Part Thirteen
Hostile Takeover
A gate opposite the dais was opened and a huge Tickle Beast stepped into the Arena.
“This is the doom that awaits all who dare to steal from the Red Panther,” Lord Xavis declared for all to hear.
The Tickle Beast could sense strong and powerful magic in the Arena. Much more powerful that he had tasted in quite some time. It would be a treat to feast upon.
Patrisa was a tickle warrior and she knew there was no outrunning the Tickle Beast. Especially not in an Arena lined with Animus guards.
She drew her fighting sticks and charged the magical creature head on.
Her sticks were moving in a flurry of movements that she aimed at the tentacles. The Beast however was quick itself and it pulled the fighting sticks away in a flash. The Beast simply cast them to the ground and focused its tentacles around Patrisa’s body. She was pulled close and the tentacles went all over her body tickling. However, Patrisa’s tight leather armor, kept her ticklish spots safe.
”That’s what armor is for,” Patrisa said as she pounded the Tickle Beast hard with her fists.
Realizing that Patrisa’s ticklish spots were not accessible, the Tickle Beast’s tentacles took Patrisa and hurled her across the Arena and into the hard stone wall just under the dais.
She slumped down next to the Elfling and all went black.
* * * * * *
Esmeralda was casting spells as Patrisa engaged the Tickle Beast. The time her mentor had bought her had been invaluable, because as the Tickle Beast turned its attention upon her, Esmeralda spoke the last of her powerful spell.
Prat ym nemey! Prat ti won!
Silk produced a thick and powerful net of webbing which Esmeralda had cast upon her powerful opponent.
The webbing held as the Tickle Beast heaved and yanked as hard as it could to get free. Esmeralda continued to cast cocoon spells and such and Silk went into a spinning frenzy. A few minutes more and the Beast could be immobilized at least temporarily.
It was then she felt a tickling in her upper rib cage. It was a distinct and intentional tickle that broke her concentration and made her yelp. Silk paused and the Tickle Beast gained in its efforts to free himself. Esmeralda reached into her robes trying to find the source of the tickling.
The pixie Amber hovered in front of her face.
“What’s going on?” she asked between laughter. The tickling was so unexpected that she was somewhat extra vulnerable to it.
”Indigo is tickling you,” Amber said sadly.
”Why?” Esmeralda asked laughing as she tried to swat the little blue pixie who was exploiting her tickle spot so well.
“You’re supposed to be captured,” Amber said.
“What do you mean?” Esmeralda shrieked watching the Tickle Beast break the webbing.
“We’ve been ordered to do so,” she said. “But I can make it less unpleasant.”
Amber took a handful of pixie dust from her pouch and before Esmeralda could protest, she blew the sparkling and golden dust into the Tenderfoot’s face.
Pixie Dust.
Esmeralda froze. Her laughter stopped and she simply stared out into space as the huge and lumbering Tickle Beast, free now from Silk’s webbing, approached her.
* * * * * *
Patrisa felt a slap to her face and quickly came to.
“I am Haydeen,” the Elfling Interrogator said softly to Patrisa trying to not draw the attention of the Xavis and those on the dais.
“I’m the—“
“Tickle Scourge, I know,” she said removing a dirk from her bandolier and a small vial. She emptied the contents of the vial on the blade and discarded the vial. The contents were a greenish color and glowed softly.
There were two pairs of shackles on the ground and apparently Haydeen had picked her way out of the shackles using tools from the bandolier.
”What are you doing?” Patrisa asked as Haydeen took her arm and tied the dirk to the inside of her leather bracer with a torn piece of fabric.
“The Tickle Beast detects aggressive behavior and neutralizes it,” Haydeen said. “If you distract it with another weapon, the Beast will concentrate on the apparent threat and overlook the hidden dirk. If you can get close enough, you can pull the dirk free and stab the Tickle Beast. I’d have done it myself but I am an Interrogator, not a Warrior.”
“I’ll never kill a creature that big with such a small weapon,” Patrisa countered.
“One stab and the Beast will be neutralized,” Haydeen said. “Trust me.”
Patrisa watched as the Beast turned towards Esmeralda’s immobile body and she stood up and took a discarded spear from the ground.
“Another thing,” Haydeen said with some effort. She was exhausted and barely could stand on her legs. “You need to lose the armor. You’ll never get close enough if you don’t offer a good tickle spot.”
Patrisa dreaded doing such and exposing her greatest vulnerability to a Tickle Beast, but seeing Esmeralda in danger she pulled quickly at the straps releasing in the armor and remaining only with a thin brown top.
She pointed the spear in the Tickle Beast’s direction and charged.
* * * * *
Orion did not become one of the greatest ticklers of all time by waiting idly for things to go his way. He did not become successful either by trusting the word of the more powerful creatures of the Realms.
The shackles he had removed from his wrists while Xavis was distracted with the first group of slaves the Tickle Beast tickled. Cold iron did indeed prevent the use of magic, but it did not prevent himself from using a short dagger hidden in his robes to pick the shackles open.
As they sat patiently in the dark awaiting the Scourge and the Tenderfoot to appear and Orion had predicted, he worked quickly and quietly on the shackles on his ankles and the collar on his neck from the confines of his black spell caster robe.
When Lucil cast her light spell and Xavis was giving his greeting and gloating speech, Orion watched his own shadow cast by the light and cast a spell which he whispered under his breath.
Doshaw fo a butod, od ym lliw!
His shadow came to life and strode behind both Xavis and Lucil who watched the spectacle intently.
Lucil was a skilled force spell caster and could cause him trouble later on. She needed to be neutralized.
His shadow crept behind her while she was distracted watching her enemy on the floor of the arena. The shadow placed a hand on her neck and using Demon hand-to-hand skills that would make Danea proud, he manipulated a pair of pressure points and watched with satisfaction as the Lioness headed spell caster faded away into unconsciousness. His shadow was even as kind as to help her back gently into her seat.
It was all quiet, neat and efficient.
With the spectacle below, no one was the wiser.
* * * * *
Patrisa charged the Tickle Beast from behind as its tentacles took Esmeralda’s body in the air and tickled her mercilessly. There was no reaction however. That was very strange. Esmeralda was a strong willed woman, but even she would succumb to the tickling power of a Tickle Beast. Something was wrong.
Discouraged with the lack of ticklishness of its second victim, the Beast tossed Esmeralda to the ground and turned to face Patrisa once more.
Patrisa did not hesitate and she lunged forward with the spear. The spear was taken from her hands with frightful ease and tossed aside. Tentacles wrapped around her arms and legs and drew her near.
Patrisa felt the tentacles slide down her loose fitting top and grip firmly her ticklish sides. The Beast was an expert tickler and the hard tips of the tentacles pressed like fingertips into her vulnerable ribcage.
She screamed and laughed and felt spasms run through her body. She could not breathe and she curled as best she could into a ball, but the tentacles instinctively pulled her taut and tortured her torso. Tentacles swarmed over her tickle spots and even a special tentacle swirled in and out of her round little belly button.
Patrisa was so ticklish that it seemed she had become someone else. Gone was the confident and daring Tickle Scourge. The Scourge was replaced by the babbling and begging little girl named Patrisa.
Her desperate cries for mercy were heard throughout the arena and many a spectator wondered if this really was the feared and respected Tickle Scourge who could tickle three hundred persons in one night or bend the will of even the least ticklish of champions.
The Beast pulled her to the back of its body as it realized it was only a matter of time before she would break and her squirming and laughing body would become motionless.
* * * *
“The Scourge is done for and the Tenderfoot has fallen,” Orion mentioned to Lord Xavis. “I want the Tenderfoot as we agreed. You can keep the Scourge.”
“So the Elfling King can mock me later by telling me that he had the better part of the deal with the Tenderfoot?” Xavis barked. “I do not think so. If he wants her, I want her also. The Shade and the Scourge! Fallen at last! The Tenderfoot will be icing on the cake.”
“That I cannot allow,” Orion replied shaking his head.
“Lucil!” the Red Panther shouted. “Cast a freeze spell on the Shade so I no longer have to listen to his insolence.”
He turned to see Lucil sitting in her seat unconscious with her head resting gently on one shoulder.
“I think she is too asleep to obey,” Orion said smiling.
“I’ll throw you down myself to the Tickle Beast,” he threatened.
”That could prove a bit difficult,” Orion said displaying the open shackles from with in his robes.
“But you are free to try,” the spell caster added.
* * * * *
The agony of the tickling was wearing Patrisa out.
She was simply no match when it came to being rib tickled. It just drained all her will to fight and to resist. It made her be so unlike herself.
As a child she’d get tickled frequently by those who knew she was ticklish. It was a piece of information passed on with every introduction.
“Did you know Patty is super ticklish?” her friends would say as they demonstrated how easily she could be tickled. The new “friend” would later introduce her to other people in the same fashion.
She wasn’t Patricia; she was ‘that ticklish girl’. No matter how much she pleaded, she might have asked for extra tickling treatment. Everyone just thought that since she was so ticklish, that it was allowed. They thought since she’s laughing, she must be enjoying herself.
She went through life timid and quiet and always expecting a tickling attack to embarrass and humiliate her. No armor in the real world. No way to get away without screaming and making a scene.
When she woke up as a ripe Tenderfoot so many years ago, she was terrified when she realized the world was governed by ticklers who ruled over the tickled.
But with the right training and the right armor, she began to be the bully and no longer the bullied. She cast aside the persona of Patricia and Patty and became Patrisa, The Tickle Scourge.
She listened to herself laugh helplessly to the Beast’s tickling and remembered what it was like to be ticklish Patty.
She gathered all her courage and for a split second she held her ground against the tickling. She pulled free the dirk at her wrist and plunged the point into the Tickle Beast.
“My name is Patrisa, the Tickle Scourge,” she said to herself as the tickling instantly ceased. “And I will be doing the tickling around here.”
* * * * *
The Tickle Beast screeched and shrieked out in pain. Patrisa was thrown heavily to the ground.
The myriad of tentacles shriveled and grew thin and disappeared as the once fearsome Tickle Beast shrunk until it was a small round jade stone not bigger that the size of a coconut.
The ranks of guards who lined the arena watched and trembled. No one had ever defeated the Tickle Beast.
“Who’s next?” the Scourge cried defiantly as she stood up.
Ranks broke and many guards fled the arena. If she could tickle three hundred slaves and defeat a Tickle Beast, what was she not capable of?
Those who remained watched with fearful eyes as the Tickle Scourge gave them all a bold stare.
* * * * *
Xavis’s jaw dropped in amazement as the Scourge succeeded in defeating his Tickle Beast.
Orion’s shadow could not have asked for better timing. As Xavis stared unbelievingly into the Arena, his shadow tackled and pulled the Lord of the Cat Clan and over the edge to the arena down below.
Kaet em ot het dowsha, kaet em reeth won! he cried.
From the shadow that Esmeralda’s body cast he emerged below in the Arena.
Patrisa caught sight of the Shade and called to her hands Ash and Oak.
Sha ot ym griht, Kao ot ym telf! She commanded and the fighting sticks flew to her hands from where they had been discarded.
“Stop right there, Orion,” she shouted. “You have no right to take that girl.”
“The Elfling King wants her. He’s paying a pretty penny. Besides, you know I always do as I please, Patrisa,” Orion answered.
“Not this time,” Patrisa said as she pointed the fighting sticks in his direction.
Kao kaet mih, Sha kaet reh! She shouted and branches grew from the ends of the fighting sticks and lashed out at the two cloaked spell casters.
Orion drew his robe over Esmeralda and he cast his spell.
Kaet em ot het dowsha, kaet em reeth won! he cried and they both plunged through their own shadow and disappeared.
The branches retracted, but not completely. The sticks did not trap Orion and Esmeralda as she had hoped, but something had been trapped on the end of each stick inside a small globe of branches.
Patrisa watched each end glow a bright color blue or yellow and now many things were made clear.
”Pixies!” she realized.
* * * * *
Lord Xavis fell into the soft hay pile below and he quickly stood up on his feet.
“Guards! He shouted. Attack her!” he commanded.
Several guards lining the arena went for spears and prepared to throw them at Patrisa.
Looking for cover, the only object big enough to hide behind in the Arena was Xavis’s cursed throne. She slid behind it as the guard threw their heavy spears. And they hit the throne hard, breaking off arms and knocking free Melca’s Gem.
At that moment the broken arms on the ground began to multiply exponentially until the white ivory arms were spewed around the entire floor of the Arena.
Xavis watched in shock as the arms began to darken to a flesh color and from the arms came bodies of the hundreds of slaves he had sent to be condemned within the throne. There were slaves of all races, all deathly ticklish and now all watching their surrounding with some confusion.
Xavis edged back, but he was effectively surrounded by slave women who he had tickled mercilessly at his leisure before condemning them body and soul to his cursed gem.
Xavis was a strong lord, but he was no spell caster and hardly a tickle warrior. He had never had to do more than wiggle a finger at one of his slaves to get a ticklish response.
However strong his body was, he was fiercely outnumbered.
“Here is the Lord who sentenced you to be trapped for all eternity inside a cursed ivory throne,” Haydeen cried having climbed a gate to be heard by all the slaves. “He has the power to set you free.”
The woman talking in unison and a cacophony of voices and shouts rang with in the arena.
“You are all my slaves,” Xavis shouted acting bravely. “You will do as I command and seize that Elfling traitor!”
“He has the power to set you free,” Haydeen repeated. “But the tables have turned and you have power of him in a manner which he selfishly held over you.”
Xavis turned white under his red panther fur as the eyes of the scores of slaves lit up as an idea spread like a wild fire among them.
“NO!” Xavis cried as they pulled his noble robes away from him and tore them to shreds. He lashed out violently, but there was always another girl waiting to take the place of the fallen slave and soon a tickling fray took place.
Xavis felt hands grab and tickle him from all directions. The tickling to his muscled torso made him giggle helplessly like a little boy. They tore off his boots and tickled his feet and he screamed. He could not resist the ticklish assault.
He had not been tickled since childhood. He had built no resistance to tickling over his life. He would be tickled senseless by a mob of ticklish slaves. They would tickle him out of his wits and then his noble guard of Enforcers and Avengers would clean up this riff raff. He would have them all sent to his dungeons to be cruelly tickled to death, he thought.
It was then that he saw Chief Interrogator Haydeen push through the mob and look at him face to face. The tickling ceased for a moment. And the mob grew quiet.
She stared at him coldly as she removed tools from her bandolier.
“You will offer amnesty to all the slaves here and in your harem,” Haydeen declared. “You will offer me amnesty and free passage back to the Elfling Wood with tribute for the Elfling King.”
“Preposterous!” Lord Xavis shouted. “I’ll never accept such terms!”
“It was not a request,” Haydeen said twirling a feather between her fingers. “We can do this two ways, Lord Xavis. You can accept my demands of your own free will or you can accept my demands against your will. Either way I will get what I desire.”
There would be no quick tickling to oblivion. The tickling would be done by Haydeen and that meant it would be slow, calculated and taxing. There would be no speedy rescue. The Avengers and Enforcers would be called back at his command.
All that was left for him would be tickling, humiliation and finally… defeat.
* * * *
Patrisa had Melca’s Gem in one hand and held the fighting sticks containing the two pixies captive in the other.
She had climbed out of the Arena. All the guards had fled.
Even so, getting out of the Palace would be still a difficult task. The Cat Clan’s numerous Enforcers and Avengers would not be as easy to scare as the standard guard. Haydeen’s plan made sense, but it might take days until clear passage out of the palace is guaranteed.
“Up here, up here!” came a loud but familiar voice.
“Peter the Peddler?” she asked totally surprised as she looked up at the sky.
A giant hot air balloon descended into the arena. Peter was accompanied by his mate Brunilda the Centaur and by Danea of the Academy.
“How did you get through the shield?” Patrisa asked as a rope ladder was kicked over the side of the basket under the balloon.
“A little Entropy goes a long way,” Danea said as she helped her into the basket.
“Where is Esmeralda?” the Centaur asked worriedly.
“She has been captured by Orion and he has taken her to the Elfling King,” Patrisa said grimly.
“Then we are off,” Peter said firing up the hot air balloon. “Next stop, the Elfling Mushroom Wood.”
Haydeen waved from below and Patrisa waved back as they ascended. The Interrogator seemed like a clever girl and seemed comfortable taking the reins of the situation. She would be all right.
As they left the Palace behind Danea placed a hand on her shoulder and asked. “Do you know why the Elfling King wants Esmeralda?”
“No, I do not,” Patrisa said holding up her two fighting sticks to show the two pixies that remained trapped.
“But these two have quite a bit of explaining to do,” Patrisa said staring at her little prisoners intently. “And I think I know of a way to get them to talk,” she added mysteriously.
To be continued…
Next: Shadow in the Shade
Hostile Takeover
A gate opposite the dais was opened and a huge Tickle Beast stepped into the Arena.
“This is the doom that awaits all who dare to steal from the Red Panther,” Lord Xavis declared for all to hear.
The Tickle Beast could sense strong and powerful magic in the Arena. Much more powerful that he had tasted in quite some time. It would be a treat to feast upon.
Patrisa was a tickle warrior and she knew there was no outrunning the Tickle Beast. Especially not in an Arena lined with Animus guards.
She drew her fighting sticks and charged the magical creature head on.
Her sticks were moving in a flurry of movements that she aimed at the tentacles. The Beast however was quick itself and it pulled the fighting sticks away in a flash. The Beast simply cast them to the ground and focused its tentacles around Patrisa’s body. She was pulled close and the tentacles went all over her body tickling. However, Patrisa’s tight leather armor, kept her ticklish spots safe.
”That’s what armor is for,” Patrisa said as she pounded the Tickle Beast hard with her fists.
Realizing that Patrisa’s ticklish spots were not accessible, the Tickle Beast’s tentacles took Patrisa and hurled her across the Arena and into the hard stone wall just under the dais.
She slumped down next to the Elfling and all went black.
* * * * * *
Esmeralda was casting spells as Patrisa engaged the Tickle Beast. The time her mentor had bought her had been invaluable, because as the Tickle Beast turned its attention upon her, Esmeralda spoke the last of her powerful spell.
Prat ym nemey! Prat ti won!
Silk produced a thick and powerful net of webbing which Esmeralda had cast upon her powerful opponent.
The webbing held as the Tickle Beast heaved and yanked as hard as it could to get free. Esmeralda continued to cast cocoon spells and such and Silk went into a spinning frenzy. A few minutes more and the Beast could be immobilized at least temporarily.
It was then she felt a tickling in her upper rib cage. It was a distinct and intentional tickle that broke her concentration and made her yelp. Silk paused and the Tickle Beast gained in its efforts to free himself. Esmeralda reached into her robes trying to find the source of the tickling.
The pixie Amber hovered in front of her face.
“What’s going on?” she asked between laughter. The tickling was so unexpected that she was somewhat extra vulnerable to it.
”Indigo is tickling you,” Amber said sadly.
”Why?” Esmeralda asked laughing as she tried to swat the little blue pixie who was exploiting her tickle spot so well.
“You’re supposed to be captured,” Amber said.
“What do you mean?” Esmeralda shrieked watching the Tickle Beast break the webbing.
“We’ve been ordered to do so,” she said. “But I can make it less unpleasant.”
Amber took a handful of pixie dust from her pouch and before Esmeralda could protest, she blew the sparkling and golden dust into the Tenderfoot’s face.
Pixie Dust.
Esmeralda froze. Her laughter stopped and she simply stared out into space as the huge and lumbering Tickle Beast, free now from Silk’s webbing, approached her.
* * * * * *
Patrisa felt a slap to her face and quickly came to.
“I am Haydeen,” the Elfling Interrogator said softly to Patrisa trying to not draw the attention of the Xavis and those on the dais.
“I’m the—“
“Tickle Scourge, I know,” she said removing a dirk from her bandolier and a small vial. She emptied the contents of the vial on the blade and discarded the vial. The contents were a greenish color and glowed softly.
There were two pairs of shackles on the ground and apparently Haydeen had picked her way out of the shackles using tools from the bandolier.
”What are you doing?” Patrisa asked as Haydeen took her arm and tied the dirk to the inside of her leather bracer with a torn piece of fabric.
“The Tickle Beast detects aggressive behavior and neutralizes it,” Haydeen said. “If you distract it with another weapon, the Beast will concentrate on the apparent threat and overlook the hidden dirk. If you can get close enough, you can pull the dirk free and stab the Tickle Beast. I’d have done it myself but I am an Interrogator, not a Warrior.”
“I’ll never kill a creature that big with such a small weapon,” Patrisa countered.
“One stab and the Beast will be neutralized,” Haydeen said. “Trust me.”
Patrisa watched as the Beast turned towards Esmeralda’s immobile body and she stood up and took a discarded spear from the ground.
“Another thing,” Haydeen said with some effort. She was exhausted and barely could stand on her legs. “You need to lose the armor. You’ll never get close enough if you don’t offer a good tickle spot.”
Patrisa dreaded doing such and exposing her greatest vulnerability to a Tickle Beast, but seeing Esmeralda in danger she pulled quickly at the straps releasing in the armor and remaining only with a thin brown top.
She pointed the spear in the Tickle Beast’s direction and charged.
* * * * *
Orion did not become one of the greatest ticklers of all time by waiting idly for things to go his way. He did not become successful either by trusting the word of the more powerful creatures of the Realms.
The shackles he had removed from his wrists while Xavis was distracted with the first group of slaves the Tickle Beast tickled. Cold iron did indeed prevent the use of magic, but it did not prevent himself from using a short dagger hidden in his robes to pick the shackles open.
As they sat patiently in the dark awaiting the Scourge and the Tenderfoot to appear and Orion had predicted, he worked quickly and quietly on the shackles on his ankles and the collar on his neck from the confines of his black spell caster robe.
When Lucil cast her light spell and Xavis was giving his greeting and gloating speech, Orion watched his own shadow cast by the light and cast a spell which he whispered under his breath.
Doshaw fo a butod, od ym lliw!
His shadow came to life and strode behind both Xavis and Lucil who watched the spectacle intently.
Lucil was a skilled force spell caster and could cause him trouble later on. She needed to be neutralized.
His shadow crept behind her while she was distracted watching her enemy on the floor of the arena. The shadow placed a hand on her neck and using Demon hand-to-hand skills that would make Danea proud, he manipulated a pair of pressure points and watched with satisfaction as the Lioness headed spell caster faded away into unconsciousness. His shadow was even as kind as to help her back gently into her seat.
It was all quiet, neat and efficient.
With the spectacle below, no one was the wiser.
* * * * *
Patrisa charged the Tickle Beast from behind as its tentacles took Esmeralda’s body in the air and tickled her mercilessly. There was no reaction however. That was very strange. Esmeralda was a strong willed woman, but even she would succumb to the tickling power of a Tickle Beast. Something was wrong.
Discouraged with the lack of ticklishness of its second victim, the Beast tossed Esmeralda to the ground and turned to face Patrisa once more.
Patrisa did not hesitate and she lunged forward with the spear. The spear was taken from her hands with frightful ease and tossed aside. Tentacles wrapped around her arms and legs and drew her near.
Patrisa felt the tentacles slide down her loose fitting top and grip firmly her ticklish sides. The Beast was an expert tickler and the hard tips of the tentacles pressed like fingertips into her vulnerable ribcage.
She screamed and laughed and felt spasms run through her body. She could not breathe and she curled as best she could into a ball, but the tentacles instinctively pulled her taut and tortured her torso. Tentacles swarmed over her tickle spots and even a special tentacle swirled in and out of her round little belly button.
Patrisa was so ticklish that it seemed she had become someone else. Gone was the confident and daring Tickle Scourge. The Scourge was replaced by the babbling and begging little girl named Patrisa.
Her desperate cries for mercy were heard throughout the arena and many a spectator wondered if this really was the feared and respected Tickle Scourge who could tickle three hundred persons in one night or bend the will of even the least ticklish of champions.
The Beast pulled her to the back of its body as it realized it was only a matter of time before she would break and her squirming and laughing body would become motionless.
* * * *
“The Scourge is done for and the Tenderfoot has fallen,” Orion mentioned to Lord Xavis. “I want the Tenderfoot as we agreed. You can keep the Scourge.”
“So the Elfling King can mock me later by telling me that he had the better part of the deal with the Tenderfoot?” Xavis barked. “I do not think so. If he wants her, I want her also. The Shade and the Scourge! Fallen at last! The Tenderfoot will be icing on the cake.”
“That I cannot allow,” Orion replied shaking his head.
“Lucil!” the Red Panther shouted. “Cast a freeze spell on the Shade so I no longer have to listen to his insolence.”
He turned to see Lucil sitting in her seat unconscious with her head resting gently on one shoulder.
“I think she is too asleep to obey,” Orion said smiling.
“I’ll throw you down myself to the Tickle Beast,” he threatened.
”That could prove a bit difficult,” Orion said displaying the open shackles from with in his robes.
“But you are free to try,” the spell caster added.
* * * * *
The agony of the tickling was wearing Patrisa out.
She was simply no match when it came to being rib tickled. It just drained all her will to fight and to resist. It made her be so unlike herself.
As a child she’d get tickled frequently by those who knew she was ticklish. It was a piece of information passed on with every introduction.
“Did you know Patty is super ticklish?” her friends would say as they demonstrated how easily she could be tickled. The new “friend” would later introduce her to other people in the same fashion.
She wasn’t Patricia; she was ‘that ticklish girl’. No matter how much she pleaded, she might have asked for extra tickling treatment. Everyone just thought that since she was so ticklish, that it was allowed. They thought since she’s laughing, she must be enjoying herself.
She went through life timid and quiet and always expecting a tickling attack to embarrass and humiliate her. No armor in the real world. No way to get away without screaming and making a scene.
When she woke up as a ripe Tenderfoot so many years ago, she was terrified when she realized the world was governed by ticklers who ruled over the tickled.
But with the right training and the right armor, she began to be the bully and no longer the bullied. She cast aside the persona of Patricia and Patty and became Patrisa, The Tickle Scourge.
She listened to herself laugh helplessly to the Beast’s tickling and remembered what it was like to be ticklish Patty.
She gathered all her courage and for a split second she held her ground against the tickling. She pulled free the dirk at her wrist and plunged the point into the Tickle Beast.
“My name is Patrisa, the Tickle Scourge,” she said to herself as the tickling instantly ceased. “And I will be doing the tickling around here.”
* * * * *
The Tickle Beast screeched and shrieked out in pain. Patrisa was thrown heavily to the ground.
The myriad of tentacles shriveled and grew thin and disappeared as the once fearsome Tickle Beast shrunk until it was a small round jade stone not bigger that the size of a coconut.
The ranks of guards who lined the arena watched and trembled. No one had ever defeated the Tickle Beast.
“Who’s next?” the Scourge cried defiantly as she stood up.
Ranks broke and many guards fled the arena. If she could tickle three hundred slaves and defeat a Tickle Beast, what was she not capable of?
Those who remained watched with fearful eyes as the Tickle Scourge gave them all a bold stare.
* * * * *
Xavis’s jaw dropped in amazement as the Scourge succeeded in defeating his Tickle Beast.
Orion’s shadow could not have asked for better timing. As Xavis stared unbelievingly into the Arena, his shadow tackled and pulled the Lord of the Cat Clan and over the edge to the arena down below.
Kaet em ot het dowsha, kaet em reeth won! he cried.
From the shadow that Esmeralda’s body cast he emerged below in the Arena.
Patrisa caught sight of the Shade and called to her hands Ash and Oak.
Sha ot ym griht, Kao ot ym telf! She commanded and the fighting sticks flew to her hands from where they had been discarded.
“Stop right there, Orion,” she shouted. “You have no right to take that girl.”
“The Elfling King wants her. He’s paying a pretty penny. Besides, you know I always do as I please, Patrisa,” Orion answered.
“Not this time,” Patrisa said as she pointed the fighting sticks in his direction.
Kao kaet mih, Sha kaet reh! She shouted and branches grew from the ends of the fighting sticks and lashed out at the two cloaked spell casters.
Orion drew his robe over Esmeralda and he cast his spell.
Kaet em ot het dowsha, kaet em reeth won! he cried and they both plunged through their own shadow and disappeared.
The branches retracted, but not completely. The sticks did not trap Orion and Esmeralda as she had hoped, but something had been trapped on the end of each stick inside a small globe of branches.
Patrisa watched each end glow a bright color blue or yellow and now many things were made clear.
”Pixies!” she realized.
* * * * *
Lord Xavis fell into the soft hay pile below and he quickly stood up on his feet.
“Guards! He shouted. Attack her!” he commanded.
Several guards lining the arena went for spears and prepared to throw them at Patrisa.
Looking for cover, the only object big enough to hide behind in the Arena was Xavis’s cursed throne. She slid behind it as the guard threw their heavy spears. And they hit the throne hard, breaking off arms and knocking free Melca’s Gem.
At that moment the broken arms on the ground began to multiply exponentially until the white ivory arms were spewed around the entire floor of the Arena.
Xavis watched in shock as the arms began to darken to a flesh color and from the arms came bodies of the hundreds of slaves he had sent to be condemned within the throne. There were slaves of all races, all deathly ticklish and now all watching their surrounding with some confusion.
Xavis edged back, but he was effectively surrounded by slave women who he had tickled mercilessly at his leisure before condemning them body and soul to his cursed gem.
Xavis was a strong lord, but he was no spell caster and hardly a tickle warrior. He had never had to do more than wiggle a finger at one of his slaves to get a ticklish response.
However strong his body was, he was fiercely outnumbered.
“Here is the Lord who sentenced you to be trapped for all eternity inside a cursed ivory throne,” Haydeen cried having climbed a gate to be heard by all the slaves. “He has the power to set you free.”
The woman talking in unison and a cacophony of voices and shouts rang with in the arena.
“You are all my slaves,” Xavis shouted acting bravely. “You will do as I command and seize that Elfling traitor!”
“He has the power to set you free,” Haydeen repeated. “But the tables have turned and you have power of him in a manner which he selfishly held over you.”
Xavis turned white under his red panther fur as the eyes of the scores of slaves lit up as an idea spread like a wild fire among them.
“NO!” Xavis cried as they pulled his noble robes away from him and tore them to shreds. He lashed out violently, but there was always another girl waiting to take the place of the fallen slave and soon a tickling fray took place.
Xavis felt hands grab and tickle him from all directions. The tickling to his muscled torso made him giggle helplessly like a little boy. They tore off his boots and tickled his feet and he screamed. He could not resist the ticklish assault.
He had not been tickled since childhood. He had built no resistance to tickling over his life. He would be tickled senseless by a mob of ticklish slaves. They would tickle him out of his wits and then his noble guard of Enforcers and Avengers would clean up this riff raff. He would have them all sent to his dungeons to be cruelly tickled to death, he thought.
It was then that he saw Chief Interrogator Haydeen push through the mob and look at him face to face. The tickling ceased for a moment. And the mob grew quiet.
She stared at him coldly as she removed tools from her bandolier.
“You will offer amnesty to all the slaves here and in your harem,” Haydeen declared. “You will offer me amnesty and free passage back to the Elfling Wood with tribute for the Elfling King.”
“Preposterous!” Lord Xavis shouted. “I’ll never accept such terms!”
“It was not a request,” Haydeen said twirling a feather between her fingers. “We can do this two ways, Lord Xavis. You can accept my demands of your own free will or you can accept my demands against your will. Either way I will get what I desire.”
There would be no quick tickling to oblivion. The tickling would be done by Haydeen and that meant it would be slow, calculated and taxing. There would be no speedy rescue. The Avengers and Enforcers would be called back at his command.
All that was left for him would be tickling, humiliation and finally… defeat.
* * * *
Patrisa had Melca’s Gem in one hand and held the fighting sticks containing the two pixies captive in the other.
She had climbed out of the Arena. All the guards had fled.
Even so, getting out of the Palace would be still a difficult task. The Cat Clan’s numerous Enforcers and Avengers would not be as easy to scare as the standard guard. Haydeen’s plan made sense, but it might take days until clear passage out of the palace is guaranteed.
“Up here, up here!” came a loud but familiar voice.
“Peter the Peddler?” she asked totally surprised as she looked up at the sky.
A giant hot air balloon descended into the arena. Peter was accompanied by his mate Brunilda the Centaur and by Danea of the Academy.
“How did you get through the shield?” Patrisa asked as a rope ladder was kicked over the side of the basket under the balloon.
“A little Entropy goes a long way,” Danea said as she helped her into the basket.
“Where is Esmeralda?” the Centaur asked worriedly.
“She has been captured by Orion and he has taken her to the Elfling King,” Patrisa said grimly.
“Then we are off,” Peter said firing up the hot air balloon. “Next stop, the Elfling Mushroom Wood.”
Haydeen waved from below and Patrisa waved back as they ascended. The Interrogator seemed like a clever girl and seemed comfortable taking the reins of the situation. She would be all right.
As they left the Palace behind Danea placed a hand on her shoulder and asked. “Do you know why the Elfling King wants Esmeralda?”
“No, I do not,” Patrisa said holding up her two fighting sticks to show the two pixies that remained trapped.
“But these two have quite a bit of explaining to do,” Patrisa said staring at her little prisoners intently. “And I think I know of a way to get them to talk,” she added mysteriously.
To be continued…
Next: Shadow in the Shade
