Crystal Facets

Steven-Branch

The day Steven had returned home for the second time after the fight with the gems had been strange to say the least. As he had passed by the Beach Citywalk Fries, Ronaldo had suddenly pulled him aside to try to convince him of the existence of small golden fairies and tiny glowing mermaids. He was used to humoring Ronaldo, but he wasn't sure how much he could believe in this tale.

Afterwards, Sadie had asked him if he'd left a flower on her stereo at work, but he knew he hadn't. Was the mysterious gift giver expanding their domain? Once he'd gotten home, he'd seen the game token on the bedside table, and had decided to keep it with him for luck.

Even Onion had been acting strange! He had been trying to break into Steven's house more often lately, to the point Garnet had started stepping in to keep him out. She seemed calmer whenever she guessed right that Onion was about to show up.

Taking all that into account, he shouldn't have been surprised at how today had gone so far. It started off with a normal mission. Trek into the desert and find the Desert Glass, a gem relic that was used to build towering structures out of the difficult to work sand.

Of course, that was then. Now, it just builds up aimless staircases and buildings with no purpose. It had taken the gems a while to find it, and when they did, they allowed Steven time to rest. He was used to heat, yes, but a desert was a WHOLE other ball game.

As he had taken his time to cool off, he had found, of all things, a pink lion! When the lion showed no signs of wanting to eat him, he had made his decision to name him Lion. Steven, at first, had been heart broken when the gems refused to let Steven bring his new friend home, but he had to admit... a Lion might not be the best thing to bring through the warp.

He had been surprised when Lion had shown up later that day, but Steven realized rather quickly that Lion was after the Desert glass despite all of the bonding Steven thought they'd done. In his frustration, Steven had run out onto the beach and thrown the gem artifact as far as he could, which unfortunately was on the beach, where it began to form up again.

When the gems began trying to get the artifact back, they quickly realized that it had adapted to their fighting style last time, and was blocking them at every turn. Unfortunately Steven had been caught within the artifacts range, and was pulled into the sandstorm it kicked up. That's when Lion had swooped in and saved him!

With abilities very un-lion-like, Lion was able to help Steven to the Desert glass, finally containing it once again. With it now bubbled and safely in the temple, Lion and Steven were excused from the beach while the gems worked to clean up.

Steven sighed as he stepped through the door, thoroughly exhausted after a long day with two missions, even if he'd been the cause of the second. "Man Lion, that was crazy! You have super powers!" He held the door open for Lion, who stepped inside and let out a mighty yawn.

"So, what should we do now, buddy? Should we take a 'cat' nap?" He laughed at his own joke. "Hah! Cat nap... Oh Steven, you're so funny!" He felt a pang of loneliness, and found himself hugging Lion, burying his face into his mane.

When Lion suddenly leapt forward, Steven ended up falling on his face from the force of the lunge. When he picked himself back up, he could see Lion staring intently at the rafters above them, his tail swishing. He was definitely hunting something! "What did you see, Lion?"

He couldn't see anything up there, but he knew that cats had great vision. He could only imagine how strong that was in a lion!

Suddenly, Lion leapt up to the second floor and into his bedroom, letting out a roar as he did. Steven scrambled after him, trying his best to follow. Once he got to the top, he found Lion leaping off of his bead, and trying to clamber onto the rafters. "No, bad Lion! Get down from there!" He grabbed Lion's tail in an attempt to coax the giant jungle cat down.