About three days have passed without any contact with Fionna. Flame Prince laid down on his back on the floor of the flame lion's cave while staring up at the rocky ceiling. Cubs crawled on top of his chest and rolled off his stomach while others bounced around the bored boy. Finally, after getting no response for half an hour one snuggles under his arm, one near his head and the other on his stomach, purring. His eyes are filled with boredom and the want for her.
For the last two days he waited outside the cave, waiting for her to come over the hill and walk casually towards him with pink cheeks. However, she did not come. Flame Prince became so bored that in the afternoon of the third day he went to visit Old Tree Trunks. He was useful being a sitting stove for his apple pies. He left when Ms. Pig came.
It is the morning of the fourth day, he gave up looking outside and closes his eyes. His thoughts wander off to Fionna. Her confidence, timidness, tomboy personality...her body. He stops and quickly opens his eyes with a hot red face. Finally, to walk off any more of those thoughts he stands up to walk outside the cave. In precaution, he takes his gloves and boots. The cubs follow.
Flame Prince groans when the sunlight hits his face, but sighs at a cool rush of air. The cubs do the same, one of them eats a flower out of curiosity and then jumps back from the sight of a purple cloud. The rest do the same and run back into the cave.
"Oh my Glob it's you," says LSP in a nonchalant voice. "What are you doing here?"
"I...live here?"
"You live in the wilderness?! I thought I was the only one!" he exclaims and waves his arms in excitement. "Awesome, finally, we can have GUY TI-AHHH!" a random vulture swoops down upon LSP. "NO JENNIFER I DON'T WANT TO DATE YOU!"
Flame Prince watches the cloud run away while being pecked, sighs and sits down on a rock. He spots Old Tree Trunks jumping up and down attempting to get an apple obviously too high for him. "Oh..." he can hear him muttering sadly, "I just won't have enough apples to make pie...oh well." He hangs his head in shame with his trunk still up.
Sighing, Flame Prince puts his gloves on and leisurely pulls the apple from the tree and plops it in the grasp of the old elephant's trunk. "Oh! Oh!" he holds up the apple happily, "I did it!" He turns, "Oh, Flame Prince! Good morning to you! Look! I was able to get an apple!"
He grins, Old Tree Trunks is too cute to be told the truth. "Uhm...good morning," a late response, but the elephant didn't seem to mind.
"Usually Fionna or Cake get my apples..." he puts the fruit in his basket, "But I haven't seen them for a while...I wonder how they are," he walks off.
This begins to worry the prince, but the statement isn't enough to convince him to show up at Fionna's tree fort. "She's probably on an adventure..." he whispers to himself and begins mindlessly strolling away from the cave and Tree Trunks' house.
That night with her wasn't bad right? Were the kisses too much? Too little? Am I doing something wrong? Maybe...I'm not kissing her right, or not cool enough? Flame Prince pauses in his walk noticing that he had wandered off from his home, but still kept on while thinking.
Or maybe...she's in trouble?! The Candy Kingdom came into his view. No, no, maybe she's with Gumball...yeah.
The castle is within less than a mile from where he stood, but he felt a bit strange to enter without Fionna by his side. He turns to return, but hears a cry, "Flame Prince!"
He expects to see Fionna waving her hand and running towards him, but they were just a group of candy people, mostly girls, from the ball. Ice cream Girl, Cinnamon Bun, Lollipop Boy, Ms. Cupcake, Ms. Candycane, Starchy, a few marshmallows and Gumdrop Lad. "Can I have an autograph please?" begs the girls at different times.
"You were super cool beating up the Ice Queen!" says Gumdrop Lad. "Well...I didn't see it, but Prince Gumball said it was superb!"
"Oh...uh..." Flame Prince doesn't know how to respond even though he is already signing the girl's random items.
"And we heard from Choose Goose that you saved her from the fire in the market!" squeals Ms. Cupcake. She continues to talk with a flustered face as Cinnamon Bun is blabbing on random words he can't even understand.
A sleek shadow shrouds over the crowd for a second, Flame Prince didn't need to look up. Prince Gumball gets off Lord Monochrome's back, "There you guys are! Oh, Good morning Flame Prince, how are you and Fionna?"
"She's...not with you?" Flame Prince makes his way through the crowd and approaches Gumball. "I...thought she would be aiding you..."
"No, I haven't heard of her since the ball," this shocks Flame Prince. "Have you checked out her tree fort? Why don't I give you a ride?"
Lord Monochrome flinches and backs away. With an awkward smile Flame Prince answers, "No thanks, I can walk there...but..uhm...where exactly is it?"
...
"Ah..." groans Fi. Her face and clothes are drenched with sweat and the saltiness stung her eyes. Her blurred vision makes her unable to see where she is or if there are any other people in the room. However, she did know, she is trapped. Her wrists are cuffed with chains which are hot from the heat of the room. Even her legs are chained to the ground. She can't move.
"Fionna!"
"Cake?" she strains her eyes to open and sees a bit of her sister. "W-What happened?"
"I don't know!"
Cake is trapped under a huge rock, preventing her from morphing out from under it. To avoid getting squished to death she had to make half of her body flat, but she still couldn't escape. "I-It looks like a cave! There's a bunch of rocks and..." she gasps, "An exit!" She continues to struggle, trying to push the rock off, but the exterior is too hot, she stops. "It's hot!" she moans and then tries to stretch her arms to break Fionna's chains.
"No good Cake, they need a key," Fi can feel the edge of the lock against her sweaty fingers. "Ugh, where's the key?"
"Ssssso we wait?" a hissing voice resounds against the walls where the exit is located. "How will he know?"
A different voice answers, "I left a ransom note, and when he comes to rescue his acquaintances..."
"We'll pour icccce on him!"
"Wait.." the footsteps came closer as Cake ponders, "I know these voices."
"Y-you do?" Fi's voice is becoming raspy.
Cake gasps. "You two!"
Titaia and Fina stood proudly between them with huge grins across their faces. "Enjoying your sssstay?"
"Who are you?!" growls Fionna as she tugs against her chains without any luck.
Titaia leans in close and laughs, "Members of Flame Prince's family. How do you do?"
"Yesss, and when he comes to rescue you we'll extinguishhh him just like hisss mother did to oursss!" Fina menaces her tongue at Cake.
"But he'll beat you like he did last time!" yells Cake who continues trying to push the huge boulder off her stomach. "You even admitted it! He's strong!"
"Oh, but that's where you two come in," Titaia and Fina start walking back to the exit. "He can't attack us in this area..."
"Or elssse," Fina smiles, "The heat of his fireballssss will make this placccce hotter!"
"Making you two closer to death," finishes Titaia. The two of them are too busy admiring their clever plan they didn't realize a tiny flame lion slipping through their path. "Although...holding him hostage wouldn't be a bad idea," Titaia turns around to go up a step.
"F-Flare?" whispers Cake and held her scream when Flare spits the flame shield on her. It is a relief to not feel tortured by the increasing heat any longer.
"HEY!" yells Fina when she sees the flame lion in front of Fionna. She charges toward her.
"Eep!" squeals Flare and spits.
"Ah!" yells Fi for Flare only spit out a tiny bit of fire on her leg.
"S-Sorry! Panicked!" Fina is ready to snatch her up, but Flare quickly chants the spell and spits right on Fionna's forehead. "Your Majesty, help!"
"The iccce Titaia! The iccce!" screams Fina as she throws Flare against the wall.
Cake gasps and takes Flare in her arms, "Flare!"
Fionna shakes her legs and arms for the chains to loosen up a little. Since she is immune to the temperature now she can fight as much as she wants until the chains are thrown off. She starts to worry when she sees Titaia run out of the cave and Fina with a huge evil smirk. "F-Flame Prince," her mouth is dry and her voice sounded like a raspy whisper.
"Hello, coussssin," greets Fina while doing a sarcastic bow. "I sssee you saw our note."
Flame Prince steps in with a straight mouth and eyes filled with anger and grief. His head turns from Cake holding Flare to Fionna in chains making his eyes burst in flames. Without warning he runs at Fina with his flame sword in his hand and swings blindly at her. "I will kill you," he growls while cutting Fina's face. "Would you like that tongue to be split any further?"
"That anger and those eyes..." Fina dodges the attack, stalling, waiting.
His sword disappears and he is ready to use his fists. "Just like my mother's?" he asks while landing a punch against her face. While Fina is down groaning in pain Flame Prince hits the boulder on top of Cake with all his might. It breaks and crumbles, releasing Cake who tries joining into the fight. "Cake, take Fionna and go!"
"I want to fight too!" says a raspy Fionna as Cake breaks the chains on her legs and hands.
"No," Flame Prince grabs her shoulders and pulls her in a close hug. "I'm sorry Fionna, I didn't think us being together would turn out like this."
"Flame Pri-"
It is quick, but it felt long. The longest five seconds of her life. She wasn't even ready to accept it, but she did. The warmth and the softness of his lips are too hard to resist and too easy to melt into. He also felt the same. He wanted more, but not now. He parts their once locked lips and smiles at her blushing face. Cake is too distracted by the cute scene that she didn't notice Titaia hovering with a bowl of ice.
"Ah!" Flame Prince falls against upon Fionna when he feels a sharp, cold pain on his head, traveling to his back and then his whole entire body.
She can feel him shiver and fade into grey so quickly, "Flame Prince!" She holds him tightly, feeling smoke leave his body, "No, no, no!"
Cake grabs Titaia by the neck and smashes her against the wall, and then takes a hold of Fina, picks her up and crash on the ground again. Still holding Flare, she uses her other arm to wrap around Flame Prince and Fionna's waists and pulls them out of the cave.
...
As soon as they reached the end of the cave and into the sunlight Cake finds the biggest rock available and blocks the cave. "Phew," she sighs and twists her head to Fionna who laid over Flame Prince.
"Flame Prince?" she is hoping to get some sort of response from the grey lifeless prince.
He said nothing.
She holds back her tears, "Flame Prince?" She puts her head on his chest and bites down on her lip, "UGH!"
Flare wakes up from the sound of Fionna's cries of frustrations and winces at the bump on her head. "Your Majesty?!" she runs to Flame Prince and feels his hand with her paw. Cold. Almost like the feeling of a dead person. No, it is exactly how it feels. She panics, "Oh, your Majesty!" she begins to mourn. "I'm sorry!"
"Can't fire heal him?" suggests Cake who began to pat Fionna's back.
"...I don't know," Flare whimpers, "The good thing is that he didn't actually 'die out.'"
"What do you mean?" asks Fionna.
"When fire is extinguished it turns to ashes or something right? It sorta goes the same for fire people," Flare tries to lighten Fi up. "So, maybe there is a chance of saving him. This is just his doused state, meaning he is weak, but not dead!"
"Thank Glob!" cries Fionna and presses her lips against Flame Prince's again. Hoping he would be okay. His lips are not warm, but they are still soft, yet cold. She can feel him try to make an effort to respond to her kiss. So weakly...