Chapter One
An abundant blanket of soft light and warmth washes over the land of Oooin a nice glow of yellow and oranges, bathing the trees in a warm color. The sun acts as a wake up call for all the sleeping creatures and people in the Grasslands, Candy Kingdom, and every other place occupying this side of the planet. The warmth kisses every eye awake other than me—the one human boy who doesn't stir from his slumber.
Behind my eyelids, I am running as quickly as my legs will allow. But, the problem is that it's almost like I'm trudging through honey. I scream out my brother's name, but no sound comes out. So, I try to scream out Bonnie's name… then Marcy's… then Simon's… Any sound refused to come out of my mouth. The tears flooded my eyes as I tumbled onto my face sluggishly in defeat, presenting my bottom to the sky and to my attacker. I turned my face around to see the horrifying body of Golb looming over me from above the trees, his face as neutral as I remember. The water flowing from my eyes negated to cease as his jaw hinged open, and—!
"Buddy?" My brother's voice echoes out from the dark void. I can tell I was dreaming just now, but my body is still sleeping. He says, "Bro, are you alright?"
My eyes flutter open, revealing the deep blue to a dim room with no light peaking in as well as my canine brother leaning over my air mattress with his butt in the air and his face centimeters from mine. I chuckle.
"Bro, ever heard of boundaries?" I giggle out as I sluggishly push myself up from under the thin blankets Marcy had so graciously allowed me to borrow last night. "Not to be rude, Brother, but I don't like dog breath being the first thing I smell in the morning."
He roughly slaps me across the arm. "Hey, you know I'm sensitive about my dog breath!" Jake lets out a hearty laugh and holds his tummy between his yellow paws. "Marcy was nice enough to make us breakfast before we head out—don't dawdle around, Finn. We got places to go and people to see!" Jake turns around and begins walking towards the ladder leading downstairs before turning back to me—he lets out a short snigger as he stretches down.
Rolling my eyes, I take in my surroundings. I forgot Jake and I had crashed in Marcy's room last night. The room was nostalgically decorated with old pre-war bands and movie posters hanging off the walls. I can see Marcy's bed is not made with her bass setting on the pillows. The carpet has cassette tapes and various small instruments like harmonicas and recorders lying around half-hazardly. Far across the room is a maroon sofa with books (mainly of the comic book variety) neatly stacked on it with the only open one being the one setting on top.
I can smell delish breakfast travelling in from the ladder, to the little room, and finally my nose. As if one que, my stomach screams out for whatever was cookin' downstairs. Shaking my head as if to scold my stomach, I slink into the bathroom to see the sink is mostly clean save for a few black hairs (probably from Marcy brushing her long hair), but I don't mind. I run a brush half-heartedly through my blond hair before letting it fall back down where it nestles between my ribs and my hips. Quickly, brushing my teeth until my gums hurt, I slip on my white bear-skin hat along with a grey t-shirt and some jeans Marcy gave me, saying it used to belong to Ash. It definitely isn't my style, but all my clothes got destroyed so what's a guy to do?
Only a few minutes has passed between my waking up and getting ready to slide down the ladder. I briskly braced my feet on each side of the ladder before gracefully sliding down to the bottom and onto her teal carpet.
Following the feeling in my tummy, I let the aroma lead me into the kitchen where Marcy and Jake are sitting at the table covered in plates of eggs, bacon, grits, toast, and bowls of other foods. Already salivating, I quickly hurry into a seat to shovel heaps of food into my waiting mouth.
I'm already mid-chew when I sense everyone's eyes on me. I peer up from under my lashes to see Marcy, BMO, Jake, and Neptr all watching me stuff my starving face with intrigue. What can I say? I didn't get any food at all yesterday. I'm hungry as hell.
Feeling a bit discomfited that I jumped in so eagerly, I mumble around the eggs in my mouth, "W-What is it…?"
Chuckling, Jake responds, "Dude, don't you know what day it is?" I scan my mind for holidays. Christmas? Nope—it's too warm in the Grasslands right now to be anywhere near the end-of-year holidays. That goes for Halloween and Thanksgiving, too. Jake's birthday? Nope—I have that day seared into my brain, so I always remember. BMO or Neptr's birthdays? I don't think I even know their birthdays. Definitely not Marcy's either…
Jake, spying the thoughtful expression on my face, sighs and crosses his arms. He says, "Dude, seriously? You've been looking forward to this day since you were like—I don't know—twelve or something?"
"That can mean a lot of things, Jake," I respond with a flat expression gracing my face. Jake, glancing over at Marcy with a shrug of his shoulders just sighs and takes a large intake of air.
"Happy birthday, Dude!" Jake grins from ear to ear as Marcy yanks a decorated cupcake out of her fridge to place directly in front of me. She, with her heavenly voice I always feel too embarrassed to compliment her on, sings a delightful song to wish me a happy birthday. With all the adventuring during the past few months, I forgot my birthday was fast approaching.
"Woah, I guess I kind of forgot…" I coyly scratch at the back of my neck with cherry-colored skin crawling up my neck and making a home on my cheeks. What kind of doofus forgets his own birthday? —his eighteenth birthday, no less! "That means… I'm an adult, now! Look out world! Here comes Finn… the adult!"
Marcy with a roll of her eyes responds, "Yeah, whatever tough guy, just eat your cupcake." Taking her advice, I quickly begin digging into the delish cupcake before it gets a chance to grow legs and walk away! It's fluffy and full of vanilla flavoring (one of the best flavors in existence, and anyone who thinks I'm wrong can fight me), and I finish off the cupcake by licking off the remnants of it on my hands.
"Wow, Dude. That cupcake didn't stand a chance," Jake teases as he flippantly fists my shoulder. He's only eaten a fourth of the breakfast still on his plate in the time it took me to consume that entire cupcake. "Guess you really are unstoppable."
The morning goes by quickly—too quickly—with Marcy insisting on cleaning the dishes herself and inviting Jake and I to hang out before we leave. Yes, she tries to make us stay another night, but Jake and I can't do it in good conscience. She's an amazing host, but we have important hero things to do… Like finding a place to live.
"You guys sure you don't wanna stay one more night?" Marcy asks for perhaps the third time that morning. "I was about to go grocery shopping—you could come and help me pick out what to have to dinner tonight!"
"You only drink the red from things, Marcy," Jake starts, "why does it matter what you eat?"
"Hey—!" Marcy swats Jake's nose playfully. "Even vampires like variety. I like certain shades. And… I was hoping I might get to cook for you guys again… It gets boring when all my food is already made for me."
Sympathetically, I rest my palm on the undead girl's shoulder. "We'll come visit soon, okay? That's a promise, and you can hold me to it." Nodding, Marcy finally walks us over to the door when she kindly holds it open for us.
"Don't get into too much trouble, Guys," she hisses her forked tongue out at us, making Jake flinch with some of his fur sticking on end. Heartily giggling, she says, "Gets me every time! Anyways… bye." After ushering us out of her home, we're left out in the dark, contrasting cave.
Our journey is certainly an interesting one with Jake getting stuck in quick sand, my getting chomped on by a snake, someone screams at us for unintentionally drifting into their home, one princess offers to let me (not Jake) live with her if I marry her, and now here we are sitting under the stars in the soft glow of the campfire.
Jake is currently on the other side counting back our salvaged gold to me. "So, Finn, we have this golden necklace we got from that weird dungeon down by the swamps, this surprisingly real diamond we found with the rocks next to the creek, and like an entire bag of gold pieces. Wanna cash it in and go food shopping tomorrow? We're running out of leftovers," he speaks out to me, tying a tight knot around the bag full of riches.
"I don't know, Dude… Shouldn't we be saving for, like, a house or something?" I wonder out loud as I lock eyes on a certain, shimmering star off in the spacey abyss.
"I say food comes first, because we gotta survive, Dude," Jake responds before dropping the bag into a pouch he forms out of his body. "Plus, I'm sick of meatloaf. We still have a shit-ton in here—Oh! Sorry." Jake covers his mouth, catching his swear.
I chuckle and roll over to give him a patient smile, saying, "Hey, I'm an adult now, Dude! Swear! Swear all you want, Brotha'! Lumpin'? More like… like… Fuckin'!"
Jake gasped and put his hand over my mouth as I unrelentingly spit out more curses. Muffling me can't stop my remorseless desire to spew out dirty words.
"Dude! Stop! It's weird to hear those words out of you!" Jake scolds as he finally pulls his enormous paws back after feeling my tongue lap his palm several times. "Dude, you're gross! In more ways than one."
I let out a breathy laugh as I recline back once more to peer up at the stars. I let myself get lost in the sea of stars once again… Mesmerizing… Like every star has something of its own to say to me… Like a different story. Every star looks different with different aspirations and dreams. Just like a real people.
"You're doing it again, Dude," Jake cuts through my thoughts with a well-carved knife. My bubble of air pops around me causing me to look over at him again. "We need to sleep. It's been a super busy day, Man." I nod, closing my eyes revealing a sea of deep black, and I hear, "Goodnight, Finn."