Return to the Featherlands: Chapter 13 (Patreon)

In the dragging fear for what was to come, Silvia’s mind still managed to torture her with memories of her sister’s stories. She remembered the trolls, the Howlers, the river beast. Of them, no matter how many times she told the tale, she always hated going over the thing with the spiders the most. Lilly despised telling it and Silvia was fine not hearing it. However, while being caught and dragged in a tight, unbreaking web up into the high canopies, surrounded by the raspy cackling and the unnerving scurrying of many legs around her, she knew she would not be able to skip the chapter for herself.

“Let me go!” Silvia demanded. She squirmed and tried to grab onto any branch that would allow her to pull herself free. Silvia reached for her dagger, but found it not on her person. She saw it glimmer next to her bag as she looked back to her last view of the ground through the branches. She tried to slip the boot off entirely, but found more webbing securing it to her calf. She knew such protection would not last long in the dense Badland environment.

“You’re ours now, queenie,” said Deborah. She darts through the branches, dragging Silvia along with her. Her eight legs clicked as they scurried about, latching onto the wood and carrying Silvia higher and higher. Silvia squirmed in the webbing. She grunted and struggled, trying all the energy that she had long spent attempting to break out. The binds were as thin as silk, yet stuck to her skin like glue, compounding to make a material stronger than any fabric she had ever worn. The higher she got, the weaker her efforts became, fearing being unable to survive the fall that would result.

“Gah, no!” Silvia cried out. “Just let me go! Please!” Through the branches and leaves, she caught silhouettes of other Spinnerettes. They were smaller and all different shapes. Some had longer legs than others while more were fitted with a much sturdier build. Silvia recalled Lilly sharing the story about the three that she and Erica encountered, from whom they barely escaped, not an entire brood. The others around her were playing with their own victims. Some were fairies that had been kept around for much longer than the day. Others were Scrawls captured from the ambush. All howled with laughter as the beasts toyed with their senses, tickling and teasing them into absolute mental and physical oblivion.

“Oh, no, no, no, you’re not going anywhere,” Deborah answered back, still climbing higher. “We have much to discuss.” Silvia’s efforts to escape became scouring the treetops looking for Paul. She could barely distinguish faces in the dark, only body types. The Scrawls were covered in thick fur from leg to snout while the fairies were daintier in figure and gave off small clouds of sparkling dust as they bellowed their ticklish laughter. None of them appeared to be young human boys, flailing and shrieking into the night. The cacophony of laughter created a shrill bellowing from the trees, a cry that echoed throughout the lands not unlike a warning to all those that would dare question the ferocity of the Badlands. The Spinnerettes, from what Silvia knew, were first line defenders, a wave that most never saw past.

Deborah dragged Silvia up toward a distinct clearing at the top of the tallest tree. It was a meticulously crafted nest. The walls were circular surrounding her, all shaped from branches and leaves. The night sky shone through the top. The forest floor had vanished beneath a bed of branches and silk, trapping Silvia in another new world from which escape seemed unlikely. The chamber was larger than any of the other alcoves that Silvia passed, a relative throne room for who she assumed had been granted the title of Spinnerette matriarch. The two were alone, though more devious arachnid creatures and other lingering Spinnerettes were not far.

“Where is Paul?” Silvia blurted out. She thought of little else as she pulled at the silk binding her leg. She continued to struggle, but Deborah’s size and strength was comparable to her memories of Tickela. “I don’t care what you do to me, but let him go! You have nothing against him.”

“You know so little,” Deborah sneered. Her voice was raspy and clicked through a pair of fangs. She worked swiftly to latch strands of silk onto Silvia’s wrists. She pulled them apart before hoisting them into the air in the center of her room. Silvia twisted and pulled. She dangled and kicked her legs, She grunted as she did what she could to claw her way out, only further sticking her skin to the webbing. “A product of your absence, I presume.”

“I asked you a question!” Silvia barked. She steadied her voice, fighting back against the trembling fear that coursed through her mind as she stared down the monstrous spider woman. “As your queen, I demand that you tell me where Paul is! What have you done with him?” Deborah exploded into a wave of cackling laughter. It echoed out above all the others bursting through the treetops.

“You give no demands here,” Deborah said. “And you are no queen. Not anymore.” The massive beast stayed close by, her figure dwarfing Silvia's still dangling like captured prey. The darkness shrouded Deborah’s features, but her stare pressed down on the back of Silvia’s neck. A sickness stirred in her stomach. She pulled and pulled at the webbing holding her up, but could gain no leverage from which to tear herself free.

“I… I don’t care about what’s happened,” Silvia said. “I can offer plenty of explanations for why I wasn’t around if you want to handle this diplomatically, but right now, I am still your queen and I demand that you release me and Paul at once!”

“My dear, you waste your breath,” Deborah said. “Breath that will be spilled for more treasurable means.” Her voice was snide and seemed to rustle with the wind that shifted the branches together. Silvia could never catch a clear glimpse of her, but Deborah’s leering glare remained ever present. Her spider-like legs tapped and scurried about. Her hands, equipped with long, prickled claws, traced across her body. Even down her back, and through the tunic, Deborah’s touch left her squirming with tickles.

“You’re going to… torture us?” Silvia asked softly.

“My dear, would you expect anything else?” Deborah replied. “For the others, it’s simply my sisters and I enjoying a calm, pleasant feast of their energy, but you… you, Silvia, the fallen queen… are a special case.”

“How so?” Silvia asked, hoping to con the beast into talking to keep stalling the inevitable.

“You are quite popular, it seems,” Deborah continued. “News of your return has spread rather impressively. To have the fallen Featherland Queen in one's captivity is a notable accomplishment.”

“Nice to feel wanted,” Silvia said, forcing a smirk.

“Oh, indeed, especially by the kind of company that has invested interest in your return,” Deborah said. She circled around Silvia overtop before scurrying across the underside of the web below her. Silvia frantically peered around for anything that might help break her free.

“Yeah?” Silvia asked. “Like who?

“I suppose you should know the situation,” Deborah said with a slight chuckle. “Won’t make a difference, but may answer what your fate may become. The Badland Queen, the current queen of the Featherlands.” Silvia’s brows furrowed. She continued to tug against the webbing that felt to be tightening with each violent pull.

“Nysadia?” Silvia asked.

“Oh, so you have heard,” Deborah said. Below where Silvia hung, the spider beast spun large circular tunnels of webbing, two just below her legs. Silvia looked down to her faded figure beneath the floor of silk.

“So I’ve heard,” Silvia said. “But that still doesn’t make sense to me. Why would Nysadia go through so many lengths to keep me out if she wanted me so badly?”

“It matters not,” Deborah said. “You have gotten her full attention. Had you any sense whatsoever, you would have turned and fled back to your world. But you have instead made yourself a particularly valuable bargaining chip, one that has fallen right into my possession.” A hole formed beneath Silvia’s leg. A string of webbing shot out from one of the tunnels, capturing the limb up to the knee. Silvia gasped and tried to struggle free, but the strand of silk pulled Silvia’s leg down into the tunnel of webbing.

“Aaaahhh!!” Silvia shrieked. Deborah strung up Silvia’s leg inside the tunnel, closing it off right at her ankle. She tore away Silvia’s boot, letting the web stick to her bare skin and cutting her foot out of her view. Her toes curled as she continued to pull at the limb. She strained and struggled to tear the leg from its sticky bondage, but the ankle barely so much as budged from its position.

“Why you’ve come, what foolish reason you once had for returning, shall now serve as a tomb of regret for your fate,” Deborah said, cutting another hole beneath Silvia’s other leg. She retracted it as high as she could, but several of Deborah’s long, hairy legs latched onto it with prickly hooks. Deborah jerked it down into the other tunnel before tearing off the girl’s boot and closing it too around her bare ankle. “Your reason is now, and will forever be, as a ticklish puppet for the Featherland Arthros, the soon-to-be ruling race.”

"No, please!" Silvia cried out, tugging at the webbed binding. "Please just let us go and… I'll… as queen, I'll give the Arthros anything. Please." Deborah emerged from beneath Silvia, looming closely directly behind her. Silvia tried to turn to see, but a sudden surge of erupting tingles exploded through body from her outstretched armpits. "No, please, plea-whaaaaaaahhahahahahaaahaa!!!"

"As I've said, fallen queen, your freedom has nothing left to offer anyone," Deborah said, her spiny fingers spinning into a scribbling frenzy against Silvia's slender, exposed pits. Silvia’s laughter joined all the others, positioned inside the top-most web. Her back arched, her face clenching with an unbearable fit of laughter. Deborah’s fingers, human in design yet still covered with fine, stiff hairs, scribbled feverishly against her slick, supple pits.

“Geeeeehhhhehehehehhahahahaaaaaa!!” Silvia squealed with laughter. Her hands clenched into fists. Her eyes tightened shut. She shook her head as the tickles, worsening as they compounded by the second, flooded through her entire body. She twisted side to side in her webbing, only able to shift in minimal degrees with more webbing keeping her legs trapped and pulled taut. Deborah stayed behind Silvia as she tickled. The beast chuckled with a deep, sinister laugh. She drank in the ticklish energy flowing through her fingers endlessly scribbling into the girl’s pits.

“Your laugh… I hear your sister in it,” Deborah said. “It is flavorful nourishment. I shall have a bountiful harvest of it while I punish you for her transgressions.” Dozens of tiny hairs scraped against Silvia’s armpits. They danced through the tender hollows, leaving behind tingling barbs that continued to tickle on their own. Within seconds, both of Silvia’s underarm dips, shivering as she twisted hysterically, were set ablaze with pulsing tingles. Laughter poured from the girl’s lips. She screamed into the night sky, her voice joining all of the others in a howling symphony of ticklish torment.

“Naaaaaahahahhahahahaaaa!” Silvia cried out. “Staaaahahahahaaaap! Plehehehehahahasse!!” She continued to pull at her arms and legs, if only through involuntary reactions. Her efforts gained her not a single moment of hope for escape. The small girl thrashed her head side to side. Her hair flung and tangled about, several strands getting caught in more webbing around her. Deborah merely chuckled. Her prickly hands tickled with an expert touch, yet still noticeably lazy while she continued to taunt the Featherland queen.

“Your journey ends here, pitiful queen,” Deborah whispered into Silvia’s ear. “Your service to the Featherlands will forever be as a slave for the Arthros. You will help us gain control over the entire Featherlands and recognize me as the new, rightful queen.” Her fingers did not stop. They scribbled and skittered over the same spots against Silvia’s plush, slick pits over and over again. The spiny barbs that they left behind tickled on their own when agitated by her touch, making the tickles exponentially worse by the second. Still, her fingers dug into the soft mounds. Every little scratch sent flurries of bursting through Silvia’s body, surging in from both sides and crashing in the center.

“Gaaaaaaahhhhhhahhahahahaaa!!! Nnnhheeeeehehehhahahaaaaa!!!” Silvia bucked and flailed in the webbing like a small bug fighting for its life. The day had long since worn her down, but Deborah’s tickling fingers were painfully emphasizing her exhaustion. She groaned and wailed through her laughter. The small girl shrieked. Tears began trickling down her cheeks. Her chest and jaw ached from the laughter. Her arms and legs grew tired of pulling at her binds, yet continued to do so. Deborah laughed at her efforts. Even behind her, Deborah’s glee was not lost on Silvia; a tease in of itself.

“I’m so glad you decided to join us,” Deborah said, her fingers slowly coming to a stop. Even after they drew back from Silvia's skin, Silvia could still feel the spines left over from her touch. They tickled as they shifted against the cool, night wind. Not as much as her direct touch, but enough to keep Silvia giggling long after. “Your return should prove quite useful to us in the long run.”

“S-sahaaoo… you’re not g-eeheheeheeeee-going to… give me to Nysaaahahaadia?” Silvia asked through her giggles. Deborah’s legs clicked and tapped directly behind Silvia. The girl’s heart raced as the monstrous creature came out in front of her. A large, prickly hand stroked across Silvia’s face and cheek. Deborah’s stare bore into her, reducing her composure with a surge of anxiety and terror.

“That all depends on the final price,” Deborah said, her voice more clear directly in front of Silvia than it had been. Silvia looked up through strands of frayed hair. A wide smile rested across the beast’s face. She stood much taller than Silvia, even when bent down on all eight legs. A humanoid upper body hovered over Silvia’s trembling form. Deborah reached down and lofted the end of Silvia’s tunic just far enough to expose her belly and bottom half of her ribs. Silvia shook her head as she tried to catch her breath through fleeting giggles still escaping her lips. “And… how well we can convince you to comply and make yourself useful to us…”

"N-no, plehehehease… plehehase don’t…” Silvia begged. Plehehase, I’m shaharry… I’m sorry-eeeeeeeeekkk!!! Heheehhahahahahaaaaa!” A new flurry of tickles exploded through her body as Deborah’s fingers found their ways down to her bare stomach. They rushed across her soft, tender skin in a scribbling frenzy. They were large enough to reach wide amounts of surface area, almost enveloping her whole stomach with a single hand. Her fingers spun with wild scratches in small, concentrated spots, shifting with unpredictable motions across her midsection. Silvia looked down, yet through her teary gaze, saw only the beast's talons locked in a ticklish fray against her belly.

"Your sister belonged to me," Deborah commented as she worked her fingers across the surface of Silvia's stomach. "I will not be made a fool of again. You are mine, human, and you will remain mine until your use to me runs dry." Silvia’s body bucked and flailed with the tickles that raged through it. Waves upon waves of maddening tingles flushed through her stomach. The tickling commanded more and more of her senses. It ravished through her nerves and dominated her erratic, feeble movements.

"Gaaaaaahhhahhahahahaaaa!!! Pleehehahahassee!! I caaahahahahaan't!!!" Silvia screamed with laughter. Tears poured down her cheeks. Her face burned as her chest ached more and more. Sweat cloaked her body. In her webbed binds, the Featherland queen could only laugh and beg. Her mind strained to formulate coherent thoughts, anything beyond recognizing the tickles that furiously monopolized her mental faculties. Deborah’s giggles resonated around her, piercing through her own laughter. The beast's fingers spread about the slender region to Silvia's sides. She began squeezing up and down between Silvia's ribs and hips, leaving the girl shrieking with teary-eyed laughter.

"Surrender yourself to us, fallen queen, and you may serve a role with periodic moments of mercy," Deborah muttered. "Resist and you will suffer long after you will have forgotten the meaning of the word 'mercy'." Her fingers stretched the entire lengths of Silvia's sides. Every gnawing squeeze rocketed surges of tickles through the girl's flailing body. More fine, tickly hairs scattered across her core. They bore into her, attacking the very nerves within her skin with direct stimulation.

"Gaaaaahahahahahaaaa!!! Stahahahahap!!! I’m saaahahahahahaarry!!" Silvia squealed. She shook her head more, her hair getting further tangled into the surrounding webbing. She pulled harder and harder at her limbs within their sticky, silken traps. Silvia heaved to try and maintain her breathing. Her laughter echoed out, many fits seeping through tearful wails. Deborah continued to chuckle at her ticklish suffering. She sneered, her fingers shifting into frantic scribbling up and down the girl's ticklish sides.

"You are ours now, pitiful queen," Deborah said. "You will dance and sing for us. You will serve us, obey orders, and suffer for our amusement. Or be made into just another ticklish feast for my kin for the rest of your days." Deborah shifted her touch up to Silvia’s ribs. Her fine, prickled hairs brushed from her fingers across the delicate ridges. A steady, yet gushing stream of tickles rushed through Silvia’s body. Everywhere that Deborah touched became riddled with the spurs that reached her very nerves. Her body was a vessel for tickles, one that was quickly filling to its brim.

“Naaaahahahhahahaaa!! Ohhh gahahahahad staahahahahaaaap!” Silvia’s voice broke as she shrieked. Her body grew weak and tired from the constant thrashing. The tickling puppeteered her body into mad fits beyond her control until she began to fall limp in her binds, her body submitting in its exhaustion. Still, her laughter flooded the canopy. Drops of tears and sweat rained below her figure. She heaved deep breaths, her chest pounding and begging for relief. Still, she held onto herself. Silvia refused to let go of her entire constitution, remaining strong, but wavering quickly. Deborah snickered. She skittered her fingers up and down Silvia’s bare ribs, counting each with mad, rapid strokes of her hairs.

“There is still hope left in those eyes,” Deborah said. “Allow me the pleasure of watching it fade.” She danced her touch up and down Silvia’s ribs, back down to her sides, and returned again. Over and over, her prickled fingers scraped against Silvia’s soft, delicate skin. Each little stroke sent abrasions of tickles throughout her body, devouring as well her mind. She scribbled across Silvia’s figure with full abandon to the girl’s plight. The beast soaked in the ticklish energy, savoring it like sweet, nutritional nectar. Again and again, her fingers scoured over the same spots, leaving more prickly hairs behind to fiddle and torment her ticklish nerves all on their own.

“Gaaaaaahhhhahahahahaaa! Nahhahahahaaa!! I’m saaahahahahahahaaoooo ticklishhshhahahahaha!!!” Silvia cried out. Even after all that she had been through from her trip back to the Featherlands, her ticklishness still seemed to come as a surprise. It worsened with the very air that encompassed the Featherlands. Back home, she remembered being marginally ticklish, just as much as when she was a little girl, but since stepping foot back into the strange, escapist home of hers, her sensitivity to even the slightest of touches came much more potent than she recalled. Silvia slumped in her webbing. Her body twisted slightly, but ultimately surrendered to her ticklish fate. She held on strongly, but knew that her mind would not be far behind.

“Awwww, is that regret I smell from the poor, pathetic queen?” Deborah commented. “There is sorrow in your voice. Melancholy. Delicious defeat. Surrender in full to your life’s new purpose and you shall once again feel a sense of fulfillment, knowing your service to us will help us conquer this land once and for all.” Her massive hands returned to Silvia’s belly. They brushed and danced along the slick, soft surface, irritating the ticklish spines left behind in her skin. Deborah laughed. She sucked down the anguished cries of the fallen queen, tasting the fruit of Silvia’s misfortune. The beast slipped a single fingertip into the girl’s navel. Silvia managed a shriek and a sudden jolt before giving herself over to a new fit of hysteria.

“NEEEAAAAAAHHHHAHAHHAHAHAAAAA!!!! GAAAHAHAHAHAAHAA STAHAHAHAP!!!” Silvia shouted. She twisted and screamed with new energy. Tears and sweat shot off of her shaking head, her hair clinging to the sides of her face. Deborah scribbled away inside the shallow, plush cavern. She scratched and scraped and left behind more ticklish hairs with which to ensure her torment.

“Such a pathetic queen,” Deborah said. “You were never meant for that title. Look at the ruin you’ve created, even for yourself.” Silvia could still hear Deborah’s sneering words over her laughter. She Screamed to try and block them out, but could not deny the truth in her state. She cried. She thought back to Lilly and how she only wanted to ensure her safety. Her mind escaped her madness, if only for brief moments, to recall the love in Deidra’s eyes when she explained herself and the hope that she brought to the other Featherland refugees. Hope that would be unfulfilled should she truly remain under Deborah’s care. She pushed back against the tickles flooding through her. She fought to hold on strong, maintain herself in a way that would preserve some remnant of hope, but the night grew dark and she knew that hope might not survive until dawn.

“STAHAHAHHAHAHAAP!!! PLEEEAAHAHHAASEE!!!” Silvia shrieked. Deborah chuckled deeply at Silvia’s pleading. It was music, a delightful melody that she played herself with rapid scribbling of her finger inside Silvia’s delicate belly button. Her other hand ravished around her belly. It left no space across the ticklish canvass of Silvia’s midsection untainted with her touch. She leaned in close and soaked in the beautiful despair in Silvia’s crying laughter.

“Give in,” Deborah said. “You cast this fate for yourself the moment you returned.” The ticklish tempest raged on. It continued for what little Silvia could conceive of time. Waves upon waves crashed over one another inside her body. Slow, her figure became enveloped in the ticklish sensation. It was all that she could think about, all that she could perceive. It was the default experience of existing, one which brought her back to the torments that she blocked out from her confinement in the Badland Castle. Deborah continued to push the girl until her head began to swim and faint seemed to be her only means of escape. Just as Silvia was sure she would pass out, Deborah retracted her hands. The bristled hairs continued to tickle, but only so much to keep Silvia squirming. She groaned, for even in Deborah’s shallow act of restraint, she would not know true relief.

“W… wha… heheheeee… what do… you waaaahahant?” Silvia panted. Her head slumped forward. Her body trembled as she fought to catch her breath. She pushed back the tears, the dread, the gnawing idea that her journey had ended before it could truly begin. She held on with a slippery, sweaty grip to the notion that she could still escape, that she would still make it to rescue her sister. Deborah smirked. The beast pinched at Silvia’s chin, raising her gaze to meet her eyes.

“To break you,” Deborah said. “To make you accept your fate. To show what little hope has survived for the Featherlands that their queen has not only fallen, but betrayed them and given their home to their rightful rulers.” Silvia swallowed. Her teeth chattered as the cool rush of night shilled her damp figure. Yet, even in her fatigue, she gave Deborah’s attention a weak and noticeable laugh.

“Y-yeah, well… I was in Tickela’s possession for a while and never bent,” Silvia said. “What hope do you have to make me comply?” Deborah paused. She took a few stuttering steps back before reaching out and snapping her fingers.

“Your sister, like yourself, did not have the means to escape captivity alone,” Deborah said, a smile stretching across her face. “Without her companion’s cunning resilience, she would still be ours. Do you believe that yours is holding up so well?” Silvia watched as the nest around her began to stir. From the bottom, more of Deborah’s Spinnerettes chewed through the webbing. They made a hole through which to scurry into Deborah’s wide canopy nest. One entered and climbed up onto the ceiling, followed by another.

“About time,” one said. “Can’t keep the little queen to yourself forever.”

“I’m sure Deborah’s working wonders on the girl,” said the other. “Human’s like that don’t hold up well, after all. You can smell it on her.”

“No one likes a suck up,” replied the first. The two were not as large as Deborah. Their bulbous abdomen and legs were not as bulky and long. Their more familiar features boasted a younger, more energetic look, yet no less gruesome in the fear their stare invoked.

“What… what did you do?” Silvia muttered. Deborah chuckled while her sisters sat up to take notice.

“Oh, it still speaks,” one said. “I would have expected it to be sleeping or too busy laughing to talk.”

“Did you call us up here to help break it?”

“There will be plenty of time for that later, my sisters,” Deborah said. “I assure you, communal festivities have already been provoked. But for now, our queen here needs to see the futility in her resistance. Bring in the boy.” The Spinnerettes smirked and giggled among one another. Silvia shifted in her webbing.

“Wh-what did you do?” Silvia shouted. “What did you do to Paul?!”

“Goodness, so impatient.”

“Indeed. He’s coming. I think you’ll like his new look.”

More movement seemed to shift beneath the webbed flooring of the nest. Another Spinnerette climbed in through the hole. She carried with her a figure mostly cocooned in webbing. The feet were free, as was the core area, but Silvia could not make them out clearly until the head came into view. The webbing had Paul tightly bound, mummified with expert construction.  The web left his chest and armpits exposed, with his arms bent and bound over his shoulders. It coiled up and over the boy’s mouth, leaving only his nose and exhausted eyes free. Sweat trickled down from his hair. It was clear to Silvia that he had been through just as much, if not more, than she had being toyed with by Deborah.

“Let him go!” Silvia screamed through a raspy, withered voice. A furious energy made her thrash in her binds again. Her face glowed bright red, her eyes narrowing at the monsters that surrounded the two of them. She gnashed her teeth, shaking and pushing back the tears. The three new Spinnerettes simply laughed in response.

“Heh heh, awww, look at it giving demands, trying to save the boy…”


“As if it could save anyone, even if it wasn’t stuck up this high.”

“Poor helpless humans, always thinking that they can get the better of us.”

“They can,” Deborah interrupted. She shot the others a stern look, standing much taller than them. “Humans are clever and unpredictable. Let your guard down and they will get the better of you.” She turned back to Silvia, staring into her vexed eyes with a smile. “But not this time.”

“Y… you monster…” Saliva said. She swallowed and steadied her breath. “Pl-please… let him go. I’ll surrender. I’ll return here and be yours after I’m finished saving my sister if you just let him go.” The Spinnerettes burst into a fit of humorous cackles.

“As if we gain anything from that!”

“Yeah, Deborah here is going to make sure you submit anyway.”

“You have nothing to bargain with!”

“It is amusing, how much you try,” Deborah said. “I am glad, and frankly quite honored, to be able to break the resolve of the once Queen Silvia.” She came closer to Silvia, staring down at her. “So hold onto it for as long as you want. It’ll be just that much sweeter when you finally give yourself to me.”

“Not to mention how much she punishes her captured servants for resisting,” said another Spinnerette as she lifted the mummified Paul and attached him to the ceiling by a few reinforced strands of silk.

“Sure, take as long as you want, fake queen!”

“In the meantime, we’re going to play with your little boy here.”

“You said you wanted to see him,” Deborah added. “Now, you can watch him suffer for your foolishness.” Silvia’s heart raced. Paul's eyes fluttered and struggled to stay open. Without being able to see his mouth, his expression was reduced to merely defeated. The Spinnerettes around him took different positions. One bent down under him, another stayed up by his head, and the third down at his feet, his toes having been tied together and back by strands of webbing. Silvia pulled at her own bindings, grunting and shaking as she held back the more hysterical reactions.

"No!" Silvia shouted. "Please let him go!"

"Girls…" Deborah said. The others snickered. They raised their long, prickled fingers to the boy's exposed tickle spots. Within moments, the silent, still boy was thrashing and screaming muffled laughter against the silk that covered his mouth.

"MMMMGGGHHHHPPHHEHEHEHEHEEEHEHEEEEEHEEE!!" Paul screamed. All of the devious fingers scribbled against his skin at once. They scraped along the ridges of his belly. They dug into his soft, exposed pits. They flew freely against his soles, unable to do much more than twitch. Paul himself had his movements reduced to pitiful squirming. He shook his head slightly, his eyes tearing through the ticklish laughter pouring out of him.

"Aww, look how the strong human dances for us," said the beast scribbling her fingers along his quivering stomach.

"He sure put up quite the fight, but now he's just a pathetic, squealing grub like all the others," said the one scraping her fingertips up and down his trembling feet.

"I bet we can get them both to tell us where all the other delicious morsels are hiding," said the one raking her touch all over his slick, humid pits.

"In due time," Deborah said. "For now, savor, my sisters. Both these two alone will prove to be quite bountiful for all Featherland Arthros." She stayed close to Silvia. Silvia hung her head, her jaw still tightly gnashed together. Deborah grabbed Silvia just beneath her chin and forced her to observe Paul's thrashing figure endure the ticklish torment. "See that? This is because of you. Because you left the Featherlands defenseless. Because you decided to come back. Because you are powerless to save him or anyone. Every laugh, every scream, every passing second trapped in this agony, is because of you. Marvel at it. Take pride in your work."

"Stop this…" Silvia said. "Stop this right now. He's done nothing to you."

"He exists in the Featherlands," Deborah answered. "In time, it will be ultimately recognized that all who do belong to us. He needs no transgressions against us, he is ours simply because all are ours. As are you… and as will be your sister once again."

"You… you know where Lilly is?" Silvia asked.

"Shhh, hush now," Deborah said with a smile. "Just listen. You'll miss all the fun."

Paul howled muffled laughter into the silk, his voice cracking and wheezing for air. Even through the silk covering his mouth, Silvia could hear his manic laughter clearly. She was sure it was him. As her mind drifted to what Deborah knew about her sister, she could not distract herself enough from the torture occurring before her. Deborah held onto her face and forced her to watch the scene unfold. The beasts scribbled and scraped their ticklish strokes in concentrated bursts against his most vulnerable spots. They cackled and teased and gleefully tormented the boy bound in webbing much stronger than either him or Silvia.

"I love it when he screams," said the Spinnerette, spinning her talons into his armpits. His pits were slick with sweat. Tiny prickled hairs were still left over by her touch, making each little scratch more ticklish than the last. They ate at the nerves in the regions, boring deep within his skin. Having both tickled at once left Paul in a furious, ticklish state where the sensations burst from both sides of his body, colliding and blooming out across his entire upper half.

"MMMPPPGHHGGHHHHAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEEHEEEE!!!!" Paul laughed, tears pouring from his eyes. The creature in front of him dug mercilessly into his pits. She alternated between gard digging and light, feathery strokes, leaving the boy unable to predict even the slightest bit of his torment.

"I think he'll make for a popular addition to our collection," said the one at his belly. "Human males are always so much fun, but this one might be my favorite." She traced her fingers around the pulsing ridges of his abdominal structure. His muscles contracted and shifted endlessly with each rapid breath escaping his nose. She toyed with them, squeezing and gliding her touch across the sweaty surface of his skin.

"PPPHHHHHHHGGGHHHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEHHEHEEHEEE!!!" Paul cried out. He could only laugh and flail to the weakest of degrees. Suspended, with his arms and legs bound uselessly to the rest of his body, there was virtually nothing he could do to protect his most vulnerable regions, especially his stomach. The creature beneath him took full advantage, treating his belly like a ticklish canvas to be painted with her prickly hairs more and more with every swipe.

"I think he makes for a fine male specimen," said the Spinnerette down at the boy’s feet. "I could see this one being useful in expanding the hive, couldn't you?" She giggled as she focused all of her efforts on Paul's feet. She scribbled rapidly up and down from his heels to the base of his toes. Each little scratch sent flurries of tickles up from his sensitive, blushing soles. His feet squirmed in their binds, shifting against the web holding his toes feeblishly back.

"MMMMGGGHHHPPPHHEHEHEHEHEHEEEEHEHEEEEEEEE!!!" Paul screamed more and more with every swipe against his soles. They burned and tingled with the creature's impish delight. Her fingertips traced quickly across the supple surfaces. With complete disregard to the mind-melting torture each ticklish scratch sent through the boy’s body, the beast cackled as she scraped faster and faster, reducing his feet to glowing beacons of ticklish energy.

"What a wonderful idea," said the sister up by his head, still fluttering her fingertips deep into Paul's underarm hollows. Paul bucked and thrashed. His voice broke into crack and wails and faint sobs through his laughter. "Would her majesty like to observe the male proving its worth for the entire hive?"

"I'm sure it'll enjoy watching us dispose of the remains once the male has served its purpose," added the Spinnerette below Paul at his belly. She twisted a finger inside of his navel while squeezing up and down at his sides. The Spinnerettes cackled. They reveled in Paul's screeching anguish, the breaking of his mind and body.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Deborah commented softly enough for only Silvia to hear. "But we have all the time in the world to twist you both into faithful servants." Deborah let go of Silvia’s face. Her head fell to face down at the webbed floor. Tears pushed harder and harder against the backs of her eyes. The pressure built as the girl shivered in the cold night air, bombarded by Paul's shrieking cries.

"Pl… please…" Silvia said, sniffling through a blushing nose. "Please, just let him go… I can't be the reason for this…"

"Oh, but you are," Deborah said. "But if you'd like, I'll sweep those cares away by giving you something else to preoccupy that pretty little mind." Deborah grinned before darting off out of the nest. She scurried to just outside of it, gazing over the fiendish activity of all the other Spinnerettes of her hive. Upon seeing Deborah take her stand, they all either slowed or ceased their own ticklish feasts of more unfortunate captives.

"My sisters! We have, in our possession, the great Featherland Queen, Silvia," Deborah announced. "She who abandoned these lands. She who allowed the Featherlands to wallow in rot and corruption. Let us all welcome her as our newest forever morsel!" An aromatic mist escaped from Deborah's abdomen. It floated with the nightly breeze, favorably finding the receptors of the other engaged Spinnerettes. They all broke from their individual offerings and eagerly stormed up the central tree. Deborah grinned upon watching her kin eagerly approaching. She climbed back into her nest and demanded Silvia’s attention with a harsh claw beneath her chin once again.

“Just… let us rest,” Silvia spilled out. “Please, just give us that.”

“And you shall,” Deborah said, “when there are no sisters left to satisfy. Until then, you both will nourish and entertain them all.” Sudden vibrations beneath her legs alerted Silvia to the approach of the others rushing closer. Before her mind could fully grasp the situation, Deborah’s design in binding her legs presented itself in full. Both of her ankles had been trapped in individual funnels of sticky webbing. Each was large enough to hold several Spinnerettes at once and each ended with one of Silvia’s bare feet fully isolated and thoroughly defenseless.

“No, please!” Silvia cried out. “Please, I can’t handle this! I ca-aaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!” A blinding explosion of tickles erupted through the girl’s body. At once, the fury of countless scribbling fingers descended upon her frail, pink soles. Each was handled from a different tunnel, facing a different army of Badland beasts hungering for her ticklish energy. They each gazed upon but a single human girl foot, innocent and helpless, and rained down a hellish onslaught of scribbling tickles.

"Awww, does the worthless queen have ticklish tootsies?" Asked one of the Spinnerettes tormenting Paul as she scraped over and over again the same ticklish spots of his pits.

"Heehee, just wait until everyone gets a turn!" another said. She pinched at the boy's sides and scoured up to his ribs.

"MMMMMMPPPHHHGGGHHHEHEHEHEHEEEEE!!!" Paul continued to scream and buck, the beasts not letting him rest even for a second. The one down at Paul's feet weaved her fingers through each of his toes, attacking the rarely touched spots within.

"When they're done, maybe we can trade off," she said. "They can have a turn with the boy and we'll go after those adorable royal feet of hers." Silvia could barely hear them over the sounds of her own screaming laughter. The tickles against her soles shot a new energy through her body, one that restored her voice and left her body thrashing and squirming despite its aching fatigue.

"AAAAAHHHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!! STAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!" Silvia shrieked. Her feet flailed to pitiful extents in their individual tunnels, but the webbing surrounding them made them stick more the further she shook them. The beasts within pushed each foot back against the webbing trapping her ankles. The silk stuck to her skin, keeping her feet fully flexed and pulled back for perfectly immobile tickles.

"Heh heh, coochie coochie coo, little queen," one of the Spinnerettes tickling her feet muttered to the delight of the others. They used their fingers to scrape up and down each soft, blushing soles. Their hairs surged tickles as they scraped and prodded against her nerves. Her feet became more sensitive and receptive to the tickles the longer she was exposed to them. The Spinnerettes left her no break, even as they switched out. She was given not a single moment to catch her breath, only endless cascades of tickles ravishing through her body from her trapped, bare feet.

"NNAAAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAAA!!! PLEHEHEHHAHAHASSSEE!!!" Silvia cried. She thrashed until her body gave into the exhaustion once again. She struggled to move her feet even a little, but the webbing had left her not even the slightest room to twitch. The ticklish efforts covered the entirety of each foot in a perpetual stream of hysterical misery. The Spinnerettes merely laughed. They taunted and giggled and soaked in the ample ticklish nourishment that each sole provided them. As soon as one got her fill, there remained consistently another to take her place.

"Make her scream!" one Spinnerette shouted.

"I wanna hear her beg!" cried another.

"Tickle the queen!" became the chant that echoed through the trees. Each beast jumped at the opportunity to torment the fallen queen. Dozens scurried up the trees to line up at one of the tunnels. Their efforts at either foot were void of mercy. It became a contest between sisters to see who could make the queen squeal the loudest. They scraped at her heels and arches. They scribbled at the base of each set of toes. The toes themselves were victims of thinner fingers slipping between them, parading tickles through each small, bubbly digit.

"PLEEEHHAHAHAHAHAHASSEEE!!! STAHAHAHAHAHAAPP!!! I CAAHAHAHAHAHAN'T TAHAHAHAHAAKE IT!!!" Silvia screamed. Her screams resonated with the feel of being ten again, of being trapped within Tickela's lair and forced to endure the worst ticklings of her life. For a moment, she forgot that time had even passed, as if she were still trapped in those damp, stone halls and that the last five years were nothing but hopeful dreams of being out. But she was out. She was out and relatively happy. And then she returned, walking right back into the maddening, ticklish tortures as if she had learned nothing.

"You wanted to be a queen, yes?" Deborah asked as she watched Silvia's ticklish reduction. "You wanted to serve the people of the Featherlands? Then you should be happy at the opportunity to present them with a break, to be their temporary martyr and to take on all of their suffering. You should be grateful to us, because here, you are more of a queen to them than you ever had been."

"STAAHAHAHAHAHAP!!! PLEEHEHHAHASSEEE!!!" The girl sobbed through her laughter. Her begging only brought a smile to Deborah's face. Her laughter only brough satisfaction to the beasts lining up at a chance to tickle the queen's helpless foot. One came right after another. They all laughed and cackled along with her, emphasizing her completely helpless disposition. The hope that she had been holding onto was quickly slipping. Moments passed when Silvia was sure she had long since let go of it. She was there, hanging and being tickle tortured for the delight of the devious Badlanders. That was all she knew of where she was, who she was, and what she was. Hope escaped more and more with each wheezing laugh.

"This is it, pitiful queen," Deborah said. "This will be every waking minute of your life, if I will it to be. You both are mine, now and for eternity. For now, I leave you both… to them." Deborah smirked. Her large body crawled up into a small burrow above them, settling in to rest.

"NAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAAAHAHAOOO!!!! PLEEHEHHAHASSEEE!! MAAAAHAHAHAHAHAKE THEM STAAHAHAHAHAP!!!" Silvia cried. She bucked and thrashed tiredly in her webbing. The tickling against her feet was constant and all encompassing. It came with a frightful stream of giggles, cheers, and taunts. Each foot stayed perfectly stationary and funneled in their own debilitating manic explosions of tickles. The sensations flooded Silvia's body and mind. They were all she could think about, all that she could perceive. For the hours to come, her feet were nothing but vessels for tickles, her body the generator of anguished laughter.

Silvia and Paul remained in their suspended webbings, being tormented and steadily broken down by ticklers that indulged in their own ruthlessness. The three remained keeping Paul occupied at his various areas, each switching around periodically to keep his torture fresh and lively. Silvia's laughter continued echoing through the night sky. Dozens of devilish beasts, hundreds of scribbling fingers, feasted on the ticklish energy her feet radiated. They attacked each supple sole alone with endless scribbles and scratches, their hairs like tiny brushes that devastated her ticklish feet. Silvia was theirs to toy with, to torment into the mischievous hours of the night, her laughter the first to greet the following morning's sun.

Silvia was finally given the rest that she spent the previous hours begging for after the last two visitors to her hyper-sensitive soles so graciously pushed her far enough to finally succumb to faint. As she fell silent, overtaken by exhaustion, tears continued to trickle down her cheeks.

~~~

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