Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Adventure Time.
Chapter 1: The Faceless Flames
The night sky was completely clear of any clouds, allowing the stars to illuminate the land of Ooo with their splendorous light. The crickets filled the air of the Grasslands with their soothing music and the soft wind against the leaves of the treehouse sent a calming chill through anyone who was lucky enough to listen. Finn the Human was one of those lucky ones.
There was still a few hours left before the sun would rise over the horizon, and nearly everyone across Ooo was slumbering. Jake's snoring was as loud as always and Beemo was simply sitting in the corner with his screen turned off and a cable protruding from his side. Finn, however, lied on his bed with his eyes wide open, staring directly at the wooden ceiling above him and completely lost in his own train of thoughts.
Naturally, the young seventeen-year-old was kept busy nearly every day. Either stopping some petty theft or clearing a cave of a few beasts, the routine was the same. He had grown used to it, and enjoyed it immensely, but every day Finn only got more and more tired. And yet for some reason even he could not explain, his eyes would not close no matter how hard he tried.
Finn was a light sleeper as it was, but the human had never gone so late in the night without sleeping. Something was keeping him awake this time. Maybe it was Jake's loud snoring? It couldn't be since he had grown used to living with the yellow canine for his entire life. Or maybe he was being watched by someone. He dreaded the idea of having to deal with Ice King dressed as a horse again. But Jake's senses were phenomenally better then Finn's, so the fact that he could still sleep denied his theory.
He tossed and turned in his bed, covering himself completely with his sheets or digging his head under the pillow. Nothing he tried allowed him to sleep. 'Oh come on, why?!' he thought to himself, annoyed.
Now Finn was beginning to sweat from staying under the sheets for too long, making the entire experience even more frustrating. With a loud grunt of annoyance, he threw the sheets and the pillow off from on top of him and got up from the bed.
It was when he stood right in front of the window that he could also notice the bright light from the moon, but he paid it little mind. Outside the Grasslands were as empty as ever with not a single moving shadow in sight. The only movement was that of the short grass and the leaves of trees in the distance on account of the wind.
A snore louder than the previous ones escaped from Jake's mouth and the canine began to grumble in his sleep. Finn turned to face his friend and contemplated waking him up, but he felt foolish to bother him for something so dumb. Instead, the human silently made his way towards the ladder and went downstairs.
Several candles that Finn had forgotten to put out were still illuminating the way. His footsteps made the floorboards creak as he walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge, letting a yawn escape his mouth in the process. The sudden white light made him squint his eyes, and the cold air made him shiver for a brief second as he reached inside to grab an already open carton of milk. He took a whiff to make sure it was fresh and began to gulp down.
A sudden gust of wind from the outside forced open one of the kitchen's windows, making Finn nearly choke on the milk as all of the candles were put out at once. After recovering, he exclaimed, "What the crud?!"
Finn placed the milk carton back in the fridge and walked towards the open window. The wind was still howling loudly from the outside and all of the hanging pots and pans were slightly hitting each other like chimes. It was surprising that Jake had not come down to check on the commotion, but he was a heavy sleeper after all.
After a short struggle, Finn managed to get the window closed, and the sounds of the wind and the pans all stopped at once. The human breathed a sigh of both relief and annoyance, but when his gaze was directed out the window into the outside, he knew the night would go on for a lot longer than he thought.
It looked small from a distance, but there was no denying its shape and bright array of orange and yellow colors. There was a fire in the distance.
His knowledge of fire told Finn that it should have been spreading since it was burning in the middle of the Grasslands. The entire field would be in flames in no time. But the flames that Finn was seeing remained stationary; unmoving except for the crackles. There was no telling the actual size of the fire since it was far away.
"Maybe it's a campfire?" Finn wondered. "I don't see any people around it, though." The human tried everything to keep his curiosity in check but there was no helping it. "Since I can't sleep, I might as well do something to tire myself out."
Finn went back upstairs to the bedroom and did his best to ready himself with his gear without waking up Jake. Once his bear hat, backpack, and Finn Sword were all on his person, the human quietly made his way back down the steps and out the door of his treehouse towards the distant radiant fire.
The cold air keeping his sweat at bay despite him running, the moon and the stars illuminating his way clearly, and the large plains of the grasslands made the trip a very small hassle. Every step he took made the size of the flames much clearer. It was big, that much was sure.
He arrived after several minutes of travel, and the fire was now in front of him. The size of it was roughly a few feet taller than Finn. There was absolutely nothing underneath it except grass, and yet it remained in just one place without burning the rest of the fields. Its shape made it seem as if it was inside a lamp, but there was nothing surrounding it to keep it in place. No glass, no barrier, nothing. It was one of the strangest things Finn had ever seen, and that was saying something.
"Weird…" he mumbled.
His eyes shot open and he jolted back when he saw something move inside the fire. It was only brief but it was there nonetheless. He moved in a bit closer, feeling the heat of the flames against his skin, but he could not see the same shape he had seen before. At least for a little while.
The shape appeared again for just as brief of a moment. Finn could make it out a bit clearer but the full details were still lost to him. It seemed to be like some sort of hand protruding from the fire, but he could not tell who the hand belonged to. In fact, he could have sworn he was going crazy if he thought anyone could be alive inside. Well, except a fire elemental.
"What's in Glob's name is this?" Finn asked as he took a few steps back from the mysterious flame. "Why is it even here to begin with?"
In a moment almost too quick for Finn to react, the fire burned brighter and covered the area in a blinding flash. The human was fast enough to cover his face and was surprise when he did not feel a burning sensation. The air had remained cold.
The light's intensity went down and Finn was able to uncover his face, which turned into an expression of shock from what he was seeing.
A girl had taken the place of the large fire; at least the silhouette of a girl since she seemed to have no facial features whatsoever. Her skin was made of a bright yellow fire and orange hair burned like a candle. Finn did not want to say it, but the distinction with the mysterious figure was there without any shred of doubt.
"Flame…Princess…?" Finn asked in awe.
The figure that resembled Finn's former love did not respond. Aside from not having a face, everything about her was exactly the same as Flame Princess. Her clothing, her stature, her height, it all matched. But Finn could not tell if it was actually…her.
Then, in a moment that sent shivers down the human's spine, he began to hear strange singing fill the air. It sounded like Flame Princess' voice, but Finn knew it had to be impossible. The voice itself was not coming from the fiery girl's direction; instead it felt as if it were coming from inside his own body. Like some sort of strange spell was being chanted inside his head. The words had no meaning to him and everything about it felt wrong, but Finn could not help but be entranced by the beautiful melody.
Finn began to slowly walk towards Flame Princess, or at least her phantom of sorts. She raised her hand and held it out for him to grab, as if welcoming him to join her. He reached out with his own hand to grab hers as well, feeling the heat increase but never backing away until both their hands touched.
Flame Princess wrapped her hand around Finn's and the pain was very much present the moment they touched, but the human made absolutely zero attempts to back away. His eyes were wide as he stared as the faceless girl and continued to hear the beautiful singing in his head. She moved her other hand up and removed his bear hat, completely burning it to ashes at her touch. But once again, Finn only paid heed to her and nothing else.
The fiery specter leaned in and Finn heard her soothing voice whisper in his ear. "Find me where skin burns but there is no fire."
Everything after that happened in an instant. The melody in Finn's head stopped and he was knocked out of his trance. His first instinct was to pull his burning hand away from the fiery girl, but her grip was too strong for him to break out of. Not only did he have to deal with the pain of burning, but also the pain of having his hand crushed by the specters immense strength.
The human screamed and fell to the grassy ground on his knees. Flame Princess' hand began to glow less with every passing second, as if her fire was beginning to go out. It reached the point where it seemed like her entire arm was being transformed into black smoke, and it only continued to spread through her entire body until she seemed like nothing more than a haunting shadow looking down at him with her blank face. The same black substance also began to spread through Finn's own arm.
He began to panic. Despite his attempts at getting up from the ground, his legs had gone completely numb. The black substance had reached the base of his neck and slowly creeped up towards the rest of his face.
"What…What is this?!" he asked as he continued to struggle.
The shadowy version of Flame Princess gave no response. Finn could only watch in horror as the black substance reached his mouth and he began to choke as every bit of oxygen seemed to be sucked out of his lungs.
And then he woke up.
His bed had been drenched in sweat and he took in all the air he could into his lungs as he sat up. The sun was shining in through the window, a welcome sight after the dark environment Finn just had the bad luck of experiencing. He looked frantically at his arms and ran them around his torso, breathing a final sigh of relief as he fund everything to be okay.
A pleasant aroma hit his nose after several extra seconds of calming himself down. Finn recognized the smell more than anything, and it was further proved when he heard Jake humming a tune loudly from the kitchen below.
"Finn, breakfast!" the yellow canine shouted. "I made Bacon Pankaaaaaaaakes!"
Finn chuckled. "Coming, Jake!"
The human removed the covers and stood up from his bed, ready to start the day.
He thanked Glob it was all just a nightmare.
Note: For those of you waiting for the Sentinels update, I think this should explain why it's taking a while. On the other hand, welcome to a new story, ladies and gentlemen. As always, constructive criticism welcome.
Next Chapter: Elder of the Woods
