This is my first Steven Universe fanfiction. It doesn't have much to do with the actual show, but it does center around a major event. Well not exactly, but I don't really know what else to call it. This story may not technically have spoilers, but I'm assuming most SU fans have seen the episodes regarding the Kindergarten, and it was heavily implied that the Homeworld gems have been doing that for a while on other planets. I thought a fanfic like this was deserved. This will be a short fic, probably no more than 2 or 3 chapters, but it'll be good, trust me.
The twin suns shimmered in the blue afternoon sky, brightening the landscape on this side of the Planet. There were many wide, grassy plains in this region, leading south towards the upland forests and mountains. Many creatures spent their days calmly grazing on the wide open prairies, but the wildlife of this planet were in one way different than those of others; many species possessed relatively high cognitive thought, and were aware of their place in their world
A large herd of such creatures were feeding on the fresh grass now. They were medium-sized quadrupeds and were covered in gray, scaly skin. They had long, flexible tails and three claws on each foot. They had strong jaws and sharp outer teeth for occasionally eating carrion, though their main diet was herbivorous. The creatures' most distinguishing feature was their eyes, which were mounted on long, stiff stalks extending sideways outward from their heads, giving them excellent peripheral vision.
These stalk-eyed animals lived in large family herds on the plains. The rainy season had passed, and with it the breeding season, and the herd was grazing around a large, hill-like mound made of rocks and soil rising out of the grassland. Inside the mound were several dozen shallow, dug-out nests containing up to 10 ovular brown eggs, due to hatch any day now. Mounds like this were dug out by the stalk-eyes to house their nests and young, and there were several medium-sized holes in the upper areas of the mound to let sunlight in to keep the eggs warm during incubation. A few larger entrances were dug out at the bottom of the mound, which allowed sentries to come and go as they took turns guarding the eggs from intruders. The herds encircled the mounds at all times for this very purpose of keeping other creatures out.
At the front of the herd, watching over the others, was the alpha of the herd, a huge bull stalk-eye named Attagornis. Attagornis was the largest male in the herd, and had led and protected them for many years. Mature males like himself had thick, armored foreheads for sparring with each other over females or leadership of the herd, colored blue to emphasize their status.
Attagornis' hide was littered with scars and old battle wounds, the result of years of experience fighting for his position and fending off persistent carnivores. As alpha, Attagornis was highly revered by his herd, especially the young ones, the vast majority of which were his own children, as were most of the eggs safe in the mound. Such was normal for the leader of the herd. The young always looked up to him, and he enjoyed their company, especially telling them stories from his youth. It was impossible to count how many times Attagornis had saved their lives, and the lives of several members of his herd, but he was always willing to do what he had to do to keep them safe.
As Attagornis tore up another mouthful of grass, his right eye detected movement in the grass not far away. His species' eyes could move independently, making their field of vision all the bigger. Attagornis lifted his head from the ground and rose up on his powerful hind legs to further scan the surrounding area. He could see nothing except his herd and the still grassland, when suddenly, the faintest movement in the tall grass caught his attention. Attagornis stared into the grass, straining his eye to catch any irregular movement, when, out of nowhere, a lanky, speedy creature shot out of the grass and charged the herd. Attagornis roared the alarm call the moment the thing appeared, which was soon revealed to be a screecher, a fast, pack-hunting predator with six legs, a whiplike tail, and a gorgonopsid-like snout.
The screecher cried like a banshee, and over a dozen more screechers charged out of the grass and attacked the herd. The stalk-eyes, however, crowded together in a circle formation, with the young running towards the nesting mound. The entire herd closed tightly around the nesting mound, making sure that nothing would get through to the eggs.
The screechers circled the herd, quickly sprinting around them and then stopping, before sprinting around the tightly-knit cluster again. They were looking for a weak spot.
Suddenly, the alpha screecher howled, and several smaller screechers burst from the grass and into the herd, darting in between the larger animals' legs after the young and eggs. Attagornis roared an order to his herd and began stomping his feet everywhere around him, crushing every delta screecher he could catch, and the others immediately followed. The delta screechers had no chance; they were all crushed and stomped and kicked and bitten to death within moments, but Attagornis knew that the deltas had only been a distraction for the real attack.
While the stalk-eyes had been focusing on the delta screechers, the alpha gave the signal for the larger hunter screechers to attack. They charged the herd, leaping onto the stalk-eyes' backs and raking their razor-sharp claws down their prey's hides. Attagornis roared and shook the screechers off, and rammed them with his strong head when they tried to pounce again. Attagornis roared mightily, refusing to give in.
The stalk-eyes fought bravely, but the screechers were relentless in their assault. The stalk-eyes were much stronger than the predators, but the screechers were much more agile and evaded their prey's blows.
The alpha screecher shrieked furiously and leaped onto Attagornis, sinking its fangs into the mighty stalk-eye's neck. Attagornis roared in rage and snapped his strong jaws onto the screecher's tail and ripped it off him. Attagonis roared in fury at the screecher, and the two alphas engaged in battle, biting, kicking, and clawing at each other monstrously.
It seemed like neither side would win, when suddenly, out of nowhere, the entire sky turned a threatening shade of red, causing the stalk-eyes and the screechers to halt in their battle and stare up at the sky in confusion.
In moments, hundreds of dark shapes appeared in the red sky, descending towards the Planet surface. All the animals in the surrounding region looked up from what they were doing at the anomaly above.
In all his years, Attagornis had never seen something like this. The dark shapes in the sky grew bigger and bigger as they neared the Planet's surface, and became clearer. The animals had no idea what they were looking at, thus they could never have imagined that it spelled doom for their world and all that it supported.
As the strange objects from the sky neared the ground, Attagornis recognized them as some kind of vessel. He had never seen transport like this before, but he assumed some ground creatures may be using them to travel long distances faster. He could never hope to guess how these vessels flew without wings, though, as wings were the only known source of true flight on the Planet.
Attagornis spotted many large, spherical objects flying alongside the vessels, and as they became clearer, they appeared to be gigantic eyes. As the strange vessels neared, the alpha screecher howled for his pack to flee, but the stalk-eyes, including Attagornis, were frozen in fear and confusion.
The vessels stopped in their approach a few hundred feet above the ground, and only now did Attagornis see how massive they truly were. The huge ships were bigger than the largest creatures on the Planet, the thunder-walkers, and the very largest was nearly the size of a mountain! All the animals in the area stared up in silence at the enormous ships hovering above, having no idea what kinds of beings were within, watching them.
Suddenly, the large, floating eye-like objects pointed at the ground and began firing huge rays of glowing energy at the animals, blasting huge craters into the ground and incinerating any creature hit. At this the animals, intelligent or otherwise, knew they had to run.
Attagornis roared for his terrified herd to run as other creatures stampeded around them to get away, but, though they tried to stay together, the stalk-eyes were separated in the chaos. Attagornis was frantically trying to lead a part of his herd to safety, but he then looked back to see that the red eyes had stopped firing, and the smaller ships from the fleet were landing, and groups of strange, bipedal creatures were leaving them.
Several large machines were then deployed by some of the ships, and began tearing up the ground violently. Attagornis then remembered; the nesting mound! The eggs were still in there, completely unprotected! If something wasn't done, they would be destroyed! Attagornis bellowed as he charged back towards the scene, calling the fractured groups of his herd to him. They heard, and can running to his side as they charged back to save their young. Other animals saw them, and the stalk-eyes' courage inspired them as well. These alien creatures were attacking their home, and something had to be done.
The invaders' machines were causing the ground to shake as they began terraforming the grassland, but their plans were interrupted when a horde of enraged wildlife made their charge in a counterattack.
Attagornis had never seen creatures like these; almost every one was a different color, and they all varied wildly in appearance, though most seemed female in shape. As Attagornis' herd of rebels charged them, he saw that they all had a single gemstone embedded in different places on their bodies. Attagornis had seen gemstones and crystals before, but never on a creature's being. And when the invaders saw the animals approaching, they pulled rather threatening, non-biological weapons out of the gemstones in a flash of white light.
The animals clashed with the invading aliens with gems on their bodies, and many put up a good fight, but ultimately the invading creatures fought harder, using their weapons, which the animals were hardly any match for. Attagornis was frantic as animals who had followed were brought to the ground all around him, including members of his own herd.
Attagornis tried to get his herd back together, but then he saw one of the invaders not far from him. This one was large, about twice his height, and it had a huge volume of hair the color of the grass lilies that bloomed in the spring flowing from its head. It held a straight, pink blade in one hand and an armored shield in the other. Judging by how it was attired, and the other invaders that were fighting the angered beasts alongside it, this one was likely a high-ranking authoritative figure.
Attagornis was first entranced by the creature's irrefutable beauty, but he then realized that, as a leader, this creature was causing this. She was leading the others in destroying the stalk-eyes' home!
Attagornis heard a roar nearby him. It was Algran, a large male stalk-eye whom was Attagornis' second-in-command. He too must have realized what Attagornis had, and was enraged beyond reasoning about it. Before Attagornis could stop him, Algran roared and charged the leader. Algran was bent on killing her for what she was doing, and was charging at full speed, when a voice suddenly called,
"Rose! Look out!" And in a fraction of second, a spear came flying towards Algran and harpooned him deep in the side. Algran squealed in agony as he crashed to the ground, the spear embedded in his hide and crimson blood pouring from the fatal wound. Attagornis looked on in shock as a shorter, much lankier gem creature approached the fallen stalk-eye and pull the spear from his mortally wounded body, blood flowing from the injury.
Attagornis' face contorted into an enraged scowl. It was one thing to attack his home, but it was another thing altogether to murder his friend. Furious, Attagornis roared and thundered toward the pink-haired gem creature, a flame of anger combined with hatred and vengeance burning inside him.
Attagornis charged passed the lanky white creature, and the pink-haired one barely had time to lift her shield before Attagornis slammed into it, snapping his jaws at it and pushing against the shield with all his might.
Out of the corner of his left eye, Attagornis saw the white creature charging towards him with its spear. Attagornis turned to face it and roared threateningly. Attagornis then fought the one who had killed Algran, making sure to be careful of her sharp spear. She jabbed her spear at him, but Attagornis dodged the attack and clamped his strong jaws onto the end, entering a power struggle with the white gem creature.
Attagornis, with his superior strength, would have ripped the spear out of the white one's hands and snapped it in two with his jaws, but he was suddenly hit in the side of the head by a powerful force, knocking him away from his current adversary. Attagornis looked up to see that a much shorter, red gem creature had hit him with its armored right hand.
Attagornis knew that he could not win a three-on-one fight, so, with a glare of pure rage and hate at the pink-haired creature, he turned tail and ran back towards the hills. The animals of the plains had been ravaged by the fight, as they were so ill-prepared for such a battle, and the survivors were hurriedly fleeing the scene. Attagornis was among them, and he was searching for the remnants of his herd when he remembered the eggs in the nesting mound again.
Attagornis looked back to see that the gem creatures' machines were razing everything in their path, and the mound lay directly in front of them! Attagornis, not wanting to fight but instead save any young that remained, charged back toward the site and avoided any contact with the gem creatures.
Attagornis soon reached the mound, the vibrations from the huge machines tearing up the earth causing chunks from the mound to shake off and tumble to the ground. Without stopping, Attagornis ran into the mound, but what he saw made him gasp.
Chunks from the mound's roof had been shaken loose, and rained down on the nests, smashing every single egg. Pieces of eggshell and dead embryos were littered about the floor. Attagornis bowed his head in sorrow. The young were all dead. They hadn't even gotten a chance to hatch out of their shells.
Attagornis was about to leave and save his own life, when he suddenly heard the crack of eggshells hatching. Attagornis rapidly turned to see that, at the far end of the nests, three eggs had survived, and were beginning to hatch.
Attagornis then heard something, and looked up to see that the pink-haired gem creature had entered the mound, right where he last eggs were hatching! For a heartstopping moment, Attagornis thought that she would murder the hatchlings before they even came. But, she did nothing. She just stood their, looking directly at Attagornis as he did her.
Before anything else happened, Attagornis roared and ran towards the nest and stood over the eggs, snarling, determined to protect them even if it cost him his life.
However, to the bull stalk-eye's surprise, the pink-haired gem creature merely backed away, allowing Attagornis to turn his attention back to the eggs, who had hatched out into three tiny, silver stalk-eyes, all males. The babies squealed and cried out for their parent, the eyes on the end of their stalks closed tightly, as they would be for the first month of their lives.
Attagornis stole a quick glance at the gem creature. She was still doing nothing, only staring at the stalk-eyes with what seemed like a forlorn and regretful expression. Not taking his eyes off her, Attagornis lowered his head to the hatchlings and made a deep rumbling noise in his throat, and the young responded instinctively by gripping onto Attagornis' eye stalks with their claws and tails.
Attagornis then raised his head again, and stared at the pink-haired one. Then, Attagornis turned and left the mound.
With the last of his children safely in tow, Attagornis ran as fast as his legs would carry him away from his former home and towards the uplands. He stopped to look back only once. The gem creatures were now using tall, four-legged machines to inject something into the ground. Attagornis didn't know what they were doing to the Planet, but he prayed that whatever happened, he and his last remaining young would be safe.
That's the end of chapter 1. As you can see, it's a bit of a downer. And I assume some will be appalled that the not-yet-Crystal Gems were a part of this.
Anyway, I may not update this for a while, since I've gone back to work on my Animal Farm fanfic. But, that doesn't mean you'll have to wait like 9 months; I already have the premise of the 2nd(and possibly final) chapter planned out, and a planned sequel to this fic, taking place afterwards.
Until next time, Torotyrannus15.