Chapter 5:
Twenty days.
They'd been at this for more than two weeks, and Billy was something of a nervous wreck. Olesia felt for him, because he was carrying this whole thing. Every morning, the young hero moved out bright and early with the little army they'd brought. The were camped out in the wilderness north and east of the Grey Forest in the center of the northern wastes. Each day, business started with Billy the Human working out with Fionna when, where, and how long she was going to be working. The Glass Witch was slowly moving the position of the barrier, one section at a time, building new nodes that went miles down into the earth and a hundred feet into the air. It was a shocking display of artifice and power.
But it was taking time.
Far from doing the whole thing at one go, Fionna was only doing ten to twenty miles a day maximum. And each time she took the barrier down, Billy got the joy of patrolling the length of the barrier. He kept the troops on call, but he would go aloft, relying on the power of the Ice-Tiara to fly. He would go back and forth, covering the length of the open space, sometimes criss-crossing hundreds of miles of chill air–while the Ice-Tiara tried its damnedest to tempt him. They were closing the gap. The length of barrier that remained open was getting smaller and smaller and smaller each and every day. They were now within roughly eighty miles of the Grey Forest's northern border–a day's hard work for Fionna. That would see this phase of the exercise get shut down, and Olesia was looking forward to the rest herself.
Billy wasn't the only one working himself to a frazzle. Olesia would go out into the wilderness, using her power to sense fires and 'walk' through them. She would go from one fire to another, spying on whatever–or whoever–was near them. It was a reasonable approximation of a strategy. She would be gone hours across the day, and, in spite of her growing skill at it, the whole business was an exhausting exercise. She wasn't Phoebe, after all. The older woman had seemingly been born for this kind of crazy life. For Olesia, it was something of a shock. Born to a wealthy, if minor, family, she'd been accustomed to laying in bed until late in the morning. At least she had before now. You better get up, she thought. The crew was eating breakfast. It would be time to leave soon.
Rising with a yawn, the plump girl climbed out of the fire-pit and stood there a moment, yawning and stretching in her nightgown, seemingly oblivious of the stares. Fionna had heard more than one of the lonely, horny slime-dudes suggesting they might be willing to take their chances on a burnt-off dick. Nor were they alone. Billy was doing his best to avoid looking at the young woman, but he was a dude. It almost made Fionna laugh to see him doing his best to stare the plump girl in the eyes, when he wanted to look at her knobs instead.
As Fionna munched on pancakes, Olesia came strolling over, carrying a small tin box full of coal. It was a spartan diet for an elemental, and even Fionna could see that Olesia was losing weight. At least her stomach was losing weight. Those knockers looked like they would never get smaller. As she sat down before the Mertens siblings, the plump girl asked, "so how long today?" With a shrug, Fionna replied, "this is the tough part. This part will probably take me a week..." Olesia goggled at her. Calmly, New Fionna reminded her, "the closer we get to the forest, the greater the risk that we'll have arcing to the wooden structure of the thorn-wall. Princess Knockers owes me a design for a node that'll reflect the energy back, but she's not finished yet."
The plump girl sighed heavily, and Billy knew exactly what she was thinking. He'd been kind of thinking it himself when Fionna explained it last night. He found himself chuckling, "hang on, O. Just a little longer. Once we're maybe twenty miles out, I think you can stand down. I can have guys on trucks do the rest then." Shaking her head, Olesia reminded him, "we still have the opening down south, William. You should save your troops for that. You've still got hundreds of miles of open space in the south. If anything, once we're close, I should get my bottom down there." Billy stopped laughing, mid-guffaw, and he simply stared at her.
He wasn't the only one. Fionna stared too. She'd been needling her big brother relentlessly about having the plush princess around. Her jabs at Nadia weren't only aimed at her stepmom. Some of them were aimed at this girl, who was doing a lot of the things Nadia used to do that so irritated the Mertens kids. Now Fionna found herself re-evaluating her view of things. Olesia wasn't an airhead just here to take a ride on Billy's pole and wreck his home. She was doing her part to keep the peace. "I can start moving the barrier north, cow-hips," Fionna chuckled. "Once I've got the final position of the northern barrier set, I can do a quicky barrier for the south. We'll only have maybe twenty miles of hole at first before we start working again." Primly, the young princess said, "alright. I need to go get some more provisions anyway." Fionna made a face. Coal for breakfast! Yuck!
Back in the capitol, Finn the King came strolling into Bonnie's laboratory to look in on his latest project. In spite of his anger at Blargetha, he'd been pleased to get her back. He'd been working the problem of building the flying weapons he needed for weeks, going over the issue over and over in his mind. Several of his wives were certified geniuses, with the knowledge and skills to build what he wanted, but they also came with handicaps that kept them away from doing any such thing.
Nadia was a devout pacifist. She was happy to build something like the Tesla Barrier for him. It was a defense and not a weapon that could be used to harm others. She was happy even to shuttle the battle-robots around in their steel cages, so long as she never had to give the commands to use them. Bonnie was fully capable of building such a weapon, but with the ugliness of Wildberry's war against them only just concluded, she'd gone squeamish again. She was sensitive to the image they were projecting to their neighbors, and she wasn't excited to be pursuing more weapons just now.
Blargetha didn't have any qualms about building weapons. She'd been happy to do it just for the fuck of it. Now she had something of an incentive. It was, after all, the sole reason he had for keeping her alive just now. More to the point, she was an outlaw already–outside the laws and rules that governed Ooo. Maybe the leader of the pacifistic Grid-Face People couldn't build flying weapons, but she could.
Whistling a tune as he strolled into the lab, the King of Ooo glanced around him, hoping to find Sarah. She hadn't been at breakfast, and she'd sort of missed their date-night last night. He didn't find his wife, but he did find the nasty little bitch he kept as his prisoner standing before a massive model of some kind. Indeed, she was absorbed in a detailed examination of what she was looking at, stopping periodically to take notes as she muttered and murmured to herself. Striding up behind her, the King of Ooo goosed her just for the hell of it, causing the evil witch to jump in fright.
She glared at him, for a moment. Finn smiled back, his cold eyes reminding her that, however she felt about that, she better not voice any complaints. The King wasn't interested, and he wasn't in the mood. Nodding at the model, the big man asked, "so... What's this thing?" Choking back her anger at being manhandled, Blargetha burbled, "it's a Grid-Person turbo-rocket."
She had his full attention now. Finn had never seen one of the engines that powered the Grid-Face People's airships like this. He only knew them as long, conical cylinders hanging under the wings. He'd been blown down once when they were visiting Nadia's place, and he'd learned after that to keep clear of the front and rear. Now he found himself almost reaching out in fascination. Of course he stopped himself before his hand had even moved an inch from his side.
"Alright," he said. "Why do you have it? And how did you get it?" "Your android constructed it from its creator's stolen plans," Blargetha replied. "I'm studying it. I have to make it more powerful, and I have to miniaturize it at the same time." Finn's head whipped around now. He wasn't sure what shocked him more–that Bonnie had been stealing from Nadia's people or that Blargetha even had the capability to do what she'd just suggested. Toying with the computer in her hands, the slime-woman was still speaking–as if she hadn't just suggested the impossible.
"I need to rebuild it to use less oxygen," she was saying, "or I have to figure out how to carry oxygen in the flying machine for it to use..." Finn found himself remembering Jake's croak-dream of dieing in the void of space from lack of air. Oh, how time had flown. Turning back to face Sarah's creation, the King of Ooo asked, "how much do you need? What resources?" The fallen princess frowned at him. "I want this done as soon as possible," Finn told her. "What do you need?" With a shrug, she said, "a better computer, for one. Your android won't let me run simulations on its brain..." Decisively, Finn told her, "you'll have it. Within the week." Turning to go he said, "her name is Sarah, Blargetha. Get familiar with it. If I find you've offended her..." She shivered at the way he said that.
Finn slapped the slime-woman hard across her broad, curvy ass–a cruel reminder that he essentially owned her now. He could kill her anytime he felt like it. He could kill her for betrayal or for nothing at all. And it was quite clear that he had no intention of letting her forget it. In the now, the big man headed out. He had work to do in his office. There was a budget to get written for the combined kingdoms. They had money coming in, but it wouldn't cover every little thing he wanted to do. Just like the days of living in the treehouse with two fractious wives and three babies, he had to make the money stretch.
Later that same day, the Mertens kids and their strange new friend returned to the camp in the wilderness, having managed to grind out double the usual number of nodes. Fionna had found good stone relatively close to the surface, and so she'd been able to grow her nodes quickly and efficiently. The Grey Forest was almost in sight. Of course, that meant the toughest part of the job was still coming. Fionna had been brutally honest about that. They might be looking at days to get the last node up and running.
In spite of the rigor of the day and the seriousness of the moment, the trio were laughing as Billy rolled to a stop in the middle of the camp. From endlessly digging at Olesia, Fionna had actually seemed to warm to the plump girl, and now the two were chatting like old friends. The mood was so much improved that Billy hated to spoil it. He liked Olesia, and, knowing how lonely she'd been, he was happy for her to be making friends. Unfortunately, with everything on the line and the world depending on them, there was little time to waste on frivolity.
"We need to plan the last phase," Billy opined, as the three hopped out of the truck. They were within sight of the Grey Forest, and that gave them some breathing space. Olesia was most concerned with the massive hole in the south. She wanted to get busy closing the gap as soon as they could. Billy understood her fear. Though they did have Princess Ingrid holding fast south and west of Cocoa City, anyone getting through the opening in the barrier could hit at Peanut Kingdom. They could take refuge in Cocoa City. There was a lot of harm that could be done, and the hole went hundreds of miles. He'd put it out of his mind simply because he didn't have any other options.
"Hold that thought, Big Brother," Fionna interrupted, with a frown. Billy glanced in the direction she was looking and found five familiar figures headed their way. Rags was here. Rags, Abieuwa, and Noemi were all here. At their side were Princesses Nadia and Ingrid. Coolly, Olesia announced, "I'm sure they need you..." And she stepped off, heading away from the looming confrontation. "Cougars rule," Fionna murmured, as she too stepped off. Billy blushed to his hair. He was starting to feel like his dad–getting it from all directions at once.
Coming to a stop in front of him, Ragnhild declared, "we have some news and some things to talk about, William." Not honey. Not baby. Not Bill. William. It felt a lot like getting the 'you've been naughty' routine from his moms. "Ok," he said. "Not here," she declared. "We should go back to the forest. I've rented space there to talk." When he might have argued it, Nadia declared, "Fionna and I will take charge of matters." Nodding, Billy motioned for his wives to get aboard his truck.
As the car rolled out of there, Nadia turned to the business that had brought her here. Scanning the scene, she found her quarry standing next to the elemental girl. Motioning for Ingrid to follow, she stepped off. The two princesses found the pair of younger women talking plans when they approached. The elemental girl feared that William was going to get snatched up and dragged away. She didn't quite say 'kicking and screaming', but Nadia colored in the white space for her. "It's not about that," she murmured. "We need to step things up. The Privy Council is getting concerned about the time this is taking."
From being dismissive, fractious, and borderline rebellious, the pack of pampered princesses had come around to an ernest terror that Finn would fail to 'discourage visitors'. They wanted the whole business squared away as soon as possible, and they were deeply disturbed and unhappy with the delays. Hearing those words, an irritated Fionna retorted, "this is delicate work. Burning down the Grey Forest doesn't help us." Until they had a better way to control the joining of the two Tesla Barriers, the Grey Forest, with its impenetrable bulwark of razor-sharp thorns, was their best option as a closure for the barrier.
Putting a hand to the blonde girl's shoulder, the older woman said, "I know, Fi. Come along. I have something..." Striding off, the tall woman cut quite the figure. In Fionna's eyes, she'd always been the most dangerous threat to Simone and Emeraude Mertens' happiness. Her cyborg biz would keep her youthful-looking for years after all the other dried-up cunts were too old to be bothered with the games. And she was fucking stacked. Even Fionna could see it, and she was a girl. And she'd clearly been playing the 'long game'.
It was a lot like Olesia. Nadia had just hung around, finding periodic excuses to 'drop in' on the family unannounced–usually when Emeraude was away on business. Looking back, Fionna found herself remembering every jealous moment. Back when she was a tweener and hopeless tomboy, she'd idolized Emeraude and her tough, no-prisoners world-view, and she'd been guilty of hating Nadia a time or two when she saw how much it hurt the wizard-woman to see Finn laughing with the cyborg-princess.
The past, Fi, she told herself. That was the past. She had two cute siblings to help raise now. That made the past ugliness a nothing. It was all a big nothing when she looked at her young brothers and sisters. She'd never be alone. As long as she lived, she'd likely never be truly alone. Not like her dad had been.
The quartet strode up to a massive object covered in a heavy tarp. "This my reflecting node," Fi asked? She said it in insolent tones. Nadia chuckled. Throwing an arm around Fionna's shoulders, the tall cyborg hugged her hard enough to hurt. "Breakin' the bones...," Fi wheezed. "Well, that'll make getting the northern barrier finished a snap," the pretty blonde opined, when the tall princess let her go. "Not exactly," Ingrid interrupted.
Fionna's face whipped around. "New plan, General," she said. There was no humor in her voice. "I know we planned to basically make the whole barrier permanent, but the Council sees risk in the current strategy." She saw risk. Fionna could see it in her eyes. "They want it done faster," Olesia guessed. Nodding, Nadia said, "we're going to move this node out to the south-edge of the forest tomorrow. We'll plant it in place to form the closeout for the southern wall. Fionna, you'll... do that thing you do and build us some of those simple nodes to close out the gap. That just leaves the northern opening to get finished."
Fionna howled protests, but Nadia turned to her and said, "the family also looked at what was on the table, and we over-ruled your father, Fionna. You're closing in on the final stages of pregnancy. We've heard from Emeraude how hard you've been working..." Fionna flushed to her hair. Nodding, Nadia said, "you're going to finish these last few miles at a nice leisurely pace, and then you're going home for rest. There'll be time to work on the permanent version of the barrier in the spring." Fionna muttered curses and stormed off. When Nadia might have followed, Ingrid motioned for her to stay. This was something she understood. Science couldn't fix this.
The pretty blonde princess found her quarry standing alone under an isolated tree, muttering to herself. "Fionna," she announced. The blonde glared at her. Striding up to her stepdaughter, the tall woman announced, "you're letting emotion control your thinking, Fionna. I wouldn't have thought you'd still be able to do that." The blonde girl flushed to her hair. "This is stupid," she muttered. "People can get over the barrier right now. It's not tall enough. They can smash the nodes if they have a strong enough weapon..." "An ancient general once said that the enemy of good enough is perfect, Fi," Ingrid interrupted. "We both know that to be true. If you'd taken your time building perfect nodes, we'd never have had a barrier to begin with. Nadia and her people would have taken a year to do just what you've done in the last few weeks." With a helpless shrug, the tall woman said, "we're out of time, Fi. We have too much going on. You know it as well as I do."
Ingrid had been hangin' tight west of Cocoa City 'just in case' with the majority of the army. She'd been holding off on moving on the peanuts in Wildberry Kingdom just in case somebody moved through the giant hole in the barrier. That left the peanuts running amok, doing whatever it was that they were doing. And that was a big problem, with a capitol P. When Fi began punching the tree in anger, the tall woman snatched her up and hugged her. She understood this woman's frustration and the reaction to it. She'd been raised almost to fear failure–like a boy. Ingrid had been much the same. "Ok," Fionna muttered. "Tomorrow morning, we'll get this thing straightened out." Ingrid kissed her cheek.
Meanwhile, south and east of the Grey Forest, Chelsea the Wax Hustler stepped out of a heavily armored truck in the broken heart of a once-vibrant forest. The last time she'd been in this place, it had been a world of lush plant life. She'd been wined and dined by the local artist's community with juicy steaks and whole chickens, and she found herself looking back on those nights with a fondness, as she looked around her at the burned wasteland. She almost thought she could still see the buildings. Her hotel had been over there across the square. The theater where she'd performed had been in the space on her right. The restaurant district was just south of the square.
At her side, Fedir Brutko scanned the scene nervously, as he clutched his rifle in a white-knuckle grip. The place unnerved him. Tens of thousands of Berry-Folk had met their end here–literally dissolved by the horrifying undead known as the Dipped. Many more had been tortured and terrorized before being subjected to the ugly alchemical treatment that created the undead. They'd razed the Berry Kingdom, burning even the soil so that it would never support life again. The burned patch went for miles in every direction. It was a horrifying, ghost-ridden place, and he was anxious to be out of here.
The occupants of the camp they'd come to visit shook themselves out and came out of the camp to greet them. These men came just as heavily armed as their visitors. They came with crossbows and dart-rifles, and pretty much every last one of them wore a sword. You needed that. There were carnivorous fruit-people still in the remnants of these forests. They would jump you, if you weren't careful. They'd jump you and eat you the minute you laid down your weapon.
"Rolf," Chelsea greeted her patsy and dog. "Chelsea," the would-be Peanut-Prince replied. He'd gotten thinner. She imagined that they were all on rations. She'd sent him on a bit of a fool's errand because she was fairly certain the treasure of the Berry Kingdom no longer existed. The berries had spent untold sums on their stupid war, and she imagined the remnant being taken by someone with the balls to come here and seize it.
The two stood there a while, staring at each other. It said quite a bit about how things were between them now that he neither moved to greet her nor showed any particular fear. He was clinging to the bottom rung. He was down somewhere at the bottom, and that was a dangerous thing. She needed him to still fear her more than he feared his own mortality. Motioning for him to precede her, she said, "let's talk." Over her shoulder, she signaled Fedir. They were outnumbered here. They might be shooting their way out.
The pair disappeared into the tent that Rolf kept for himself. The interior was a slight bit better than the big empty she'd expected. She was a little surprised to find that there was a chest in the corner opposite the door with little bits and baubles inside it. "The undead apparently weren't all that interested in money," he rumbled. There was treasure for the taking in seemingly every abandoned house or forgotten lot. Much of the city had been razed and rotted to nothing, leaving the gems and jewels right where they'd fallen. His men were slowly collecting what they could, though harsh weather and wind had covered much of what was here and animals had scattered the rest.
Chelsea strode over and stood there a moment, staring down at the chest. "Take a look, if you want," he said. His voice was cold. It was a chill that approximated her own emotional state. Yeah, he was on the edge. "I looked in on your wife," Chelsea said. "Your wife and your daughters are fine. Sabine's run into a little trouble at school, though. I had him killed for thinking of fucking her." Rolf's face was pale as a ghost, when she turned around. "She doesn't know it," said Chelsea, as she strolled back across towards him. "She thinks he's just a shit who's ghosting her."
The murderess stopped when they were toe to toe once more, her face twisted in one of those awful, knowing smiles. Straightening his collar, the murderess opined, "that's the trouble of youth, babe... They don't understand the risks they take. She would have just spread it for that stiff out of love. But love is business, right?" A stunned Baron Rolf simply nodded.
"How've things been," she asked, as she strolled over to his chair and sat down? He stood there a moment, stunned to have forgotten the risk to his family. This woman still had power over his family. She was still watching them, waiting for him to fuck up. "I know it's kind of a shock," Chelsea chuckled, "but, hey, you were chasing ass at that age. You know how young dudes are, right?" The would-be prince nodded. Smiling, she said, "I put a stop to it. She's ok. She'll be nice and cherry when you marry her off, right?" He nodded again.
"We haven't found the main treasure," he rumbled. Chelsea nodded. She hadn't expected him to find a treasure. She wanted him on the move and raising hell. "We almost had Princess Ingrid," he said. That was news, and she sat up straighter, giving him her full attention. "My troops found a small unit of soldiers out of Warrior Kingdom," he explained. "Didn't know who they were or why they were here. We killed them to a man. Per your instructions. Didn't find out until later that she was here. She was trying to meet with whatever nobles are left from Wildberry Kingdom."
Chelsea frowned. She'd been expecting them to put more of their troops into fighting the peanuts. She'd expected them to be tied up in their own heartland, while she and Peihong did what they wanted in the east in Lizard Kingdom and in the bandit-realms north of Purple Kingdom. The plan, such as it was, had gone in the ditch, and she'd found herself dealing with a shockingly strong response in the east.
"They're moving the barrier," Chelsea said. "Rumor is that they're going to anchor it against the Grey Forest. I think they're going to focus on you, now." The would-be prince went very pale. Leaning forward, she said, "we're trying to build an army west of the barrier. You need to keep maneuvering. You need to keep them off balance until we can get an army in place..." "What about the men you had threatening the hole in the barrier," he demanded? "Had to use them in the southeast," she replied. "Needed to hit Lizard Kingdom. It's going to take me a while to move them north again." There were no railroads in the east, just dirt road and trackless wilderness. He threw up his hands. He was committed. He didn't have a lot of choices here. They weren't going to be kind to him.
Rising, Chelsea opined, "you'll do well. Take some of the treasure you've accumulated. Hire some more men. I can help with that, if you'd like..." He nodded for her to take the chest. The evil woman called out to her chief henchman. Fedir came rushing in, weapon at the ready. Nodding at the chest, she said, "take it." Slinging his rifle on his back, the hapless henchman rushed across and hefted the heavy treasure chest. Stroking Rolf's cheek with one delicate finger, Chelsea murmured, "you're going to be ok. Want me to take a letter to your wife? Hmm?" "It's better that she not become too involved," he replied. "They might try to lean on her for information." Chelsea nodded sagely. Stroking his cheek, she said, "keep up the good work. I'll be back as soon as I can with more soldiers." And with that, she strode across the tent and out.
She'd been gone a long twenty minutes–and Rolf had been standing right where she left him–when his aide, Ludwig, finally came in. "What did she want," asked the older man? "She wanted to know what we'd found," Rolf replied. Running his hand through his sparse hair, the terrified noble went and sat himself in his chair, finding he could still smell her perfume. "Did you tell her about... the thing," Ludwig queried? "Are you mad," Rolf retorted? "I'd no more tell her about it than him. We... We need to figure out what we can do with it." Ludwig wasn't so sure. The creature in the dungeon seemed far too dangerous to trifle with. Still, this man was in charge, and Ludwig had hitched his star, so he would follow where their would-be prince lead. And hope to hell it's glory and not disaster, thought the older man.
The walls are closing in, literally. Billy is about to get some news. And the Peanuts have found SOMETHING in the wasteland that was Wildberry Kingdom. Hmmm.