Thought I would finish this chapter off while our ship takes a nose dive off a cliff.

As she sat on her fiery throne, lightly tapping her fingers against the side, she couldn't help but notice the irony of the situation. She missed him. The human boy who had only been gone for almost two weeks, yet it had a couple months since he had helped with returning the throne. So when he was there, she didn't bother to visit and now that he's been gone for a couple weeks, it feels like forever.

Flame Princess lightly sighed to herself.

Feelings suck. She thought to herself.

The silence of the now empty throne room was her only company now, which made her father's constant snickers just that much more irritating.

Eventually the obnoxious laughter managed to push her to the point where she jumped off her throne to face the lamp that served as her father's prison.

"What is so funny, Dad?" She asked, irritation lacing her words. The former Flame king merely ignored her and continued to stare off into the distance. He had done this a lot recently, ever since Don Jon has been moved to an underground cell.

"I asked you a question, Father!" She followed, raising her voice slightly.

Instead all he did was ignore her. This pushed her too far, so she decided to throw a small fireball at the glass of lantern, just to get his attention. Snapping back into focus, he realised why he was being disturbed. Realising it was his daughter, he just gave her a condescending look and asked. "What?"

"Why are you laughing so much, it's getting on my nerves."

"Oh well, my most profuse apologises, Your highness." He spat with sarcasm. "If you must know, I was just watching something entertaining."

Flame Princess frowned slightly. His lamp was not in viewing distance of a window, so she had no idea what he was looking at. "Watching what."

"Two buffoons on an impossible quest." The instant he said buffoon, it brought back memories of when Jake first arrived at the Fire Kingdom as an envoy. "How are you watch-"

"I was merely using a bit of magic to become the nearest flame to them."

"You can still do that from the lamp!" Flame Princess shouted, expecting him to be calling upon more friends to try and break him out.

"Ah well, I can only become the fire...the lamp seems to prevent me from talking or moving as the flame so I just watch."

"And you were watching-?" Flame Princess trailed off, expecting him to finish.

"Your idiot boyfriend and his moronic dog."

"He's not my-" She tried to object.

"I don't care." He stated. "Now keep it down, their about to go into the one of the most dangerous caverns in OOO and I don't wanna miss this."

"What's happening? Is he in trouble, is he hurt?" Neither of them failed to miss how her flames sparked up when she asked.

After seeing the knowing smirk from her Father, she blushed slightly.

"If you must know, they are entering Nyptcorg caverns. A deadly and evil cave where many sinister beasts dwell. I'm betting they will make it ten minutes, probably less." This only increased the feeling of dread the was tugging at her stomach.

"Dad...how do you become other flames?" She had managed to become the flame above her house, but when you can see the fire it's much easier.

The Fire king paused for a few seconds to calculate something. Then with with widest and most sly grin he could pull off he turned back to his daughter. "I will teach you...in exchange for my freedom." Flame Princess just threw up her hands in exasperation and stormed off, leaving an amused Flame King.

The following day, as Cinammon bun prepared to open the gates to allow the subjects in, Flame King decided to speak up.

"Aww you should have seen it, the human boy was attacked by this huge rabbit snake demon thing that came from an old man."

"What!" The fiery ruler hissed as she turned to face her dad.

"Yeah...and there was this huge tentacle beast with tonnes of eyes. I would love to know what happened next but..." he paused for effect after noticing how she was hanging to his every word. "The torch sconce was destroyed when their platform plummeted miles into darkness. Who knows what happened to them?" He finished, flashing her an evil grin.

He's just trying to get into my head. Ignoring the gnawing feeling in her gut, she continued on with her day.

For the rest of the day, Flame Princess went about her daily business making sure that everything in the kingdom was running like clockwork. The work was piling up so much that it helped her forget about the conversations with her Dad, or the absence of the hero.

As the day finally drew to a close, Flame Princess found her self, yet again, in the company of her father. Deciding not to stick around and bare the brunt of his teasing, Flame Princess rose from her throne and made for the exit. Just before she left though, her father's course voice resounded.

"You'll wanna hear this, child." He mocked.

"I don't care Dad, I am not going to set you free."

"Oh but...this is the best part. They are having an in-depth discussion about you." The fiery queen felt herself flare up again, but quickly tried to shrug it off.

"What are they saying about me?"

"Well...that would defeat the point of the deal, wouldn't it, sweetheart?"

Over the following weeks, the guffawing of the Flame king began to slow down until eventually he just spent most of his time sitting cross legged in the lamp, looking extremely bored.

Eventually his moping got to the point where even FP was remotely concerned. "What is the matter Dad?"

"Bored." He replied simply.

"Well why don't you watch Finn, that seems to cheer you up." As weird as that sounds.

"Well they've all been missing for months now. One minute they are fighting a giant magma worm, the next minute I can't find a single trace of them."

Flame Princess contemplated her options, weighing up the repercussions.

"Father, if you make a royal promise to never step foot in Fire Kingdom territory, I will set you free in exchange for the teaching."

Flame King was starting to jitter with excitement. "Really, DEAl!"

FP sighed to herself, feeling the weight of her decision resting on her weary shoulders. Slowly but surely, the lamp was lowered to the ground, releasing a giddy Flame King.

"So how do I do it?"

"It's simple, clasp your hands like this. Chant Kolash Damicter Foren To'lesh in your head. Then just find the bit of fire you wish to become. Word of advice, stay away from fireplaces in couple's houses. Oh Glob does that get awkward." Looking at the blank face that his daughter was giving him, he realised that she had no clue about that topic. Realising now was the best time to take his leave, he ran off into the night, yelling over his shoulder "No take backs!"

Please be okay Finn. C'mon. Where are you!

As she performed the ritual, she could feel herself becoming one with the flame on the world. It felt as if she was leaving her body so that she could view the fires. Just before she could finish her chant, she felt an enormous surge of fire rise in one region. Visualising herself there, she saw an enormous crater with flames scorching the nearby area.

This feel right. Soaring into the flame, she could feel the tongues of the flames whipping as the wisps of fire burnt freely around her. It was like being her hair. Moving through the flames, she eventually reached the edge of the fire. In front of the crater, there was a large mass of people covered in long stretched yellow limbs.

This must be close, Jake is near.

Scanning the area, she eventually found the hero boy. Ignoring the fluttering in her stomach, she continued to watch his sprawled form in the dirt. Relief washed over her, as eventually, he groaned himself to life and began to push himself off the ground.

Portions of his shirt had been scorched off by the fire and he had a slight limp as he walked toward the figure standing in front of the flame, but even from the distance she was at, Flame Princess could see that he had changed.

As he stood by the edge of the crater, staring into the flames. The fiery queen managed to get a good glance at him. An enormous diamond hung from his neck which glowed mysteriously as it swung around. The scar that was apparently from his encounter with an assassin cat has completely vanished, making him look good as new. In fact, all the scarred skin from where they had made contact had completely vanished, and this filled her with sadness as one of their only physical memory of their relationship had disappeared.

Finn put an arm on his friend and spoke some comforting words to him. In this moment, it all caught up to her. How flushed she felt when she saw how dashing Finn looked in his tuxedo. Or why she missed him so much. Even now she could feel the heat against her cheeks as Finn confidently stood, staring into the flames. As much as she denied it, she had crush.


It was becoming easier and easier to point out plot holes in Sam's back story. Things just didn't seem to add up. For instance, he said that he left his village at age 13, but later he had mentioned that he had been wandering for five years. He was only 16. These small details began to pile up leaving Jake to be as suspicious as ever. The watchful canine didn't fail to miss the small glances that Sam shot at the valuable items ever so often, especially the crystal key when it was bought on to display.

He also never failed to miss the way that Sam would go out of his way to avoid Finn's touch, as if he was afraid that the amulet would tell Finn something he didn't want Finn to know. While the hero boy seemed quite oblivious to it, Jake was on a trail. Of course he couldn't just start asking questions, like "Hey, you know that stuff you said earlier, well I think it's bogus!" This would cause way to much tension, and Sam was becoming quite a valuable member to the group. He always seemed to know what to do next, having an answer or solution to every problem.

Right now, they were following some of the people who they rescued earlier at the Lotus Hotel. They claimed that they knew the way back to their town, and it happened to be in the same direction that the eclipse stone was pointing too, so two birds with one stone...kinda.

Jake just couldn't shake the feeling that the second they repair the cartographer, Sam is gonna scream "All the riches in the world" into it, then disappear off to wherever-ville. It was just too co-incidental that a guy with an essence gauntlet, who knew the right banishing spell and also knew how to re-assemble the cartographer and get to the crater, just happened to show up during their quest.

He was snapped out from his thoughts when the group of villagers stopped. "We're here." One announced, pointing over the cliff ridge to one of the most beautiful sights Jake had ever seen.

In a wide and expansive valley, by the coast, a small village resided there. Overlooking the village was a large mountain with a light house on the further side. The village itself had small thatched roof houses, tightly packed together. In the centre of town, some sort of construction project was under-way. Maybe a bell tower or a municipal building. In the meadows surrounding the town, a multitude of animals roamed free, happily bustling around the thick foliage. Furthermore, the coast next to the town was no petty lake. It was an enormous ocean, where the cerulean lustre seemed to go on forever into the horizon. It was truly breathtaking. Even Finn, who was never one to appreciate views, was standing there awestruck by the beauty. From where they were standing, up on this cliff, they had the perfect view.

Wow, Lady and I should settle down here...some time in the future.


Finn was the first to touchdown on the ground after Jake began stretching to give people lifts. Heading toward the town he felt this wave of deja vu wash over him. It felt like he had see this town before, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It was something about the thatched roofs or that bell tower being assembled. Either way, it made him feel weird straight to the core.

When the villagers, who apparently had been missing for a long time, told the mayor who the heroes were and how they saved them, he declared that he would throw a celebration in their honour in the evening.

"It would be silly to waste these lovely July evenings." affirmed the Mayor of Coaston, flashing the heroes a wide grin.

"Woah,woah,woah. Don't you mean March?" Jake asked.

"No no, I do truly believe it is July." The mayor of Coaston, assured them.

Jake turned to the pair. "When we left the Candy Kingdom, it was early March. We've been on the road, about 11 days."

Finn was starting to panic, they were in a hurry to rescue the world and suddenly time was skipping.

"If I may intrude, the men you rescued disappeared about 10 years ago, but they only think they have been gone for a week." The mayor added.

"Dude, we were at the lotus hotel for four months! FOUR!" Finn yelled.

"That explains why we have so many loyalty tokens." Jake added, bringing out a handful of tokens with little lotus flowers on them.

Sam decided to pipe up. "Guys, this is good news. The cartographer could only be assembled during a solar eclipse and the next one is tomorrow." Sam then turned his attention to the Mayor. "Sir, do you know where the entrance to that lighthouse is." The mayor then stopped to fiddle with his small white moustache for a second. "Unfortunately, my good chaps, the only way to the lighthouse is through the tunnel, but that has been on lock down ever since the Bell of Prosperity was stolen."

"Can't we just borrow the key for a day?" Sam pleaded.

"I'm afraid not gentlemen, you see the bell provided the area with good luck. The day after the bell was stolen by Orcs, we had nine tunnel collapses. It was just too dangerous."

"Hold up a second Mays! The bell was stolen by Orcs you say?" Jake asked, giving a curious eye to Sam.

"Ahh yes, a clan of Orcs settled near here about a year ago. They stole the bell, then destroyed the tower. After that they pillaged the town. With the missing villagers and soldiers, all we could do is surrender. When the tower is rebuilt, I was hoping we could go over there and plead for them to return the bell."

Finn's hero instincts kicked in and detected a quest for them to undertake. "Tell you what. We can go get the bell and tell them to leave you alone. Then you can open up the tunnel and we can still have that party."

"You would do that for the town..Oh how magnificent. By golly, we will have to throw you a second party now, won't we?" He added, nudging Finn.


Finn didn't know what to expect when it came to the orc settlement. It could have been some enormous stronghold with huge battlements, or maybe an underground cavern filled with millions upon millions of orcs. He was not expecting a small wooden village, surrounded by palisades. This was probably want the Orcs wanted as while he was lulled into a false sense of security, he failed to notice the ambush.

Before he knew it, he was at the edge of at least thirty spears. The Orc with the most extravagant armour, who Finn assumed was the commander, stepped through the ranks. "State yourz bizness, Creature."

Finn and his crew definitely could not draw their weapons, or they would be turned to kebabs in seconds. The hero decided to use a tactic that he saw Bubblegum use once. Puffing up his chest, he announced "I am Finn the Human, King of the Humans and I demand an audience with your leader."

The Orc commander seemed somewhat confused, along with his befuddled troops. "Whatz the hellz is a bludy human?"

At first, all Finn's mind was saying was 'Well he called your bluff, your bod is toast.' but then something devious came to mind.

"My race have mastered stealth and moving through the shadows. The reason you didn't know of your existence is because we did not think you were worthy, until now."

Maybe a little too cocky? Oh I am sooo de-

"Youz hear that boyz. We're worthy. Come on in King." With a motion of the hand, his troops lowered their spears and backed away, forming a line for Finn and his friends to walk through. As they entered the encampment he heard the commander whisper to some troops. "Keepz your eyez on the human."

As they walked toward the largest tent in the camp, something occurred to Finn. Quietly he whispered into Sam's ear. "Hey, why didn't they let you in. Your like Orc and stuff. Couldn't we be your plus ones or something."

"I'm a different type of Orc." Sam replied. Finn hadn't actually noticed it until Sam pointed it out, but there was some differences between them. For instance, these Orcs seemed to have very muscular frames, even the children. Also their tusks were much shorter than Sams, not to mention the skin tones were very different.

Entering the tent, they were met with a very strange sight. Slouching on a throne was an enormous Orc, wearing an oversized crown. Next to the throne were piles and piles of gold and jewels. In the corner of the tent, the bell stood their proudly. Seeing the human, the Orc King straightened up slightly and let out a hearty laugh.

"I thought Kuk-Lac was lying when he said the King of the Humans was here. Masters of stealth-" He let out another huge burst of laughter. "Your race is nothing but atomic waste, but I guess as the last one...that sorta makes you the king." A couple of his subjects began to snicker.

"What is it that you desire, Xynshol."

"What the bonkus is a Xynshol?" Finn asked.

The Orc King erupted into another fit of laughter as he rolled on his throne, huge waves of fat began to ripple. "Xynshol, an old nickname for Humans. It means Destroyer of the Earth. Your kind treated this planet as if they had another 10 spare. Now I repeat myself, what is it that you desire."

Wishing now that he could be instantly out of this man's presence, Finn continued. "Two things, sir. I wish that you leave the people of Coaston alone, for ever."

The Orc King chuckled slightly. "An Xynshol setting moral guide lines, that's rich. Nevertheless, I will leave the town alone. What else will it be?" Finn was now gritting his teeth, getting to the edge of his patience.

"I want the bell." Finn demanded.

"Dream on-" Suddenly, the Orc King paused. Craning his neck, he tried to get a good look at Sam.

"By Abe's beard, we got another 'extinct' species here. An orc from the Northen battle clan. I thought you were all wiped out by some psychopath cultist over 500 years ago." The Orc King sat up straight now. "Tell you what son, If you hand over your clan's battle-banner, I will fork over the bell and leave the town alone."

Sam seemed somewhat torn, but eventually relented. Rummaging through his backpack, he brought out a large piece of cloth and after taking one last look, he tossed it over to the Orc King. "There, now Finn let's take the bell and leave."

Finn was almost shaking with rage when the Orc King's voice boomed in protest once again. "My boy, you have gone senile in your 'old age'. What do we Orcs do once we have finished a big exchange."

Sam looked like he was dreading the answer the he already knew. Begrudgingly he replied. "We fight, so that we may celebrate."


The centre of tent was cleared for a small battleground. Finn and Jake joined some of the other Orcs in the sidelines. The walls of the tent were taken down so that the entire village could witness the event.

Slamming his fist on his throne, the Orc King demanded the attention of the crowd. "Sam from the Northern Battle Clan. You shall fight Kuk-Lac, my champion. There shall be no killing or maiming. Anything else is allowed. You forfeit when you can no longer go on." The crowd began to cheer wildly.

Kuk-Lac, the enormous Orc Commander from before, had now grabbed a buckler and a long sword. The only armour he wore now was a plated battle skirt.

Sam on the other hand was still in his civilian clothes. He had grabbed a shield from the armoury, but was using his exquisite runed sword. While his opponent was bouncing around getting favour from the crowd, Sam seemed to be saving his energy as he stretched out his limbs.

Seeing that his opponent was ready, Kuk-Lac headed toward the centre of the battle ground to face his enemy. Baring his teeth at Sam, he sneered. "I haven't lost a battle in 150 yearz. Youz will crushed, pipsqueak."

The battle commenced the second after the horn was blown and it took of like a whirlwind. For such a big guy, Kuk-Lac moved like a hurricane, quickly zipping in and then backing out. His footwork was remarkable, making him unbelievably agile. Sam was backed up further and further as a flurry of attacks was unloaded into him. Upper cut slices, thrusts and spins, but each time he managed to deflect them.

Just when Kuk-lac lowered his defence to taunt, Sam made his move. Yelling "Whin" into his sword, the runes on it glowed white. Lunging forward, he lashed out. The second it made contact, a jet of air let loose, sending the shield flying off into the distance, embedding itself into the throne of the now startled Orc King.

Now with the upper hand, Sam began to push. Using his shield to ram and bash, he kept jabbing out from under it, making Kuk-Lac have to constantly retreat.

"Enough of this Putas." Kuk-Lac spat, when he could back up no more. Finn didn't know what a Putas was, but he assumed it was curse as many of the mother's covered their children's ears.

Running at breakneck speed, Kuk-Lac sprinted toward Sam. Sam began to dig himself in, he made a slash at the last second, cutting deep into Kuk-Lac's arm. Kuk only ignored the pain and unleashed a powerful punch that connected with the shield so well, you would have thought the bell was being rung. At first, it looked like the shield had just broken his fist, but suddenly, the buckler crumbled into dust.

No shields, it was just sword on sword. Sam and Kuk-Lac began to circle each other with their swords raised, pointed at each other, waiting for the other to strike. They were both quite winded now, breathing heavily as sweat dripped down their foreheads. Kuk-Lac struck first, with a lunge to the chest, which Sam deflected and counted with back hand slash to where he thought Kuk-Lac was, but he had already rolled out the way.

Sam yelled "Rac." Into his sword and jabbed it into the ground. Small needle like rocks jutted out of the surface where Kuk-Lac was standing, impaling his feet. Once again, he ignored the pain and continued walking towards Sam. Out of energy, Sam tried a clusmy slice but Kuk-Lac grabbed his arm. Sam knew that is was almost over. Twisting his arm, Kuk-Lac followed through with a powerful slice across Sam's back. Sam let out a yell of pain as the blade tore through his flesh. Following up with a kick, Sam collapsed to the ground.

"Surrender yet?" Kuk-Lac spat at his opponent. Finn could swear he could see a smirk on Sam's face. Sam just reached into his pocket and drew out what looked like a green cross. Lightly, he ran it across his wound, which healed almost instantly. The crowd were not happy with this, yelling that he was a cheat but the Orc King raised his hand for silence.

He only spoke one word. "Continue."

The battle waged on as Sam jumped to his feet. Clutching his sword tightly, he slashed so fast at Kuk-Lac that you could hear the blade whooshing through the air. Kuk-Lac attempted to keep up, but he was so out of breathe. Slowly, but steadily he began to lose ground. With one last breath, he mustered all his energy into a powerful strike, but instead of hearing the slice of flesh, he heard the clang of metal and the scraping of swords as it was deflected. He just couldn't continue, so he dropped his sword and closed his eyes.

Falling to one knee, he felt the sword of his opponent push against his windpipe. "I...yield."


Jake had outdone himself with creativity this time. To transport the bell, he stretched himself into a cart and the horse so that he could move the precious cargo. Sam walked ahead, alone, while Finn trailed behind to talk to Jake.

"Finn, I'm telling you, something seems fishy about his story." Jake whispered to his brother. Finn knew that he was right, but the hero boy didn't really want to dwell on it. Sam hadn't opened up and clearly didn't want to go over his past. It was no threat at the moment, but he could foresee some problems coming up later.

"Dude, he's helped us get this far. It would be weird for us to start questioning him." Finn had never managed to physically touch him. Sure he grabbed him by the backpack when they were in the lotus hotel basement, but there was so much going on that clearly the amulet decided to not relay any info at that time. He just needed to touch him, as weird as it sounded, just a pat on the back or something. "Jake, don't say anything to him about it. I'll just tap him on the back sometime, then you distract him while I shake and jolt."

"Gotcha, bro!" He replied, raising his fist for a quick bump.


As for the other stories that I mentioned last week/chapter. Im going to put them on delay until I finish the first arc of this story. It's about 3/5 of the way done, but I know how irritating it gets when your writing multiple stories and writers block becomes quite a problem and you forget certain thing.

I guess my review replies go to the 4 guys who have reviewed every chapter (Or atleast frequently.)

Which of course is Oobserver, Flaming Crusade/er, PricetoPay and Nrbuer

Your reviews bring a smile to my face and really help with motivation.

I always try to review your stories, but sometimes my phone is being bitchy about loggin crap and stuff and I can't be arsed to turn on the computer. So I usually leave it under the name Loved it or Great. Stuff like that.