Return to the Featherlands: Chapter 6 (Patreon)

Morning came nearly as quickly as it took Silvia’s strained mind to succumb to sleep. When she awoke, Silvia sat up and blinked as a rose-tinted light crept in from the window across the bedroom. She swung her legs over the side and rubbed her eyes. Silvia changed back into the clothes she came through with, brushed tangles out of her hair with her fingers, and met Paul in the common area of the cabin. A modest breakfast of homemade bread, aged cheeses, and vegetable soup laid out on a small table. Paul was cleaning up his father's area when she walked in.

"Good morning," Silvia said. The previous day's events rushed through her head in a blur. She rubbed another ache out of her eye.

"Morning," Paul said without slowing in his tasks. He gestured to the table by the window. "I made breakfast. It's not great, but you'll need to eat something before leaving." Silvia nodded, only then noticing the churning of her stomach. Through the excitement, she realized that she had not eaten since barely picking at the subpar lunch her school provided the day before.

"Thank you," Silvia said. She took her seat at the table and started on the breakfast. The soup was still warm, the cheese sharp with a delightful crunch, and the bread fluffy and mild. Even without being hungry enough to down it all in one sitting, it tasted better than most meals Silvia could recall in the moment. "This is amazing. You made this?"

"Bought the cheese from a farmer toward the countryside," said Paul. "The bread and the soup though, yeah."

"It's really good," said Silvia, trying not to shovel it all in too quickly. "Thank you." Paul smiled and instinctively turned away to hide it.

"Mom taught me," said Paul. "I mean, she taught us, but dad can't really…" He stopped. Silvia looked to the Elder. He was still sleeping peacefully, though there was slight evidence that he had either shifted or woken at some point since the night before. Paul sighed.

"Well, thank you," Silvia repeated. Paul gave no reply. He was still wearing the torn undershirt and thick black pants from the night before. A slight stubble shrouded his hardened jaw in a gray shadow. His hand was still wrapped in the cloth. He cleaned up a few of the loose papers around his father's section of the cabin. He scanned over each and sorted them into stacks before putting each stack in its own designated place.

"I know I can't stop you from going back," Paul said, his expression distantly haunted, "but don't go right away." Silvia listened as she finished the last of the meal. "Just South of here is Sprite's Hollow, a small camp that the fairy queen runs as a refugee haven." The word 'refugee' gave Silvia pause, but more so did Paul's casual tone when talking about it. "It's just through the Fayewoods. Find it and talk to Queen Diedra. She'll try to stop you, but if you still insist, she can probably help more than I can."

"I don't know about that," Silvia said, half under her breath. She looked down at her empty plate and bowl. "I… I didn't realize it had gotten that bad." Paul huffed tiredly.

"Well, be prepared for it to get worse." Paul picked up Silvia’s backpack that she had left by the couch the night before. It had completely escaped her mind.

"Oh, that's… really nothing important," Silvia said. Paul ignored her. He brought it up to the front door and set up leaning upright against the frame.

"You have food for the road," Paul said, "a plant and beast catalog, and the dagger you took from the Assassin. It's in the front pocket." After everything that happened after stepping back into the Featherlands, Silvia had nearly forgotten about the Featherland Assassin. Silvia nodded, disappointed in her own unreliable, unfocused mind.

"Thank you, Paul," she said. She stood. Silvia looked around, taking in a lasting glance at the cabin. She looked to Paul, his eyes downcast. A miserable quiet came over the two. "Then, I… suppose I should be leaving." Paul looked away.

"You don't have to," he said. He grinded his teeth slightly, his jaw flexing. "But I get it."

"I do though," said Silvia.

"I get it," Paul said. He swallowed. "Please be safe." He turned away from her and walked back over to his sleeping father. Silvia stepped closer.

"Paul," she said. As she looked back at him, he was still there. The image of the younger Paul, who bravely challenged horrors and powers far beyond himself for her safety, was still there. She heard their voices, both hers and his from back then, comforting each other within the dismal cells of the Badland Castle dungeon. The softness, the innocence, the refreshing optimism had all faded, but the boy was still there. Silvia drew in a deep breath. Silvia reached for her bag and threw it around her shoulders. Paul just stared down at his father, gently stroking his wilted hand. Silvia reached for the door and opened it. "Thank you." All of the memories that came back to her of his heroism and protection, she channeled into the phrase. Paul said nothing. He barely moved. Silvia knew he heard her and waited for something more. Something never came. She puffed through her nose and stepped out of the cabin, the closing of the door like a slash across her chest.

Silvia fought the urge to keep looking back. She kept her pace and mind pointed forward. In the daylight, what she witnessed while making her way through the woods fed the dread that had greeted her the night before. Trees still towered above her, yet without the vibrant colors that Silvia remembered so fondly. The Fayewoods mostly consisted of small creatures that scurried away from her as she passed. The bushes and flowers that would once reach out with tickling stems to tease her felt even more inanimate than the common weeds of her world. A vast gray hue hung over everything she came across, tainting all that was once filled with so much life and energy. All that seemed left was nothing more than a melancholic ghost, a husk of its former, beautiful self.

Once she finally reached the set dirt path that Paul told her she would find, Silvia breathed a relieved sigh and started in the direction she was given to head South. Her backpack weighed heavy against her shoulders, filled with the supplies that Paul had packed for her, along with everything else she had brought with her to school the previous day. The pack hung against her back and seemed to tap her with each step.

Silvia kept a close eye out for any sign of the haven along the path. The woods that it cut through were dreadfully barren, though Silvia did take note of how much taller the trees were getting the farther she went. A short rustle of a bush stopped her. She looked toward it to catch the shifting of a few branches and nothing else. She fell quiet and watchful, as did the world in which she had stepped. She began again slowly before hearing a soft snicker trailing through the brush around her. She stopped again.

"Hello?" Silvia asked. After the night that she experienced, Silvia became immediately compelled to run. As ready as she was to do so, she stayed in place. The Featherlands had become eerily unfamiliar to the young queen. She knew running at every little noise would only serve to keep it that way. "Hello?" Another pause lingered. The silence was forced by whatever it was that wanted to stay concealed. Silvia adjusted the backpack and looked around. "If there's anyone there… I mean no harm. My name is Silvia. I am… I was Queen Silvia… Queen of the Featherlands… a long time ago."

"Queen?" A soft voice chimed out. Silvia turned toward it. On the edge of the path, a small blue pixie hung off of a tree branch. She was no bigger than an average kitten from Silvia’s world and wore a cobalt collection of flower petals as a dress. A pair of insceteous wings fluttered rapidly from her back. Her eyes were wider than a human's compared to the size of her head. Blue hair glittered in the sunlight. She and Silvia exchanged a curious look with one another. "Queenie queenie queen?"

"Er, yes," Silvia said, inching closer. "A long time ago. Do you know where the fairy haven is? Sprite’s Hollow? I need to speak with the fairy queen."

"Queen queen," the pixie said.

"Yes, the queen-queen," Silvia said. The pixie let go of the branch. Her fluttering wings carried her closer to Silvia, floating right in front of her face. The small gusts from her wings teased Silvia’s nose and cheeks. Light clouds of sparkling dust sprinkled off of her. The pixie came closer still as Silvia backed away.

“Play?” the pixie asked. Silvia’s brows furrowed. She paused.

“Uh, n-no, I don’t really have time,” Silvia said. She adjusted the bag on her back, pushing it up her shoulders. The pixie turned back toward the tree from which she had appeared.

“Play play!” the pixie called out. From the bush branches of leaves, another pixie emerged. She was nearly identical to the cobalt pixie except wearing a glittery parakeet shaded gown and matching green hair. Her wings, similar to the dragonfly-like style of the other’s, fluttered and lifted her off the branch. She too flew over to Silvia, inspecting the girl right in front of her face.

“Oh, uh, he-hello,” Silvia said, taking a step back. “U-um, do you have names?” The two pixies looked at each other.

“Play play?” the green pixie asked. The blue pixie smiled and nodded.

“Play play!” she said.

“Really, I don’t have time,” Silvia started again. “I have to get to-” The pixies’ wings beat faster as the two circled around Silvia. They coiled the girl in opposite directions, far too quickly for Silvia to keep up with where they were. The sparkles that beat off of the pixies’ wings started to linger in the air. Trails of the dust shimmered from their tightly knit flight paths in the sunlight. As it floated down to touch her arm, Silvia clenched up and started to giggle. “Heehehey!”

“Play play!” the cobalt pixie exclaimed. The sparkles glistened on Silvia’s arm as they teased her with tickles against an otherwise non-ticklish area. She kept giggling and scratched at the spot.

“Okahahay okaaahahahay,” Silvia laughed. As she itched the spot, more of the ticklish sparkles began raining down on her bare skin. The pixies continued to circle her, giggling their small, mischievous laughter. They flew more and more of the dust onto her, getting all over her arms, neck, and face. Soon after, Silvia’s laughter rose to a streaming chuckle. The affected areas simply tickled more than they itched. The impulse to scratch faded as her own ticklish mirth began to take over. “Eekkheeheeheeehhahaha!”

“Queenie queen play!” said the blue pixie. The tickles seemed to seep into her skin and race through the rest of her body. Silvia tried to brush the sparkles off, but nothing stopped the tickles from soaking in and growing worse. Still just as ticklish as she remembered she was from her childhood, Silvia hugged herself and squirmed, shaking her head against the tickles that covered her ears and nose. The pixies laughed at her squeaky expressions and cherubic tone to her giggles. They floated above her, watching her endure the ticklish effects of their dust.

“Heeheehahaha! Knahahack it off!” Silvia said. She playfully swatted at the pixie’s who dodged her hands with more snickering. Memories of her time in the Featherlands collided with the magical ticklishness that coursed through her. In the pixies’ playtime, she was ten again, full of energy and blissful innocence. She heard her old laughter in the chuckles that escaped her lips. Silvia continued to swat at the pixies in play, recalling the games that she used to play with the Featherland inhabitants. The pixies humored her attempts and antagonized her with more tickly dust sprinkled on top of her. As she reached up to swat again, the green pixie managed to catch her hand. She wrapped her arms around Silvia’s wrist, holding it up above her hand as she hovered. Silvia tried to pull it back, but the pixie demonstrated a strength that Silvia had not been expecting. The pixie’s fortitude in staying airborne kept Silvia from being able to pull her hand back. Both pixies snickered to one another.

“Play play?” the green pixie asked in their almost squeaky, diminutive pitch.

“Play play!” the blue pixie called out. She flew down Silvia’s arm, slipping into her sleeve. The pixie appeared to adjust in size through a cloud of more sparkles. She fit snugly in Silvia’s sleeve, positioned in front of Silvia’s vulnerable armpit. Silvia could still hear the blue pixie snickering to herself when a new wave of tickles surged through her body.

“No, no, nooaaahhhhhahahahahaa!!’ Silvia cried out. The blue pixie pressed both of her hands into Silvia’s pit. Her fingers wildly scribbled the tender, slick skin. Silvia shrieked with laughter. She squirmed and twisted in the tight hold that the green pixie had on her wrist. Even in her ticklish fever, Silvia’s strength could not match that of the pixie’s flying above her, giggling gleefully at her reactions.

“Play play!” the green pixie said cheerfully. Silvia shook her head, her face contorting from the tickles streaming through her.

“Naaaahahahahahahaooo!! Nahahahaooo play plaahahahahay!!” Silvia laughed. She tried reaching around with her other hand to bat the pixie out of her shirt, but the slippery creature continued to evade, keeping her ticklish assault against the girl’s pit ongoing. Faster and faster, the pixie scribbled her tiny fingers all over the spot. The fluttering of her wings added to the ticklish effect, leaving Silvia struggling to stay upright while laughing. Her knees buckled. Silvia squeaked with wild giggles. The tickles concentrated on the one spot only grew less and less bearable, made worse by the pixies’ impish giggling.

“Tickle tickle, queenie-queen!” the green pixie chanted, holding strong onto Silvia’s wrist. As Silvia started to slip free from the pixie’s grasp, her wings fluttered harder still. Silvia’s arm grew taut, more pressure being put on her wrist and arm. As she laughed through the tickles flooding through her body from the single pit, her feet started lifting up off the ground. Silvia looked down. Higher and higher she started to rise. As weightlessness overcame her feet until they no longer touched the ground at all, wiggling in the air just as the rest of her body.

“Naahahahahooo! Noooaaahahaha!!” Silvia cried out. The pixies sang their delight at her ticklish panic through their own unsympathetic laughter. The green pixie continued to pull Silvia up higher while the blue added her own ticklish dust to the effects tormenting Silvia’s delicate armpit.

“Tickle tickle, play play!” the blue pixie snickered. Leaving the dust behind to continue playing with the pit, the blue pixie fluttered away beneath Silvia’s shirt. She circled her body, making her way downward. Silvia giggled and cried out as she kept rising higher, kicking her feet in the air. The blue pixie came to Silvia’s slender belly from under her shirt. She lifted the end of her top and peeked up at Silvia. The pixie shot her a mischievous grin. “Tickle tickle, queenie…”

“Naahahahaooo, pleeheaassee!” Silvia pleaded. The pixie shot out her tongue before ducking back underneath the shirt. She examined Silvia's belly, pulsing through her panicking giggles. She poked a single spot to elicit a perking shriek from the girl. “Eeeek! Nahahat there!” The blue pixie laughed. Playfully, she poked another spot, and then another, and another, each making Silvia’s shrieks louder and more giggly. Silvia twisted in the air, still trying to use her other hand to keep the pixie from getting to her belly. The pixie nimbly dodged each with a flurry of her own toying laughter. She scattered her dust all over Silvia’s sensitive belly until the whole surface began to sparkle.

“Queenie like play play!” the green pixie exclaimed. The other pixie added her scribbling fingers to Silvia’s soft, bare stomach, exacerbating the ticklish dust spread around it. Silvia’s cries of laughter grew louder and squeaky in pitch. Her face stayed locked in the contorted expression of ticklish hysteria. Her cheeks began to darken with flush. The blue pixie scribbled all of her tiny fingers across the surface of Silvia’s belly, pulsing with her laughter. While the pixie’s glitter also added its own ticklish effects, the sprite herself explored the area for the perfect tickle spots, the spots from which she heard the most enjoyable laughter. She savored the reaction she found from all over before moving down to Silvia’s navel. Small and able to come close, it was shallow with a little bulb inside, dancing with the rest of her stomach.

“Naaaaahahahahahaooo!! Pleehahahsssee let me gooaaahhahah!” Silvia squealed. The blue pixie giggled, her fluttering wings beating soft tickles against Silvia’s stomach. Her hands rubbed around Silvia’s defenseless navel. Her skin was supple and quivered as every little touch tickled against the sensitizing dust. Her belly exuded a subtle humidity beneath her shirt. The pixie playfully began rubbing the outer rim of her belly button. Her small nails scribbled just within the shallow hollow. Silvia let out a shrill scream before falling back into a fit of laughter.

“Coochie coochie queenie queen!” the green pixie added. The melodious laughter of both pixies rang like wind chimes. Silvia twisted in the air. Even as her other hand tried covering up her belly, the blue pixie stayed locked in place. Her tiny fingers scribbled and scratched within the inner walls of her belly button. She poked and clawed at the singular spot, increasingly maddening tickles blooming outward. No matter how Silvia squirmed or patted at her stomach, nothing stopped the flood of tickles from coursing through her.

“Neeeeeeeeehhhhehehehehahhahah!!! Stahahahahap!! Geheheheet out!!” Silvia shouted. The green pixie carried her higher toward the tree tops. Silvia’s voice echoed through the surrounding brush, endless in all directions.

“Play play!” the green pixie called out. Her voice carried through the trees as well. It resonated like a song through the woods, carried on the scales of the wind. Through the trees, and her own watery eyes, Silvia began making out more colors. Orange sparkled out from the bushes below. Pink glowed from the canopies, fluttering closer. Yellow peeked out of a foxhole and weaved through branches to come nearer. Their own ringing giggles added to the other two pixies, surrounding Silvia in chimes and sparkling colors.

“Play play?” asked the short-haired pink pixie. The blue pixie poked her head out from beneath Silvia’s shirt, smiling and waving at the others.

“Play play!”

“No, naahahaha!!” Silvia begged, still enduring the effects of the dust. The yellow pixie shyly fluttered up to the green, wrapping her arms around Silvia’s wrist.

“Play play” she said, her voice faint, the whisper of a breeze. The green pixie nodded and flew down Silvia’s body.

“Nahahahaooo!” Silvia cried. “Nahahao more, pleehehease!” The yellow pixie added her sparkling dust to the rest, raining down on top of her to worsen the ticklish sensations soaking into her skin. Silvia twisted and giggled louder. Her cheeks, covered with several glittery colors, burned and glowed their own shade of red. Her hand feebly grasped, her feet kicking in the air. The pixies all giggled as they watched her endure the dust covering her. The pink and orange pixies added theirs as well to Silvia’s ears and nose. Silvia swatted at them as they flew by. She landed a soft hit against the green pixie, who flew back to the blue pixie and rubbed where she had been hit in the nose.

“Oww, bad queenie,” the green pixie said.

“Bad bad queenie queen,” the blue pixie added. She leaned over to the green pixie and whispered something in her ear that brought an eager smile to her face.

“Play play!” the green pixie shouted.

“Play play!” the blue one announced. The remaining four flew off in different directions circling Silvia midair. They flew too quickly for Silvia to keep up with until she started to feel them. The pink pixie fluttered down to slip under the tail end of her shirt where the blue one had been previously. The orange pixie slipped into Silvia’s raised sleeve to greet her stretched, exposed armpit. The green and blue pixies nearly vanished completely, but it took little time for Silvia to learn where they had gone.

“No no nooooaaaaahhhhhahahahaahahahaa!!!” Silvia shrieked. A sudden flurry of tickles raged against both of her feet from within her shoes. From what she could feel, the pixies had managed to fit beneath her socks as well, scribbling their fingers all over her helpless bare soles. She kicked her feet wildly in the air, but both pixies were trapped well within where she could only endure their playful torment.

“Coochie coo!” the orange pixie taunted. She released all ten scribbling fingers against Silvia’s bare pit. The mound was slick and effectively sensitized by the dust still covering it. The pink pixie giggled. She ducked down beneath Silvia’s shirt and added more of her own sparkling, tickling dust to Silvia’s belly. She rubbed it all over with her deviously tickling fingers. Her fluttering wings tickled the skin around her and helped soak the glitter in more quickly.

“NNNNNAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!” Silvia cried out in an explosion of laughter.

Her skin shimmered in the sunlight above the trees, each little gimmer its own tickling itch sensitizing her already ticklish skin. The dust tickled more and more as it compounded, made infinitely worse by the pixies’ clawing nails teasing it in. It caked into her armpit where the orange pixie danced her nails all over the tender spot. Many coats soaked into her belly where the pink pixie scratched away at her navel and used her wings to tickle the radius surrounding it. The green and blue pixies made quick work of her feet. Both had been covered in their own coats of sensitizing dust, the glitter veiling all over her soles and around each of her toes. Their fingers and wings frantically tortured the girl’s poor feet, growing more and more sensitive the more dust pulsed from the pixies’ ticklish havoc.

“Play play all day!” The orange pixie shouted while the rest giggled and cheered. None of them showed any signs of letting up. Being as tall as the trees that surrounded her, with nothing to grab onto, Silvia could only hang and endure the hysteria lest she suffer a drop that would end her journey prematurely.

Silvia’s laughter grew louder and more shrill. Her desperate cries bellowed over the treetops. Her eyes watered, tears dripping down her rosy cheeks. She begged through her laughter before running out of energy to produce either. Her cries became hard, aching gasps of air.

“Play play!” the yellow pixie shouted, her voice carrying all through the surrounding woods. Through her laughter, Silvia heard the trees begin to rustle and shake. Twigs cracked. Branches shifted. A mass fluttering of wings began to buzz higher into the sky. Her eyes widened as she witnessed an entire spectrum of twinkling colors coming her way. Every shade, every hue, whole palettes charged toward her. Two had become five and five swiftly became dozens, hundreds. Countless tiny voices chimed with laughter, chanting ‘play play’ as they drew nearer.

Silvia managed a scream, a helpless plea for help. Behind closed eyes, the shining of all the colors, illuminating and glistening, was still nearly blinding. She felt the hundreds of tiny pixies draw nearer, circling her in the air. They giggled. They grinned. Some chanted ‘play play’ while Silvia could hear others repeat ‘queenie queen’. Still, she braced herself. The glittery dust would coat her whole body again and again and again until any slight breeze would feel like thousands of tickling fingers. Silvia thrashed and shook helplessly in the air.

“NOOOOAAAAHAHAHAHAAHAH!!!! STAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAPPPPP!!!” Silvia begged. The pixie, finding encouragement and amusement in her reactions, could contain themselves no further. They descended upon her. Dozens at a time, they came in waves. They managed to work onto every inch of her, clothed or not, until every ticklish nerve was theirs with which to torment. More fit beneath her shirt while school after school of pixies came after her feet beneath her shoes and socks. Silvia let out one last piercing, laughing scream before the sudden overload of stimulation proved to be her mercy.

When she finally opened her eyes, she found doing so far harder than it ever had been. Her eyelids pulsed with aching pain, a pain that resonated through her entire head. She looked up into darkness. Cool air brushed her lips. The pixies had vanished, their giggles and insidious tickles faded into a dreamish memory. She turned her head to find it resting against a pillow. More examination revealed candlelight illuminating a room. Her head throbbed. As she sat up, it pulsed. Silvia let out a sharp groan, her hand shaking.

“Hey, hey, d-don’t push yourself,” a voice echoed in her head. A soft hand guided her back down. Silvia gave no resistance in letting her head fall back against the pillow. She looked up at a figure sitting next to her.

“W… wha…. where…?”

“Hush now,” the voice said again, “and rest. Those fluffin’ pixies really did a number on you.”

As Silvia’s vision and mind started to clear, she began making out features of her company. She had sandy brown fur covering every part of her body that Silvia could see. All down her arms and to the hand that cradled her head. Two patches of whiskers splayed out from her cheeks. Her nose was pink and triangular, as were the ears that stood up atop her head. Her eyes were large with shimmering black marquise slivers resting atop cyan pools. A tail rose from behind her, wafting side to side. Silvia stared back, her brows furrowing.

“Wh-where… is this?” Silvia asked.

“Underground,” said the cat girl, checking her eyes and preparing a cool cloth with a smile. “Sprite’s Hollow. It’s pretty much all that’s left of the old Featherlands. You’ve been gone a long time, your majesty. Welcome home.”