Trapped in the Featherlands

Desolation in the Castle

Lilly dropped to the edge of the Aurium Pruritum. She shielded her eyes from the blinding green glow and the violent gusts within. Silvia and Paul both stared in, searching for those which the pit had claimed. Tickela's screams of agony, those much louder than any of the others, echoed throughout the cyclone.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! NOOOOO!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHSSSTTAAHAHAHAPP THIS AT ONCEEEEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! I COMMAND YOU!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! SSSTTTAAHAHAHAHAHAHAPPP!!! PPPLLEEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAAASSEEEEE!!!" Tickela screamed. Her bellows ceased to be that of pain, quickly becoming that of the crippling ticklish assault against every nerve in her body. Her cries soon became one with the rest of those she committed to the same eternal fate.

"Erica!" Lilly called out. She scanned the pit for any sign of the fairy. Sweat dripped from her trembling composure. Her heart beat a soreness into her chest with pounding rapidity. "Please... please... not this..." Lilly repeated the words to herself as her vision boasted a watery lens. She called out to Erica, knowing that her voice would only travel so far into the storming rage of endless, screaming laughter. Lilly could only hope that Erica's was not one of them.

Through her disfigured vision, Lilly made out a hand pull upward across the inner stone wall. Another soon followed. Erica bared her teeth as she struggled pulling herself up the chasm. "Erica!" Lilly shouted into the tempest of screams. She raced around the pit to position herself above the fallen fairy. Lilly fell down to her stomach, edged over the rim of the pit. She reached out to Erica. "Take my hand!"

"Lilly..." Erica whimpered. She clawed her way up the side of the Pruritum, arms shivering with each weakened reach. Her face ran pale. Erica's eyes were sunken and barely open. "Don't... leave me..."

"I won't," Lilly said, reaching in as far as her arm could extend. "I promise, I'm not leaving without you. Just take my hand!" Erica's back glistened from her ripped wings. She forced deep breaths. The cyclone of the pit's power raged against her, fighting to knock free her grip. She inched herself up with atrophied arms. Paul and Silvia raced around to Lilly, holding onto her legs to further her reach.

"We got you," said Silvia.

"Get her out of there!" shouted Paul. Lilly felt the power of the Pruritum through slight tickles across her arm, but her reach continued still. Erica looked up. Her eyes met Lilly's, a gaze which gave her more much needed strength to fight her way out. Each grab at the stone felt as impossible as the pull she needed to climb, though through her severed wings, Erica ascended.

"That's it," Lilly said with a gleeful, teary smile. "You can do it. Just take my hand and we'll get you out." Erica grunted. Each reach and pull was more difficult than the last, the most pain that Erica had ever experienced. The fairy screamed through a chest hollow of hope and will, but she fought onward at the sight of Lilly's smile. "I'm so proud of you. You can do it. Please!" With all the strength she could muster, Erica climbed farther and farther. She saw Lilly's hand just barely out of reach. Two more pulls became one until she was within distance to take Lilly's hand. Erica pushed herself harder and harder. "You got this! I'll get you out!" Erica pulled herself into reach and extended her arm. She felt Lilly's hand wrap around hers before tightly gripping it. "That's it!"

Lilly attempted to pull the fairy, but the current of the vortex pulled just as ferociously against her. She struggled to retract her arm. Paul and Silvia pulled on Lilly's other arm, but their strength was also caught by the windy current. The two grunted as they summoned all their might. Lilly's face contorted into one of needful strain. Her arm shook with weakened force. "Please, Lilly..." Erica begged while she too fought to climb further.

"I got you," Lilly grunted. "I'll get you out... I promise..."

A roaring came from the Aurium Pruritum. The parted slates keeping the pit open began to slowly close. Lilly looked toward the approaching doors with a sunken pit in her chest. "No, no, no, no..." Lilly repeated as the door began to close. "Guys, pull!"