Finn puts some more warm food into his mouth, the temperature contrasting his environment. It turns out that Ice Queen had gone full out for the date, and had made a large table with them in the middle of it, with hot food covering it end to end 'How did she afford this?' He thinks, as he eyes some well done chicken. Ice Queen was also eating, but was instead eyeing Finn and the slight smile he has, 'So he isn't hating this... I'll make you mine' She takes some chicken as Finn goes to grab some, deliberately brushing his hand as she does so. Finn gains a slight blush at the action but focuses back on the food and the questions he could ask her to buy the others time.
Ice Queen just giggles in her head, and was about comment when she suddenly gets a magical signal. It is not a message, more like a light bulb turning. But what it was telling her is easy to read: her Winter's Wraith has been defeated. She glares at nothing, annoyed by this outcome 'Oh well, my next guard on watch will stop them' She replaces her scowling face with a smile and shoots it at Finn. Even if they beat everything, even if they kill her, she can say she had her date with her knight, with someone who cares for her.
Fionna, Cake and Huntress charge towards the room exit, weapons at the ready for Ice Queen. Bursting through the door Fionna swings her sword out dramatically shouting "Ice Queen! I-" She stops her shout and drops her stance as she stares at a empty corridor. "Oh." But it did have another door at the end. 'That must be where she is!' She thinks, gaining a blush of embarrassment. She charges forward again, sword dragging behind her. Until she trips. With a yelp she lands face first onto the icy floor, her sister cringing for her pain. Raising her head she looks back to see what tripped her, and sees a green vine tied around her right ankle. Its point of origin being a glaring Huntress. Scrambling to her feet she looks at her in rage, "What the Glob was that for!" She shouts, glaring at the Wizard.
"To stop you from just charging in, we have the element of surprise on Ice Queen, so don't blow it." Huntress says, passing by Fionna while floating arrows into her hand to grab it. Fionna goes to retort at how it was unnecessary to trip her, but then remembers that she needs to impress her so she can tell Finn of her skills. Biting her tongue, she follows the mad woman as she silently leads the charge down the corridor. Approaching the door Huntress slows to a stop and rests her ear against it, clutching her arrow tight. Nothing. Not a single sound comes through. Slowly she pushes the heavy ice door open and peeks into the room. And immediately pulls her head back.
"What is it?" Cake ask, the sisters moving to peak their heads through the door gap with Fionna on the bottom and Cake stretching a eye to look inside the room. Immediately the girls try to hold in a squeal of joy.
"This is going to be fun!" Fionna says, clenching both fist together against her chest. She suddenly gasps "Multiple bosses that require tactics, hard fights, important goal at the end... this is a dungeon raid!" The sisters fist bump each other. They push the door open and stroll into the next boss room, Huntress forced to follow. This room was circular in nature and like the rest of the place was made of ice, but other than that, it had nothing in it.
Except the giant white sleeping dragon. It was curled up like a cat in the centre of the room, quietly snoring. Fionna and Cake wear massive grins as they enter the room, weapons at the ready. "Guys! The door is open, we can just ignore it." Huntress whisper to them pointing to the door that was sure enough open, causing Cake to groan in annoyance but begrudgingly drag her arms towards the door, understanding that while it would be fun, it would be better to sneak by it. Fionna only looks at them as they slowly sneak towards the open door. She then looks at the dragon. Then looks at the others. Then the dragon. Then the others. Huntress and Cake were slowly approaching the door, the quiet air was suddenly and violently destroyed by a roar of a dragon. Wide eyed, they snap their heads to the dragon to spot Fionna on its head, uselessly slashing at it scales doing no damage.
"Fionna!" Cake shouts throwing her arms up only for the duo to get slapped by a massive white tail, smashing them into the wall as the massive beast now rampages. The duo collapse into the rubble they made on impact, the enraged dragon tries to shake Fionna of its head before resorting to smashing its head against the wall above the open exit, more ice rubble falling with the stunned Fionna as she tumbles to the ground, sealing up the door. Fionna groans and looks up to see the dragon growling at her, before opening its mouth as the temperature suddenly drops. However Cake's enlarged paws claw the dragon's face, the force throwing its aim off as it releases a stream of ice at the wall next to Fionna, encasing it in a thick layer of the stuff. Huntress leaps to Fionna's aid, wrapping her arm around her shoulder she pulls her out of the rubble, then leaps away as the dragon swipes at her. Leaping a few more times for safety she drops Fionna who only grunts and pick herself up.
"Plan?" Fionna asks.
"You're the one who attacked it. Why don't you have a plan?" Huntress says, glaring at her. 'You're gonna have to wait a bit longer for a save, Finn'. Fionna shrinks under her stare, causing Huntress to sigh, "Lets attack it until we find a weakness, if we don't find one we might be able to wear it out." Nodding, the sisters leap at the great beast, Huntress launching arrows from afar. Fionna slides under it, cutting at the stomach, despite the limited space to move, every one of her swings are full of strength. Nothing, barely even a scratch. The body moves and she quickly rolls out from under as it collapses down where she just was in a effort to squish her. Cake meanwhile was on the dragons back using enlarged claws all across its body in a attempt to hurt it. Huntress launches her arrows with high speed and force, as they smash into its face, or more precisely its eyes. However even that seemed to be scaled as well as the arrows ricochet off as it blinks in instinct. She grits her teeth and leaps to dodge a swipe of its tail. Cake was now also on the face, fruitlessly scratching at it before getting knocked off by a giant paw. Grunting as she bounces of the floor Cake skids to a halt.
"Nothing we do is even hurting it!" She says annoyed before leaping at it again, scratching at its wings,
"Just keep hitting it, everything has a weakness, everything can be hunted." Huntress says launching more arrows, using a bunch of magic to propel them faster than one could blink. Faster than one can blink, including dragons as it does not have time to close its eye to protect it, the arrow piercing into it. It rears up and roars in pain, pawing fruitlessly at its face as it does its best attempt to remove the arrow. It lands back on its front legs causing a earthquake, making the group stumble.
"Nice shot!" Fionna shouts looking at the deadly protector of the forest.
"Focus on the dragon." She says leaping behind it the now furious dragon as it releases a roar of pure rage. Thinking fast she turns her cape into several vine ropes and immediately jumps onto the dragons back, running up its form until she reaches its neck and immediately wraps the rope around its neck. She then yanks back, chocking the beast. Fionna and Cake quickly join as the feline carries her sister up as they all grab the ropes and pull. The dragon arches it back as it tries to claw the rope of its neck, its sharp claws making quick work of the once cape as it rope remains flutters to the ground torn to shreds. Abandoning the plan the group leap off as the claws rise to make short work of them as well. Landing on the ground in front of the dragon they stand in prime position to get hit by its ice breath. It goes to open its mouth to do the attack.
"No." Cake says, turning her fist large and bonking it on top of its head, smashing it into the ground making it release its breath inside its mouth, freezing it shut. Huntress, however hears another sound of ice. Confused, she looks up. To see giant stalactites above their heads, in fact, they cover the room. And when she meant they were giant, she meant it, most were the size of vans however some of the larger ones were the size of lorries. Blinking, a plan forms in her head, but first she now has to dodge the angry dragon as it rises. Flipping away from the attack she calls the others.
"Fionna! Cake!" They look at her, and her reply was to point up. Confused they look up to spot the giant death spikes, "If that doesn't kill it, nothing we got will." What makes Cake snap back to her in shock.
"Yeah! And us too! How we going to survive that?!" Huntress just looks at a wall.
"You think you can dig into that?" Before she could answer they all have to move as a semi-blind dragon pounces at them.
"Maybe?" She ask panting as she dodges a tail swing.
"Try." Huntress says, leaping onto the dragons and pulling at her arrow to distract it, turning into a small bird to fly away from the claw response to her actions. Cake runs at the wall and makes her claws huge and starts pawing at the ice, making small cuts. Suddenly the dragon roars, breaking the ice that had sealed its jaw shut. Wide eyes, Cake looks at the wall and turns her fist into a morning star and starts smashing chunks off, hoping that the stalactites don't fall. Fionna goes at the dragons snout, causing it to open its jaw to try and bite her. Fionna however just stabs at the soft vulnerable flesh, her sword going into it like butter. Immediately it roars in pains as it violently shakes its head to remove her. After a few nauseating seconds her sword gets shaken out, sending her splattering into the wall, her form falling to the floor. The dragon goes to claw her to shreds, if it didn't get a arrow in its last remaining eye courtesy of Huntress. She would send them through completely, but its flesh is too thick, she wouldn't be able to recover her arrow and it would be too taxing to make one in battle. It was like trying to get a splinter through someone's head, it simply wasn't going to work. The dragon rears again releasing another roar of pain before slamming the ground, shaking everything, the stalactites rattling above them. Now blind, it resorts to just randomly swinging its tail, breathing ice, and swiping claws, anything to hurt its attackers that it can no longer see. With the beast in a literal blind rage Huntress moves towards, sliding to dodge a claw swinging overhead before leaping onto its back. There, she runs up its form again to shove a arrow into both eyes, causing it to roar again. Pulling out all three of her arrows magically, she turns what little remains of her cape and turns it into rope. Not making the same mistake as last time, she throws the rope into its mouth, pulling it up in between its teeth before yanking back again, making the dragon to take a step backwards. Looking up to scan the ceiling, she finds one of the bigger icicles was in the centre of the room. "Fionna!" She looks up from her fruitless attack on the beasts chest, "Lets get it under the biggest one." She says pointing at the large spike in the centre of the room.
"Right!" Then with a battle cry she charges at its face, and as it about to release its ice breath she stabs the inside of its mouth again, causing it to flinch backwards in instinct, aided by Huntress pulling the rope in it mouth to make it take a full step backwards.
"Cake how close are you?" Huntress asks, working in synergy with Fionna's attacks to manoeuvre the beast into prime position.
"I'm done! Just waiting for you!" She shouts, a massive hole in the wall behind her. Nodding, Huntress gives one last yank with Fionna's attack before turning the plant rope back into her cape and levitates all five of her arrows, upwards.
"Fionna, get ready to make it slam in pain again." Understanding the plan, Fionna prepares herself. Huntress uses nearly all of her energy to propel her arrows at high velocity, the arrows piecing the ice above causing cracks to spider out in all directions. "Fionna now!" Fionna jumps and with a yell pierces the dragon's eye one last time, causing it jump in pain. At this moment Huntress uses her magic to recall her arrows, yanking them free further weakens the ceiling's structure, and the dragon slams back down. Immediately the sound of solids crumbling fills the air before a massive snap joins in, the hole spikey ceiling falling in a domino effect. Cake stretches her arms out as fast as she can and clutches the others before pulling them both towards her in the safety of the whole. All the girls see is a white cloud of flung up snow, and the dragons roar of pain being cut off by the sound of falling debris.
Once everything settles, the group release coughs and peeks through the white smoke screen, any darkness being removed by some glowing mushrooms Huntress grows from her cape. After a few seconds it starts to clear up, revealing a massive pile of ice had sealed them inside their cover. Cake sighs and shifts her whole form into a show shovel, "Fionna, get digging." Fionna grabs her sister by the handle and starts shovelling their way out. After a minute of constant large digs light pops in through a hole she made and a few seconds later it is big enough for the group to funnel out off. They stood on top of a massive pile of broken ice, and in the centre the of it all it was elevated and stained blood red. Huntress smiles, glad that the fight is over. "So... where was the door?" And her smile disappears. Looking around the edge she points at where she thinks it was.
"Around there. I think." She walks to the wall and starts pawing away the snow in a attempt to locate the door, a attempt that the sisters join her in, a attempt that takes two minutes. Fionna was the one to discover it, signalled by her yelling,
"Guys I found it!" The other two move to her, finding a small indent in the wall were the top of the door rests.
"Good, now dig it out." Huntress says, crossing her arms.
"What! You going to help right!?" She asks with wide eyes.
"Nope. We wouldn't need to do this if you didn't wake the dragon, so you have to dig the way out."
"But come on! That was fun!" She says, trying to escape responsibility.
"You put Finn and our lives in danger for your own selfish desires. That's not very heroic of you Fionna." Immediately the girl's eye widen in shock, before looking at the ground and starts to slowly move the ice, saddened by what she has done to her friends for her own pleasure.
Ice Queen releases a noise of annoyance as she looks at the group through a spying spell that she regularly used to determine when was the best time to do a kidnapping. Not only had they survived, that wood nymph bitch was with them! 'No wonder they survived the Winter's Wraith, only someone with knowledge of magic would know how to defeat it. And I can't let that girl get to Finn or he'll forget about me!' She ends the spell, and looks at Finn who was staring at the ceiling in puzzlement other what the loud thumping noise was. "Don't worry, I just checked that was just Gunthess she... broke a lot of things then that's all. She's a clumsy girl." Ice Queen says, trying to not look she is panicking. Finn looks to the side and sees Gunthess standing there, who gives him a wenk and hand raise before waddling away.
"Right..." He says with scepticism, not that the deranged queen notices. "So... you've been around a few years, got any interesting stories?"
"A interesting story?... Oh! I got one you'll probably like." She says starring into his eyes. She doesn't say anything for a second or two as Finn starts getting uncomfortable,
"Hello?" He asks waving his hands in front of her face, snapping her out of her trance.
"Oh right, sorry." She rubs the back off her neck in embarrassment. "Now it was... I don't know, a few hundred years ago? I can't remember, but I was still somewhat Sarah, and I was a mix between me and her. I was wondering the destroyed world created by the mushroom war...
A water nymph was walking across the deserted city, the flames put out long ago but the rubble still remains, the great concrete structures obliterated and everything looking like melted wax brought on by the insane heat of the bombs. Sarah pokes at a empty can of chicken soup, watching it roll across the floor. Smiling, she looks at a smashed in vending machine nearby and gives it a quick look over for food or parts her kin could use. Nothing, as per usual. She moves on as she explores the destroyed streets for objects of use, a ear plastic back pack to carry whatever she find on her back and on it was the tiara, the cursed artefact tied to its side. Entering a building through a giant hole in its wall she gives the room a quick look over, and spots a book in great condition on the floor. Gasping, she walks over to it, pulls her tiara off her bag and uses it as a poking stick to avoid her watery form damaging the book. Expertly getting a point in-between title and the floor she flips the book over, then rotates it to face her as she squints to read the title: "...The art of war?... Huh, sounds interesting!" She says with a smile, before dropping her water proof bag off her bag and onto the floor. Tongue out and eyes squinting in concentration, she grabs some nearby broken bricks to sandwich the book and slowly lift it into the air and drops it into the bag 'If I'm lucky, I'll find someone to read this to me' She thinks with a smile as she zips up the bag. Leaving the building, she strolls down the streets some more. Suddenly a woman's scream pierces the air, making Sarah flinch and shrink. She debates running, after all a scream represents danger. But then she remembers the tiara attached to her bag in both its power and what it represents. She could save the person, she has the power to just at the cost of her sanity, and the crown does represent her duty to care for all her people. If she could invite the stranger to her home, then they could read anything they found or touch humanities technology, if not then they will have a ally what is always welcome in this world. She sighs.
Running down the uneven roads she heads to where she heard the scream, eyes darting around to find the person in distress, and soon she finds her, or more accurately: them. They were a family of humans defensively surrounding a horse carrying a bunch of belongings, and all around them were mutants of some sort, slowly closing in on the group 'There has to be a hundred!" She thinks before sighing, humans would be the best at reading their books. That and she would most probably not be able to sleep knowing she left a family to die. Grabbing the tiara she shoves it on her head and runs in, immediately her forms looses its translucency, becoming light blue as her watery hair grows and becomes... well hair. Jumping into the air she starts floating above the group, the clouds above her swirling as snow falls from the sky. She starts to crackle with insane laughter as lighting made of ice fall from the sky, barraging the mutants periodically. She spins above the huddling family as she shoots beam of ice in front of them, creating a protective wall of spikey ice around them that impales multiple other mutants. Still laughing, she shoots off spells of ice after ice after ice, destroying the army of mutants in mere seconds. She searches the area, looking for more... things! Anything! To attack! She looks down to spot the cowering family, 'They will do!' She thinks, charging up more ice to attack them, to make part of her Ice Kingdom, however her submerged conciseness breaks the surface of the ocean of crazy in her head, and makes her swat the tiara off. With out it, her body falls and splats into the ground. With a pained groan she rises to look at the family, "Hello, are you hurt?" She asks, breaking the ice.
"Y-yes, thank you for the save. Who are you?" The startled farther ask.
"I'm Sarah, the Princess of the Water Kingdom." She replies, striking a stoic pose to make it seem legit.
"Then thank you, you majesty." He says bowing. She does not reply straight away, deciding to instead walk over to her tiara and pit it back on her bag.
"Please, just call me Sarah."
"Thank you Sarah! What can we do to repay you?" The mother asks, leaving the group.
"... Could you follow me back home?" Sarah asks, brushing the tiara off.
"What?" They ask in genuine confusion, after no one expects to be asked to follow someone home.
"I'm made of water, we can't read books or touch technology without destroying them. I would like someone who can read and help us with what we find."
"O-oh, we would your majesty, but we are going to the other humans to escape."
"Escape?"
"Yeah, news has spread far that they are making a ship to escape the island away from all the mutants and-" He pauses to look around, as if saying their name would summon them, "Vampires. We trying to join them."
"I see." She sighs in disappointment, not only did she fail in getting a dedicated reader for her and her subjects, but the humans were also leaving, and taking all who could understand their creations in the world around her with them. "There is no way I ccan persuade you from seeking salvation, but I do have a request."
"What is it?" The man asks, desperate to repay the debt of her saving his family.
"Can you read this?" She pulls her bag off her back and flips it upside down just above the ground, making the book she found fall out with dome other junk. "I'm made of water so I can't read it without damaging it." He quickly picks it up and goes to read it, but freezes at the title.
"What is it?"
"This book... I know it, it's about how to wage a war." He lowers it and gestures to the surrounding devastated environment. "I don't think anyone wants another war anytime soon, and it'll take a while to read when we are already on the clock." He points at his non-existent wrist watch, a expression that goes over Sarah's head.
"I don't want another war, I want to be able to protect my people. And you don't have to read all of it, I can find some one else to." He looks down to the book in his hand before sighing, and opens the book to its first page.
... and that was the story of how I acted heroic and saved one of your ancestors." Ice Queen says, putting her hand on her hips as she tries to impress Finn, after all if he is a gender bent Fionna then he is interested in heroism and humans, right?
"Huh, that's good to know, I'm glad you helped those peeps." He says, not sure on how to reply to that but was genuinely glad she saved the family. "So do you remember what was in the book?"
"No, it was so long ago that its gone from my mind, made way for new memories."
"Do you miss being Sarah?" He asks curiously as she is acting very different whenever Simon broke through his crown.
"Most people would be glad to be back to sanity, but I don't mind really. Everyone I knew is dead, I will gain nothing returning back to Sarah, and I would always carry the stigma of being the Ice Queen no matter what I do, so everyone would still avoid me." She shrugs her shoulders. "I'll gain nothing but some sanity returning to Sarah, but will keep my immortality and powers if I remain the Ice Queen. And the kidnapping and wanting of the Prince can be distracted by you my knight." She says in attempt to guilt him into staying with her.
"Actually, that wanting is from the previous user Simone, so if she somehow gets out of the tiara, that problem will go and you can be with anyone you want." He says trying to gently deny her.
"Really? She's causing all the problems!?" She asks, annoyed that the largest problem with her tiara and why all her years of isolation and madness was not even meant to be there, 'She caused all this!' And immediately plans of what she'll do to her whenever she enters the crown again fill her mind.
"Yeah, she had a lover that she called Prince that she lost before the war. Hearing the name makes her remember him, and she lunges out for her lost love, and it seems to be so strong that it leaves the inner circuitry of the tiara and is affecting you in the real world. That is if she has the same story as the Simon back in my dimension had, but he was still the Ice King, he didn't go into the crown..." He starts explaining to justify Simone's actions but ends up wondering what else is different about the past. Shaking his head clear of thoughts he looks to her again, "Doesn't matter, I do remember that Ice King had less control over himself under the crowns influence, he couldn't even remember his past, I wonder why you can?"
"I don't know... maybe because I accepted it, it is rewarding me?... I mean you said that your Ice King was resisting against the effects of he crown so maybe it was giving him less privileges as punishment?" She shrugs, she herself not understanding the crown/tiara and what it does. "Enough about me, I want to know more about you. Fionna has ice-blocked me constantly with Gumball, so did you like your female Gumball? Or were you always with that wood nymph?"
"I... did." He said rubbing his neck in embarrassment over has past self's crush. "It was different to how PB and Fionna are, because unlike Gumball she had no interest in me." He moves his arms to form a cross.
"Seriously? Are you sure she knew you liked her?"
"Yeah she knew, but instead of turning me down she decided to use my crush to manipulate me to do free labour."
"Seriously!?" She shouts in disbelief, not liking the idea of her knight getting manipulated.
"Yeah, but she stop doing that eventually and we're best of friends." He sighs, "When I was thirteen a... accident happened, and it resulted in Princess Bubblegum, that's her name by the way, had gotten injured and lost a lot of biomass. They could save her, but the consequences was that she was de-aged, and was thirteen just like me." He sighs, "So we decided to have fun together in the kid way, mess around, prank some people, you know the usual kid stuff. But if she didn't age back up then Lemongrab would take over her crown, so she had to grow up. Before she did though, she admits that she liked me and enjoyed her time with me, to what I acknowledge and agree to. Then she grows up. And immediately denies all my emotions. Eventually she just says I'm too young and leaves it at that, not caring for my emotions." He shrugs. "But like I said, she improves herself. However, now that I'm here with and know what she was like, I can see Gumball doing something similar to Fionna, that he'll dump her at a moments notice to attend his kingdom. I can see them breaking up to be honest. If you start going for the Princes again then I recommend you stay clear of Gumball for a few years." She rolls her eyes at the suggestion, 'I won't be going after any of the other Princes because I have you'.
"So Gumball is highly manipulative... I can see that." She says hand on her chin as she squints, as if she is peering into her memories. "Yeah I believe you."
"Good, I don't want you getting unnecessarily hurt, you don't deserve it." Immediately her heart flutters as she daydreams about what he just said. Meanwhile Finn was planning in his head 'How can I help her? How can I get Simone out of the tiara? Who would actually like her?' He releases a mental sigh, 'No one I think off springs to mind. Can't be Marshall as he thinks Simone is dead and hates all forms of the tiara. The only other person who liked Ice king was Jake and myself, so Fionna and Cake? No, I and Ice King only got along because we were originally forced to after Flame Princess, so they won't accept Ice Queen. She is correct, she does have no one...'.
As these thoughts of how he and who could help her, Ice Queen at some point snaps out of daydream and looks at a clock she found mounted on a ice wall and smiles at the time. A hour before night hits. She wants him all sweaty for what comes after this next attempt at wooing him. "Hey Finn, follow me." Ice Queen says, rising from the table and shooting a spell at Finn as he does the same, causing him to brace. However, nothing happens and he opens his eyes to see the chains gone. "You shouldn't expect to het harmed by me, my knight." She says 'That and I need his legs free for this next part' "Besides, you've shown I can trust you not to run away." Nodding with a smile, glad to have earned her trust, he follows her down a corridor that leads to two giant closed doors.
Waiting outside the doors for a second for dramatic effect, she turns to Finn, "Will you Finn..." She turns and pushes the giant doors open revealing a massive room with table at the edges and a band stage against the wall opposite to the door. "... join me in dance?" She extends a hand to him, and immediately he debates turning her down,
"I... don't know how to dance." He says in desperation to prevent this, and was partly the truth. While he did know how to do any wacky party dance, what he did not know was how to do a ball or romantic dance, never needing to and he seriously doubts Huntress knows either let alone care for it, so they were obviously not going to need it. Ice Queen immediately turns to the band of penguins clumsily making their way on stage and shouts,
"Play it slow!" The lead penguin just releases a wenk in reply and fiddles with the violin that was larger than it. Nodding she turns to Finn's unsure face. "Then allow me to teach you." She quickly snatches his hand and drags him into the room. Taking him to the centre of the room she holds his hands in hers "Follow my lead, do as I say." Finn looks down at their linked hands and thinks for a second, 'That crashing sound had to be the others coming to get me, so I just need to buy more time. And I might as well learn'. He looks up to the lonely woman and nods. Smiling, she signals the band to start playing who absolutely butcher it. Immediately her smile drops, and furiously she lets go of her hand and blasts ice at the poor penguins, causing them to drop the instruments and run for their lives. After a second she stops and return her hands to Finn's who was wearing a scared face, what she contrasts with her excited smile her as he takes a step "Move your right leg..."
Fionna, Huntress and Cake had finally cleared the way forward and were now in the corridor to the next boss or challenge. Suddenly Huntress signals them all to stop, what they do a sluggish second later, "We need to rest, if we don't we will make mistakes and quite possibly die." She says, turning what remains of her cape into leaves for her to sleep on. Cake immediately lets out a whoop before falling flat on her face, Fionna however looks at her in confusion and shock.
"Don't we need to save Finn? We can't rest now!" What earns a sigh from the tired wizard.
"Yeah, he needs saving, but we can't do that if we're dead. We need to regather our energy." She says, turning a few of her clothes into leaves.
"But!-"
"No buts, Finn is tough, if anyone can survive down there with that crazy woman, it's him." Huntress says, cutting her argument off. Fionna grumbles before laying down next to her sister and cuddling with her for warmth. Smiling, Huntress lays down and rest on her leaf bed, fully trusting Finn to survive down there. And with a gentle smile turns into a log, eluding the grasp of the cold air.
Finn and Ice Queen were dancing their final steps, "Now you're getting the hang of it!" Ice Queen congratulates him, causing Finn to fist pump in the air in celebration.
"Ah yeah! Thanks for teaching me Ice Queen." The joy on his face immediately makes her gain one of pride, joy and hope for 'payment' for teaching him.
"It was my pleasure." She says in a sultry tone, that fortunately had no effect on the hero. "Follow me, hero, your Queen is going to reward your efforts." She says, shaking her hips a little to the ignorant but nervous Finn as she leads the way out of the room. She walks towards their bedroom, a nervous breath escapes her, towards the drawers with the condoms on top, a nervous but anxious smile forms on her face. Going around the throne to the hidden door behind it and enters the room of their soon to be ritual of joining.
The room wasn't lit, fire was not her specialty and it never lasted in the frigid temperatures anyways. Walking further into the dark room she signals Finn to follow her, and makes her way over to the drawers and grabs the relics then hid them in her hand. "So what are we doing?-" She cuts him off by latching her self onto him and kissing him deeply, causing him to go wide eyed and push against the larger woman, forcing them to separate. She only breaths heavily as a stand of saliva connects the two of them together, "What was-" She cuts him off again with another kiss, getting a even faster response this time as he pushes her off once more,
"Let me teach you Finn..." She says, undoing her dress as it falls off her body, presenting her dark blue undergarments of bra, panties and stockings to the now heavily blushing Finn. She lunges on him again in his vulnerable state of being startled and kissing him deep again, immediately pulling him towards the bed. Pushing his form onto the bed she release her assault to loom above him, hands on either side of his head as she stares down at him with lust, 'exactly where I wanted my knight to be' She gently smiles down at his panicking form that was frozen still, his body preferring to do nothing than to risk making the wrong move. "Don't panic, let me show some things I learnt over the years..." She starts to slowly and gently pull his shorts down, causing him to panic and grab them to prevent her advances. "C'mon, no need to-"
"No Ice Queen." Was his stern reply, 'if this going to be like that weird thing I did with LSP' "Don't." After a second of hesitation she releases his clothes, a deep frown present on her face,
"Am I... not good enough? Am I hideous?"
"No, you're not ugly... I just... don't want to do it." She sighs and looks at his face. 'I am already known for my kidnapping... would it too far to force him to...' She looks at him, and truly looks at his panicking expression, the only person on this planet willing to bear her presence, to listen to her, and treat her with care and respect. And this was how she was about to repay that. She releases a even deeper sigh.
"Alright... You can have the bed... I can make another." She moves away from Finn and starts to put her light blue dress. Suddenly Finn starts to help her with putting it back on. "Thank you." He only nods in reply and she leaves the room.
Moving around the Ice Kingdom's throne, she decides to go sit on it, rubbing at the spot reserved for her Prince. 'He helped me put the dress back on... and did it with a friendly smile... So he doesn't hate me' She sighs, glad she hasn't ruined her chances of doing this the normal way. She then frowns, 'It is that glob damn wood nymph, he's still loyal to her! I wish she just die up there already' She sighs wistfully, daydreaming of how once the forest nymph was gone, Finn would eventually move on and move onto her. 'Stockholm's syndrome can work wonders...' She snaps out of the thought, realising that if the wood nymph was to die by her hands, then Finn would likely hat her. That is not what she wants. 'Oh well, too late to change the guards orders, if she doesn't die though, then I'll find a way to make them break up or someone else to get rid of her.' With that thought put to rest, she focuses back on her knight, 'Maybe I was just taking it too fast...' She remains silent and focuses on the environment, or mainly Finn's room. Silence. Quietly, she rises from her throne and walks back around it, and heads into the room. Looking inside, she finds him asleep. Silently, she removes her dress, letting it plop to the floor. She walks up to Finn's sleeping body as quiet as possible and stares at his calm, happy resting face. She looks down at her hand at the condom she forgot about. Then back to Finn. Silently she places the protection back onto drawers in and turns to leave. A few feet away, however, she freezes in her steps and looks back at Finn. Silently she approaches him, and uses her magic to make the bed shift his body a little more over. And climbs in. She turns her back to him and gently move his arms around her body, one on her hips and the other under her neck, then settles into sleep with a small smile on her face, as she snuggles deeper into him.
Huntress awakes and not a second later transforms out of her log form with a pop, noticing that no mushrooms had grown on her 'Probably too cold for them'. She gets up of her leaf bed and stretches, before turning the leaves into a her clothes and cape, ready for a fight in just five seconds. Turning around she see's the sisters staring at her, "That was awesome." Fionna says with wide eyes filled with amazement, Cake nodding in agreement what just causes Huntress to stare, making them uncomfortable,
"Yes, because I get ready like that just to impress." Was her sarcastic reply, "Now I've got to watch you get change." She says pointing at Fionna with a smile. They were already changed and ready, what is surprising for a teenager but the threat of a privacy invasion made Fionna blush anyways.
"She's got a point Fionna." Cake says, doing her duty to help tease her younger sister.
Shaking her head clear of the conversation, Fionna quickly rummages through her bag, and quickly finds some travel food and hands it Huntress,
"Oh, is this a bribe." She says, taking the food with a smile.
"No!" She shouts, desperate to change the subject off her getting change. "What now?"
"Now? We eat, then we push deeper inside and defeat whatever the Ice Queen has made for us." Huntress says, nibbling on some fruits.
"So... how did you and Finn meet?" Cake ask out of curiosity and boredom.
"When I first met Finn? He was completely naked." Immediately Cake chokes on her food in shock as Fionna gains a deep blush at the image that formed in her mind.
"What!?' Cake shouts in disbelief once she has cleared her throat, her reply is a simple shrug from Huntress.
"Like I said, I met him when he was naked. You see, it went like this...
Huntress Wizard sighs as she halts the summoning ritual, her attempt at talking to her old teacher the Spirit of the Forest ending in failure as per usual. Resting against the tree, she goes into meditation pose and reaches out to the world with her magic, trying to find any sign of her old master's presence in the area. Nothing. With a deep breath through her nose she abandons her fruitless efforts and focuses on meditating, sifting through her memories for any possible clue or method on how to reach him. As she focuses, however, music interrupts the calming sound of nature, causing Huntress to grit her teeth as she tries her best to block out the music to focus only on her goal. Eyes on the prize, or she'll loose everything. The music continues however, causing Huntress's face to twist as she fails to contain her anger at being distracted. "Gah!" She shoots up, with a expression that could make bears wet themselves, "Who's playing that from the night-o-sphere music?!" She hisses out in anger, and focuses on the music to find out where it was coming from and hunt down whoever is making it. As she focuses on it, however, her magically attuned senses detects the faint feeling of magic woven into the song, and not any old magic. Plant magic, the same type that the trees and plants use to communicate with her and vice versa, the same magic that the spirit of the forest over flowed with. Her eyes widen, 'Is it him?! Is he calling for me' She starts walking through the forest at a calm pace, trying to identify the magic music, 'It is strong magic, but it is not his, not his style'.
Magic was like hand writing, everyone has their own style and signature. You start of knowing nothing, but as your vocabulary/incantations expand, the more impactful your work is, The more you write, a better picture is formed. The more incantations you do, the better the spell. The less you use a word, the more likely for a spelling mistake. The less you do a spell, the more likely it will go very, very, very wrong. The only difference is writing takes ink, spells take your sanity.
She pushes through the forest's foliage, until she finds the source of the magic. A teen in a river, playing a flute as he bathed. But it wasn't any old teen. This was Finn, The Finn. Even as one as isolated as herself have heard the tales of his exploits, of saving Princesses, killing beast and earning loot. She looks at the nude boy in front of her, his great hair but ignores it all completely, focusing on her gaol. He was the source of the plant magic. 'But he's not a wizard. Why can he do that?' Squinting, she pushes out of the trees and bushes she used to hide herself, uncaring that Finn was in the nude. The famous hero, stops playing at the sight of and releases a raspberry in shock, playing it off by greeting her calmly "Hello."
"How are you playing like that?"
"Uh, I dunno, I'm just making stuff up."
"Something in your notes has the quality of a powerful evocation spell. What spirit guides your hands?" 'Has the Spirit of the Forest moved on from me? Has he got Finn? Is that why he is ignoring me?' She levitates a arrow out of her quiver and aims at Finn's head, "Tell me or I'll put this up your nose!"
"First off: I'm a great fighter, and I'm especially agile while I'm nude so good luck." Huntress just squints at Finn. "Second off: My flute improv ain't no secret, and that I let my grass hand do whatever it wants, which is usually all shreddy and busy." He explains, revealing his grass hand.
"Let me see that hand!" She demands confused and wanting answers, launching her arrow into the ground and storms over to him, uncaring about personal space or boundaries. She stares at his hand. 'This is a powerful curse.' She looks up at Finn, 'He shown compassion to many, while not being afraid to kill and with his arm has almost bonded with nature. The spirit of the forest might not of talked to him yet, but he has potential to be the next watcher of the forest, and his flute might be able to summon him... Never thought I would need a hero but...' "You're what I've been looking for."
... And that was how I first met Finn." Huntress summarises, Cake and Fionna abandoning their food to focus on Huntress's tale.
"So you really met him naked?" Cake ask, just to make sure.
"Yes." Was Huntress's short reply, continuing her nibbling of her food.
"So what happened after that?" Fionna asks, curious if she too will go through this, 'Better have the knowledge to be safe'
"We spent the next two weeks working together, trying to summon the Spirit. After those two weeks when we were about to give up, he finally came to us, then we parted ways."
"... Seriously? Nothing happened after two weeks of being together?" Huntress raises a eyebrow at the question 'Why is she thinking that me and Finn bonded there? Unless she does thinks me and Finn are together...' Immediately Cake panics at Huntress's expression 'Oh shoot! They think their relationship is secret! um...' "I mean... you're working together now, that can't be the last of it."
"Well... No."
"C'mon! Tell us! We won't say anything!" Fionna exclaims, Cake nodding and shifting her lips into a zip.
"No." Was the blunt reply, not that it stops the sisters.
"But!-" Huntress levitates a arrow, causing Fionna to sigh, "I just want to know what will probably happen to me." Huntress looks at the floor in thought before looking back at the sisters pleading eyes, and stops levitating her arrow. 'This will give me a chance to help form the image of the lone wolf, that me and Finn aren't dating, shake off any suspicion...'
"Ok." The sisters immediately drop their act and release a yes as their success, earning a eye roll from Huntress. "So when we went to do the final summoning, it initially failed and the Spirit of the Forest remained unseen. I gave up, and called everything was over, that it was time for me to move on as Finn tried to persuade us to continue, saying that he will spice up his flute playing skills. But Jake, the gender bent version of you Cake, said we should play together and while I was originally unsure I caved in, agreeing to one last play to end the time we spent together before going our separate ways...
"Use that chemistry to guide the music." Huntress Wizard approaches Finn and watches as he hands her his old wooden flute from his bag with a slight scared look, her herself being unsure about doing this. She grabs it from Finn as his brother moves his arms together, symbolising them to get closer, "Yeah, just get in there! Cosy up!" Huntress looks down at Finn's flute questioning why she was doing this when it won't summon her mentor, but for some reason... she just wants to, she wants to spend more time with Finn and play a song with him. She looks back up to Finn to see the end of him doing some arm signal to Jake, before he looks at her nervously.
"I guess we've tried everything else, huh?" She says with a smile to Finn, pulling the flute that has had Finn's lips on it for the past two weeks and brings it up to her mouth. In synch with Finn, they play a melody fills the air with their secret emotions, Finn's of his feelings for the huntress next to him, and Huntress's secret feelings about Finn that not even she was aware off, too focused on her goal to focus on them.
"Wowww..." Jake says, entranced the beauty of the melody as their songs fill each others blank spots before a bright light appears from his left, startling him and making him look at the intrusion with confusion. In the centre of grass a green spiral shoots out of the ground before thickening and tightening in on itself, a head pops out of the top before suddenly it forms the familiar form of the Spirit of the Forest. The musical duo immediately halt their expression of their secret feelings.
"Who summons me with the sweet song of longing?" He asks to no-one before looking at his old student, "Oh heyo. Can you see me now?" He asks, causing Huntress to lower the flute in her hands and squint at him 'Longing summoned him? All my attempts were longing for him, so why come now?'
"yes."
"How's it been going?" 'Why is he talking like we're friends who haven't just spent years apart from each other?'
"I've been talkin' to a lot of twigs. Where've you been dude?" She asks 'I've talked to every tree here to find you, have you not noticed? Why were you hiding from me?'
"I've been right here." He puts his arms next to his mouth before gesturing to the environment, "But the forces that drew us close became obscured-" He covers his eyes to symbolise what he is saying, "- as you drifted into the lifestyle of magic city livin'. Attracting forces come and go, it's the way of the world." He says, still doing arm movements.
"I still can't tell if you guys dated." Jake says what he and Finn were thinking, scratching the top of his head. Huntress doesn't say anything about it, only thinking 'That is unimportant right now, why were you trying to figure that out?' Much to the brothers silent annoyance neither get a answer from the other two. 'Whatever, I'm back to my goal'.
"But I'm ready to come back now!" She says, tightening her grip on the flute in her hands.
"Are you though?"
"That's what I'm saying." Jake says, much to the puzzlement of Huntress, 'What are they trying to say?'
"Finn, who was your flute spell for?" 'Huh, wasn't it for you?' She looks to Finn for answers who was looking at Jake. A second later he looks at her.
"I was playing my flute for you the entire time." 'What!?' Her face immediately changes to one of shock. "But I knew you had a thing with this dude and he seems cool." He looks at the Spirit of the Forest before looking back at her. "So I was just gonna keep playing my flute about my secret feelings until my flute broke." Through out that entire sentence, Huntress becomes more and more star struck. 'He was playing for me? That was why Jake was interested if I dated the Spirit! And the spirit knew as well, was I the only one unaware of his feelings?' She thinks. However, now that her goal of finding her mentor was over, a new one must take its place. And now that she was not focusing on something, now she realises why she wanted to play with Finn, why her song was one of sweet longing was different to her other ones. She now knows that with the time she spent with Finn that she has developed a crush for the boy. Instantly her memories of her seedhood fills her mind, her dreams of finding love. 'I can't be, I'm not soft, I don't need someone by my side!' Then she realises that this is Finn, the great hero of OOO, who has faced every form of beast and foe. If they were side by side, she won't ever get the chance to be soft with the foes he constantly faces. This boy was the one of the hardest people in OOO. 'But I would have to abandon my way of life... Not to mention that I would be putting myself in constant danger just to help some stranger for no personal gain, because of soft emotions. It's survival of the fittest right? That's what the hunt has taught me... Being soft and emotional to pity help someone might cost me my life'
"I worry that hard meat don't get eat." 'Sorry Finn, but I must be hard to survive, I can't be soft and help everyone like you, even if I do like you'. At there confused expression she tries to elaborate 'I remember wanting to find love as a kid' "That is to say: if I ever find what I'm looking for..." 'That I might of just found, but I must ignore because if I were to follow it:' "... I'll become soft and cease to matter in this world." Huntress says, admitting that she does want love, that she does have a soft side behind the tough girl appearance, but she does not want the world thinking that she needs help or companions out of fear of not being respected.
"What?" Was Jake's confused reply.
... And after that, Finn agreed that us dating would be a bad idea, he went home and I talked with the Forest of the Spirit." She ends her story, keeping the personal thoughts out of her tale and cutting it off before she kisses Finn 'Don't want them thinking we are dating'
"... So you're not dating?" Fionna asks, confused. 'Why did they kiss on the wall then?'
"Not to my knowledge, didn't you listen to my story? I'm afraid of looking soft by going all cuddly and kissy." She lies while mocking love, confusing the girls, "Why? Did you think we were?" She asks, probing for information due to their strange questions.
"N-no! Just... curious!" Fionna terribly lies, alerting Huntress. She levitates her arrow again and aims it Fionna who folds her arm up in surrender.
"You're a terrible liar Fionna, what do you know?" Fionna looks to the ground and sighs, before looking back at Huntress,
"All I know is that I saw you two kiss."
"You were spying on us?" 'If she was sent by Gumball to spy on us, what he would do, then he'll know about me and Finn and use it as blackmail to hang over our heads to make us do what he wants'.
"No! I just saw you! It was when you were on the candy wall after the science fair." Fionna explains, sweating a bit despite the cold. Huntress, however, grits her teeth. She knew she was being too bold! And it's now her fault for her relationship being exposed, and she told Fionna how they met! 'Now she's going to seek out guy me before either of them are ready to handle a relationship'.
"Does Gumball know?" 'After all, if it was a accident, she might not of told him yet...'
"No."
"Who have you told?"
"Only Cake, we haven't told anyone else." Who nods in agreement. 'Good'.
"I prefer it stay that way. Don't tell anyone what you saw, even Gumball. It's not your place to tell people about others personal feelings." Huntress warns and lectures. 'This is female Finn. Sure he makes mistakes and they can be pretty bad, but he has always learned from them, she'll do the same if someone tells her when she is wrong'.
"Sorry." Was Fionna's childish reply. 'She is a young Finn...'
"Alright We'll being discussing this later after we save Finn since it concerns him as well." She warns, giving them a stern, unimpressed look that causes them to flinch back at fear of having angered the deadly wizard. Standing, Huntress Wizard starts walking down the corridor to the door that lead to the next room, hoping it will distract her from her private relationship being discovered. The sisters silently follow her, hoping not to anger her anymore. She stands before the door, the group preparing themselves for a massive boss fight, arrows floated, sword drawn, and arm shifted, the group prepare to charge in. Huntress grabs the door handles, and swings it wide open causing them to dsmash into and scratch the ice walls. Infront of the group was a massive long corridor that was five-person wide that curved and bends, and was so large that they could not see the end, only a white fog. The white fog was actually a raging blizzard, and was not harming the group due to a white glowing sphere that occasionally arced lightning. The sphere was the epicentre of a larger, see-through sphere that only was visible due to it stopping the blizzard's ice shards that were as large as a ruler.
"What?! Where's the boss?" Cake shouts.
Ice Queen wakes up the next day, feeling... warm? 'This is the ice kingdom, something is not right!' She immediately prepares to go crazy with her magic until she notices something hooked around her waist. Turning to blast it, she freezes herself when she spots the face of her knight '... Everything is right' She thinks, and goes to grab his arm to cuddle him, to feel a warmth that was foreign to her. But she freezes again as Finn shifts a little. 'He is going to wake up soon... Time to make my great, secret escape!' She thinks, as she slowly slides from Finn's grip. She slowly reaches the point of escape, and when she does, she immediately flies away, using her enormous eyebrows to fly away, grabbing her dress on the way out.
Minutes later, Finn wakes from his sleep, none the wiser to what had happened during his sleep. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he panics for a second at not being in his room, but the previous day's events return to his memory causing him to sigh and look around the room. Getting up, he quickly changes into his clothes from yesterday due to the lack of any new clothes in the room, before silently exiting the room and going around the throne. Instantly, he spots the Ice Queen in the same spot as yesterday and was holding new, fresh clothes in her hands,
"I think you should have more than one set of clothes. I don't want my knight smelling or looking dirty when it could be avoided." She states.
"Thank you." Finn replies, grabbing the pile of clothes from her hand and bringing them back into the room. A few minutes later he returns, "What should I do about the old ones?"
"Just leave them there, I'll sort them out later." She answers whith a flick of a wrist, "Besides, I've got more things planned today."
"Any hints?" He asks in worry 'After last night, I better be careful...'
"Well when you said you were male Fionna, I thought about it and what she likes, and decided on something you might enjoy." She lifts a hand up and a sword made of ice appears in it, cold mist flowing aplenty off it. "Fighting."
"... Do you even know how to use that?" He asks with skepticism.
"Y-yeah! Just swish swish stab, right?" She ask with a nervous chuckle, causing Finn to facepalm.
"How about you stick with long range spells and I stick with the sword?"
"What if something comes close? Don't you think I should know how to use a sword?" She asks, faking fear to guilt him to training her 'I actually don't care about the sword, I just want you to touch me to correct my pose...'
"I'll defend you from anything that comes for you."
"... Yeah, lets do that, follow me." She says before exiting the room, Finn following close behind. 'This will be like role play of a knight protecting his Queen, risking his life for hers!... Actually it's not role play, since I'm actually a Queen and he is my knight... What just makes it even better!' She secretly thinks, as she leads him towards a large room, excited for her knight to protect her.
Hey guys! I'm on Ao3 now! So if I do something wrong, let me know as I've never used it before. They'll update at the same time as everyone else, so no need to worry about one updating and not the other. I hope those flashbacks were inserted well. Other than that, thank you all for reading!