They had been walking for hours. Nah, not really. More like an hour and a half… at the most. But they finally reached the top of the hill. That might've been one of the reasons that it felt like they were walking for hours. That, and they were dragging Marceline around in a very uncomfortable looking old grey wagon. By the way, that wagon used to be red. But Marceline… well, she's kinda in a malnourished comatose state at the moment. The extra, limp weight added hours more to the long, but not really, walk up the orchard hill.
"Don't worry, Marcie! We're almost to the top of the hill! Then we can get you some apples!" Finn exclaimed with triumph.
"Finn…" Marceline mumbled. "Don't… call me that. Stupid."
"What'dya say, Marce?" There was no reply to Finn's ignorant question. Instead all they could hear was Jake as he huffed and puffed.
"Man, when did… whew! Marceline gain so much weight?" He complained.
"Maybe you should start laying off the ice cream, man," Finn observed as they continued to advance to the very top of the hill, where the last blood apple trees grow. You see, it's the end of strawberry season. And what a strawberry season it was! All of the strawberries were so delicious that everyone ate them up super fast and the season ended early. There weren't any strawberries left. Eventually Marceline went to the market to replenish her red foods supply. All the apples had just been sold out. A stroke of bad luck knocked over the truck that was supposed to supply the kingdom with Red Dye #40, so all of the sweets that Marceline could have picked up as a last resort was… well, red-less. Add that in with strawberry season's early demise… and… they found her in a comatose state in the middle of the baking isle in the grocery store. Luckily, Tree Trunks knew a hill in the middle of the Forest of Doom that still had an old orchard growing on it, which still grew the delicious blood red apples.
"Finn, I ain't ever laying of the ice cream. Besides, can't Marceline like, float or somethin'?"
"There it is!" Finn interrupted. They came to a stop in front of a very bushy tree with many dark red fruits ripe and ready to drop. "Guard Marcie –"
"Finn…" Marceline growled through her coma.
"While I climb up the tree and toss some apples!" Finn finished. Jake grew his arm into a giant mitt.
"And I'll catch them all! Eh-heh." Finn jumped up and disappeared within the bushy tree. After a minute of ruffling and leafy noises, some apples started to pop out of the bush.
Finn held up his mitt and started to collect the spontaneously erupting apples. "This should last Marceline until raspberry season! Or pomegranate season. Or at least until the red dye comes back."
There was a large pile of apples in Jakes mitt when the apples stopped coming. "Alright, Jake, I think that's all of the apples." Finn's face popped out of the bush, along with his body, as he started to climb down the apple tree. He was holding an apple in his hand and took a bit out of it.
"How's it taste?" Jake asked. Finn chewed for a minute and smacked his lips. "Kinda… cornstarchy. Want one?"
"Uh… no thanks." Finn picked out another blood red apple and gave it to Marceline.
"Hey Marceline! Smell the apple? The delicious red color?" Finn prodded. Marceline sniffed and opened her mouth wide: exposing her vampiricly sharp teeth. She chomped on the apple, almost biting Finn's fingers off with it.
She opened her eyes and sat up, the apple still halfway in her mouth. Slowly the red color faded to a pale pink.
"Whah… wha ah ai?" Marceline mumbled with her mouth full. The apple started to fade to grey and shrivel up. She closed her mouth around it and swallowed it whole.
"You were malnourished," Finn stated.
"So you fell into a coma!" Jake added.
"So Treetrunks told us about this place."
"And so we came here to get you your own stash of red apples until other red goodies show up."
"Oh," Marceline said while picking up another apple, "thanks, guys." She chomped on it and started to suck out all of the red.
"All in a days work, Marcie." Finn said proudly.
"Don't call me that," Marceline growled. She pulled herself up and out of the wagon and Jake dumped the rest of the apples inside. "Uhh… Finn? How do we get out of here?"
"We just go back on the path we came on," Finn said, pointing behind them. "But Finn," Jake replied, "we didn't take a path."
"Oh yeah." Finn scanned around the hill as Marceline continued to regain her nourishment of red. "We could always take that path!" Finn pointed. Across the bush was a dirt path that lead steeply down the hill. In the distance you could see an old skull from some being who had died while foolishly traveling the road.
"Alright!" The group started moving ahead again, and Marceline casually floated behind them while consuming various red apples slowly but surely.
"We'll get back to Marceline's house in no time!" Jake said.
Agonizing minutes went buy as the three continued to walk down the steep path. They couldn't see any reassuring civilization ahead of them. It was starting to get dark.
"Uh…" Finn stuttered.
"Dude, I think we're lost," Jake stated. Marceline groaned. "Men can't go anywhere without a map."
"Well, it's not like we haven't camped out overnight before. Come on guys! Let's make a shelter!" Finn said, his voice annoyingly juicy with optimism. He was right, of course. That doesn't make it any less irritating to Marceline.
"You guys can make your shelter and junk. I'm gonna chill here, kay?" Marceline said. She floated up to a low branch on a nearby tree and leaned back, closing her eyes.
"…Alright?" Finn said. Shrugging, he started to run off to gather pieces of wood and other materials for their shelter. But he stopped short when suddenly:
OOOOWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOoooooooo!
"Finn!" Jake shouted.
Oww… oww… OWWWWOOOoooo!
Marceline lifted her head slightly and opened one eye from her tree branch. Suddenly, black and red dogs surrounded the clearing… smoke crept into the edges of the scene and up in the trees. Letting out a hiss from the sudden heat, Marceline floated away from the flames.
"F-firewolves!" Finn yelled. He pulled out his sword. He attempted to swipe at a wolf, but the heat quickly traveled up his sword and burned his hand.
"OW!" He screamed. "Ow, ow, ow!" He held his sweltering hand.
A bunch of wolves surrounded Jake and Finn separately and several were barking at them. Marceline swept up the human and his dog and pulled them upwards. A lone dog attempted to prance at them, but Marceline was too quick.
"My sword!" Finn whined. He kicked and tried to escape Marceline's hold. "Stop, stupid! You'll fall and fry. Just like your brain."
"She's right, dude. Not about the brain though. That was rude," Jake added, dangling his paws.
"B-but… that's my special adventure sword! And what about your apples? They'll burn!" Finn pleaded desperately.
"We need to get out of here," Marceline stated. She started to float to the side of the clearing, but was stopped short of a wall of flame that had climbed up all the trees. She hissed and jerked backwards.
The dogs were yelping below.
"How are we gonna get out of here?" Jake yelled. "Maybe we can –"
Somehow the atmosphere changed. The dogs were still yelping, but something sounded weird.
"What…"
They weren't going crazy. The dogs heard it too, and they stopped yelping and cocked their flaming ears up.
You could hear a faint melody. It was beautiful… enchanting, even. It sounded familiar, but the sound wasn't. It sounded like a delicate bagpipe…
The firewolves were dead silent now.
"Wha… what the glob?" Marceline asked, confused. None of the wolves paid attention to her. Instead the largest firewolf – probably the alpha – trodded off towards the sound. Eventually all the other canines followed behind. Soon the clearing was completely empty, but not silent. You could still hear the music.
Marceline descended towards the burnt-out dirt. There were still faint glowing embers surrounding the clearing, but it was safe enough.
"My sword!" Finn exclaimed with relief. "OW!" He spat while trying to pick it up.
"Aww… Marcey! You're apples are all…" Jake picked up one of the still blood red apples. "Baked…"
"If you think they're bad baked, you've never had baked apples before." She bit off a bit of the red-hot fruit. "Hot," she said cooly, taking another bite. "Could use some strawberry sauce."
Finn attempted to pick up his sword again, and was able to sheathe it before burning himself.
"I wanna see where that music's coming from," Finn said decidedly after a moment.
"Yeah… Clair de Lune…" Jake said, dreamily.
"Clair-de-who?" Marceline asked.
"It's a song. Bassists wouldn't get it."
"But if we go to see the song-maker thing, wouldn't the firewolves be there?" Marceline wondered.
"Well, as long as the music's playing, it should be fine… right? They seemed all peaceful and junk when it started playing," Finn thought aloud.
"Good enough for me," Jake agreed. He picked up the wagon and followed Jake out of the clearing, and towards the music.