Tenderfoot Part One (Tickling Fantasy Story)
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"Initiation"
Esmeralda awoke with a terrible headache.
She had eaten the night before leftover stale peanut butter and anchovies pizza. It was hands down her favorite combination, but after a few days in the refrigerator the anchovies had gained a life of their own.
She groaned and turned over trying to get in a few more minutes sleep before having to go to classes.
She thought that she was lying on the couch at the dorm when she suddenly realized that it was not a couch but rather a gigantic fuzzy toadstool she was sleeping on. She rubbed her eyes thinking that perhaps the effect of the stale peanut butter and anchovies pizza was causing a mild hallucination. When her vision cleared, she discovered that not only was she sleeping on a giant white toadstool with red polka dots, but she was actually in a forest of giant toadstools.
“Oh, dear,” she whispered to herself as she looked all around herself.
She was still wearing her grey sweat suit and sneakers from the late run she had taken the evening before. She remembered returning to the dorm, putting the leftover pizza in the microwave and after eating lying down on her couch for a quick nap.
This was clearly a dream, she decided. She was a Computer Science major studying at the Fairmonde University and certainly a forest of toadstools was part of some strange dream.
Since she was dreaming, she thought she might as well not sit around bored until she awoke. So she slid off the toadstool and fell a couple feet to the soft moss covered ground below. The toadstools of the forest were of different sizes and colors, but it was a forest nonetheless. For a moment Esmeralda felt that perhaps she had been shrunk to the size of an ant, but she saw birds and animals typical of a normal forest and she decided it was the toadstools that were huge and not her.
Esmeralda was in her early twenties with dark black hair that reached her shoulders and pretty green eyes that went well along with her name. She was a computer geek type, but she liked to run a lot and even tried out for track team a couple times.
She wandered through the forest hoping she would wake up, when she had the strangest feeling that she was being watched. She continued along a trail, turning frequently to try and get a glimpse of her pursuer. When she finally decided that she did not like to be stalked by a stranger in a fantasy mushroom forest, she simply broke into a run and zigzagged through the forest leaping over fallen mushrooms and ducking under umbrella shaped toadstools.
After a few minutes she came to a clearing where instead of leaves was green and brown moss. She stopped there for a moment to rest and felt glad that she could no longer feel those penetrating eyes upon her.
It was then that a shiny glitter caught her attention and she saw an object on the ground shining brightly. She drew near and saw that it was a golden ring. She picked it up and studied it and thought how lucky she was to find a ring in a forest.
At the precise moment, the trap was sprung.
A large net was lifted from the ground and high into the air from four points. Esmeralda was at the center of the net and she found herself lifted into the air and effectively trapped in a suspended net.
The ring that was in her hand fell to the ground a good four feet below.
A small and childlike person stepped out of the toadstool forest and stepped into the clearing. It appeared to be a girl with pretty red hair tied up into a pony tail. She would have thought of her as a girl save for the pointy ears and the black eyes she had that did not have pupils. It gave her a spooky and not so innocent look.
“Hello there, little one,” Esmeralda said trying to be friendly. The net did not allow much movement and she was not going to be able to escape very easily unless she got some help. “Would you care to give me a little hand to get loose?” she asked.
“You fell for it,” the little person said gloatingly as she placed the golden ring on her right hand’s ring finger. She wore colorful loose fitting attire that seemed to be made of some kind of silk fabric and had slippers that seemed to be made of the same fabric.
“I never cease to be amazed by how many people fall for the same trick.”
“Okay, all right. You got me,” Esmeralda said going along with the girl. “Why don’t you let me out?”
“Not yet,” the girl said. “You’re from the Land of Man,” she said matter-of-factly. “You don’t have a magic mark like the rest of us yet.” The girl pointed to a strange rune etched onto her forehead.
“I guess I don’t,” she said raising her hair to show a bare forehead.
“Oh, what a treat!” the girl said happily jumping up and down and doing a few somersaults around Esmeralda.
“Well, I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” Esmeralda said growing impatient, “but if you’re not going to help me down, you might as well tell me your name. Mine is Esmeralda.”
“Mine is Lea!” she said gleefully. “Are you ticklish, Esmeralda?” she asked suddenly.
“Uhhh, I guess so, Lea” Esmeralda answered confused at the question and remembering losing tickle fights as a child.
“Goodie, goodie!” Lea clapped her hands excitedly. “Just wait until I bring you to Gabrielle and Serge. They are going to love meeting you, Esmeralda.”
“That’s just great,” Esmeralda said trying not to antagonize her captor. “Do you think that I might be able to get down from here so I could then walk with you to meet your friends?”
“Oh no,” Lea replied. “I could never let you get free. You would just get away. We elflings are small and not as strong. We have to be much cleverer than you manlings.”
“Okay, smart alec,” Esmeralda said finally exhausting her last supply of patience and trying to get herself free of the net. “What’s going to keep me from pulling myself free from this net and walking away from you and this strange place?”
Lea raised her right arm with the ring and the ring glowed as she chanted words in a strange language.
Yese rea pyless, yese stum scole, eb slilt dan plees!
A thin green gas issued from the ring and floated up to Esmeralda. She waved a hand in front of her face trying to dissipate the gas, but it simply continued its course until it filled Esmeralda’s nostrils and she was forced to inhale.
It was a sweet smelling vapor and Esmeralda instantly felt sleepy. She tried to keep her eyes open, but they closed shut like heavy iron doors and she could no longer open them. As sleep conquered her will and she slipped into a dreamless sleep, she found herself mumbling through a deep yawn to the elfling below.
”Well, I guess that would work…”
* * * * *
When Esmeralda finally awoke, she opened her eyes slowly and found herself again upon a large and soft toadstool.
This time however, she was spread eagle with her arms and legs restrained firmly with what appeared to be vines.
“Wake up time!” an elfling shouted to her ear while gently slapping her cheek.
Esmeralda opened her eyes completely and studied the elfling who shouted into her ear. He was a bit taller than Lea with long dark raven black hair tied into a pony tail. He had the same eyes and dressed in the same silky gay colored clothing Lea wore.
“I’m Serge,” he said holding out a hand for her to shake. He laughed as he watched her instinctively try to shake it tugging on her restraints. “You’re such a doll, Esmeralda.”
“Yes, she is,” a second elfling said. She was more serious than the other elflings but she had the same long wavy dark hair and had similar features as the elfling called Serge. “She’ll be so fun to play with.”
“I found her first so I get first claim, Gabrielle!” Lea insisted jumping onto the toadstool and staring at Esmeralda fondly.
“I don’t know about that,” Gabrielle said exchanging looks with Serge. “Seniority does have its privileges.”
“Not fair!” Lea cried mounting Esmeralda. “I’ll go first and then you two can follow!”
Gabrielle grasped Lea from behind holding her arms firmly. Serge tickled her ribs viciously.
Esmeralda had never seen anyone so ticklish before. Lea screamed and laughed and squirmed and fell off of Esmeralda in a heartbeat while Serge continued the assault to her ribs. Gabrielle pulled off the smaller elfling’s slippers and held a bare foot firmly and tickled it gently with sharp nails. The reactions became more violent and there was more shouting than laughing.
“Stop! Stop! You can go first!” Lea shouted and lashed out but there was no escape. The tickling continued despite her protests and Serge and Gabrielle seemed to know exactly where Lea was most ticklish. After only a couple minutes the laughter died down and a small ball of red energy appeared where the rune was on Lea’s forehead.
Lea slipped off the toadstool appearing to be a rag doll. She was so tired he could not even move.
Serge took the ball of energy and put it in his pocket. “You’re up, sis!” he said gesturing to the restrained Esmeralda.
“What happened to her?” Esmeralda asked.
“The same that will happen to you, just I expect more from you, tenderfoot.”
“You’re going to tickle me?”
”But of course,” Gabrielle replied as she slowly pulled off Esmeralda’s sneakers off.
“I’m not ticklish,” Esmeralda replied trying to sound confident. “And my feet are not tender at all.”
“Then you won’t mind if I pull these socks off?” Gabrielle asked as she pulled the socks off leaving Esmeralda’s feet bare.
“Not at all,” Esmeralda said with a gulp.
“And drawing my sharp nails over your soles will not bother you at all?” Gabrielle asked displaying her small hands with long and slender fingers tipped with sharp nails.
Esmeralda shook her head and held her breath.
Gabrielle shrugged and drew a single finger along the sole of Esmeralda’s pretty foot.
The foot moved wildly and Esmeralda gasped.
“Why do manlings always lie about their ticklishness?” Gabrielle asked not intending the question for Esmeralda. “Ticklishness is a gift! It is nothing to be ashamed of. It is the power that keeps this world moving. Without it, our entire magical world could not exist.”
“Why don’t you guys just let me go? There’s some mistake. I don’t belong here,” Esmeralda said trying to sound authoritative but failing horribly.
“You’re wasting your breath, sis,” Serge said brushing aside Esmeralda’s hair from her forehead. “She’s obviously only just crossed. She doesn’t bear the mark. She doesn’t know what it is all about.”
“A tenderfoot, I know,” Gabrielle said with glee. “It is always a treat to break them in.”
Before Esmeralda could respond Gabrielle’s fingers danced upon her soles. She concentrated all her will and tried to control her reaction. But she could not help but thrash her feet in all directions to avoid the tickling.
She had a boyfriend named Frank who had dared her to let him tickle her feet. She put her sock covered feet into his lap and he tickled away. She concentrated deeply and resisted all the tickling sensations. He gave up after not getting any response and she had a false sense of security that she could resist tickling.
Now she was being tickled barefoot, by an expert with sharp fingernails. It was a totally different story.
As soon as Gabrielle reached the part of the arch that meets the toes, Esmeralda lost it. She screamed and broke out into laughter. The only thing that allowed her to keep any amount of composure was the fact that she moved her feet violently away from the persistent fingers.
“She moves those feet quickly,” Serge observed. “I like the technique. She also has a powerful aura for a tenderfoot. You will not break her easily, but the prize will be worth it.”
Gabrielle paused and frowned. “This will not do.”
“Please, stop,” Esmeralda asked breathing deeply. She had never been tickled like this on her feet before. She had had quick surprise tickles at the pool, teasing tickles on her toes when she broke her leg and wore a cast, and accidental tickles during pedicures. This was nothing like that. It was sadistic and deliberate and they were discovering ticklish secrets about herself she had never imagined existed.
Gabrielle ignored Esmeralda’s plea and drew a short wand with a golden six-pointed star on its tip. She waved it in front of Esmeralda until it glowed issuing a yellow aura. She touched the tip of Esmeralda’s big toe and whispered some words in the same language Lea had used before.
Ooft eb slilt dan emov on rome!
Esmeralda’s foot was frozen in one place. She could move the rest of her body, but her foot might have been cast in a block of ice. There was no moving that foot.
“Back to business,” Gabrielle said putting away the wand in a pocket of her silken garment. “Where were we? Oh, yes of course. This foot is quite ticklish but not all over. Your upper arch and you toes are deliciously ticklish.”
She resumed tickling and now Esmeralda was unable to move her feet away. Gabrielle would tickle gently between the toes and the tickling sensation was explosive.
Esmeralda shouted and laughed and then laughed and shouted. It was impossible to do both at the same so she let the shouting break the laughter from time to time while she tried to draw her breath.
All this was being produced by one little finger scratching gently on the sole of her foot.
A blue and red sparrow flew into the clearing and rested on Serge’s shoulder. It flapped its wings gently and chirped to his ear.
”Gabrielle!” he shouted. “The Tickle Scourge is coming! We must flee. Any minute now we will be detected!”
Gabrielle appeared worried and stopped tickling Esmeralda immediately. “Can we take her with us?” she asked looking down on the panting Esmeralda.
“No time,” Serge said tossing the exhausted Lea over his shoulder. “Besides, the Scourge by now knows we are here. There will be no mercy if we are caught. We are no match for the Scourge especially with Lea drained. Poor Esmeralda will have to serve as a distraction.”
“A shame,” Gabrielle declared standing up and preparing to leave.
“Aren’t you going to let me free?” Esmeralda asked. “The Scourge is coming… That can’t be good…”
“Sorry,” she replied. “The Scourge will find it hard to resist a tenderfoot. I don’t expect we’ll ever meet again.” She bent over and gave Esmeralda a kiss on her forehead. “Farewell!”
And in a moment they were gone.
“Great,” Esmeralda muttered to herself. The tickling had been exhausting, but now she tried to muster the energy to get free of her binds. The prospect of a Tickle Scourge did not sound like something she wanted to experience. Dream or no dream.
She pulled on the vines but they would not let her free. She started to feel her foot able to move again but it was a petty consolation. She was tied spread eagle and barefoot to a toadstool. What message would that send to someone called the ‘Tickle Scourge’?
Someone entered the clearing and approached her. It was a young human woman with long blond hair, ice blue eyes and a friendly smile. She was wearing a type of brown leather armor that covered her torso in bands leaving her shoulders bare and her legs covered with a strap leather skirt that looked like it came out of a Roman gladiator movie set. She wore leather sandals and had sandal straps that went up to her knees.
“Hello,” the woman said friendlily. She had a mark on her forehead just like the elfling.
“Hello,” Esmeralda said back to her. “I don’t suppose you might be able and willing to let me free.”
The woman smiled. “Able, of course. Willing, I’m not so sure. You have been tied here for a reason. Maybe you are a dangerous person.”
“I’m not dangerous,” Esmeralda rebuked softly.
“A tenderfoot,” the woman observed gesturing to her forehead. “You’re more a danger to yourself than to anyone else. What’s your name? When did you get here?”
“Esmeralda. I’ve been having this dream for the past few hours. I’ll be waking any minute now.”
“Mine is Patrisa,” the blond woman replied. She had two long sticks attached to her back. Some sort of fighting sticks, Esmeralda decided.
“The first thing a tenderfoot must understand is that this is no dream,” Patrisa replied pulling a short dirk from her belt. She swiftly pinched Esmeralda on the side with her free hand tickling and causing pain at the same time.
”Ouch!” Esmeralda shouted. “What was that for?”
“This is no dream,” Patrisa said harshly. “Pain is real. Tickling is real. You are not in a dream. You are not waking anytime soon to where you came from. The rules are like this: you are a tenderfoot and I am a veteran. If you keep quiet and do as I say you just might end up avoid becoming someone’s tickle toy for all eternity. Are we agreed? Do you accept the terms?”
“It’s either that or face the Tickle Scourge,” Esmeralda said frowning. “We’ll I guess I’m better off with you. You at least haven’t shown interest in tickling me silly."
Patrisa smiled mysteriously and cut Esmeralda free from the vines that held her prisoner. Esmeralda put her socks and shoes on quickly.
“Take your time,” Patrisa said. “There’s no rush.”
“And the Tickle Scourge?” Esmeralda asked. “I’ve had enough tickling to last me the rest of my life. I don’t want to run into someone who has the word ‘tickle’ in their name.”
“You need not worry for the Tickle Scourge,” Partisa said.
“And why might that be?” Esmeralda asked looking anxiously into the toad stool forest trying to distinguish if there was a monster ready to pounce on them. “Those elflings cleared out of here at the mere mention of the Tickle Scourge.”
“That’s because they are weak, ticklish bullies,” Patrisa replied helping Esmeralda to her feet and wrapping and arm around her shoulder.
Esmeralda was not so convinced.
“Esmeralda, you have no need to worry about the Tickle Scourge for one simple reason:
“I am the Tickle Scourge.”
To be continued…
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I've written fan ficton before. MOTU, She-ra POP, GI JOE. I wanted to try something different. Comments are welcome!
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"Initiation"
Esmeralda awoke with a terrible headache.
She had eaten the night before leftover stale peanut butter and anchovies pizza. It was hands down her favorite combination, but after a few days in the refrigerator the anchovies had gained a life of their own.
She groaned and turned over trying to get in a few more minutes sleep before having to go to classes.
She thought that she was lying on the couch at the dorm when she suddenly realized that it was not a couch but rather a gigantic fuzzy toadstool she was sleeping on. She rubbed her eyes thinking that perhaps the effect of the stale peanut butter and anchovies pizza was causing a mild hallucination. When her vision cleared, she discovered that not only was she sleeping on a giant white toadstool with red polka dots, but she was actually in a forest of giant toadstools.
“Oh, dear,” she whispered to herself as she looked all around herself.
She was still wearing her grey sweat suit and sneakers from the late run she had taken the evening before. She remembered returning to the dorm, putting the leftover pizza in the microwave and after eating lying down on her couch for a quick nap.
This was clearly a dream, she decided. She was a Computer Science major studying at the Fairmonde University and certainly a forest of toadstools was part of some strange dream.
Since she was dreaming, she thought she might as well not sit around bored until she awoke. So she slid off the toadstool and fell a couple feet to the soft moss covered ground below. The toadstools of the forest were of different sizes and colors, but it was a forest nonetheless. For a moment Esmeralda felt that perhaps she had been shrunk to the size of an ant, but she saw birds and animals typical of a normal forest and she decided it was the toadstools that were huge and not her.
Esmeralda was in her early twenties with dark black hair that reached her shoulders and pretty green eyes that went well along with her name. She was a computer geek type, but she liked to run a lot and even tried out for track team a couple times.
She wandered through the forest hoping she would wake up, when she had the strangest feeling that she was being watched. She continued along a trail, turning frequently to try and get a glimpse of her pursuer. When she finally decided that she did not like to be stalked by a stranger in a fantasy mushroom forest, she simply broke into a run and zigzagged through the forest leaping over fallen mushrooms and ducking under umbrella shaped toadstools.
After a few minutes she came to a clearing where instead of leaves was green and brown moss. She stopped there for a moment to rest and felt glad that she could no longer feel those penetrating eyes upon her.
It was then that a shiny glitter caught her attention and she saw an object on the ground shining brightly. She drew near and saw that it was a golden ring. She picked it up and studied it and thought how lucky she was to find a ring in a forest.
At the precise moment, the trap was sprung.
A large net was lifted from the ground and high into the air from four points. Esmeralda was at the center of the net and she found herself lifted into the air and effectively trapped in a suspended net.
The ring that was in her hand fell to the ground a good four feet below.
A small and childlike person stepped out of the toadstool forest and stepped into the clearing. It appeared to be a girl with pretty red hair tied up into a pony tail. She would have thought of her as a girl save for the pointy ears and the black eyes she had that did not have pupils. It gave her a spooky and not so innocent look.
“Hello there, little one,” Esmeralda said trying to be friendly. The net did not allow much movement and she was not going to be able to escape very easily unless she got some help. “Would you care to give me a little hand to get loose?” she asked.
“You fell for it,” the little person said gloatingly as she placed the golden ring on her right hand’s ring finger. She wore colorful loose fitting attire that seemed to be made of some kind of silk fabric and had slippers that seemed to be made of the same fabric.
“I never cease to be amazed by how many people fall for the same trick.”
“Okay, all right. You got me,” Esmeralda said going along with the girl. “Why don’t you let me out?”
“Not yet,” the girl said. “You’re from the Land of Man,” she said matter-of-factly. “You don’t have a magic mark like the rest of us yet.” The girl pointed to a strange rune etched onto her forehead.
“I guess I don’t,” she said raising her hair to show a bare forehead.
“Oh, what a treat!” the girl said happily jumping up and down and doing a few somersaults around Esmeralda.
“Well, I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” Esmeralda said growing impatient, “but if you’re not going to help me down, you might as well tell me your name. Mine is Esmeralda.”
“Mine is Lea!” she said gleefully. “Are you ticklish, Esmeralda?” she asked suddenly.
“Uhhh, I guess so, Lea” Esmeralda answered confused at the question and remembering losing tickle fights as a child.
“Goodie, goodie!” Lea clapped her hands excitedly. “Just wait until I bring you to Gabrielle and Serge. They are going to love meeting you, Esmeralda.”
“That’s just great,” Esmeralda said trying not to antagonize her captor. “Do you think that I might be able to get down from here so I could then walk with you to meet your friends?”
“Oh no,” Lea replied. “I could never let you get free. You would just get away. We elflings are small and not as strong. We have to be much cleverer than you manlings.”
“Okay, smart alec,” Esmeralda said finally exhausting her last supply of patience and trying to get herself free of the net. “What’s going to keep me from pulling myself free from this net and walking away from you and this strange place?”
Lea raised her right arm with the ring and the ring glowed as she chanted words in a strange language.
Yese rea pyless, yese stum scole, eb slilt dan plees!
A thin green gas issued from the ring and floated up to Esmeralda. She waved a hand in front of her face trying to dissipate the gas, but it simply continued its course until it filled Esmeralda’s nostrils and she was forced to inhale.
It was a sweet smelling vapor and Esmeralda instantly felt sleepy. She tried to keep her eyes open, but they closed shut like heavy iron doors and she could no longer open them. As sleep conquered her will and she slipped into a dreamless sleep, she found herself mumbling through a deep yawn to the elfling below.
”Well, I guess that would work…”
* * * * *
When Esmeralda finally awoke, she opened her eyes slowly and found herself again upon a large and soft toadstool.
This time however, she was spread eagle with her arms and legs restrained firmly with what appeared to be vines.
“Wake up time!” an elfling shouted to her ear while gently slapping her cheek.
Esmeralda opened her eyes completely and studied the elfling who shouted into her ear. He was a bit taller than Lea with long dark raven black hair tied into a pony tail. He had the same eyes and dressed in the same silky gay colored clothing Lea wore.
“I’m Serge,” he said holding out a hand for her to shake. He laughed as he watched her instinctively try to shake it tugging on her restraints. “You’re such a doll, Esmeralda.”
“Yes, she is,” a second elfling said. She was more serious than the other elflings but she had the same long wavy dark hair and had similar features as the elfling called Serge. “She’ll be so fun to play with.”
“I found her first so I get first claim, Gabrielle!” Lea insisted jumping onto the toadstool and staring at Esmeralda fondly.
“I don’t know about that,” Gabrielle said exchanging looks with Serge. “Seniority does have its privileges.”
“Not fair!” Lea cried mounting Esmeralda. “I’ll go first and then you two can follow!”
Gabrielle grasped Lea from behind holding her arms firmly. Serge tickled her ribs viciously.
Esmeralda had never seen anyone so ticklish before. Lea screamed and laughed and squirmed and fell off of Esmeralda in a heartbeat while Serge continued the assault to her ribs. Gabrielle pulled off the smaller elfling’s slippers and held a bare foot firmly and tickled it gently with sharp nails. The reactions became more violent and there was more shouting than laughing.
“Stop! Stop! You can go first!” Lea shouted and lashed out but there was no escape. The tickling continued despite her protests and Serge and Gabrielle seemed to know exactly where Lea was most ticklish. After only a couple minutes the laughter died down and a small ball of red energy appeared where the rune was on Lea’s forehead.
Lea slipped off the toadstool appearing to be a rag doll. She was so tired he could not even move.
Serge took the ball of energy and put it in his pocket. “You’re up, sis!” he said gesturing to the restrained Esmeralda.
“What happened to her?” Esmeralda asked.
“The same that will happen to you, just I expect more from you, tenderfoot.”
“You’re going to tickle me?”
”But of course,” Gabrielle replied as she slowly pulled off Esmeralda’s sneakers off.
“I’m not ticklish,” Esmeralda replied trying to sound confident. “And my feet are not tender at all.”
“Then you won’t mind if I pull these socks off?” Gabrielle asked as she pulled the socks off leaving Esmeralda’s feet bare.
“Not at all,” Esmeralda said with a gulp.
“And drawing my sharp nails over your soles will not bother you at all?” Gabrielle asked displaying her small hands with long and slender fingers tipped with sharp nails.
Esmeralda shook her head and held her breath.
Gabrielle shrugged and drew a single finger along the sole of Esmeralda’s pretty foot.
The foot moved wildly and Esmeralda gasped.
“Why do manlings always lie about their ticklishness?” Gabrielle asked not intending the question for Esmeralda. “Ticklishness is a gift! It is nothing to be ashamed of. It is the power that keeps this world moving. Without it, our entire magical world could not exist.”
“Why don’t you guys just let me go? There’s some mistake. I don’t belong here,” Esmeralda said trying to sound authoritative but failing horribly.
“You’re wasting your breath, sis,” Serge said brushing aside Esmeralda’s hair from her forehead. “She’s obviously only just crossed. She doesn’t bear the mark. She doesn’t know what it is all about.”
“A tenderfoot, I know,” Gabrielle said with glee. “It is always a treat to break them in.”
Before Esmeralda could respond Gabrielle’s fingers danced upon her soles. She concentrated all her will and tried to control her reaction. But she could not help but thrash her feet in all directions to avoid the tickling.
She had a boyfriend named Frank who had dared her to let him tickle her feet. She put her sock covered feet into his lap and he tickled away. She concentrated deeply and resisted all the tickling sensations. He gave up after not getting any response and she had a false sense of security that she could resist tickling.
Now she was being tickled barefoot, by an expert with sharp fingernails. It was a totally different story.
As soon as Gabrielle reached the part of the arch that meets the toes, Esmeralda lost it. She screamed and broke out into laughter. The only thing that allowed her to keep any amount of composure was the fact that she moved her feet violently away from the persistent fingers.
“She moves those feet quickly,” Serge observed. “I like the technique. She also has a powerful aura for a tenderfoot. You will not break her easily, but the prize will be worth it.”
Gabrielle paused and frowned. “This will not do.”
“Please, stop,” Esmeralda asked breathing deeply. She had never been tickled like this on her feet before. She had had quick surprise tickles at the pool, teasing tickles on her toes when she broke her leg and wore a cast, and accidental tickles during pedicures. This was nothing like that. It was sadistic and deliberate and they were discovering ticklish secrets about herself she had never imagined existed.
Gabrielle ignored Esmeralda’s plea and drew a short wand with a golden six-pointed star on its tip. She waved it in front of Esmeralda until it glowed issuing a yellow aura. She touched the tip of Esmeralda’s big toe and whispered some words in the same language Lea had used before.
Ooft eb slilt dan emov on rome!
Esmeralda’s foot was frozen in one place. She could move the rest of her body, but her foot might have been cast in a block of ice. There was no moving that foot.
“Back to business,” Gabrielle said putting away the wand in a pocket of her silken garment. “Where were we? Oh, yes of course. This foot is quite ticklish but not all over. Your upper arch and you toes are deliciously ticklish.”
She resumed tickling and now Esmeralda was unable to move her feet away. Gabrielle would tickle gently between the toes and the tickling sensation was explosive.
Esmeralda shouted and laughed and then laughed and shouted. It was impossible to do both at the same so she let the shouting break the laughter from time to time while she tried to draw her breath.
All this was being produced by one little finger scratching gently on the sole of her foot.
A blue and red sparrow flew into the clearing and rested on Serge’s shoulder. It flapped its wings gently and chirped to his ear.
”Gabrielle!” he shouted. “The Tickle Scourge is coming! We must flee. Any minute now we will be detected!”
Gabrielle appeared worried and stopped tickling Esmeralda immediately. “Can we take her with us?” she asked looking down on the panting Esmeralda.
“No time,” Serge said tossing the exhausted Lea over his shoulder. “Besides, the Scourge by now knows we are here. There will be no mercy if we are caught. We are no match for the Scourge especially with Lea drained. Poor Esmeralda will have to serve as a distraction.”
“A shame,” Gabrielle declared standing up and preparing to leave.
“Aren’t you going to let me free?” Esmeralda asked. “The Scourge is coming… That can’t be good…”
“Sorry,” she replied. “The Scourge will find it hard to resist a tenderfoot. I don’t expect we’ll ever meet again.” She bent over and gave Esmeralda a kiss on her forehead. “Farewell!”
And in a moment they were gone.
“Great,” Esmeralda muttered to herself. The tickling had been exhausting, but now she tried to muster the energy to get free of her binds. The prospect of a Tickle Scourge did not sound like something she wanted to experience. Dream or no dream.
She pulled on the vines but they would not let her free. She started to feel her foot able to move again but it was a petty consolation. She was tied spread eagle and barefoot to a toadstool. What message would that send to someone called the ‘Tickle Scourge’?
Someone entered the clearing and approached her. It was a young human woman with long blond hair, ice blue eyes and a friendly smile. She was wearing a type of brown leather armor that covered her torso in bands leaving her shoulders bare and her legs covered with a strap leather skirt that looked like it came out of a Roman gladiator movie set. She wore leather sandals and had sandal straps that went up to her knees.
“Hello,” the woman said friendlily. She had a mark on her forehead just like the elfling.
“Hello,” Esmeralda said back to her. “I don’t suppose you might be able and willing to let me free.”
The woman smiled. “Able, of course. Willing, I’m not so sure. You have been tied here for a reason. Maybe you are a dangerous person.”
“I’m not dangerous,” Esmeralda rebuked softly.
“A tenderfoot,” the woman observed gesturing to her forehead. “You’re more a danger to yourself than to anyone else. What’s your name? When did you get here?”
“Esmeralda. I’ve been having this dream for the past few hours. I’ll be waking any minute now.”
“Mine is Patrisa,” the blond woman replied. She had two long sticks attached to her back. Some sort of fighting sticks, Esmeralda decided.
“The first thing a tenderfoot must understand is that this is no dream,” Patrisa replied pulling a short dirk from her belt. She swiftly pinched Esmeralda on the side with her free hand tickling and causing pain at the same time.
”Ouch!” Esmeralda shouted. “What was that for?”
“This is no dream,” Patrisa said harshly. “Pain is real. Tickling is real. You are not in a dream. You are not waking anytime soon to where you came from. The rules are like this: you are a tenderfoot and I am a veteran. If you keep quiet and do as I say you just might end up avoid becoming someone’s tickle toy for all eternity. Are we agreed? Do you accept the terms?”
“It’s either that or face the Tickle Scourge,” Esmeralda said frowning. “We’ll I guess I’m better off with you. You at least haven’t shown interest in tickling me silly."
Patrisa smiled mysteriously and cut Esmeralda free from the vines that held her prisoner. Esmeralda put her socks and shoes on quickly.
“Take your time,” Patrisa said. “There’s no rush.”
“And the Tickle Scourge?” Esmeralda asked. “I’ve had enough tickling to last me the rest of my life. I don’t want to run into someone who has the word ‘tickle’ in their name.”
“You need not worry for the Tickle Scourge,” Partisa said.
“And why might that be?” Esmeralda asked looking anxiously into the toad stool forest trying to distinguish if there was a monster ready to pounce on them. “Those elflings cleared out of here at the mere mention of the Tickle Scourge.”
“That’s because they are weak, ticklish bullies,” Patrisa replied helping Esmeralda to her feet and wrapping and arm around her shoulder.
Esmeralda was not so convinced.
“Esmeralda, you have no need to worry about the Tickle Scourge for one simple reason:
“I am the Tickle Scourge.”
To be continued…
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I've written fan ficton before. MOTU, She-ra POP, GI JOE. I wanted to try something different. Comments are welcome!
