Return to the Featherlands: Chapter 4 (Patreon)

The distinct change in the environment was immediately noticeable. A storm of memories and emotions driven by nostalgia came flooding back to Silvia. A chill ran across her arms. She stepped through the trunk of one tree and out of another. The scent of a gentle breeze came first. The air of the Featherlands always had a certain sweet aroma, with even a matching flavor to support it. Silvia walked out into a vast woodland area only to smell and taste a sour vacancy of the playful notes she had remembered. Trees around her stood shorter than she could recall and with drained tones. Flowers foreign to her own world rose limp from the ground. Fewer incandescent bugs floated through the air, leaving the night dark and barren. Walking out into it was bittersweet and uncomfortably strange for her. Silvia imagined she would experience the rush of returning home after many years away, but not to find nothing about it as familiar or charming as the pictures in her memory. Paul followed her through the trunk of the tree. Silvia turned back toward him, her eyes shimmering with sorrow in the moonlight.

“Is this really it?” Silvia asked. Her voice cracked softly. Paul paused and nodded.

“Does it not feel the same?” Paul asked. Silvia looked around once more. From what little she could see of the Featherlands as they had become, Silvia could feel the heart and joy slowly fading, the happiness of it all dying before her. Silvia lifted one foot behind her. She pulled off her shoe and sock. Paul watched as Silvia placed her bare foot in a small patch of grass. Silvia remembered so much of the Featherlands, not the least of which was how the grass would react eagerly to any ticklish foot that stepped against it. They would move like fingers and be as soft as feathers, stroking and tickling endless. As a girl, she loved running through fields and seeing just how long she could endure the tickles against her soles and toes. Placing her foot down again, the blades shifted a little. They were still just as soft and tickly as she remembered, but moved lazily against her sole, as if the will to play had all but vanished. She pressed it down fully. The grass brushed her small, soft foot slightly, causing her to giggle, but reacted nothing like how they used to. Paul kept a close watch on her.

“What happened?” Silvia asked, slipping her sock back on. Paul stepped forward, adjusting his cloak.

“After Nysadia took over, everything just started to die,” Paul said. “The heart and spirit of it all… I don’t know, it just faded.” Silvia looked around again. She stuffed her socked foot back into her shoe.

“I want to see the rest,” Silvia said sternly.

“You will,” Paul said. “I’m sure.” He started off through the woods, walking ahead with the confidence of a navigator. Silvia followed, examining everything that she passed.

“What does that mean?” Silvia asked. “Are you not coming with me?”

“By the looks of things, you’re the one who’s coming with me.”

“Well,” Silvia began defensively, quickly realizing that she had nothing good or clever with which to follow. “I don’t know this area.”

“It’s the Featherlands.”

“I said this area.”

“Right, because you don’t know the Featherlands, your majesty,” Paul said snarkily, driving a sour emphasis on her title.

“Paul…”

“Because you left.”

“Paul.”

“And didn’t come back.”

“Paul!”

“And now it looks like this,” Paul said, gesturing to the lifeless flora and gentle wind that no longer carried the playful laughter she once knew.

“I said I was sorry!” Silvia argued. “And I already feel bad enough, why do you have to be so mean about it?” Paul remained silent. He carried on. Silvia followed and lowered her tone. “I am sorry. I am. I tried to come back and couldn’t. I had no idea why or about any of this. But if you needed me so badly, why didn’t you come find me and take me there? You knew where I was.”

“I didn’t,” Paul said. Silvia paused.

“You didn’t?”

“No, I didn’t,” said Paul. “That’s why I didn’t come back to you sooner.” Silvia thought for a second.

“Come back to me?” Silvia asked. “Did you… look for me?” Paul swallowed and looked away. His face warmed. Paul put his hood back up.

“A… a little,” said Paul, “after everything went down.”

“Then how’d you find me now?”

“The Assassin,” said Paul. “I was tracking him for a while, trying to make sure that he wouldn’t make it back. I knew eventually he would find you, so I followed him.” Silvia stayed close behind Paul as he walked, her shoes crunching against sticks and dried leaves.

“If the Assassin is trying to stop Nysadia, why not let him?” Silvia asked. Paul looked down and away. He steadied his breath and paused.

“It’s complicated,” said Paul. “The Assassin is dangerous. Letting him back in would only cause more problems than it would solve.”

The pair continued forth in relative silence as Silvia took in all that she could see. Even at night, the Featherland forests would usually be teeming with life. The treetops would be exploding with a vibrant array of creatures giggling and playing their tickle games. Fuzzy being with many scribbling fingers would keep visitors entertained all night. Elves and fairies would be playing harmless tickle tricks on any who would walk by their dens and hollows. There once was a beautiful magic to the Featherlands. As Silvia peered around, very little of any spirit remained, leaving only the faint echoes of distant memories.

Upon noticing a creature nearby, Silvia had to stop and inspect it. It was not one that she remembered well, but she still greeted it like an old friend.

“Hello there,” Silvia said, sweetly. Silvia bent down to address a small figure peeking out of a nearby bush. The thing looked like a tiny black shadow. It was round like a ball, with no visible arms or legs, but had wide glowing yellow eyes. It stood about half the height of her calf and seemed to look up at her curiously. Silvia bent down closer to get a better look. “Awww, aren’t you a cutie?” Silvia noticed it to be purring or chirping softly. She reached down to pet the small, black fuzzball. Its body was covered in a feathery soft fur that was darker than the night itself. She giggled as she stroked it. “Paul, look. I made a friend.” Paul stopped and looked back.

“You found a wibble,” said Paul. “They’re everywhere. Mostly come out at night.”

“He’s so soft,” said Silvia, continuing to pet the wibble. The creature, allured by her touch, inched closer and purred louder. It nuzzled against her hand.

“Yeah, but best not to hang around too long,” said Paul. Silvia giggled and kept petting.

“Heehee, the fur tickles,” said Silvia. Paul sighed and hung back, leaning against a tree as he watched her. The wibble chirped happily. It came closer and appeared to engulf Silvia’s entire hand within its furry body. Silvia felt around for a physical body beneath it all, only to find more fur. “Oh wow, it’s like all hair. Heeheehee…” Feathery tickles covered Silvia’s hand. Tickly scribbles of light claws from within teased her palm and fingertips. She giggled louder. As she laughed, Silvia noticed more yellow eyes appearing around her. From the bushes, more wibbles peeked and rolled out, making their way toward her. They circled her, all chirping excitedly. Silvia smiled at them all and looked back at Paul. “Heehee… Pahahaul?” Paul smirked.

“No, no, you made friends,” he said with a smug grin. “We have time for you to get to know them better.” Paul stayed leaning against the tree and watched Silvia become surrounded by the creatures. She giggled nervously as more and more wibbles crowded around her.

“Heehee, nice wibbles…” Silvia coddled. As more approached her, she started to feel their tickly fur over more of her skin. Silvia watched more emerge from the bushes and start to crowd around her. She felt no end to the wibble that she had touched. It seemed to engulf her hand completely. No matter how she moved it, the creature would not unlatch. Inside of it, more scribbling, light claws skittered against her hand, teasing her palm and fingers. Even where she saw there would be ground, she felt nothing, as if reaching into an eternally furry hole. More gathered around it. Their fur, light and tickly, brushed against her bare arm, climbing on top of one another. Everywhere Silvia looked, she saw wide, glowing yellow eyes staring up at her. Their chirping increased, excited by her influx of ticklish laughter.

“Paaahahahahahaul!” Silvia giggled worriedly. Paul smirked and said nothing, watching her only with passive glances. The wibble fur tickled up her arm as the small critters climbed and encircled more of her skin. Where they latched onto her, Silvia felt the same claw-like tickles in with the already teasing and feathery soft fur. More of her arm sunk into the same fuzzy endlessness. Her eyes bulged. She tried to brace the arm against the ground, but felt no solid surface where she could see there reasonably would be. She felt as if her whole arm had been caught inside a furry, tickly hollow with no bottom to be found. A burst of panic overcame her. Silvia whimpered through her giggles, fighting back against the wibbles while more and more continued to emerge.

“Paahahahaaaul! Pleheheaasee!! Gehehet them aaahahaff! I’m sinking!” Silvia cried out. Her head snapped around when she felt one leg fall through another collective mound of wibbles, far too distracted to notice how the others began to accumulate. Even through her pants leg, Silvia could feel the fur and light scribbles against the bare skin it covered. Her giggles shrieked through the surrounding trees. The wibbles chirped more, amused by the teen’s ticklish reactions. Silvia tried to push back, to maintain a bearing on any solid ground with which she could still escape. With one whole leg caught, Silvia’s stomach dropped with the sensation of falling, of slipping off of the edge of a cliff. She tried to push back with her other leg, but that too was quickly being engulfed into the ticklish abyss of purring wibbles. Focused on her legs, Silvia failed to notice her other arm being swarmed until it was too late. She could see the black, furry critters covering it, but as she tried to raise and press it against the ground, she felt only the fur and ticklish endlessness, unable to grasp onto anything. The tickles skittered all over her entrapped areas. Both feathery soft fur and the sensation of dancing nails coated her skin. More and more wibbles came out to surround her, tickling her more with each. Silvia squealed and laughed and begged. She felt more of herself being sucked into the void of the fuzzy creatures gradually, unable to free herself. Her eyes widened in even more shock when she looked down to her legs. Outside of one mound, her shoe flew off into the surrounding shrubbery. Soon after, the other went sailing into the bushes.

“Naaahahahahaoooo! Pleheheaassee!! Dooahahahan’t!!!” Silvia shrieked into the night. Like being sucked slowly into a muddy pit, Silvia continued to sink into the pool of wibbles crowding her. Shortly after witnessing her own shoes torn from her feet and thrown carelessly to the side, Silvia began to feel what she was dreading. Her socked feet felt no ground beneath them, but instead started to experience the feathery brushing of the fur against her soles.

“Eeeeekkkheeehahahahaha!! Nahahahahaaat my feeheheheet!!” Silvia squealed. Though she may have aged into the underdeveloped she had become, Paul grinned at how recognizable and familiar her ticklish laughter was, how reminiscent it sounded to when he knew her as a little girl. Silvia begged through her laughter, sinking further into the furry void. All over where the creatures covered her body, she felt maddening, delicate tickles against her skin, seeping through her clothes as if she were wearing none at all. Silvia sensed the light skittering of talons scratching at her hyper-sensitive nerves. Her arms and legs had become completely swallowed, no matter how violently she squirmed. The wibbles worked to cover her chest and belly, their clawing nails teasing over both as they fed off of her girlish laughter. They found her armpits and kept her from being able to cover them. Their fur and claws brushed against the slick, tender hollows, inasmuch as they ravished every other ticklish area in their collective, hairy maw. They dipped into her navel, raked across her ribs, and fluttered over her thighs and knees. Silvia heaved into a crying cascade of ticklish laughter. Her voice carried through the woods around her, bellowing out with fearful hysteria. So long a time had passed since Silvia found herself falling playful prey to the creatures of the Featherlands and it seemed as if the wibbles had no intention of letting her go. Though out of all the tickles covering every inch of her body, none riddled her nerves more than those that came after her feet.

“AAAAHHHAHAHAHAHHAAA!!! GAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!! STAHAHAHAHAAAP!!!” Silvia squeals morphed into howling, ticklish screams. She flailed against the nothingness surrounding her. The dashing claws skittered against her small, socked feet, feeling as though they were completely bare. The fur feathered her soles and toes through an endless stream of eager, chirping beasts. More wibbles came to focus on her feet in discovering their overwhelming sensitivity. Silvia’s feet had always been her most ticklish spot as a girl, and growing up into her teen years seem to have only made them even more fragile and receptive to tickles. Deeper and deeper she sank. Silvia struggled and thrashed, no longer to get free, but rather as a ‘flight or fight’ response to the tickles swarming her body. Her mousey voice sang out ticklish laughter into the night air. Through teary eyes, she watched more mischievous wibbles close in around her head. Before the darkness of the creatures could overtake her fully, Silvia felt the last of the surface beneath her give way, dropping and submerging her into the furry abyss.

The descent that followed was less of a plummet and more of a sensation of pure weightlessness. Nothing Silvia could touch or latch onto was solid enough to stop her. What surrounded her completely was the same tickly fur that covered the wibbles, extended eternally in all directions. It bathed her in a forever black sea. It tickled her entire body with feathery soft strokes, wedging through and beneath her clothes. She screamed with wild, ceaseless laughter. It brushed against her nose and lips. It teased her ears and under her chin. It managed to tickle her in places she never had been before, areas she had not known to be ticklish. The backs of her arms. Behind her knees. Across her shoulder blades. Silvia exploded with laughter from it all, cries that echoed out into the void with no one but the skittering wibbles to hear her.

“NNNAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!! LEEHEHEHEHET ME OUT!!!” Silvia screamed. The small, fluttering claws still scribbled and tormented the captive girl. They seemed to exploit all of her most ticklish spots. They dug into Silvia’s slender armpits. They poked her tummy and scratched inside her sensitive belly button. They pinched her sides and thighs. The heaviest focus was still on her feet. Floating and flailing through the fuzzy chasm, the wibbles had latched onto her feet. They chirped happily while spidering their claws up and down her small, delicate soles. Silvia kicked and curled her toes, but within the veil, no way she moved saved her from the tickles that rained against her from all sides. The nails danced against her soles and squirmy toes. The fur feathered both feet at once, not leaving a single spot on either tops or bottoms for a moment. Her chest pounded, her throat tiring from that laughter that poured out of her. Her cheeks burned. Her head shook side to side. She had lost all perception of how much time had passed and cried out louder imagining how much longer that she would have to endure the merciless pitfall of tickles.

A burst of yellow light filled the void in but a single instant. Silvia’s eyes shut and stayed closed until she realized that she was no longer laughing. The tickles had subsided, vanished in an instant. She opened her eyes when the light cleared. Silvia gripped dirt between her fingers. Her heart continued to race. She looked up to the night sky. She peered around at the trees and bushes of the land which felt so alien and yet still so familiar. Her hair frayed out in a tangled mess. She fought to catch her breath and adjusted her glasses. Pushing herself up from the forest floor, she noticed that all of the wibbles were gone, scattering and rushing off into the shifting flora around her. Silvia looked back wide-eyed at Paul. Her cheeks glowed a deep pink. The boy chuckled down at her.

"Wha… what…" Silvia started.

"Wibbles, I told you," Paul said. He walked over to her and reached out his hand. Silvia paused before taking it.

"They…"

"Kind of act like little pockets of space," Paul said, lifting Silvia to her feet. "I had to scare them off. They don't like bright lights." He held her steady as she slowly regained her balance to stand. Resting against him, her face continued to burn. She quickly ran her fingers through her hair to try and mend the dishevelment.

"You… you couldn't have done that sooner?" Silvia huffed. She pushed herself away from Paul, standing smugly.

"Thought you should get better acquainted with the creatures, your majesty," Paul said, once again mentioning her title in a mocking tone.

"You don't have to keep saying it like that," Silvia mumbled. She looked around to find her shoes that had been flung off in different directions. Paul watched her pick one up.

"Plus I was having too much fun watching you," Paul said. Silvia scoffed.

"You know, you wouldn't have been that way back then," Silvia said. She sat on a fallen log, brushed the dirt from the bottoms of her feet, and slipped on the one shoe. "You used to be sweet." She looked around for the other one when Paul walked up to her and held out the other sneaker in his hand. It looked so small against his fingers. His hand had strengthened and matured with the rest of him. Silvia took it and slipped it back on her foot.

"My place isn't far from here," Paul said. "But we have to keep moving. Worse things than wibbles lurk these forests." Paul waited for Silvia to get her shoes back on before leading her deeper into the forest. Silvia stayed close by. A dread filled her chest as she peered around at the world which had become so estranged to her. She trailed on Paul's heels, alarmed at every little branch crack or mysterious skittering going on around her.

"You live out here?" Silvia asked. Paul paused before answering.

"When the Featherlands fell, many went into hiding," Paul said. "I couldn't really afford to at the time."

"What do you mean?"

"But I tried to find a good enough place that seemed relatively hidden," said Paul, ignoring her question. He pushed a low hanging branch out of their way as his boots crunched against the ground. He helped Silvia avoid more low-hanging branches.

"I… I'm sorry again for how bad it got," Silvia said. She had not the words to explain herself in a way that made her feel better about the situation. Paul huffed a little and continued to lead her through.

"The house is just up here," said Paul. "You see the light?" Paul pointed between two trees far in the distance. Silvia adjusted her glasses and squinted.

"Yeah."

"That's it," said Paul, pushing forward. "Just keep…" He stopped and paused. Silvia nearly bumped into the back of him. She also fell silent and looked up to Paul. His expression had frozen, as if he were listening closely to something in the distance.

"What?" Silvia asked in a nervous hush.

"Shh," Paul whispered. His lips trembled. Another few seconds ticked by until Silvia heard a distinct rustling in the bushes behind her. A heavy force hit the ground in the area. Silvia and Paul darted their heads toward the sound. He slowly reached down and took her hand. "Don't make a sound." Paul spoke as quietly as he could for her to hear him. His heart thumped hard within his chest. Silvia felt his hand shivering slightly. Her grip tightened. Soon, shadows in the forest began moving around them. More heavy forces hit the ground beneath the trees, moving and cracking through the brush. Silvia looked all around her to see what they could be.

"Is…?" Silvia started before catching a pair of glowing green eyes watching her from the dense forest floor. Crunching footsteps drew closer in the darkness. Paul's head snapped around at each new sound.

"Nysadia’s shades,” Paul whispered carefully. "When I say run, run." Silvia nodded. Her eyes locked onto the light in the distance. She pushed up her glasses and prepared. The shadows in the brush inched closer, their glowing eyes shining more prominently. From what Silvia could see, the beasts walked on four legs and were shrouded in a dense blackness, nearly invisible in the night. She could hear them snarl as they lurked much more menacingly than the wibbles had. Paul looked all around him. As the shades came closer, he leaned in closer to Silvia. His voice shook slightly on heavy breaths. "Run."

Paul and Silvia dashed together at once toward the house. Instantly, the pair pushed into a hard sprint. Silvia followed Paul as quickly as she could. A thunderous wave of slamming steps stampeded behind her. Paul's speed outmatched hers, giving him a steadily growing lead. Silvia reached out as she heard the rapid stomping behind her draw closer, the shade’s savage snarling imposing a primal fear into her.

"Paul!" Silvia cried out. Paul looked behind him. His heart jumped. He stopped and waved his wounded hand, putting up a small mystic wall of light behind her.

"Don't look back, just go!" Paul shouted.

Silvia started to stop as she passed him but stumbled back into a run. She huffed as she came closer and closer to the shack. It was a small, wooden haven among many towering trees. Faint illuminating bugs flickered all around it. The lantern that hung on a hook next to the door swayed in the wind. When Silvia slammed against the door, she looked back to Paul. He held up a wall of shimmering yellow light that served to keep the dark, shadowy creatures on the other side back. He stepped back with the force of the beasts grabbing and clawing at him. From their backs, long tendrils seemed to emerge and flicker wildly, grabbing at whatever they could. Paul grunted. His arms strained to keep the magic active. He shivered, his scarred hand quivering in maintaining the magical focus.

Silvia grabbed onto the handle of the door to the shack. She pulled it open and kept her eyes on Paul. The boy stumbled and staggered backward. He looked behind him briefly to see Silvia standing, beckoning him, beside the open door. Paul grunted. He pushed back hard against the foes, his boots digging into the dirt below him. He groaned into a loud, struggling scream. A massive surge of the yellow light exploded from the wall. It filled the air with sparkling, magical fibers. The forest floor crackled as the light splintered across the ground. The shadowy beasts all flew backward. They slammed hard into the dirt. Paul immediately turned and bolted for the shack. The wall faded in a wisp. The creatures slowly pushed themselves back up.

Silvia could see the shades racing on all fours. They had long claw-like fingers and toes that sank into the ground with each gallop. Their eyes continued to glow. Through the dark of night, she could make out nothing else about them besides the green of their eyes, the monstrous tendrils that flailed from their backs, and the beastly speed of their strides that brought them closer and closer to Paul with each leap. Silvia held the door open, prepared to shut it behind him the moment he was to cross the threshold. Paul's cloak fluttered like a cape. He sprinted as hard as he could across the garden out in front of the shack.

"Paul! Hurry!" Silvia cried out. The beasts were drawing nearer. Silvia could see at least three, though the volume of beastly snarling and pounding suggested more. Paul rushed across the yard as quickly as he could until his boot found a root breaching from the ground. It sent the boy stumbling forward, his chest and face slamming against soil. Silvia’s cheeks grew pale. Her heart leapt into her throat. The creatures drew increasingly nearer to Paul as he tried to regain his stance. Paul looked behind him to witness the shades approaching. He raised his burnt hand one more time, attempting another spell. Before he could summon the magic, a light force came down upon him. Silvia fell onto him and wrapped her arms around his torso, her back turned toward the approaching fiends.

"Silvia!" Paul cried out. He tried to push her out of the way. Silvia squeezed hard around his chest, holding herself close. She clenched, refusing to let go and prepared to feel the blunt rush of the creatures closing in on them with vicious intensity. The air around them started to crackle like thunder. Through her pressed eyelids, Silvia witnessed a blinding light that engulfed them both. A gust of wind blew past them. She held on tighter to Paul, who buried his face against her neck. His own arms held her close to his chest. An immense power surged over them both. It tore through the air in a single, constant explosion. Silvia prepared herself for the pain, the burn, the force, anything that would come of putting herself in the way of the beasts, but felt nothing.

Quickly thereafter, the light had faded. The dark of night returned again. The air became still once more. The snarling and stomping of the approaching creatures had vanished. After several seconds, Silvia opened her eyes. They were gone. Just like the wibbles that had been scattered off of her, the shades no longer remained. Just faint clouds of dust where they were. Slowly, Silvia let go of Paul. They both looked to where the beasts were, all around to survey their area. Both Paul and Silvia panted, their hearts pounding together from the ordeal. They glanced back at the shack. Against the open doorway, a man braced himself on the wood of the frame. He held up a cane amidst faint sparkles of residual magic. His eyes narrowed on the field. A weary, yet stoic expression buried itself beneath a thick, unmanaged beard and mustache. His hand holding the cane shook as it lowered to his side.

"You've come back, your majesty," the Elder said, his voice breaking and exhausted. "I knew you would."

~~~

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