Jaynin
4th Level Red Feather
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- Jul 12, 2003
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Demon Hunter Shuni, Episode 3: Tunnel Vision
Kazuo was cooking breakfast for himself and Shuni, as usual, but something wasn’t quite right… the smells of the cooking permeated the air quite thoroughly and, as he had learned, Shuni could smell them even with the door to her room closed. This, of course, was usually her signal to awaken and to greet the old man as they ate breakfast together, which had become a morning ritual of sorts. Kazuo would tell Shuni how the villagers were taking to her, a situation that seemed to be improving day by day, and Shuni would tell Kazuo how the various battles against demons were going, which also was to Kazuo’s satisfaction.
Shuni did, however, leave out the fact that the demons had tickled her feet that one night; she decided he didn’t need to know that much information, and really so long as she kept the demons out of the crops and out of making trouble in the village, then Kazuo was happy. But this morning, there was not going to be any such report, as Kazuo opened Shuni’s bedroom door to find an already-made bedroll and no Shuni. “I wonder if she’s gone out early in the morning… her bed wasn’t made yesterday, so she was obviously here if it is now… ah well, it’s her business. I just hope she’s all right.” With that, Kazuo returned to breakfast, only making food for himself now.
Shuni had indeed gotten up early that morning, before sunrise as a matter of fact, and traveled out into the woods. Sunrise for demons was akin to twilight for humans, the time when they began to feel the urges for sleep and their senses were not as sharp as when they were fully awake. So, by hitting the demons at their weakest moment, Shuni hoped to steal a match on them and perhaps put them on the defensive… She was traveling quickly and quietly, but did not quite know where the demons might be found…
That was not an insurmountable problem, however. The concentrations of dark energy that demons brought with them when they inhabited places invariably warped the surrounding terrain; twisted trees, poor soil, corrupt vegetation, impure minerals, and the like. The forest was not a ‘dark’ forest so to speak, in that it was corrupted enough that the light did not reach through the trees, and it was much easier for Shuni to navigate even by the limited sunlight, which would only improve as the day went on.
It was an hour or two later at this time, and Shuni had wandered quite deep into the woods, although not so far that she had gotten disoriented. Being disoriented could mean severe, even fatal, consequences, so Shuni was traveling in a straight line, and making highly visible marks on trees whenever she altered course slightly. She would take no chances about getting lost in this forest, because if she was still in here when night fell, there would definitely be trouble.
What Shuni did not know, or more precisely knew but did not count as a problem, were the demons’ equivalent of a night watch. Typically, this duty was drawn by the mole demons, who could burrow into the ground to minimize sunlight exposure and remain mostly hidden as they kept an eye out. Normally they would have had just one or two posted near the caves in case of an emergency, but with Shuni on the loose, the patrols had been expanded and become far more aggressive, reaching out almost halfway to the village. And it was one of these sentries that spotted Shuni, making her way carefully through the forest, and whether by luck or design approaching from the angle that would bring her to the closest she could come to the underground fortress before the pickets would pick her up.
Now normally these mole demons would simply report back to Ain with the news that a human was encroaching, and then scatter to scout for more possible intrusions, but with Shuni, it had been hoped that they could fulfill a more active role… The one who spotted Shuni immediately scampered through the tunnel network to the mole demon in charge of the watch, informed him of the intrusion with a few squeaks and other noises, then went on to report the intrusion to Ain and the incubus who had been given de facto charge over the operation.
This incubus’ name was actually Vorkaan but, like many incubi, he rarely used that name once coming of age; the incubi’s role in the demon hierarchy required their identities to be fluid, and so they were accustomed to using pseudonyms and other forms of false identification. Only in official proceedings were they actually referred to by name, and within the incubus community it was custom to refer to an incubus by his last used pseudonym, as a kind of constant training in maintaining an effective cover identity.
Vorkaan was in a rather foul mood, for more than one reason. The first reason was the obvious reason, that being the injury he had suffered while fleeing Shuni the last time. His hindquarters and the backs of his legs were burned pretty badly, and although they would heal, for the time being sitting and walking properly were embarrassingly difficult. The only solution were ridiculous-looking salves applied to his injuries and held in place by bulky bandages, human affectations to be true but ones that did ease the pain. The others, while not quite openly laughing at his ridiculous appearance, did not try to quiet their snickers when he entered a room.
The second reason Vorkaan was in a foul mood was actually something most humans would not have understood, since in a human context his situation was a sign of authority and honor. Ain had promoted him to temporary captaincy of the demon hunter operation, with a promise of permanent captaincy if he showed his worth. The rank was not the benefit it would have been among humans; for a demon, being given official authority was a way to prevent them from trying to avoid blame. Ain clearly did not trust him, and so resorted to that measure. Also, while in his newfound position of authority, Vorkaan was addressed by his given demonic name, which also made him slightly uncomfortable. It would take getting used to again.
Nevertheless, being defeated twice when he was close to ultimate victory had him irritated, but also now driven to reduce this giant of a female human to a music box that played the sweet song of human laughter whenever he felt like hearing its tune. To that end, he had already begun devising a series of traps to lay out should the girl try to come here while he recuperated from his injury, and he had already given explicit instructions to the mole demon sentries to how to handle an intrusion by her…
Vorkaan looked up just as a mole demon popped out of the small hole in the wall, chittering at him rapidly for a moment before disappearing back into the hole. He hadn’t understood a word, but then the mole demons reported for one thing and one thing only, and that was to indicate someone was approaching. Very well. Easing gingerly off of his hindquarters and taking a few hobbling steps, Vorkaan began to raise the alarm, and get the work details together to carry out his plans. He just hoped the mole demons could stall her off long enough to allow him to finish setting up the things he needed to do. It shouldn’t be that hard…
Shuni was hot on the trail of the demons now, she knew it. The soil had become hard and unfertile, the kind of spoiled soil that didn’t belong in a forest, the kind of soil that indicated the presence of demons nearby. The infection, as it was, spread out from a central point in almost all cases, so Shuni walked along the border of the hard soil for some time before getting a feel of how it curved and making a path for what she thought would be the center point. It could be some time before she got there, but hopefully the soil’s decay would increase, as well as other signs of demonic presence. That would serve as a signpost to her that she was headed in the right direction.
Shuni was headed in the right direction, the most obvious sign of which she could not yet see; all along her path, right in front of her and covering the most obvious detours she might take, were mole demons, working just under the surface, digging what seemed like post holes with the top covered by a thin layer of earth. The point was, quite obviously, for her to step in one, hopefully two. They were spaced less than a stride apart, a pattern so that a step in any direction from one could land her in another. The sheer multitude of the holes meant that she could step in multiple holes before she made it to the cave; it was, more or less, the equivalent of a mine field.
Shuni was of course blissfully unaware of the traps that laid below her, which may have even been to her benefit, as her steps were not guided by fear or trepidation and for a good distance she avoided stepping in them, her stride and straight-line path managing to find the solid ground to support her, but… “Oh! There is a cave…” Shuni murmured to herself. The cave looked like an excellent candidate for a demonic hideout; the ground was almost black around it, the rocks all misshapen and looking melted in some places, the trees’ roots twisted and curling up out of the soil, rejecting the deleterious earth.
Shuni turned her stride just slightly, heading for the cave entrance, and without warning her right foot caught on a rock, dislodging her sandal, and as she tried to step back into it she overbalanced and her foot went right into one of the holes, causing her to let out a surprised yelp as she sunk down to her thigh in the hard, intractable earth. Worse, the ground had caved in around her leg, so now it was stuck down there pretty good… Shuni grunted, but she had no choice but to kick off her other sandal to gain traction on the ground as she planted her foot firmly to try and use it as leverage to yank herself free… and that foot too sunk into the earth, leaving her in almost a standing position with both legs trapped by hard earth, now coming up to her upper thigh.
Shuni crossed her arms and sighed, taking a moment to calm down and chase off her irritation before acting. This was the type of trap that usually ensnared you further the more you struggled against it, and so the key to escape was calm, contemplated action. Shuni first tested the earth under her soles by leaning on it a little, with increasing amounts of pressure. It seemed as if the earth underneath was stable enough to hold her, so then she could plant one foot on the ground below while trying to use her upper body to lever the other leg out, and…
What was that? It made Shuni twitch for a moment. The feeling of something fleeting had run across her sole, giving her pause. She waited, and the sensation was not repeated, so she assumed it was a bug or worm or some other ground-dwelling creature, not exactly the most wonderful thing to contemplate, but certainly no cause for alarm, and… No, wait, there it was again, on the other foot, more perceptibly this time, and again on both… Shuni began to giggle, realizing too late that this wasn’t just a trap to slow her down, they were still trying to get at her feet…!
Beneath the ground, the mole demons had tunneled to where Shuni’s soles were stuck in the ground, and with their digging claws began to scratch lightly at the socks, taking advantage of Shuni’s near-total lack of mobility below her waist, especially on her feet which were sunk deep into the earth. Because of this, removing her socks was almost an impossibility, but it wouldn’t be needed. Vorkaan just wanted a distraction to keep her occupied while the main trap was set up in the base, so the mole demons simply ‘tunneled’ at her feet.
Shuni let out a surprised squeal of laughter and reflexively tried to tug her feet away, but with the mole demons coming right out of the very ground she was standing on, so to speak, there was nowhere for her to get a firm footing where her soles weren’t getting tickled by those insistent, lightly scratching claws. Thank God her feet were not bare, else she might have been going berserk, but it was bad enough that she was losing her ability to think calmly, flailing about aboveground and giggling madly.
Her first instinct was to try and grab at something on the ground for leverage, perhaps a tree root or a well-seated rock, but the ground around her was entirely cleared of such things. Next she tried to make handholds in the earth itself, but the soil was poor and it was difficult to dig in… nevertheless, it was her only option at the moment, and the frenzied energy imparted to her by the tickling of her soles made her arms move like windmills.
It was not easy work; from time to time the tickling overcame her, and her fingers simply squeezed handfuls of the earth as she laughed helplessly, trying to wiggle her feet or find some way to relieve the sensations now covering her feet from heel to toes, but every time it seemed like she had struggled enough to perhaps open up some wiggling room, whatever the creatures were down there expertly tunneled to cause a small cave-in, enough to fill the gap she had made and keep her feet pinned helplessly in the soil. After a few minutes of this she desperately tried to dig her legs out with her hands, but that proved to be useless as well…
Shuni’s mind had run itself into a spiral, getting closer and closer towards the point where she’d not be able to think of anything at all, when her frantic clawing at the ground unexpectedly brought salvation; a thin root exposed by her digging. Shuni did not realize it, so busy was she with laughing, that it took her a moment to realize that her digging motion was being interrupted by something she had held on to, and her laughter-squeezed face suddenly showed an expression of dawning realization. Frantically gripping onto the root and praying it would not tear, Shuni tugged mightily on her left leg, feeling nothing at first, the tickling claws still all over the sock, then –
It happened so suddenly it nearly pulled a muscle, Shuni’s leg popped out of the hole, leaving a small cave-in of earth behind to fill the bottom where her foot had been. Still laughing, but more of a giggle now as her one foot still faced the assault of the many digging claws, she felt around with her left foot to make sure the ground was not unstable where she planned to put it, and once finding firm earth beneath her sole gave another mighty tug with every muscle in her body, and with glorious suddenness her right leg came free, taking with it the last of the tickling sensation in her sole.
Shuni took a moment to pant and regain her breath, on hands and knees on the forest floor, looking silly but unwilling to take another chance. Her first move, once she had regained her breath, was to gather up her sandals, but not to put them back on; she wouldn’t want to trip again because of them, especially not inside the cave, so she simply carried them with her as she began to crawl on all fours towards the entrance to the cave she had been heading for before this incident… Shuni reflected on the fact that the demons were going through quite some trouble to get at her feet…
Leaving her sandals at the cave entrance, grimacing because she knew that they were protection for her feet but unwilling for them to get broken or damaged, because they were even harder to replace than her socks, Shuni stooped low to enter the cave. This was going to be difficult, she realized just then. The ceiling was low; barely enough for her to stand upright in. Since this was underground, the ceiling was not going to be even; a rock, or a tree root, or just a protrusion in the ground could whack her on the forehead at an inopportune time if she was not careful. Squinting and trying to see in the extremely poor light, once again only given off by her clothing now, Shuni made her way forward.
There seemed to be nothing here, she realized after five minutes or so of walking down the straight tunnel, before she finally came to a cross tunnel. Fortunately, it was of a T-shaped intersection, so there were but two ways to choose from instead of three. Not hesitating, Shuni simply walked to the left, but as she rounded the corner she felt her clothing catch on something… Tugging at it with an irritated look on her face, Shuni tried to wiggle her foot around, since it was her sock that was caught, and to her surprise whatever it was moved, peeling her sock straight off and running! A creature?
“My sock!” The cry escaped Shuni’s lips and she gave chase, able to follow the whiteness of her sock contrasted with the blackness of the cave around her, and by the dim light she could see the small creature, whatever it was, scamper into a hole at a dead-end. “Damn… ah!” Shuni knelt down out of frustrated reflex to see if she could find it, and to her surprise the small tunnel it had gone into also dead-ended a short distance away, and the creature itself was sort of milling about at the back of the tunnel, having nowhere to go and not wanting to face Shuni.
“Hmmm…” Shuni considered the small tunnel it had run into. It was bigger than it had first appeared, perhaps… maybe, just big enough for her to squeeze into… Taking a deep breath, and drawing one of her throwing daggers to use as a weapon, Shuni got down and began to crawl into the hole after the creature. Losing another pair of socks was something she could not afford, both in a literal and a figurative sense; her first pay had not come in yet, and was not due for two more weeks’ time, until then there would be no way for her to pay for a new pair of socks, much less two or three. She had to get this one back at all costs…
Inch by inch Shuni made her way inside the tunnel, slowly but surely coming closer to the whatever-it-was that had stolen her sock… just a little closer now, and she could… Shuni abruptly got stuck. Trying to pull forward once, twice, Shuni realized that her feet weren’t fitting through the tunnel’s entrance… “Accursed…!” Shuni bit off the end of the oath, trying to stretch out and reach the creature with her knife, and her arm brushed against something sticky… and it didn’t budge.
“This can’t be…!” Shuni gasped, trying to somehow maneuver her feet so that they would fit inside the tunnel, even awkwardly, but they had gotten jammed against the entrance and now could move neither forward nor back, and the whole setup reeked awfully of a trap. Especially now, since the creature just tantalizingly out of her reach darted out of view into a small side tunnel, leaving Shuni stuck there. Struggling to free herself only got her other arm stuck in the sticky substance that was trapping her…
“Well, well, well.” An unpleasant voice, just barely audible to Shuni, echoed in the tunnel outside. Vorkaan hobbled up to the place, marked obviously by two large feet protruding from the wall, and holding in his hand a long tool with dull teeth on one curled end. Modeled after the human backscratcher, Vorkaan had put an extra-long handle on this so he would not have to bend over or squat, which was still annoyingly painful… With a little manipulation, he used it to remove her sock, then to give her bare soles a quick rake with his little tool. He was rewarded with a muffled squeal and slight wriggling of the soles before him… “Come!” he commanded, addressing the underling he had chosen specifically for this task, still skulking in the shadows…
With the dry rustle of scales gliding over the stone floor, a lamia glided over towards Vorkaan, two of her six arms crossed to hide her chest and the others folded loosely over one another. “No need to get all uppity because you’ve been given rank,” she said with a dry, hissing chuckle, her black eyes appearing strange since they were all pupils and no iris or cornea, none visible to a human anyway, giving her eyes the appearance of twin voids. Her basic appearance was a fairly standard humanshape/demon hybrid, human torso with modifications and the lower body of a snake… in the case of lamias, the snake-body began just below the hips, close enough to approximating that part of the human female form to sometimes draw the eyes of incubi, but almost as a rule lamias did not feel anything especially different there and sometimes broke the arms of incubi who touched without asking, given that they were considerably physically stronger. The chests of these creatures also drew eyes, since what humans considered a large bust was fairly normal on a lamia, since their spine and body structure were able to support such a weight.
Still, although Vorkaan admitted that he looked and thought at times when he had no female assignments, he knew better than to do anything without asking, and right now he wasn’t even thinking about that, just that she had six hands and it would be very useful indeed… “Regardless, if you had been more cooperative when I first asked you for help, I might be more inclined to treat you as more than a sullen creature that must be ordered to do anything.” He had chosen this particular lamia, as a matter of fact, specifically because of her experience. Vorkaan held his own private theory about lamias, one that he had not yet been able to test but was so far upheld by this one… she knew what he was asking was neither ludicrous nor ineffective. After all, six arms meant six armpits.
“I know what I’m doing, and I don’t need to be ordered about by you.” Smirking, the lamia gave Vorkaan a rather heavy slap on the rear. The incubus’ eyes opened wide and, while not quite dancing in pain, his body began to quiver and he hobbled slowly off, around the corner and out of sight, leaving the lamia alone with this pair of bare feet sticking out of the wall.
Shuni had no idea what had been said out in the hall, hearing only a few murmurs and something that sounded like a huge snake, but she was totally unprepared for the feeling of two hands suddenly raking short, sharp nails down both of her soles. The scream of surprised laughter that resulted seemed to fill Shuni’s mind; in the confined space, it echoed around, ringing in her ears as her body struggled helplessly. The only outlet for the sound was a small shaft carved into the roof of the tunnel and curving back around to open into the main tunnel, to carry the sound of her laughter back outside.
“You’re a ticklish little thing,” the lamia said, in a much better mood now that Vorkaan was off nursing his hindquarters somewhere. The image made her chuckle softly, and she unfolded her middle set of arms, seeing no need to hide her chest now that Vorkaan was gone. Incubi were such lechers, maybe it was their nature but they could use a bit more self-control… The lamia used her new set of hands to hold Shuni’s toes back, keeping her feet against the floor with the toes pointed so that her soles were fully arched, and her fingers ran down the curves without mercy.
Shuni’s body shook with laughter, getting her even more stuck as she cursed the baby fat on her waist and thighs as well as the big feet which had gotten her stuck here… She didn’t know how many or what kind of demons were outside in the tunnel now, but there were at least two, since there were four hands on her feet, but the way they were being held didn’t seem like two separate demons… but whoever it was unfortunately knew what they were doing, holding her toes in such a way as to render them immobile and stretch out her feet for perfect tickling, driving her crazy with laughter…
“I see why Vorkaan was getting all up in arms over this,” the lamia said with a quiet chuckle to herself. “My, my, you certainly do have some rather ticklish feet on you here… such big ones too, it’s a wonder you can get around with these! I wonder how long I’m supposed to keep tickling… well, I’ll just keep going until Vorkaan gets back, and no idea when that will be…” She giggled to herself, now congratulating herself even more for slapping his tender rear end, he’d be gone for a bit now… She concentrated scritching at the base of Shuni’s toes, keeping her one pair of hands in reserve for a surprise.
Shuni was definitely starting to feel a little lightheaded with giggling, as well as a fair degree of disorientation coming from laughing so hard when she could barely see… she could only thank Providence that the demons had not yet identified her spot, for when they did, she would be helpless… the thought made her blush, though she wasn’t sure why. It was strange, her mind was starting to drift because it had nothing else aside from the sound of her own laughter to occupy itself with… the sensations on her feet dominating her sensory nerves…
Just as the lamia had started with her third pair of hands, tickling around the toes and base of her feet with one pair while scratching at the heels and soles with the other, Vorkaan returned, hobbling back around the corner with a dark scowl on his face. “Ahh, Vorkaan, I trust you are feeling well?” the lamia asked with a smirk, not quite paying attention to Shuni and realizing that her laughter had reached a fever pitch, then waned when her fingers wandered elsewhere… The two of her hands tickling at Shuni’s toes casually crossed themselves in front of her chest before she turned to face Vorkaan, her tail flicking and shifting a bit as she did so.
Vorkaan’s eyes narrowed, but he too heard the gasping, desperate laughter from Shuni, and figured that the lamia had at least done her job… still, there was no way she could get away with such flagrant disregard for his authority. Even if he didn’t like having it, to have it and not to make it respected would be to earn the worst of both worlds. “I would advise you not to do something of that nature again,” he said flatly, crossing his own arms and dealing with the pain of standing up straight to present an intimidating figure. Sensing a challenge, the lamia left the pair of feet alone for now and slithered over to him, also drawing herself up to greater height, which just about put them equal.
Shuni heard some kind of argument going on in the hall behind her. The demons’ tendency to argue amongst themselves might prove to be her salvation… Especially now, since the sticky goo holding her in place had hardened over a period of time, and was now easy to crack, which she had actually done while thrashing about from the tickling… however, she’d waited for the right moment to actually attempt an escape, and with the argument causing the tickling to cease, she figured now was as good a time as any… Quickly, yet quietly as she could, she wormed her way backwards out of the hole, hearing the arguing voices grow more audible as she slipped out…
“My authority was given to me directly by Lord Ain and I expect my orders to be followed as you would his –“
“Vorkaan, don’t delude yourself, he gave you the command to prevent you from evading responsibility for your failures,” the lamia retorted sharply. “And I’d say evidence of your failures is manifest.”
“Silence!” Vorkaan growled, not noticing Shuni slip out of the hole behind the lamia, since she had stayed low and crawled for the cross tunnel, using the lamia’s body to shield herself from view as long as she could. “You have simply sat here and allowed others to take the risks while doing no work unless ordered! I was out attempting to assist Lord Ain –“
“You ‘assisted’ him because you were ordered to,” the lamia snarled back. “Don’t put on airs of bravery, Vorkaan –“
“Wait a moment – the demon hunter is gone!” Vorkaan cut her off in return, pushing past her and gaping at the now-empty hole in the wall. They had been down the other cross tunnel, and she must have escaped while they were arguing – “Don’t let her escape!” Vorkaan yelled, but his attempt at running was pulled up short as he hobbled and winced in pain, trying to run on his bad legs. “Don’t just stand there!” he snarled at the lamia. “Chase her!”
“Yes, Milord,” the lamia replied mockingly, slithering down the tunnel at a speed much faster than one might imagine a snakelike creature being capable of, and within a minute she had spotted the fleeing girl. “I’ve got you now,” she chuckled, able to keep her profile low and speed along quickly, while the girl had to hunch over and run… “You’re mine!” she said with a delighted hiss – and screamed as she tried to grab Shuni’s wrists, feeling the palms of two hands sear with pain. Shuni shook her off and ran out into the sunlight, grabbing her sandals and hopskipping over the ground to avoid the holes, hopefully…
Vorkaan smirked to himself, down in the cross tunnel. He had accidentally neglected to mention to the lamia the exact nature of Shuni’s kimono, and the sound of her scream echoed all the way down to where he was… Grinning broadly, he strode – limped – back to his quarters. No one would disrespect him and get away with it, he vowed. Incubi were not the strongest of demons, but intricate planning was second nature to him, as was cunning to the entire race…
Shuni stumbled back into the village around sunset, looking rather the worse for wear and staggering back into Kazuo’s house on rubbery legs… That demon, the lamia she had seen, had worked her over effectively, to the point of distraction and almost something else… she only hoped that Kazuo hadn’t quite finished dinner yet, because she needed some time to wash up.
“Good evening,” Kazuo greeted her cheerfully, preparing some fish and rice with seaweed and takoyaki for dinner. “I was starting to wonder where you got to. Dinner is almost ready and – oh, child, do go and wash up, you look like you’ve been wrestling demons all day. Go on now.” Kazuo shooed her into the washroom insistently but kindly. “I’ll keep dinner warm until you get done. Take your time.”
“Thank you,” Shuni said with a polite bow, once again thanking her lucky stars to have the affable old man as her host. Having to deal with some kind of sour-faced old woman or someone of the like every day after getting tickle tortured by demons might have been more than she could stand, but Kazuo’s easy acceptance of everything she told him, including the endeavors that did not go quite so well and never questioning whether she had omitted anything, put her at ease. Splashing water first over her face, Shuni quickly disrobed and ran a cloth soaked with cold water over herself as she stood in a washtub to collect the water that dripped off of her, partly wishing for a hot spring or bath but glad she had the opportunity to take any bath at all…
When she returned, feeling refreshed and looking cleaner, she knelt at the table where Kazuo had served dinner, and feeling rather hungry all of the sudden, attacked the food voraciously. “Eat plenty, child, I made extra.” Kazuo contented himself to a medium-seized serving while Shuni devoured almost everything in sight, almost wondering why Kazuo had chosen today of all days to make extra food, but not quite caring enough. She was hungry, and it was time to eat.
Kazuo was cooking breakfast for himself and Shuni, as usual, but something wasn’t quite right… the smells of the cooking permeated the air quite thoroughly and, as he had learned, Shuni could smell them even with the door to her room closed. This, of course, was usually her signal to awaken and to greet the old man as they ate breakfast together, which had become a morning ritual of sorts. Kazuo would tell Shuni how the villagers were taking to her, a situation that seemed to be improving day by day, and Shuni would tell Kazuo how the various battles against demons were going, which also was to Kazuo’s satisfaction.
Shuni did, however, leave out the fact that the demons had tickled her feet that one night; she decided he didn’t need to know that much information, and really so long as she kept the demons out of the crops and out of making trouble in the village, then Kazuo was happy. But this morning, there was not going to be any such report, as Kazuo opened Shuni’s bedroom door to find an already-made bedroll and no Shuni. “I wonder if she’s gone out early in the morning… her bed wasn’t made yesterday, so she was obviously here if it is now… ah well, it’s her business. I just hope she’s all right.” With that, Kazuo returned to breakfast, only making food for himself now.
Shuni had indeed gotten up early that morning, before sunrise as a matter of fact, and traveled out into the woods. Sunrise for demons was akin to twilight for humans, the time when they began to feel the urges for sleep and their senses were not as sharp as when they were fully awake. So, by hitting the demons at their weakest moment, Shuni hoped to steal a match on them and perhaps put them on the defensive… She was traveling quickly and quietly, but did not quite know where the demons might be found…
That was not an insurmountable problem, however. The concentrations of dark energy that demons brought with them when they inhabited places invariably warped the surrounding terrain; twisted trees, poor soil, corrupt vegetation, impure minerals, and the like. The forest was not a ‘dark’ forest so to speak, in that it was corrupted enough that the light did not reach through the trees, and it was much easier for Shuni to navigate even by the limited sunlight, which would only improve as the day went on.
It was an hour or two later at this time, and Shuni had wandered quite deep into the woods, although not so far that she had gotten disoriented. Being disoriented could mean severe, even fatal, consequences, so Shuni was traveling in a straight line, and making highly visible marks on trees whenever she altered course slightly. She would take no chances about getting lost in this forest, because if she was still in here when night fell, there would definitely be trouble.
What Shuni did not know, or more precisely knew but did not count as a problem, were the demons’ equivalent of a night watch. Typically, this duty was drawn by the mole demons, who could burrow into the ground to minimize sunlight exposure and remain mostly hidden as they kept an eye out. Normally they would have had just one or two posted near the caves in case of an emergency, but with Shuni on the loose, the patrols had been expanded and become far more aggressive, reaching out almost halfway to the village. And it was one of these sentries that spotted Shuni, making her way carefully through the forest, and whether by luck or design approaching from the angle that would bring her to the closest she could come to the underground fortress before the pickets would pick her up.
Now normally these mole demons would simply report back to Ain with the news that a human was encroaching, and then scatter to scout for more possible intrusions, but with Shuni, it had been hoped that they could fulfill a more active role… The one who spotted Shuni immediately scampered through the tunnel network to the mole demon in charge of the watch, informed him of the intrusion with a few squeaks and other noises, then went on to report the intrusion to Ain and the incubus who had been given de facto charge over the operation.
This incubus’ name was actually Vorkaan but, like many incubi, he rarely used that name once coming of age; the incubi’s role in the demon hierarchy required their identities to be fluid, and so they were accustomed to using pseudonyms and other forms of false identification. Only in official proceedings were they actually referred to by name, and within the incubus community it was custom to refer to an incubus by his last used pseudonym, as a kind of constant training in maintaining an effective cover identity.
Vorkaan was in a rather foul mood, for more than one reason. The first reason was the obvious reason, that being the injury he had suffered while fleeing Shuni the last time. His hindquarters and the backs of his legs were burned pretty badly, and although they would heal, for the time being sitting and walking properly were embarrassingly difficult. The only solution were ridiculous-looking salves applied to his injuries and held in place by bulky bandages, human affectations to be true but ones that did ease the pain. The others, while not quite openly laughing at his ridiculous appearance, did not try to quiet their snickers when he entered a room.
The second reason Vorkaan was in a foul mood was actually something most humans would not have understood, since in a human context his situation was a sign of authority and honor. Ain had promoted him to temporary captaincy of the demon hunter operation, with a promise of permanent captaincy if he showed his worth. The rank was not the benefit it would have been among humans; for a demon, being given official authority was a way to prevent them from trying to avoid blame. Ain clearly did not trust him, and so resorted to that measure. Also, while in his newfound position of authority, Vorkaan was addressed by his given demonic name, which also made him slightly uncomfortable. It would take getting used to again.
Nevertheless, being defeated twice when he was close to ultimate victory had him irritated, but also now driven to reduce this giant of a female human to a music box that played the sweet song of human laughter whenever he felt like hearing its tune. To that end, he had already begun devising a series of traps to lay out should the girl try to come here while he recuperated from his injury, and he had already given explicit instructions to the mole demon sentries to how to handle an intrusion by her…
Vorkaan looked up just as a mole demon popped out of the small hole in the wall, chittering at him rapidly for a moment before disappearing back into the hole. He hadn’t understood a word, but then the mole demons reported for one thing and one thing only, and that was to indicate someone was approaching. Very well. Easing gingerly off of his hindquarters and taking a few hobbling steps, Vorkaan began to raise the alarm, and get the work details together to carry out his plans. He just hoped the mole demons could stall her off long enough to allow him to finish setting up the things he needed to do. It shouldn’t be that hard…
Shuni was hot on the trail of the demons now, she knew it. The soil had become hard and unfertile, the kind of spoiled soil that didn’t belong in a forest, the kind of soil that indicated the presence of demons nearby. The infection, as it was, spread out from a central point in almost all cases, so Shuni walked along the border of the hard soil for some time before getting a feel of how it curved and making a path for what she thought would be the center point. It could be some time before she got there, but hopefully the soil’s decay would increase, as well as other signs of demonic presence. That would serve as a signpost to her that she was headed in the right direction.
Shuni was headed in the right direction, the most obvious sign of which she could not yet see; all along her path, right in front of her and covering the most obvious detours she might take, were mole demons, working just under the surface, digging what seemed like post holes with the top covered by a thin layer of earth. The point was, quite obviously, for her to step in one, hopefully two. They were spaced less than a stride apart, a pattern so that a step in any direction from one could land her in another. The sheer multitude of the holes meant that she could step in multiple holes before she made it to the cave; it was, more or less, the equivalent of a mine field.
Shuni was of course blissfully unaware of the traps that laid below her, which may have even been to her benefit, as her steps were not guided by fear or trepidation and for a good distance she avoided stepping in them, her stride and straight-line path managing to find the solid ground to support her, but… “Oh! There is a cave…” Shuni murmured to herself. The cave looked like an excellent candidate for a demonic hideout; the ground was almost black around it, the rocks all misshapen and looking melted in some places, the trees’ roots twisted and curling up out of the soil, rejecting the deleterious earth.
Shuni turned her stride just slightly, heading for the cave entrance, and without warning her right foot caught on a rock, dislodging her sandal, and as she tried to step back into it she overbalanced and her foot went right into one of the holes, causing her to let out a surprised yelp as she sunk down to her thigh in the hard, intractable earth. Worse, the ground had caved in around her leg, so now it was stuck down there pretty good… Shuni grunted, but she had no choice but to kick off her other sandal to gain traction on the ground as she planted her foot firmly to try and use it as leverage to yank herself free… and that foot too sunk into the earth, leaving her in almost a standing position with both legs trapped by hard earth, now coming up to her upper thigh.
Shuni crossed her arms and sighed, taking a moment to calm down and chase off her irritation before acting. This was the type of trap that usually ensnared you further the more you struggled against it, and so the key to escape was calm, contemplated action. Shuni first tested the earth under her soles by leaning on it a little, with increasing amounts of pressure. It seemed as if the earth underneath was stable enough to hold her, so then she could plant one foot on the ground below while trying to use her upper body to lever the other leg out, and…
What was that? It made Shuni twitch for a moment. The feeling of something fleeting had run across her sole, giving her pause. She waited, and the sensation was not repeated, so she assumed it was a bug or worm or some other ground-dwelling creature, not exactly the most wonderful thing to contemplate, but certainly no cause for alarm, and… No, wait, there it was again, on the other foot, more perceptibly this time, and again on both… Shuni began to giggle, realizing too late that this wasn’t just a trap to slow her down, they were still trying to get at her feet…!
Beneath the ground, the mole demons had tunneled to where Shuni’s soles were stuck in the ground, and with their digging claws began to scratch lightly at the socks, taking advantage of Shuni’s near-total lack of mobility below her waist, especially on her feet which were sunk deep into the earth. Because of this, removing her socks was almost an impossibility, but it wouldn’t be needed. Vorkaan just wanted a distraction to keep her occupied while the main trap was set up in the base, so the mole demons simply ‘tunneled’ at her feet.
Shuni let out a surprised squeal of laughter and reflexively tried to tug her feet away, but with the mole demons coming right out of the very ground she was standing on, so to speak, there was nowhere for her to get a firm footing where her soles weren’t getting tickled by those insistent, lightly scratching claws. Thank God her feet were not bare, else she might have been going berserk, but it was bad enough that she was losing her ability to think calmly, flailing about aboveground and giggling madly.
Her first instinct was to try and grab at something on the ground for leverage, perhaps a tree root or a well-seated rock, but the ground around her was entirely cleared of such things. Next she tried to make handholds in the earth itself, but the soil was poor and it was difficult to dig in… nevertheless, it was her only option at the moment, and the frenzied energy imparted to her by the tickling of her soles made her arms move like windmills.
It was not easy work; from time to time the tickling overcame her, and her fingers simply squeezed handfuls of the earth as she laughed helplessly, trying to wiggle her feet or find some way to relieve the sensations now covering her feet from heel to toes, but every time it seemed like she had struggled enough to perhaps open up some wiggling room, whatever the creatures were down there expertly tunneled to cause a small cave-in, enough to fill the gap she had made and keep her feet pinned helplessly in the soil. After a few minutes of this she desperately tried to dig her legs out with her hands, but that proved to be useless as well…
Shuni’s mind had run itself into a spiral, getting closer and closer towards the point where she’d not be able to think of anything at all, when her frantic clawing at the ground unexpectedly brought salvation; a thin root exposed by her digging. Shuni did not realize it, so busy was she with laughing, that it took her a moment to realize that her digging motion was being interrupted by something she had held on to, and her laughter-squeezed face suddenly showed an expression of dawning realization. Frantically gripping onto the root and praying it would not tear, Shuni tugged mightily on her left leg, feeling nothing at first, the tickling claws still all over the sock, then –
It happened so suddenly it nearly pulled a muscle, Shuni’s leg popped out of the hole, leaving a small cave-in of earth behind to fill the bottom where her foot had been. Still laughing, but more of a giggle now as her one foot still faced the assault of the many digging claws, she felt around with her left foot to make sure the ground was not unstable where she planned to put it, and once finding firm earth beneath her sole gave another mighty tug with every muscle in her body, and with glorious suddenness her right leg came free, taking with it the last of the tickling sensation in her sole.
Shuni took a moment to pant and regain her breath, on hands and knees on the forest floor, looking silly but unwilling to take another chance. Her first move, once she had regained her breath, was to gather up her sandals, but not to put them back on; she wouldn’t want to trip again because of them, especially not inside the cave, so she simply carried them with her as she began to crawl on all fours towards the entrance to the cave she had been heading for before this incident… Shuni reflected on the fact that the demons were going through quite some trouble to get at her feet…
Leaving her sandals at the cave entrance, grimacing because she knew that they were protection for her feet but unwilling for them to get broken or damaged, because they were even harder to replace than her socks, Shuni stooped low to enter the cave. This was going to be difficult, she realized just then. The ceiling was low; barely enough for her to stand upright in. Since this was underground, the ceiling was not going to be even; a rock, or a tree root, or just a protrusion in the ground could whack her on the forehead at an inopportune time if she was not careful. Squinting and trying to see in the extremely poor light, once again only given off by her clothing now, Shuni made her way forward.
There seemed to be nothing here, she realized after five minutes or so of walking down the straight tunnel, before she finally came to a cross tunnel. Fortunately, it was of a T-shaped intersection, so there were but two ways to choose from instead of three. Not hesitating, Shuni simply walked to the left, but as she rounded the corner she felt her clothing catch on something… Tugging at it with an irritated look on her face, Shuni tried to wiggle her foot around, since it was her sock that was caught, and to her surprise whatever it was moved, peeling her sock straight off and running! A creature?
“My sock!” The cry escaped Shuni’s lips and she gave chase, able to follow the whiteness of her sock contrasted with the blackness of the cave around her, and by the dim light she could see the small creature, whatever it was, scamper into a hole at a dead-end. “Damn… ah!” Shuni knelt down out of frustrated reflex to see if she could find it, and to her surprise the small tunnel it had gone into also dead-ended a short distance away, and the creature itself was sort of milling about at the back of the tunnel, having nowhere to go and not wanting to face Shuni.
“Hmmm…” Shuni considered the small tunnel it had run into. It was bigger than it had first appeared, perhaps… maybe, just big enough for her to squeeze into… Taking a deep breath, and drawing one of her throwing daggers to use as a weapon, Shuni got down and began to crawl into the hole after the creature. Losing another pair of socks was something she could not afford, both in a literal and a figurative sense; her first pay had not come in yet, and was not due for two more weeks’ time, until then there would be no way for her to pay for a new pair of socks, much less two or three. She had to get this one back at all costs…
Inch by inch Shuni made her way inside the tunnel, slowly but surely coming closer to the whatever-it-was that had stolen her sock… just a little closer now, and she could… Shuni abruptly got stuck. Trying to pull forward once, twice, Shuni realized that her feet weren’t fitting through the tunnel’s entrance… “Accursed…!” Shuni bit off the end of the oath, trying to stretch out and reach the creature with her knife, and her arm brushed against something sticky… and it didn’t budge.
“This can’t be…!” Shuni gasped, trying to somehow maneuver her feet so that they would fit inside the tunnel, even awkwardly, but they had gotten jammed against the entrance and now could move neither forward nor back, and the whole setup reeked awfully of a trap. Especially now, since the creature just tantalizingly out of her reach darted out of view into a small side tunnel, leaving Shuni stuck there. Struggling to free herself only got her other arm stuck in the sticky substance that was trapping her…
“Well, well, well.” An unpleasant voice, just barely audible to Shuni, echoed in the tunnel outside. Vorkaan hobbled up to the place, marked obviously by two large feet protruding from the wall, and holding in his hand a long tool with dull teeth on one curled end. Modeled after the human backscratcher, Vorkaan had put an extra-long handle on this so he would not have to bend over or squat, which was still annoyingly painful… With a little manipulation, he used it to remove her sock, then to give her bare soles a quick rake with his little tool. He was rewarded with a muffled squeal and slight wriggling of the soles before him… “Come!” he commanded, addressing the underling he had chosen specifically for this task, still skulking in the shadows…
With the dry rustle of scales gliding over the stone floor, a lamia glided over towards Vorkaan, two of her six arms crossed to hide her chest and the others folded loosely over one another. “No need to get all uppity because you’ve been given rank,” she said with a dry, hissing chuckle, her black eyes appearing strange since they were all pupils and no iris or cornea, none visible to a human anyway, giving her eyes the appearance of twin voids. Her basic appearance was a fairly standard humanshape/demon hybrid, human torso with modifications and the lower body of a snake… in the case of lamias, the snake-body began just below the hips, close enough to approximating that part of the human female form to sometimes draw the eyes of incubi, but almost as a rule lamias did not feel anything especially different there and sometimes broke the arms of incubi who touched without asking, given that they were considerably physically stronger. The chests of these creatures also drew eyes, since what humans considered a large bust was fairly normal on a lamia, since their spine and body structure were able to support such a weight.
Still, although Vorkaan admitted that he looked and thought at times when he had no female assignments, he knew better than to do anything without asking, and right now he wasn’t even thinking about that, just that she had six hands and it would be very useful indeed… “Regardless, if you had been more cooperative when I first asked you for help, I might be more inclined to treat you as more than a sullen creature that must be ordered to do anything.” He had chosen this particular lamia, as a matter of fact, specifically because of her experience. Vorkaan held his own private theory about lamias, one that he had not yet been able to test but was so far upheld by this one… she knew what he was asking was neither ludicrous nor ineffective. After all, six arms meant six armpits.
“I know what I’m doing, and I don’t need to be ordered about by you.” Smirking, the lamia gave Vorkaan a rather heavy slap on the rear. The incubus’ eyes opened wide and, while not quite dancing in pain, his body began to quiver and he hobbled slowly off, around the corner and out of sight, leaving the lamia alone with this pair of bare feet sticking out of the wall.
Shuni had no idea what had been said out in the hall, hearing only a few murmurs and something that sounded like a huge snake, but she was totally unprepared for the feeling of two hands suddenly raking short, sharp nails down both of her soles. The scream of surprised laughter that resulted seemed to fill Shuni’s mind; in the confined space, it echoed around, ringing in her ears as her body struggled helplessly. The only outlet for the sound was a small shaft carved into the roof of the tunnel and curving back around to open into the main tunnel, to carry the sound of her laughter back outside.
“You’re a ticklish little thing,” the lamia said, in a much better mood now that Vorkaan was off nursing his hindquarters somewhere. The image made her chuckle softly, and she unfolded her middle set of arms, seeing no need to hide her chest now that Vorkaan was gone. Incubi were such lechers, maybe it was their nature but they could use a bit more self-control… The lamia used her new set of hands to hold Shuni’s toes back, keeping her feet against the floor with the toes pointed so that her soles were fully arched, and her fingers ran down the curves without mercy.
Shuni’s body shook with laughter, getting her even more stuck as she cursed the baby fat on her waist and thighs as well as the big feet which had gotten her stuck here… She didn’t know how many or what kind of demons were outside in the tunnel now, but there were at least two, since there were four hands on her feet, but the way they were being held didn’t seem like two separate demons… but whoever it was unfortunately knew what they were doing, holding her toes in such a way as to render them immobile and stretch out her feet for perfect tickling, driving her crazy with laughter…
“I see why Vorkaan was getting all up in arms over this,” the lamia said with a quiet chuckle to herself. “My, my, you certainly do have some rather ticklish feet on you here… such big ones too, it’s a wonder you can get around with these! I wonder how long I’m supposed to keep tickling… well, I’ll just keep going until Vorkaan gets back, and no idea when that will be…” She giggled to herself, now congratulating herself even more for slapping his tender rear end, he’d be gone for a bit now… She concentrated scritching at the base of Shuni’s toes, keeping her one pair of hands in reserve for a surprise.
Shuni was definitely starting to feel a little lightheaded with giggling, as well as a fair degree of disorientation coming from laughing so hard when she could barely see… she could only thank Providence that the demons had not yet identified her spot, for when they did, she would be helpless… the thought made her blush, though she wasn’t sure why. It was strange, her mind was starting to drift because it had nothing else aside from the sound of her own laughter to occupy itself with… the sensations on her feet dominating her sensory nerves…
Just as the lamia had started with her third pair of hands, tickling around the toes and base of her feet with one pair while scratching at the heels and soles with the other, Vorkaan returned, hobbling back around the corner with a dark scowl on his face. “Ahh, Vorkaan, I trust you are feeling well?” the lamia asked with a smirk, not quite paying attention to Shuni and realizing that her laughter had reached a fever pitch, then waned when her fingers wandered elsewhere… The two of her hands tickling at Shuni’s toes casually crossed themselves in front of her chest before she turned to face Vorkaan, her tail flicking and shifting a bit as she did so.
Vorkaan’s eyes narrowed, but he too heard the gasping, desperate laughter from Shuni, and figured that the lamia had at least done her job… still, there was no way she could get away with such flagrant disregard for his authority. Even if he didn’t like having it, to have it and not to make it respected would be to earn the worst of both worlds. “I would advise you not to do something of that nature again,” he said flatly, crossing his own arms and dealing with the pain of standing up straight to present an intimidating figure. Sensing a challenge, the lamia left the pair of feet alone for now and slithered over to him, also drawing herself up to greater height, which just about put them equal.
Shuni heard some kind of argument going on in the hall behind her. The demons’ tendency to argue amongst themselves might prove to be her salvation… Especially now, since the sticky goo holding her in place had hardened over a period of time, and was now easy to crack, which she had actually done while thrashing about from the tickling… however, she’d waited for the right moment to actually attempt an escape, and with the argument causing the tickling to cease, she figured now was as good a time as any… Quickly, yet quietly as she could, she wormed her way backwards out of the hole, hearing the arguing voices grow more audible as she slipped out…
“My authority was given to me directly by Lord Ain and I expect my orders to be followed as you would his –“
“Vorkaan, don’t delude yourself, he gave you the command to prevent you from evading responsibility for your failures,” the lamia retorted sharply. “And I’d say evidence of your failures is manifest.”
“Silence!” Vorkaan growled, not noticing Shuni slip out of the hole behind the lamia, since she had stayed low and crawled for the cross tunnel, using the lamia’s body to shield herself from view as long as she could. “You have simply sat here and allowed others to take the risks while doing no work unless ordered! I was out attempting to assist Lord Ain –“
“You ‘assisted’ him because you were ordered to,” the lamia snarled back. “Don’t put on airs of bravery, Vorkaan –“
“Wait a moment – the demon hunter is gone!” Vorkaan cut her off in return, pushing past her and gaping at the now-empty hole in the wall. They had been down the other cross tunnel, and she must have escaped while they were arguing – “Don’t let her escape!” Vorkaan yelled, but his attempt at running was pulled up short as he hobbled and winced in pain, trying to run on his bad legs. “Don’t just stand there!” he snarled at the lamia. “Chase her!”
“Yes, Milord,” the lamia replied mockingly, slithering down the tunnel at a speed much faster than one might imagine a snakelike creature being capable of, and within a minute she had spotted the fleeing girl. “I’ve got you now,” she chuckled, able to keep her profile low and speed along quickly, while the girl had to hunch over and run… “You’re mine!” she said with a delighted hiss – and screamed as she tried to grab Shuni’s wrists, feeling the palms of two hands sear with pain. Shuni shook her off and ran out into the sunlight, grabbing her sandals and hopskipping over the ground to avoid the holes, hopefully…
Vorkaan smirked to himself, down in the cross tunnel. He had accidentally neglected to mention to the lamia the exact nature of Shuni’s kimono, and the sound of her scream echoed all the way down to where he was… Grinning broadly, he strode – limped – back to his quarters. No one would disrespect him and get away with it, he vowed. Incubi were not the strongest of demons, but intricate planning was second nature to him, as was cunning to the entire race…
Shuni stumbled back into the village around sunset, looking rather the worse for wear and staggering back into Kazuo’s house on rubbery legs… That demon, the lamia she had seen, had worked her over effectively, to the point of distraction and almost something else… she only hoped that Kazuo hadn’t quite finished dinner yet, because she needed some time to wash up.
“Good evening,” Kazuo greeted her cheerfully, preparing some fish and rice with seaweed and takoyaki for dinner. “I was starting to wonder where you got to. Dinner is almost ready and – oh, child, do go and wash up, you look like you’ve been wrestling demons all day. Go on now.” Kazuo shooed her into the washroom insistently but kindly. “I’ll keep dinner warm until you get done. Take your time.”
“Thank you,” Shuni said with a polite bow, once again thanking her lucky stars to have the affable old man as her host. Having to deal with some kind of sour-faced old woman or someone of the like every day after getting tickle tortured by demons might have been more than she could stand, but Kazuo’s easy acceptance of everything she told him, including the endeavors that did not go quite so well and never questioning whether she had omitted anything, put her at ease. Splashing water first over her face, Shuni quickly disrobed and ran a cloth soaked with cold water over herself as she stood in a washtub to collect the water that dripped off of her, partly wishing for a hot spring or bath but glad she had the opportunity to take any bath at all…
When she returned, feeling refreshed and looking cleaner, she knelt at the table where Kazuo had served dinner, and feeling rather hungry all of the sudden, attacked the food voraciously. “Eat plenty, child, I made extra.” Kazuo contented himself to a medium-seized serving while Shuni devoured almost everything in sight, almost wondering why Kazuo had chosen today of all days to make extra food, but not quite caring enough. She was hungry, and it was time to eat.
