EPISODE II: The Journey of Willy

The knock on the door was what woke Finn that next morning, as he groggily got himself out of bed, finding Jake still asleep in his sprawled manner of slumber. He was partially envious that the dog was asleep still, and that he had to have been woke up. He had been having such a nice dream, except... except... well, he could remember what he hadn't liked about it, but there was something about it that had bothered him.

"Finn? Hello?" the feminine voice echoed from outside, and Finn found himself surprised at who he was recognizing the voice to. It was unlike her of all people to knock and ask for him, she more usually just appeared, which was rather ironic, after all she was...

"Marceline!" Finn exclaimed as he opened the door, the outside even now telling him it was early in the morning, the sun not even up yet and the sky full of stars and the moon. "What are you doing here at... whatever time in the morning it is?"

"Finn, something's going on," Marceline said, the vampire queen for once shifting nervously. "I think there's a war brewing."

Finn knew now why she was so nervous, so frightful right now. Over a thousand years ago she had seen the war that had ravaged the Earth, a war he still knew little of. He only knew that Marceline only survived as a vampire, that it had led to the fry incident with her father...

And after that, war had just put her off. Or, at least, big ones. Even now, a millennium later, there were ruins of the world before. The world she had once known. The world that he never would know, a world where he would be with other humans if only he had been born sooner.

"A war? What war, Marceline? Between who?"

"The Fire Kingdom thinks that the Ice King was responsible for the attack yesterday, and they're mustering an entire army at their borders. At least, Bonnibel said that. She's afraid the Fire Elementals might raze some of the Candy Kingdom and is threatening them with war if a single Candy Person's even touched."

"Oh, glob. So why'd you come here? I'm sure PB would be more than willing to help find peace. I mean, that whole meet-up yesterday was about forming an alliance wasn't it?"

"Look, Finn, she listens to you more than me. She might not hate me, but she doesn't exactly think I know what's going on. You know that."

Finn nodded, and sighed. "Alright, fine. I'll just go get Jake and we'll be on our way,"

Finn hurried back to their bedroom and found Jake rolled over, shaking the dog's arm gently. "Mhm... yeah... what?"

"Jake, we gotta go." Finn said, grabbing a shirt and throwing it on, grabbing his bag and his sword as well.

"Why?"

"Marceline said the Fire Kingdom is preparing for war, we have to go and talk some sense into them and PB both,"

"Fine, whatever..."

Jake got up slowly, falling onto the floor before getting up, Finn impatiently standing there. "Let's go then," Jake said, and Finn nodded, hurrying back to the door, Jake right behind him.

"Alright, Marceline, we're ready!" Finn said, the vampire queen nodding as she began to float from the tree fort, Finn and Jake quickly behind.

They arrived not too long after beginning, to find the Candy Kingdom's walls heavily guarded, barely getting in themselves even with their high status as heroes, and Marceline's from the rumors of her and the Princess being closer friends than anyone knew.

"Princess!" Finn yelled as he got into the castle, before he stopped, seeing that there were two Fire Elementals at the throne, talking to Princess Bubblegum. Both the Flame King, and Flame Princess were there, and they turned around.

"What is this Water Elemental doing here? Is this part of your ploy to stop our justice?"asked the Flame King quickly asked, concern in his voice.

"Water Elemental...?" Princess Bubblegum asked, and saw Finn. "That's a human!"

"I told you that," Flame Princess responded, the Flame King glancing at her.

"No, I'm pretty sure you never told me that you were wrong about him being a Water Elemental."

"Does it matter?" Bubblegum asked, before sighing. "Finn, what are you doing here?"

"I don't know what's going on much, I just know that Marceline-"

"The vampire," the Flame King interrupted with scorn.

"-told me that there was talk of war. And that's just not right, not until we know for sure."

"Finn, the Ice Kingdom has to have been the ones behind it... Ever since the old Ice King disappeared a year ago, they actually became dangerous," Flame Princess said, ever the aware princess. Despite being the same age as Finn, she was more knowledgeable. In likelihood, it was because her father knew she would be replacing him soon. "As sweet as it is of you to want peace, we might have to actually go to war."

"But what if it wasn't him?" Finn asked, and the Flame King sighed.

"It was and there is no one else who would do that! The other kingdoms are not violent enough, or given enough reason!" the Flame King shouted.

"But your men will damage the Candy Kingdom as they pass through, I cannot allow that without proof of the Ice King's involvement!"

"Your kingdom isn't our enemy, don't you understand that? Just because you're a scientist doesn't mean you're smarter than us!"

"And what are you, a young tramp that thinks she's hot stuff! I am smarter than you by at least ten fold!"

"What did you call me?"

The Flame King backed up a bit, the flames from the Flame Princess burning in rage.

"Princesses, please! We don't have to be like this!" Finn said, as he raced into between them. "PB wants her people safe, Flame Princess, you want to get revenge. I can dig both of those reasons," he said.

The Flame King watched with relative boredom, before he pulled out a flaming photograph of a koala. Jake stretched his head over towards it, not wanting involved, remarking on the photographs: "Nice, that one's really good."

"Thanks, haaaa."

"Then what do you think we should do?" Flame Princess asked, and Finn paused. He knew that he was most likely ruining his chances with her by opposing her, but things weren't necessarily going that well anyways.

"Check this map, ladies," he said as he pulled from his pocket the map he had got at the ruins. "I got this at the meet up, I got there at a bad time. I don't know what it is, but I think that it's something to do with what happened," he said, and Princess Bubblegum got up from her throne to walk over and look at it.

"What would a map have to do with it?" the Flame King demanded, Flame Princess looking at him with a glare of 'he knows what he's talking about' and then back at the map, the king letting his daughter take care of it over him.

"This is absolutely fascinating! Where indeed is this... and zero-zero-zero... interesting indeed!"

"It reminds me of the stories I heard about the ancient continent of Afrocuh..."

"What's that, Flame Princess?" Finn asked, and the Flame Princess took a step back from the map to look at him for a second.

"Finn, you haven't heard of Afrasia?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"Neither have I," Princess Bubblegum said with a bit of surprise in her voice. "It must be a Flame Kingdom thing."

"Oh. Well... they say that before the Mushroom War so long ago, there was a continent named Afrasia, and a river there flowed backwards, out of these great mountains... the Mountains of the Moon."

"That sounds really intense, and you think this is that map?" Finn asked, Flame Princess nodded.

"Are those...?" Princess Bubblegum asked, taking the map from Finn and turning it slightly. "They are. I recognize the language, it's an archaic form of ours. That says 'The Mountains of the Moon'."

"Where is this supposed to be from here?" Finn asked, and Flame Princess looked at the map, moving her finger over it as if doing some nautical travel calculations.

"It should be to the west, but I can't see myself going... I'm not fond of boats."

"I'd protect you from the ocean, though, Flame Princess," Finn said, and Flame Princess put her hands on her hips.

"If the boat even began to sink, I'd be dead."

"O-oh... yeah, that's true..."

"And I have a kingdom to govern. It looks like you and Jake will be going alone."

"I'm going too," Marceline said, stepping into the conversation then. "I haven't been outside of Ooo since... since along time ago. I want to see it again at least once."

"Alright then. Finn, Jake, Marceline, good luck."

"Thanks, Bonnibel, for letting me," Marceline said, and Princess Bubblegum gave her a disapproving look from the usage of her first name. "When do we leave then?"

"I'm ready as soon as we have a boat," Finn said, Jake walking over to them. "Jake, we figured out where the map is!"

"Cool! So are we going there or something?"

"Yeah, man. Soon as a boat's ready."

"There's one I'm sure, Finn. Just tell them I sent you," she said, and looked at Marceline. "Be safe, okay?"

"We will be," Marceline said, interrupting Finn a he started to say he would be.

Flame Princess held her hands nervously, and Finn walked towards her. "I'll figure things out, princess."

"You'll be safe?"

Finn nodded.

"And..."

"And...?"

"And come... back to me...?"

Finn blushed, and nodded. "I will, Flame Princess. I swear on it."

She hugged him and he winced, the pain of the burns from her flaming body coursing through his body, but he returned the hug nonetheless. He pulled away as the smell of smoke came, and the burns on him were thankfully less than he had expected, it was just his clothes.

"Let's go, yeahhhh!" Jake said, as he started walking, his legs and arms waving like water. "Let's go to some mountains on the moon, aw yeaahhh!"

Finn waved to Flame Princess as Marceline passed him on the way to the door, and he turned, hurrying behind the two friends of his.

"Wait up guys, don't leave me behind!" he laughed, the two pausing as he caught up. "Let's get going!"

"What time is it?" Jake laughed as he stretched and grew, the human jumping on his back and pulling a sword from his bag, grinning as the vampire floated besides the magic dog, holding an umbrella to block the rising sun beams from hitting her.

"Adventure time!"

And so began their adventure, to the Mountains of the Moon.