This is my first bit of creative writing that I have done and taken seriously, so please help me out with my writing and be patient with me if I'm slow to update ok?

rated M for possible future lemons

For whom the dead heart beats

I stepped out of the make shift shelter on my ship to see the moon shining down on the ocean and the land approaching on the horizon. "I'm finally back," I mutter to myself "just in time." I float back into the shelter and start gathering my supplies. With how close I was to land, I should be able to get to the tree house by dawn; if not then I could always squat at a cave nearby until night time. The funeral isn't until tomorrow night anyway.

My boat grinds to a halt against the cliff side as I step out to tie the boat up, "I need to remember where I put this for when I leave." Once the boat is secured and my stuff is packed up, I float up the cliff side, being sure to leave my mark by the edge so I can know where to come back to. I look around my surroundings to find out where to go, the tall trees around me tell me that I'm a few hours away from the tree house. "No time to waste then, better start moving if I want to get there before the sun comes out." I say to myself as I float onward.

As I move towards shelter, I can't help but wonder about the circumstances of my return to the land of ooo. My vacation was going pretty well until I got wind through some of my ghost friends that the candy king was dying. Knowing the royal family decently well, I knew it would be best for me to go pay my respects. Besides, I had been gone for about forty years, I could use some catching up with the kingdoms, call it diplomacy if you will but I knew I had to come. Luckily the candy king expected me to return and wanted his funeral to be at night, three days after his death. Tomorrow was the big day. "I wonder how Queeny is taking this?" Queeny had always been an effective ruler, but it was obvious that she leaned heavily on her husband for almost everything, without him she would likely collapse under the emotional stresses of everything. Though they should have some heirs by now, so her kids will probably take that roll over.

My thoughts are broken by a warm feeling all over my skin, looking up I see that the sky is beginning to lighten up. Dawn is about an hour away. I look around and see a large open field with the tree house dotting the hilly horizon, not enough time to make it there before burning up and there is no shade in that field. If I get caught there when the sun comes up then I'm done for. Turning up north I head for the scattered mountains, there should be a cave or two there that I could duck into till dusk. I can see a cave just as the sun starts to poke over the horizon, the light slowly singing my skin a bit. I slip into the first cave I can find and look at my skin, pink burns splotch my skin from where the light broke through the trees, I watch as these burns quickly fade into my normal grey skin. "welp, nothing to do now but set up camp here till night time" I mumble to myself as I scope out the cave. There was a stream that ran through the cave and formed a nice little pond towards the cave mouth. Stalagmites grew up randomly throughout the cave, yet formed a nice little pocket towards the pond that was more than perfect for a camp site. All in all, the cave was very homely, in fact with a little effort, it could be made livable. Granted that would require more effort than I would be willing or able to put forth at the moment, though I would like to keep track of this place for later. After taking out some basic supplies from my pack and grabbing a quick bite to eat from a few apples, I decided to leave a mark here as well. I floated over to a divot in the wall and picked up a rock as I carved the large M that declared my territory into the ground underneath it, I then replaced the rock to keep my mark preserved, should I ever need it again. "Whelp," I yawned, "guess I should just rest up for tomorrow, need to get moving a little bit before dusk if I want to get to the funeral at a reasonable time." I was going to need to stop by the tree house for a bit and drop off my stuff before heading down to the candy kingdom. It was going to be a full day.

I woke up extra early that day, after making sure my stuff was packed and getting into more regal wear (I am the vampire queen after all, might as well dress the part for an event like this), I watched the sunset at the mouth of the cave. Once the sun descended under the hills I decided to test it by pushing my arm out into the light, it stung a little bit, but there was no real damage showing up on my skin. I quickly grabbed by bags and floated out as fast as I could, wincing slightly at the pain of the dwindling light.

The second I got a good look at the tree house, I knew something was off. Mainly due to the candle lights inside the house, but I figured that I might as well be cool about this since I'm not going to be around for that long. I'll just let them know that I'm going to be kicking them out for a while.

I was just about to knock on the door when a dog wearing a brown hat opened it. "I'm telling you Margret, this place will be perfect for the boys when they get older." He said, looking back, as he stepped out. "Just need to put in some furniture and who in glob's name are you?" he continued once he saw me.

"I'm Marceline the vampire queen, and I could ask the same question, followed by why are you in my house?"

"Sorry lady, this place was abandoned when we got here. Couldn't get the scent of so much as a dead rat in here this morning. Also the names's Joshua and before you threaten me, I'll have you know that I've dealt with plenty of your kind before." I floated past him and into the house, I couldn't blame him for his mistake, the place did look completely empty, save for a few empty picture frames.

"Well, at least it doesn't seem that you are making yourselves at home here. That means I don't have to kick you out."

"Like I said lady, this place was abandoned when we got here and we are going to be giving it to our kids later. Now if you don't like that then you can lump off and leave us alone." I lifted one of the empty picture frames to reveal my mark on the wall.

"M, for Marceline. Now that that's out of the way, you can get out of my house, though you can have it in a while, I'm not going to be in ooo for too long, but I will come back for it at some point."

"Who is that daddy?" came a voice from the ladder. I turned to see a small puppy standing at the base of the ladder followed by another dog wearing a flower cap this time and holding a… hold on a second, is that a human?

"Get the kids out of here Margret, I don't want this vampire scaring Finn."

"Actually hold that thought, Joshua was it?" he nodded, a bit confused. "Is she holding what I think she's holding? Is that a human child?"

"Get away from him you monster!" he shouted, quickly darting between me and his wife. "I'm not letting you hurt him!"

"Whoa jeeze, I'm not going to do anything to him. I did used to be a human myself after all. I'm just surprised; it's been so long since I've seen any humans that I thought there weren't any in ooo anymore." I pushed Joshua aside a bit and floated over to the baby, "what did you say his name was? Finn?" the baby cooed at me before lightly punching me in the face, which made me giggle slightly. "He's the one you're giving this place to?"

"I'm supposed to be living here too" said the pup, still cowering behind his mother, somehow shrunk to be slightly larger than her foot. Wow, what a weird family.

"Of course you are little guy, but until you are supposed to be living here on your own, scram. This is my house." The boy and his mother quickly walked out the door with the baby. "Wait Joshua, before you leave I want to remind you that you can have them stay here when they are ready, like I said earlier I'm not going to be here long. Though when I come back I will want this place back from them, now go on and get out of here."

"Alright I got it." He replied with a doubting expression on his face as he hurried up to catch up with his wife and kids. I turned back into the house, set my bag down and pulled out a snack. Looking outside I realize that I took a bit longer with Joshua than I would have liked, so I decide to put off unpacking for now and head out through a window to the candy kingdom.

I can tell I'm almost there when I smell the sugar in the air and notice some of the trees turning pink and yellow. I can see the walls of the kingdom approaching when I hear something.

"Hey! Get back here!" some girl shouted, "science demands I find out if this works!" ok that's kinda weird. I float over to the voice to see a young pink girl with long wavy hair going partway down her back and a beautiful blue dress chasing a candy squirrel around the trees while carrying what appeared to be a pair of candied wings and a flask of some red liquid.

"What's going on here?" I ask her as I pop out from behind one of the trees. I must have scared her, because she jumps and drops her flask, spilling the contents all over the ground. She looks at the flask; then back to me several times with a shocked look on her face. "Ummm, did I interrupt something?" I ask.

Like I said before, this is my first fanfic so please read and review to help me improve my writing. I'll try to update the story regularly.