Adventure Time Novelized
1-4
Tree TrunksChapter 1: Afternoon Baking"Alright boys, can you not mess around with my knives and apples?"
"Ok."
Finn and Jake put down a singular kitchen knife and a couple apple slices each onto the wooden table in front of them, as Tree Trunks sorted them away. They'd been invited to her home by the petit elephant, as she was in her baking mood that afternoon. She lived in a small cottage close to the Candy Kingdom, surrounded by rows of apple trees. She had been most well known in areas closest to her for her baking ability, most notably her apple pies. The inside of her home was as welcoming as her, with walls and ceiling painted shades of pink and peace, as well as several apple-shaped objects.
The sound of the oven dinging signaled the pie had finished baking. "Oh, apple pie's finished y'all.", she softly exclaimed, trotting over to open the oven door. "Woo, are you as excited as I am?" Jake cheered, Finn responding "Yeah, dude. Bet your butt that I'll eat it all before you can touch it." "Oh, no you won't." As they hyped it up, the elephant gently placed the still steaming pie onto a wooden table, smiling. The human boy and dog then proceeded to forcibly block each other from the desert, putting them in a complete stalemate with no means of offense. "Oh you two, there's no need to fight now.", Tree Trunks joked, briefly turning her body to face them. Turning back, she abruptly picked the desert up, her expression darkening, callously dumping it in her trash can and murmuring to herself. "Woah, why are you throwing it away?" Finn jumped at her sudden action. This had been the first time he'd seen her do something so recklessly. With someone as temperamental as her, it takes a lot to truly piss her off. "The flies stained its beauty. I cannot give you a stained pie.", she coldly explained, before sighing and adding "But don't worry, boys. I can make another quicker than the shake of a lamb's tail." "Woo, thanks man. You make the best pies ever", the magical dog replied, as she began gathering ingredients to start the baking process over. "Oh, I'm not quite sure I'd say they're the best. It's an honest effort, really.", she chuckled softly. "What are you talking about? How could you possibly do better?" Finn questioned. At that moment, he couldn't tell whether she was being legit or having a bout of self esteem issues.
"You see, if I could do anything, I'd go find the Crystal Gem Apple. I've heard it's simply enchanting." A wistful look washed over the elderly elephant as she stared off out a window. "Huh, that sounds pretty cool. Where is it?", Finn asked curiously. What she had described was something he'd expect for her to fixate over. "From what I know, it's tucked away deep within the Dark Forest. But honestly, I'd be too cute and frail to brave something like that. It'd be suicide." "Oh come on man, it's your dream. I'd hate to see you waste away, thinking you're unable to fulfill it.", the human boy assured her, Jake adding "Yeah, we'll help you through. We're not busy today, really." "Really? Wow, I couldn't be more grateful. I guess, just for today, I'll be…..", she paused for a moment to think, before finishing "...I'll be Adventurer Tree Trunks." It wasn't the most creative nickname, but the human boy could tell she tried.
Chapter 2: The Dark ForestBy the time the Adventure Trio left for the Dark Forest, the sun still shone directly above them. A small breeze gently glided through them, as Finn and Jake walked with Tree Trunks on their shoulders. "You really don't have to do this for me. I can walk just fine.", she looked down at them with an empathetic look on her face. "Nah man, it's fine. We were just worried you'd tire out easy.", Finn attempted to assure her. This would be her first, and most likely last experience braving the dangerous parts of Ooo. Him and the magical dog had agreed to try averting harm to her as much as they could, so her own lack of expertise doesn't end up killing her. "No, I mean you really shouldn't have to do it. This is my dream- I should be able to do this without you two just carrying me there." With a huff, she hopped off of them onto the ground below. "Hey, it floats your boat, that's chill by me.", Jake remarked, as they continued forward. She seemed to catch up with them mostly ok, though she'd occasionally fall behind observing her surroundings. Even then, she rushed back to the two once she realized she was faltering.
Despite how bright the day was, the moment they set foot in the Dark Forest, they were plunged in near complete darkness. The thick trees blocked out most of the sun, leaving only slivers of light around them. Clearly the naming was literal. As they trekked further and further away from the entrance, a nervous expression seemed to briefly wash over the elephant's face. "Are you ok? You know we can turn around at any point.", Finn questioned her. Even if she was so determined about her dream, he wouldn't want to force her to continue if she was having second thoughts. "No, don't worry about me. I'm fine.", she shook the fear of her face, forcing a look of fearlessness. Deep within the shadows, the human boy swore he could see eyes, watching the trio's every move. He wasn't sure whether they were real, or simply nothing more than a paranoid illusion. Both ideas were equally concerning.
As a wet squish reverbated below them, Finn felt himself resisting the urge to gag. Jake seemed to share similar emotions, as he shuddered "What the heck is this stuff? Did we just step on a dead body?" Looking down, the trio could make out a fleshy blob covering at least an inch of the ground. It also covered some of the trees west of them, with a length about a quarter of them. "Dude, this does not sit right with me.", the magical dog commented, creeping across it with a look of disgust plastered on his face. "Finn, are we in danger?" Tree Trunks asked the human boy, who could only respond with "I can't tell." Close to her, an eye opened, blinking as it blankly stared at her. "Oh, er, hello flesh person. What are you doing?", she faced the eye, tilting her head with intrigue. As much as her instincts told her the thing should be avoided at all costs, she couldn't quite jump to conclusions yet. "I dunno if we should be hanging around this. Anything lingering in these woods could be dangerous.", the human boy warned her, guessing that the creature was most likely feral, at least to an extent. "Yeah man, just looking at it makes me sick." Jake added in agreement, from outside of it, as a chunk of it formed a hand and lurched at the dog. Yelping, the magical dog quickly shifted his right hand into a hammer, beating the fleshy appendage until it retreated back into its main form. "Well, maybe us standing on it is painful to it.", she suggested, adding to the creature "We won't be bothering you for any longer, ok?" As the two made their way to where Jake was, a collection of deformed looking appendages took hold of the elephant, hoisting her several feet in the air. "Oh dear. I didn't mean to aggravate you, I swear." To the surprise of neither Finn or Jake, the flesh creature ignored her polite apologies. Instead, it revealed a gaping maw where the trio previously set foot on, as if preparing to drop her in. "Don't worry, we're coming for you.", Finn declared, pulling a butcher knife out of his pocket. Without another moment's hesitation, he jumped up and slashed at its eye, causing it to let out an animalistic shriek of pain. Landing on the edge of its "wall", he cut its arms, and as it dropped it, he lunged at the small elephant's body, pushing them back to the grass. As the flesh retreated, the human boy panted "Are you alright?" as the two helped each other to their feet. "Oh, I guess I'm alright thanks to you. I just didn't think that creature would be so aggressive.", she responded, letting out a sigh of relief. "Most of the things we're dealing with here are aggressive. We have to keep our guard up for the time being, understand?", he explained to her as calmly as he could. It was clear that her bad judgment was nothing more than a bad case of naivety on her part. "Uh sure, understood.", she responded, admittedly reluctantly. In her life, she simply hated the idea that horrible acts are committed for cruel, or worse, sadistic reasons. She then added "Let's carry on. I can't have this taking too long.", as the trio continued forward. As all was said and done, the human boy quickly pocketed the butcher knife.
After the incident, Finn noted that Tree Trunks had started to linger just a bit behind them. Contrasting the wide eyed excitement she showed, she stared down at the floor, her expression unreadable. "Hey man, I really don't want to sound rude right now, but are you sure she's actually fit for this? She nearly got herself killed trying to sympathize with that monster for Glob's sake." Jake spoke up, his voice low enough so only the human boy could hear. "Can't we just cut her some slack? I'm trying to give the benefit of the doubt here. Plus, this is just a one-off ordeal, so once it's over we won't have this issue again.", Finn whispered back in response. "The benefit of the doubt isn't going to help anything if she dies trying to negotiate with a feral animal. I'm just saying if we cut our losses here, she'd understand." The magical dog sighed. "What are you two muttering about? Was this a bad time?", the petite elephant questioned from a foot away. "It's nothing important.", Finn and Jake responded almost simultaneously, though the former spoke casually as to assure her, the latter seemed to only shrug it off. "O-oh alright." She paused, before gasping "Oh! Sorry, I can't be slowing y'all down." She darted up just behind them, audibly panting afterwards as though just barely not out of breath.
The next couple minutes were spent completely wordlessly. Other than the sounds of Tree Trunks wheezing, and the ambient noises of the forest around them, they were left in complete silence. An awkward tension hung in the air, so thick it could be cut with a knife. At some point, they took a sharp turn. Soon afterwards, the wheezing seemed to abruptly cut off. "Hey man, does it seem a bit…quiet to you?", Finn questioned, Jake shrugging "I dunno what you're talking about. It's always been kinda quiet." Looking around, one thing left a shock jolting down his spine- Tree Trunks was absent. She had been sticking closely to them up until that point- how could they possibly have lost her at some point?
Chapter 3: Not HelpingShe only stopped to catch her breath for a second- how could she have lost them so quickly? She swore she stared at the ground one moment, then looked up the next to see the others were long gone.
Turning to a random direction, Tree Trunks found herself heading up a small hill that still didn't seem to peak beyond the trees that seemed to stretch up forever, wondering when her absence would be noticed. Given that she'd spent the period of time up until that point trying her darndest to not be a burden, this was definitely the worst case scenario. Once she reached the top of the hill, she practically collapsed onto the cold grass. She'd been walking for so long, she didn't realize she was sore until she stopped. Her legs felt as though they were not only made of rubber, they were also on fire. Butterflies fluttered around her in a migration-like formation, giving her the slightest twinge of joy. Even in dark and creepy looking places like such, innocence could still thrive. Hopefully once the trio reunited, this whole misunderstanding would be over with. She could hear what appeared to be footsteps approaching from all angles, but at that point she was too weak to attempt fighting them. "Hello there? Uh, I'm not here to hurt anyone, hehe. Please don't hurt me…."
The sound of low growling from a nearby hill quickly alerted Finn and Jake from their brief moment of panic. Fearing the worst, they broke into a run to the source of the noise. "Do you think Tree Trunks is in danger? I swear we should just call this a day." Jake spoke up, in his continuous insistence. The human boy didn't respond, focused entirely on the conflict at hand. He simply didn't have time to argue with his bro. To his horror, the magical dog was half-correct. A group of mimics, disguised as signs, swarmed the curled up body of the petite elephant. "Run!", they cried out to her in unison, her lifting herself to her feet weakly shortly afterwards. "I-I hear you boys now. I just don't get why they'd want to hurt innocent ol' me." As she began limping away towards Finn and Jake, two of the mimics snatched her by her legs, incapacitating her. "Please don't do this. It's simply cruel..", she mumbled to the creatures just barely audibly, as though still trying to reason with monsters. Without another moment of hesitation, he and Jake jumped into action. Splitters and wood chips filled the air as the duo punched, kicked, and occasionally chopped at the mimics with their butcher knife. When the dust settled, Finn had gotten out of the hostile encounter with only a throbbing bruise on his life eye. "Oh, oh dear. I am so, so sorry I needed you to rescue me…again. I got a bit lost, I was exhausted, and….", Tree Trunks trailed off, lost in thought as though trying to think of more reasons, before finishing "I feel like such a horrible adventurer Finn.", she rushed over to him and Jake as she apologized frantically, giving them a shameful frown. "Hey, it's still your first time. You know, I wasn't too good at adventuring when I first started out. Things like these take months, if not years of practice. Don't be so hard on yourself.", the human boy assured her, though Jake quickly shot him an irritated glare afterwards, which he decided to ignore. "Plus, you're too cute to hate. Let us continue!", he added.
Before they were even halfway back down the hill, they were met by the sounds of loud hissing from a bush closeby. Jumping out of it was a monster that seemed to be made of dozens of pink snakes, with a single screen-like appendage resembling eyes. "Aw dang, not again. Jake, you keep her away from the danger. I can fight these off on my own." Compiling to Finn, Jake hoisted Tree Trunks a couple inches off the ground, as he carried her to a spot out of the snake amalgamation's sight. "Can't I help Finn out non-violently. Like maybe I could distract it, so he can defeat it while its guard is down?", the small elephant squirmed in the dog's hands. "We've done this hundreds of times before. My bro knows what he's doing." Jake attempted to assure her, but it didn't stop the squirming.
Meanwhile, Finn had been fighting off the snake beast reasonably well. While it was slightly stronger than the average encounter, it seemed then that it could be taken out in a couple of hits. One of the many snake heads lunged at him, which he then swiftly chopped off with the butcher knife. It cried out in pain, green blood oozing out of the spot of the decapitation, before it continued its attack without mercy. "Hey there snake thing. Can't you take some time away from ambushing people to check me out?", he could hear a voice calling out, gradually sounding closer to him. Wearing an obviously rushed makeup job, the petite elephant strode towards the two like one of those models from the ancient runway shows. Remaining focused on the battle at hand, he questioned "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be with Jake." "What? If I distract him with my sexy form, you'll have a chance to strike him when he's down. I'm just trying to make this easier on you.", she casually responded, winking. The snake beast only took a second to hiss at her, before resuming its assault as if she was not enough of a threat for it to make a priority. "Don't blame me. She kicked me in the balls!" Jake could be heard in the distance, his arms stretching out from beyond to grab the snake monster. The magical dog added "It's incapacitated, but I can't seem to…" He paused, before finishing "Right, I found the weak spot." He turned it over, revealing a ruby attached to its back, which seemed to serve as the glue holding the snakes together. Finn struck the gem with his knife, causing the creature to immediately explode into a shower of light. "Did that help? Even a little?" Tree Trunks sheepishly grinned as she asked.
Chapter 4: Confronting Inconvenience"Hey, can I just be honest with you for a sec?"
At Jake's question, the petite elephant answered "Oh sure." without hesitation. The magical dog then proceeded to go on "Dude, you are not fit to be an adventurer. You've been an inconvenience at best, and me and Finn really don't want to have to bend over backwards to guarantee your safety. If you do get yourself hurt, we'd never be able to live it down. From the moment we encountered that flesh monster, I just knew this would be a bust." Upon hearing his long-winded explanation, Tree Trunks simply replied "Oh alright, I understand.", in complete resignation. Turning around, she observed from one side of the seemingly endless forest to the other, muttering "Shoot. I can't tell where we came from. It all looks the same." Finn pulled Jake aside, questioning "Did you seriously have to be so harsh about it?" with a low voice. "What? I needed to be honest with her. If I just lie and say she's doing fine, how long would it take before something bad happens and she's killed?" Jake bluntly responded also with a low voice. "I mean, being honest isn't bad. It's just, that was kinda rude." "So?" "So, you can't just go up to someone and tell them their self esteem worries are true. You might've just junked her up there."
Before the argument could escalate any further, they could hear the elderly elephant exclaim "Woah. Boys, I found the crystal gem apple." "Wait, really?", both blurted in unison, turned to where she was facing. Hidden between a small clump of bushes, lied a large, maroon mushroom shaped tree. Surrounded by its bark, an apple that looked as though it had been frozen in an inch thick crystal was hung, almost completely out in the open. "That's great, man. Hey, sorry I was kinda rude to you just a second ago. I've just been worried about your safety, ok?", the magical dog sighed. "No, it's fine. I decided I won't be adventuring anymore after all this is over. It's simply not my forte.", she calmly replied, as the trio snuck towards the tree. The only thing seeming to block them from having a straight shot victory was what appeared to be a crystal guardian, its skin made entirely out of sapphire. "Alright, you stay here while me and Jake handle the enemy.", Finn straightforwardly explained to the elephant, who only nodded in response. Without another moment's hesitation, they leaped at the crystal enemy. As if psychic, it jumped at them at the same time, it's top shifting to resemble both the human boy and the dog's heads. With every offensive move the two took, the crystal being would simply mimic them down to the fine details. It was an obvious stalemate, with none of them being able to land even a single hit. "Do you think maybe it's copying us?" Finn questioned as the fighting came to a halt. As though on cue, the crystal guardian parroted "Do you think maybe it's copying us?", in the exact same tone. The only difference was the noticeable reverb in its voice. For a moment, he considered the implications of the new variable. If the crystal guardians' main form of combat was through imitation, a conventional form of attack would end up rendered useless. As such the only viable option of getting the trio to the crystal apple was to keep the enemy distracted as they slipped away from harm. Suddenly, at that very moment, an idea sprung to him. "Jake, I think I know how to deal with it. Could you possibly get the makeup?", he told the magical dog, who responded saying "Wait, huh? What are you planning?" "We're in need of a…distraction." "Ok, got it dude." The dog stretched his arm beyond the human boy's vision, stretching it back with the makeup kit. "Oh my, can I join in? I'm made for this." Tree Trunks followed the retracted arm in intrigue. "You know what, sure.", Finn responded casually. And such, the most awkward "flirting" session known to man began.
As expected, the crystal guardian mimicked their applied makeup, even adding a third "head" for the petite elephant. As they moved towards the tree, it made no efforts to attack back with no offensive moves to counter. A couple of painfully awkward "flirting" motions later, they had reached the base. "Ok, so, Tree Trunks is allowed to touch the apple? Yes." Jake faked an agreement, which the crystal beast parroted without hesitation. With that, the dog carried Finn and the elephant up, until they reached the closest point to the crystal apple they possibly could. She trotted on the dog's back, carefully grabbing the apple with her trunk. She took a small bite, only for her face to visibly pale not long after. "Oh dear, the feeling is indescribable.", she muttered, her body going completely stiff. "Is everything alright?", the human boy asked, starting to become concerned. "I have no idea…..", she trailed off in response, before abruptly her body exploded into a blinding ball of light. By the time he and Jake cleared their vision, both her and the apple had vanished. Just across from them, the crystalline creature shared the exact same shocked expression. How could any of them comprehend what just happened? One second she was fine, the next….gone without a trace. Even with his years of experience, the human boy found himself completely and utterly baffled. Ok, maybe the quest was a bad idea from the start.