I hadn't seen Marshall since that day. There were rumors spreading across Aaa about what happened to him; none were true, or at least I hoped weren't true. Of course I was upset at first; I refused to tell Cake what really happened those coupe days with Marshall, but she respected me when she saw how upset I was
I didn't just wallow around for long; I went back to adventuring the next week. On the outside everything was back to normal, but on the inside a part of me still longed to just see Marshall Lee again.
One day, I felt the urge to visit an old friend.
"Flame Prince, are you home?" I yell into the house we built by the water so many years ago.
I hear a scramble inside, "yeah, be right out." A few seconds later he emerges from his fiery home. "Haven't seen you around in a while."
"I can't help but smile, "yeah, I've been kinda busy lately, sorry."
"It's fine. So what brings you out today?" He asks making sure to keep a safe distance from me.
I sigh, "I just need to hang out with someone, Cake is always at Lord's house now and BMO is hiding in the walls."I feel super awkward, "do you want to go explore a dungeon or something?"
A smile appears on his face, "I thought you'd never ask."
I can feel our friendship revived walking away from his house into the woods, like nothing had ever happened to us.
With his heat sense we quickly find and enter the first hidden dungeon hidden behind a dumb looking rock. "My way, right?" He kids, and I can't help but join in the laughter from the memory of the first time we went adventuring together when we were only 13; when he admitted he was my boyfriend....
With FP lighting the way, we find ourselves in close quarters; stone walls keep us single file down the path. "So," he begins, "what've you been up to lately?"
"Just hanging about the kingdoms" Actually a lot less than before. After the incident with the truth potion, I really haven't talked to Gumball. I did go back every once and a while when he called on me, but our friendship was never the same. "So what have you been doin? Is your mom still bothering you?" I ask, genuinely concerned.
He shrugs, "not as much, she still pops in out of nowhere every once and a while but I don't really pay any mind to her anymore." His smile literally lights up the widening tunnel.
"That's good." I say as we walk into a large hollowed out entry way in the walls. FP quickly lights torches on the walls revealing a message written into the ceiling. "Trails wait ahead, meant for testing bravery and strength," I pause
"If you survive, a treasure will be your reward." He finishes. A determined smile spreads on his face, "ready?"
I pull out my Crystal sword, glittering in the fire light, "ready."
A doorway appears opposite us. I approach cautiously, waiting for some kind of trick; once I give the ok, FP burns down the door and we rush in.
We are immediately rushed by Thunder Hogs, they squeal and the whole room starts to shake and threatens to cave in. I start slicing any that come my way and I feel rushes of heat as FP pushes the falling stone away from our heads.
The animals kept coming and I was starting to fall slow. I quickly notice a hole on the wall where they were coming from. "Over there!" I shout and point with my sword. FP quickly understands and sends the next falling rock into the hole, blocking more from escaping.
With a final swing of my sword, the last one falls.
It takes me a few seconds to re-catch my breath; FP comes up from behind me, "you ready?"
"Yeah," I stretch out my shoulder a bit and I'm ready to go, "open the next door!"
And so went the rest of the day, fighting monsters and creatures that came out of nowhere, solving riddles to fight bosses. It was exhilarating! I felt refreshed and new even in the musty cave air.
After what felt like forever, we seemed to have reached the inner sanction of the cave.
upon breaking down the door, we walked into a large circular room. the smooth dirt walls only illuminated by a single shaft of light shining down on a worn wooden chest in the center of the room.
FP starts towards it but I wave him off, thinking it's probably a trap.
Sure enough as I take a step forward, the room shakes and an eerie mist pours in from the skylight that has now turned dark, like someone had turned off the sun. FP comes back to my side, himself being the only source of light now.
The mist curls around our feet and begins to whisper, "I have seen your fears, young adventurers, and to gain the treasure you must pass this final task."
We only have a second to look to each other before I feel I'm being sucked into the floor. I seem to fall at least 10 feet and smack onto the hard ground.
My knee caps ache in protest of me getting up right after the fall. "I have no fears!" I declare, "adventurers are fearless!" I yell into the darkness. And that's all there was: darkness, nothing. I could still hear my own voice echoing in the distance.
I take a few cautionary steps and then start running. "Hello? Anyone?! FP?" the silence roars in my ears, just the sound of my own voice rings. I slow to a walk and collapse into the floor, exhausted. "Please! Anyone!" I scream with no response except my heartbeat growing louder in my chest.
"I'm afraid of being alone!" I admit between upcoming sobs racking my body.
I was afraid of being alone. The full realization hits me as I lay on the smooth floor of nothing.
I was a boom-boom baby, left alone in the forest with no one who cared. Abandoned. No one stopped to help me, so I swore to help anyone in need, become a hero; but I guess the fear of loss and abandonment has just become a part of me.
A quick, warm touch brushes away, what must have been a falling tear. My eyes open and see FP kneeling next to me on the ground of the circular room. "You're fine now, you're out."
I sit up, looking around the room, "what happened?" The chest sits open in the center of the room.
"It was the final test, to see if we would admit and survive our fears."
I start walking towards the chest, "Was it your mom?" I ask genuinely, knowing his struggle with her ways.
"Yeah, I was back home and she kept telling me I was evil, that I was going to do horrible things." He presses his hands to his face.
"You don't have to talk about it anymore," I assure him, wanting to comfort him, but not really sure how with out burning myself.
We come upon the chest and look inside: "books?" He questions looking at the chest full of 50 or more books.
I shuffle through some, "maybe some are magic books, or something."
He picks one out of the pile, "'Automobile Repair Guide', what does that even mean?"
I snatch it out of his hand as it begins to singe, "math! These are pre-Mushroom war books, I think. How are we gonna get them out?" I look up at the skylight hundreds of feet above our heads, the only way out.
He slams the chest shut and picks it up, "I got this." He shoots up on a column of flame up and out of the hole above.
It seems to be taking him a while to come get me, I call up, "Marshhhhhhh...." the name slips by accident, "glob," I mutter under my breath."Flame Prince!" I shout even louder.
A few moments later, I spy his fiery stream come back in. "I ran home to get this," he pulls out a roll of tin foil that just puts a smile on my face.
"You still had some leftover?" Memories of our cuddling at the movies with me wrapped head to toe in the stuff flood back.
He shrugs, "You never know, right?" His familiar smile brightens the room as he begins wrapping me like yesterday's pie.
He runs out with just enough to finish off covering my bunny hat. "Ready?" I nod and he sweeps me up in his arms, holding me tight to his body. "You okay?" He makes sure, his golden irises burning low in my blue ones.
"Great." I reply and he immediately bursts into the air. Out of the skylight, the sunset shimmered on the horizon. The familiar scent of cinnamon washes over me and I uncontrollably nestle deeper into him, the gentle warmth of him easing its way through the foil, like the sun on a new summer's day.
we softly land in front of the tree house next to the chest of books waiting there. He sits me on top of the books and steps off. I tear my way out of it, crumpling it into a ball about the size of BMO.
"Well I guess I'll be seeing you around a bit more?" FP suggests shoving his hands in his pockets.
I breathe out a chuckle, "definitely." I toss the ball of foil to him, "we're gonna need more of that though."
He catches the ball and holds it in his hands, "great." The foil chars as he rolls it in his hands thoughtfully, "see ya."
"Bye." He flies off while I shove the chest of books into the house.
I lay all the books out on the ground, interested in the pre-Mushroom War books. Some seemed like instruction books like the 'automobile' one, I put them in one group; but most were story books, 'novels' I think the proper name was.
One that caught my eye had a picture of a boy on a broom, seemingly flying: 'Harry Potter', maybe it's about magic and an unkempt Gardner...
Another set of books were tied together, three of them, "Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay..." I read to myself. The bird on the covers remind me of this bird that comes around every once and a while; annoying little thing.
"Dracula." I read off a particularly old looking book. I crack it open, the pages stiff and feel as though they would shatter to the touch.
I read the back cover, "blood suckers, vampires?" My curiosity grows. I carefully turn back to page one and begin to read fast, as feeling the book would disintegrate in my hands at any moment.
I wondered up to my bed to continue reading. The vampire, Dracula, would hypnotize women and draw them from their houses. I continued to read and the villagers realized he could become a bat, turn into the mist or a wolf form.
He drank blood for sure, killing his victims with a single bite. I unconsciously touch the fading scar where 'he' bit me years ago, an everlasting reminder of him on my life.
I snap the book shut, causing dust to sprinkle to the ground.
"Whoa, where'd you get all these books?" Cake walks in from her weekend with Lord Monochromicorn, setting her dulcimer down in the kitchen.
I clutch the book in my hand, "its adventure time, Cake." I slide the book into my pack and gather other things we might need.
Her ears prick up, "mathematical! Where we goin?" She asks hopping into my pack.
"The Nightosphere." I say simply.
Cake's tail frizzes out as she hops back out, "Why are we going there? Never mind we can't go there, no one knows how!"
I shoulder my backpack and start heading for the door, "I'll find the way."
I hear a sigh followed by her leaping onto my head, "Well, you ain't going without me, baby cakes. But who would know how to get there?"
"I might have an idea."
"Sorry Fionna, I don't know." Gumball's voice sounds through the intercom of his lab.
I see him through the glass window separating us and other scientists spectating him. "No ones been to or from the Nightosphere in ages." He explains while mixing chemicals and typing codes into a huge computer.
I let out a frustrated sigh and press the button to talk, "thanks anyway, good luck with..." I glance at the candies in lab coats taking notes, "whatever you're doing." He waves bye.
"Its okay, we'll find someone," Cake is interrupted by a whisper behind...some plants?
"Psst," We look at each other and approach the plant slowly. Peeking behind the leaves, we reveal Peppermint Maid.
"Oh, it's just you. Why are you..." she clamps my mouth shut with her small red hand.
"I can help you." She drops her hand from my mouth hole.
"With the Nightosphere?" I say a bit too loudly and this time Cake covers my mouth.
Peppermint Maid nods her head. She takes a quick peek out from the plants before pushing a tile out of the floor and gesturing us to go in. Cake and I silently nod in understanding and jump in together.
We slide down a cool metal shoot, seeing floor coming I quickly tuck and roll onto the floor. Peppermint Maid follows behind, ending her descent with a neat triple flip and landing.
She wastes no time, in this cave like setting, searching through a bookshelf for something.
"Are you sure about this?" Cake whispers in my ear. I give a determined nod as she curls into my backpack. The air in the cave had a heavy sweet scent and the walls oozed golden colored goo which I didn't wish to investigate.
"Here" She hands me an open book and a carton of milk. I look up from the jumbled words in the book to find her scratching what looks like an image of a woman's face into the dirt. "Now throw the milk at the picture and say the words!" She demands.
The milk splatters all over the face and I try my best at the words, at least saying them with confidence.
The floor opens up to a portal that shimmers the image of another world. "Go now you fools!" I try to get a word in but Peppermint Maid pushes me down the hole and splat into a dirt pile. At first I'm sure it didn't work, but with one glance around us, I was sure we made it to "The Nightosphere." I say in awe