weak breath lightly lifting his chest with each shallow breath.
As the silence of the moment left the three Crystal Gems to stand there nervously each of them were forced to be lifted from their stupor as Garnet spoke up causing each of them to look up to her with surprise.
"If it is something serious we shouldn't keep him here, the best thing we can do for him right now is to get him to a hospital. The longer we wait the more serious his situation could get." As she said this however Matthew began to stir lightly causing the Crystal Gems to turn and look to him with worry.
As he shifted lightly he began to groan weakly, pushing himself up each Gem moved forward ready to support or even catch him. As he kept positioning himself upward his eyes began to open, slowly blinking as he began to look around trying to figure out where he was.
"Hey guys, what happened..." He asked each of the Gems that stood around him, seeing this both Pearl and Steven looked to the human as he began to fully take in his surroundings.
"How do you feel Matthew?" Steven asked as his face held a strained hopeful smile.
Looking to Steven and then to rest of the Gems he scratched the back of his head as his cloudy scrambled mind began to slowly clear, his current situation leaving confused and wondering why his clothes were drenched.
"Pretty good Steven, kinda confused though..." Stretching out his arms he felt the loosing of his muscles as he looked to both Steven and Pearl.
"All I remember sitting in a wheelchair and strolling along some nice hills." Describing what had happened earlier that day Matthews eyes began to strain as slowly, memories began to trickle back to the forefront of his mind."
"We made our way to the fountain, and then as we got inside..." His eyes darting back and forth with progressive speed he continued his thoughts in his head before mumbling out more of his memories.
"We made it a few feet inside, but before both Steven and I could get any further..." As the sudden rush of memories made their way into his mind, eyes shooting open wide as his heart began to furiously pound once more as adrenaline flowed through his veins he shot up from his seat.
"The Horse!" Hands closed into a fist, eyes filled with straining fear, Matthew frightened the Gems as his breathing became quick and shallow as he stood there experiencing a panic-attack.
As everything around him became a blur he could only focus on both Steven and Pearl, his hand reaching out and grabbing a hold of both of Stevens shoulders. Looking him over he saw that Steven was fine as he stood there with only a shared look of worry that Matthew held.
Letting out a weak smile Matthew felt his spirit rise as Steven stood there in front of him, but as he looked away from his little friend he looked up to Pearl.
Eyes widening he got back onto his feet and stood face to face with her as a shocked expression took over his face.
"Pearl, are you okay!?" He said in a panic, the sudden worrying of Matthew that mirrored her's and the rest of the Gems just mere moments ago.
As he law the state she stood in, the bruises, scratches, and disheveled hair causing him to blow up into a worry as he looked over her injuries.
"Anything twisted? Sore? Broken!?" As he kept on with the questions, cutting off each of her answers the rest of the group couldn't help but look in slight surprise as Pearl, who by this point was bumbling for words as Matthew kept on asking question after question without giving her a moment to answer.
The thought of seeing Pearl being left in a state of confusion that she left both Steven and Amethyst several times before eased a weight off of their shoulders as a smile formed on each of their faces.
"You really should get on the couch before you collapse." Matthew said as he guided a disoriented Pearl followed along without realizing it.
As she sat there she looked up to the rest of the Gems as Matthew stood there, causing her a sense of déjà vu she looked to the fully active, uninjured Matthew, then to her and saw that compared to the supposedly injured human she was the one that looked like the one needing medical attention.
As she saw the very apparent switch of her situation she let out a deep breath as she began to feel the toll of today's fight starting to settle in. The comfort of the couch, even if it was left somewhat wet from Matthew laying there, easing her body as the brutal fight from just mere minutes ago became very apparent to herself.
Looking downwards looking to the now very active Matthew she caught a glimpse of her own situation. Her injuries finally taking a toll on the Gem, as she looked over to Steven and the other Gems she noticed the smiles that she herself couldn't help but smile along with them.
"Your all battered up, bruised with scratches all over, I'm worried that a doctor will have to take a look at this, guys what do we do!?" Matthew said with visible worry, his question was however answered by a round of soft laughs from the three that stood behind him. Turning around he saw the soft worry free looks of Amethyst, Garnet, and Steven.
"What's funny? Is-isn't this serious?" He said in a mixture of both confusion and panic, looking at each of them he instinctively began to reach up and scratch the back of his neck but was stopped short as Pearl spoke up.
"None of that won't be necessary, if anything we all were more worried for you own well being." Looking to her wondering what she could be talking about he looked back to Steven. As he thought on Pearls state of injury, then on Stevens own ever so slightly scuffed up appearance a single thought popped into his head.
"Where's the wheelchair?" He asked out loud, looking down staring at himself he saw what pearl had meant.
The entirety of his clothes were riddled with tears as from his pants upward held holes from what he saw were from the countless barbed tips of the horses vines.
Even the reasons that the three of them left to fix surprised him, the casts, or what were left of them, dangled as mere ribbons from both his arm and leg as the both of which were in perfect health.
Finishing the look over his mind began to blur on how he could end up in perfect health in an afternoon, the next thought came as 'why am I drenched'.
"What happened?" He asked with genuine worry as a large chunk of the day seemed to be missing from his memory.
"All I remember is getting ambushed by that, horse?" He began to mumble, as his eyes looked on to the middle distance as he tried to retrace his memories of today.
"Both Steven and I tried to escape, but we were cut off from the exit by the horse." By this point, as he recounted the moments that had passed before his face began to focus on these memories, he continued on revealing his recent past.
"But we were cut off by it, before we could make it into the pathway we were stuck behind it, then it..." His words trailing off as a weighty fear shot out, Matthew's eyes opened wide as the rest of the fight poured outward from his mind. As adrenaline flowed through his veins Matthews breathing became quick and shallow, his heart beating furiously as though the fight hasn't yet reached a conclusion his fight of flight responses flaring into full speed.
"I shouldn't be here, not even in a hospital!" He cried out sheer fear, his hand grabbing hold of his torn shirt, focusing where several holes sat, where the first deadly strike landed.
The thought of the wound left Matthew to hyperventilate as he knew how serious it truly was. The thought of several spear-like brambles puncturing his body left to fall forwards.
"I should be dead..."