Chapter I

"Boo," Marshall Lee whispered inches away from Fionna's covered ear. She emitted a small squeak and jumped slightly. "Whoa! For someone who acts so tough, you sure scare easily!" Marshall laughed. He floated to a nearby tree-out of Fionna's reach- in case she decided to hit him. They were just outside her tree house; a few miles from the graveyard where Marshall currently made his home. He noticed Fionna wearing her backpack and carrying the crystal sword that Gumball had given her. It had turned out to be the Ice Queen in disguise, but after Fionna saved his life, Gumball lifted the curse and let her keep it.

"Marshall!" Fionna shouted from below. "I was deep in thought!"

Marshall floated down a bit to give Fionna a smug look. "Oh, really? Thinking about me? Well, I'm right here; your dreams came true." He laid his body horizontally in mid-air and put his arms around the back of his head.

Fionna blushed and crossed her arms. "I was actually thinking about the troll dragon that's harassing the Candy Kingdom. So if you'll excuse me, I need to take care of that." Her arms still crossed across her chest, she walked past Marshall and called for Cake. When she arrived, she let Fionna climb on her back and they headed towards the Candy Kingdom.

I didn't hear about a troll, Marshall thought, puzzled. Absently, he started floating home. She's probably just going to hang out with Gumball…but then why wouldn't she tell me? Wait. Why do I even care?

"Oof," Marshall muttered as he bumped into something. He looked up and saw an orange fellow with a flaming mohawk. The jewel on his forehead was glowing and flickering like his hair, but the look on his face was icy cold. "Oh, hey, sorry dude," Marshall said uncomfortably. "I wasn't really watching where I was going…"

"It's cool," said the fire boy, but his face didn't change. Marshall couldn't tell if the pun was intended, but he laughed awkwardly anyway.

"Haha, hey aren't you from the Fire Kingdom?"

"Ignis, Prince of the Fire Kingdom."

"Cool name. I'm—"

"Prince of the undead and the Nightosphere known as Marshall Lee." Now, the boy's face was stoic and apathetic.

"Uh…yeah," Marshall really didn't know what to say, so he just turned and slowly floated the other way. If Ignis still wanted to hold whatever conversation they were having, he made no motion to do so. "That was…strange," Marshall uttered to himself when he arrived at his small shack of a house. He floated inside and sat on the sofa, grabbing his guitar. He lazily played a few chords and hummed, but quickly became bored with that. After sitting in eerie silence for a minute or so, he noticed a faint sound outside. At first it sounded like the wind howling, but when Marshall went outside, he realized it was whimpering.

"Hello?" Marshall called. "Is anyone there? Do you need help?" A series of howl-whimpers answered him, and he followed the sound. It became apparent that the howl-whimpers were coming from the half-dead bushes behind his house. As he got closer, it sounded like a wounded animal. "Hey, it's okay," Marshall cooed softly. "I'm gonna help you, you're okay now. Come on, it's all right." With a little more coaxing, a strange animal emerged from the bushes and limped over to Marshall. Its "winged" ears flopped down beside its head and it had a long, spiky tail. Two small horns popped out of its forehead, and it was about the size of a horse. "A…baby troll dragon?" Marshall's eyes became wide with realization. He grabbed the surprisingly light troll dragon baby and quickly took off towards the Candy Kingdom.

Fionna slashed the troll dragon's giant, fungus-infected foot, but it was so calloused that her efforts did nothing. The beast flailed and roared, destroying everything with its gigantic claws. Its scaly skin was never going to be effected no matter how hard Fionna tried, she realized. She and Cake headed for the castle, to send for a city-wide evacuation.

"Gumball!" Fionna shouted in haste, "We need to get everyone out of the city! The troll dragon is out of my control right now!"

"Yes, right away." Gumball quickly left the room and headed to the tower where he makes his announcements. Most of the people whose homes and places of business were destroyed had already gathered outside of the castle. "ATTENTION CANDY KINGDOM CITIZENS..."

"Cake, you stay here and help Gumball with the evacuation, and I'll go see what I can do about Ugly McGee." Fionna gave Cake no time to respond as she ran out the door and back to the troll dragon. She put her sword in her backpack and began climbing its rough and crusty leg. If he can't feel my sword, he won't feel this either, Fionna thought confidently. Her plan was to reach the beast's chest and go for the heart. If that failed her backup was to go for the eyes. She reached his hip within a minute, realizing just how big this thing was. She was starting to regret leaving Cake behind; with her help, she would have reached the shoulder by now.

"FIONNA!" Marshall's voice boomed from across the courtyard. Marshall you fool! Now the troll dragon is going to know I'm here! Just as she expected, the troll dragon turned and twisted until it caught site of Fionna while she held on for dear life. Despite the scaly surface of the monster's skin, her hands slipped and she flew through the air. Marshall caught her before she even came close to the ground, and she hit him.

"What do you think you're doing?!" She screamed.

"Saving your life! You didn't have to hit me!"

"Well I had it under control until you gave me away!"

"Oh, yeah, some control! You were going to kill it!" They reached the ground and he let go of Fionna, but that didn't keep her from yelling.

"What other option do I have? It's going berserk, destroying the city!"

"SHE is only worried!" He reached over and picked up a smaller, calmer version of the monster destroying the city, and Fionna gasped.

"No way..." She stared in amazement for a moment, looking back and forth between the baby troll dragon and Marshall Lee. By then, Cake had arrived; and as she realized what was going on, she, too, looked on in astonishment.

"What did you..." Cake looked at Marshall with accusing eyes.

"There's no time," Fionna said as she went into leader-mode. "We're going to use her baby to lure her out of the city."

At that, everyone snapped into action. Cake helped Fionna back up on the monster, this time straight to its head. Fionna began whispering softly in the troll dragon's ear. "It's okay, everything is all right, your baby is just fine." It was working. The troll dragon froze, and its breathing began to slow. Fionna sat herself right below the troll dragon's giant ear, anchoring herself by holding onto the giant mother's floppy outer ear, and continued to talk calmly to her. The troll dragon caught sight of Marshall carrying her baby out of the city and began to get angry again. "Your baby will be all right, just follow him." She walked without any regard for the buildings below her, but Fionna knew the city had already been evacuated, and buildings could easily be rebuilt. The point was that she was walking out of the city.

Once they were a safe distance away from the city (or any other inhabited areas), Marshall gave the baby to its mother without a problem, thanks to Fionna's calming. They all watched her take flight with her baby in her mouth.

"Hey, look..." Fionna faced Marshall, but she looked at the ground, embarrassed. "Sorry for being weird before. I mean, you know...you saved my life, and I yelled at you..."

"It's whatever," Marshall Lee absently scratched the back of his head. When he looked up, Fionna was smiling, and he felt his cheeks getting hot.