War Of The Winter King

Chapter 4: A Tomorrow Problem

The winter sun was just beginning to rise. Simon stretched upwards and sleepily made his way to the bathroom to wash his face. The cold water brought back his awareness, and he remembered what had to be done. The first thing he wanted to do was change out of these dreadful clothes, lined with filth. As he went back to the main room, he remembered that the ice king didn't have anything. He didn't have a wardrobe, not even a fridge.
"And I'm so hungry" he groaned in defeat. Then he saw Gunter in the bed, and shook him gently until he opened his eyes.
"Little penguin, you'll catch me a fish won't you?" Simon asked it hopefully, willing to take any food. Gunter was annoyed that he got disturbed, but he did want to help the ice king to become a new, better person. So he obeyed and jumped out the door.
The penguins and polar bears here would smash a hole into the frozen lakes so they could catch fishes.
While Gunter was out getting one for Simon, he went into the bathroom to do something about his hair. In the bathroom cabinet, the only thing he found was a pair of scissors. And so he snipped away, letting the hair drop to the floor. When he was done, he was proud of his work. His hair, finally relieved from the heavy weight now had it's boiuncy again (when your hair is long it's really heavy) and the ends curled beautifully again. His hair came to his shoulders, slick, smooth and white.
"Charming!" He complimented himself in the mirror, growing more and more admiring of himself. His personality was starting to change, ever so slightly. But this wasn't the result of a curse, it was the result of change. A lifestyle so alien to him, he was sure to change somehow. Because now, it was him and himself.
"It's only me and you in this wide, wide world" he sang to the reflection of himself in the mirror. His voice was beautiful, elegant. Almost like royalty...
"A king! Yes, I shall be a great king to a wonderful kingdom of ice and snow!"
Plop! "Wenk." Gunter came back. Plopping the fish on the floor and calling Simon. Simon who was feeling pretty full of himself, clapped his hands in delight as he entered the main room.
"Thank you, generous penguin" Simon bent over to pick up the fish and began to skin it. Gunter watched as he did so. When he was finished, he ate it and offered some to Gunter, who refused as Gunter had eaten one himself (he got two fish originally).
While Simon ate his breakfast, planning future preparations to fix up his life, he looked out the door. The ice tower was so high up that he could see through to the other kingdoms. And horror struck, right. To. The. Core.
The candy kingdom was in ruins, war breaking out between kingdoms and the fire and slime kingdoms had candy seeping into them, almost as if it was an infection spreading. The candy citizens seemed changed, freaky mutations, almost like the war. Shivers ran down Simon's spine at the thought. The only word he could use to describe the candy kingdom was 'gnarly'. A filthy place where a clean (well, he is recovering from being the dirty ice king) man like him would never want to be.
There were explosions, the slime and fire citizens fighting for everything down there. And there were a few normal candy people left, fleeing for their lives. Chaos. War. w a r.
"A Tomorrow problem" Shivered Simon. "And today IS tomorrow." The man who seemed to be growing confident was retracting back into a puny little ball again.
"Wenk" the trusty penguin comforted him. Gunter was a spectacular penguin, except of course he isn't really a penguin. But again, Simon dosen't know that.
"Thank you penguin. I'm sure the ice king made a well choice picking you as a companion. I'm sorry he's gone, but I'll look after you now. Anyways, what IS your name?"
"Wenk."
Simon sighed "since I can't understand you, I'm going to have to give you a new name.. how about, Gunter?" Now this was the crown's doing. If you don't already know, the name Gunter is a significant name in the crown's programming. I won't get into the history of the crown, as it isn't significant in this story. If you really want to know it, then watch S6E24 of adventure time.
Gunter seemed happy with this. But Simon looked out the doorway again. Chaos. Thankfully the ice kingdom was cut off from the rest, so no one was interested to go there. This means Simon got some time to practice using his powers, he was bound to need it. And eventually, he was sure that crazy Princess bubblegum would come back for him.
Smoothly, Simon hopped out the door and slid down the ice to the floor. He needed to learn fast. His first attempt was holding his hand out in front of him and straining. A solid lump of ice emerged from his hand and dropped.
"Dang!" He was dissapointed. "Maybe I strained too hard, perhaps?" This time he tried again, but he only tensed his hand a little, and a weaving strand of ice came out.
"That's more like it!" He whooped triumphantly, feeling great about controlling this power. He didn't know much about the ice king, but he did know that the power was uncontrollable. Control is the key. This time, Simon strained his hand gently but did not let go, instead he continued to strain just the palm, and twirled it around, then let go. A smooth string of ice came out and dropped on the floor. Simon tried many other techniques, like cupping his hounds round one another, which created an ice sphere. He tried pushing his fingers back, which led to large strands of ice. Then he tried a wave with his arm and finally his hand flung out with build up energy, and a powerful ice came shooting out.
There is so much that happened in these few hours that writing them all down would take ages, but through trial and error, Simon learned techniques to controlling his power. This ice seemed brighter than the ones ice king made, which were all darker blues. Simon's ice was almost white, reflecting in the sun like a giant ice-lolly (known as popsicle in other countries). A few penguins and polar bears crowded round to watch the show. After Simon was tired out, he wiped the sweat off his forehead, even though the freezing wind overhead bit into anything that could move.
Simon couldn't bear these horrible clothes much longer, and he really wanted glasses again. Now that he looked in the mirror alot more, his appearance meant alot more to him too. Simon was changing, the crown still had its effects but the man was changing deep down.
Simon collapsed onto the snowy floor, he was too exhausted to go back to the Ice King's lair. He ignored the war cries beyond the snowy hills.
'Let them kill themselves. I don't care anymore' The thought came over him, marking him as a changed man permanently. The change scared him, but at the same time, it HAS been 1000 years... maybe a name change was good. After all, Simon was now feeling disconnected from the name.
"I'll just take a little rest" He muttered, laying on his back in the snow, recovering his energy. 'New name..' he thought. 'New name..' and he drifted off with that thought circling wildly through his changing mind.
His power recovery nap only lasted about 10 minutes, but he shot up bullet speed.
"That's it! I will be.. the winter king. I will make a marvelous kingdom, outshining all the rest."
He stood up and brushed the fresh snow off his clothes.
"These clothes are hidious, I can't help but feel a fool in them. But currently, there is no way I can get my hands on any other, and I am certainly not running in the middle of a battle field. For now, I'm just going to have to do some more training."
And that's how he spent the rest of the day. He spent hours under the unforgiving snow clouds, practicing, learning, growing in power. Simon, or as we should now call him, the future winter king, was a fast learner. Unfortunately, there is so much to learn that it would take a long time, but he had enough skillset to pull off a very mid ice house; a few rooms, doorways and a solid roof. It was obviously beginners work, but still a better place to be than that terrible man cave the ice king lived in. He created a door and here was his greatest challenge yet- door hinges. After an unholy amount of time, he perfected it and this temporary house had working doors. Now for the interior, the only resources currently available were snow, ice and rock. So the winter king had to make some furniture and a bed of ice. He tried to compress some snow on it to keep it soft, but to no avail.
The winter king couldn't bear to sleep on ice, so he trodded through the snow in his bare feet back to the ice king's old cave. The sky was black, war cries died down. He wasn't bothered to check on it, but Princess bubblegum must've still been alive for the crown to not gone haywire on him again. Princess bubblegum had to be kept alive at all costs.
Now at the foot of the icy mountain, he started to climb up it again, slipping alot. After a painful workout, he was back inside the cave. Gunter waiting there as usual. He was sleeping on the bed with a full belly, must've recently eaten, but woke up when he heard the winter king entering. The winter king passionately told Gunter about his day, and about him moving to the makeshift house, just to let him know why he wouldn't return. Then he snatched the quilt, pillows and bedsheets and headed out.
When he came to the new house, he laid it out on the bed.
"It makes it bearable" the winter king observed. His soft voice had an echo in the icy room, adding to the marvelous aura.
Gunter had followed him to the new home. Sure, the winter king was different to who he used to know, but in a way he was also the same. He couldn't help feeling attached. The winter king let Gunter do his own thing, but the white haired man wasn't sleepy. He stood outside the house staring at the stars. Then he considered fancying it up a little, trying some designs in it. It was hard, and he scratched out some pathetic 2d designs but nothing grand like an ice sculpture.
Just then a pink lady in a giant cloud silently swooped in on him and snatched him right up.
As the winter king observed who this was, his jaw dropped.
"A tomorrow problem." He whispered in denial. The winter king tried to avoid the war all day long, but now he was being dragged into it. And he recognised the person next to him- Princess bubblegum. But she was different, her hair was wild, she was wide eyed and sharp toothed and her clothes were tattered. She started to laugh uncontrollably, a similar manic laugh that he'd heard just when he cursed her.
Now that he was high in the sky, he had a good view of the other kingdoms. They were in total wreck and there seemed to be an awful lot of candy in them. She must've conquered them. But how? She didn't have the crowns powers, only the craziness. So how did the potentially weakest princess defeat 2 other kingdoms at once?
But it didn't matter anymore because she threw him into a cage of candy. Just like the cage he'd seen in the ice king's cave. The candy citizens looked mortifying, as if someone threw acid all over you. They spoke in groans and we're almost half-dead. Zombies. Another cold shiver.
"I am the candy queen!" Came a shrill voice. Princess bubblegum seemed to have forgotten her real name.
"And you are in my castle!" She continued. "Do you like it?" Here she waited for a reply.
The winter king looked at the battered walls, the melting chocolate and the nasty feeling. Then he forced a smile "absolutely wonderful.." he said through gritted teeth. She seemed satisfied with that answer atleast.
"And we're going to get married!" She shrieked. The winter king was stunned with this reply, expecting she'd take revenge. But then it all fit together like a puzzle, she caught a glimpse of him when he cursed her, so she knew that he cursed her but the crown causing memory loss made her forget why she was so obsessed with him. Now it was just plain obsession. And when she saw the man alone in the middle of a snowswept land, she had no hesitation in taking him. Kidnapping, you may say.
The floor of the cage was sticky and Winter King cringed at the feeling on his feet. Then the candy queen left the room, to do something that he didn't care about knowing.
"Here's my chance.." he looked up and shot hard streaks of ice at the cage bars, something he'd learned in training. And it easily broke, the cage bars fell in on itself. Swiftly, the winter king left without a word, boy was the candy queen shocked to see the cage empty when she returned.
He ran back to his safe land of snow, panting.
He shut the doors (and if he made locks, she would've locked it) and hid under the covers. He wasn't scared of her, just disgusted. His feet felt sticky, but he'd clean it when he takes a wash tomorrow. For now, getting his thoughts together was his main priority. Seeing how much candy was in the other lands made him realise that the other princesses were probably dead. This was his fault, if Princess bubblegum never went bananas then she wouldn't have taken over their land. But, if he didn't then he wouldn't have been here today.

As many years passed, the Winter King mastered his powers and was able to create the most delicate and complex things out of ice. He had also learnt how to create different kinds of ice, and best of all, how to bring his ice creations to life, real sentient beings. The land which the candy queen threatened to take over was now part of the winter kingdom. The winter king's most luxurious ice had an opal look to it, and his creations crafted him a magnificent suit. A white collared top with a purple tie, ontop of that a dark blue plaid jumper and it was topped off with a suit coat. He wore blue trousers and carried a sword around his waist with a sword seath. The man also had dark blue high-heeled ice skates. He had lovely small oval glasses crafted, with gold strings coming down from it and gold star charms on each string. He also had a few piercings in each ear and the gold crown glowed magnificently to give an amazing overall finish.
His kingdom was bursting with life, and it ranged from small houses to grand supermarkets. Every inch was lined with detail, brilliant sculpting skills.
The candy queen still kidnapped him every now and then, obsessed with being his wife but he escaped her every time. She was just a pest to him.
The winter king was now visibly royalty in his demeanour, and was a flamboyant king who loved dance and song.
The winter kingdom continued to grow in this way for many years...

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[more book like version here]