Chapter IX - Just Two
The very next morning, Finn and Marceline were sleeping against each other. Marceline had her head on Finn's shoulder and Finn's head rested against the tree that they slept against. It was semi-dark, but it was overcast so some light made it through the Dark Forest leaves. Finn had his mouth open a little bit. He felt a little chilly, making his eyes open a little bit. He looked down and saw that his shirt was tattered up from last night. He looked over to Marceline, who was still knocked out. He regained some of his strength, enough to move a little bit forwards. He looks at Marceline again, this time, trying to wake her up.
"Marceline.." Finn said softly. "Marceline..." He said again, this time moving her shoulder. She moved only a little bit. He looked around him. Seeing some rabbits run by. He blinked and sighed. He slowly got up, without trying to wake her up. "I guess I have to carry you." Finn said to himself. He positioned himself in front of her, slowly grabbing her from under her arms, and wraps her arms around her neck, then finally holding her legs in her arms. Slightly heavy due to her being asleep, Finn slowly wakes himself up as he tried to walk. A bit weak, with him waking up, he would gain more of his strength. He looked behind him at the tree, where they slept at for the night. He sighed and continued with his way, Marceline on his back. Along the trail, it started to drizzle a little bit, with small gusts of wind brushing against the leaves of the tall trees. He looked around him, seeing dead leaves flying, and stopping at his feet. Marceline's head was just hanging over his shoulder, with her hair covering half of his body, and bits of it dragging against the ground. He looked a bit behind him, seeing some crumbled up leaves get attached to her jet black hair. "I see why you float." He said to him. The breeze against his face felt good, grazing against his face wounds. He breathed, seeing the air escaped his mouth. "It's getting a bit chilly.." Finn said to himself. Walking on the barely visible trail due to dead leaves and branches, he ditches the path a little bit and slowly sets Marceline against a large tree trunk. The remaining pieces of his shirt, he tied it around his waist.
It continued to drizzle. He picks up Marceline again, but just before he did, he looks to the side of the tree trunk and notices a grizzly bear, feasting on their meal that he caught for the day. If Finn wasn't cold now, his blood certainly ran cold. Trying to keep calm, He grabs Marceline in the same way as before, and heads down the trail he forked off from. Constantly looking back and lightly jogging, he continued his way down the path. Just ahead, was three other paths with a partly destroyed sign. The top, almost broken in half, points to the left, reading "Candy Kingdom". The middle reads "Grasslands/Ice Kingdom" and the bottom reads "Forest of Trees". Finn studied the sign carefully, ensuring himself that he wanted to take the right path. He heard a growl from the distance behind him. He looked behind him, seeing a bear cub slowly approach him. He turns to look at it, with a half smile on his face, even though deep down he felt dread take over his body. "Well aren't you cute..?" He said softly, looking around for any signs of the mother. Marceline barely moved on his back, but he still held her in position. Another cub walked towards it's sibling from the right, coming from behind one of the trees.
Now his smile turned into impending fear. He took a few steps back, looking at Marceline from behind a bit before darting his eyes at the treeline in which the second cub had came out from. his breath hitched a bit. Finn gulped as goosebumps formed on his arms. He looked up, and heard a more deeper growl from the treeline. He frantically looked for a place to hide Marceline, incase he had to fight the mother grizzly bear. He looked towards the sign and rushed past it, setting her down to a nearby tree, slowly laying her down against a cluster of thick trees, enough for the mother bear to not take notice. He runs back past the broken sign, with the cubs playing with each other. Sure enough, within seconds the mother bear walked from out of the treeline after finishing her meal. She growled, offering a warning since the cubs were near Finn. He raised his hands and balled his fist.
"Are you insane Finn? You are literally about to fight with a fucking bear..! If whatever happened last night didn't kill you, this will surely kill you...!" He shouted inside his head, with his face reading nothing but fear, but he tried to maintain his composure. The mother grizzly bear slowly approached him. Finn could see the blood covering her thick brown coated fur and face. He moved back a little bit. She roared and started to charge at him. Finn knew he was not going to outrun a bear, so the only thing he could do is go head to head with it. She tried to ram Finn off of his feet but he dodged before she could do so. Turning around, the bear growled again, slowly walking in Finn's line of sight. He raised his bawled up fist, awaiting her next unexpected attack. She roared and charged at him again, raising her razor sharp claws at him, going in for a swipe attack. Finn barely dodged it, since it charged at him fast, and catches the side of his arm, leaving two linear cuts straight down his arm. He yelled in pain as he held his arm, looking at the bear staring him down. He shook his bleeding arm and raised his fists up again. "If she charges, I might have to as well." Finn said to himself. The mother bear charged at him again, roaring, and so did Finn. Before she could get an attack on Finn, Finn stretches his arm out and aims for the snout and forehead. The bear paused as Finn slowly retracted his fist. The bear growled and stood up on her hind legs. Easily towering Finn, He backed away, not knowing it would make it worse for his case. Marceline slowly wakes up due to the loud growls of the mother bear, rubbing her head as she tried to wake up. Her vision was a bit blurry so she followed the sound of where it was coming from. She peaks around the tree and sees the towering bear and Finn, with the cubs off to the side. The bear drops to all fours again and rushed at him. Marceline widens her eyes a little bit. "Shit Finn.. " She said to herself.
Finn attacks the mother bear in the snout again, making her wince back just a tad, but soon grew angry and rushed at him, ramming him into the tree next to the pathway sign. Slumped against the tree, the bear goes in for a bite at Finn's face, but Finn used his hands to keep the bear's mouth open, prolonging her upcoming attack. Knowing that the bear was as many times as strong as he was, Finn figured to stall her. The bear had scratched him on his other arm again, but Finn held his grip. Now with the bear forcing herself to get to Finn's face, in one motion, he moved away from the bear and pulls the bear into the tree, hitting her face, Finn gets a few feet away from the mother bear but not knowing that one of her little cubs was behind him, he trips over and falls on his back. Before trying to get himself back on his feet, the bear walked over to him, roaring. At this point, the bear hovered over him, about to clamp down on Finn's face. Finn notices the bear wince back and jumps away from Finn. The grizzly bear shakes her head three times, attempting to wince the source for what had attacked her. She jumped back again as blood trickled down her face, with a few blood drops landing on Finn's face. Finn got up to his feet as the bear was getting attacked, he stumbled back into a shrub and then stands up. The mother bear stood on her hind legs and roars. The cubs rush to their struggling other. Looking at the bear's neckline, Finn sees that it's being pressured. Finn widens his eyes as he rubbed his bleeding arm. The wind picked up slightly but the drizzling weather remained the same. Finn watched the mother bear stumble around until she remained at a standstill. The bear collapsed to the ground, knocked out. Finn approached the bear.
"Hmm.." Finn said to himself. He coughed and rubbed his arm, seeing the blood trickle from his fingertips. He sighed as the cubs climb on top of their mother's back. Finn stands up and coughed again. He looked towards the partially destroyed pathway sign, and walks towards. Upon approaching it, he went behind the tree in which the sign stood in front of and walked towards the cluster of trees where he placed down Marceline before he went to fight the bear. He sees that Marceline wasn't there like he left her. Finn then gets charged to the ground. Some blood came from his lips as he hit the ground. He groaned and coughed. He then feels sharp fingers grasp his cheeks, then his lips being parted with another pair. He tasted his own blood against the other pair of lips. He then sees someone materialize right in front of his face.
"You got your ass saved." Marceline said. She grinned and pulled Finn up to his feet. With both of them on her feet, Marceline was a tad bit taller than Finn. Finn was 5'11 and Marceline was 6'1. Finn took a breath, seeing the hair on her arms retract into her pale grey skin. Marceline crossed her arms, and Finn saw traces of blood on her lips, trickling down. "What were you..?" Finn said rubbing his head a bit. "Oh that? A wolf. Appearance? You saw it last night." She said to Finn. She started to float off the grown as she normally would. Finn cocked an eyebrow at her, having no clue what she was talking about. "Last night?" Finn asked in confusion. "Oh yeah, you must've not remembered what happened last night.. I suppose it's best if it stayed that way." Marceline looked around, then up at the trees, then back to Finn.
"You know, I didn't think you'd be strong enough to hold off a grown grizzly bear. Let alone punch it." Marceline said as she stepped closer to him. Finn chuckled a bit. "I.. I don't know what came of me. I wanted to protect us both from death." Finn said as he wiped his hands on his pants. Marceline scoffed. "As if you never experienced near death before. I did too, more times than you. Not to compare, but I'm just saying." Marceline placed her hands in her pants pockets, her hair covered her right eye a little bit. "What I mean to say is, it was quite sexy to see that." She concluded. Finn rubbed his neck, hiding the fact that his cheeks felt warm after hearing what Marceline had said to him. "How.. long where you watching..?" Finn asked out of curiousness. "Oh, long enough to where you tripped over that cub. I figured I'd step in before you became that bear's next meal." Finn blinked and arched his eyebrows slightly. "Well that certainly makes me feel better." Finn said as he huffed and puffed. Marceline looked at his bleeding arm.
"Here." Marceline walked towards him and grabbed his tattered shirt around his waist. and ripped parts of it off. She wraps it around his wounded left arm. Making sure that it was tight enough to stop the bleeding but not too tight to where he would lose blood circulation in his arm. His right arm wasn't wounded enough to have cloth wrapped around it but blood still leaked from his wound. She runs her finger through his right arm wound and licks it once with her tongue. Finn, slightly weirded out, just let it happen. "You still had a good taste on you Finn." Marceline said to Finn, wiping the blood from her fingers onto her lightly tattered shirt. Finn couldn't help but blush. "Uh, thank you." Finn said, as he couldn't say anything else. "Maybe we should get out of here before that bear wakes up." Finn suggested. Marceline nodded in agreement. "Sure. But be warned, I'm still recuperating from last night and today so I cannot fly as fast, only float. Got it?" She pointed a finger at him as she concluded her sentence. "Fine by me." Finn said as he fixed his ripped bear hat. "Now. How do we get back home?" Marceline as she looked at Finn. "Well since we are here, there is a fork in the road. And since we passed it.." He looks North. "We should be heading towards the the path to our left. It's the middle path, and it leads to the Grasslands." Finn said to Marceline. She looked towards his direction. "Okay, let's go. Because I'm pretty sure Jake is worried about the both of us right now." She said. "Jake? he should be fine, he's at Lady's house still. If I can remember." Finn said.
With just two of them alone in the dark forest, they continued their journey on getting home. Some broken branches were on the path but they had stepped over some. The drizzle continued and the wind continued to blow. Finn was warm due to his adrenaline rising wen fighting the bear, but soon it wore off as they had gone farther up the path. Tree trunks, dead leaves, and with less light shining down on them through the trees, some of the path was obscured by darkness. Nonetheless, they walked through it.
-End of Chapter-