The next day was a very lazy one. Well, lazy for Princess Bubblegum.
The entire castle was outside awaiting the King's urgent message to the kingdom, so nobody was around to keep Bubblegum occupied. She sighed the biggest sigh of the day, and just sat there on her bed looking up at the ceiling while hearing the voices of the kingdom outside her window. She tried everything, everything, to keep herself distracted. From dancing around to one of her country CD's too staring at the dust particles that glowed from the sunlight through her window. Nothing seemed to entertain the child for more than a few minutes. If only I had a sister-
She quickly clenched her eyelids shut and slammed the breaks on her thoughts. After being shot down over and over by her parents about that topic, she finally learned that thinking about it was a waist of time and emotion. Wishing for it would only make her sadder. She rolled over on her bed, and tried to make patterns in the sheets with her fingers. That also got incredibly boring. She then heard her father's voice through a large pair of speakers.
She quickly jumped of her bed and looked out the window. She was taken back by all of the candy people so close in one spot. There had to be hundreds of them! (Too Bubblegum's maturing mind, a hundred was quite a lot.) She smiled at all the happy, jolly candy residents mingling and chatting. Of course they all settled down right away when the Candy King started speaking.
...
Marceline was NOT pleased with her wake up call. She had been sleeping in that same tree that she crashed in the day before. She was not a very good morning person in the first place, so hearing the King's booming voice echo all throughout the castle gardens almost made her fall out of the tree. Good thing she didn't, because she noticed as soon after she woke up there where candy people sitting under the tree. She brushed some leaves away, and saw at least a thousand candy people all in one spot. In the gardens. She gulped sharply. She knew there where lots of residents, but not this much. She scooted in more toward the trunk of the tree. "Holy shat…" She mumbled to herself.
"Ahem, excuse me? Can I have everyone's attention?" The King asked the crowd through a microphone.
Everyone instantly got quiet, and focused their attention on the King. He was standing on a stage nearest to the Candy castle; in front of everyone. Marceline's attention was caught as well. She crawled on another branch and moved to the edge of it. Just hidden enough by the leaves, but still able to see the stage. Once her eyes lay on the King, her eyebrows shot up. She's never seen the ruler of this place so up close, and she was quite impressed with how in shape he actually was. His entire upper body bulked out, and his triceps where huge as well. She mostly just expected an old fart that lost his marbles long ago, but she thought wrong.
"So that's the King huh…" she said, "The Queen must be one lucky chick."
"Now, before we get into the serious stuff I'd like to see a raise of hands. Who here is going to the royal ball next Tuesday?" The King questioned. Countless hands shot up. Peppermint Butler, who was standing right next to the King, was putting down the tallies for the number of hands on a portable chalk board. (He basically just put down "everyone".) Marceline also spotted the Queen inside one of the tower windows looking out. Stage fright perhaps?
The King nodded his head with a grin. "Good! Good! I shall hope to see you there. Now with the serious junk," He began.
Marceline, who was gnawing on a picked apple, tuned in extra good for this part of the speech. As far as she was concerned, so did everyone else.
"It has come to my attention that we have a bit of a pest problem in our kingdom," He stated.
A pest problem? What's a few bugs going to do? Thought the oblivious vampire.
"I've gotten many complaints from many different candy people on this problem. So many, that I had to act on it. Most complaints came from the back alleys of the Candy Kingdom, so that's where I'd like to start the exterminating process," He went on.
Marceline raised an eyebrow. Strange. I've rarely seen a fly back there, much less a pest control problem. She listened on. She could also hear some candy people whispering to each other. About what, she did not know.
"I've also heard complaints about candy corpses being devoured where they dropped and a strange little creature morphing into bats. After hearing this information I knew exactly what needed to be done,"
Marceline froze in place.
Wait a minute. He's not talking about bugs. He means-
"So I took the liberty of ordering an anti Night-O-sphere force field."
Marceline's stomach dropped all the way to the Land of The Dead. Her mouth a gape, and her shoulders hiked up, her thoughts came through in a wiggly line. N-No way…He…He can't just…This is my…
Her thoughts slurred in her head. She felt sick. Her only chance at surviving alone on the street was through the Candy Kingdom's vast resources and force fieldlessness. Now all of her hopes to survive crashed down all around her like a knife storm.
She put her hand on her head to see if it would help her think more clearly. It didn't.
I don't understand… What was I suppose to do…? What was I…?
She looked at the King through her sweaty fingers. She saw how his proud grin shook up a cheer of applause through the crowd. She HATED that grin. Every millisecond that passed her anger boiled up over her, and it was all directed at the King.
Why would he do this to me?
Teeth gritted, nose flared, and big green eyes ablaze, she plucked an apple from the tree, and threw it as hard as she could at that royal butthead.
"If all goes as planned, we should have the force field up and running by tomar-" The King was cut short when he saw a ball of red come flying at him, and hit him in between his eyes. The whole crowd went silent. The King rubbed his forehead, and looked down at the apple by his feet. He looked back up after a moment, and asked quietly, "Who did that?"
Everyone in the crowd looked around at each other; dumbfounded as to where it came from. When it seemed like nobody knew the origin of the apple, somebody in the crowd shouted, "It came from that tree! There's somebody in that tree!"
Everyone's eyes gazed over at the accused plant, and they tried to huddle under it to see who the culprit was. When lots of people did look under it, their eyes immediately went wide. So did Marceline's.
Shocked by her own actions, she remained paralyzed at the sight of the Candy people below. Both her and them had trouble speaking or moving. "oh crap…" She muttered to herself.
Somebody shouted, "IT'S A VAMPIRE!"
Suddenly the whole crowd burst into a fit of panic. Many Candy people started exploding into colorful confetti because of their fright. This gave Marceline the motivation to get the hell out of there. She quickly changed into a bat, and tried to fly away. But the banana guards where hot on her tail. They launched spears at her from every which way, and even threw bits of banana at her to slow her pace. One banana guard's banana shot hit her dead on. She tumbled down faster then when she went up. Both the candy citizens and the banana guards formed a circle around the spot where Marceline hit the ground. Dazed and the scent of banana in her nostrils, she changed back to her regular form in defeat. She new that there was too many of the guards to try and fight back. She gave up.
She then felt herself being lifted by her wrists. She looked at the person that picked her up. It was an irritated looking banana guard.
"Vampire, you will be punished for your crimes against the candy kingdom." He gruffly stated. Something in his voice frightened Marceline more then she's ever felt. For the first time in a long time, she felt scared for her own life. But she didn't dare try and transform again, seeing as though she had a spear pointed at her face. She, instead, squirmed about nervously.
She then felt many banana guards take her by a body part, and slam her on the ground. They pinned her down, while the guard with the threatening spear stuck it in her face once again. Marceline trembled.
No way, are they seriously going to execute me in front of all these people?
While over half of the crowd ran away screaming, and a small amount of them lying in a confetti mess, a good number still stuck by for the show. Marceline saw the guard pull his arm back in preparation to strike. She bit her lip until it bled, and closed her eyes; awaiting her doom.
"HOLD IT!" Shouted a loud voice. The banana guard stopped midway. He, and everyone else turned to see the King; his arms by his sides walking toward the clump of guards. Once he got close enough to see the little vampire in everyone's clutches, his eyebrows drooped.
"Is this the 'horrible creature' I've been hearing so much about?" He asked the crowd. They all paused a minute, aware of the sarcasm in their ruler's voice, but they nodded anyway. He turned his attention back on Marceline.
"But this is just a child. Can't be any older then my darling princess," he mused to himself. He stroked his gummy beard in thought. He was internally conflicted by this. Either set up the force field, or let the child frighten his fellow candy citizens more. He looked into Marceline's big green eyes, and saw nothing but child's play in them. Surely something so vulnerable could have never of done those things right?
He bent down near the vampire, who was still being held down by the guards.
"What's your name little one?" He asked her in a voice made of silk.
Marceline's eyebrows shot up once again. Nobody has ever talked to her with such kindness. Nobody. So why was he talking to her like that? Marceline opened her mouth after a moment, "M-Marceline,"
The King smiled kindly at her. "What a beautiful name."
Marceline could have sworn she felt her undead heart lurch in her chest. Why was he so nice to her? Why did he care?
He ordered his men to let go of her a moment later. They all had an expression of worry plastered on their yellow faces, but obliged to their orders. They slowly released Marceline. Cautious as to the fact that she could pounce on their precious Leader at any moment. But she didn't. She remained frozen in place. Until the King scooped her up in his big arms.
Now was the time to escape, but Marceline didn't move. She was too wrapped up in the warmth and care of the King. She never felt this before. Kindness. This was the first time Marceline was truly exposed to it. She loved it.
"You sure did give my kingdom quite a scare. Heck, scared them so bad they blew up! But not to worry. We have special serums that can bring them back." The King told her.
Marceline remained silent. Unable to say any words. She looked up at him with big, green, confused eyes. He smiled once at her once again.
"You don't have a home do you. You must be pretty lonely aren't you." It wasn't really a question. He could tell by her messy face and dirty shoulder length black hair, and her tattered clothes that she was homeless. He could see the smallest of nods from the little vampire in his arms. She saw that smile spread over his face once again. Ah! That smile! Why did she find that smile so nice?
"Would you like to live with me? In the castle?" He asked.
Marceline's breath hitched in her throat. She felt it all gather in her throat in a fit of surprise, shock, and happiness. Those emotions spread to her chest and stomach, giving her butterflies. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped open, revealing to the King her overgrown canine fangs. After a long moment that felt like forever, Marceline's face lit up like stars, her mouth curled into a grin, and she nodded. Just one simple nod. It was all the King needed. His next smile was all teeth as he started walking with her in his arms, back to the castle. The crowd of people still remaining quickly formed a pathway for them. He walked gracefully into the castle, and shut the big door behind them.
