Tried posting this in parts, and the response to it was less than I had anticipated. I'm posting it all at once and will probably move on to something else now.
“I thought everything would be perfect after we destroyed LAVOS and saved the world. Boy was I wrong,” Marle thought as she wandered past the abandoned wooden structures with only the moonlight to show her the way. Everything was so boring now, with only her duties as Princess Nadia to keep her busy. Marle found herself spending her time decorating the castle, overseeing the domestic staff and planning the next Royal Ball.
The life she’d sworn she’d never live. That was why she’d run away in the first place.
At first, of course, things had been different. They’d been heroes, all of them, Crono, Frog, Robo, Ayla, Lucca and even Magus. Most especially Crono. The Moonlight Parade had been one of the highlights of her life. Then to top it all off, Crono had been named heir apparent by King Guardia, provided he marry an “appropriate” woman. That could have only been her, of course, and so she became engaged. Talk about exciting!
It hadn’t lasted. Frog, Robo, Ayla and Magus had gone back to their own times. Lucca had gotten all wrapped up in some new project. And Crono, her betrothed, was so busy learning how to govern, that he had no time for her. Honestly, he was spending so much time with her father and the chancellor, she couldn’t remember the last time Crono had really talked to her!
Things had been so much more exciting back when they were fighting not just for their own lives, but for the very survival of the planet. Everyday, She and Crono and the rest and faced another, even more challenging foe. Death had always been a very real possibility. It had been terrifying, but those days had a flavor to them that the present just couldn’t match.
Maybe it had been because, for the first time in her life, Marle had been important not because of her beauty. Her companions hadn’t needed her because of her pretty face, slender body or long, blond hair. No, it had been her Ice magic, freezing the cold blooded reptites, her healing magic and her bow that had earned her respect. She’d been valued by her friends for reasons that had nothing to do with being a beautiful princess.
Now, that was over. She was just Princess Nadia again. Her only job to be a pretty bauble of the arm of the future king.
So Marle had taken to coming here, the site of the Millennial Fair, almost every night. The fair had ended months ago, the crowds and vendors long gone, but the memories lingered, and the memories were all she had. Over there was the circle track that the runners must have gone around a thousand times, apparently having nothing else to do but race from morning to night. And that was the table that some jerk had kept his lunch on, the lunch that Crono always insisted on stealing. Boy, that one almost came back to bite him! Even such silly memories made Marle smile.
In the center, had been Queen Leene’s bell. Right in front of that was the spot she and Crono had met. Her shoulder was still a little sore from that meeting on rainy nights. Why couldn’t they have a less painful meeting story?
And the empty field that had held Norstein Bekkler’s lab. It was there Marle had insisted on holding onto hope when all seemed lost. Why couldn’t she do that again?
A cold wind, strong enough to blow her blond hair askew if it hadn’t been in its trademarked ponytail, started blowing, pulling Marle out of the past. She was considering going back to the castle when she heard a strange bit of music coming from the back of the fairgrounds. It was faint, so faint that Marle couldn’t have told you when it started. She might have dismissed it as wind blowing through the trees if it hadn’t been achingly familiar. Almost without thinking, Marle headed in that direction.
She walked away from the lights of the nearby village until they were lost behind the trees, following the path to a clearing at the very edge of the fairgrounds. She heard the song before she saw its shiny metal body.
“They call me Gato. I have metal joints. Beat me up. And earn 15 silver points.”
Gato was a robot built by Lucca as a combat simulator. She and Crono had fought it many times while they waited for Lucca’s ill fated teleportation experiment to start. Battling the metal creature had not only allowed them both to begin building their battle skills, the silver points they won had been exchanged for gold which bought their first weapons and armor. Nobody would have guessed it at the time, but Gato had proved an invaluable, and convenient, first step toward saving the world.
Marle was surprised Lucca had left her creation here. True, it was primitive. Lucca had built Gato before going to the future and seeing the stylish and self-aware robots there. Gato’s body was nothing more than a giant ball. Stubby arms and legs jutted out with little in the way of shoulders or waist to make a graceful transition. Its head was nothing more than an old helmet with twin, glowing yellow eyes underneath.
But Lucca tended to think of her inventions as her children. She was almost obsessive in taking care of them. Why would she abandon Gato?
Marle was so concerned about her friend, she almost missed the high pitched bell that signaled Gato had entered “Battle Mode”.
The circle hatch on Gato’s stomach opened, and an extendable arm with a boxing glove on the end shot out. Marle threw herself to the side, feeling the breeze as the glove passed inches over her head.
Damn! Now Gato was malfunctioning! She’d have to disable it before it hurt somebody. That would be difficult without one of her bows, but Marle wasn’t really worried. She had defeated enemies hundreds of times more powerful than this during the quest using nothing but her magic. She just hoped she could do it without destroying the metal man.
It had been months, however, since Marle had done so much as make an ice cube, so it took her a minute to get “in touch” with her abilities. That was enough time for Gato to make another attack. It moved its microphone up to its mouth.
Marle knew that Gato was about to unleash its sonic attack. She had felt it several times before, and grit her teeth. It wouldn’t really hurt her, but it could sting like nails on a chalkboard.
When the sound came, however, it was louder and more powerful than anything Marle had experienced before. A high pitched wall of cacophony slammed into her, making her cry out in pain and cover her ears. Any thought of magic slipped way.
The princess could only lie there, bright lights exploding in front of her eyes and her muscles refusing to obey her brain. Marle could barely see Gato’s hatch open again and that third arm strike out. She steeled herself for the blow.
But this time, instead of a boxing glove on the end of the arm, there was a hook. It caught Marle’s shoulder, and pulled her inside. Before she knew what it her, the Princess was swallowed by metal and darkness.
Soon, a dim red light flickered on. Marle could see she was inside of a steel sphere. It was too small a space to stand, sitting cross legged, Marle’s head was only inches from the ceiling. She shouted for help, but knew there was no one close enough to hear anything even if sound could escape her iron prison.
Then Marle heard a buzzing sound, and the sphere she was in started shrinking. The sides, ceiling and floor were all closing in. She’d be crushed! Out of desperation, Marle reached out her arms, fingertips touching the curved walls to her left and right, and began to push with all her might.
Marle knew it was futile. She could feel the slow pressure, pushing back against her arms. There was no way she was strong enough. Why, oh why, couldn’t she be Ayla or Robo! Soon the walls were close enough that she could put her palms flat against the metal surfaces. Marle straightened her arms and locked her elbows. Sonn her muscles grew tired of pushing.
Suddenly, without warning, the buzzing stopped, and so did the walls. The princess had somehow been saved from being crushed. So relieved was Marle, that she didn’t notice the steel grow warm under her touch.
Marle was still trying to calm herself and think of a way out of her cage when a couple of small holes opened up in front of her. Two metal arms,about as thick as a broom handle, came out. Each one had a circular brush, about two inches wide, on their end. The brushes looked like the one her father used to shave with.
She screamed again and tried to bring her arms into some kind of defensive position. It was then that Marle realized her hands were stuck to the sides of the sphere. Pull as hard as she could, nothing could free them. It was as if her skin had bonded to the metal.
As the armss grew closer, Marle again forced herself to calm down. She focused on her simplest ice magic. That would stop them.
The brushes struck first
King Guardia had always hated the white top Marle was wearing, which was probably the reason she wore it.. It barely covered her chest, leaving both her arms and shoulders bare. Robo had stated once that it defied the laws of gravity, leaving Lucca to joke that it must have been held up by sheer willpower.
The brushes nestled in Marle’s exposed underarms. The bristles were firmer than Marle had expected and felt prickly on her delicate skin. When they started to caress her armpits, the princess’s reaction was immediate.
“Hehe ehe eheheheheh ehWHATTA hehe ehehehe ehe nawoooooheheh eheheh!!!!! Stawwwpp heh heheh eheheheh!!!!” the blond princess giggled, “Can’t he eheh eheheh dodooohohohoo heh ehheh thissssssesesheee eehe tohohohoho mehehehhe hhehehhehe….”
Despite having a musical, almost lilting laugh, Marle hated being tickled. She had been incredibly ticklish as long as she could remember. One of the best parts of being princess was that it shielded her from such attentions. That wasn’t always the case, however. A governess had found put about Marle’s weakness during the princess’s even more rebellious teen-age years. She had decided that, since nothing else was working to control the hellcat, maybe tickling would.
For a while, every time Marle broke a rule, she had been tormented by the governess’s talented fingers. It was five minutes of belly tickling for a messy bedroom. 5 minutes of tickling on her ribs for breaking curfew. Her feet had been the worst. Once she had even gotten half an hour of toe tickles for kissing a commoner boy. Eventually, she had managed to get the governess fired for some made up offense, but the woman had made Marle’s life a living hell until them.
Now it was happening again, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. The brushes covered both her underarms, swishing back and forth from underneath her bicep, across the curved hollow and down to the side of her breast. Marle could feel each bristle, hundreds of them, gliding over her soft skin, scraping ever so gently.
For Marle, it was like her armpits were on fire. Countless tickles, exploding on her skin. The electric sensation quickly overwhelmed her and Marle’s laughter grew and grew.
“HE EHEH E eheh EHE e ehHEHEHEHEH NAAWWOOOO HEHE Ee ehe EHE WHHHYYHEH EHEHHE EHEHEHEHEH EHEH WHHHHYYYYYY EHEHEH EHEHEHEHE EEH eeheHEHEH etickkkllehehehheh TICCKKLLEHEHE EHEHEH MEHEHH EHEHEH EHEHEHE!!!!!!!!!!!!”
With Marle’s hands fused to the metal sides of her prison, she had virtually no wiggle room at all. Rope or even chain would have had some slack to it, but as she was bound, the princess could barely lean her body an inch forward or backward and nothing to the side. There was nothing she could do even to lessen the tickling even for a second.
To make things even worse, the brushes started moving faster, forcing Marle to laugh harder and harder. Now it was as if the bristles were skating over an icy pond at great speed. She could feel the lines they were leaving on her flesh, long, red marks.
Without even being aware she doing it, Marle began to beg in the midst of her hysterical cries, the same pleas she had made that cruel governess long ago.
“HA HAHAHAHHAH PLEEAASSEEAAH!!! AHAHAHHAHH MEERCYYY MAAAHAHAH MAAAAAMMMMMM HA AHAHAHAHHAH!!!! I’LLL BEH HAHA AHH AHA I HAHAHAH BEEEHAHAHAHAHH BEEEHEHE EHEH A GOOODD HAHAHHHAH GIRRLLLL!!! HAHAHAHH GOOOODDDD HAHAHAH GIRLLL HAHAH!!!!!!!!”
Eventually, the tickling ended. When it did, Marle could only hunch over, gasping for air. Every muscle in her stomach and chest hurt. Sweat was rolling off her cheeks and shoulders. Never in her life had she been so exhausted.
When Marle started to become aware of her surroundings, two things became apparent. One was that the brushes hadn’t gone away. They were still nestled in the exact center of the deep hollows under her arms, as if just waiting to begin torturing her again.
The second was that there was a face staring at her. The concave wall facing Marle had revealed itself as a monitor, and on it was the face of her best friend Lucca.
It couldn’t be anyone else. The thick glasses and nerdy helmet she wore could belong to none other. Marle was shocked beyond words. The two of them had the kind of bond only soldiers in war could understand. Closer than sisters, they had saved each others lives countless times, and with their four friends, had stood between the world and oblivion. Betrayal was not a strong enough word for what Marle felt.
“What are you talking about?!” Marle snapped, “This isn’t funny! Let me out Lucca! Let me out!!” It seemed like a bad joke, but Marle knew that Lucca didn’t have that kind of sense of humor. Sometimes she was a lot like the machines she studied.
Then Marle noticed that there was a strange look in Lucca’s eyes. It was the same look somebody got when they were under a chaos spell. Marle remembered being under that spell’s effects. It was like your brain just shut down. You didn’t recognize anybody or anything. You shot your friends in the back just because they were closest too you, and you found it hilarious. You’d kill them if somebody didn’t bring you back to your senses first.
Marle knew she was in trouble.
“Are you ready to do what Madam Lucca asks?” Lucca simply repeated again, not even acknowledging that her friend had talked. Even through Lucca’s thick glasses, Marle could see her friends eyes were practically spinning.
“Lucca,” Marle tried to reason with her, “Lucca, you’re my friend. Let me out. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I can help you. I’ll help you with AHH EHEHEH EHEHHHEHEHEH!!!”
The brushes started tickling Marle’s armpits again. This time, instead of stroking across her skin, each bristle started wiggling independent of the others. It was like having a hundred worms squirming over her body.
Marle again descended into hysteria. It was even worse then before. Soon she was cackling madly. It was as if the bristles knew the exact spots on her underarms which were most ticklish and zeroed in on them, prodding and twisting to draw out every possible screech from their victim.
“Are you ready to do what Madam Lucca asks?” the words seem to form directly in Marle’s brain. She definitely couldn’t have heard them over the cacophony that was her own laughter.
Marle resisted giving an answer for a few minutes as the words repeated again and again. Oh Gawd!!! It tickled so much!!! Surely Lucca wouldn’t want her to do anything too bad? Maybe it would be alright…maybe…maybe…
Soon her strength wore out. She just couldn’t take it anymore!
“YEYEYYYESSSS HEHE EHEHEH YEESSESSS HE EHEHEHHEH LUCCAAHAH AHAHHHAHAHHAH DOOO WHAHAHAHHATTT AHHAHHHH LUCCA AHAHAHHAHAHAH WAAHAHNNTTTSS!!!!!!!!!”
The tickling stopped. This time the brushes did pull away from Marle’s skin. Again the blond had to catch her breath with aching lungs.
“Break off your engagement with Crono.”
The words took Marle by surprise. She didn’t know what she expected from Lucca in her current condition, but it definitely hadn’t been that.
And part of Marle wanted to say yes. She thought she loved Crono, but they had grown apart lately. And it would get her out of having to be Queen. And it would end the horrible, horrible tickling. She was desperately afraid of what Lucca would do in her confused condition if she said ‘No’.
But…but…there was her father. For as long as Marle could remember, her father’s greatest fear was that the Guardia royal line would end with him. With no son, there was no guarantee the next King would share his genes. He had appointed Crono as heir not only as a reward for saving the world, but as a way of making sure his daughter was Queen. Should she denounce the betrothal, Crono would be free to make any other woman Queen. That would break her dad’s heart.
“I can’t…I can’t Lucca. Anything else. But please, no more…no more tickles. I can’t stand anymore.”
Lucca just shook her head. Sounding a lot like Marle’s old governess, she said “But bad girls need to be punished.”
Marle closed her eyes, prepared for the brushes to go back to work. Instead a green gas started flooding the chamber. The princess held her breath for a few seconds, but eventually had to breath it in. It had a faint, peppery smell to it, but seemed to have no effect.
Not on her anyway. Marle noticed smoke starting to pour from her clothes. Soon her blouse and pants were falling off of Marle in pieces. Then her bra and panties followed. Before she new it, the princess was completely naked, not a stitch covering her body anywhere. Even her hairband had disintegrated, allowing her long, blond hair to fall across her shoulders.
Before Marle could wonder what was going to happen next, she was hit from almost every angle by a jet of warm, soapy water. In seconds, her body was dripping wet and covered in white, foamy bubbles.
“Last chance, princess,” Lucca said smugly, “Break it off.”
This wasn’t the Lucca Marle knew. Whatever had come over her had completely taken over her normal, good-natured personality. She might easily order this machine to rip out Marle’s internal organs and leave her for dead. Still, Marle knew she couldn’t give in.
Slowly, the princess shook her head ‘No.’
Marle again heard the grinding of gears. This time, it wasn’t two metal arms coming at her, but six. Each one had brushes at their end. She closed her eyes, knowing what was coming.
The bristles that hit Marle’s skin this time were firmer than the last two, more like the scrub brushes the maids used on the floor. Two brushes found her underarms again, two her belly and two her ribcage, one on each side. Then they began scouring.
Had Marle’s body been dry, these bristles would have hurt, taking off layers of skin and rubbing raw spots on her flesh. Instead, her body was wet and slippery. The soap acted as a lubricant, allowing the bristles to dig in without so much as leaving a mark. The result was inevitable.
“HE EHEHE EHEHEHEHEHE NAWWWOOO AH HEHE EHEHEHHH MERRCCCYY HEH EMERRCYYY HEH HEHEH LUCCAAHAHAHAH HEH EHEH MERCCYYYEHEHE PLEEAASSEHEHEHEH EHEHEH!!!!!!! FRIENEHEHEHENNNDSS HEHEHEHEH WEHEHEHEH HEHEHERRREEEE HEHEHH EHEH WE’REEHEHEHEHH FRIENDSH EHEHEHEHEHE!!!!”
Now the tickling wasn’t just confined to one small area. Bristles poke between her ribs, danced over her flat belly and spiraled into her armpits. Only her legs, still crossed underneath her, were spared.
In her frenzied mind, Marle slipped back to the last time before this she’d really been tickled. She’d crept away to visit with the commoner boy she’d kissed earlier. This time, they met in a cave, planning to go farther than just touching lips. Still an innocent, Marle wasn’t sure how far that would have been. They never got a chance to find out. They governess had discovered she was gone and had sent troops to bring her back almost immediately.
Instead of punishing her immediately, the governess had simply instructed Marle to take a bath and ‘wipe off the filth’. While Marle was in the tub, taking her usual bubble bath, the governess had burst in on her. She had tickled practically every inch of Marle’s soapy body, her bony fingers slipping between clenched legs and arms.
The tickling had been endless. Marle grew so exhausted, the governess had had to hold her head above the water with one hand while tickling her soapy belly and sides with the other. Nails repeatedly gliding over slippery skin, pinching soft, wet flesh wherever they could find it. It had been hell.
“Got to get the dirty girl nice and clean,” the governess had said, over and over again.
Only when a maid had walked in and completely misconstrued what she saw did the governess stop. The next day, after a few teary half truths and one or two outright lies, to her father, Marle finally had the governess shipped out.
This tickling was worse. Instead of ten fingers, there were countless whiskers scouring her flesh. She couldn’t kick or splash like she‘d done in the tub, and there was no chance of a maid walking in.
“You’re a dirty, dirty princess, aren’t you?” Lucca taunted, “I’ll scrub you until you’re nice and clean.”
“O HE EHEHEH NAWWOOOO HO NAWOOOO HEH EHEHEHH PLE PLE HE HEH HEH PLEEAAHE HEHHEHEHEHEHSSSEEEEE LUCCCAHACCHA AHA AHAHAHAHAHAH AHAH NAWWOOOHOHOHO MORREEHE EHEHEHEH!!!!!”
The princess could feel each bristle skimming across her skin, waltzing in her underarms, shimmering up her ribs and poking into her sides. White bubbles were starting to form underneath the brushes, lathering Marle up more and more.
Marle’s laughter became wilder and wilder. Soon, she was bellowing with all her might. The tears dribbling down her cheeks started flowing like a river, blinding her. Her blonde hair, normally kept in a neat ponytail was either flying around her head as her head whipped madly from side to side, or was plastered against her sweaty face and shoulders.
“What do you say, dirty girl? Will you do what Mistress Lucca says? Will you break it off with Crono?”
Marle’s world became a series of sensations. The stiff bristles scouring her underarms and ribs were most dominant, tormenting her flesh. Marle could even feel every drop of warm water and every soapy bubble running down her bare skin. Nothing else existed, however. Her sight grew dim and her own hysterical laughter barely echoed in her ears.
Still, the spirit within her, the very fire that had allowed her to help save the world, burned bright. She mouthed the words “drop dead”, unsure if any sound other than laughter escaped her lips.
Unable to see, the princess had no warning. She suddenly started feeling something brush the undersides of her bare breasts. Far softer than the other tickles, the plumes sweeping Marle’s boobs had an itchy feel to them. The sensation shooting from them was electric.
Her eyes opened wide, and animal like sounds started coming from her mouth. The rest of Marle’s body faded a little into the background. It was like her breasts were covered with thousands of tickly ants! It was unbearable!
“Well, dirty girl? What is it? Do you want the tickles to stop?”
Now, even the tickles on the rest of her body faded, not vanishing, but becoming part of the background anguish that still swept her body. All Marle’s awareness was focused on her breasts. Good sized, but firm, she had always considered them one of her greatest assets. Now, they were her greatest weakness.
Their must have been more plumes, because now both the top and underside were covered with tickles. Sound itself stopped coming from Marle’s mouth. Her jaw just hung open, as if to let the agonies flow out of their own accord.
It would have been so, so , so easy to say ‘Yes.” It was impossible to refuse. It took all Marle’s strength to give not even the tiniest response to the question.
Marle was unable to pinpoint the exact moment that her suffering stopped. She must have passed out, descending into a dark world of feathers and phantom tickles. Then, slowly, the void overtook her. Black and cold, it was the sweetest thing she ever knew.
It took a long time for Marle’s brain to return to normal. When it did, Marle was truly sorry. During there fight against LAVOS, she had been stabbed, shot, electrocuted, set on fire, frozen, had huge rocks drop on her head, slimy creatures slide over her face, and a thousand other punishments he had forgotten, but her body was in more pain right now. Every muscle screamed in agony.
Eventually, Marle found the strength to lift her head and shake it a bit to get the hair out of her face. She looked at the screen to see Lucca’s face staring at her with that same crazy look in her eye. She was smiling.
“I’m sorry, princess, but it looks like you have decided to do things the hard way.”
Marle felt a shaking like an earthquake. Then there was a feeling of motion, combined with an up and down bobbing like being on a ship. It had been easy for Marle to forget that the metal sphere she was trapped inside was still on top of the legs of Gato the robot. And now, apparently, that robot was moving.
Marle exhausted from the tickling and trying to deal with the sudden seasickness, kept quiet for several minutes. She was more than a little scared that, after the nightmare Lucca had put her through, this was only the beginning of the ‘hard way’. Eventually, however, her patience wore thin.
“Lucca,” she snapped, “Wear are you taking me!”
“How inconsiderate of me, princess,” Lucca’s said, still smiling, “Here, let me show you.”
With that, the metal walls of the sphere started fading. Marle could still feel them beneath her fingertips, but soon she couldn’t see them. The sphere had grown completely transparent it could only be called invisible.
Marle hadn’t cared about losing her clothes earlier. Being tickled had driven out any thoughts of modesty from her mind. If there was a good part of being trapped inside a metal ball, it was that you were completely hidden. It was about as private as being locked inside your closet.
With the sphere now invisible, the reality of Marle’s nakedness washed over her, and she felt completely exposed. Anyone within half a mile could have seen the nude princess sitting on a pedestal three feet above the ground. She flushed bright red, and tried desperately to cover her bare body. Sitting crossed legged the way she was, they could even see her most private parts! She was able to close her legs by sliding them out in front of her. The space she was in was too small, however to stretch out her legs straight. Marle had to put her feet on the unseen metal wall in front of her and stick her knees up in the air.
But there was nothing she could do to cover her breasts. Marle tried again to rip her hands free, but, despite being invisible, the metal stuck to her palms as firmly as ever. She could twist her shoulders a bit from side to side, but couldn’t hide her boobs.
And, Gato was walking her towards the town!
It hadn’t mattered when Lucca could see her exposed body. During their great adventure, always on the road, it had been hard enough to get privacy from the boys. She had often bathed in a stream right next to Lucca and Ayla. The three girls had no secrets from each other. The thought of anyone else seeing her, however, made the princess go frantic. The thought of everyone she knew seeing her drove the princess into a frenzied panic!
“No! Lucca, stop! Gato, Stop! Cover me! Do Something! Help me!” She started kicking the metal wall in front of her, making a dull ringing sound echo through her chamber.
Marle couldn’t scream for long. Her mad laughter earlier had worn out her throat. And nothing she said or did made Gato slow down or change its course. One mechanical step after another was bringing her closer and closer to the town of Truce and total humiliation.
Unable to yell, Marle kept kicking the invisible sphere as hard as she could, kicking until her legs grew sore. Then, just when Gato of on the outskirts of the town, Marle felt both her legs break through the invisible metal wall in front of her. Yes! She could feel the cold night air on her soles. Marle had a sudden image of breaking out of Gato like a chick out of an egg.
Then, like water when pierced by a branch, the invisible metal seemed to mend itself. Marle couldn’t see it, but the shell that was Gato’s body somehow became whole again, reforming around her legs. All she knew was she could feel hard steel surrounding her ankles in a tight grip. She knew her feet were still outside because she could feel the wind blowing against her toes. Try as she might, the princess could not free them.
And it got worse. The metal plates that held Marle’s ankles slowly began to slide apart, one inch at a time. And the farther they moved, the more wider her legs opened. Muscles worn out from her ordeal, Marle didn’t have the strength to keep them closed. Soon, they were wide open, showing her femininity off to anyone who cared to look.
While Marle had been struggling to keep her legs closed, Gato had entered the small town of Truce. This would have been a nightmare anywhere, but it would be doubly so in Truce. She had grown up here, held up as an example of royalty to the common people. She knew them and they held both her and her father in the highest respect.
Marle could see the general store, the mayor’s residence and Crono’s old house. And their was the Truce Inn. This late at night, it was the only building to have a light on.
One small glimmer of hope flared up in Marle’s breast. It was so late, everyone except a couple of late night visitors would be fast asleep. And they usually got a room in the inn after their drinking was done. It would be hours until sunrise when the good people of Truce would wake up and start their day. Surely before then someone in the castle would notice she was missing. It would still be a little embarrassing, but they could save her before she became the laughing stock of the country.
All she needed to be was quiet and let the townspeople sleep.
Gato stopped, directly in front of the inn, not twenty feet from the front door. All sense of movement stopped. Then, she felt a strange vibration. The part of the sphere she was sitting on was sliding away. Her butt sank several inches, dangling in mid air, just like she was on the toilet. Only her hands and feet, still stuck to the sphere’s walls kept her from falling through.
“Tough break, Lucca,” the princess whispered, her voice raspy from her constant laughter, “nothing is going to make me make a sound!”
Marle’s eyes grew wide as soon as she felt it. It was hard, thin and rounded like a fingernail. And it was running up and down her butt cheek! Even her old governess had never dared touch her there. And god, did it TICKLE!!!!!
Marle gritted her teeth. She couldn’t make a sound! Her only hope was that no one would know she was here! Pulling on the walls with both her arms and legs, Marle was able to lift her bottom a few inches into the air, away from the tickling. But it tok all of her strength to do it!
Soon her limbs, already feeling like limp noodles gave out, and she sank back down. Immediately, the tickling began again. This time, it was two fingernail type instruments, one gliding over each cheek!
“Can…not…laugh….” the words echoes through Marle’s mind. She fought the tickling sensation, resisting until she felt enough strength in her arms and legs to pull herself up again. She gained a brief break, but one even shorter than the first. Even sooner, her muscles gave way, and her bottom sank back into the hole.
The two fingernails were still there, but they had moved closer to the center of her bottom, only an inch or so from the crack. The tickling was even more intense, forcing the corner of her lips to break into a grin.
“Must…not…laugh!” It was the only thought going through Marle’s head. Never in her life, when she had been this determined, had she ever failed. Her father, Magus even LAVOS itself had been defeated.
The fingernails were on the edge of her crack now. The tickling was as unbearable as any she had felt that night. Again, Marle tried to lift herself up, but only made it half way before collapsing. The fingernails left contact with her skin for only one brief instant before she fell back into them.
A snicker broke free from the princess’s lips. Then a giggle. Marle would have rather swallowed her own tongue than allow more noise to escape from her lips. But she had been tormented for so long, and her body was exhausted past all endurance. Marle had no chance.
“He …heheh heh ehehehe ……….HEH ehe ehEHEH…. HE eheh EHEH error….. He ehehehehHEHEHEH!!!!!!!!!”
Marle tried several times to clamp her mouth shut, but once her laughter bubbled forth, there was no stopping it.
Had the inn been rowdy and boisterous, the inhabitants still might have heard nothing. But it was late enough that the remaining guest had been quietly staring at their drinks, wondering whether to finish it and order another or nursing it until closing time. In the still night, even soft laughter seemed to echo throughout the old building.
Marle wasn’t sure who the first man to come out and look was. Probably a traveler. He was greeted by the strangest of his life, a nude, giggling woman, floating in mid-air. The man wasted no time calling for others to come out and have a look.
At first, the people didn’t recognize her. After all, a princess was a stylish, regal figure. A princess wore fancy dresses and looked like she belonged in a painting. The figure in front of them was red faced, naked and wet with hair matted against her head and neck by sweat. The wild, hysterical look in her eyes was anything but regal.
However, there were only so many statuesque blond women in the area, and she had been on display to many times in front of them to not figure it out.
The townspeople stood there, pointing and whispering. They clearly didn’t know how to react. Marle blushed furiously as she saw their eyes fixate to her breasts and femininity.
Marle opened her mouth wide now. She would beg them for help through her laughter, get them to understand that something bad was happening. They‘d help her! After all she‘d done for them, how could they not?
Just then, the two fingernails tickling her crack sped up, tickling her more. And they were joined by two more. These new fingernails tickled the undersides of her thighs, in the crease where her legs joined her body. The new tickles overwhelmed her.
“AH AHAH AHAH …. GGGGDDD NAWWOOO HA AHAHAH AHAHAHHHH ST ST AHA AHAHAHAHAHHAHHH N N NAOOOOO AHA AHAH AAHH!!!!!!! I I AH AHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!!!!”
She just couldn’t get out the words! Her cackling cut her off after just a syllable. She couldn’t even get anyone to understand she was in distress.
The crowd grew larger. Men and women who had long been asleep came out there doors to see what was going on. At first they were confused. Nobody could believe the princess they had known since she was a little girl would do such a thing. But they couldn’t see that her hands and feet were bound to invisible walls. And to their ears, her laughter sounded joyous, not forced, as if Marle was having the time of her life.
With her arms over her head, it appeared that Marle was posing for a naughty picture, showing off her breasts instead of hiding them. With her legs spread wide, she seemed to be begging someone to fill her void. And every move made in a futile effort to get free was interpreted as a wanton thrusting of her pelvis.
It didn’t take the crowd long to make up their mind.
“What a tramp!” a woman yelled.
“Bare assed as the day she was born, and laughing about it!”
“She thinks this is funny! The princess is mocking us!”
“Does she have no shame?”
“Why doesn’t she try and cover herself!”
“I never would have guessed she was such a degenerate!”
“NAAAWOOO HA AHAHAH AHAH AYUUUUU AHAHAHAH YOUUUU DOONNN’TTT SAH AHAHAH AHAH AHAH UNDER HAHHAHAH UNDERRRRRRRRRRR AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHH GAWWWDDDDDD!!”
Everyone in the town seemed to be yelling at Marle now, calling her names. Soon, half of them, led by the mayor himself, left in disgust. Truce was a conservative town, and what the princess was apparently doing did more than just break their mores. It shattered them. No one with even a pretense of respectability stayed.
That left the rest, the more common of the commoners, to stay and watch a show the likes of which had never been seen before.
“Watch her boobs bounce!” a teamster cried “Hey princess, you can bounce them on me!”
“Look at how perk her nipples are! I didn’t think it was that cold out here!”
“I guess she is a natural blond after all! Though the hair down there needs a good trim sweetheart!”
Humiliation was not nearly a strong enough word for what Marle was feeling. Most of the tears streaming down her cheeks now had nothing to do with her forced laughter. To be mocked and ridiculed by friends and neighbors, having her most private parts commented on and criticized, was absolutely unbearable.
And through it all, all Marle could do was laugh like some demented fool.
The tickling on her bottom started easing up now, just enough to keep Marle giggling. She was too out of breath and too hysterical to put together a comprehensible sentences, however, and the people left watching her weren’t in the mood to listen.
“no he eheh you don’t he eheh eh no I can’t he e eheh movvvheh heehawed he helllppp h eheh meeheheheheheh…”
“I’ll help you princess! Come down here, and I’ll help you ALL NIGHT LONG!!!” One man shouted, earning him round of laughter from the rest.
There weren’t many women left in the crowd. Most had been swept inside early by fathers, husbands or brothers so they wouldn’t be soiled by seeing such a disgusting sight. One of the few that was left was the barmaid, Elga. Elga had had a crush on Crono for years, though he had never been bright enough to figure it out. She had long held a grudge against the princess for stealing him away. Beautiful in her own right, Marle was one of the few women in town Elga couldn’t compete with. Now was her chance to get even.
The tickling on Marle’s bare bottom had stopped now, and she was back in that all too familiar position of trying to recover and catch her breath when she noticed the barmaid stepping forward.
“Please he eheh please Elga help me. He heh I’m trapped here… please go he hee get get help….”
“Oh, I’ll be helping you princess. You seem to be enjoying yourself so much, showing off all your goods and jubblies and what not to every man within listening distance. I’ll be helping you do just that….” Elga, by design or lucky accident, started reaching for the only part on Marle’s body not protected by Gato’s invisible body, her feet.
“No…no Elga noo you need to help me. Pleasehe EHE EHEHE EHE EHEHEHEH NAWWWT MH EHEHEHHH EHEH MEEHEHEH MEHEHEH MEEYYYYY MYYYY HEHEHEH FEEHEHEHEHEEEEEEEETTTT HEHEHEHHHE PLEEEAHEHEHEHEHESSSSEEEE HEHEH NAWWWTT HEEHH MYYY FEEHEHEEHEHEHEEETTTTTT!!!!!”
Elga was dancing her long nails down the sole of Marle’s right sole. Being the oldest of four sisters, it was something the barmaid had a lot of experience doing. She expected Marle to pull her feet away at the first touch. To Elga’s surprise, the princess didn‘t move her legs at all. She started wiggling her toes wildly and twisting her foot from side to side, but otherwise seemed to be letting the barmaid tickle her.
“Boy, you must really like this,” Elga remarked, “Let’s see if you can keep your feet still if I tickle you here!” She started digging her nails into the balls of Marle’s feet, using the same touch that drove her younger sisters wild.
“HEH EHEHE NAAWWWOOO HEH EHEHEH EHE EHE NOAWWWTTTT HEHEH LIKKEEHEHEHEHHEHE NAWWTTT LIKKKEEEEEE HEHEHEHEH!!!!!! CANNNNN’TTTT MOVVVVVVVEEH HEHHHEHEHEEEE!!!!!!!”
Elga, of course, couldn’t understand any of Marle’s hysterical cackles. She thought she caught the word ‘like’ in there somewhere. She kept tickling, amazed at Marle’s ability to keep her legs perfectly still. She was actually starting to feel a little annoyed. How could Marle stand this? No way was she going to let a spoiled princess show her up!
“You royals do have iron will power,” Elga admitted grudgingly, “Nobody I’ve ever tickled could keep there legs from moving unless I sat on them. But I’ll bet you hold out if I tickle your toes!”
“NAWWWOOO TOOOEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!” Marle cried before she descending into madness. She started bellowing, screaming with every inch of air in her lungs as she could feel long nails glide down the underside of her toes. She tried to scrunch them up, but Elga easily used her free hand to pull Marle’s toes back.
The crowd was really getting into the foot tickling. Some were cheering on Elga, encouraging her to break the princess. Others cried out for Marle to resist. Someone even started taking bets. This was getting good!
No one noticed what was happening between Marle’s legs. From inside the hole that Marle’s bottom was still dangling in rose a shaft about the width of a pinkie. Unlike the arms that had held the tickling brushes, it wasn’t made from metal, but from that new material they’d found in the future, the stuff Robo called plastic. And it was making straight for the space between Marle’s legs!
As Marle was screaming hysterically from Elga tickling her toes, she could only watch as the plastic rod penetrated her womanhood. She thought it would hurt, but as the shaft entered her, Marle realized she was as wet down there as she was after those naughty dreams she had sometimes about Cyrus and his froglike tongue.
The shaft started to expand until it filled her snugly, though not uncomfortably. Even as Marle’s dread at what was about to happen rose to new levels, it started to vibrate.
Elga had slowed her tickling. Nothing she had gone had forced the princess’s legs to pull away so much as an inch! Now Marle’s laughter and screams had grown so wild, Elga was afraid tickling her further might actually injure the princess. As stubborn as the barmaid was, she knew what the penalty was for harming a member of the royal house, and would rather admit failure than face it.
“He ehehe oooohhhhh heheheh El….elllggaaaa ooooOh I I I…” Marle gasped. The shaft was right on her nubbin, and a wave of pleasure swept over her. She could only hope the giggles from the foot tickling had covered it.
It hadn’t. Elga might not have known how to be a princess or use magic, but she was an expert on sexual response. She heard the soft moan and saw the look in Marle’s eyes. The barmaid immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion. The reason the princess had not pulled away from the tickling, Elga surmised, was that she had been enjoying it.
Well, there was more than one way to win a battle of wills.
“I always heard you royals were into some kinky stuff,” Elga said, “If you get off on having your feet touched, maybe I can…help.” She lowered her dainty mouth and started sucking one of Marle’s toes.
Marle had almost forgotten about the barmaid. The shaft inside her was starting to move back and forth as well as pulsate. New, strange sensations started building inside her. Marle may not have had a lot of personal experience with sex but she knew what was happening to her. She was being deflowered!
There was no way she would let the perverts and degenerates watching her know what was happening. Marle was completely focused on not letting any sign of her ecstasy show on her face.
It had been hard enough with that…that thing inside her, practically caressing her most personal of parts. Then Marle felt something hot and wet clamp down on her toes.
The jolt of delight coming from that unexpected location broke Marle’s concentration and her eyes flew wide open. A soft moan escaped her lips.
“OOOHHHH Elga ELLLGGA OOOOHHH NOOOO ITTSS NOOT Ooohh OOHHH don’t don’t don’t dooo OOOoohooohhhhh that!” She cried out.
“Look at the princess!” someone from the crowd cried out, “She’s really getting off on that!”
“Give it to her Elga!”
Marle fought desperately, but the feelings from both places just grew more and more intense. The shaft inside her seemed to be stroking her privates more than just vibrating them. And Elga had much practice at oral stimulation.
Marle’s entire body seemed to be quivering. Her face was broadcasting every wave of bliss she was feeling, and throaty moans, groans, cries, whimpers and whistles of every pitch were escaping her lips.
Elga switched toes every other minute, using her talents on fresh nerves to assault her victim. She couldn’t believe such a small kiss was having such a great effect on the princess. But it gave Elga a feeling of power over Marle, more than even the tickling had.
Then it happened. Despite trying to resist the feelings growing inside her, lights started exploding in the back of Marle’s brain. She started screaming, high pitched squeals that would have woken everyone in the village if they hadn’t all been either in the crowd or watching from inside their house pretending that they were asleep.
Marle couldn’t fight it anymore. She had never felt the beginnings of a climax before. All she knew was that her body needed it more that anything ever in her life.
“OHO OHOHO OHOH YESSS!!!! YESSS!!!! MORREEEE, OH GAWD MOREEE!!!! I NEEEEED IT PLEASSEEE!!!!” Then she screamed a note that usually didn’t exist in nature. And the world seemed to stop.
When the world returned into focus, Marle could hear the crowd giving loud, sarcastic cheers, and Elga was bowing like a diva after a particular masterful performance. The princess literally blushed from toes to eyebrows, and had it been possible to die of shame, her heart would have exploded on the spot.
Then, there was a rumbling. With no warning, her hands and feet freed themselves from the metal walls that had held them for so long. Before she could even think about crumbling, Gato’s invisible body fell apart, dropping naked Marle onto the dirt road with a thump.
“Well, princess,” Elga said with mock politeness, “Shall we try the other foot?”
Marle saw the look of a lioness on the hunt in the barmaid’s eyes, and the look of a vulture finding an unexpected fresh kill in those in the crowd, and her heart froze with fear. Giving no thought to her exhausted limbs or the cold night air, the princess got up and ran all the way back to the castle like a frightened jackrabbit.
She didn’t stop until she was face to face with two very puzzled guards at the castle gate.
*********************
Marle’s trial took place a week later. More than a dozen people, including the mayor of Truce, testified as to her degrading actions that night. Not one person came to her defense.
Crono had been sent out of town help negotiate that new transit route with the city of Medina, the one populated with the descendants of Magus’s army. Marle wanted to believe it was to stop him from speaking in her behalf. It was probably just to distance the heir to the throne from such a scandal. Anyway you looked at it, she had to sit there alone, while the chancellor read the verdict.
His chubby face seemed to be gloating when he pronounced her guilty of moral indecency. All she could do was wish he would somehow turn back in to Yakra again so she could kick his ass one more time.
It was announced that, as she was no longer a proper example for the people or a image that the country wanted to share with the world, Marle’s title of princess would be stripped from her. As daughter of the current king, she would be allowed to live in the castle, but she would no longer have any authority or role in governing, no matter how ceremonial.
And her betrothal to Crono, future king of Guardia, was annulled. A new bride would be chosen, the chancellor said, when protocol deemed it appropriate.
Lucca, who had sat through the entire proceedings never uttering a word, turned to face her and pointed to herself. Then she smiled an evil grin Marle had never thought would appear on her innocent face.
And Marle knew that the kingdom had a more serious problem than just the disgrace of one princess.
“I thought everything would be perfect after we destroyed LAVOS and saved the world. Boy was I wrong,” Marle thought as she wandered past the abandoned wooden structures with only the moonlight to show her the way. Everything was so boring now, with only her duties as Princess Nadia to keep her busy. Marle found herself spending her time decorating the castle, overseeing the domestic staff and planning the next Royal Ball.
The life she’d sworn she’d never live. That was why she’d run away in the first place.
At first, of course, things had been different. They’d been heroes, all of them, Crono, Frog, Robo, Ayla, Lucca and even Magus. Most especially Crono. The Moonlight Parade had been one of the highlights of her life. Then to top it all off, Crono had been named heir apparent by King Guardia, provided he marry an “appropriate” woman. That could have only been her, of course, and so she became engaged. Talk about exciting!
It hadn’t lasted. Frog, Robo, Ayla and Magus had gone back to their own times. Lucca had gotten all wrapped up in some new project. And Crono, her betrothed, was so busy learning how to govern, that he had no time for her. Honestly, he was spending so much time with her father and the chancellor, she couldn’t remember the last time Crono had really talked to her!
Things had been so much more exciting back when they were fighting not just for their own lives, but for the very survival of the planet. Everyday, She and Crono and the rest and faced another, even more challenging foe. Death had always been a very real possibility. It had been terrifying, but those days had a flavor to them that the present just couldn’t match.
Maybe it had been because, for the first time in her life, Marle had been important not because of her beauty. Her companions hadn’t needed her because of her pretty face, slender body or long, blond hair. No, it had been her Ice magic, freezing the cold blooded reptites, her healing magic and her bow that had earned her respect. She’d been valued by her friends for reasons that had nothing to do with being a beautiful princess.
Now, that was over. She was just Princess Nadia again. Her only job to be a pretty bauble of the arm of the future king.
So Marle had taken to coming here, the site of the Millennial Fair, almost every night. The fair had ended months ago, the crowds and vendors long gone, but the memories lingered, and the memories were all she had. Over there was the circle track that the runners must have gone around a thousand times, apparently having nothing else to do but race from morning to night. And that was the table that some jerk had kept his lunch on, the lunch that Crono always insisted on stealing. Boy, that one almost came back to bite him! Even such silly memories made Marle smile.
In the center, had been Queen Leene’s bell. Right in front of that was the spot she and Crono had met. Her shoulder was still a little sore from that meeting on rainy nights. Why couldn’t they have a less painful meeting story?
And the empty field that had held Norstein Bekkler’s lab. It was there Marle had insisted on holding onto hope when all seemed lost. Why couldn’t she do that again?
A cold wind, strong enough to blow her blond hair askew if it hadn’t been in its trademarked ponytail, started blowing, pulling Marle out of the past. She was considering going back to the castle when she heard a strange bit of music coming from the back of the fairgrounds. It was faint, so faint that Marle couldn’t have told you when it started. She might have dismissed it as wind blowing through the trees if it hadn’t been achingly familiar. Almost without thinking, Marle headed in that direction.
She walked away from the lights of the nearby village until they were lost behind the trees, following the path to a clearing at the very edge of the fairgrounds. She heard the song before she saw its shiny metal body.
“They call me Gato. I have metal joints. Beat me up. And earn 15 silver points.”
Gato was a robot built by Lucca as a combat simulator. She and Crono had fought it many times while they waited for Lucca’s ill fated teleportation experiment to start. Battling the metal creature had not only allowed them both to begin building their battle skills, the silver points they won had been exchanged for gold which bought their first weapons and armor. Nobody would have guessed it at the time, but Gato had proved an invaluable, and convenient, first step toward saving the world.
Marle was surprised Lucca had left her creation here. True, it was primitive. Lucca had built Gato before going to the future and seeing the stylish and self-aware robots there. Gato’s body was nothing more than a giant ball. Stubby arms and legs jutted out with little in the way of shoulders or waist to make a graceful transition. Its head was nothing more than an old helmet with twin, glowing yellow eyes underneath.
But Lucca tended to think of her inventions as her children. She was almost obsessive in taking care of them. Why would she abandon Gato?
Marle was so concerned about her friend, she almost missed the high pitched bell that signaled Gato had entered “Battle Mode”.
The circle hatch on Gato’s stomach opened, and an extendable arm with a boxing glove on the end shot out. Marle threw herself to the side, feeling the breeze as the glove passed inches over her head.
Damn! Now Gato was malfunctioning! She’d have to disable it before it hurt somebody. That would be difficult without one of her bows, but Marle wasn’t really worried. She had defeated enemies hundreds of times more powerful than this during the quest using nothing but her magic. She just hoped she could do it without destroying the metal man.
It had been months, however, since Marle had done so much as make an ice cube, so it took her a minute to get “in touch” with her abilities. That was enough time for Gato to make another attack. It moved its microphone up to its mouth.
Marle knew that Gato was about to unleash its sonic attack. She had felt it several times before, and grit her teeth. It wouldn’t really hurt her, but it could sting like nails on a chalkboard.
When the sound came, however, it was louder and more powerful than anything Marle had experienced before. A high pitched wall of cacophony slammed into her, making her cry out in pain and cover her ears. Any thought of magic slipped way.
The princess could only lie there, bright lights exploding in front of her eyes and her muscles refusing to obey her brain. Marle could barely see Gato’s hatch open again and that third arm strike out. She steeled herself for the blow.
But this time, instead of a boxing glove on the end of the arm, there was a hook. It caught Marle’s shoulder, and pulled her inside. Before she knew what it her, the Princess was swallowed by metal and darkness.
Soon, a dim red light flickered on. Marle could see she was inside of a steel sphere. It was too small a space to stand, sitting cross legged, Marle’s head was only inches from the ceiling. She shouted for help, but knew there was no one close enough to hear anything even if sound could escape her iron prison.
Then Marle heard a buzzing sound, and the sphere she was in started shrinking. The sides, ceiling and floor were all closing in. She’d be crushed! Out of desperation, Marle reached out her arms, fingertips touching the curved walls to her left and right, and began to push with all her might.
Marle knew it was futile. She could feel the slow pressure, pushing back against her arms. There was no way she was strong enough. Why, oh why, couldn’t she be Ayla or Robo! Soon the walls were close enough that she could put her palms flat against the metal surfaces. Marle straightened her arms and locked her elbows. Sonn her muscles grew tired of pushing.
Suddenly, without warning, the buzzing stopped, and so did the walls. The princess had somehow been saved from being crushed. So relieved was Marle, that she didn’t notice the steel grow warm under her touch.
Marle was still trying to calm herself and think of a way out of her cage when a couple of small holes opened up in front of her. Two metal arms,about as thick as a broom handle, came out. Each one had a circular brush, about two inches wide, on their end. The brushes looked like the one her father used to shave with.
She screamed again and tried to bring her arms into some kind of defensive position. It was then that Marle realized her hands were stuck to the sides of the sphere. Pull as hard as she could, nothing could free them. It was as if her skin had bonded to the metal.
As the armss grew closer, Marle again forced herself to calm down. She focused on her simplest ice magic. That would stop them.
The brushes struck first
King Guardia had always hated the white top Marle was wearing, which was probably the reason she wore it.. It barely covered her chest, leaving both her arms and shoulders bare. Robo had stated once that it defied the laws of gravity, leaving Lucca to joke that it must have been held up by sheer willpower.
The brushes nestled in Marle’s exposed underarms. The bristles were firmer than Marle had expected and felt prickly on her delicate skin. When they started to caress her armpits, the princess’s reaction was immediate.
“Hehe ehe eheheheheh ehWHATTA hehe ehehehe ehe nawoooooheheh eheheh!!!!! Stawwwpp heh heheh eheheheh!!!!” the blond princess giggled, “Can’t he eheh eheheh dodooohohohoo heh ehheh thissssssesesheee eehe tohohohoho mehehehhe hhehehhehe….”
Despite having a musical, almost lilting laugh, Marle hated being tickled. She had been incredibly ticklish as long as she could remember. One of the best parts of being princess was that it shielded her from such attentions. That wasn’t always the case, however. A governess had found put about Marle’s weakness during the princess’s even more rebellious teen-age years. She had decided that, since nothing else was working to control the hellcat, maybe tickling would.
For a while, every time Marle broke a rule, she had been tormented by the governess’s talented fingers. It was five minutes of belly tickling for a messy bedroom. 5 minutes of tickling on her ribs for breaking curfew. Her feet had been the worst. Once she had even gotten half an hour of toe tickles for kissing a commoner boy. Eventually, she had managed to get the governess fired for some made up offense, but the woman had made Marle’s life a living hell until them.
Now it was happening again, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. The brushes covered both her underarms, swishing back and forth from underneath her bicep, across the curved hollow and down to the side of her breast. Marle could feel each bristle, hundreds of them, gliding over her soft skin, scraping ever so gently.
For Marle, it was like her armpits were on fire. Countless tickles, exploding on her skin. The electric sensation quickly overwhelmed her and Marle’s laughter grew and grew.
“HE EHEH E eheh EHE e ehHEHEHEHEH NAAWWOOOO HEHE Ee ehe EHE WHHHYYHEH EHEHHE EHEHEHEHEH EHEH WHHHHYYYYYY EHEHEH EHEHEHEHE EEH eeheHEHEH etickkkllehehehheh TICCKKLLEHEHE EHEHEH MEHEHH EHEHEH EHEHEHE!!!!!!!!!!!!”
With Marle’s hands fused to the metal sides of her prison, she had virtually no wiggle room at all. Rope or even chain would have had some slack to it, but as she was bound, the princess could barely lean her body an inch forward or backward and nothing to the side. There was nothing she could do even to lessen the tickling even for a second.
To make things even worse, the brushes started moving faster, forcing Marle to laugh harder and harder. Now it was as if the bristles were skating over an icy pond at great speed. She could feel the lines they were leaving on her flesh, long, red marks.
Without even being aware she doing it, Marle began to beg in the midst of her hysterical cries, the same pleas she had made that cruel governess long ago.
“HA HAHAHAHHAH PLEEAASSEEAAH!!! AHAHAHHAHH MEERCYYY MAAAHAHAH MAAAAAMMMMMM HA AHAHAHAHHAH!!!! I’LLL BEH HAHA AHH AHA I HAHAHAH BEEEHAHAHAHAHH BEEEHEHE EHEH A GOOODD HAHAHHHAH GIRRLLLL!!! HAHAHAHH GOOOODDDD HAHAHAH GIRLLL HAHAH!!!!!!!!”
Eventually, the tickling ended. When it did, Marle could only hunch over, gasping for air. Every muscle in her stomach and chest hurt. Sweat was rolling off her cheeks and shoulders. Never in her life had she been so exhausted.
When Marle started to become aware of her surroundings, two things became apparent. One was that the brushes hadn’t gone away. They were still nestled in the exact center of the deep hollows under her arms, as if just waiting to begin torturing her again.
The second was that there was a face staring at her. The concave wall facing Marle had revealed itself as a monitor, and on it was the face of her best friend Lucca.
It couldn’t be anyone else. The thick glasses and nerdy helmet she wore could belong to none other. Marle was shocked beyond words. The two of them had the kind of bond only soldiers in war could understand. Closer than sisters, they had saved each others lives countless times, and with their four friends, had stood between the world and oblivion. Betrayal was not a strong enough word for what Marle felt.
“What are you talking about?!” Marle snapped, “This isn’t funny! Let me out Lucca! Let me out!!” It seemed like a bad joke, but Marle knew that Lucca didn’t have that kind of sense of humor. Sometimes she was a lot like the machines she studied.
Then Marle noticed that there was a strange look in Lucca’s eyes. It was the same look somebody got when they were under a chaos spell. Marle remembered being under that spell’s effects. It was like your brain just shut down. You didn’t recognize anybody or anything. You shot your friends in the back just because they were closest too you, and you found it hilarious. You’d kill them if somebody didn’t bring you back to your senses first.
Marle knew she was in trouble.
“Are you ready to do what Madam Lucca asks?” Lucca simply repeated again, not even acknowledging that her friend had talked. Even through Lucca’s thick glasses, Marle could see her friends eyes were practically spinning.
“Lucca,” Marle tried to reason with her, “Lucca, you’re my friend. Let me out. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I can help you. I’ll help you with AHH EHEHEH EHEHHHEHEHEH!!!”
The brushes started tickling Marle’s armpits again. This time, instead of stroking across her skin, each bristle started wiggling independent of the others. It was like having a hundred worms squirming over her body.
Marle again descended into hysteria. It was even worse then before. Soon she was cackling madly. It was as if the bristles knew the exact spots on her underarms which were most ticklish and zeroed in on them, prodding and twisting to draw out every possible screech from their victim.
“Are you ready to do what Madam Lucca asks?” the words seem to form directly in Marle’s brain. She definitely couldn’t have heard them over the cacophony that was her own laughter.
Marle resisted giving an answer for a few minutes as the words repeated again and again. Oh Gawd!!! It tickled so much!!! Surely Lucca wouldn’t want her to do anything too bad? Maybe it would be alright…maybe…maybe…
Soon her strength wore out. She just couldn’t take it anymore!
“YEYEYYYESSSS HEHE EHEHEH YEESSESSS HE EHEHEHHEH LUCCAAHAH AHAHHHAHAHHAH DOOO WHAHAHAHHATTT AHHAHHHH LUCCA AHAHAHHAHAHAH WAAHAHNNTTTSS!!!!!!!!!”
The tickling stopped. This time the brushes did pull away from Marle’s skin. Again the blond had to catch her breath with aching lungs.
“Break off your engagement with Crono.”
The words took Marle by surprise. She didn’t know what she expected from Lucca in her current condition, but it definitely hadn’t been that.
And part of Marle wanted to say yes. She thought she loved Crono, but they had grown apart lately. And it would get her out of having to be Queen. And it would end the horrible, horrible tickling. She was desperately afraid of what Lucca would do in her confused condition if she said ‘No’.
But…but…there was her father. For as long as Marle could remember, her father’s greatest fear was that the Guardia royal line would end with him. With no son, there was no guarantee the next King would share his genes. He had appointed Crono as heir not only as a reward for saving the world, but as a way of making sure his daughter was Queen. Should she denounce the betrothal, Crono would be free to make any other woman Queen. That would break her dad’s heart.
“I can’t…I can’t Lucca. Anything else. But please, no more…no more tickles. I can’t stand anymore.”
Lucca just shook her head. Sounding a lot like Marle’s old governess, she said “But bad girls need to be punished.”
Marle closed her eyes, prepared for the brushes to go back to work. Instead a green gas started flooding the chamber. The princess held her breath for a few seconds, but eventually had to breath it in. It had a faint, peppery smell to it, but seemed to have no effect.
Not on her anyway. Marle noticed smoke starting to pour from her clothes. Soon her blouse and pants were falling off of Marle in pieces. Then her bra and panties followed. Before she new it, the princess was completely naked, not a stitch covering her body anywhere. Even her hairband had disintegrated, allowing her long, blond hair to fall across her shoulders.
Before Marle could wonder what was going to happen next, she was hit from almost every angle by a jet of warm, soapy water. In seconds, her body was dripping wet and covered in white, foamy bubbles.
“Last chance, princess,” Lucca said smugly, “Break it off.”
This wasn’t the Lucca Marle knew. Whatever had come over her had completely taken over her normal, good-natured personality. She might easily order this machine to rip out Marle’s internal organs and leave her for dead. Still, Marle knew she couldn’t give in.
Slowly, the princess shook her head ‘No.’
Marle again heard the grinding of gears. This time, it wasn’t two metal arms coming at her, but six. Each one had brushes at their end. She closed her eyes, knowing what was coming.
The bristles that hit Marle’s skin this time were firmer than the last two, more like the scrub brushes the maids used on the floor. Two brushes found her underarms again, two her belly and two her ribcage, one on each side. Then they began scouring.
Had Marle’s body been dry, these bristles would have hurt, taking off layers of skin and rubbing raw spots on her flesh. Instead, her body was wet and slippery. The soap acted as a lubricant, allowing the bristles to dig in without so much as leaving a mark. The result was inevitable.
“HE EHEHE EHEHEHEHEHE NAWWWOOO AH HEHE EHEHEHHH MERRCCCYY HEH EMERRCYYY HEH HEHEH LUCCAAHAHAHAH HEH EHEH MERCCYYYEHEHE PLEEAASSEHEHEHEH EHEHEH!!!!!!! FRIENEHEHEHENNNDSS HEHEHEHEH WEHEHEHEH HEHEHERRREEEE HEHEHH EHEH WE’REEHEHEHEHH FRIENDSH EHEHEHEHEHE!!!!”
Now the tickling wasn’t just confined to one small area. Bristles poke between her ribs, danced over her flat belly and spiraled into her armpits. Only her legs, still crossed underneath her, were spared.
In her frenzied mind, Marle slipped back to the last time before this she’d really been tickled. She’d crept away to visit with the commoner boy she’d kissed earlier. This time, they met in a cave, planning to go farther than just touching lips. Still an innocent, Marle wasn’t sure how far that would have been. They never got a chance to find out. They governess had discovered she was gone and had sent troops to bring her back almost immediately.
Instead of punishing her immediately, the governess had simply instructed Marle to take a bath and ‘wipe off the filth’. While Marle was in the tub, taking her usual bubble bath, the governess had burst in on her. She had tickled practically every inch of Marle’s soapy body, her bony fingers slipping between clenched legs and arms.
The tickling had been endless. Marle grew so exhausted, the governess had had to hold her head above the water with one hand while tickling her soapy belly and sides with the other. Nails repeatedly gliding over slippery skin, pinching soft, wet flesh wherever they could find it. It had been hell.
“Got to get the dirty girl nice and clean,” the governess had said, over and over again.
Only when a maid had walked in and completely misconstrued what she saw did the governess stop. The next day, after a few teary half truths and one or two outright lies, to her father, Marle finally had the governess shipped out.
This tickling was worse. Instead of ten fingers, there were countless whiskers scouring her flesh. She couldn’t kick or splash like she‘d done in the tub, and there was no chance of a maid walking in.
“You’re a dirty, dirty princess, aren’t you?” Lucca taunted, “I’ll scrub you until you’re nice and clean.”
“O HE EHEHEH NAWWOOOO HO NAWOOOO HEH EHEHEHH PLE PLE HE HEH HEH PLEEAAHE HEHHEHEHEHEHSSSEEEEE LUCCCAHACCHA AHA AHAHAHAHAHAH AHAH NAWWOOOHOHOHO MORREEHE EHEHEHEH!!!!!”
The princess could feel each bristle skimming across her skin, waltzing in her underarms, shimmering up her ribs and poking into her sides. White bubbles were starting to form underneath the brushes, lathering Marle up more and more.
Marle’s laughter became wilder and wilder. Soon, she was bellowing with all her might. The tears dribbling down her cheeks started flowing like a river, blinding her. Her blonde hair, normally kept in a neat ponytail was either flying around her head as her head whipped madly from side to side, or was plastered against her sweaty face and shoulders.
“What do you say, dirty girl? Will you do what Mistress Lucca says? Will you break it off with Crono?”
Marle’s world became a series of sensations. The stiff bristles scouring her underarms and ribs were most dominant, tormenting her flesh. Marle could even feel every drop of warm water and every soapy bubble running down her bare skin. Nothing else existed, however. Her sight grew dim and her own hysterical laughter barely echoed in her ears.
Still, the spirit within her, the very fire that had allowed her to help save the world, burned bright. She mouthed the words “drop dead”, unsure if any sound other than laughter escaped her lips.
Unable to see, the princess had no warning. She suddenly started feeling something brush the undersides of her bare breasts. Far softer than the other tickles, the plumes sweeping Marle’s boobs had an itchy feel to them. The sensation shooting from them was electric.
Her eyes opened wide, and animal like sounds started coming from her mouth. The rest of Marle’s body faded a little into the background. It was like her breasts were covered with thousands of tickly ants! It was unbearable!
“Well, dirty girl? What is it? Do you want the tickles to stop?”
Now, even the tickles on the rest of her body faded, not vanishing, but becoming part of the background anguish that still swept her body. All Marle’s awareness was focused on her breasts. Good sized, but firm, she had always considered them one of her greatest assets. Now, they were her greatest weakness.
Their must have been more plumes, because now both the top and underside were covered with tickles. Sound itself stopped coming from Marle’s mouth. Her jaw just hung open, as if to let the agonies flow out of their own accord.
It would have been so, so , so easy to say ‘Yes.” It was impossible to refuse. It took all Marle’s strength to give not even the tiniest response to the question.
Marle was unable to pinpoint the exact moment that her suffering stopped. She must have passed out, descending into a dark world of feathers and phantom tickles. Then, slowly, the void overtook her. Black and cold, it was the sweetest thing she ever knew.
It took a long time for Marle’s brain to return to normal. When it did, Marle was truly sorry. During there fight against LAVOS, she had been stabbed, shot, electrocuted, set on fire, frozen, had huge rocks drop on her head, slimy creatures slide over her face, and a thousand other punishments he had forgotten, but her body was in more pain right now. Every muscle screamed in agony.
Eventually, Marle found the strength to lift her head and shake it a bit to get the hair out of her face. She looked at the screen to see Lucca’s face staring at her with that same crazy look in her eye. She was smiling.
“I’m sorry, princess, but it looks like you have decided to do things the hard way.”
Marle felt a shaking like an earthquake. Then there was a feeling of motion, combined with an up and down bobbing like being on a ship. It had been easy for Marle to forget that the metal sphere she was trapped inside was still on top of the legs of Gato the robot. And now, apparently, that robot was moving.
Marle exhausted from the tickling and trying to deal with the sudden seasickness, kept quiet for several minutes. She was more than a little scared that, after the nightmare Lucca had put her through, this was only the beginning of the ‘hard way’. Eventually, however, her patience wore thin.
“Lucca,” she snapped, “Wear are you taking me!”
“How inconsiderate of me, princess,” Lucca’s said, still smiling, “Here, let me show you.”
With that, the metal walls of the sphere started fading. Marle could still feel them beneath her fingertips, but soon she couldn’t see them. The sphere had grown completely transparent it could only be called invisible.
Marle hadn’t cared about losing her clothes earlier. Being tickled had driven out any thoughts of modesty from her mind. If there was a good part of being trapped inside a metal ball, it was that you were completely hidden. It was about as private as being locked inside your closet.
With the sphere now invisible, the reality of Marle’s nakedness washed over her, and she felt completely exposed. Anyone within half a mile could have seen the nude princess sitting on a pedestal three feet above the ground. She flushed bright red, and tried desperately to cover her bare body. Sitting crossed legged the way she was, they could even see her most private parts! She was able to close her legs by sliding them out in front of her. The space she was in was too small, however to stretch out her legs straight. Marle had to put her feet on the unseen metal wall in front of her and stick her knees up in the air.
But there was nothing she could do to cover her breasts. Marle tried again to rip her hands free, but, despite being invisible, the metal stuck to her palms as firmly as ever. She could twist her shoulders a bit from side to side, but couldn’t hide her boobs.
And, Gato was walking her towards the town!
It hadn’t mattered when Lucca could see her exposed body. During their great adventure, always on the road, it had been hard enough to get privacy from the boys. She had often bathed in a stream right next to Lucca and Ayla. The three girls had no secrets from each other. The thought of anyone else seeing her, however, made the princess go frantic. The thought of everyone she knew seeing her drove the princess into a frenzied panic!
“No! Lucca, stop! Gato, Stop! Cover me! Do Something! Help me!” She started kicking the metal wall in front of her, making a dull ringing sound echo through her chamber.
Marle couldn’t scream for long. Her mad laughter earlier had worn out her throat. And nothing she said or did made Gato slow down or change its course. One mechanical step after another was bringing her closer and closer to the town of Truce and total humiliation.
Unable to yell, Marle kept kicking the invisible sphere as hard as she could, kicking until her legs grew sore. Then, just when Gato of on the outskirts of the town, Marle felt both her legs break through the invisible metal wall in front of her. Yes! She could feel the cold night air on her soles. Marle had a sudden image of breaking out of Gato like a chick out of an egg.
Then, like water when pierced by a branch, the invisible metal seemed to mend itself. Marle couldn’t see it, but the shell that was Gato’s body somehow became whole again, reforming around her legs. All she knew was she could feel hard steel surrounding her ankles in a tight grip. She knew her feet were still outside because she could feel the wind blowing against her toes. Try as she might, the princess could not free them.
And it got worse. The metal plates that held Marle’s ankles slowly began to slide apart, one inch at a time. And the farther they moved, the more wider her legs opened. Muscles worn out from her ordeal, Marle didn’t have the strength to keep them closed. Soon, they were wide open, showing her femininity off to anyone who cared to look.
While Marle had been struggling to keep her legs closed, Gato had entered the small town of Truce. This would have been a nightmare anywhere, but it would be doubly so in Truce. She had grown up here, held up as an example of royalty to the common people. She knew them and they held both her and her father in the highest respect.
Marle could see the general store, the mayor’s residence and Crono’s old house. And their was the Truce Inn. This late at night, it was the only building to have a light on.
One small glimmer of hope flared up in Marle’s breast. It was so late, everyone except a couple of late night visitors would be fast asleep. And they usually got a room in the inn after their drinking was done. It would be hours until sunrise when the good people of Truce would wake up and start their day. Surely before then someone in the castle would notice she was missing. It would still be a little embarrassing, but they could save her before she became the laughing stock of the country.
All she needed to be was quiet and let the townspeople sleep.
Gato stopped, directly in front of the inn, not twenty feet from the front door. All sense of movement stopped. Then, she felt a strange vibration. The part of the sphere she was sitting on was sliding away. Her butt sank several inches, dangling in mid air, just like she was on the toilet. Only her hands and feet, still stuck to the sphere’s walls kept her from falling through.
“Tough break, Lucca,” the princess whispered, her voice raspy from her constant laughter, “nothing is going to make me make a sound!”
Marle’s eyes grew wide as soon as she felt it. It was hard, thin and rounded like a fingernail. And it was running up and down her butt cheek! Even her old governess had never dared touch her there. And god, did it TICKLE!!!!!
Marle gritted her teeth. She couldn’t make a sound! Her only hope was that no one would know she was here! Pulling on the walls with both her arms and legs, Marle was able to lift her bottom a few inches into the air, away from the tickling. But it tok all of her strength to do it!
Soon her limbs, already feeling like limp noodles gave out, and she sank back down. Immediately, the tickling began again. This time, it was two fingernail type instruments, one gliding over each cheek!
“Can…not…laugh….” the words echoes through Marle’s mind. She fought the tickling sensation, resisting until she felt enough strength in her arms and legs to pull herself up again. She gained a brief break, but one even shorter than the first. Even sooner, her muscles gave way, and her bottom sank back into the hole.
The two fingernails were still there, but they had moved closer to the center of her bottom, only an inch or so from the crack. The tickling was even more intense, forcing the corner of her lips to break into a grin.
“Must…not…laugh!” It was the only thought going through Marle’s head. Never in her life, when she had been this determined, had she ever failed. Her father, Magus even LAVOS itself had been defeated.
The fingernails were on the edge of her crack now. The tickling was as unbearable as any she had felt that night. Again, Marle tried to lift herself up, but only made it half way before collapsing. The fingernails left contact with her skin for only one brief instant before she fell back into them.
A snicker broke free from the princess’s lips. Then a giggle. Marle would have rather swallowed her own tongue than allow more noise to escape from her lips. But she had been tormented for so long, and her body was exhausted past all endurance. Marle had no chance.
“He …heheh heh ehehehe ……….HEH ehe ehEHEH…. HE eheh EHEH error….. He ehehehehHEHEHEH!!!!!!!!!”
Marle tried several times to clamp her mouth shut, but once her laughter bubbled forth, there was no stopping it.
Had the inn been rowdy and boisterous, the inhabitants still might have heard nothing. But it was late enough that the remaining guest had been quietly staring at their drinks, wondering whether to finish it and order another or nursing it until closing time. In the still night, even soft laughter seemed to echo throughout the old building.
Marle wasn’t sure who the first man to come out and look was. Probably a traveler. He was greeted by the strangest of his life, a nude, giggling woman, floating in mid-air. The man wasted no time calling for others to come out and have a look.
At first, the people didn’t recognize her. After all, a princess was a stylish, regal figure. A princess wore fancy dresses and looked like she belonged in a painting. The figure in front of them was red faced, naked and wet with hair matted against her head and neck by sweat. The wild, hysterical look in her eyes was anything but regal.
However, there were only so many statuesque blond women in the area, and she had been on display to many times in front of them to not figure it out.
The townspeople stood there, pointing and whispering. They clearly didn’t know how to react. Marle blushed furiously as she saw their eyes fixate to her breasts and femininity.
Marle opened her mouth wide now. She would beg them for help through her laughter, get them to understand that something bad was happening. They‘d help her! After all she‘d done for them, how could they not?
Just then, the two fingernails tickling her crack sped up, tickling her more. And they were joined by two more. These new fingernails tickled the undersides of her thighs, in the crease where her legs joined her body. The new tickles overwhelmed her.
“AH AHAH AHAH …. GGGGDDD NAWWOOO HA AHAHAH AHAHAHHHH ST ST AHA AHAHAHAHAHHAHHH N N NAOOOOO AHA AHAH AAHH!!!!!!! I I AH AHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!!!!”
She just couldn’t get out the words! Her cackling cut her off after just a syllable. She couldn’t even get anyone to understand she was in distress.
The crowd grew larger. Men and women who had long been asleep came out there doors to see what was going on. At first they were confused. Nobody could believe the princess they had known since she was a little girl would do such a thing. But they couldn’t see that her hands and feet were bound to invisible walls. And to their ears, her laughter sounded joyous, not forced, as if Marle was having the time of her life.
With her arms over her head, it appeared that Marle was posing for a naughty picture, showing off her breasts instead of hiding them. With her legs spread wide, she seemed to be begging someone to fill her void. And every move made in a futile effort to get free was interpreted as a wanton thrusting of her pelvis.
It didn’t take the crowd long to make up their mind.
“What a tramp!” a woman yelled.
“Bare assed as the day she was born, and laughing about it!”
“She thinks this is funny! The princess is mocking us!”
“Does she have no shame?”
“Why doesn’t she try and cover herself!”
“I never would have guessed she was such a degenerate!”
“NAAAWOOO HA AHAHAH AHAH AYUUUUU AHAHAHAH YOUUUU DOONNN’TTT SAH AHAHAH AHAH AHAH UNDER HAHHAHAH UNDERRRRRRRRRRR AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHH GAWWWDDDDDD!!”
Everyone in the town seemed to be yelling at Marle now, calling her names. Soon, half of them, led by the mayor himself, left in disgust. Truce was a conservative town, and what the princess was apparently doing did more than just break their mores. It shattered them. No one with even a pretense of respectability stayed.
That left the rest, the more common of the commoners, to stay and watch a show the likes of which had never been seen before.
“Watch her boobs bounce!” a teamster cried “Hey princess, you can bounce them on me!”
“Look at how perk her nipples are! I didn’t think it was that cold out here!”
“I guess she is a natural blond after all! Though the hair down there needs a good trim sweetheart!”
Humiliation was not nearly a strong enough word for what Marle was feeling. Most of the tears streaming down her cheeks now had nothing to do with her forced laughter. To be mocked and ridiculed by friends and neighbors, having her most private parts commented on and criticized, was absolutely unbearable.
And through it all, all Marle could do was laugh like some demented fool.
The tickling on her bottom started easing up now, just enough to keep Marle giggling. She was too out of breath and too hysterical to put together a comprehensible sentences, however, and the people left watching her weren’t in the mood to listen.
“no he eheh you don’t he eheh eh no I can’t he e eheh movvvheh heehawed he helllppp h eheh meeheheheheheh…”
“I’ll help you princess! Come down here, and I’ll help you ALL NIGHT LONG!!!” One man shouted, earning him round of laughter from the rest.
There weren’t many women left in the crowd. Most had been swept inside early by fathers, husbands or brothers so they wouldn’t be soiled by seeing such a disgusting sight. One of the few that was left was the barmaid, Elga. Elga had had a crush on Crono for years, though he had never been bright enough to figure it out. She had long held a grudge against the princess for stealing him away. Beautiful in her own right, Marle was one of the few women in town Elga couldn’t compete with. Now was her chance to get even.
The tickling on Marle’s bare bottom had stopped now, and she was back in that all too familiar position of trying to recover and catch her breath when she noticed the barmaid stepping forward.
“Please he eheh please Elga help me. He heh I’m trapped here… please go he hee get get help….”
“Oh, I’ll be helping you princess. You seem to be enjoying yourself so much, showing off all your goods and jubblies and what not to every man within listening distance. I’ll be helping you do just that….” Elga, by design or lucky accident, started reaching for the only part on Marle’s body not protected by Gato’s invisible body, her feet.
“No…no Elga noo you need to help me. Pleasehe EHE EHEHE EHE EHEHEHEH NAWWWT MH EHEHEHHH EHEH MEEHEHEH MEHEHEH MEEYYYYY MYYYY HEHEHEH FEEHEHEHEHEEEEEEEETTTT HEHEHEHHHE PLEEEAHEHEHEHEHESSSSEEEE HEHEH NAWWWTT HEEHH MYYY FEEHEHEEHEHEHEEETTTTTT!!!!!”
Elga was dancing her long nails down the sole of Marle’s right sole. Being the oldest of four sisters, it was something the barmaid had a lot of experience doing. She expected Marle to pull her feet away at the first touch. To Elga’s surprise, the princess didn‘t move her legs at all. She started wiggling her toes wildly and twisting her foot from side to side, but otherwise seemed to be letting the barmaid tickle her.
“Boy, you must really like this,” Elga remarked, “Let’s see if you can keep your feet still if I tickle you here!” She started digging her nails into the balls of Marle’s feet, using the same touch that drove her younger sisters wild.
“HEH EHEHE NAAWWWOOO HEH EHEHEH EHE EHE NOAWWWTTTT HEHEH LIKKEEHEHEHEHHEHE NAWWTTT LIKKKEEEEEE HEHEHEHEH!!!!!! CANNNNN’TTTT MOVVVVVVVEEH HEHHHEHEHEEEE!!!!!!!”
Elga, of course, couldn’t understand any of Marle’s hysterical cackles. She thought she caught the word ‘like’ in there somewhere. She kept tickling, amazed at Marle’s ability to keep her legs perfectly still. She was actually starting to feel a little annoyed. How could Marle stand this? No way was she going to let a spoiled princess show her up!
“You royals do have iron will power,” Elga admitted grudgingly, “Nobody I’ve ever tickled could keep there legs from moving unless I sat on them. But I’ll bet you hold out if I tickle your toes!”
“NAWWWOOO TOOOEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!” Marle cried before she descending into madness. She started bellowing, screaming with every inch of air in her lungs as she could feel long nails glide down the underside of her toes. She tried to scrunch them up, but Elga easily used her free hand to pull Marle’s toes back.
The crowd was really getting into the foot tickling. Some were cheering on Elga, encouraging her to break the princess. Others cried out for Marle to resist. Someone even started taking bets. This was getting good!
No one noticed what was happening between Marle’s legs. From inside the hole that Marle’s bottom was still dangling in rose a shaft about the width of a pinkie. Unlike the arms that had held the tickling brushes, it wasn’t made from metal, but from that new material they’d found in the future, the stuff Robo called plastic. And it was making straight for the space between Marle’s legs!
As Marle was screaming hysterically from Elga tickling her toes, she could only watch as the plastic rod penetrated her womanhood. She thought it would hurt, but as the shaft entered her, Marle realized she was as wet down there as she was after those naughty dreams she had sometimes about Cyrus and his froglike tongue.
The shaft started to expand until it filled her snugly, though not uncomfortably. Even as Marle’s dread at what was about to happen rose to new levels, it started to vibrate.
Elga had slowed her tickling. Nothing she had gone had forced the princess’s legs to pull away so much as an inch! Now Marle’s laughter and screams had grown so wild, Elga was afraid tickling her further might actually injure the princess. As stubborn as the barmaid was, she knew what the penalty was for harming a member of the royal house, and would rather admit failure than face it.
“He ehehe oooohhhhh heheheh El….elllggaaaa ooooOh I I I…” Marle gasped. The shaft was right on her nubbin, and a wave of pleasure swept over her. She could only hope the giggles from the foot tickling had covered it.
It hadn’t. Elga might not have known how to be a princess or use magic, but she was an expert on sexual response. She heard the soft moan and saw the look in Marle’s eyes. The barmaid immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion. The reason the princess had not pulled away from the tickling, Elga surmised, was that she had been enjoying it.
Well, there was more than one way to win a battle of wills.
“I always heard you royals were into some kinky stuff,” Elga said, “If you get off on having your feet touched, maybe I can…help.” She lowered her dainty mouth and started sucking one of Marle’s toes.
Marle had almost forgotten about the barmaid. The shaft inside her was starting to move back and forth as well as pulsate. New, strange sensations started building inside her. Marle may not have had a lot of personal experience with sex but she knew what was happening to her. She was being deflowered!
There was no way she would let the perverts and degenerates watching her know what was happening. Marle was completely focused on not letting any sign of her ecstasy show on her face.
It had been hard enough with that…that thing inside her, practically caressing her most personal of parts. Then Marle felt something hot and wet clamp down on her toes.
The jolt of delight coming from that unexpected location broke Marle’s concentration and her eyes flew wide open. A soft moan escaped her lips.
“OOOHHHH Elga ELLLGGA OOOOHHH NOOOO ITTSS NOOT Ooohh OOHHH don’t don’t don’t dooo OOOoohooohhhhh that!” She cried out.
“Look at the princess!” someone from the crowd cried out, “She’s really getting off on that!”
“Give it to her Elga!”
Marle fought desperately, but the feelings from both places just grew more and more intense. The shaft inside her seemed to be stroking her privates more than just vibrating them. And Elga had much practice at oral stimulation.
Marle’s entire body seemed to be quivering. Her face was broadcasting every wave of bliss she was feeling, and throaty moans, groans, cries, whimpers and whistles of every pitch were escaping her lips.
Elga switched toes every other minute, using her talents on fresh nerves to assault her victim. She couldn’t believe such a small kiss was having such a great effect on the princess. But it gave Elga a feeling of power over Marle, more than even the tickling had.
Then it happened. Despite trying to resist the feelings growing inside her, lights started exploding in the back of Marle’s brain. She started screaming, high pitched squeals that would have woken everyone in the village if they hadn’t all been either in the crowd or watching from inside their house pretending that they were asleep.
Marle couldn’t fight it anymore. She had never felt the beginnings of a climax before. All she knew was that her body needed it more that anything ever in her life.
“OHO OHOHO OHOH YESSS!!!! YESSS!!!! MORREEEE, OH GAWD MOREEE!!!! I NEEEEED IT PLEASSEEE!!!!” Then she screamed a note that usually didn’t exist in nature. And the world seemed to stop.
When the world returned into focus, Marle could hear the crowd giving loud, sarcastic cheers, and Elga was bowing like a diva after a particular masterful performance. The princess literally blushed from toes to eyebrows, and had it been possible to die of shame, her heart would have exploded on the spot.
Then, there was a rumbling. With no warning, her hands and feet freed themselves from the metal walls that had held them for so long. Before she could even think about crumbling, Gato’s invisible body fell apart, dropping naked Marle onto the dirt road with a thump.
“Well, princess,” Elga said with mock politeness, “Shall we try the other foot?”
Marle saw the look of a lioness on the hunt in the barmaid’s eyes, and the look of a vulture finding an unexpected fresh kill in those in the crowd, and her heart froze with fear. Giving no thought to her exhausted limbs or the cold night air, the princess got up and ran all the way back to the castle like a frightened jackrabbit.
She didn’t stop until she was face to face with two very puzzled guards at the castle gate.
*********************
Marle’s trial took place a week later. More than a dozen people, including the mayor of Truce, testified as to her degrading actions that night. Not one person came to her defense.
Crono had been sent out of town help negotiate that new transit route with the city of Medina, the one populated with the descendants of Magus’s army. Marle wanted to believe it was to stop him from speaking in her behalf. It was probably just to distance the heir to the throne from such a scandal. Anyway you looked at it, she had to sit there alone, while the chancellor read the verdict.
His chubby face seemed to be gloating when he pronounced her guilty of moral indecency. All she could do was wish he would somehow turn back in to Yakra again so she could kick his ass one more time.
It was announced that, as she was no longer a proper example for the people or a image that the country wanted to share with the world, Marle’s title of princess would be stripped from her. As daughter of the current king, she would be allowed to live in the castle, but she would no longer have any authority or role in governing, no matter how ceremonial.
And her betrothal to Crono, future king of Guardia, was annulled. A new bride would be chosen, the chancellor said, when protocol deemed it appropriate.
Lucca, who had sat through the entire proceedings never uttering a word, turned to face her and pointed to herself. Then she smiled an evil grin Marle had never thought would appear on her innocent face.
And Marle knew that the kingdom had a more serious problem than just the disgrace of one princess.
