It was early afternoon, and after a languid luncheon full of diplomats and stodginess, Princess Bubblegum listened to the afternoon report with less enthusiasm than normal, pushing a single pink lock out of her tired blue eyes. Peppermint Butler, ever the vision of duty and order, droned on about this and that, punctuating certain remarks with a clearing of his short throat. Fluffy people this, Lumpy people that, and though she kept her eyes trained upon him it was not long until his vivid stripes of red and white began to blend together in a fascinating hue of pink.
She gave a short, stifled snort of derision. It was enough to interrupt her butler.
"Is there something wrong, Your Highness?" he asked politely, though they were both aware there was nothing polite about it.
The Princess fought the urge to smile, and with the slightest wave of her hand, "Not at all, please continue."
Peppermint went back to the scroll in his hands, now mentioning the upcoming Back Rubbing Ceremony, and Princess Bubblegum inwardly sighed.
Fighting the urge to fall asleep, she turned instead to gaze out her window. It was a marvelous thing with a panoramic view, the great double doors set amid a wall with fantastic murals of stained glass. Upon them were depictions of Candy Kingdom history, the trials, and triumphs of her people through the ages and though they were beautiful beyond imagining she paid them no mind at all. Instead, she found her eyes fixed upon the mountains and the gathering veil of darkness about their peaks.
Her heart skipped a beat and her hand flew to her chest in sympathy, clutching at her powder pink bodice with a sudden desperation. With nary a thought of the unending afternoon report, the Princess threw open the doors to her grand balcony and ran to the edge, grasping the railing to lean as far forward as she dared. Somewhere behind her Peppermint Butler was protesting mightily, but her ears were as intent upon her target as her eyes, listening for the wind and watching for the building thunderheads that she surely saw upon the chocolate peaks across the plains to the east.
"My Lady!" wheezed the short candy butler, "I don't know what has gotten into you today, but…"
"Peppermint, my telescope," she interrupted, and her tone left no room for argument. With the ever-dutiful bow, he ducked back into her room only to appear less than a moment later with the requested item. Not a word passed between them as she took it and focused upon the horizon, hip up on the railing and body leaning over the edge, as if the building energies to the east were pulling upon her physically.
For a long time she merely watched as roiling turbulences mounted in the towers of black cumulus, and the first arcs of a billion volts at 30,000 degrees kelvin shot through the dark. Some pink and some blue, they raced across the sky together with an entwined grace that looked as if it could rend the very threads of fate. The Princess felt a further quickening deep in her being and slowly she lowered the telescope. The butler assumed it was time to speak.
"Princess, lets finish the report so we can retire for the day, it seems you are tired. Perhaps I could have the servants draw you a bath, or would you prefer time alone in the lab?" His small hand reached for hers, hoping to draw her inside, away from the black horizon that grew by the second, away from what had captivated her so utterly that it drew her away from their task. However, instead of going with him willingly, he found the Princess immovable. Again, she looked to the mountains, and this time a warm wind swept the hair away from her face, bringing with it the scent of crackling ozone and wet, windswept forests.
With a knowing smile and a throaty purr she asked, "Peppermint Butler, have I ever explained to you the science behind lightening?"
He could only stare wide-eyed as she began.
"When warm air close to the ground rises, it joins the colder air high above it. They rise together, so high they condense to form ice and hail, and rain. When there is deep, atmospheric instability the upward rise of convective columns of cumulus congestus is vigorous and continuous, resulting in tall, powerful cloud columns." The Princess paused long enough to close her eyes and visibly shudder, and her butler felt a moment of worry for her.
"The interaction of the condensation particles within these columns results in a separation of charge, and the cloud becomes electrically stratified. When the voltage difference is great enough, the opposite charges discharge in the form of lightening." She panted these last words, feathery voice barely audible above the strengthening winds. The striped man was almost certain she was trembling, and as she opened her soft blue eyes to look upon him again, he saw a mad sort of joy that frightened him.
"Peppermint Butler," she whispered, and again her hand flew to her breast in a futile attempt to still the coiling serpent looping its way around her heart, "I think it's going to RAIN!" With that last word the serpent had struck, biting its fangs deep into quivering candy flesh with the promise that it implied.
The little servant, always loyal and well mannered, could not stifle his groan, or the accompanying brow smack. For a long moment, he only stood that way, huge head in his tiny hand, eyes refusing to meet the Princess' expectant gaze. Of course, he knew that there was only one course of action and had long ago learned not to fight his fate on the matter.
"I will alert them at the gate," and with a tiny bow, he was gone.
Barely conscious of her interaction with the butler, Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum turned her resolute blue eyes back to the gathering thunderheads. The lightening shattered its way through the sky and she could now hear it, though still just a distant rumble. The scent of rain on the wind was unmistakable as the blackness loomed before her.
"Yes, alert them at the gate!" she called to the encroaching wall of electrified night, "for she flies in on the storm. And I will have her."
The mountains to the east were under the full weight of the electrical storm, a barren landscape almost continually illuminated by the hellish blasts from the storm. With each bolt that descended another dark stony corner or forested crevice stood revealed to the world, exposing its secrets, and the surface of an icy mountain lake glittered like the face of an enchanted mirror under the dancing colors of the angry sky.
A traveler unlucky enough to be caught out in this storm might have happened upon the cave near the southern shore of this same lake, perhaps would have even considered venturing in for shelter. Of course, there was no such fool. For had anyone dared to approach the cavernous maw in the side of the mountain, they would have seen, from within the gloom the occasional flash of eyes reflecting the storm. Not the eyes of other stranded travelers or even human eyes at all, but rather the huge, almond shaped orbs of a hulking nightmare. They faintly glowed from within with their own hellfire and watched the advancing black with a fevered intensity.
Within the wet cavern, great leathery wings stretched and flexed against clammy, confining rock walls. Tendon, sinew and muscle bunched and relaxed, straining hard against the desire to burst forth prematurely from the dark and take to sky. Needle sharp teeth clacked together twice in anticipation of the rain and a large, upturned bat nose could smell it heavy in the air, imminent. The demon, black as an abyss, crouched at the mouth of her cave, blocking much of it with her monstrous mass and turned her head upwards. Closing her eyes, the first of the heavy, warm droplets fell from the roiling heavens and began to bead in her shaggy coat. A smile to chill the blood crossed her wide, wicked face and great wings reflexively sprung as a growl grew deep in her chest.
"I'm coming for you, Bonnibel," and with the words the initial heavy droplets of rain became a shroud of torrential shadow upon the mountainside.
