The Hunt for Home

[The Dreamer]

The following is a flashback/memory of a previous time in Emerald's life, before her arrival in the Omniverse.

It happened a long time ago, not to long after her emergence from the Kindergarten. Emerald had spent a lot of time figure out how to live in this world, the only home she had and would ever know, but still a strange one to her, as this is not Homeworld, not that she had anything more than the name to label the place her creators had come from. Still very young, in terms of a Gem lifetime, Emerald was quite unstable at times, and did not see it necessary to practice much in the way of self-control. She live amongst animals, so why not act as one? As so she did. She roamed the land, acting as any predator of Earth would, killing prey animals and eating her fill, and she was happy with this life. If may have been the only lifestyle she knew, but it felt right. She knew this is how she wanted to live.

She continued on in this manner for many, many years, at least one to two lifespans of the average human, and as the times changed, so did the world around her. Forests began to shrink as Humans began to cut more and more, and encroach further into the places she and other animals called home. Humans even began to come into her homes and kill other animals. While this had always been something she had dealt with, it began more and more frequent at one time in her life, to the point that she had to actively avoid encountering the Humans in the forest she had be living in at the time.

While extremely frustrated with the Humans as they move further and further into the forests she called home, she felt no ill will towards them, as Earth was there world, and she was merely a guest on the planet, her species being born elsewhere in the stars. This was until one fatal day.

Most Human hunters only came for what they need to survive, taking a prey animal or two, then leaving not to return until the following year, if at all. Other times though, there would be Humans who came to kill creature purely for sport, leaving their victims to die painfully and slowly. Such disrespect for those she loved did not sit well with Emerald. It was more than that though, it caused feelings of anger and resentment to grow within her, and grow they did until the day she snapped.

There was a family of three traveling through the woods she called home at the time. The adult male toted 2 rifles strapped to his back, she presumed he was the husband of the adult female and the father of the young son that followed behind him. Emerald followed them in the form of a wolf from a good distance, as to not be noticed. She began this practice so that she may end the suffering of any animal the Humans may leave to die. the father eagerly went on and on to his son about the fun and joys of hunting, and how it would make him a man. Emerald disagreed strongly with this, no amount of killing would speed up a creatures development into maturity, it was such an arbitrary ideal.

The continued through the woods, and stumbled upon a small female deer in a clearing, accompanied by her young, both grazing without care in the world, and without noticing this family of Humans eyeing them for the deaths. It was one thing to end the life of a strong, fully grown male who had lived his life, but it was another thing altogether to end the life of a female, especially one with young to raise. Emerald hoped the family would only admired the deer, and not set to kill them.

She was wrong.

The father grabbed his son, pulling him quickly over to stand in front of him. Grabbing the rifles off his back, the father ready the gun to be fired, and quickly handed it to his son. The son looked at his father, seemingly unwilling to kill the animals, but the father had other ideas. He took the rifle from his son's hands, stood behind the son and gripped the rifle over his sons hands, making the son hold the weapon. He usher him to shoot the animals, anger in his expressions, but the boy would not. So, instead of pushing the boy any further, the father ripped the rifle from the boy's hands, took aim at the mother deer, and pulled the trigger. Shooting it in the side, not a fatal wound, but wound enough that the deer feel and could not move. It would surely die.

With excitement, the father hurried his family over the the dying deer, it's young still standing beside it over it's mother. He encourage excitement from the boy, but there was no to be had for him, so the father grabbed a knife from his belt and took his anger out on the deer. He brutalized and mutilated the still living deer, until it stopped struggling and fell limp.

Emerald watched this in horror, never having seen such unbridled brutality from a Human against a defenseless animal. It dredge up the darkness, most brutal feeling of hatred and anger the Gem had ever felt, pushing her to show the father exactly what he had done to the creature. She had never attacked a human before, but there was nothing stopping her this time. This human had pushed to far beyond what she could allow. Emerald bolted towards the father, snarling as a wolf, intent on payback for the creature he had just brutalized.

Darting past the woman and child, she pounced, mouth open and teeth bared, at the man. He swung his knife at her, striking her a number of times, cutting rather deep, but she did not care. She could not feel it. All she could feel was the blood pulsing in her ears, and the blood in her mouth as she tore open the mans neck, ripping flesh from bone as the other two humans screamed in terror. The life left the man's body, and he struggled no more.

Emerald turned to the other two members of this monster's family, still snarling and baring her teeth, but she saw no darkness in their eyes. She only saw fear and sadness. Sadness for the other member of their family. Neither one even had a gun in their hands, both weapons still laying on the ground next to a tree where the father had dropped them in excitement.

Emerald stopped. Her anger receded. All that was left was an empty feeling. She didn't rebalance the cycle with her actions, but instead perverted it, and changed the course of the lives of these two humans before her. She turned from them, seeing the young deer run to a male deer just in the distance, running off together.

She felt mortified and the destruction one action caused. She ran from that place. Ran and ran and ran.

She would no longer act as solely as an animal, as she was not one, she was more than that. She would act for the animals. She would do what she could to help the natural cycle continue unobstructed.

This is the end of the flashback/memory.

Emerald had summoned her emerald Beast Gloves mistakenly while she recalled that day. Flashing them away, she brought a hand to her eyes and wiped teardrops from them.

That was a very dark day for her. One she hopes never happens again.