Trapped in the Featherlands

Tortured in the Castle

Silvia awoke some time later in a groggy stupor. She stirred. Her head pounded. The small girl groaned as she reached to rub her temples. She quickly realized that she could move neither arm. She wiggled her hands and fingers, but her arms were fully bound and stretched out over her head. As her mind began painting a picture of her fate, she tugged at her legs to find the same plight thrust upon them as well. Silvia could only move and twist in the slightest. From her perception, only her wrists and ankles were bound in an 'X' formation. She laid at a high incline, mere degrees from being fully stood up.

Silvia tried to scream, but her mouth was covered by a thick metal plate. As her vision returned, she saw around her dark red drapes, boxing her in. From beyond the curtains, she made out a thick grumbling murmur of many voices. Her eyes grew wide, finally pushed into relinquishing tears when she looked down to see Paul lying on the ground. Silvia shouted his name, but no sound came out. The boy wore a collar around his neck of thick steel. The collar was attached by a chain connected to the base of the frame in which Silvia found herself.

Several moments of painful uncertainty later, Paul began to twitch awake. He groaned, his own head pounding like a drum. As he held his head, the boy peered around. He soon found Silvia staring back at him with pouring eyes. "Silvia," Paul said, rushing to her side. "Your majesty, what did they do to you?" Silvia, even in the darkest pits of fear, always found Paul's insistence to address her regally admirable and endearing. Paul reached up to unhook Silvia's binds, but to no avail. Paul panicked, trying each of the bonds, and able to release none. The boy's mind slowly started to return to him. He remembered breaking into Tickela's chamber, discovering her apothecary, crafting a sleeping potion, and giving it to Silvia. The boy stumbled backward.

"Wait... Did I do this to you?" Paul asked. Silvia nodded. "Silvia, please, you have to believe me. I didn't... I wouldn't... I couldn't have... You know me, I would have never done that. Please believe me, Silvia." Silvia looked away as the tears continued drawing down her cheeks. The murmur behind the curtains grew louder and louder until it all stopped. Paul and Silvia went silent listening for the next move.

"Badlanders!" shouted a gravely, booming voice just outside of the forward facing curtain. "Minions! Faithful servants to her majesty, the great Tickela! A festive treat awaits you all. A glorious display of the great Tickela's power and supreme ticklish torment!" The crowd beyond the caller erupted in deep cheers. Paul backed away while Silvia could only look onward. "We honor you, our great and powerful queen!" Paul tugged the chain against the base of Silvia's frame as hard as he could.

"My servants!" Tickela's voice raged over a still crowd Paul and Silvia froze, a cringing chill raced through their bodies. "For too long we have been cast to the shadows. For ages, we have been barred from glorious purpose. No longer will that be the case. No longer will we be confined to the Badlands. I will usher us all into a new era of prosperity! From henceforth, all of the Featherlands will be our hunting ground!" The crowd burst into another celebratory cheer. Silvia shook her head, screaming into her plated gag. "We will rule over all lands, take what we will, and give nothing back. I, the great Tickela, will see to it that none of us shall go wanting. We will take all Featherlanders by force and make them all suffer for what they have done to us. No one will stand in our way any longer, for I give you..." The curtain dropped. Paul and Silvia looked around in horror as they stood upon a stage surrounded by a sea of horrid Badland creatures. "The Featherland queen!"

The crowd erupted in hearty laughter. Paul saw no escape through the crowd. They were surrounded on all sides. Silvia faced a balcony throne ahead of her. There sat Tickela in luxurious pose, smiling widely. The rest of the audience chuckled and called out demands for the young girl's ultimate ticklish suffering for their own amusement. Silvia could only cry as Paul searched desperately for a way out.