critterlord
TMF Master
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- Dec 30, 2002
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The Furry Friend
Silvia looked upward in disgust. It was starting to rain. Silvia hated rain. I was one of the few things in her life she couldn’t control. Another one of those things started to moan behind her. It was her partner, Peek. Peek was half kitten, half girl. The part that was kitten gave Peek soft redish fur all over her body, two cute little pointed ears, a long tail, tiny barely-pointed claws, and miniature fangs. The petiteness of her natural weapons was caused by the fact that she was barely old enough to be allowed to travel. She had only been alive 26 years, barely a teenager in Cat-Human terms. If Peek lived long enough, her fangs and claws would grow long and sharp, making her a deadly foe. However, right now she was a easily terrified little girl with almost no combat capabilities. So why did Silvia let her come on the trips? Silvia herself asked this question at least three times per hour. The answer would always come back in an exasperated tone. Peek could smell magic and Silvia couldn’t. This was very important for Itemhunters such as Silvia.
Thousands of years ago, the land was covered with sorcerers casting all sorts of spells, enchanting artifacts, and generally causing havoc. But, the sorcerers engaged in a bloody war and nearly killed themselves off. The few that remained used their powers to amass huge fortunes and wouldn’t dream of starting another war. Yet, sorcerers were always on the lookout for magical artifacts. The poorer sorcerer would have to go out and find these artifacts for themselves. The richer ones would hire certain adventures to “procure the items”, and thus these adventures were dubbed Itemhunters.
Silvia herself had become an Itemhunter when the orphanage burned down and she had to find work. She was only six when she started crawling around in tombs while the other Itemhunters, to muscular to fit, drank and laughed outside. This caused Silvia to become rather hardened towards life. And she absolutely hated men in all shaped and sizes. At the age of 17 she was stunningly beautiful and was forced to hand out death threats to any man who saw her. Unfortunately her aversion to men gave Silvia quite a few problems. To find magical items, one had to be able to sense magic. Only magic-users and certain magic hybrids could sense magic. Since Silvia would die before asking the help of a male mage, and all the female mages preferred to sit in libraries and design new spells, Silvia was forced to find a willing hybrid. She had been lucky in finding the Catpeople village. The chief’s youngest daughter had been entranced by Silvia’s tales of adventure and fortune (which is why she degraded herself to telling the whole village an imaginative pack of lies.) Peek herself begged and pleaded with her father to let her travel with Silvia. Finally, the chief relented, but not before promising to personally hunt down and scalp Silvia if anything happened to his darling little Peek. That was all that kept Silvia from strangling Peek when she was especially annoying. Like now. Peek’s cat side hated rain more than Silvia did.
Peek moaned, “Silvy, I’m wet and cold and tired and I hate rain and it’s getting dark and my feet are tired and I want to sleep.
“Quiet,” snapped Silvia. “ I’m wet too. And don’t call me Silvy.”
“Why are you so mad Silvy. Is it my fault? I’m sorry. But didn’t I find you that shiny magic-feeling thing? Doesn’t that make you happy.”
Silvia couldn’t argue with that. Peek had really outdone herself. She had found the shiny magic-feeling thing, or as anyone else would have called it, a magic bracelet, inside a castle underground. Silvia had wondered how Peek ever could have found it. She had gotten her answer as soon as she had opened the chest. The bracelet practically oozed energy. It was so blatant that even Silvia, with no magical talent, could definitely tell it was magic. Such an item would fetch a huge price at the Item Market, which was located at the mage capital in Ixendor.
Silvia took out the bracelet just to look at it. The gold seemed to glow with a soft light. It was a simple band large enough to find around Silvia’s wrist, but not around the wrist of someone who was bigger-boned, like a man. That meant that the bracelet was designed for a woman mage alone. That made it especially popular in Silvia’s view. The band was interlapped with runes that repeated every so often, with engravings of feathers filling the gaps between the runes. The runes looked like this.
BY THE POWER OF THIS BAND, THOU SHALL BE VASTLY MORE TICKLISH AND SHALL FEEL THE JOY OF THE FEATHERS
Just looking at the beautiful, expensive bracelet and imagining how much money it would bring made Silvia much happier. Happy enough to be a little nice to Peek.
“I’m sorry, Peek. You did do a great job at finding the bracelet. I’m just angry at the peasant girl who sent us on this trail through the mountains.”
Actually the peasant girl had told her not to go into the mountains because of a monster that would stop her from passing. She had told here to us the lower paths through the plains, even though it would take 15 more days. Silvia hadn’t wanted to waste that much time over a monster that could easily be defeated by her sword, and so had left that instant. She really didn’t like the peasant girl that much anyway. She had giggled when she talked about the monster. Silvia hated giggling girls. There really was no reason for Peek to think Silvia had made the wrong decision. Peek might just lose faith in Silvia.
Silvia looked out into the pouring rain. What had started out a sprinkle had escalated into a torrent. Silvia wished the giggling girl had told her that it rained a lot in the mountains and that it was easy to get lost in the mountains instead of going on about a silly monster that was so not-terrifying as to giggle about it. Silvia was indeed lost. She had walked away from the giggling girl so fast that she forgot to ask for a map of the mountains. Once again, Peek didn’t need to be panicking about being lost. That was exactly the kind of thing that would send Peek into terrified hysterics.
Silvia stopped to look at herself and Peek. Well, at Peek anyhow. She already knew what she must look like. All her armor would be wet and her long blue hair matted down (she refused to where a helm, claiming that they made her head to slow a target.) Her armored boots and leg guards would be starting to rust. Silveriron armor could stop a direct blow from a trolls club without so much as chipping the paint, but it rusted over incredible fast. That was one reason Silvia hated rain. She knew she must look a sight.
Peek, if possible looked even more pitiful and wet. Part of this was because of her fur. It absorbed water, making Peek look like a fluffed up chick. Her blond shoulder-length head hair was doing the exact opposite, falling down and covering her eyes, so she had to brush it back every time she took a step. All she wore, besides her undergarments, which she blushed about whenever they were mentioned, was a long tunic with a small buckle belt holding it place. A pair of oversized floppy boots covered her petite feet. The tunic was mud-splattered and the boots were flopping down to her ankles.
Inspite of herself, Silvia grinned. “Lets find someplace to get out of the rain.”
Peek looked about and pointed. “How about that cave over there. It looks warm and dry. Maybe it has some food in it. Can we go to the cave.”
Silvia stared at the cave. She was surprised she hadn’t seen it earlier. The entrance was glowing slightly green. Not so much as to be a magical fire, but just enough to be visible. Above the cave entrance rested a huge boulder. Despite this, the interior of the cave was the only place around that looked remotely dry.
“Any port in a storm,” muttered Silvia. “But first I’m going to check that boulder.”
And she did. It was very heavy and totally rooted into the ledge. Nothing short of an earthquake could dislodge it. Silvia gave Peek the safe sign and the two entered the warmth of the cave.
The source of the strange light was immediately evident. All over the cave grew a sort of moss. The moss not only gave off a light strong enough to read by, it gave off a comforting warmth. Nearby, there was a small pool with clear water in it, but both Peek and Silvia had had enough water to last the rest of the night. They were both extremely exhausted. They laid down on the soft moss and slept for a short period of time. When they awoke, they were surprised to find all their cloths perfectly dry and Silvia’s armor was rust free.
“Wow! That was amazing Silvy! The moss dried out my boots and my hair and my fur and my pack and my tunic and look your armor didn’t even rust! Did you ever see moss that does this.”
A soft low voice answered her from the back of the cave, which neither girl had noticed.
“The moss has many abilities. It only grows in this cave, but it grows very thick.”
Both girls swirled around to stare at the speaker. A huge perfect ball of pink fur about as tall as a man rested behind them. In it’s center was a cute little face. It had a cute little cat-like nose, two great big warm brown eyes, and a wide mouth spread in a disarming grin. Despite how cute it was, Peek was still petrified.
“Ahhhhh! A monster,” she cried as she promptly tripped over her own tail and landed on the moss with a soft bump.
“A monster!” cried the ball of pink fur. “Where?”
It looked all around the cave. This was quite amusing to watch as the creature did not have any arms or legs and so looked around by rotating the part with the face around the cave. It turned back towards the girls. It’s genuinely alarmed expression slowly morphed into an even large grin than before.
“Oh, you mean me.” It laughed. “I guess I am a monster of sorts.”
Silvia stared at it with an amused and confused look on her face. This was the terrible monster. A cute pink round ball of fur. No wonder the peasant girl had giggled about it. The only question remaining was why was she warned about it. She knew from experience that some things in the world were what they seemed. She decided to cowl the beast with fierce talk and then leave. Their cloths were perfectly dry and from the look of it, the rain had stopped and opened into a starry sky. It was time to continue the journey.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” she demanded, in her best tough girl voice.
The ball of fur thought about this for a moment. Silvia figured it wasn’t very bright to take this long to answer a simple question. Just one more thing going for her if it came to a fight.
The ball finally seemed to remember something and said “I am the Furry Friend, FF for short. This is my cave. I’m supposed to be here, waiting for my friends.”
“Friends?” Silvia asked. If there were more of these things, there might be trouble.
“The local peasant girls. They often come up here to play with me. Do you want to play with me?” FF asked in a friendly hopeful voice.
Silvia decided it was time to show this furball ( literally ) who was boss. She drew her sword and said, “Sure, I’ll “play”with you. Come closer and I will definitely “play” with you with my sword.”
FF recoiled and yelled, “NO! No pointy things! You bad to bring pointy things in my cave.”
Suddenly something amazing happened. From out of FF’s round body came two huge hands. Each hand had three fingers and one thumb. Both hands were covered with a light almost velvety fur. The hands grabbed Silvia by her arms and shook her up and down until she though that her teeth would rattle out and her sword fell from her hand. One of the huge hands grabbed it and flung it far outside the cave. The hands then retreated back into FF’s body.
Silvia looked at Peek. Peek’s teeth were chattering almost as hard as Silvia’s had and she looked like she would scream at any moment. Silvia started backing away towards the exit.
“Ah, Peek, I think it’s time to go.” Silvia said, desperately trying to keep a quiver out of her voice. She had never been disarmed, not since her teacher had declared that Silvia was a master swordsman. Also, she had never seen anything move that fast. She had to be frank with herself. She was terrified and wanted to leave. But FF had other plans.
FF seemed to grow larger. As it did the moss began to glow more and more brightly. Suddenly, FF let out a bellow.
“How dare you bring pointy things into my cave and then threaten me with them. You bad. Both of you bad. I let you sleep in my cave and this is the thanks I get. Shame on both of you. I not think you leave now. I think you stay.”
With that said, ten more hands shot out at different angles from FF’s body and struck the sides of the cave with a huge amount of force. The whole cave shook. A rumbling sound came from outside. Silvia turned around just in time to see the huge boulder come crashing down outside the cave. It rolled slightly and then settled. Silvia didn’t have to push against it to know that even if there were twenty Silvia’s and twenty Peeks they still couldn’t move the boulder.
As FF’s hands retreated back into it’s body, Peek turned to Silvia with a sheet white face.
She asked in a very small voice, “What do we do now?”
Before Silvia could respond FF’s voice drifted from the back of the cave, this time with a mischievous edge to his voice.
“ We play.”
Peek was the first to recover. She liked to play games and this thing, even though it was creepy, just seem to want to play.
“You don’t want to k-k-k-kill us?” she asked hopefully.
“No. I never would think of killing or hurting. I just want to play.”
Peek visibly relaxed. She had a tendency to change moods very quickly. Even though the pink thing had just made the huge rock fall and trapped them, it seemed nice and generally friendly. It just didn’t like swords. That was okay. Peek didn’t like swords that much either. Now her natural curiosity (she was, after all, half-cat) got the best of her.
She asked, “What kind of game do you want to play.”
FF grinned again even wider. This furry one wasn’t so bad. So it answered her.
“It’s a good game. Girls like to play it. Here let me show you.”
Eight hands again appeared out of FF’s body and moved towards Peek and Silvia. Peek squeaked when she was grabbed and Silvia put up a fight, but finally both of them were caught. Each of their wrists and ankles were grabbed by a hand. The hands lifted them gently off the moss and into the air. Then the hands gently pulled their struggling bodies into spread eagle positions. After a moment, they both realized that the hands were too strong and they quite struggling. Suddenly Silvia remembered something the monster had said.
“What do you mean ‘Girls like to play it’”, she said, a little indignantly. She hated anyone, even a super-strong, super-fast pink monster, telling her what she was supposed to do or like.
FF’s grin definitely widened, which Peek would have thought impossible if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes.
“Because girls like to laugh”, it said.
Two more hands had appeared, moving closer towards Peek and Silvia.
Peek was now more confused that frightened and she had to ask, “Yeah, I like to laugh, but what does that have to do with games.”
FF’s grin widened until it seemed split it’s head in half.
“Are you ticklish?” It asked, in it’s mischievous voice.
Peek recoiled in terror.
“ No you can’t, you wouldn’t. Oh please no. Anything, but that.”
Silvia looked in surprise at Peek’s outburst. She didn’t understand what was going on. Just then the hand that had been inching towards lept up and tickled Peek’s tunic covered belly.
“HA HA HA HA S-t-t-top that that tick-k-k-k-les HEE HEE HEE HEE,” she giggled, writhing about.
Silvia realized what was going on. The creature liked to tickle. That was too bad for Peek, being so young, was extremely ticklish. Silvia herself wasn’t even close to ticklish. Her body was covered with calluses and scars from many fights. She smirked at FF.
“This silly game may scare my partner, but I am not ticklish at all.”
FF turned it’s attention towards Silvia.
“Oh, really. We’ll just have to see about that.”
The four hands holding Peek let go. FF had obviously forgotten about her. Peek was still giggling from the tummy assault and just lay on the ground giggling and gasping.
FF started to pull off Silvia’s armor. The hand’s seemed like experts at taking armor off. Silvia struggled and yelled, both of which did no good. Each time FF managed to extract a piece of armor, it through the armor unceremoniously towards the back of the cave, where it vanished from view. In no time at all, Silvia was stripped down to her stockings, her undershirt, and her underpants. Despite her now less defended position, she was still cocky, believing to have taken away the furball’s only weapon against her.
“So now what?” she asked smugly.
FF didn’t even pause. “ Now we test.”
The four hands that had been taking off the armor suddenly tickled her ribs and sides. The hands moved gently at first, then they really go going. Silvia just continued to smile. The hands kind of tickled, but her body was so scarred and callused that she barely felt a thing. She didn’t even notice when the tickling stopped.
“So now what?” she asked again, smugly.
FF’s grin didn’t even falter. Silvia’s smugness faded slightly.
“Ah,” Said FF. “A tough one. I know how to deal with that. This calls for a dunking.”
The four hands picked up Silvia and carried her over to the pool. They held her suspended for a moment, then they dunked her into the water. The water, to Silvia’s shock, was warm and was slightly pink. The hands held her but for a moment, then they raised her up and dropped her onto the moss beside Peek, who was watching the whole thing with wide eyes.
Silvia started to dry herself off, when she realized that she was already dry. Whether it was the pool’s own powers or the moss, she couldn’t say. She looked down at her dry skin and gasped. All her calluses, all her scars, all the rough spots on her body were suddenly gone. He skin was lightly pink, where it used to be a sort of tan. She reached with her hand to touch her arm and pulled her hand back. Just touching her skin had tickled. What did that water do to her?!
Now it was FF’s turn to be smug.
“Who’s worried now?” It grinned, as four hands appeared out of his fur and started racing towards Silvia.
Silvia was too stunned to move. The hands grabbed exactly as before. Only, this time she was worried about what the hands would feel like. Just the act of grabbing made her giggle as the velveteen fur caressed her wrists and ankles.
“Now,” said FF, bringing Silvia closer to it’s face. “Who is not ticklish?”
Whatever Silvia was about to answer, not even she knew, when suddenly a hand that had secretly appeared right beneath her belly slipped under her shirt and tickled her tummy.
“HA HAHAHA ST—T-TT-TOP IT. THAT TICKLES!!!!!! HEEHEHEHEH STOP,” she laughed as the soft furry fingers tickled her now super-ticklish tummy. It felt like she was being tickled for hours, but it was only a couple of seconds before it stopped.
‘Th-th-thanks,” she managed to gasp to FF, just before the look on the furry face caught her eye.
“You are fun to play with. Shall we see if your as much fun on your feet.”
“No, please! Anywhere but there! Oh no! NOOOO! HAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA HAHA STOP IT! HAHAHA I-HAHA-CAN’TSTAND IT AHAHAHAH,” She laughed and struggled as the pink-furred hands gently stroked her still stockinged feet. She couldn’t ever remember feeling like this ever. It was like her feet were going to explode. She was still giggling when the hands stopped. She had barely caught her breath when FF drew her right up next to her face.
The furball was definitely smirking now.
“Are you ready for this?” it whispered right in her ear.
“Ready for what?” was all Silvia could murmur.
“Ready for no stockings,” it whispered again.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!” she screamed as the furred hand began to remove her stockings very, very slowly. She struggled and pulled to no avail. The hands held her tight yet comfortable. She scrunched her face up against the inevitable, dearly wishing the Furry Friend was just another orc or troll. She would have preferred battling almost anthing but this.
The furry hands, for now there were two of them, one for each foot, slowly began poking and prodding her bare feet, trying to find the best spots. Apparently they were having plenty of luck.
Silvia’s screams quickly changed to bubbling laughter, punctuated by desperate gasps as the probing fingers found special places. The fingers quickly realized that her worst places were the dimples on her arches. Each time they reached their, she would laugh so hard it would turn silent. As the caressing fingers ran over her unbearably sensitive bare feet, she though she was going to pass out. But the Furry Friend was an old hand at this. It knew just how to keep ticklish girls on the edge without going over. It stopped for a couple of seconds to let her catch her breath. She gasped for air as she giggled as the residual feel of tickling lingered on her bare soles.
“Ple-ease. No-no more. I can’t take it. You win. Please, I’ll do anything. Just no more tickling.” Even as she said it, Silvia wondered if she actually meant it. Sure it was pure torture and she was terrified that it would happen again, but didn’t she thrive on terror. Why did she go after monsters and villains voluntarily? With her skills, she could be a teacher or a performer and get paid almost as well. Why did she suddenly feel like if the tickling didn’t return, she would be secretly disappointed?
As these puzzling questions flickered in her mind, FF was turning his attention towards her partner.
“You didn’t think I forgot about you now, did you?”
Actually, that was exactly what Peek had been hoping for. While FF had been occupied with her partner, Peek had been trying to scratch a way out. All she had received for her efforts was a bunch of sore nails. Now she felt the familiar panic well up in her.
“No please no. I can’t stand it. I’m too ticklish, especially on my feeeet,” she said as the hands appeared, grasped, and lifted her right next to Silvia.
“You shouldn’t have told me that,” teased FF. “Because guess where I’m going to start.” The extra two hand’s immediately tore off the floppy boots and rested right in front of Peek’s bare feet.”
“Welcome to the party,” Silvia managed to gasp before the both of them became tickled on the feet again.
“HEEHEEHEEHEE MEHEHEHEHEW MEHEHEHEHEHW,” giggled Peek, as the questing hands discovered that her worst part was her ticklish toes. FF was absolutely fascinated with Peek. It had never played with a hybrid. The fur acted as a perfect conductor, carrying the sensations of one section to all the other parts of her feet like a shockwave. Even more interesting was the way she sometime mewed and laughed at the same time. Two more hands appeared and gently pulled back Peek’s toes as the tickling hands started focusing their velveteen touch on the soft under part of each toe. Peek’s giggles rose two decibels and even more mew-laughs escaped her giggling mouth.
As the hands finally let up on her dimples and focused on her heels and sides, Silvia regained enough mind to try to think about the questions before. She hated being tickled, but she loved the terror caused by it. She wanted the sensations to let up, but when they did, she still wasn’t satisfied. What was it?
Peek, with her simpler and more childlike nature, realized it first.
“HEHEHEHE HEY THIS IS FUN! MEHEHEHEHEHW!” she gasped out. The realization struck Silvia like a thunderbolt.
Fun. Of course. She hadn’t had fun in so long, it took her awhile to recognize it. In her life, there wasn’t much time or chance for fun. Trying to earn money all the time was just a way to distract herself from the truth. Life wasn’t fun. But, this was. Ironically, the worst torture she ever had was the best thing for her. But, she was worried how FF was going to take this new twist.
She shouldn’t have worried.
“Finally, one of them realizes. That’s what I’ve been trying to convince you of all night. You think it was accident that lead you to my cave. My friends down in the village are supposed to warn female travelers away from the mountains. This makes them think they have to prove something. Well, I guess I just proved my point.”
He turned towards Silvia. “And what do you think?”
Silvia, caught off guard, said, “I don’t know oh no HAHAHAHAHA.”
She laughed as the hands once again wiggled the furry fingers on the tips of her toes.
“Hey, no fair. How come she gets to have all the fun,” whined Peek. “ Tickle my armpits.” Silvia, though still getting tickled, marveled at the assertiveness the normally shy girl was showing. She was even more surprised when FF complied, sending two hands, on for each armpit towards her.
“And my rips and belly,” gasped Peek, just before the hands arrived. More hands appeared to help.
“MEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEWWWW AN-AN-AN-D BEHINND MYYYY KNEEEES,” giggled Peek, barley able to talk.
Just as the next set of hands were preparing to strike, Peek gasped out one more request.
“HEHEHEHE MYYY FEEEEET MEHEHEHEHEWWWHEHEHEHE!” After that she was pretty incoherent as the hands performed the under-the-toes trick and tickled her arches. More that 20 hands in all were tickling Peek’s tiny frame. And it was easy to tell that all the smiles on her face weren’t just put their because she was laughing.
Once again, FF turned to Silvia, who in all the commotion had lost her tickling hands and wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that.
FF’s face turned serious, which was kinda funny with Peek in the background going absolutely nuts. Her laughter pierced through the entire room. One of the hands covered her mouth.
“Now listen, warrior girl. I don’t do this because I like to torture. I do this because I like to share fun. If you think this is fun, you can have what she is having right now. If not, I’ll let you go and you can sit in the corner until she is done. I wouldn’t even touch you. It’s now your choice.”
Silvia was stunned. All her life it had been do this or do that. Even now she was a slave to what her buyers wanted, not what she wanted. For the first time in her life, someone had given her a real choice. A different glow seemed to surround Silvia.
“Um, er, well, Oh to hell with it. Tickle me.” More than twenty hands surrounded her and began tickling in all her worst spots. For Silvia, it was the finest sensation in the world. She was in hysterics and she loved it.
As good a tickler as the Furry Friend and as good a ticklees as Peek and Silvia can keep up such tickling for a fairly long time, but there is a point when the tickling becomes too much that the ticklees pass out. FF knew exactly where this point was, and stopped just before then. He gently laid them on the moss and waited. It was a full three minutes before the girls could stop laughing and five more minutes to be ready to talk. Peek bounced up.
“Can we do that again?” she asked excitedly.
FF chuckled. “If I do, you’ll pass out and miss the rest of the fun.”
“I guess that’s true,” said Peek. “Can you tell us a story.”
It was FF’s turn to be caught off guard. “What kind of story?”
Silvia was still giddy from the tickling. Apparently hybrids recover faster than normal humans.
Silvia giggled. “ How about telling us what a nice furball like you is doing in a mountain range like this.”
FF though about this and grinned. “Okay, but it’s a long one so make yourselves comfortable. Along time ago, I was born from magic. The first thing I remember seeing was a beautiful woman with a veil over her face. She picked me up (I was only the size of a crystal ball back then) and carried me to a little bed. There she told me wonderful stories about Pink Dragons that tickle and Huge Hundred Armed sea monsters that tickled and Wild Worms that tickled. She also told me where it is best to tickle a girl. She said that one day I would grow up to be just as great a tickler as the creatures in her stories. And then she told me the biggest secret of all. No matter what, girls will always enjoy being tickled by me. After awhile, I did grow up. The Veiled Woman would give me scared servant girls and female apprentices and if I was really good, she would give me a princess. And no matter what them came in like, they always left happy. I was a great success. The Veiled Woman taught me to read and write and all about the many spells and curses that would be used against me. Of course, I was immune to magic, but it would be unnerving for me to tell girls not to do spells that they were planning on doing. She then gave me my assignment. I was to sit in this cave and wait for girls to come by and enter. She told me that some poor girls aren’t ticklish because their skin is too thick or rough. She made this pool to make their skin perfect. She also made the moss so I could see the girls I was to tickle. She also made a very complicated spell that keeps males away. I don’t like males. Too violent. And boy did the girls come. There were times when I had twenty to thirty in this cave. And every one of them left happy. I was having the most fun of my life. Then, they slowly stopped coming. One year all I had were twenty. Then ten. Then five. Then one. For more than 50 years, I didn’t have a single visitor. Mostly I just slept. Then one day, a cute little peasant girl came into my cave. I asked her why she had come. She screamed. I tickled it out of her that a lady with a veil over her face had told her and her friends that there was a terrible monster out here. Later she and her friends made a bet that she couldn’t come up her and get a piece of my fur. Well, I tickled her and she did have fun. I gave her a piece of my fur and told her to bring all her friends. I don’t know what she told them, but they all came to my cave the next day. I tickled all of them, found their worst spots and asked them to be my friends. They said yes. Now them come up here and I play with them and give them little gifts. And for special occasions, like birthdays, I make as many hands as I can and tickle the birthday girl will all of my hands.
Peek popped up. “How many hands can you make.”
FF grinned slyly. “I can’t count that high. Lets just say that no girl has lasted all of my hands for more than thirty seconds before passing out.”
Peek shivered and giggled.
FF continued. “After that, all the village girls named me the Furry Friend. They started sending would be heroines and sorceresses to me to play with. It’s fun. Though I must say that you two have been the best fun I’ve had in years.”
Silvia was, in spite of herself, quite flattered. So was Peek, apparently. She jumped up and hugged FF as hard as possible. FF looked first surprised, then pleased.
FF then yawned. It was very interesting to see a pink ball of fur yawn. It turned towards Silvia.
“Now tell me, why are you here at my cave.”
Silvia told him about the bracelet and the rain and the giggling girl.
FF smiled. “That would be Hanna. She loves to giggle. I should know. Now, there is something about this bracelet that I want to see. May I please see it.”
Silvia dug out the bracelet. She handed it to FF. FF took it and inspected it. “ Just as I thought. It’s one of her things.”
“Whose things?” asked both Silvia and Peek at the same time.
“The Veiled Woman. An I know what this inscription means. It means ‘BY THE POWER OF THIS BAND, THOU SHALL BE VASTLY MORE TICKLISH AND SHALL FEEL THE JOY OF THE FEATHERS.’ It is too powerful to be in your hands. I cannot tell you yet what it means. May I buy this from you.”
Silvia burst out. “Hey! That’s our treasure and we worked hard for that and… did you just say buy?”
“Why do you think all those female adventures sought me out. The Veiled Woman gave me one of her trinkets to lure in girls to play with. It is a cauldron filled with gold that refills every midnight. Tell you what. I’ll give you two cauldron’s worth of gold for it, and two more when every you visit me to play. How does that sound?” He extended an arm to each of them.
“It sounds great to me,” said Silvia, grasping the hand nearest to her own. Instead the hand grasped her wrist and three other hands appeared and grabbed and hoisted her like before. Hands suddenly appeared all around her, poised above her worst spots. She noticed Peek in the same predicament.
“Hey, what gives? We have to leave now.”
FF grinned until it spread all the way around it’s head. “Nothing doing. We have a deal, remember. I just emptied one pot just now with some extra hands. You have another one coming to you. And guess what time it is. Two in the morning. We have to wait until midnight to give you your next batch of gold. So sorry for the wait. Well, at least we’ll all have plenty of entertainment. You should be perfectly rested, so lets if those arch dimples and toes have ripened any.”
“Tricked again,” yelled Silvia. Oh, well, she though. She might as well enjoy herself. After all, it wasn’t like she had a choice. The hands were already approaching her dimples. She was more content then every before. Peek was happy because she had found a new friend. Silvia was happy because she finally knew the true meaning of fun. Now the pair had access to unlimited gold and unlimited tickling. Yes, life was definitely looking up.
THIS CANNOT BE THE END
Silvia looked upward in disgust. It was starting to rain. Silvia hated rain. I was one of the few things in her life she couldn’t control. Another one of those things started to moan behind her. It was her partner, Peek. Peek was half kitten, half girl. The part that was kitten gave Peek soft redish fur all over her body, two cute little pointed ears, a long tail, tiny barely-pointed claws, and miniature fangs. The petiteness of her natural weapons was caused by the fact that she was barely old enough to be allowed to travel. She had only been alive 26 years, barely a teenager in Cat-Human terms. If Peek lived long enough, her fangs and claws would grow long and sharp, making her a deadly foe. However, right now she was a easily terrified little girl with almost no combat capabilities. So why did Silvia let her come on the trips? Silvia herself asked this question at least three times per hour. The answer would always come back in an exasperated tone. Peek could smell magic and Silvia couldn’t. This was very important for Itemhunters such as Silvia.
Thousands of years ago, the land was covered with sorcerers casting all sorts of spells, enchanting artifacts, and generally causing havoc. But, the sorcerers engaged in a bloody war and nearly killed themselves off. The few that remained used their powers to amass huge fortunes and wouldn’t dream of starting another war. Yet, sorcerers were always on the lookout for magical artifacts. The poorer sorcerer would have to go out and find these artifacts for themselves. The richer ones would hire certain adventures to “procure the items”, and thus these adventures were dubbed Itemhunters.
Silvia herself had become an Itemhunter when the orphanage burned down and she had to find work. She was only six when she started crawling around in tombs while the other Itemhunters, to muscular to fit, drank and laughed outside. This caused Silvia to become rather hardened towards life. And she absolutely hated men in all shaped and sizes. At the age of 17 she was stunningly beautiful and was forced to hand out death threats to any man who saw her. Unfortunately her aversion to men gave Silvia quite a few problems. To find magical items, one had to be able to sense magic. Only magic-users and certain magic hybrids could sense magic. Since Silvia would die before asking the help of a male mage, and all the female mages preferred to sit in libraries and design new spells, Silvia was forced to find a willing hybrid. She had been lucky in finding the Catpeople village. The chief’s youngest daughter had been entranced by Silvia’s tales of adventure and fortune (which is why she degraded herself to telling the whole village an imaginative pack of lies.) Peek herself begged and pleaded with her father to let her travel with Silvia. Finally, the chief relented, but not before promising to personally hunt down and scalp Silvia if anything happened to his darling little Peek. That was all that kept Silvia from strangling Peek when she was especially annoying. Like now. Peek’s cat side hated rain more than Silvia did.
Peek moaned, “Silvy, I’m wet and cold and tired and I hate rain and it’s getting dark and my feet are tired and I want to sleep.
“Quiet,” snapped Silvia. “ I’m wet too. And don’t call me Silvy.”
“Why are you so mad Silvy. Is it my fault? I’m sorry. But didn’t I find you that shiny magic-feeling thing? Doesn’t that make you happy.”
Silvia couldn’t argue with that. Peek had really outdone herself. She had found the shiny magic-feeling thing, or as anyone else would have called it, a magic bracelet, inside a castle underground. Silvia had wondered how Peek ever could have found it. She had gotten her answer as soon as she had opened the chest. The bracelet practically oozed energy. It was so blatant that even Silvia, with no magical talent, could definitely tell it was magic. Such an item would fetch a huge price at the Item Market, which was located at the mage capital in Ixendor.
Silvia took out the bracelet just to look at it. The gold seemed to glow with a soft light. It was a simple band large enough to find around Silvia’s wrist, but not around the wrist of someone who was bigger-boned, like a man. That meant that the bracelet was designed for a woman mage alone. That made it especially popular in Silvia’s view. The band was interlapped with runes that repeated every so often, with engravings of feathers filling the gaps between the runes. The runes looked like this.
BY THE POWER OF THIS BAND, THOU SHALL BE VASTLY MORE TICKLISH AND SHALL FEEL THE JOY OF THE FEATHERS
Just looking at the beautiful, expensive bracelet and imagining how much money it would bring made Silvia much happier. Happy enough to be a little nice to Peek.
“I’m sorry, Peek. You did do a great job at finding the bracelet. I’m just angry at the peasant girl who sent us on this trail through the mountains.”
Actually the peasant girl had told her not to go into the mountains because of a monster that would stop her from passing. She had told here to us the lower paths through the plains, even though it would take 15 more days. Silvia hadn’t wanted to waste that much time over a monster that could easily be defeated by her sword, and so had left that instant. She really didn’t like the peasant girl that much anyway. She had giggled when she talked about the monster. Silvia hated giggling girls. There really was no reason for Peek to think Silvia had made the wrong decision. Peek might just lose faith in Silvia.
Silvia looked out into the pouring rain. What had started out a sprinkle had escalated into a torrent. Silvia wished the giggling girl had told her that it rained a lot in the mountains and that it was easy to get lost in the mountains instead of going on about a silly monster that was so not-terrifying as to giggle about it. Silvia was indeed lost. She had walked away from the giggling girl so fast that she forgot to ask for a map of the mountains. Once again, Peek didn’t need to be panicking about being lost. That was exactly the kind of thing that would send Peek into terrified hysterics.
Silvia stopped to look at herself and Peek. Well, at Peek anyhow. She already knew what she must look like. All her armor would be wet and her long blue hair matted down (she refused to where a helm, claiming that they made her head to slow a target.) Her armored boots and leg guards would be starting to rust. Silveriron armor could stop a direct blow from a trolls club without so much as chipping the paint, but it rusted over incredible fast. That was one reason Silvia hated rain. She knew she must look a sight.
Peek, if possible looked even more pitiful and wet. Part of this was because of her fur. It absorbed water, making Peek look like a fluffed up chick. Her blond shoulder-length head hair was doing the exact opposite, falling down and covering her eyes, so she had to brush it back every time she took a step. All she wore, besides her undergarments, which she blushed about whenever they were mentioned, was a long tunic with a small buckle belt holding it place. A pair of oversized floppy boots covered her petite feet. The tunic was mud-splattered and the boots were flopping down to her ankles.
Inspite of herself, Silvia grinned. “Lets find someplace to get out of the rain.”
Peek looked about and pointed. “How about that cave over there. It looks warm and dry. Maybe it has some food in it. Can we go to the cave.”
Silvia stared at the cave. She was surprised she hadn’t seen it earlier. The entrance was glowing slightly green. Not so much as to be a magical fire, but just enough to be visible. Above the cave entrance rested a huge boulder. Despite this, the interior of the cave was the only place around that looked remotely dry.
“Any port in a storm,” muttered Silvia. “But first I’m going to check that boulder.”
And she did. It was very heavy and totally rooted into the ledge. Nothing short of an earthquake could dislodge it. Silvia gave Peek the safe sign and the two entered the warmth of the cave.
The source of the strange light was immediately evident. All over the cave grew a sort of moss. The moss not only gave off a light strong enough to read by, it gave off a comforting warmth. Nearby, there was a small pool with clear water in it, but both Peek and Silvia had had enough water to last the rest of the night. They were both extremely exhausted. They laid down on the soft moss and slept for a short period of time. When they awoke, they were surprised to find all their cloths perfectly dry and Silvia’s armor was rust free.
“Wow! That was amazing Silvy! The moss dried out my boots and my hair and my fur and my pack and my tunic and look your armor didn’t even rust! Did you ever see moss that does this.”
A soft low voice answered her from the back of the cave, which neither girl had noticed.
“The moss has many abilities. It only grows in this cave, but it grows very thick.”
Both girls swirled around to stare at the speaker. A huge perfect ball of pink fur about as tall as a man rested behind them. In it’s center was a cute little face. It had a cute little cat-like nose, two great big warm brown eyes, and a wide mouth spread in a disarming grin. Despite how cute it was, Peek was still petrified.
“Ahhhhh! A monster,” she cried as she promptly tripped over her own tail and landed on the moss with a soft bump.
“A monster!” cried the ball of pink fur. “Where?”
It looked all around the cave. This was quite amusing to watch as the creature did not have any arms or legs and so looked around by rotating the part with the face around the cave. It turned back towards the girls. It’s genuinely alarmed expression slowly morphed into an even large grin than before.
“Oh, you mean me.” It laughed. “I guess I am a monster of sorts.”
Silvia stared at it with an amused and confused look on her face. This was the terrible monster. A cute pink round ball of fur. No wonder the peasant girl had giggled about it. The only question remaining was why was she warned about it. She knew from experience that some things in the world were what they seemed. She decided to cowl the beast with fierce talk and then leave. Their cloths were perfectly dry and from the look of it, the rain had stopped and opened into a starry sky. It was time to continue the journey.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” she demanded, in her best tough girl voice.
The ball of fur thought about this for a moment. Silvia figured it wasn’t very bright to take this long to answer a simple question. Just one more thing going for her if it came to a fight.
The ball finally seemed to remember something and said “I am the Furry Friend, FF for short. This is my cave. I’m supposed to be here, waiting for my friends.”
“Friends?” Silvia asked. If there were more of these things, there might be trouble.
“The local peasant girls. They often come up here to play with me. Do you want to play with me?” FF asked in a friendly hopeful voice.
Silvia decided it was time to show this furball ( literally ) who was boss. She drew her sword and said, “Sure, I’ll “play”with you. Come closer and I will definitely “play” with you with my sword.”
FF recoiled and yelled, “NO! No pointy things! You bad to bring pointy things in my cave.”
Suddenly something amazing happened. From out of FF’s round body came two huge hands. Each hand had three fingers and one thumb. Both hands were covered with a light almost velvety fur. The hands grabbed Silvia by her arms and shook her up and down until she though that her teeth would rattle out and her sword fell from her hand. One of the huge hands grabbed it and flung it far outside the cave. The hands then retreated back into FF’s body.
Silvia looked at Peek. Peek’s teeth were chattering almost as hard as Silvia’s had and she looked like she would scream at any moment. Silvia started backing away towards the exit.
“Ah, Peek, I think it’s time to go.” Silvia said, desperately trying to keep a quiver out of her voice. She had never been disarmed, not since her teacher had declared that Silvia was a master swordsman. Also, she had never seen anything move that fast. She had to be frank with herself. She was terrified and wanted to leave. But FF had other plans.
FF seemed to grow larger. As it did the moss began to glow more and more brightly. Suddenly, FF let out a bellow.
“How dare you bring pointy things into my cave and then threaten me with them. You bad. Both of you bad. I let you sleep in my cave and this is the thanks I get. Shame on both of you. I not think you leave now. I think you stay.”
With that said, ten more hands shot out at different angles from FF’s body and struck the sides of the cave with a huge amount of force. The whole cave shook. A rumbling sound came from outside. Silvia turned around just in time to see the huge boulder come crashing down outside the cave. It rolled slightly and then settled. Silvia didn’t have to push against it to know that even if there were twenty Silvia’s and twenty Peeks they still couldn’t move the boulder.
As FF’s hands retreated back into it’s body, Peek turned to Silvia with a sheet white face.
She asked in a very small voice, “What do we do now?”
Before Silvia could respond FF’s voice drifted from the back of the cave, this time with a mischievous edge to his voice.
“ We play.”
Peek was the first to recover. She liked to play games and this thing, even though it was creepy, just seem to want to play.
“You don’t want to k-k-k-kill us?” she asked hopefully.
“No. I never would think of killing or hurting. I just want to play.”
Peek visibly relaxed. She had a tendency to change moods very quickly. Even though the pink thing had just made the huge rock fall and trapped them, it seemed nice and generally friendly. It just didn’t like swords. That was okay. Peek didn’t like swords that much either. Now her natural curiosity (she was, after all, half-cat) got the best of her.
She asked, “What kind of game do you want to play.”
FF grinned again even wider. This furry one wasn’t so bad. So it answered her.
“It’s a good game. Girls like to play it. Here let me show you.”
Eight hands again appeared out of FF’s body and moved towards Peek and Silvia. Peek squeaked when she was grabbed and Silvia put up a fight, but finally both of them were caught. Each of their wrists and ankles were grabbed by a hand. The hands lifted them gently off the moss and into the air. Then the hands gently pulled their struggling bodies into spread eagle positions. After a moment, they both realized that the hands were too strong and they quite struggling. Suddenly Silvia remembered something the monster had said.
“What do you mean ‘Girls like to play it’”, she said, a little indignantly. She hated anyone, even a super-strong, super-fast pink monster, telling her what she was supposed to do or like.
FF’s grin definitely widened, which Peek would have thought impossible if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes.
“Because girls like to laugh”, it said.
Two more hands had appeared, moving closer towards Peek and Silvia.
Peek was now more confused that frightened and she had to ask, “Yeah, I like to laugh, but what does that have to do with games.”
FF’s grin widened until it seemed split it’s head in half.
“Are you ticklish?” It asked, in it’s mischievous voice.
Peek recoiled in terror.
“ No you can’t, you wouldn’t. Oh please no. Anything, but that.”
Silvia looked in surprise at Peek’s outburst. She didn’t understand what was going on. Just then the hand that had been inching towards lept up and tickled Peek’s tunic covered belly.
“HA HA HA HA S-t-t-top that that tick-k-k-k-les HEE HEE HEE HEE,” she giggled, writhing about.
Silvia realized what was going on. The creature liked to tickle. That was too bad for Peek, being so young, was extremely ticklish. Silvia herself wasn’t even close to ticklish. Her body was covered with calluses and scars from many fights. She smirked at FF.
“This silly game may scare my partner, but I am not ticklish at all.”
FF turned it’s attention towards Silvia.
“Oh, really. We’ll just have to see about that.”
The four hands holding Peek let go. FF had obviously forgotten about her. Peek was still giggling from the tummy assault and just lay on the ground giggling and gasping.
FF started to pull off Silvia’s armor. The hand’s seemed like experts at taking armor off. Silvia struggled and yelled, both of which did no good. Each time FF managed to extract a piece of armor, it through the armor unceremoniously towards the back of the cave, where it vanished from view. In no time at all, Silvia was stripped down to her stockings, her undershirt, and her underpants. Despite her now less defended position, she was still cocky, believing to have taken away the furball’s only weapon against her.
“So now what?” she asked smugly.
FF didn’t even pause. “ Now we test.”
The four hands that had been taking off the armor suddenly tickled her ribs and sides. The hands moved gently at first, then they really go going. Silvia just continued to smile. The hands kind of tickled, but her body was so scarred and callused that she barely felt a thing. She didn’t even notice when the tickling stopped.
“So now what?” she asked again, smugly.
FF’s grin didn’t even falter. Silvia’s smugness faded slightly.
“Ah,” Said FF. “A tough one. I know how to deal with that. This calls for a dunking.”
The four hands picked up Silvia and carried her over to the pool. They held her suspended for a moment, then they dunked her into the water. The water, to Silvia’s shock, was warm and was slightly pink. The hands held her but for a moment, then they raised her up and dropped her onto the moss beside Peek, who was watching the whole thing with wide eyes.
Silvia started to dry herself off, when she realized that she was already dry. Whether it was the pool’s own powers or the moss, she couldn’t say. She looked down at her dry skin and gasped. All her calluses, all her scars, all the rough spots on her body were suddenly gone. He skin was lightly pink, where it used to be a sort of tan. She reached with her hand to touch her arm and pulled her hand back. Just touching her skin had tickled. What did that water do to her?!
Now it was FF’s turn to be smug.
“Who’s worried now?” It grinned, as four hands appeared out of his fur and started racing towards Silvia.
Silvia was too stunned to move. The hands grabbed exactly as before. Only, this time she was worried about what the hands would feel like. Just the act of grabbing made her giggle as the velveteen fur caressed her wrists and ankles.
“Now,” said FF, bringing Silvia closer to it’s face. “Who is not ticklish?”
Whatever Silvia was about to answer, not even she knew, when suddenly a hand that had secretly appeared right beneath her belly slipped under her shirt and tickled her tummy.
“HA HAHAHA ST—T-TT-TOP IT. THAT TICKLES!!!!!! HEEHEHEHEH STOP,” she laughed as the soft furry fingers tickled her now super-ticklish tummy. It felt like she was being tickled for hours, but it was only a couple of seconds before it stopped.
‘Th-th-thanks,” she managed to gasp to FF, just before the look on the furry face caught her eye.
“You are fun to play with. Shall we see if your as much fun on your feet.”
“No, please! Anywhere but there! Oh no! NOOOO! HAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA HAHA STOP IT! HAHAHA I-HAHA-CAN’TSTAND IT AHAHAHAH,” She laughed and struggled as the pink-furred hands gently stroked her still stockinged feet. She couldn’t ever remember feeling like this ever. It was like her feet were going to explode. She was still giggling when the hands stopped. She had barely caught her breath when FF drew her right up next to her face.
The furball was definitely smirking now.
“Are you ready for this?” it whispered right in her ear.
“Ready for what?” was all Silvia could murmur.
“Ready for no stockings,” it whispered again.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!” she screamed as the furred hand began to remove her stockings very, very slowly. She struggled and pulled to no avail. The hands held her tight yet comfortable. She scrunched her face up against the inevitable, dearly wishing the Furry Friend was just another orc or troll. She would have preferred battling almost anthing but this.
The furry hands, for now there were two of them, one for each foot, slowly began poking and prodding her bare feet, trying to find the best spots. Apparently they were having plenty of luck.
Silvia’s screams quickly changed to bubbling laughter, punctuated by desperate gasps as the probing fingers found special places. The fingers quickly realized that her worst places were the dimples on her arches. Each time they reached their, she would laugh so hard it would turn silent. As the caressing fingers ran over her unbearably sensitive bare feet, she though she was going to pass out. But the Furry Friend was an old hand at this. It knew just how to keep ticklish girls on the edge without going over. It stopped for a couple of seconds to let her catch her breath. She gasped for air as she giggled as the residual feel of tickling lingered on her bare soles.
“Ple-ease. No-no more. I can’t take it. You win. Please, I’ll do anything. Just no more tickling.” Even as she said it, Silvia wondered if she actually meant it. Sure it was pure torture and she was terrified that it would happen again, but didn’t she thrive on terror. Why did she go after monsters and villains voluntarily? With her skills, she could be a teacher or a performer and get paid almost as well. Why did she suddenly feel like if the tickling didn’t return, she would be secretly disappointed?
As these puzzling questions flickered in her mind, FF was turning his attention towards her partner.
“You didn’t think I forgot about you now, did you?”
Actually, that was exactly what Peek had been hoping for. While FF had been occupied with her partner, Peek had been trying to scratch a way out. All she had received for her efforts was a bunch of sore nails. Now she felt the familiar panic well up in her.
“No please no. I can’t stand it. I’m too ticklish, especially on my feeeet,” she said as the hands appeared, grasped, and lifted her right next to Silvia.
“You shouldn’t have told me that,” teased FF. “Because guess where I’m going to start.” The extra two hand’s immediately tore off the floppy boots and rested right in front of Peek’s bare feet.”
“Welcome to the party,” Silvia managed to gasp before the both of them became tickled on the feet again.
“HEEHEEHEEHEE MEHEHEHEHEW MEHEHEHEHEHW,” giggled Peek, as the questing hands discovered that her worst part was her ticklish toes. FF was absolutely fascinated with Peek. It had never played with a hybrid. The fur acted as a perfect conductor, carrying the sensations of one section to all the other parts of her feet like a shockwave. Even more interesting was the way she sometime mewed and laughed at the same time. Two more hands appeared and gently pulled back Peek’s toes as the tickling hands started focusing their velveteen touch on the soft under part of each toe. Peek’s giggles rose two decibels and even more mew-laughs escaped her giggling mouth.
As the hands finally let up on her dimples and focused on her heels and sides, Silvia regained enough mind to try to think about the questions before. She hated being tickled, but she loved the terror caused by it. She wanted the sensations to let up, but when they did, she still wasn’t satisfied. What was it?
Peek, with her simpler and more childlike nature, realized it first.
“HEHEHEHE HEY THIS IS FUN! MEHEHEHEHEHW!” she gasped out. The realization struck Silvia like a thunderbolt.
Fun. Of course. She hadn’t had fun in so long, it took her awhile to recognize it. In her life, there wasn’t much time or chance for fun. Trying to earn money all the time was just a way to distract herself from the truth. Life wasn’t fun. But, this was. Ironically, the worst torture she ever had was the best thing for her. But, she was worried how FF was going to take this new twist.
She shouldn’t have worried.
“Finally, one of them realizes. That’s what I’ve been trying to convince you of all night. You think it was accident that lead you to my cave. My friends down in the village are supposed to warn female travelers away from the mountains. This makes them think they have to prove something. Well, I guess I just proved my point.”
He turned towards Silvia. “And what do you think?”
Silvia, caught off guard, said, “I don’t know oh no HAHAHAHAHA.”
She laughed as the hands once again wiggled the furry fingers on the tips of her toes.
“Hey, no fair. How come she gets to have all the fun,” whined Peek. “ Tickle my armpits.” Silvia, though still getting tickled, marveled at the assertiveness the normally shy girl was showing. She was even more surprised when FF complied, sending two hands, on for each armpit towards her.
“And my rips and belly,” gasped Peek, just before the hands arrived. More hands appeared to help.
“MEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEWWWW AN-AN-AN-D BEHINND MYYYY KNEEEES,” giggled Peek, barley able to talk.
Just as the next set of hands were preparing to strike, Peek gasped out one more request.
“HEHEHEHE MYYY FEEEEET MEHEHEHEHEWWWHEHEHEHE!” After that she was pretty incoherent as the hands performed the under-the-toes trick and tickled her arches. More that 20 hands in all were tickling Peek’s tiny frame. And it was easy to tell that all the smiles on her face weren’t just put their because she was laughing.
Once again, FF turned to Silvia, who in all the commotion had lost her tickling hands and wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that.
FF’s face turned serious, which was kinda funny with Peek in the background going absolutely nuts. Her laughter pierced through the entire room. One of the hands covered her mouth.
“Now listen, warrior girl. I don’t do this because I like to torture. I do this because I like to share fun. If you think this is fun, you can have what she is having right now. If not, I’ll let you go and you can sit in the corner until she is done. I wouldn’t even touch you. It’s now your choice.”
Silvia was stunned. All her life it had been do this or do that. Even now she was a slave to what her buyers wanted, not what she wanted. For the first time in her life, someone had given her a real choice. A different glow seemed to surround Silvia.
“Um, er, well, Oh to hell with it. Tickle me.” More than twenty hands surrounded her and began tickling in all her worst spots. For Silvia, it was the finest sensation in the world. She was in hysterics and she loved it.
As good a tickler as the Furry Friend and as good a ticklees as Peek and Silvia can keep up such tickling for a fairly long time, but there is a point when the tickling becomes too much that the ticklees pass out. FF knew exactly where this point was, and stopped just before then. He gently laid them on the moss and waited. It was a full three minutes before the girls could stop laughing and five more minutes to be ready to talk. Peek bounced up.
“Can we do that again?” she asked excitedly.
FF chuckled. “If I do, you’ll pass out and miss the rest of the fun.”
“I guess that’s true,” said Peek. “Can you tell us a story.”
It was FF’s turn to be caught off guard. “What kind of story?”
Silvia was still giddy from the tickling. Apparently hybrids recover faster than normal humans.
Silvia giggled. “ How about telling us what a nice furball like you is doing in a mountain range like this.”
FF though about this and grinned. “Okay, but it’s a long one so make yourselves comfortable. Along time ago, I was born from magic. The first thing I remember seeing was a beautiful woman with a veil over her face. She picked me up (I was only the size of a crystal ball back then) and carried me to a little bed. There she told me wonderful stories about Pink Dragons that tickle and Huge Hundred Armed sea monsters that tickled and Wild Worms that tickled. She also told me where it is best to tickle a girl. She said that one day I would grow up to be just as great a tickler as the creatures in her stories. And then she told me the biggest secret of all. No matter what, girls will always enjoy being tickled by me. After awhile, I did grow up. The Veiled Woman would give me scared servant girls and female apprentices and if I was really good, she would give me a princess. And no matter what them came in like, they always left happy. I was a great success. The Veiled Woman taught me to read and write and all about the many spells and curses that would be used against me. Of course, I was immune to magic, but it would be unnerving for me to tell girls not to do spells that they were planning on doing. She then gave me my assignment. I was to sit in this cave and wait for girls to come by and enter. She told me that some poor girls aren’t ticklish because their skin is too thick or rough. She made this pool to make their skin perfect. She also made the moss so I could see the girls I was to tickle. She also made a very complicated spell that keeps males away. I don’t like males. Too violent. And boy did the girls come. There were times when I had twenty to thirty in this cave. And every one of them left happy. I was having the most fun of my life. Then, they slowly stopped coming. One year all I had were twenty. Then ten. Then five. Then one. For more than 50 years, I didn’t have a single visitor. Mostly I just slept. Then one day, a cute little peasant girl came into my cave. I asked her why she had come. She screamed. I tickled it out of her that a lady with a veil over her face had told her and her friends that there was a terrible monster out here. Later she and her friends made a bet that she couldn’t come up her and get a piece of my fur. Well, I tickled her and she did have fun. I gave her a piece of my fur and told her to bring all her friends. I don’t know what she told them, but they all came to my cave the next day. I tickled all of them, found their worst spots and asked them to be my friends. They said yes. Now them come up here and I play with them and give them little gifts. And for special occasions, like birthdays, I make as many hands as I can and tickle the birthday girl will all of my hands.
Peek popped up. “How many hands can you make.”
FF grinned slyly. “I can’t count that high. Lets just say that no girl has lasted all of my hands for more than thirty seconds before passing out.”
Peek shivered and giggled.
FF continued. “After that, all the village girls named me the Furry Friend. They started sending would be heroines and sorceresses to me to play with. It’s fun. Though I must say that you two have been the best fun I’ve had in years.”
Silvia was, in spite of herself, quite flattered. So was Peek, apparently. She jumped up and hugged FF as hard as possible. FF looked first surprised, then pleased.
FF then yawned. It was very interesting to see a pink ball of fur yawn. It turned towards Silvia.
“Now tell me, why are you here at my cave.”
Silvia told him about the bracelet and the rain and the giggling girl.
FF smiled. “That would be Hanna. She loves to giggle. I should know. Now, there is something about this bracelet that I want to see. May I please see it.”
Silvia dug out the bracelet. She handed it to FF. FF took it and inspected it. “ Just as I thought. It’s one of her things.”
“Whose things?” asked both Silvia and Peek at the same time.
“The Veiled Woman. An I know what this inscription means. It means ‘BY THE POWER OF THIS BAND, THOU SHALL BE VASTLY MORE TICKLISH AND SHALL FEEL THE JOY OF THE FEATHERS.’ It is too powerful to be in your hands. I cannot tell you yet what it means. May I buy this from you.”
Silvia burst out. “Hey! That’s our treasure and we worked hard for that and… did you just say buy?”
“Why do you think all those female adventures sought me out. The Veiled Woman gave me one of her trinkets to lure in girls to play with. It is a cauldron filled with gold that refills every midnight. Tell you what. I’ll give you two cauldron’s worth of gold for it, and two more when every you visit me to play. How does that sound?” He extended an arm to each of them.
“It sounds great to me,” said Silvia, grasping the hand nearest to her own. Instead the hand grasped her wrist and three other hands appeared and grabbed and hoisted her like before. Hands suddenly appeared all around her, poised above her worst spots. She noticed Peek in the same predicament.
“Hey, what gives? We have to leave now.”
FF grinned until it spread all the way around it’s head. “Nothing doing. We have a deal, remember. I just emptied one pot just now with some extra hands. You have another one coming to you. And guess what time it is. Two in the morning. We have to wait until midnight to give you your next batch of gold. So sorry for the wait. Well, at least we’ll all have plenty of entertainment. You should be perfectly rested, so lets if those arch dimples and toes have ripened any.”
“Tricked again,” yelled Silvia. Oh, well, she though. She might as well enjoy herself. After all, it wasn’t like she had a choice. The hands were already approaching her dimples. She was more content then every before. Peek was happy because she had found a new friend. Silvia was happy because she finally knew the true meaning of fun. Now the pair had access to unlimited gold and unlimited tickling. Yes, life was definitely looking up.
THIS CANNOT BE THE END
