Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time.

Chapter 4: Star Heart

It was practically dawn by the time Bonnie and the others finally got through the mushroom-infested portion of the forest, though Bonnie had no idea of this until she checked her watch. The tree cover above had only gotten thicker as the trio went deeper into the forest. Not a single ray of sunlight was able to pass through the canopy, and the only light the trio had to guide them was more of the dim luminescent moss like the kind back at Bonnie and Marceline's original campsite. It was as if the entire world had entered a state of perpetual night. The good news was they didn't have to worry about Marceline being burned to ash, but this state of darkness only added to the forbidding atmosphere of the forest.

As the trio continued to follow the tracks left by the Star Stag, Bonnie noticed that Marceline had seemed ill for the past several minutes. The vampire queen assured Bonnie she was fine, but the candy princess could tell Marceline was only getting worse as they continued on. Marceline had even been scratching herself periodically as if she were about to break out in a rash. There was definitely something wrong, though Bonnie had no idea what it could be. Vampires were not without weaknesses of course, but Bonnie couldn't see anything in the surrounding forest that corresponded with what vampires were typically vulnerable to.

The trio at last came to a stop when they encountered what appeared to be a vast lake of yellowish liquid. The lake was giving off a faint heat and was bubbling slightly on the surface. It was several feet across to the other side.

H.W. examined the lake's edge closely. "The tracks end here. My guess is the Star Stag swam across to the other side. Or jumped across maybe, I dunno."

Marceline groaned and fell to her knees. "Guys, mind if we take a break for just a minute?"

Bonnie rushed over and knelt down next to Marceline. "Okay, don't tell me that you're fine, because you're clearly not."

"Fine, I give. I feel awful. And the nasty stench from that lake or whatever it is makes me wanna hurl."

H.W. knelt down, scooped up some of the warm yellowish liquid from the lake into her hand, and tasted it. "It's some kind of soup. Kinda spicy. Tastes a little heavy on the garlic."

Bonnie gasped upon hearing this and immediately set down her pack. First she put on a gas mask and made Marceline put it on. The vampire queen seemed to improve somewhat after having the lake's scent filtered from her nose. Bonnie then pulled out a sample container, an eyedropper, and her microscope. Bonnie used the sample container to scoop up some of the soup and then used her eyedropper to place some of the liquid on a slide.

Bonnie looked into the microscope and gasped again. "I knew it! This lake is some sort of soup broth, and it's saturated with garlic! No wonder Marcy's sick! We're basically standing next to a giant vat of garlic soup!"

"So much for my idea to have her turn into like a giant otter or something and have her take us across the lake," H.W. spoke. "Then again, can't she just turn into a bat and fly across?"

Bonnie got to her feet and shook her head. "The garlic is also permeating the air. Right now Marceline is essentially walking through a poison mist."

"Well, guess we'll just have to go around this big soup bowel," Marceline decided as she unsteadily got back to her feet.

H.W. looked around. "I dunno dude. This looks like a pretty big lake. Seems like it goes on quite a ways in both directions."

"Marcy, maybe we should turn back," Bonnie suggested.

"I'd be cool with that," H.W. remarked. "I can probably handle the rest of this hunt on my own anyway."

"No way!" Marceline declared as she shook her head. "We've come too far just to turn back because of something stupid like this."

Bonnie sighed. "Okay. Give me a minute and I'll find a faster way for us to get around this lake."

Bonnie got back into her pack and pulled out a small round drone colored like a peppermint with four black propellers and helicopter landing legs. She also pulled out a large remote with a video screen. Bonnie set the drone on the muddy ground and fired it up with the remote. The trio watched as the propellers of the drone began to spin and took off into the air. Bonnie looked at the feed from the peppermint drone's camera on her remote's screen. With the push of a lever Bonnie directed the drone to head off to the left.

The plan was to have the drone travel the lake's edge to determine its size, and in doing so figure out the quickest way around it. After several minutes of flying though, the drone didn't seem like it was even coming close to the end of the lake. This body of water, or rather soup, was far vaster than Bonnie had imagined. The drone kept on going and going, until at last Bonnie saw people standing at the lake's edge on the screen of her controller. She and the others heard the sound of the drone's propellers in the distance, and on the screen Bonnie could now see the robot's camera looking down at them from behind; the drone had gone in one big circle.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Bonnie shouted. "Are you telling me the land on the other side of the shore is just one big island?"

H.W. put a hand to her chin. "Maybe, maybe not. This could be just like a big moat."

"So what now?" Marceline asked.

Bonnie sighed as she brought her drone in for a landing. "We could try building a boat. But…that would take quite a lot of time, and I don't want you near this place any longer than necessary."

"Like I said, I'm cool if you guys need to bail," H.W. reminded them.

"Hold on," Marceline spoke as she raised a hand. "That house over there has a boat. Maybe we can ask whoever lives in there if we can borrow it."

Both Bonnie and H.W. looked and saw there was indeed an ancient-looking wooden house only a few feet from where they stood. Next to the house was a small wooden boat that appeared to be in excellent condition despite looking about as old as the house. There was also a single light on in the window.

"Why not just steal the boat?" H.W. suggested.

"That's not really our thing," Bonnie told her.

"Yeah. Finn definitely wouldn't be cool with us just swiping it," Marceline added.

H.W. blushed and looked away. "Fine. We'll try it your way."

The trio walked up to the house and knocked on the door. Moments later they heard shuffling noises coming from inside the ancient wooden structure. The door finally creaked open, and standing in the doorway was a bipedal turtle leaning on a gnarled wooden cane. A pair of small found spectacles rested upon the turtle man's snout, and he had grey hair growing from the back of his mostly bald head. The tuft of a grey beard grew from his chin, and covering the front of his shell was a tan sweater vest over a yellow buttoned shirt with a grey bowtie.

"Good morning, sir," Bonnie began. We were wondering if we could borrow your boat to get across the moat, or lake or whatever you call what it is out there. We promise to return it of course. I mean we're going to have to come back this way again in order to leave the forest."

The old turtle man looked closely at Bonnie and the others as he stroked his tuft of beard. "Hmm…I suppose I could let you borrow my boat for a spell, on one condition."

Bonnie nodded. "Okay. What are your terms?"

"Well, the fact is I don't get much company out this way very often. And I was just about to sit down for breakfast. It'd be a rare treat for someone to join me for a meal at least once. So I'll let you all borrow my boat if you'll sit for this old man for a bit."

"Um, we are kind of in a hurry, actually," Bonnie responded.

"Nah, it's cool," Marceline declared with a raise of her hand.

"But Marcy, you're condition."

"I'm not feeling great, but I have been doing a lot better since you put this gas mask on me. It's no big deal for us to sit down and have breakfast with this guy for a little bit"

"Well, if you think you're up for it, I guess it's okay."

"Wonderful!" the old turtle man declared. "Come on in!"

The trio followed the old turtle man into his crumbling shack. To call it a humble dwelling would've been a major understatement. The only pieces of furniture in the little hovel were a simple bed, a rickety round table and four small wooden chairs. A single lit candle was sitting in the center of the table, providing the only source of illumination for the entire house. In the corner was an old but fairly large stove with a bubbling pot sitting on one of the burners.

"Go on and have a seat at the table," the old turtle man told the trio as he went over to the stove. "The name's Tom Hardshell by the way. You can just call me Old Tom if you want. Been livin' in this old forest for ought seven hundred years now. I was around since the days when you could still see the sun through the trees."

"Guess this means you've been around since the forest was pretty young, huh?" Marceline realized.

"Oh heavens yes!" Old Tom confirmed as he began ladling the contents of the large pot on the stove into some bowels. "This ol' forest has been around for a long time. First sprouted up maybe a hundred years or so after what the call the Great Mushroom War I recollect. I was only a hatchling back then. Yep, my kin thought I was bonkers for for wantin' to move all the way out here when it was time for me to set out on my own. Course back then the forest wasn't as built up as it is now. It was still kind of a dark place even those days though.

"After all, the seed that grew the very first tree in this forest came from way outside of this tired ol' world. Say, do you three know the story of how this here forest sprang up?"

"I haven't," Marceline answered.

"I've heard the legend, but perhaps you could tell us more," Bonnie requested.

"Why I'd be happy to Miss," Old Tom responded as he came over to the table with a tray of four full bowels. "But first, let's all dig into this soup before it starts to chill again."

Tom then placed a bowel in front of each member of the trio before finally sitting down at the table with his own.

H.W. stirred the contents of hew bowel a bit with her spoon. "Is this soup from the moat?"

"Sure is," Old Tom confirmed before sipping his own spoon-full. "All I do is reheat it on the ol' stove and add a little of my own seasoning. It's a little monotonous I'll grant, but it sure saves a lot of time."

Marceline pushed her bowel away and slumped back into her chair.

"Is somethin' wrong with my cooking missy?" Old Tom asked the vampire queen.

"My girlfriend doesn't mean to offend you, Mr. Hardshell," Bonnie assured him. "It's just she has a very severe garlic allergy. It's why she's wearing the gas mask."

Old Tom nodded. "I hear ya. There've been too many dang garlic fish in them waters lately."

Marceline coughed. "So, you were going to tell us how this forest grew?"

"Of course," Old Tome began after eating another spoon-full of soup. "Well like I said, I was only a hatchling at the time it all happened, but I remember seeing the star fall to earth late one night, so bright it was like a tiny pink sun. I also remember how the ground shook when it fell. Back then they all said those tremors could be felt for miles around. The next morning my pappy and some of the others livin' 'round these parts at the time went to go check out where the star fell.

"My pappy told me they came there expecting to find some big ol' crater, but instead what they found was a strange tree with silver bark and blue-green leaves. Years later that tree would grow into the big tree at the center of this here forest, but back then it was nothing more than a sapling. As for how the tree grew, my pappy told me a passing traveler saw the star fall, told everyone how the ground closed itself around the star into a big ol' hill, and how the tree sprouted from the top of that hill in the blink of an eye. For a while the tree was something of a tourist attraction, what with where it came from and the way it seemed to grow taller by the day. People from all 'round Ooo came to see it. I remember my pappy takin' me, my ma, my fifteen sisters and twelve brothers out to see the tree one time. Come to think of it, I recollect a strange blue man wearin' a crown causin' a little trouble there before my pappy managed to chase him off with his shotgun."

Marceline and Bonnie shared a look with one another. They knew Old Tom could only be talking about their friend, Simon Petrikov, or as he was known back then, the Ice King. They hesitated to ask what sort of mischief Simon had gotten up to back then in his prolonged state of insanity.

"Anywho, after a while everyone got tired of the weird tree," Old Tom continued. "Meanwhile the tree only grew and grew. In time other little trees began to grow around it. Then one day some settlers came and tried to chop down the budding forest to put up a village, but none of their axes could cut down the big tree, and the little ones they'd chop down only grew back in an instant. In fact the forest only seemed to grow faster the more they tried to shop it all down. Yessir, it was only a matter of weeks before the trees overwhelmed the settlers and they were forced to move on to greener pastures. That was about the same time the elves started to move in if I recollect."

"Elves?' Bonnie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah-yup. Forest elves like outta the old legends of them whatchamacallits…humans," Old Tom continued. "Word was they had gone into a sorta slumber long ago until they were awakened some time after the Great Mushroom War. They came here because they were drawn to the fallen star beneath the great tree. Called it the Star Heart they did. The elves declared the tree and the forest around it as their chosen land and started puttin' up barriers to keep out unwanted guests, like the soup moat outside.

"I moved into these woods around the time they made the moat. Back in those days the forest didn't spread out past the other side of the moat, but a few months went by and before I knew it I was trapped. I tried to leave once, but by then the elves had already used their magic to cultivate those brain-sucking mushrooms you likely met. You know, now that I think of it, I'm pretty surprised you three made it all the way here past those things."

H.W. shrugged. "I got some pretty mad skills. Plus these other two make good bait."

This last comment earned a glare from both Marceline and Bonnie.

Old Tom nodded. "Well, you can color this old man impressed. For the life of me though, I can't figure out why you're goin' so far into these accursed woods."

"We're after something called the Star Stag," H.W. explained. "Old guy, maybe you've seen it. It's this big glowing deer with stars for eyes, kinda changes color."

Old Tom stroked his tuft of beard in thought. "You know…now that you mention it, I do recollect seeing somethin' like what you're talking 'bout late yesterday afternoon. Dang critter just galloped across the moat like it was made o' solid ground. Didn't get a good look at it though 'cause it moved faster than a lightning bolt. Gotta wonder why three young ladies are after such a strange critter though."

"Because of, uh…reasons," H.W. answered, looking away.

Tom nodded. "Totally understand. Not my place to pry into your business. Well, if you three are all fixed on followin' this Star Stag of yours, you can use my boat to try and get across the moat. "It ain't like I use the dang thing."

"We thank you for your kindness," Bonnie told him.

Old Tom leaned back in his chair. "I should warn y'all though. Gettin' 'cross the moat won't be nearly as easy as you think. Chances are you'll only end up eaten by a critter I call the Great Gumbo."

"The Great Gumbo?" Marceline repeated.

"I've never gotten a good look at it myself, but I've seen it jump outta those waters and eat the few travelers who've made it past the mushrooms like you. Just chomped 'em all up in a second."

"Has anyone ever made it past this beast?" H.W. asked.

"Only a couple," Old Tom answered. "And none of 'em ever passed this way again. My guess is they got done in by whatever other barriers the elves put up around their little kingdom deeper in the forest. I can't tell ya what those barrier are 'cause I've never seen 'em, but I reckon they're a lot worse than whatever the Great Gumbo is."

H.W. rose from her chair. "We'll take our chances. Thanks old guy."

The trio said their goodbyes to Old Tom and headed out of the wooden shack, leaving their bowels of sup barely finished (Marceline's bowel had of course been totally untouched). Within just a couple of minutes, Bonnie had the boat in the soup and the three were on their way across the moat. The distance between the two sides of the moat was vast however, and the thickness of the soup made rowing across more of a challenge. Meanwhile Marceline's condition had only worsened when they set off across.

"Do you think you guys could row this thing a little more gently?" Marceline requested. "All this rocking is doing a number on my stomach."

Bonnie put a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder. "Just hang in there, okay? We'll be across soon."

"You know, I thought indulging that old guy to get his boat was going to be a waste of time," H.W. remarked. "But it turned out to be worth it."

"Indeed. Now we have a better idea of what to expect up ahead," Bonnie agreed. "Plus there is something I find very curious."

"What's that?"

"Well, we're dealing with a creature that originally fell to the planet as a meteor, and this entire forest also sprang up because of another meteor. Now the Star Stag is in this forest seemingly trying to reach the great tree in the center where the first meteor can be found. It raises a question. What could be the connection between the Star Stag and the fallen star of this forest?"

H.W. looked away. "I don't need to know that kinda stuff. All I need to know is how to kill the Star Stag, where to find it, and what kind of stuff might get in my way."

Bonnie frowned a little at H.W.'s remark. She really was a wolf that couldn't see anything beyond what was right in front of her.

Suddenly H.W. stopped rowing. "Oh dang! Looks like the old guy's monster found us."

Before Bonnie or Marceline could respond, a massive dark shape suddenly leapt out of the broth towards the boat. With a wave of H.W.'s right arm, three arrows flew from her quiver and struck the creature's snout as it flew through the air towards them. The creature bent its long body after being struck and turned in midair away from the boat, diving back into the soup. The whole thing happened too fast for Bonnie and the others to be able to get a good look at what had attacked them.

"I'm guessing that was the Great Gumbo," Marceline deduced.

"Just what sort of creature was that thing?" Bonnie asked.

"We'll find out pretty soon," H.W. responded. "In order to kill the thing, I'm gonna have to reel it in so it can't get away. Gimme a sec."

H.W. chanted a short spell and suddenly her feet became like wood and merged with the wood of the boat's floor. Soon after, the boat itself seems to creak.

"What did you just do?" Bonnie asked.

"I caused the wood of the boat to grow roots to anchor itself to the floor of the moat," H.W. explained as she summoned her bow. "Don't worry. I'll turn it back to normal once I kill this beast. Now, we just have to wait for the thing to show itself."

H.W. readied an arrow and waited, keeping her eyes on the broth's surface. Suddenly the broth began to ripple. In a split second a massive dark shape started to burst from the surface, H.W. chanted another spell and three arrows with ropes attached launched themselves from her quiver. The arrows pierced the snout of the beast and the ropes tightened as if attached to winches inside the huntress's quiver. At last the trio was able to get a good look at the beast they only knew as the Great Gumbo.

The creature was a giant sausage with a long thick body about twenty feet in length. The could see two sets of small fins on its sides and two long jagged blade-like fins running down the length of its back. The beast had four beady red eyes with slit pupils a large shark-like mouth filled with three rows of fangs.

"A giant sausage?" Bonnie identified.

"Huh. I was wondering what the meat in that soup was," H.W. remarked before firing another arrow from her bow at the beast.

The arrow struck the underside of the Great Gumbo's jaw, causing it to roar in pain and thrash about. The motion caused broth from the moat to splash into the boat. Some of the warm liquid landed on Marceline's left arm and burned her flesh on contact. Marceline cried out in pain, alarming Bonnie.

"Can you just kill that thing already?" Bonnie demanded. "Right now you're only making things worse!"

"I'm doing my best!" H.W. responded as she fired another arrow.

This latest arrow struck the Great Gumbo in one of its four eyes, causing it to thrash even more. Once again more soup splashed onto Marceline. Outraged, Bonnie thrust her right hand at the Great Gumbo and a stream of jellybeans fired from her palm with a farting noise. The jellybeans bounced harmlessly off of the sausage monster's skin.

"Dang it!" Bonnie cursed while H.W. continued her attack on the beast. "How can I be so useless at a time like this? I can't think of a single scientific out of this situation, and as usual my stupid elemental powers aren't worth squat!"

The Great Gumbo thrashed again and more of the garlic-saturated broth splashed onto Marceline, drenching almost half her body. As she watched this happen, Bonnie called out Marceline's name, and a second later something beyond unexpected happened.

She was known as Gwyneth Thistlebane, and for the past five hundred years she had been high priestess to the great Star Heart Tree in the center of the Fallen Star Forest. At the moment, the beautiful brown-haired elf priestess was in the sacred temple at the tree's base performing her usual morning prayer of gratitude. Gwyneth was just finishing the ritual when she saw the tree's silver bark begin to glow. The second Gwyneth got to her feet, a massive wave of light burst from the tree. The wave passed harmlessly through Gwyneth but continued to radiate outward.

Shortly after the wave passed, another priestess with golden hair ran into the chamber. "High Priestess! What was that just now?"

Gwyneth turned back to look at the tree. "The Star Heart. It must have reacted to something. This can only be an omen." She turned back to the younger priestess. "Marsha, we must inform King Rowan at once! I'm certain a great danger is heading for our kingdom."

The wave of light from the Star Heart Tree continued to radiate out across the forest until it had at last reached the soup moat. The light passed harmlessly through the Great Gumbo, H.W. and Marceline, but when it enveloped Bonnie something astounding happened. Her entire body began to glow a glittering pink and her eyes started shining like white stars. As if in a trance, Bonnie thrust her hand at the Great Gumbo again and this time a beam of sugary pink light shot from her palm. The light struck the Great Gumbo and spread over its entire body. It didn't stop there though. The light continued to spread into the broth around the boat, and in a matter of seconds the entire moat had become a blinding ray of pink light.

At the same time, Marceline's drenched clothes were steaming and giving off soft glittering lights. Eventually the light died away and a sweet aroma filled the air. Bonnie had also stopped glowing and appeared to be dazed. It was then when H.W. had noticed a startling change had happened to the Great Gumbo. The sausage creature was now one long marshmallow with a dolphin-like snout and four peppermint eyes. The creature clicked at H.W. before pulling free of her arrows and diving back into the liquid making up the moat.

"Uh…what the heck just happened?" H.W. asked.

Marceline removed her gas mask and floated into the air. "Dunno, but suddenly I'm feeling a whole lot better."

Just then Bonnie groaned and began to topple over. Marceline swiftly moved in and caught her before she could fall.

It was a moment before Bonnie returned to her senses. "Marcy? Are you okay?"

"Forget about me! Are you okay?" Marceline asked.

"I think so. I don't really remember what happened during the last few seconds though."

H.W. chanted another spell and the boat began to creak again, signaling its detachment from the floor of the moat. Meanwhile her feet had also detached from the boat's floorboards. H.W. knelt down and took a good look at the moat's liquid. It had gone from a creamy yellowish-brown to a deep brown color.

Using her hand, H.W. scooped up a little of the warm liquid and tasted it. "It's hot chocolate now. I don't get it."

"Hot chocolate?" Marceline repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, and the Great Gumbo whatever it's called turned into some big marshmallow thing. It all happened right after your girlfriend started started glowing and zapped everything."

Bonnie gasped. "I must've done this with my candy elemental powers. Somehow I transmuted the moat and everything in it besides us into candy."

"But the only time you ever did anything like that was when Patience St. Pim cast that spell of hers and caused your elemental powers to go crazy," Marceline reminded her.

Bonnie shook her head. "I can't explain it, but my powers can be the only reason for why the moat has been transformed."

"I don't get it either dudes, but let's just go across this dang moat before the Star Stag gets any further away from us," H.W. interrupted.

Though the sudden temporary amplification of Bonnie's candy elemental powers was troubling, the couple agreed to put the topic on hold for the time being and H.W. continued to row them across to the moat. Nothing more tried to attack them for the rest of the voyage. Marceline held Bonnie close the entire way, even after reaching the shore. Once the trio got out of the boat, H.W. pulled the humble little craft to a place where she thought it'd be safe.

"We'll have to remember to return the boat to Mr. Hardshell on the way back," Bonnie reminded the others.

"Good thing we didn't end up breaking the thing," Marceline remarked.

Suddenly a large bipedal wild boar leapt from the bushes and started pounding the boat with a large club. By the time the boat was smashed almost totally to pieces, H.W. shot the creature in the head with an arrow.

"Well…guess we'll need to build him a new boat later," Marceline realized.

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