Chapter 17:
"You're in a strange mood," Blargetha rumbled. Finn blushed. He'd had a very good night with Drew. She'd been waiting on him in his bedroom all by her lonesome. After weeks (months?) of rancor, Finn was happy to give her his undivided attention. He'd left her zonked out in bed this morning. Moving on, the big man said, "never mind that. You ready?" Blargetha shrugged. She was as ready as she was going to get. She'd never been one for travel. Hurletta had cut off her expense account when they hit twenty. Shortly after that, Blargetha had found herself in Wildberry's dungeon, hangin' out in the VIP section. "Life hasn't changed much," she sighed, as she turned and headed up the ramp into the airship.
Finn found himself tugging at his collar and wanting to cuss her both. She herself was the reason she was a prisoner. At the same time, he could feel sad about the way her life had gone. Empathy, he thought. I think that's the word, Peebles used. He had empathy for the situation she was in. Being locked up sucked. Forcing a neutral tone into his voice, the big man said, "we'll see about a few more privileges when we're back." Blargetha nodded, but she kept on walking. Muttering curses, the King headed up the ramp after her.
They found themselves weaving their way around the mass of stuff crammed into the vast cargo-hold. This was one of the larger ships, and he was taking advantage of the size to ship as much stuff as he could to get things off the ground in Coca Kingdom. Finn followed Blargetha's wig-wagging butt all the way forward to the quarters crammed into the front of the ship. Stuffed as the ship was, they were going to have to share, a prospect he liked not at all. "You can have your pick," he said. "Top or bottom." Blargetha stood there a moment staring at the tiny cubicle. With a nod, she went in and put her stuff on the top bunk. Leaving his bag there, the big man headed upstairs to the cockpit.
On the far side of the ocean, Billy the Human was dealing with another problematic princess. Morgana had taken her sweet time showing up, giving the excuse that she'd stressed the Black Naga's engines. Snickers and grins among the crew suggested that she wasn't being completely honest. With Bandit Princess still on the loose, Billy swallowed his irritation in favor of getting Nieve and Olesia safely aboard and getting down to business. Just now, he was trying to float the idea of having the Black Naga do a search of the islands near Port Rochelle. The death-weapon had been brought from somewhere, after all.
Cornering the Pirate Princess in the little private dining room that the ship's officers used, Billy did his best to lay out the pitch. Unfortunately, Morgana was far more interested in Billy, than in sailing around the empty seas. As the Ice Prince suggested ways they could hunt down the Bandit Princess, Morgana suggested ways he could slip upstairs to her quarters for a little pum-pum. He wasn't sure if it was liquor. Pirates seemed to be eternally drinking. Maybe she was just a horny bitch. He'd run into plenty of them the last few years. In the end, it didn't matter that much. She wasn't interested in business. It was time to cut his losses. Thanking the Pirate Princess for her help, the big man headed out, bound for the mess-hall to get Nieve some dinner. He was fast, and he was gone out the door before Morgana could even get out of her chair. He left the curvy princess muttering curses.
"Maybe you should consider growing up," Olesia opined. Morgana's head whipped around to reveal the young elemental standing there in the hallway looking a lot like she'd listened to the whole conversation. Nodding, the younger woman said, "I was on the path you're on. I was set in my mind to be somebody's fuck-toy. You've clearly been a lot of men's fuck-toy." The older woman shot to her feet, her face twisting in rage, but Olesia never moved an inch. "You can attack me, but it won't make a difference," she said. "Dressing like a whore in scanty shorts and showing off your tits isn't going to attract a good man. It's only going to attract men who want to ride you, shoot their cum in you, and walk away."
The pirate turned to walk out the opposite door, but the elemental kept right on talking. "When did it happen," she asked? "Eighteen? Nineteen? You let him charm your panties off, and he dumped you right after he got what he wanted..." Morgana cussed her to hell, and kept right on walking. "Sixteen," muttered Nina. The First-Mate was standing behind Olesia. She hadn't heard Morgana's nasty daughter come up, but then Nina was a sneaky little bitch. "Y'keep y'er thoughts to yourself, flame-bitch, and leave my mammy alone..." "Keep your mother away from my boyfriend and his wife, Nina," Olesia replied. "We'll be just fine."
Hundreds of miles away, their common enemy stood staring out at the vast machine that had been left by Finn the Human's ancient ancestors. Her workers were feverishly clearing the trees and vegetation away. She was using the remaining materials she had from the rockets to patch holes in the massive antenna. It was a mad plan that made none of her lieutenants very happy. She'd already had to sanction a couple of them for plotting against her. They'd found themselves outside in the jungle, dealing with the monsters there.
It will be tricky, she thought. Whatever the mysterious power was out there in the darkness, it/they would want something for their help. She could very well be signing not just her own death-warrant, but the warrant for all of Ooo. Is it really better to rule in hell, thought the Bandit Princess, as she continued to pace, up and back? But what was her alternative here? Finn knew she had attempted to launch a weapon of destruction at his castle. He had to know by now. He would be coming for her. She'd left him no choice, and so she had no choice. She had to press ahead, because she wasn't sure how much time she had left before her foes found her lair.
As the sun rose over the Water Nymph Confederation, Billy rose from bed, gathered on some clothes, and headed up to the deck, leaving Olesia and Nieve sleeping. His dad was due in Coca Kingdom real-soon-now. Finn was planning to get on the ground, look at what was left of the old rocket base, and start talks with the Coca-peeps to start using it for the people of Ooo. He was always thinking of the future, was the King of Ooo, and Billy realized that it was a big part of why Billy himself had lived to be an adult. Finn played the part of fool, often, but his antics hid a shocking intelligence. You've got the education, Billy thought. You've never had the handicaps that dad had, but you haven't been doing as well. That had to change.
Arriving on deck, the young prince drew his phone and was about to start the laborious process of scanning around, looking for a signal from the satellite, when he heard someone retching. Turning towards the sound, the big man found Morgana with her head over the rail. Stuffing his phone into his pocket, the young prince reached out to see if she was ok, but she jerked away from him.
"You gotta' stop doin' this," he told her. Morgana cussed him, but the effect was spoiled by the fact that she had chunkies hanging off her bottom lip. "Morgana, you gotta' stop doin' this to yourself," Billy told her. "Do you know what that's doing to your insides?" The Pirate-Princess gave him a frown of utter bafflement. Her expression said it all. Why the fuck did that matter to him? "I think I liked the Pirate-Princess better when she was the tiger on the hunt," Billy declared. Morgana goggled at him. Resting a hand on her shoulder, the big man said, "actually, I'm sure of it. I need your help, Morgana. I need your help to end this. She's still out there, and she's likely fled back to her lair, wherever it is."
The older woman glanced away, and he could see the shame in her posture. "Not gonna' lie," he admitted, "I did this when I thought my wife had killed herself." He'd been down at the bottom of every bottle back then. He wasn't proud of it, but he used it as a teachable moment. "When we set out to destroy ourselves, we always succeed, Morgana," he said, "but sometimes we take those we love with us." Star had been doing all she could to look after him, and he'd been doing all he could to push his little sister away. He'd been working on killing not just him, but all the people who loved him.
"My momma would have gone off the deep end shortly after," he rumbled. "You know her as the Ice Queen. We wouldn't have needed the Lich to wreck the world, because my mom might have done it herself." Crazy thing was, JJ had been alive. She'd been alive and busy fucking up the raising of their kids. "I would never have found out," Billy said. "My daughters would still be out there, somewhere, going down the same ugly road their momma put them on." Turning to face his host, the big man said, "we gelled on that trip across the ocean. We were working good together. I don't want to see you die, and I'm sure Nina doesn't either. I can see it in her face when you're on the bottle."
That stung, and Billy could tell he was overdoing it a little on the shame. Moving on, the big man said, "my ladies and I... we're getting off here. I'd... I'd really appreciate it if you'd think about what I said." "Why you still huntin' dat bitch," Morgana muttered? "We got dat death-bomb." "We got a death-weapon," Billy retorted. "Trouble is, she's apparently got her hands on something worse." As the Pirate Princess listened in shock and growing unease, the big man told her about what his stepmother had discovered. Pointing up, he said, "those guys... they sail the stars like you sail the oceans. They want the monster at the heart of Ooo. If this creature she found can tell her how to build a radio to reach his buddies..." "Dey come 'ere t'raid us f'er dat monster," Morgana rumbled. Her beloved ocean would be boiled away to nothing. Nodding in agreement, Billy said, "that's what we're up against. I need your help, Morgana. Please." "Ok, big man," she said.
The Matriarch's goons were waiting on the dock when the Naga's skiff landed, only this time they had a wizard among them. Billy climbed up the ladder and onto the dock without a by-your-leave. He was done playing with minions. This wasn't just the risk of damage to their family. This was the End-Of-Everything. Nieve was next up, and Olesia was not far after. Turning to Nina, the big man said, "we'll see you in a few days." To the Matriarch's soldiers, the big man said, "you can tell the Matriarch that Prince William will be at court to speak to her tomorrow morning." When he moved to walk past them, the chief guard tried to block him.
Eyes glowing, the big man said, "I don't think you want to play this game." Olesia stepped out alongside him, her eyes focusing on the wizard. The chief guard did the calculation in her mind. They didn't have a way to stop these two–not without catastrophic damage to the town and the possible loss of hundreds or even thousands of people. The guard motioned for her troops to get out of the way. Without a further word, Billy shouldered his bag and Nieve's. Olesia fell in at the rear, sandwiching the Muscle Princess between her and William as they headed up the street to the hotel where they'd be staying.
Billy led his ladies straight to the hotel they'd stayed in before, demanded the nicest room in the house–on Margarida's dime–and then promptly took Nieve and Olesia to breakfast. That was part of Nieve's strategy. She'd been working on her husband the whole way over from first the Candy Kingdom and then from Coca Kingdom. It was a strange dichotomy, honestly. He was a man with vast power, both political and physical. He could, quite literally, destroy the nymphs' island home without really trying very hard. At the same time, he was strangely the kind of man who seemed to actually hate power and the trappings of powerful people. It was... endearing.
Honestly, the Muscle Princess could see how a woman like Olesia could fall heels-over-head in love with him. She felt stirrings of affection when he was just being himself. He was... a very nice man. At the same time, he was playing in a much different arena with much different stakes than he'd been used to. There were changes that were needed.
His father gets it, Nieve thought. Strangely, Finn the Human had made the transition very easily. Maybe it was the decades he'd spent around powerful women, but Finn had their number. He'd had Nieve's number. That's part of the job now too, Nieve, she thought. Olesia, she saw, brought things to the table that William needed. She was the bit of civilization–the home–he clung to when he was out here dealing with people who were very dangerous and devoted to smashing what he cared about. Ragnhild couldn't be here. His precious babies couldn't be here, but he had Olesia. You can teach him about power, thought the Muscle Princess. She was duty-bound to do that before it was too late.
After breakfast, the trio went back to their room, and William called his father. Nieve took Olesia and went out into the town. They were princesses. Their Royal Blood was a shield against the nymphs' machinations for the moment, though Nieve didn't doubt things would get dicey when William began to push. Their hubby was hard at work when they got back, pouring over the maps he had of the area. "We're in for a treat tomorrow," Nieve announced, as she shut the door. Billy looked up with a frown.
Nodding, Nieve said, "Margarida's called in her subordinates. The governors of all the Confederation's islands are here, William. I think she may have called them in when Bandit Princess sailed with her weapon, but they're still here. I imagine she's expecting fallout. This could get unpleasant." Grimly he nodded, and Nieve moved things onward. It was time for his next lesson in being a prince.
The Matriarch's representative was at their door bright and early in the morning, giving them barely enough time to get out of bed and get ready. It was exactly what Nieve expected. The Matriarch was trying to throw them off balance. Drag them out of bed and then make them wait. They went along with the game a little bit. Let the Matriarch think she still had the upper hand. For a little while. Riding through the streets in the Matriarch's carriage, the trio talked about future plans. There were things they needed to get done to stabilize this grand alliance of theirs.
Nieve's thoughts were on the grasslands at the heart of the Candy Kingdom. It seemed strange that Bonnibel would do nothing to exploit them. They were getting deluged with new people all the time, and Bonnie Bubblegum was sitting on fat lands that could feed and house those new peeps. "I'm of two minds," Olesia retorted. "I've... There's no wild-lands in my home, Nieve. Nothing like the grasslands. It seems a shame to just turn it all into towns and fields." "But we have to do something, Olesia," Nieve insisted. "If King Finn doesn't intend to turn these newcomers away, we have to do something to support them, else the lands we do have under plow will get overwhelmed."
"We have to restore some of the wild-lands," Billy interrupted. "My stepmom has been working on it." In her voluminous spare time. "I respect Lady Sarah," Nieve primly replied. It had been a little odd meeting a creature who was literally a machine–especially one who was almost an identical copy of somebody she knew. Still, she had found the strange machine-woman to be personable and even pleasant to talk to. "It will take even somebody like her years to make that work, William," Nieve declared. Billy nodded. It was a problem that they were going to have to address. It couldn't be ignored. "One thing at a time, babe," he said. "As soon as we're done here, we can get on the ground and start figuring out what to do with our visitors." They had the wall now. They had some measure of control over who they let in and when.
The carriage rolled up to the Matriarch's palace, and Nieve found herself shivering as she thought of her mother-in-law's reaction to something like this. The beautiful home before them had been built by the labor of thousands of enslaved men. Even for a woman who was used to servants and having an underclass of people who looked after her home and property, the idea of forcing people into labor at the point of a sword was... evil.
Climbing out, the trio followed their minder up into Margarida's home. Signs around them suggested that the Confederation was preparing for a war. Nieve, who'd seen the machine-army at work on her own land, thought these folks had no idea just what they were standing against. It was prideful. This was woman's pride, and Nieve feared Margarida's pride would do tremendous damage to the beautiful kingdom her ancestors had built.
The Matriarch's people kept them cooling their heels, shunting them off to a waiting room for well over three hours. It was absurd posturing from a woman who ought to know just how deep was the trouble she was in just now. Far from getting perturbed, William discussed baby-names with his companions. Hamest and Katsumi were both pondering what to name their children. Each time one of the nymph servants came by, they found not a cranky man climbing the walls and losing his balance, but a calm, rational man chatting with his companions as if this delay was nothing important.
Finally, after wasting everyone's time and delaying the inevitable well past the point of prudence, the Matriarch sent for her unpleasant guests. Billy led the way, with Nieve following a pace back on his right and Olesia bringing up the rear–as much for security as for protocol. Inside the audience hall, they found Margarida's court in full session, with all eight of her subordinates present and on the dais with her. As the trio approached, the guards announced Nieve and her entourage, intentionally insulting William, though the young prince was not perturbed at all.
The big man went hard at the nymphs. Striding up to the dais on which the Matriarch sat, the big man stared the Matriarch's senior advisor square in the eyes and in mild tones announced, "I'm Prince William. I believe you're seated in my place. I'd appreciate your moving. Now, please." He might have been telling her that the yellow flower in her hair looked pretty.
The older woman goggled at him, and the Matriarch's eyes got big as plates. Her eyes flicked to Nieve, who gave her a sinister smile in return. The Matriarch's thoughts went to the young princess's warning, and her mind conjured an ugly image–a hundred feet of ice covering her island and all her people dead. She quickly motioned for her advisor to stand aside. The young man sat himself the moment the nymph was out of his way, causing tongues to wag and whispers to float through the room. Of course, if that was a shock, there was something far more severe coming.
"Good morning, everyone," Billy announced, "I bring greetings from your King." Margarida flinched at that bald statement. Glancing at Margarida, the big man said, "the King of Ooo has expressed some concerns over the issue of lawlessness in your kingdom, Matriarch. We should probably discuss that." Turning back to the audience at hand, the Ice Prince declared, "this is rumor control. A known war-monger and terrorist attempted to launch a weapon of destruction at the civilized kingdoms a little over a week ago. I personally supervised the destruction of the weapon and its launching platform." Glancing at Margarida once more, the big man said, "we believe the launching ship was prepared and serviced on one of the Confederation's islands, Matriarch. While the outlaw known as the Bandit Princess escaped justice–for now–I did manage to capture prisoners who were able to convey pieces of the scheme to me."
Margarida's face went very pale, and Nieve very nearly howled laughter at her. She'd warned the little idiot. It was just as William's stepmother had said. Margarida had been planning to sort of sweep this disaster under the rug, minimize her involvement in the business, and just keep on doing what she'd been doing. That wasn't going to be the case. It couldn't be. Her hands were very dirty. Someone had attempted to execute an act of war, from her territory. No matter how much she wanted to pretend that Finn and his authority didn't matter, her greed and indifference had brought her into direct conflict with him and all his resources. With witnesses for Margarida's foolishness at hand, Finn could choose to smash the Confederation–bring all his power to bear–and nobody would argue.
Coming to her rescue, one of her senior subordinates interrupted, announcing, "these matters are uh... serious, uh... Prince William. Perhaps we should retire to a private location to discuss them. Matriarch? Don't you agree that we should hold these deliberations behind closed doors?" Getting her voice back, the older woman nodded her agreement, announcing, "Melosia, please close court for the day. I'll greet the council in private chambers."
Hundreds of miles away, the King of Ooo was following his annoying science-advisor as she wandered up and down through the jungles of Coca Kingdom. The news was bad. The ancient structures had been badly weathered by time, in spite of the Coca-peeps' efforts to take care of them. The Bandit Princess's colossal fuckup had smashed the rocket-firing stand and the fueling tanks. It was a depressing development that made him a little sad. He'd been really unable to see or understand what Blanca was trying to show him when last he'd been here. Now, with everything uncovered, somebody had come along and wrecked his people's legacy.
Interrupting his depressed maunderings, Blargetha burbled, "what're you so down in the mouth about?" Finn glared at her. This whole place was destroyed! "She smashed it all," Finn growled! "So what," Blargetha interrupted. The big man puffed himself up, his face turning red. "Bitch did us a favor," the slime princess said, as she shoved her sketch book into his face. "All that shit would have had to be torn down anyway. Concrete that old wouldn't have withstood more than one or two launches tops." Finn goggled at her.
Nodding in self-satisfied fashion, the slime-princess said, "now we don't have to argue with the Coca-people about smashing it all and starting over. She built us a road up from shore to carry materials. She drove roads all over this place to haul materials. We can rebuild the whole thing. If you give me a few of those robots, we could probably do it over the course of a few months. You could even lie to Blanca and tell her we're helping her out by fixing the damage." Finn stood there staring. Putting the sketchbook away, the curvy princess said, "this is a good thing. No need to be a mope."
Just then, the sky did that unpleasant thing that all slime people feared. It started with a few terrifying drops. And then it started to come down faster. Blargetha squealed in terror and all but threw herself on Finn. Calmly, the big man unfolded the umbrella he'd been carrying, snapping it open over the terrified princess. "Hold the umbrella," he said. Blargetha was too busy shaking like a leaf. "Hold the umbrella," Finn commanded, and that finally got through the haze of fear.
He'd been here before. Rain came suddenly and without warning in these jungles. As Blargetha cowered under the umbrella, Finn slipped out of his jacket and snapped it over her shoulders. "Stay close," he instructed, as he guided her back down the trails towards the camp. It was a strangely comforting feeling for the slime person–Finn's strong arms around her, as if he was going to keep the rain away by his will alone. His hands kept the umbrella in place against the blow of the wind that wanted to tear it out of Blargetha's hands. With his jacket draped over her, and the big man himself sheltering her with his body, they made it all the way to camp before the sky really opened up.
Finn shoved the plump woman into his quarters. It was the closest, and there was little hope of reaching her shack with the rain pouring down. Blargetha found herself sitting on the floor, staring out as a storm of horrifying proportions rolled through, sending a flood of hated water cascading through the camp. The storm was so strong, the water came through in literal rivers down through the camp. She could even hear it under the floor of the shack, and visions of being swept into the ocean floated like horrifying fever-dreams through her mind. "Wait here," Finn announced. They still had to eat, after all, and it was unsafe for her to go out to the cook-shack.
Late that same day, Billy exited the Matriarch's carriage with his wife and girlfriend. The trio paused a moment, watching as the carriage clattered off, up the street. It was something that Billy had no trouble at all with. You waited for the peeps you were going to talk about to get out of earshot before you started bitching about them.
"You did very well, husband," Nieve said. "I'm proud of you." He'd learned the lessons she'd been trying to teach him well, though, truth be told, he had a lot of the tools in the toolbox already. He'd never raised his voice. He'd never shouted or even threatened very much. Just like his father, he'd just put out the facts of the matter, playing his cards as if it was a casual game of poker instead of a high-stakes gamble. Both young women slipped their arms around his and lay their heads on his shoulders. It was the kind of moment that made him feel a little warm. As rough as it was sometimes dealing with his wives and their antics–and as often as he'd questioned his dad's sanity for accepting so much complication–he had to admit this was kinda' nice. "Let's go dancing," he said.
Elsewhere, Finn returned to his quarters to find Blargetha sitting there at his desk working in her notebook, dressed solely in a pair of panties and a bra. It was an altogether disconcerting sight, and he almost turned around and walked back out. Turning to face him, the slime princess reminded him, "it's still raining. You wouldn't want me to go out and risk death, would you?" Finn glanced away. He'd been hoping to go to bed. It had been a long day.
Moving to the shelf in the corner, the King took off his jacket and hung it up. Then he got out of his shoes. He wasn't looking forward to sleeping on the floor, but they were kind of short on space in here. These little cubicles weren't really built for multiple occupants. The rustling of cloth behind him, alerted him that Blargetha had just moved over to the bed. Yeah, sleepin' on the floor. Finn paused a moment. He was wearing a silk shirt. Lollipop would get mad at him if he wore it to sleep. It wasn't as though Blargetha hadn't seen his body. Unbuttoning his shirt, the big man got out of his shirt and neatly folded that up too. His pants followed.
Finn moved to the little bowl in the corner and brushed his teeth with the miracle-goo the Grid-Face peeps provided. It didn't feel quite the same as the usual toothpaste and water he was used to, but it worked like a charm, and he didn't have to worry about what was in the water here. He was doing all he could to pretend that he didn't have somebody there watching him. It was every kind of awkward.
Finally, though, he had no choice. He had to get something together to sleep on. Turning around to face the bed, he found Blargetha laying there on the sheets watching him. "You kind of have me at your mercy," Blargetha remarked. "I have nowhere to go with the rain outside." Finn grimaced. "You could do anything," she said, as she teased at the waist of her panties. "You could just shove me on my back and..." The big man flushed to his hair at the way she said that, his mind going back to his sin from a few weeks ago.
The nymphs are starting to feel the pressure, and Finn finds himself facing temptation once again. Hold strong, brother!