Chapter Text
It was a bright and beautiful day in the town of Brighton. The town folks were moving along with their daily lives with a smile and the children were playing happily out in the sun. Funny enough this little town used to be considered one of the most miserable places in America, but that all changed thanks to the hard effort of a teenage girl called Molly McGee.
Although this story isn’t about her, but instead about another girl who also lived in Brighton. Within the town there was a small bookstore that went by the name Book Marks the Spot. This store was run by a single mother and her only daughter. In fact, the daughter in question was relaxing in one of the store’s chairs with a book in hand.
This young girl was Libby Stein-Torres. She is a thirteen year old teenager with tan colored skin and brown hair that went down to her waist. She wore a green teal sweater with olive colored pants with a minor rip located on her left knee and a pair of black boots.
It had been a bit of a slow day, so Libby had taken this chance to catch up on some reading. Although her time to relax was cut short when she heard the doorbell at the entrance ring. Libby tensed up a little before looking up from her book to see if it was a customer that walked in. She relaxed a little when she saw it was just her mother walking in with a box in her arms.
Her mother was Leah Stein-Torres. She was a middle aged woman with tan colored skin like and messy olive brown hair that went down to her neck. She was wearing a white shirt with a brown jacket, an olive green scarf around her neck, a pair of denim jeans and grey slip-on shoes.
“Oh hey Mom, what are you bringing in here?” Libby looked at the box that her mother was carrying with curiosity.
“Oh you mean this? These are just some books from Weird Larry’s store. He asked me if I could sell these here while he remodeled his place.” Leah explained before putting the box down on a nearby table. She took a moment to crack her back a little before looking back at her daughter. “Do you think you can put these away for me? There are some books I need to catalog in the meantime.”
“Yeah I can do that.” Libby placed a bookmark on the page she was on before putting the book down.
“Oh thank you turtle dove.” Leah walked over to her daughter and gave her a hug, to which Libby returned happily.
Leah released her daughter after a few seconds of hugging before walking off to take care of the cataloguing. Libby got up from the chair she was in and went to grab a nearby book cart. She brought the cart over to the table and began to place the books on top of it. She had to admit that some of these books were rather interesting, but it was the last book she grabbed that caught her eye the most.
The book in question had a brown leather cover with a leather clasp that kept the book closed. The front cover had an interesting star shaped pentagram with what looked like green gemstone in the center of it. There wasn’t any kind of title on the book nor was there an author’s name.
“I wonder what’s your little story.” Libby looked at the mysterious book with curiosity before shaking her head and placed it on the cart. “Well I guess I’ll read you later after I’m done sorting these.”
Libby began to push the cart around the store and sorted the new books in their new place. While Libby had already done this kind of thing before, the strangeness of these books had made it a bit of a challenge to sort. Although she was still able to figure them out and was able to whittle down the large stack until only a couple of books remained. Libby was in the far back of the store at this point looking over one of the last few remaining books.
“A 1001 Facts About Snails…” Libby quietly read the title of the book that she was holding before giving it a weird look. “I’m not sure why anyone would want to know that much about snails, but you never know I guess. Now where should I put-”
Libby found her thoughts interrupted for a brief moment when she heard a thud from behind her. She turned around to see what had caused the sound and saw what had happened. Somehow one of the books had fallen off the cart and was now lying open on the floor. Although it wasn’t just any book that had fallen, it was the same mysterious book she had found earlier.
“Now how did you fall off the cart?” Libby walked over to the book cart to put down the book she had before picking up the fallen book. “You were nowhere near the edge.”
When Libby picked up the book, she noticed something that was very odd. The pages that were opened were written in weird looking scribbles that made no sense. Libby began to flip through the rest of the book and saw that these scribbles were on all of the pages. The only exception to this was the very first page which had clear English writing.
Libby looked over at the book cart and the couple of books that she hasn’t put away yet. She knew that she should put the book away and get back to work. But so far this book had hooked her interest too much to put it down. In the end her curiosity had gotten the better of her.
“Well… I’m sure mom wouldn’t mind if I take a little break.” Libby sat down on the ground and crossed her legs to make herself comfortable. She placed the book down on her legs and began to read the first page.
Greeting dear reader.
If you are able to read this then that means you came across a once in a lifetime opportunity. You have the chance to go on a wild journey in a world full of adventure and magic beyond your wildest dreams. However you must first become the new owner of this spellbook.
All you need to do is place your hand on the green gemstone on the cover while saying the incantation at the bottom of the page. However I must warn you that this is a one way trip. Whether you choose to take this offer or not is entirely up to you.
“A journey full of adventure and magic…” Libby repeated what she had read while staring at the book with a skeptical look.
Truth be told, a part of her had started to think that whoever wrote this book was some crazy author. After all there was no such thing as spell books and actually magic in the world. Then again that’s exactly what she used to think about ghosts until she had met Scratch. Although what were the odds that this book was actually a real spellbook?
“Hmm… Well I guess there’s one way to see if this is real or not.” Libby read over the incantation a few times to memorize it. It was just a simple little phrase so it didn’t take her very long to record it in her memory.
Libby closed the book and looked directly at the green gemstone, her own reflection in the gem looking back at her. Libby was beginning to have some second thoughts of whether she should go through with this or not. She could simply put the book away and continue on with her work like nothing had happened. Although it wasn’t like she had anything to really lose if the book turned out to be a fake. Libby took a deep breath as she finally made up her mind and placed her hand on the gem.
“I, Libby Stein-Torres, do hereby swear to take ownership of this book of magic and to learn all of its secrets.” Libby spoke loud and clearly as she spoke out the required incantation. She immediately began to look around upon completing to see if anything had happened. However, everything seemed to be perfectly normal. “Well I guess this was a fake spell book after all.”
Libby pushed herself up to her feet and went to put the spell book back on the cart. That was until she had felt the book twitch a little in her hand. She stopped to look down at the book with confusion when she felt it. She had thought that she had imagined until the book began to shake violently before flying out of her hands.
The book hovered before Libby as it opened up on its own, its pages flipping through at rapid speed. Libby stared at the book with shock until she noticed the books on the book cart were beginning to float up into the air. That was when she noticed that her hair was beginning to rise up and pretty soon her own body began to float. Suffice to say Libby was beginning to panic as she struggled to keep herself upright. Although things only got worse when she saw a hole beginning to form in the ceiling. The hole grew bigger and bigger until it became what looked like a massive wormhole.
“Olay that’s bad. That’s really really bad!” Libby looked around in a panic to find something to hold onto until her eyes rested on the book. The book had suddenly closed itself up and the front cover was facing her, the gemstone starting to glow brightly. “Okay and that’s even worse.”
Before Libby could do anything to react, a beam of light shot out of the gem and struck her in her head. Libby suddenly found it difficult to keep her eyes open as she felt her consciousness starting to fade. Once her eyes had fully closed shut, her unconscious body began to be pulled into the wormhole along with the book. As soon as both of them had entered the wormhole, it quickly began to close and disappeared.
Everything else that was floating at the time suddenly fell back down as gravity returned to normal. No evidence was left behind that this strange event had even happened nor any trace of Libby’s disappearance.
…
The land of Ooo…
It is a strange and fantastical world that is filled with diverse kingdoms and even more diverse creatures. There are those that could control fire, sea creatures that lived in the bottom of the sea, and there are even sentient animals that are capable of speech! Although a magical place like this has plenty of monsters and villains that wish to enact countless evils on the inhabitants of this world. Thankfully the land of Ooo has two great heroes to protect the innocent.
The first hero of this land was Finn the Human. Finn was a young human boy with white skin and golden color hair that was kept hidden under his white bear hat. He wore a simple teal shirt, dark blue shorts, and a black boots with white cuffs. He also carries around a green backpack which holds a bunch of stuff for his adventures like his swords.
The second hero was Jake the Dog. Jake was a magical dog with yellow fur with the power to shapeshift. Jake was able to change into just about anything he could imagine, which helps out a lot in countless fights and for travels. He also happens to be Finn’s older brother and his best friend.
One would wonder what in the world these great heroes could be doing right now. Well currently they were relaxing on a grassy field while looking at the clouds. Normally the two best friends would go on some kind of adventure when they weren’t busy saving the day, but they got plans for tonight. So they decided to take a moment to relax and check what kind of cloud shapes they could find. It was currently Jake’s turn at this time.
“Now let's see… Oh I see a shark cloud!” Jake quickly pointed towards the cloud in question. The cloud did in fact look like a shark with an open mouth as if it was ready to take a bite. “Alright your turn Finn.”
“Okay… Oh hey I see a Cloud Person!” Finn quickly pointed a finger at a cloud that looked a lot like a person. That was because it really was a living being made entirely of clouds. The Cloud Person waved happily over at the human and Finn was happy enough to return the wave.
“Oh come on Finn, you know Cloud People don’t count.” Jake looked over at Finn as he said that. “It has to be a non living cloud.
“Okay fine.” Finn rolled his eyes before he began to look around the sky once again. That was when she spotted the weirdest looking cloud he ever saw. “Woah check out that weird cloud over there.”
Jake looked over at the cloud that Finn was talking about. Although what he saw made him frown a little before sitting upright. “Uh Finn, I don’t think that’s a cloud.”
“Wait what?” Finn sat up before squinting his eyes to see the weird cloud better.
It turns out that Jake was right about it not being a cloud. Instead it looked like some kind of hole that was opening in the sky. Although it didn’t stay open for long as it began to close the moment something suddenly flew out of it. The two heroes followed the strange projective falling before landing into the nearby forest.
“Whoa! Hey Jake did you just see that?” Finn asked as he quickly looked over at Jake, wanting to make sure that what he had seen was real.
“Yeah I saw it buddy.” Jake confirmed as he looked back up at the sky just in time to witness the portal completely close and disappear. “I wonder what that was all about.”
“Well there’s only one way to find out!” Fin sprung up to his feet and looked over at the forest with excitement in his eyes. The very thought of finding whatever was in that forest was getting him pumped up. “Come on Jake, let’s go see what landed in that forest!”
“Oh alright…” Jake begrudgingly got up from the ground and went down on all four paws. While he would have preferred to relax on the grassy field, he had to admit he was a little curious about what came out of the portal. “Just get on top of me and I’ll get us there no problem.”
Finn let out an excited Woo-Hoo before doing a front flip and landed on Jake’s back. The moment the boy landed on his back, Jake began to greatly increase his size until he was the size of a house. Jake soon began to run towards the forest in question with Finn holding on tight onto his fur so as to not get blown off. As the duo made their way over to the forest, they began to have a conversation.
“So what do you think fell out of that hole in the sky?” Finn looked down at Jake as he started the conversation. He had wanted to hear his friend’s thoughts about what they might discover. “You think it might be some kind of dangerous alien monster?”
“Nah, I kind of doubt it. I mean it looked pretty small when it came out of that portal.” Jake had recalled the size of the projectile that fell and it had looked kind of small to him. He figured anything that tiny couldn’t be that dangerous, but then again he could be wrong. “But who knows what we might find in that forest. Hey Finn, you made sure to bring your sword right?”
“Yeah I got it right here.” Finn reached into his backpack and pulled out a sword from it.
The sword had a golden blade that was covered in numerous scratches and chips. The sword’s hilt was black with worm leather grip-straps wrapped around the handle. In the pommel of the hilt was a small red gem. Despite it being in pretty bad condition, this was Finn’s favorite sword and it had served him well in all of his adventures.
“I never leave home without Scarlet.” Finn returned Scarlet, which was the name he had given his sword, back into his backpack after that.
“Well that’s good cause the forest is just up ahead.” Jake announced their arrival as the forest was only a short distance away. Jake stopped just at the foot of the forest before going back to normal size for Finn to jump off and to go back on his two feet. “So how do you wanna do this?”
“Hmm…” Finn scratched at his chin as he pondered what they should do. After a few moments of thinking, he figured out what to do. “I think we should split up to cover more ground. I’ll enter here on foot while you check things out from above.”
“Well that sounds like as good a plan as any.” Jake began to stretch both of his legs upwards until he was taller than the trees. The magical dog began to walk through the forest after that.
Once Finn was all alone, he drew out Scarlet and began to travel into the forest. Finn had been wandering through the forest for a few minutes and so far he hasn’t really run into any kind of threat. He came across a few birds and an occasional deer, but that was about it. Eventually he managed to find a small clearing in the forest when he pushed a branch to the side with Scarlet. That was where he discovered something unexpected.
In the center of the clearing there was a little crater with someone lying face down in it. Finn kept his sword at the ready as he slowly approached the stranger. As Finn got closer to the stranger, he noticed that there was also a book that was lying on the ground next to them. Although Finn was less focused on the book and more so on the person.
The stranger appeared to be rather young and looked to even be around Finn’s age. They had a green sweater with olive colored pants and a pair of black boots. They also had long brown hair that covered both their back and head. Due to the fact that they were lying on the ground, Finn wasn’t able to tell just what they were supposed to be. Finn put his sword back into his backpack and crouched down in front the stranger.
“Hey are you okay? Do you need any help?” Finn reached out and began to shake the stranger to see if they were just asleep.
Although no matter how much he shook them, the stranger had remained still on the ground. Finn lowered his head close to the stranger’s head and let out a sigh of relief when he heard them breathing.
“Okay good, you’re just unconscious then. I better get Jake over and let him know what I found.” Finn looked around at the trees that surrounded the clearing with inspecting eyes. “Now which tree is the best one for me to climb-”
Finn froze for a brief moment when he heard groaning from the ground. He quickly looked back down and saw the stranger slowly beginning to move. They slowly pushed themselves up until they were sitting on their knees, allowing Finn a proper look at their face. The human hero stared at the stranger with complete shock. He could tell that the stranger was definitely a girl based on her face, but that wasn’t the thing that shocked him. It was the fact she had a HUMAN face.
“Ow my head. What in the world happened to… Me?” The stranger nursed her head with her hand as she slowly opened her eyes and noticed Finn in front of her. The two humans stared at one another in complete silence. Although it didn’t last very long as Finn chose to break it.
“OH MY GLOB ARE YOU HUMAN!?” Finn screamed out loud in front of the girl’s face. The girl understandably screamed back in fright and quickly began to back away from the young hero. Finn cringed a little when he realized he had scared her and tried to approach her. “Oh figs I’m so sorry. I-I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”
“G-get away from me!” The girl shouted back at Finn as she continued to back away. When she felt her back hit against a tree, she pulled her knees close to her body and hugged them while looking around in a panic. “W-where am I? How did I get here?”
Finn quickly stopped walking towards the scared girl. If he wanted to calm her down then Finn was going to need a different strategy. Finn slowly lowered himself down on his stomach to make himself look less like a threat. Once he was lying on his stomach, he waved over at the frightened girl to get her attention.
“Hey it’s going to be alright.” Finn did his best to speak in a gentle and calm tone as he addressed the girl. It appeared to have worked as she was now looking back at him, but she still looked scared. “I don’t mean any harm, okay? How about we just take a moment to take a deep breath and calm down.”
The stranger seemed to have taken Finn’s suggestion well as she started to do just that. Although her breathing was a little fast and unsteady at first, she was able to get her breathing back under control. The girl began to relax a little now that panic in her mind had faded away from her mind.
Finn slowly began to crawl his way over to the girl now that she had calmed down. Once head close enough to her, he pushed himself up until he was sitting before her. “So… Are you feeling better now?”
“Y-yeah I’m feeling a lot better.” The young girl let out one last deep breath before pulling her legs close to her and hugged them. “I’m sorry for yelling at you like that.”
Finn quickly raised up his hands and waved them around as he shook his head. “Oh you don’t need to say you're sorry. If anyone should be sorry then it’s me. I mean I was the ding wad for shouting at you when you just woke up.”
“A Ding wad? What exactly is that?” The girl looked at Finn with a raised eyebrow as she never heard that word before.
“Oh it’s um…” Finn rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, never before having to explain what the word meant to anyone. “Well it means like someone was being the absolute worst.”
“Oh alright…” The girl simply stated before going quiet once again.
An awkward silence began to surround both Finn and the young girl. Neither of them were really sure how to break the silence, so they simply looked around nervously. Thankfully Finn managed to get an idea on how to make things less awkward.
“Oh hey I don’t think we got either of our names yet.” Finn started off before placing a hand on his chest to introduce himself. “You can call me Finn.”
“Well hello Finn. My name is Libby.” Libby smiled a little as she gave out her name. Although the smile didn’t last long as she looked around the forest. “So Finn, can you tell me where I am right now?”
“Oh it’s just a small forest close to my house. I actually came here with my bro because we saw something fall down here.” As Finn answered the girl’s question, he quickly realized something. Could it have been possible that Libby could have been the one that fell from the hole in the sky. Finn wasn’t sure if that was the case, but there was only one way to find out. “Hey Libby, I’m gonna ask you a weird question. Did you by any chance fall out from a big hole in the sky?”
“A big hole in the sky? What are you talking-” Libby’s eyes went wide as it all started to come back to her. The mysterious book, the wormhole forming in her mom’s store, and her consciousness going dark. She quickly got up to her feet and began to look around frantically. “Oh my god the book! Where’s the book!?”
“Woah Libby calm down. Are you talking about that book?” Finn got up to his feet as well before pointing over at the book he saw earlier. Libby looked over at what Finn was pointing to and quickly rushed over to it. “So um… What’s the big deal with that book?”
Libby already had the book in her hands when she heard Finn’s question. She turned around and began to walk over to him. “I remember reading something in this book back in my home and a weird portal opening after that. I know this sounds crazy, but I think this book is what brought me here.”
“Woah that’s bizonkers!” Finn looked at the book in question with wonder in his eyes. “Do you think this could be some kind of spell book or something?”
“Well after what had just happened to me, I’m inclined to believe it at this point.” Libby looked down at the spell book in her hands. She had never thought that she could come across a real life magical book and yet here she was. “I’m willing to bet that if it was a spell that took me from my home then there must be a spell that can bring me back! Although there’s just one problem with that…”
“Well what’s the problem?” Finn had asked as he turned his eyes away from the book and looked at Libby. Libby let out a sigh before opening up to a random page in the book, revealing the illegible writing. “Oh dang I can't make any sense of this crud.”
“Now you know what the problem is.” Libby closed the book shut after she said that and hugged it close to her chest. “If there really is a spell in here that could get me back home, I wouldn’t be able to find it. If only I could somehow translate the language in this book.”
“Translate the book…” Finn repeated those words quietly to himself as he rubbed his chin in thought. After thinking about it for a few seconds, he quickly remembered that there might be someone that can do it. “Oh! Hang on Libby, I think I know someone that can figure that book out!”
“Wait you do!?” Libby looked over at Finn with surprise as a sense of hope began to form in her mind. “W-well do you think you can take me to them?”
“Oh yeah no problem at all.” Finn crossed his arms as he gave Libby a confirming nod. “We just need to find Jake and we can get to PB no problem.”
“Who’s Jake?” Libby had asked out of confusion. Although he quickly got her answer when she saw a giant yellow foot suddenly stomped down right next to Finn.
The thing was that Finn didn’t look too surprised or even bothered by it. Instead he simply turned around and looked up with a smile. Libby slowly followed the foot all the up until she saw something unbelievable. Standing before both her and Finn was a gigantic yellow dog.
Jake looked down into the clearing with a worried look on his face, although he seemed more focused on Finn. “Geez I finally found you man. I heard some loud shouting and thought you were getting your face eaten or something.”
“Oh hey Jake. Everything is good down here!” Finn held his hands around his mouth to form a makeshift megaphone as he yelled out to his friend. “Hey you’re not going to believe this, but I managed to find that thing from the sky hole. It turns out it was a human girl!”
“Wait, are you for real?” Jake stared at Finn with wide eyes from what he just heard from his best friend. “Are you sure she’s actually human?”
“Well yeah I… Actually I’m not completely sure.” Finn rubbed his chin with an unsure look on his face. While it is true that Libby did look human, it was also possible she could be something that just so happens to look like a human. So Finn turned back around to face Libby to check. “Hey Libby, are you... Uh…”
Finn’s question trailed off when he noticed something odd about Libby. Her entire body seemed to have gone completely still. She seemed to be entirely focused on Jake as her wide eyed gaze never seemed to move from him. Finn slowly walked over to the young bookworm and began to wave his hand in front of her face.
“Hey Libby, is everything okay in there?” Finn had asked as he wondered what was going on with her.
He continued to wave his hand in front of her face and even snapped his fingers a few times to get a reaction. However she had remained completely unresponsive to anything he did. Finn let out a bit of a hum before carefully poking Libby in her forehead. That had finally gotten a response from Libby, but not in the way he had hoped. The little nudge had caused Libby to slowly fall backwards and landed roughly on her back.
Upon seeing all of that going down, Jake shrunk down to his normal size and walked over to his friend’s side. “Hey Finn, I think she passed out.”
“Whoops.” That was all Finn could really say at the situation.
…
Libby’s eyes slowly began to open as she felt her conscience come back to her. She noticed that she was lying down on something, so she pushed herself up into a sitting position. Libby began to rub her eyes a little in order to clear up her blurry vision. Once her sight had finally returned to her, she had discovered that she was inside someone’s bedroom.
Libby looked down at what she was sitting on and found that somebody had placed her on a bed. The bed was simple in design, but there were multiple strange pelts with some made of fur and some made of scales. There was also an end table next to the bed with a little mug and a rusted car muffler repurposed as a candle holder. Resting between these two items was the spell book that had brought her here.
Libby looked around the bedroom that she was in in order to get a better understanding of where she was. There was a set of jaws of a large shark hung on the wall over the bed and a spiked mace hanging from the room’s ceiling. On the floor there was a rug that seemed to be made from the skin of a six armed beast of some kind. There was even a giant tree root with an old desk on top of it and what looked like an empty room behind it. Just across the bed there was a cabinet with an open drawer with a pillow and blanket in it. There were other things that were inside the cabinet like a viola, books, bones, and a picture of what looks like a Unicorn to name a few. The final thing that caught Libby’s attention was a ladder made of wooden planks that were nailed into what looks like the inside of a tree trunk.
Wait a minute… Am I inside a tree? Libby wondered to herself as she looked between the tree trunk and the giant tree root.
She didn’t get a chance to think too much about it as she heard something coming up the ladder. She looked over at the tree trunk and saw that it was just Finn climbing up from below. Finn stopped for a brief moment to look into the room and was pleasantly surprised to see Libby was up.
“Oh cool you’re awake.” Finn smiled as he climbed into the bedroom and walked over to the bed to stand on the left side. “I was just coming up here to check up on you. I was a little worried when you passed out earlier.”
“I passed out?” Libby questioned as she placed a hand on her head. She had tried to recall what had caused that, but her memory was a bit fuzzy. “I can’t really remember what had happened, but I could have sworn I saw a giant talking-”
“Hey Finn, is she still asleep?” Libby was cut off when she heard a new voice coming up from the tree trunk. The two humans looked over at the ladder and saw Jake climbed up the ladder. There was a third arm stretched out from his back holding a cup of tea.
“I hope she likes Earl Grey cause that's all we got right-” Jake had just stepped into the bedroom when he saw Libby, who was staring at him with wide eyes. “Oh hey she’s awaKe. Well hey there, I’m-”
“THE TALKING DOG!” Libby shouted out in a panic as she began to back away until her back hit the back of the wall. “T-the dog is somehow talking. How does it have three arms!?”
“Woah Libby, just calm down. There’s nothing to be scared of.” Finn quickly moved closer to Libby as he gestured his hands towards Jake. “That’s just my best friend Jake.”
It seemed to have worked somewhat as Libby’s panic was temporarily forgotten as she looked over at Finn with disbelief. “Wait a minute, are you telling me THAT’S the Jake you were telling me before?”
“Yeah that’s me alright, Jake the Dog. Now look I think we might have gotten off on the wrong foot, so how about we just calm down and talk it out?” The arm that was holding the teacup slowly began to stretch towards Libby. “How about you drink some tea? It’ll help chill you out.”
Libby stared at the teacup with an unsure look before carefully taking it into her hands. Jake pulled the third arm back into his body once Libby had taken the cup. Libby looked between both Finn and Jake before slowly drinking the tea. The soothing sensation she had felt as the tea traveled down to her stomach had helped quite a bit with her nerves. Her entire body began to relax as she let out a satisfied sigh after drinking half of the cup.
“So I’m guessing that you’re feeling better now?” Finn asked after noticing the relaxed look on Libby’s face.
Libby looked over at the human boy and nodded with a smile on her face. “Yeah I’m feeling much better. I got to say this tea is really delicious.”
“Well I’m glad to hear that you like it.” Jake smiled with pride after hearing her praise on his tea. Although he dropped his smile as he looked at Libby with inquisitive eyes. “Hey Libby there’s something we gotta know. Are you actually human or do you just look like one?”
Libby raised an eyebrow at Jake as she found the question to be a bit odd. “Well yeah I can say for certain that I am human.”
“That’s mathematical!” Finn excitedly shouted upon hearing that, unintentionally spooking Libby in the process. He quickly turned to look at Jake with a smile. “See I told you she was human Jake!”
“Now wait hold on, what’s so special about me being human?” Libby looked between Finn and Jake as she asked out of confusion. The two heroes looked over at the young bookworm in response.
Finn turned around to properly face Libby as he rubbed the back of his head, a look of sadness replacing his excitement. “Well… I always thought that I was the last one.”
“What do you mean by the last one?” Libby raised an eyebrow at Finn’s words, unsure what he had meant by that.
Jake walked over to Finn’s side and wrapped an arm around him to comfort him. “You see Libby, everyone believed that Finn was the only human left.”
“WAIT WHAT!?” Libby stared at Jake with complete shock as she almost dropped her teacup. At first she thought that it was some kind of sick joke, but the looks on their faces said otherwise. “I-I don’t understand. There’s no way that Finn can be the last human on…”
Libby trailed off quietly as she looked down into her tea. There had been a stray thought that lingered in the back of her mind ever since she woke up in that forest. Although some part of her had been trying to ignore it, too scared to even consider it. However it seemed that she could no longer ignore it any longer.
Libby found her sights drifting over to the mysterious book. She placed tea down on the table before quickly grabbing hold of that book. She placed it down on her lap and opened it up to the first page. She looked through the writing for a second until she finally found what she was looking for.
A world filled with adventure and magic beyond my wildest dreams… Libby read that line quietly in her head. She was beginning to think that the author was being serious when they wrote this.
“Hey Finn and Jake, there’s something I need to know.” Libby looked up from her book and turned her attention over to the two heroes before her. “Can either of you tell me the name of this world?”
Finn and Jake looked over at Libby with confused looks before the latter of the two had finally answered. “What kind of a question is that? We’re in the Land of Ooo, everybody knows that.”
And that was it, the final nail in the coffin. Jake’s answer had managed to confirm what Libby was afraid of. Her eyes slowly drifted down at the book as a look of realization took its spot on her face. “So then it’s what I feared…”
“What are you talking about Libby?” Finn looked at Libby with concern when he saw her mood suddenly drop.
Libby let out a sigh before looking over at Finn to explain. “The spell did more than just teleport me to that forest. I think it somehow managed to transport me between worlds.”
“Now hold on for a second.” Jake quickly spoke up as he stretched his feet to the bed and stepped onto it. “Are you telling me that you’re from some other world?”
“Yeah I guess I am. I lived with my mom and some of my friends back home.” Libby closed the book before hugging it close to her chest, a look of sorrow taking its place on her face. “They probably have no idea where I am right now… Or that I’m still alive.”
The air in the room suddenly turned somber after that. Finn and Jake couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor girl. Here she was trapped in an unknown place far away from her home and those that she had loved dear. Finn and Jake shared a silent look with each other before nodding at the same time. There was only one path to take from this.
“Well that’s why we got to send you back as soon as we can.” Finn stated as he punched his palm, earning the attention of both Libby and Jake. “All we need to do is go to PB and she can figure out how to make that book send you home.”
“Yeah don’t you worry about the thing Libby.” Jake reassured Libby as he moved closer and placed a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll make sure that you get back home in no time.”
“Wait, you two are really going to help me?” Libby looked between Finn and Jake with surprise. She couldn’t understand why they would help someone they had just met.
“Of course we’re going to help you Libby. Cause that’s what heroes do.” Finn said with a reassuring smile on his face. “Plus we also have some things to do over at the Candy Kingdom, so we can do both of those things.
“Speaking of our plans, it’s almost time for us to go.” Jake pointed out at a nearby window as the sun was beginning to set. He quickly hopped off the bed and began to head on over to the ladder. “Now come on you two, we need to go now or else me and Finn are gonna be late.”
“O-oh okay.” Libby removed the blanket off of her and got herself off of the bed, noticing that they had left her boots on her. Libby began to follow after Jake as she held the book close to her chest.
Finn took notice of this and reached out to grab her by the shoulder. “Hey Libby, are you really going to be holding that book the entire time?”
“Oh well I guess so. I don’t really have any other way to carry this.” Libby began to rub the back of her head bashfully as she confessed.
“Oh um…” Finn took his hand off of her shoulder and looked around the room for a brief moment until he had remembered something. “Oh wait I got something!”
Libby watched Finn as he ran over to the bed and reached underneath it. Finn felt around the space beneath his bed until his hand felt the thing he was looking for. Finn pulled the thing he was looking for out and carried it over to Libby.
“Here take this, you can use it to carry that old book around.” Finn held up the object of his search for Libby to see. It was a brown satchel bag with two claps to help keep the flap closed. There were even some other pockets that could be used to store other things.
“Wait, is it really okay for me to just take that?” Libby was taken back by the generosity that Finn had been showing her. She could tell that the satchel bag looked quite new.
“Yeah it’s no problem at all. I’ve already got my trusty backpack and Jake has his own.” Finn said before handing it towards Libby. “Think of it like a welcoming gift from me.”
“Oh… Thank you Finn.” Libby gave her thanks as she reached out and finally took the satchel bag. She stood there staring at the bag in her hands, her right thumb brushing gently against its soft surface.
“Well come on, Jake’s probably waiting for us outside.” Finn walked past Libby as he made his way over to the ladder.
Although Libby didn’t quite follow after Finn just yet as she chose to first put on the satchel bag. She slipped the strap over her head and began to adjust it until it was resting comfortably against her left waist. She grabbed hold of the book before opening up the flap and slipped it into the bag. It had turned out to be a perfect fit.
After taking one last deep breath, Libby headed over to the ladder and began to follow Finn down. She had noticed there were a couple more rooms as she climbed down the ladder, but she didn’t pay much attention to them as she was more focused on following Finn. After climbing down a series of ladders, Libby had finally reached what she assumed to be the bottom floor of Finn’s home.
After getting off of the ladder and turning around, she was flabbergasted from what she saw. It appeared to be a large simple room with a wooden door on the other end and a wooden ladder behind her. Although there was one thing that stood out of this room and it was the fact it was filled almost to the brim with treasure. There were heaps of golden coins, gems of different sizes and shapes, artifacts that look both ancient and valuable. The sheer amount of fortune in this single room had left Libby completely stunned.
Finn had just made it over to the door and was about to open it until he noticed that Libby was just standing there. “Hey Libby, why are you just standing there?”
Libby shook her head to regain her focus before heading over towards Finn. “O-oh sorry about that. It’s just… I’ve never seen so much treasure gathered in one room before.”
“Oh yeah I guess there is a lot of this stuff.” Finn said as he looked around the treasure filled room. “Me and Jake pretty much bring back anything we find from our adventures.”
“Do you and Jake go on these adventures a lot?” Libby asked, wondering just how many adventures these two have been on to amount this much wealth.
“Oh yeah for sure.” Finn answered as he placed his hand on the doorknob before turning to face Libby. “Hey if we have the chance, maybe you can come join us in one.”
“Oh I don’t know Finn. I’m not exactly the adventurous type.” Libby rubbed her arm nervously as she said that. The very thought of going on an adventure in an unknown world was a bit too much for her.
“Oh come on, you’ll never know till you try it out.” Finn said as he opened the door and began to walk out backwards.
Libby had remained silent as she followed Finn outside. The moment that Libby had stepped to the outside world, the first thing she had noticed was the massive grassy field that she was standing in. There was nothing but grass no matter where she looked and it made her wonder just how large this field was. Although she did manage to spot Jake standing just a few feet away from where she was, waiting for them by a little pond.
As Libby continued to follow Finn over towards Jake, she took this chance to look back and see what she came out of. Standing behind her was a large willow tree with four canopies, a large main one and three smaller ones that branched out from the center. All of the canopies were connected together with wooden bridges and there was even a wooden shack built into the base of the tree. It turns out her assumption earlier of being in a tree was right.
So Finn and Jake live in a massive tree fort. Libby thought to herself quietly.
Eventually the two humans had finally made it over to Jake. The magical dog took notice of their presence and turned around to face them. “There you two are. I was wondering what was taking you both so long.”
“Oh sorry about that Jake. I wanted to give Libby that bag before we left.” Finn explained as he gestured over to the satchel bag that Libby was now wearing. “I didn’t want her carrying that old book around by hand all the time.”
“Hmm… Yeah that's probably for the best for her. Anyways it’s time that we got moving.” Jake dropped down to all fours before turning his side towards the humans. “Now come on, get on my back so we can get moving.”
“Um Jake, I don’t think there’s enough space for us.” Libby pointed out the lack of space for both her and Finn.
“Oh yeah you’re right. Give me a second.” Jake began to walk forward a little while his hind legs remained where they were. Jake continued to stretch his body until he was sure he could carry both humans. “Alright, that should do the trick.”
Finn smiled as he began to climb on top of Jake’s back. Although Libby just stood there as she stared at Jake, weirded out by how he was able to stretch his body like that. It was going to take a while before she could get used to the sight. Libby managed to regain her nerves before carefully climbing on top of Jake, sitting right behind Finn.
“Hey Finn, can you tell me why we climbed on top of Jake’s ba-AAAAAAAA!” Libby’s question quickly turned into a scream when Jake suddenly began to grow in size.
Panic began to fill up in her mind as she witnessed the ground growing further and further away by the second. The fact that Jake started to run at full speed didn’t really help. It eventually became too much for the poor girl before she quickly hugged Finn from behind tightly and buried her face into his back.
Finn was surprised by the sudden hug from Libby. He looked over his shoulder and saw her body trembling. “Uh Libby, are you alright?”
“I-I’m sorry… I’ve never really been this high up before.” Libby answered with a shaky voice as she kept her face buried in Finn’s back. Libby never had much of a reason to go to very high places, she had never even been on a plane before. So the sudden change in height had left her a little bit freaked out.
Finn let out a thoughtful hum after hearing what Libby said and looked down at Jake. “Hey Jake, think you can slow down a little bit?”
“What? Why are you asking me to - Oh...” Jake looked up at Finn with a questioning look until he spotted the state that Libby was in. “Yeah I guess I can slow down a little.”
Jake started to slow himself down until he was at a nice walking pace. Finn smiled at this before looking over at Libby. “Hey you can relax now Libby. I promise you’re perfectly safe on Jake.”
Libby was a little bit hesitant to trust Finn by his word. Although so far Finn hadn’t really given her any reason to doubt him. She slowly began to pull herself away from Finn before carefully opening her eyes. Once her eyes were fully opened, Libby couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
The sun had already begun to set behind the horizon at this point. This had resulted in the sky and clouds to be casted into beautiful shades of orange and purple. Libby had noticed there was more beyond the grassy fields she was in like a field of snow covered mountains and a strange looking forest that they were approaching. Libby didn’t know much about the world she was in, but she could tell there was a lot more to it than she had thought.
“Oh wow…” Those were the only words that had escaped from Libby, too mesmerized from everything she saw.
Finn noticed the look on Libby’s face and let out a pleasant laugh. He was happy to see that she was no longer afraid. “If you think this looks amazing, just wait until you see the Candy Kingdom.”
Those words from Finn were enough to cause Libby to snap out of her state. She looked over at the human boy with a raised eyebrow. “The Candy Kingdom? What kind of a place is that?”
“Oh it’s a kingdom where everything is made of candy. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING! The buildings, the road, even the people there are made of candy!” Finn began to explain while Libby listened to him closely. “It’s actually where my friend PB lives. She’s actually a pretty big deal over there.”
Libby had to admit that she was getting more amazed by his world the more she heard about it. This Candy Kingdom honestly sounds like something straight out from the fantasy books she had read. Although there was something that she had been wondering about for a bit.
“Hey Finn, can you tell me who this PB is?” Libby had finally asked the human boy, wanting to know who this person was. “You mentioned her a few times, but you didn’t really tell me anything about her.”
“Oh sorry, I guess I kind of forgot.” Finn rubbed the back of his head out of embarrassment. With everything that had happened today, it had slipped his mind. “Well my friend is called Princess Bubblegum, but I call her PB sometimes. She’s actually the ruler of the Candy Kingdom and is the smartest person I know. If anyone can solve that book of yours it’s her.”
“Wait, did you say Princess Bubblegum? You mean as in… Royalty!?” Panic began to rise up from within Libby when Finn simply nodded to her. She looked down at her clothes, suddenly feeling a bit self conscious about her appearance. “M-maybe this isn’t such a good idea. I mean I’m not even dressed to meet someone of royalty.”
“Oh relax Libby, Bubblegum is pretty chill.” Jake reassured Libby when he heard her beginning to panic. “Besides, it’s too late to turn back now. We’re pretty much already there.”
Libby quickly looked up ahead to see what Jake was talking about. In the distance she spotted a massive castle with a tree sprouting up from the top. The castle had a wall circling around it with what looked like two humanoid gumball machines sitting on it with bubble wands. There was even a massive forest that surrounded the kingdom and the trees almost looked like cotton candy to Libby.
Jake came to a complete stop once he had managed to pass over the forest. He laid down on the ground and began to shrink back to his normal size. Both Finn and Libby got off the magical dog, the former choosing to jump off and the latter preferring to slide off.
With the humans now off of his back, Jake stood up on his two feet and turned to face the humans. “Well I’ll see you guys later. I’m gonna go meet up with Lady.”
“Wait, who is this Lady that you’re meeting?” Libby asked the talking dog with a curious look on her face.
“Oh well Lady is my girlfriend. We had some plans for a nice date tonight.” Jake explained to Libby before stretching out his legs and began to walk away. “Now you both stay out of trouble, you hear me?”
“Later Jake, have a great time with Lady!” Finn waved goodbye as his best friend wandered off.
Even Libby waved goodbye to Jake with a happy smile. Although that smile faded as she looked towards the castle. “So I’m guessing that Princess Bubblegum is waiting for us at the top?”
“Actually she told me to go meet her over at the Candy Cemetery.” Finn answered before making his way towards the cotton candy-like forest, gesturing for Libby to follow him. “Come on, I know where it is from here.”
Although Libby didn’t go after Finn just yet as she gave the human boy a confused look. “Wait, why would a Princess be hanging around in a cemetery?”
“Oh she told me she found a way to bring back the dead and wanted to show me.” Finn explained casually over to Libby.
“Oh well alright then.” Libby started to follow after Finn, but immediately stopped when her mind finally processed what Finn had said. “Wait what?”