Steven's eyes widened. "H-huh?"

You whipped your head around, opening your mouth into a desperate glare. "I sai-!!" you couldn't finish your orders, as a heavy weight violently smashed into your chest, throwing you hard into the ground with a quaking THUMP, the force of the impact forcing a strained roar of surprise and pain, struggling at an unforeseen force pinning you down. spinel and steven gasped in horror as Lars and Sadie clutched each other harder with a scream of fear. spinel lunged forward, reaching for you, her eyes wide in fear. "(Name)!!" steven held her back, he himself watching your struggles with wide fearful eyes.

you grunted, scrabbling at the unknown entity, feeling hot, rancid breath rolling over your muzzle in time with its infuriated growling. With effort, you twist yourself around, and roll onto your belly, pushing yourself up onto all sixes. You forcibly arch your back, you hearing a pained grunt as you forced it off your back. With a leap, you kick out your back legs, hearing a pained screech as you sent your invisible foe flying back into a large geode. Grunting and trying to ignore the settling soreness, you ran at the group, as thunder cracked in the sky, followed by heavy rainfall. "COME ON!"

You quickly ushered everyone onto your back, standing still for a second to ensure they're secured on. As soon as they were situated, you snapped your head up, watching the gemstone rise up again, groaning in a daze as it recovered from your blow. After a moment of collecting itself, it growls and launches itself at you. "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!!" Steven squeals before patting your head with haste. "LET'S GO, (NAME)!"

With a grunt, you launched yourself over a nearby cliff, just in time to avoid a second impact, landing safely, albeit roughly on a ledge that was beneath it, making it crack subtly from you weight. Scrabbling against the wet, muddy ground you, ran as quickly as you could through the thick sheets of rain, shaking your head to get your wet bangs out of your eyes.

"What was that thing!?" Lars asked, clutching your back fur tightly in his fists.

"It must be what the gems were looking for!" Steven concluded quickly, looking back at him. "It never left the island at all!"

"It must have been what (name) was sensing all this time..." you uttered, squinting your eyes against the fat water droplets that beat against your face. "It's INVISIBLE!"

"A big invisible thing is after us!?!" Lars couldn't take it anymore. "I... I-I want to go home!" With his nerves fully destroyed, Lars finally broke down into hysterical sobs, hunching over and pressing his face into your back. "I WANNA GO HOME!" As he sobbed hysterically onto your back fur, spinel started whimpering and pressed herself into your back, wrapping her arms around your shoulders. "I-I wanna go home to..." her voice tiny, and barely audible.

You felt your metaphoric heart wretch at the sound of distress coming from behind you, and you find yourself starting to break from the situation, a sting in your eyes signaling the arrival of tears. Home...

Where are the gems when you need them??

You were brought out of your thoughts by someone gripping your horns in a haste, making you grunt in startled confusion. "Wha-?"

"Sorry, (name), but follow my direction!" It was Sadie! What did she think she was doing?? Your eyes darted back and forth for in a moment of hesitance. But what other choices did you have? "Erm... o-okay!"

As soon as you said this, you felt her turn your head in the direction of the jungle.
~~~~~~~~~~~

"Huh?!"

Your eyes widened as you watched Sadie throw aside a large pile of leaves, revealing a familiar, shiny blue platform...

"It's the warp pad!" Steven and Spinel exclaimed in shocked unison, while you and Lars stood in a state of shock. However, you couldn't remain that way for long, since you still had 3 young lives to save. So you quickly ushered steven and spinel onto the warp, as Sadie grabbed Lars and tried to pull him onto the pad. "Lars, come on! Let's go home!"

However, when she tried to pull him onto the warp, he glares at her in anger. "You knew!" He wretched his arm away from her, prompting you to look over at them in a haste.

"Uh, guys?" Steven lifted his brow nervously.

"It's her fault we've been trapped here!" Lars angrily concluded, pointing at Sadie who wore a guilty expression.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAA?!?" Spinel clapped her hands to the sides of her head, wearing a comically shocked expression. Your eyes widened and your mouth dropped open in wordless betrayal.

"Look, I panicked! I hid the warp pad!" She hastily explained. "You were just gonna leave, but I knew how much you really needed this!" She shouts in frustration. "Why won't you ever let me help you!?" Lars scoffs, poking Sadie crudely in the nose. "Help me!? Are you insane!?" He points at her accusingly. "You trapped me on an island, so you could come onto me!" He then turns and hugs himself in a sulk. Sadie stares at him before abruptly yelling out, and slapped at him, snapping him out of his sulk. "You kissed me on..." she slaps him again, growing angrier with each hit. "THE MOUTH!"

"NO I DIDN'T!" he protested, shielding himself from the enraged girls incessant slapping.

"Guys I want to be mad too, but can we please do it on the warp!?" Steven urged impatiently while spinel just silently stood in place, hugging herself as her lip quivered at the stress of the situation.

"LARS! SADIE!" You called sternly, storming over to them, in a haste. "If Lars and Sadie don't stop this right now (name) will-!"

Sadie, still blinded by her fury, lashed her arm again, this time, striking Lars so hard, he lost his footing at toppled over a steep cliff.

Your eyes widened, in fear, watching his small frame fall over the edge, feeling a wave of fear crash over you. "LARS!"

Without even realizing it, you launched yourself forward, lashing your arm out and successfully grabbing his arm. but as you went you pull him back, you slip on the wet ground and fall in with him, barely hearing the scream of spinel as she watched you do so.

"(NAAAAAME)!!"

Steven and spinel jump off the ledge and stare into the pit with wide eyes.

"Oh gosh..." Sadie mutters, covering her mouth with her hands as spinel came up beside her, pulling at her pigtails.

"(Name)?? Are you okay??"

In the mud pit, you laid there in a painful daze on your back, while Lars laid on your safely belly, clutching you with his eyes clenched shut. He let out a breath he was holding and opened his eyes wide in astonishment. He looked around briefly before quickly sitting up and looking down at you with disbelieving eyes. "Did.... you... cushion... my fall?"

At this point, your eyes opened and you sat up, rubbing your head in pain. You looked at him, unsure of how to answer him. Did I really do just that?

You opened your mouth to respond, bit your gaze hardened as you heard it the rumbling footsteps of your previous opponent quickly approach. As you snapped your head up, you saw disturbance in the muddy ground.

hand and footprints to be precise..

It stood growling for a moment, like it was contemplating something, but no more than a few seconds later, it charged at you, roaring in an unknown rage. Lars started to scream, but was cut off by you picking him up and placing him behind you, rising to your paws and hooves, standing in front of him in a defensive stance. In a last minute decision, you take a paw full of mud and throw it at your opponent in an attempt to incapacitate it and slow them down.

Sure enough, the mud splatters into something, and you watched with your fur bristling as the foe skid to a halt, shaking its mud covered... head...?

It then lifted a now visibly muddy hand and brushed at where the mud had struck, growling in discomfort. After regaining itself, the entity snarled and looked over at you, it's now visible face contorted into a look of anger... and confusion.

Wha...t a...re you... doing...?

Your eyes widened suddenly.

"Huh?"
~~~~~~~~~

What's this? Another cliffhanger?

Sorry bout that.