In the dark of the night, evil will find her

[swarmoflies]

Characters: Sette and Fionna
Date: In the dead of night, in the three days following the first snowfall.
Summary: Sette's mad quest to steal Fionna's hat.
Warnings: None!

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[fionna_time]

The next few days had been days Fionna was almost always on the alert. When she made a bet, after all, she meant to keep it, and likewise had not told Marceline or Princess Bubblegum that she had a pint sized thief to worry about. It wasn't that she didn't trust them, it was simply that she wanted it to be a fair as possible, so it HAD to be only her that knew.

Fionna, though unaware of the girl's abilities, had some raw talent of her own: mainly, being an adventurer in Ooo required you to be mindful of just about everything, including intruders lurking about. It helped to have Cake's power, but even without it, she was pretty good at what she did. At the moment though, she was just gathering firewood for the other girls.

[swarmoflies]

LITTLE DID FIONNA KNOW that Sette was lurking overhead. The problem was getting down to her undetected. Oh, this sort of drop was no challenge for a master tumbler like her...but with all this snow, there was no way to do it silently. She'd need a distraction of some kind to cover for her.

Unfortunately, her shifting about on the branch caused a bit of snow to fall from it onto Fionna. Sette frozen up, remaining stock still and hoping that the older girl wouldn't notice her.

[fionna_time]

"What the heck-" The snow was something of a surprise, and Fionna shook it off her head, then paused. Wait a minute: that was too weird, wasn't it, the snow falling on her from nowhere? Sure, there was a branch and all, but she didn't think it fall on her like that without something causing to. Those birds?

Maybe. But without Cake's eyes she had to rely on her own, and with Marceline and Princess Bubblegum not around at the moment, there were no extra pair of eyes to spot things either. She looked around the trees hard, blinking, waiting to see any indication someone was there.

A slight movement, and she grinned. Sette. Ok. She turned her back from that tree, intent on continuing her job. If Sette was going to try and take her hat, they were going to both have to rely on their senses.

[swarmoflies]

Damn. Was she rumbled? Hard to tell, but she was pretty sure Fionna had just looked right at her.

Either way, it wasn't safe to stay here much longer. When Fionna turned her back again, Sette silently clambered down to a lower branch, and leaped over to a neighbouring tree. She climbed like a little monkey, or a squirrel perhaps, her tail providing a counterbalance.

[fionna_time]

Fionna had to admit, the girl was nimble, and friggin' quick. She was able to seamlessly jump from one tree to another, and barely made a noise. She had definitely not been needlessly bragging about how good a thief she was.

Of course, Fionna wasn't one for bragging either, and took off in a casual run, curious to see if Sette would be able to keep up.

[swarmoflies]

Well, that tore it. If she was heading off at that sort of pace, she'd definitely spotted Sette.

Could she keep up? Probably. Did she? No. She'd already scouted out Fionna's campsite; she knew where she was going to go. Fionna wasn't getting away, she was giving Sette a new chance to conceal herself and approach undetected. She waited until Fionna was gone, and then dropped to the ground, and headed off in the appropriate direction.

Maybe Fionna'd step in some of the rabbit snare-style traps she'd set up around her campsite, saving Sette some bother. It would probably be too much to hope for that she'd arrive to find Fionna dangling helplessly upside-down from an ankle, though.

[fionna_time]

Fionna was naive about some things, most of them involving people she'd never met before, and for that, she was bound to make mistakes. She was also naive about some people's intentions, including her own. But when it came to an actual battle, a fight, she brought her A game.

This was no different.

As she rushed back to camp, she stopped a moment, closing her eyes. Then she moved fast, stepping in and out of the trap meant to trip her up, and then another. She made a high leap in the air and grabbed at one of the ropes, ripping it off the tree and brandishing it like a whip, grinning.

"Nice ones!" She called out.

[swarmoflies]

Well, she hadn't really expected those to catch her. Sette circled the campsite, looking in for an opportunity. Were the weather warmer, she might have taken off some of her clothes and used them as a decoy. It was way too cold for that, though. This winter stuff sucked.

The best thing to do, it seemed, was to keep surveillance up until Fionna went to sleep. Sette was used to pulling all-nighters.

[fionna_time]

It actually WOULDN'T be the best time at all. During the day, Fionna was perfectly willing to try and let Semme take her hat. At night, however, she slept in a tent with a princess and a vampire, and even then still slept with her hat on. It would likely be much harder.

Fionna did, however, place bells on the inside fap of the tent, just in case.

[swarmoflies]

Sette scouted first with her nose. Three people, one of which smelled like a Plod. Some kinda zombie, maybe. Another one smelled like sugar for some reason.

Once nobody was moving around, she crept in closer. The bells on the tentflap were a simple ruse, one Sette had expected. Her hand snaked inside the tent flap with a minimum of disturbance, and wrapped around the bells, silencing them.

They still got off a short, quiet little jingle beforehand, though. She froze again, waiting to see if it would be enough to rouse Fionna.

[lost_moral_code]

The song lyrics were "In the jingle jangle morning I'll come for you" not "In the jingle jangle evening I'll come and wake you from your nap"! If there was one thing Marceline was keen to, even when sleeping, it was sound. Usually she went in and out of her half animal states; however, since ending up in the garden she had taken to keeping one or the other up most times.

Jingle,
Ji~ii~ngle!

Losing sleep she could handle, but that flipping noise was irritating! Sadly, it's pretty impossible to track someone whose feet rarely touch the ground. As the bell chimed the last of it's note Marceline thrust her head out of the flap, hissing loudly. Yeah, the look on her face wasn't a pretty one.

"What the flip is that sound?!" Sette roused something alright!

[royal_tarts]

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmf." was about the only sound Bonnibel could make when she was awakened by the sound of Marceline's voice. She hated being woken up in the middle of the night, as it usually meant only bad things. Things like being kidnapped, or Cinnamon Bun having inadvertently turned everyone to zombies again. She rolled over, clutched her temples and gave her brain a second to boot up and process what Marceline had actually said. Her head hurt already and she was in no mood to be patient, but what if this wasn't a false alarm? Were there predatory animals out here, that had a taste for human, vampire, and gum?

"Ugh, Glob. What the flip is what sound Marcline? What the assorted and salted nuts is up?"

[fionna_time]

Fionna definitely stirred, and by the time the Princess was saying stuff, and balanced herself on her arms, propping heself up.

"Ugh...what the nuts, man? I'm trying to get some..."

And she trailed off, her eyes focusing and seeing Sette.

"Dude, you can't seriously be trying to get it while I'm sleeping. That's so lame! At least put some more traps so I can at least see you in the day. Besides, if you try this at night Marceline will totally eat you."

Probably not, but Sette didn't know that.

[swarmoflies]

Sette screamed rather girlishly when Marceline's monstrous face emerged from the tent, just inches from hers, and fell flat on her back. She was paralyzed for a moment, but then the sound of Fionna's voice pierced her mind and stirred her. She scampered away in a panic, trying to put something between her and that.

"J-just you wait, Lady Do-Right!" she shouted back at the tent before beating a hasty retreat. "I've still got two days! I'll be back!"

[lost_moral_code]

Great, first the bells then screaming? Marceline's ears were going to be ringing like crazy for the next while and by glob she was going to be as unpleasant about it as possible. Had it been any other day she might have found some amusement in the scream the intruder let out! Had she been more rested she might have given chase; however, right now there were several questions that were going to be answered or a yellow haired someone was on hunting duty for the foreseeable future.

"Lady Do-Right," She kept the flaps held open as she shot a glance over her shoulder and talked a bit loudly, "--what the junk just happened?!" The gloves were off and the fangs were still out, she was a territorial creature after all.

[royal_tarts]

To say that Bonnibel was not happy would have been an understatement. It was some unglobly hour in the morning, and she had just been woken up for what?! Bonnibel was decidedly not happy. She squeezed next to Marceline, poked her head out of the tent, and yelled loudly. "Verschwinde! Don't worry about Marceline eating you, worry about me flipping out and building a dungeon so I can lock you the cabbage in it!"

She grumped a mighty grump, and sighed a tired sigh. "Fionna." She said flatly. "What the junk indeed. Was that someone you know, just now?"