CHAPTER 24
Jake watches on as time as jumped ahead a few months. He sees Finn pacing back and forth outside his and Phoebe's bedroom. Finn hears Phoebe and the doctors as she is giving birth to their child. Suddenly, he hears the faint cry of a newborn baby.
One of the doctors comes out of the room. "Congratulations. It's a boy." The doctor says. Finn smiles and rushes in to see their child. He sees Phoebe cradling the baby. He kisses her and leans over and kisses their baby on the forehead.
"Are you feeling okay?" Finn asks her.
"Yes. I was thinking about what we should name our baby."
"What names are you thinking about?"
"I was thinking about either Vatra or Ignis
"How about both?"
"Vatra Ignis Mertens? Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Okay then. Vatra Ignis Mertens it is."
They kiss one more time. Flame Princess notices Finn is distracted.
"What's wrong?"
"This war. I wish it was over now. I don't know how much more of it I can take. The peace talks to form alliances with some of the other princesses are still going nowhere, and without some support, we can't fight much longer."
"Don't worry. Some of them will come around eventually."
"I hope so."
They kiss.
Flame King enters the room after being told about the birth. He begins playing the part of a doting grandfather, while he plots the overthrow of his daughter in his mind. While looking at his grandchild, he makes a mental note to make sure he is raised to become a cruel, heartless ruler like himself.
"How are the peace talks to form an alliance with some of the other princesses going?' Flame King asks, already knowing the answer already.
"Not well. They are still unsure about it."
"Well, I'm sure they will make the right choice. Don't give up hope." He gently hands Vatra back to Phoebe. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go talk to Theron and Kilt now."
Flame King hurries off.
"It's kind of odd that he only speaks to Theron and Kilt about war matters. The other councilmen and generals would like to express their concerns to him as well, because they have good ideas as well." Finn says.
"They brought them up to me. I told them to my father, and he advised me as why they were flawed, and it would be unwise to use them, and explained to me in great detail about Theron and Kilt's plans, and why they were better. After weighing all the options, I felt Theron and Kilt's ideas were better." Flame Princess says.
"Okay, then. If you think they're better, I'll go along with it." Finn replied.
As Flame King enters his quarters, Flambo sees him and decides to sneak in to see what he is up to. Flambo sees Theron and Kilt and quickly hides to keep from being detected. He then overhears their plans. Flame King talks to Theron and Kilt about what to do next.
"It looks like our plans for a global war are failing. All the princesses are doing nothing but saber rattling, and none of them wants to form an alliance either with us or with Water Princess." Flame King says.
"What do we do now?" Kilt says.
"Go ahead and jump to our endgame scenario. I was wanting the princesses to fight each other, and whoever was left I wanted to frame for an attack on the Fire Kingdom to talk my daughter into using those bombs on them to set the world ablaze. Since that idea has failed, I must come up with an idea to make her think they are all against her and use all the bombs on them."
They all laugh. Flambo is horrified by all that he has heard. He manages to quietly sneak out without being seen and goes to warn Finn and Flame Princess.