On the shore of Mossflower's High North Coast one spring day, a young hare was swinging a sword about, doing battle with imaginary enemies. He looked like a typical Mossflower hare, except for one thing. He had a pink gemstone embedded in his bellybutton.

Thwacking left and right with the sword, he yelled, "Eulalia! Have at you, monstrous mutants, 'tis m'self, Tammo Quartz Tussock of the Crystal Gems! Take that, Orange Spodumene!" He whirled around. "Ha! Thought you'd sneak up behind a chap, eh? Well, have some o' this, Nephrite!"

Satisfied that he had given a justly deserved thrashing to half a thousand imaginary monsters, Tammo sat down on the sand. "Maybe someday I'll be able to heal you," he told his fictitious foes, "But for now, I'll have to keep you safe inside these bubbles, so you won't be able to hurt anybeast…."

His voice trailed off as a shadow loomed over him. Tammo stood and turned around. "Oh, hello, Garnet," he said.

Garnet was a tall red creature with a cube shaped afro. She had three eyes, but they were concealed by the pair of enormous sunglasses she was wearing. She stared at Tammo with arms folded. "What are you doing with Pearl's sword, Tammo?" she demanded.

Tammo chuckled nervously. "What, this sword? The one that's in my paw right now? I'm just sort of, you know, playing with it…"

"Swords aren't toys, Tammo. You know that."

Tammo looked down at the ground. "Yeah, I ought to," he muttered. "You've told me often enough."

Garnet held out her hand, which had a gemstone embedded in it. "Come on. Hand it over."

Sheepishly Tammo yielded the sword to her. Garnet then turned and started marching up the beach, and Tammo reluctantly followed.

The wreckage of a great red ship was suspended in a crevasse between two cliffs farther along the shore. Long ago, this ship had belonged to a pirate stoat named Vilu Daskar, but now it was where the Crystal Gems made their home. Garnet and Tammo went over to the spot where the ship hung and ascended the rope ladder dangling from it.

When they got inside the area of the ship that served as their living room, two more Gems sat on the sofa. Like Garnet, they got their names from the gemstones embedded in their bodies. Pearl was tall, skinny, and pale, and she had a pearl on her forehead. Amethyst was short, round, and purple, and she had an amethyst stone on her chest.

The Gems had originally come from an alien planet called Homeworld, which was populated by other creatures like them. The rulers of Homeworld were Gems called Diamonds. Millenia ago, the Diamonds had wanted to conquer the planet that Mossflower was on, and they traveled across the galaxy with an army to invade. But fortunately, a Gem called Rose Quartz had become so enthralled by the beauty of Mossflower Country that she led her friends in a rebellion against the Diamonds, successfully driving them off the planet. However, Rose lost all but two of her followers in the process, Garnet and Pearl.

After the war, Rose, Pearl, and Garnet decided to remain in Mossflower, protecting it from threats both internal and external. Eventually, they discovered Amethyst wandering lost in Mossflower Woods and added her to their group.

Then, thousands of seasons later, Rose had met a hare named Colonel Cornspurrey De Formelo Tussock, and fallen in love with him. They had developed a relationship, and soon Rose was pregnant. But sadly, she had died giving birth to their baby. That baby was Tammo, the world's first half-hare, half-Gem hybrid. He looked like a regular hare, but he had inherited all of his mother's magical alien powers… and her rose quartz gemstone.

Right after Rose's death, Colonel Tussock died too, of a broken heart, leaving Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl to raise young Tammo. Although they loved him to pieces, they could sometimes be strict with him. They would never let him go on missions with them to fight vermin and Corrupted Gem Monsters (more on those later) because they were afraid he would get hurt. This created constant conflict between Tammo and his three surrogate mothers.

Now Garnet laid Pearl's sword down on the coffee table. "I caught Tammo playing with this again."

Pearl glared at Tammo. "Tamm, what are we going to do with you?"

"Go easy on the kid," Amethyst interjected from where she lounged on the sofa.

"What's all the fuss about?" Tammo protested. "It's just a silly old sword, wot wot!"

"This sword was the pride of the rebellion!" Pearl said. "I used this sword to defend the planet from the Diamonds and their soldiers! I used it to protect your mother! This blade has bubbled countless Gems and Gem mutants, separated searats from their gizzards and garters, flayed ferrets out of their fur, whacked weasels, and shortened stoats into stumps! And now you've chipped it! Probably used it to hit rocks!"

"Okay, okay," said Amethyst. She alone was not cross. "You need to take a chill pill, Pearl. No point in makin' yourself sick over this."

Pearl ranted on. "Why, this was the very sword that I used to…" All of a sudden, her mouth snapped shut, and she fell silent. Tammo supposed she was too mad to speak.

"Tammo, the reason we're angry is because we care about you," said Garnet. "If you keep playing around with weapons like this, you could hurt yourself."

"I ain't a leveret any longer, marm," Tammo said. "When are you gonna let me start going on missions with you?"

"We've told you," Garnet replied. "When you're older."

"You're always saying that!" Tammo complained.

Amethyst spoke up on Tammo's behalf. "Why not start letting him come along with us? Then he might not get into trouble all the time at home. You know it's all he's wanted ever since he was old enough to walk. Let him go, give him his chance."

But Garnet was resolute. "Tammo's far too young by half. I've said all I'm goin' t'say. Matter closed!"

She stalked out of the room and Pearl followed her.

Tammo was left alone in the living room with Amethyst. "Huh, Garnet and Pearl never let a chap have any fun!" he fumed. "It would serve them right if one day I just up 'n' ran away."

Amethyst regarded him silently for a moment, then she said, "You know what, you're right!"

"Huh?" said Tammo.

"Maybe Garnet and Pearl won't help you become a warrior, but I know some creatures who will. On the southern border of Mossflower, there's a mountain called Salamandastron. An army of hares called the Long Patrol lives there. They're led by a badger lord. Their mission is to protect Mossflower from evil animals. That's where your father came from. If you went there, I'm sure they'd let you join the Patrol. What do you say?"

Tammo's eyes were gleaming with excitement. "Sounds super, but how do I get to this Salamandastron mountain?"

"I can take you there," said Amethyst. "It's been a long time since I was there, but I know the way. If you're up for it, we can start tonight. We'll sneak out after Pearl and Garnet go to bed."

"Jolly good," said Tammo. "I'll join the jolly old army and become a hero. Then, after I've distinguished myself enough, I'll make my way back here. Pearl and Garnet will be proud of me then, and they'll let me go on adventures with 'em."

"Sounds like a plan," said Amethyst.

And so, late that night, Amethyst came to Tammo's room and awakened him. Silently they slipped out of the shipwreck and climbed down to the beach below. They set off south, heading for Salamandastron. It would be the greatest adventure of Tammo's life.