As the three traveled the pillar of light across space, reflecting on the past events, Pearl suddenly noticed a certain wolf pup floating up past Garnet.
"Uh…" Pearl could only say as she noticed him floating about. Garnet looked up to where Pearl was looking, and gently grabbed the pup around his midsection.
"Now what're you doing, following us?" Garnet said, unable to hide her grin as the pup panted, looking like he was smiling at her.
"We've got to bring him back," Pearl said. Garnet shook.
"We're already on our way over. When we touch down, he'll go back." At this, the pup started to struggle, whining. Garnet responded by rubbing the top of his head. Finally, the light disappeared as they landed on a stone, similar to the one the pup leapt onto before, inside a house made of wood, boasting a kitchen, a loft, a sort of living room, and an earth child, who looked especially excited when he saw the pup.
"Oh my gosh! You guys got a puppy!" the young kid says as he heads over to the three. The pup leapt out of Garnet's arms and onto the young one, resting his fore paws on his shoulders as he sniffed at his face. The kid giggled as the pup sniffed and licked his cheeks, petting him back.
"It's more like the li'l guy got us," Amethyst said, patting the puppy's back, grinning at how quickly the wolf was wagging his tail. Eventually, the pup leapt off of the young guy, excitedly rushing around the house, checking out wherever.
"He followed us here," Garnet said, looking at the speedy wolf, which finally spotted the door behind the gems. He rushed past the gems, frantically pawing at it, whining.
"Can we keep it?" the boy pleaded.
"Wha- keep him?" Pearl said.
"Eh, we kept Lion," Amethyst said.
"Yeah, we kept Lion," the boy repeated. Pearl pinches the bridge of her nose.
"Steven, Lion isn't like that wolf," she starts. "That is a wild animal that'd need more attention than Lion does."
"I take care of Lion," the boy the wolf now knew was called Steven said.
"There are entire days you don't see him." Steven got quiet at this. His expression dropped as he looked down at the floor in defeat.
"Couldn't hurt," Garnet suddenly said. Pearl's eyes widened in shock while Amethyst snickered at Garnet's shutdown. The wolf even turned around in confusion, humorously grunting in response. Steven instantly perked up.
"Really?" Garnet walked over to the wolf, picked him up, and brought him over to Steven. He continued petting the excited pup that nuzzled up to him. "Heh heh. What should we call him?"
"Don'tcha think Lion'll get jealous when he finds out this guy has a name?" Amethyst asked in a joking tone.
"Eh, I think he'll just sleep it off," Steven responded while looking all over the pup, trying to determine what to call him. "Vanilla white…" Steven started. The wolf's excited expression drooped, as if anticipating what was about to unfold. "Alright, how about we call you… Vanilla!" The pup leapt onto his hind legs, jaw dropped in horror, before landing back on all fours, head drooped downwards in defeat.
Back where the pup was originally, a figure sniffed about the mountainous region, a heavenly light emitting from them. They seemed like they were sniffing a particular trail, following something… or someone. They followed and sniffed, followed and sniffed, until they arrived at a multicolored gemstone platform. Then, the trail they were following, seemingly, disappeared. They realized as much when they couldn't find that same sent past the platform. It just made a beeline for this particular structure, got in the middle of it, and the trail just stops. The figure whined and frantically barked as they tried to find the scent, sniffing at the platform from an angle they could think of.
Nothing. They couldn't find anything. Just one straight line of the scent leading onto the platform, nothing more. They howled to the sky in despair, dense clouds suddenly forming around in the skies above the platform, thundering all the while.
