Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time.

Chapter 3: In the Eyes of A Wolf

The Fallen Star Forest was as silent as a grave as Marceline, Bonnie and H.W. traveled deeper into the ancient woods in pursuit of the Star Stag. H.W. was in the lead keeping an eye on the beast's tracks while Bonnie regularly checked her handheld scanner as she and Marceline took up the rear. Both Bonnie and H.W. had noticed how the Star Stag's tracks had once again changed as they headed deeper into the woods. The grass and soil the Star Stag stepped upon once more became ashen grey as if the life within it had been burned out. Bonnie had noticed the tracks gave off some form of radiation, with the burned tracks having a different signature from the tracks back at the camp where new life had sprung, but she could only guess as to why this change took place.

Meanwhile Marceline was left with nothing to do except keep her eyes her eyes and ears peeled for the Star Stag or any other type of monster that might try to kill them. They had been plodding through the woods for nearly an hour however and so far they hadn't encountered anything even remotely dangerous. Marceline was starting to get bored. With nothing at all happening, Marceline decided it was a good time to ask H.W. for a certain favor.

"Yo H.W., got a sec?" Marceline asked as she floated up next to the magic huntress. "After this whole thing with the Star Stag is over, I was wondering if you'd be willing to help me with a new song I'm working on. I'd like to work some flute stuff into it and I know you're pretty good on the thing."

"…Maybe, I dunno," H.W. responded, keeping her eyes on the path before them.

Marceline frowned a little and decided to change the subject. "So, why are you after this Star Stag of yours anyway?"

"A seer in Wizard City told me I'd finally find the strength I've been searching for if I hunted it."

"Not that it's any of my business, but is this hunt the reason why you suddenly left Finn?"

H.W. stopped walking. "I…care for Finn very much. But the more time I spend with him, the softer and ordinary I become. And the weak and ordinary don't matter in this world."

"And you think killing this space deer is somehow going to change all that?"

"If I kill the Star Stag, I'll finally have the strength to not need anyone. I'll finally be able to move on from Finn and go back to being the exceptional beast I once was."

"Okay, that is probably the dumbest thing I've heard anyone ever say," Marceline declared as H.W. started walking again. "And I've been around for over a thousand years, so I've heard a lot of stupid stuff."

H.W. stopped walking again and turned to face Marceline. "I wouldn't expect you to get it since you've gone soft as well. I asked around about you once, even listened to a few of your albums. Turns out you were once a pretty exceptional beast yourself, but you've lost your edge man. You went soft the moment you started shacking up with Princess Bubblegum. The last thing I want is to end up in some meaningless ordinary existence like you."

With those words, H.W. turned back and started following the Star Stag's trail again. Frowning, Marceline crossed her arms and floated backwards over to Bonnie's side. As soon as she was back next to Bonnie, the vampire queen let out a heavy sigh.

"What's wrong?" Bonnie asked, not taking her eyes from her scanner.

"H.W.'s a dumb little punk!" Marceline declared, almost shouting.

Bonnie finally tore her eyes from her scanner and looked at Marceline. "What happened?"

"H.W. said I've lost my edge because I'm in a relationship with you."

"And you're mad because you think she's right?"

"No!" Marceline sighed again. "First of all, I don't think I've lost my edge. And even if I have, I wouldn't trade our relationship for anything."

Bonnie smiled. "That's a relief."

Marceline took Bonnie's hand. "H.W. thinks the old me was strong. The old me was just some stupid messed-up kid! I mean I had to have been monumentally stupid to have dumped you a few hundred years ago during that thing in the Glass Kingdom."

"I wasn't much of a genius myself back then, at least not when it came to us. Anyway, I guess I can see a little of the old you in H.W."

Marceline chuckled. "Yeah, I can sort of relate to her in a way. There was a time when I tried to be this bad loner who didn't need anybody. But the truth is a lot of the time I wasn't alone by choice. I just didn't have too many friends or family to rely on, and the few I did have would sort of drift out of my life. My mom died on me, Simon went nuts at least few a few hundred years. Then there's my dad, and you know how he is. I may have seemed strong, but the truth is I had a pretty empty and sometimes miserable life."

"You and I have been around for a pretty long time, so we have kind of a unique perspective on things. I guess you could call it wisdom. I don't know how old H.W. is, but compared to us she's probably a little kid."

"True enough. Only a little kid would think she could get strong enough to not need anyone by killing some alien deer."

"Wait, that's what this is about?"

Marceline nodded. "H.W. thinks if she can kill this Star Stag, she won't need Finn anymore, or something like that."

Bonnie frowned. "I was afraid this hunt was for something like this. If H.W. tries to truly dump Finn once and for all after she succeeds in her hunt, I'm afraid of how Finn will take it. He's been a little messed up ever since Jake died. Something like H.W. leaving him for good might destroy him."

"Bonnie, I know it isn't any of our business, but maybe for Finn's sake we should try and talk some sense into H.W."

"Or at the very least, totally screw up her hunt."

The trio continued onward into the forest for several more minutes in silence. As they went deeper, the ground got softer and they noticed mushrooms and several other forms of fungi growing on or at the base of the trees around them. The mushrooms got larger the further they went, and they began to feel a heavy dank mustiness in the air. Meanwhile the forms of fungi they saw only became more and more fantastical. Many of the larger mushrooms they saw glowed like street lamps.

"On our way back I should try and remember to take some samples of these mushrooms," Bonnie remarked. "It'd be interesting to see how they'd react to my gamma ray experiments."

"Just as long as they don't grow extra huge and try to kill us like that one bug we zapped did," Marceline responded. "It took us nearly thirty minutes to kill that thing."

"Don't freak out or anything, but you guys should probably know that no one who's gone this deep into the Fallen Star Forest has ever come back," H.W. informed the couple. "Nobody knows what happens to those travelers, but they're never seen or heard from again. Just thought you should both know."

"Terrific," Marceline sarcastically remarked.

"There are stories like that attached to just about every big forest in Ooo," Bonnie responded with a dismissive wave. "Chances are the so-called disappearances you're talking about never actually happened."

Suddenly H.W. stopped and raised a hand, signaling the others to halt. "Quiet. Something's coming."

Marceline and Bonnie did as instructed and waited, listening for what had H.W. on alert. They soon saw three faint purple lights coming towards them from the darkness. The lights steadily grew brighter as they approached, and in moments the trio finally saw what they were. They were the lights of three gigantic glowing purple mushrooms. All three mushrooms grew from the head of some sort of animal, each with lifeless glassy eyes and a body seated in the lotus position as they floated in the air towards the trio.

Each creature the glowing mushrooms grew from was different. The creature on the left was a fox with grey fur wearing a dirty and tattered green shirt with a yellow smily face on the front. The middle creature was a somewhat portly humanoid with light-blue skin, wearing a tattered white short-sleeved shirt and a pair of torn brown shorts. The remaining creature was a badger with matted fur clad in dirty overalls.

"More intruders have entered our domain," the blue humanoid spoke in a deep voice. The voice did not come from the creature's mouth though, but from the mushroom growing from his head. "It seems like it's been ages.

"They will make excellent hosts for our brood," the mushroom growing from the fox remarked in an equally deep voice.

"Okay, I'm guessing these guys are the reason why no one who's gone this deep into the forest has ever returned," Marceline deduced.

"Super intelligent parasitic mushrooms," Bonnie identified. "Yeah, this isn't optimal."

"Let's just knock them out so we can take them back to the colony and implant them with our spores," the mushroom growing from the badger spoke. "I have to be at a thing in half an hour."

With a wave of her arms, three arrows flew from H.W.'s quiver towards the mushroom zombies. The blue humanoid simply raised a hand and the arrows were deflected by an invisible barrier.

"Oh dang!" H.W. exclaimed.

The blue humanoid fired purple lasers from his glassy eyes at the enchanted huntress. In a flash H.W. suddenly burrowed into the ground, causing the lasers to strike the ground behind her.

Marceline sighed and cricked her neck. "Looks like it's up to me."

The vampire queen morphed into a large black bear-like creature and charged at the mushroom zombies. Just as Marceline leapt forward to tackle one of the creatures to the ground, the fox mushroom raised his hand and her whole body froze right in mid air. The fox flicked his wrist and Marceline was flung back into a nearby tree behind Bonnie. Knocked out, Marceline reverted back to her normal form. With Marceline out of commission, the mushroom zombies began to advance on Bonnie. Bonnie immediately drew the plasma laser holstered at her hip, but the badger zombie flicked his wrist and the weapon was torn from Bonnie's hand by an invisible force.

In an act of desperation, Bonnie thrust her right hand at the zombies and a stream of jellybeans shot from her palm at the blue humanoid with a farting noise. The jellybeans simply bounced harmlessly off the zombie's face.

The blue humanoid simply looked at her. "What the heck was that?"

Bonnie laughed nervously. "My candy elemental powers?"

The zombies continued advancing on Bonnie, forcing her back next to where Marceline had fallen. Suddenly three arrows flew down from above and pieced each mushroom. The zombies let out horrid shrieks as their mushrooms stopped glowing and shriveled up. In a matter of seconds the floating zombies dropped to the ground as inert corpses. Soon after, Marceline groaned and regained consciousness, rubbing her head as she got back to her feet. Bonnie immediately went over and hugged her.

By this time, H.W. dropped down from the trees above. "Thanks for distracting those things guys. Now let's get going."

Bonnie frowned as H.W. turned and walked off. "You're right. H.W. is a dumb little punk."

Marceline sighed. "Let's just keep going. Remember, we're pretty much doing this for Finn at this point."

Bonnie nodded and the two of them followed after H.W. As they walked, Bonnie accidentally kicked a large mushroom with a spherical head growing at the base of a tree. The head of the mushroom quickly expanded and popped like a balloon, enveloping Bonnie and Marceline in a cloud of spores. H.W. turned and looked back to see the couple coughing as the cloud dissipated.

"You two okay?" H.W. asked.

"I think so," Bonnie answered as she finally stopped coughing. "Marcy?"

"I'm good," Marceline responded. "Let's keep moving."

Marceline and Bonnie had only taken a single step though when they suddenly stopped and fell forward like a pair of chopped-down trees.

"Fudge crackers," H.W. cursed. "Well, guess I better take care of this."

Marceline opened her eyes to find she was in some sort of vast cavern, sitting naked in what appeared to be a naturally occurring hot spring with somewhat cloudy water up to her shoulders. She found Bonnie sitting next to her in the pool, also in the nude.

At this point Bonnie opened her eyes and looked around. "Where are we?"

"Dunno," Marceline answered. "The last thing I remember is getting blasted by that weird mushroom." She let out a sigh and let the heat from the water soak into her. "Whatever this place is though, it feels nice."

Bonnie looked at Marceline and took her hand under the water. "I know a way it can feel even nicer."

Marceline blushed and the two of them looked deeply into one another's eyes. Just as they were about to kiss though, a voice suddenly interrupted. "Hello there."

The couple gasped. Sitting across from them in the pool just a few feet away was a creature with long orange hair and a snowman-shaped body colored eggshell white. The top ball of the creature's snowman body had two large round black eyes, a somewhat bulbous nose and a big orange handlebar mustache. Meanwhile the middle sphere of the creature's body had a large mouth.

"I am the Dream Sage," the creature spoke.

"We don't care!" Marceline shouted as she pulled Bonnie close in an attempt to cover them both. "Get outta here, ya perv!"

"You see this wolf here?" Dream Sage continued, indicating the green wolf with cat-like eyes that had suddenly appeared in the pool next to him. "Notice how her eyes are right on the front of her head?"

"We don't care about your dang wolf!" Bonnie shouted. "Get out of here! Both of you!"

"This wolf can only see what's right in front of her," Dream Sage continued. "Eyes on the prize." The wolf jumped out of the pool and trotted away. "It's a good trait for a predator to have, but very often when one gets too focused on the prize they fail to see the bigger picture and miss what's most important."

"Get out of here already!" Marceline shouted, her face becoming more monstrous.

"Look at you two for example," Dream Sage continued. "Right now you're only focused on me, and a few seconds ago only focused on each other. Your focus has been so tight that neither of you have stopped to really take a look at your surroundings."

Both Marceline and Bonnie blinked at this revelation. They calmed down just enough to take a closer look at where they were. Both of them already knew they were in some sort of vast cavern, but they were only now just seeing the details. There were thick gigantic tree roots running along parts of the ceiling and likely providing support to the entire cavern. The pool they were in was just one of many inside the cave, and they all surrounded an even greater body of water that was practically a lake. Bonnie and Marceline followed the path of the tree roots along the cave ceiling and saw they connected at the back of the cavern at the other side of the lake. Here, they found more roots encasing a gigantic crystal containing a small spiral galaxy.

"Okay, what is this place?" Marceline asked.

Dream Sage nodded. "I cannot tell you what this place is other than it is part of your immediate destiny. The important thing is you both took your eyes off the prize long enough to take a look at the bigger picture."

"Only because you showed up and mess up our private time, ya freak!" Marceline snapped.

"Exactly. Every once in a while people need someone to show up and guide them, to grab them by the arm and warn them that they're about to walk into a hole in the road. I needed to come and tell you to stop and look around. What I just did for you, you need to do for that wolf. Now then, I think it's time for you both to wake up."

Before Marceline or Bonnie could respond, a massive wave of steam rolled in from the underground lake and obscured everything inside the cavern.

Marceline and Bonnie both woke up with a jolt to discover they were inside the hollow of a massive tree. H.W. was crouched before them only a few feet away.

"Good. You're both up," H.W. observed as she got to her feet. "Let's get going."

Marceline groaned as she held her throbbing head. "How long were we out?"

"Um, about four minutes maybe? Now let's move. The Star Stag is only getting further away."

Bonnie and Marceline got up and sluggishly followed H.W. out of the tree. By the time the enchanted huntress had found the Star Stag's tracks again, the couple had fully recovered.

"Hey Marcy, did you have a dream where we were being intimate in a hot spring when some creep with a wolf showed up?" Bonnie asked.

Marceline nodded. "I sure would like to know what sort of mushroom it was that knocked us out." She then slapped her forehead. "I get it now! The wolf was supposed to be H.W."

"Oh! Yeah, that makes sense. I guess the dream pervert wants us to help H.W. see the bigger picture or something."

"Easier said than done. That girl's pretty single-minded.

Bonnie nodded. "We should still try though, for Finn's sake if not for anything else. Besides, I suddenly get the feeling we're all walking into something bigger than any of us ever expected."

Author's Note: So in this chapter, Marceline and P.B. encountered another variant of the Dream Warrior that Finn and Jake encountered in the episode where they fought the creature that wore a barn, and of the Forest Spirit that Huntress Wizard needed Finn's help to summon. Originally I had thought of just having the Forest Spirit show up in Marceline and Bonnie's vision, but I hesitated because I didn't know if he was bound to a specific forest or if he was just a spirit of all forests in general. So instead I decided to come up with another "relative" for the two characters previously mentioned. Of course relative may not be the proper term. I honestly think the Forest Spirit is the show's equivalent of a recycled NPC, which is super appropriate for the Fantasy RPG feel Adventure Time often has.

Please review and let me know what you think.