Spider’s Web (TK)

SHE JUST WANTS TO GIVE YOU A HUG!!

This story was the first piece of original tickling fiction I ever wrote, and it's still one of my proudest moments as a tickle writer. I originally posted it on TklFrat before I left the place, and then I cross-posted it to Tumblr and later on to DeviantArt, so I've decided to also leave it here as my inaugural story! And anyway, I noticed that there were some parts of it that needed a little touching up, so I fixed them just for this latest post. :D

For this story, I modeled the characters featured off of a few actors I would love to get my own fingers on. It was hard to find good choices, but in short, this is what I feel they should look like or pretty close.

Narrator: Orlando Bloom (as Legolas from the Lord of the Rings)

Victim: Logan Lerman (as D'Artagnan from The Three Musketeers)

Additionally, I've been meaning to expand upon this story and make an entire world of monster-boys, because I've developed a love of the Monster Girl Encyclopedia thanks to a friend of mine and I figured we could use a gay/boys' love equivalent. To this end, this is definitely going to be made into a series eventually! I already have the sequel and general story arc plot planned out but I don't know how soon it will be before I continue with this world, seeing as I have to spend my time with a ton of other things, including commissions and other personal writings.

Anyways, enjoy, everyone!

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Spider’s Web

by Skaea

Contains: M/M and */M tickling, concentrating on foot tickling with some all-over tickling. Mostly SFW.

Word Count: 11,353

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It was late in the afternoon, early in the summer, when the knock on the door roused me from my studying - or should I say, daydreaming.

Now, I usually take this hour of the day to pour through the multitude of wizarding sources I have collected over the years, double-checking my methods and adjusting my configurations appropriately. However, it’s also the time when my mind begins to wander, reminiscing about the young wizards who had come to visit me for various reasons over the past few years. Most of them at my expense. My life had taken a turn for the worse ever since I had gotten thrown out of the magical academic network, and one of the most notable challenges presented to young mages hoping to carve a name for themselves was to come up to my private palisade in the Forest of Nightmares. The “fetch quest” at hand tended to vary, ranging from bringing back one of my potion ingredients to obtaining a reference book for a secret art, two things which I honestly hated to lose. The problem was that I always found them, much to their detriment, but a few of the more clever ones were able to actually succeed, whether through extreme stealth or simply by breaking in while I was away. Those who weren’t so clever… well, those are the ones whom I fantasize about. Always thinking that they could waltz in without permission and challenge me directly, asking me to hand over the precious item. And then there were several quests which required actually having to defeat me and bring me back to the authorities, and one in which the poor sap had actually been sent to get rid of me permanently in an act of sheer desperation. Needless to say, the “defeat quests” all ended in, um, defeat, and that one kill quest… Well, let’s just say I don’t think I can talk about it with a straight face. That’s because I carry a dark secret, one which I swore never to reveal to anyone… until that day.

I scowled, looking up from Advanced Alchemy for the Professional Mage, wondering who would come to pilfer my stuff in the warm months, in broad daylight no less. I was just about to grab my staff and ready a snare trap when I remembered something important: Broad daylight in the warm months was the worst possible time to commit a burglary. And if this were the usual quest, the thief wouldn’t knock on the front gate.

Could it be possible that the officials had finally caught up to me? Was I to be hauled away and cast into a cell for the rest of my life? Or maybe offered a chance of pardon on the grounds that the legislation had acted on insufficient evidence? I was prepared to accept anything they offered, maybe even accept being incarcerated. I had been hiding in the dark for far too long, and it was about time someone did something about it.

I picked up my staff anyway, though, just in case. The dual crooks, spread in a fork that formed three quarters of a circle, supported a spider’s web that sparkled with permanent morning dew. I knew I could rely on it to get me out of trouble.

Still, when I got to the front gate, I hesitated, wondering if I should open it up to invite whomever was here, or determine if they meant no harm. After a moment’s pondering I decided that two sureties are better than one, and tapped the butt of the staff against the ground, casting a small spell circle around my own bare feet.

“WHO DARES TO ENTER THE RESIDENCE OF ARANEA ORBWEAVER?” my voice boomed with a menacing echo meant to cow intruders into silence. It must’ve worked, to some degree, because the voice that answered certainly sounded frightened. But then I noticed that it wasn’t an official’s stern declaration, but the uncertain whimper of a terrified male youth.

“W-wait! I d-don’t mean any trouble! I just wanted to see if… well, the oracle… lived here?”

“ORACLE?!” I cried, before bursting into laughter that shook the walls of the fort. “THERE IS NO ORACLE HERE!”

“But I swear this was where he lived! I would…”

“HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR DIRECTIONS?! YOU MUST HAVE LOST YOUR WAY! BUT NO MATTER - THOSE WHO ENTER THE FOREST OF NIGHTMARES, AND THE FORTRESS OF THE ARACHNID MAGE WITHIN, MUST PAY THE PENALTY FOR THEIR ILL INTENT!”

“Nononono, WAIT! I don’t want to give you any trouble! Just let me be on my way and I won’t bother you again!”

That caught me off guard. Nobody had come to my palisade without ulterior motives. Had this boy gotten himself lost somehow? If that was the case, he needed help. So it was that for the first time in what seemed like forever, I decided to switch motives from “get rid of the intruder” to “give the guest a welcome reception.”

I switched off my “outdoor voice” and opened the front gate, allowing the stranger access to the fort. “Enter,” I sighed, already wondering what madness would ensue if he got a little too curious with my runestone collection.

When he stepped inside and my eyes got used to the light, I found myself lost for words. A lanky but handsome young mage in his very early 20’s walked into the guest’s chamber, where I kept my navy-velvet couch and black marble coffee platform. As he set down his traveling bag on the couch and peered down at the arcane symbols carved upon its surface, his youthful features reflected back at him - his boyish face, narrow lips, cute snub nose, and his stunning blue eyes, the color of a clear, cloudless sky. His curly, dark chocolate brown hair hung like a curtain down to his shoulders as he traced a single long finger across the border of the table. He wasn’t dressed in the pompous garb of a more advanced student like my previous intruders, but in the white woolen blouse, linen trousers, and leather sandals of a commoner - though he did have a staff at hand. A simple wooden staff with arcane markings carved in, but a staff nonetheless.

My own reflection joined his a moment later, also peering down at the coffee table. For an elf mage whose theme revolved around spiders, I myself wasn’t exactly hideous either. At the ripe old age of “who in the name of Purgatory knows what,” I still looked like I was in my early thirties, with a rounded jawline, elongated ears, straight nose, and bloodshot eyes with irises as red as rubies and reptilian slits for pupils. One thing that made me stand out was that my hair was as white and gossamer as spider silk, draping down to my lower back over my jet-black wizard’s cloak, embroidered with a silver spider web motif.

For a moment, the visitor was taken in at how beautiful I looked. He’d expected me to look a lot more like, well, something out of your worst nightmares. You know, with multiple eyes and venomous fangs and hair in all sorts of awkward places. But after a few seconds, he realized who he was looking at and started backing away.

“Am I in the right place?” he asked, raising his staff.

“Um… Well, I’d hazard a guess that you - ” I began, but he cut me off.

“I said, am I in the right place? Answer me with a yes or no. You’ve got three seconds!” The markings on his staff started to glow light blue at this.

“No,” I said, and he sighed in disappointment. “But it’s good that you came by. I haven’t gotten any guests lately.”

“I’m going to find the oracle,” he said as he picked up his bag. “I must’ve made a wrong turn somewhere after the first town - my route doesn’t even go near the Forest of Nightmares at all.”

“But sir, you can’t survive out there alone!”

“Then why are you here? How did you even get here in the first place?!” Then he paused, shivering uncomfortably as he looked around at all the decor. “Is there a spider on my back?”

Beat. “Well, that’s just the cobwebs,” I said finally. “They tend to get around a lot, it’s really annoying. Turn around, please.”

He did just that, revealing a coal-black, cat-sized tarantula, with glowing red eyes and second leg segments colored like snow. I staggered back just as the spider leaped off of his back and onto my face. The visitor spun around and screamed in horror, about to beat the spider off, but a moment later he saw that she’d climbed onto the top of my head.

“Elethea! Pffff, so that’s where you’ve been!”

“She’s your PET?!” the visitor gasped in shock. She stopped, a bit offended at this.

“Well… *giggle*… Well, yeah, Elethea and I have known each other since I started my professional career.”

Elethea clicked her fangs cheekily, one of her hairy legs grazing the tip of my right ear. I giggled as I pointed up at her. “See? Just a cobweb.”

“Says you,” the boy muttered, shaking his head. “I don’t like this place. I’m getting out of here and I will find the oracle, whether you like it or not!”

I plucked the spider off my head and released her into the broom closet before turning to him, but he was already at the door to the courtyard. “Are you sure you can get there?” I asked him. “Considering how you got here in the first place, I doubt it.”

He paused, turning his head slightly. “You… doubt my navigation skills?” he asked skeptically.

“You hold a lot of promise,” I said, blushing slightly before steeling myself, “but I’m sorry to say that when it comes to finding your way around, you’re not the strongest rope in the net. Besides, it is very easy to get lost in the Forest of Nightmares. Several of the folks who tried to rob my fort in the past have had to be guided back to civilization by myself. A few of them never returned home at all. I can give you directions to find the oracle you seek - I know the forest, and I know the land.”

He turned to face me, staff at the ready. “Tell me, then,” he demanded. “Give me the directions and I’ll be on my way. I don’t want any trouble.”

I paused at this. On the one hand, I couldn’t let him go out into the forest alone, especially after dark. But on the other hand I couldn’t let him leave without what he wanted, either. I thought about his request for a long while, staring at the web of my staff as I did so. Then I turned back to him. “Fine. Whatever you ask, I will be happy to give it to you. I will guide you out of the forest myself, and direct you to the oracle.”

“Great!” he said, his face lighting up in a radiant smile that made my heart skip a beat. “Let’s get going, then!”

“Conditionally.”

His smile faltered. “Conditionally?”

I looked out the window of the guest room. “The sun will set in just a few hours. As the moon rises, the Forest of Nightmares will come alive with creatures beyond your worst, well, nightmares. If we go out there right now, we’ll risk becoming a midnight snack in short order. You’ll have to spend the night here, in my palisade.”

He sighed in disappointment. “Yeah, well, there’s one little issue you may have to think about,” he said.

“And what is that?”

His face turned white as he took in the full motif. “I’m… um… I REALLY don’t like spiders.”

“Too bad,” I smirked as I held the web of my staff in front of my face. “Spiders are the very theme of my magic, symbolic of patience, trickery, and creativity. I have a feeling you will have quite a time ahead of you, so suck it up, my boy.”

“So, what am I supposed to do? Can I just crash and wait ‘till morning?”

“Actually… Seeing as I’m older than you by a fairly large margin, and as this is my residence, I believe I’m the one who’s calling the shots.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“I would like your help around the fort. Just a few small chores before I call it a night. After that, I will let you sleep, and take care of what you need. Then we can leave on good terms, and hopefully we can see each other again.”

“I hope I don’t HAVE to see you again,” he muttered sourly.

“Oh, and one more thing…” I added. He looked up with an expression that screamed, “Oh dear gods, what now?”

“You might want to take your shoes off. I’d rather not explain what happened to the last person who tracked dirt on the floor.”

He glared at me, but took his sandals off anyway, tossing them next to the door.

I had to resist the urge to slap my own forehead for being such an idiot. All this time, I’d been paying attention to his face so much that I’d forgotten he was wearing sandals. Now, however, I could clearly see his relatively large, beautiful bare feet - size 12, by the looks of it, wide with long, thick toes. I would bet that down there, he had the softest, most tender soles of any youth I had ever seen. My eyes turned to my own feet, long and graceful with high arches and toes like fingers, and I blushed a little harder.

“What?” he asked, noticing my slightly bashful expression. “Is there anything wrong with going barefoot inside?”

“Wha? Oh! No, not at all,” I said, shaking my head a little. “It’s just that, well, I’m an elf of etiquette and good taste.”

“Really?” the visitor muttered sourly. “It doesn’t look that way to me.”

I stiffened a little, but let it slide for now. I could understand the fact that the boy had no ill intent, but he was starting to touch my nerve, and not in a good way. “Come with me,” I said, leading him inside. “There’s a few tasks I’ll need more than one pair of hands for.”

“Don’t you have Eletheus? Elthea? Whatever you call her?” he asked, shivering a little as he followed me into the study hall where I kept my books and ingredients.

“Elethea is not the most obedient of Greater Webspinners,” I replied curtly as I shut the door behind us with a tap of my staff. “She may be my only true friend, but her way of doing things and mine are vastly different. When it comes to certain tasks I need someone who can communicate with me on a basic level.”

He turned to look at me, a little skeptical. “And how exactly do I fit into all this?”

“That’s the problem,” I said as he turned to walk towards my study desk. “I WANT someone to talk to, who is actually capable of speech. But as it stands, nobody in any of the kingdoms wants to interact with me apart from insulting me and stealing my stuff.”

“They - What?” He stopped mid-stride, dumbfounded.

“I don’t like it when I’m denied opportunities to do WORK!” I continued. “And when that happens, I get angry, and when I get angry, the perpetrator suffers, and when the perpetrator suffers, the people who sent him just dredge up more little shits and send them my way!”

I stalked past him and collapsed into my chair, burying my face in my hands. “When will they just give me a goddamn break?!”

He glowered down at me, obviously unimpressed. “I’m not here for appeals to emotion, I need to get things done! Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it for you. Then we can honor our deal and I’ll be out of here first thing tomorrow. Or are you just going to make me suffer like the rest of them, huh?”

I stood up and glared at him, my eyes glowing red and my teeth sharpened into fangs, and he staggered back in fright. “For the first and last time,” I hissed, “I am NOT going to break you like I did to all those thieving bastards who kept barging into my house. But if you don’t watch your tongue and do as I say, then I might change my mind!”

That shut him up very quickly. Good thing too, one more snide remark from that little pest and I might as well have roped him up and dined on his juices like a spider would a fly!

I settled down on the chair, and looked through my book, coming across a footnote with a reference. I could feel his gaze at the back of my head, apprehensive but clearly upset at how rude I was. I wished I could turn his frown head-over-heels sooner or later.

“All right… The Philosopher’s Stonecutter: Transmutation in the Silver Age. I think it should be in the Alchemy and Potions section… top shelf.”

I could still feel that tingle of contempt, and I turned my head to glare at him. “Did you hear me, sir?”

One look at my glowing red eyes, and he knew I wasn’t kidding. “Yes, sir,” he said, still annoyed but clearly frightened, and he moved off to find a footstool.

I sighed, returning to my book. As much as I didn’t want to flat-out tell him this, he had a lot in common with previous intruders, but there was something different. He meant no harm, unlike the rest of them, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that deep down, he could understand what I meant.

The youthful mage, meanwhile, had found a small stepladder and pulled it up to the right section. He had to stand up at the very top platform, though, and even then the transmutation book was just out of reach, so he had to stretch on his tiptoes to get to it. His fingers were just a hair’s breadth from the title in question, however, when he gave a startled yelp and seized the shelf with both hands to keep from falling over.

The stepladder joints held a number of cobwebs, in which several small spiders normally dwelled. But they had been attracted by the scent of his skin secretions and, crawling out of their hiding spots, they zeroed in on their target, and proceeded to skitter up and down all over his stretched soles, lightly nibbling with their little fangs. The young man gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut as he started to giggle like a little boy, unable to do anything about his predicament without losing balance.

I sat up straighter, wondering what was taking him so long, and after a sigh of impatience I stood up and headed over to the shelf, intending to personally grab the book and bop him over the head with the spine. I found the poor lad gripping the shelf frantically, giggling madly as he tried not to fall over and crash into the shelf behind him.

My eyes widened at the scene before me, my face flushing a little, before my indignation came through. “Excuse me? Is there anything wrong with getting a single textbook?”

He broke right then and there. “PFFFFFFHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! GET THEM OFF ME! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

But I simply stood back and chuckled. “In light of your behavior, I doubt it.”

For once, he didn’t retort. Not that he could, anyway - a half-dozen little arachnids were savoring his poor, helpless feet. Not just skittering about all over his soles but also exploring the tops and sides of his feet as well.

After a moment’s pausing to take in his expression, I sat down behind him and just watched his soles being tormented, for once, by something outside of my own devices.

“HEHEHEHAHAHA DON’T JUST STAND THERE! DO SOMETHEHEHEEHEEHEEHEHE!” the boy practically wailed in sheer distress.

“No. I told you that you would be having quite a time ahead of you,” I smirked. Again, he couldn’t respond, as he was laughing too hard to even speak.

Another five minutes of observation, and I could stand it no longer. My fingers moved forward, and the spiders skittered out of the way, focusing on the tops of his feet. Unfortunately for the poor youth, this left his soles wide open as I proceeded to lightly drag my index fingers up and down the taut, sensitive skin. His feet were soft as silk, and tender as a lamb’s flesh. And I knew they would be mine to enjoy in a few hours’ time.

“AAAAAAH!” he shrieked. “AHAHAHA, CUT IT OHOHOHOUT! STOHOHOHOHAHAHAHAHAP!!!”

His pleas went unheeded as I continued stroking up and down his naked feet. It took him a full ten minutes to regain his senses, and risking his balance he let go of the shelf with one hand and grabbed the book I had asked for, pulling it off the shelf even in the midst of hysterics.

“Here, take the book already! Just make it stahahHAHAHAHAHAHAP!” he managed to scream through his laughter as he shoved the book as far down as he could manage. I looked up, a little surprised. Was he starting to gain his senses already?

I smiled, knowing there was a bit more to go, and stood up, waving my hand once. The spiders immediately left their victim and vanished back into their webs, but the poor young man was still giggling even as I took the book from him and helped him down.

“Hehehe… I hope you’re happy… *gasp* You pointy-eared jerk…” he panted.

“Tsk tsk, I told you to watch your tongue,” I smirked. But as I took the source back to the table, I got an idea, a sly smirk playing across my face. “You know what, how about we make a deal?”

He glared at me again, but wisely decided not to be combative. “Go on.”

“I have three tasks for you. You must do all of them before I let you go. Do a task improperly, complain, argue, or solicit my emotions and you will receive an additional hour of punition. Refuse the task outright and you will be mine to play with for an additional day, and you will have to do the task first thing in the morning.”

“And if I sneak out of the house before I’m done?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Beat. “You probably won’t survive,” I replied solemnly, then grinned devilishly. “If the beasts outside don’t get you, I probably will.”

His eyes widened in horror, and one of them actually twitched. Then he let out a despondent sigh. “Fair enough, I’ll do it.”

“I must warn you, however,” I added. “Each of these tasks is fraught with danger, and plenty of laughs. I am quite sure that you will not come away from these tasks unscathed.”

“Hey, I’m a wind mage,” he retorted, with his best attempt at a determined gleam in his eye. “Well, at least in training. But I can handle anything you throw at me.”

I gave him my best “What did I just tell you?” face. He noticed fairly quickly. “E-except for spiders. Like I said…”

I rolled my eyes and continued. “Once all these side quests are done, I will have a final test for you. I will not reveal the details until you complete the tasks at hand, but believe me when I say this, you will have to prepare yourself for whatever I present. I may ask you to find an object that is protected by traps so devious that you may never retrieve it - or I may send you out into the forest alone, at night.

“Whatever the case, if you finish all the tasks satisfactorily AND pass the final test, I will reward you handsomely.”

“Reward?” he asked. “Like money? Rare items? Status buffs, maybe?… Advice?…”

“We can decide what I shall give you when we get there, but I will say this much: Our roles will be reversed first thing in the morning. As soon as you open your eyes after your mandatory slumber, I will be yours.” I smiled, and his eyes widened as he took in my own beauty, completely lost for words.

“So, do we have a deal?”

I extended my hand, waiting for his response. He looked down, unsure of what to make of it. The contrast between my grisly motif and my perfectly shaped, almost feminine hand seemed quite stark for his taste.

He extended his hand anyway, albeit a bit shakily, and shook mine. He shivered as he felt the warmth and smoothness of my skin. “Deal,” he said.

**********

“All right then,” I said as I set the book down. “I will deliver each task in the form of a rhyme. Understand and comply, and the task shall be complete. Fail, and… well, let’s just say that you will come out of it with a smile… or go out with one, as it were.”

He shivered uncomfortably, remembering the baby spiders. I smirked, and began chanting in an ominous, echoing voice.

“Second to the left just after the stairs, lethal textiles have made their lairs. / These are fabrics of utmost taste, and they demand to be cleaned post-haste. / Webs and dust must be removed, if their temper is to be improved. / Take my duster and tickle their seams, and you will be rewarded with most pleasant dreams.”

I motioned my head towards the feather duster on one of my shelves. He looked at the duster, then back to me, wondering what I was talking about. Then he sighed, walked over to the shelf, and picked up the duster. Best find out for himself, I guess.

I followed him, silent and watching, as he proceeded up the stairs towards the hall where his first task lay in wait. As I shadowed him, I observed the soles of his feet with every tentative step. The skin was slightly pink from the initial reception the spiders had given him, and they were already accumulating a small amount of dirt as well.

He paused, one foot at the top of the stairway, the other with its stretched sole a mere three feet from me. The arch of his lower foot was pressed drum-tight against his skin in a manner that I found utterly irresistible. I made to reach out and give it just a little poke…

“What are you doing?!” His upper body spun around to meet me, brandishing the duster like a sword; the feathers just barely missed my face. I had to press my palms to both walls to avoid falling over.

“N-nothing,” I blushed a little. He snorted, shaking his head, and turned back towards the hall, still in that half-step.

The door was shut tight, but the shadows beneath the crack were clearly moving, as though something living was inside the closet. I could tell that he was starting to become uneasy, especially because he was blocking my path, frozen with dreadful anticipation.

My impatience and lust got the better of me after a few seconds waiting for him to continue. I readjusted my position, reached out with one hand, and gave the very center of his rigid arch a delicate pinch.

The poor kid dropped the feather duster as he let out a small scream, leaping so high he almost bonked his head on the ceiling, and barreled down the hall as fast as his legs could carry him.

“Idiot,” I groaned as I finished ascending the stairwell, picked up the feather duster, and gave a light rap on the second door to the left. “The closet’s over here.”

At once, the shadows stopped moving. A faint puff of dust wafted from the crack under the door.

“S-sorry,” the boy replied as he retraced his steps. “You startled me, that’s all.”

“By the way,” I said as I held up the duster, “I might have left something important in the closet a while back. I’ve been looking for it for a while but my search has turned up nothing outside of the closet.”

He looked at me with an expression of total confusion. “Why won’t you go in the closet yourself?”

“Dust allergy,” I replied quickly as I pulled out a key. “Now, stand back and get ready. I’ve implied that my robes are not exactly friendly.”

“What do you - ” He didn’t get to finish as I quickly unlocked the door and opened the closet. The dust cloud that came out almost obscured our vision. We had to put our sleeves over our mouths and noses to avoid inhaling the particles.

“Right, then,” I said. “Be quick about it, my boy, and whatever you do… Don’t. Touch. Anything.”

“But I - ”

“Make contact with the duster and the duster alone,” I clarified.

He nodded, took the duster from me and, slowly, hesitantly, tiptoed into the closet.

There was dust everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. The clothes themselves only had a small amount of lint, relatively speaking, but the walls and ceiling were an almost uniform shade of gray. The young mage would swear that this place hadn’t been cleaned up in weeks, and he was quite sure why - something must have taken up residence here, something which I wasn’t particularly fond of. Sure enough, there were a few crisscrossing trails through the dust on the floor. But what had made them?

He raised his duster towards one of the shelves, looked around, and sighed. It was clear that he had a lot of work to do - I must’ve had to wrangle at least a hundred different sets over my lifetime, and most of them were fairly situational.

A thought occurred to him as he observed the latest dust cloud drift down from the ceiling. He looked around to see me standing just in front of the doorway. I smiled.

“There’s a ventilation shaft on the ceiling of the room,” I said. “But be careful. I’d hate to imagine if you lose control of what you wish to do.” I waved my staff, opening the ceiling vent.

“I’ll try not to,” he chuckled nervously, knowing it would take ages to scrub the walls clean if anything went wrong.

I stepped back, taking care not to back into anything. This was the first time I would observe the boy using magic, and I hadn’t made a true assessment for a good long while. I took careful note of the way his bare feet were positioned, one forward and one back, as he crossed his forearms and bought them in front of his head. Then he swung his arms outward, releasing a powerful gust of wind. It swooped like a bird of prey around the room, sucking up the dust as it passed by, and then made another loop, then another. Within moments, a miniature cyclone was spiraling up into the ventilation shaft and out of the house. The wind outside would take care of the rest.

It was awe-inspiring to watch. This kid must have been raised in a powerful family of mages. But he still had a lot to learn, apparently - it only took a couple of seconds for him to lose his balance and call off the vacuum funnel as he regained his footing. He felt his foot touch something as he regained his bearings, and looked down. He only had about three seconds for his visage to turn horrified. The tassel of my Galactic Radiance kit was just barely underneath his right sole.

It was enough. I sprang out the door and slammed it shut as my entire wardrobe sprang loose from the hooks, hangers, and stands it was supported from. The boy only had enough time to let out a startled yell before they had him pinned to the opposite wall.

“NO! NONONONO WAIT - NOOOOOOOOOO!!!” he wailed, but it was too late. My robes were all over him within moments, lifting up his shirt and diving into his sleeves. A full complement of the Savant von Ambidextrous kits’ gloved hands, all eight of them, dove in and began an all-out war on his washboard abs.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

Hysterical laughter echoed from the closet door. I was too scared to get caught up but I wanted to look. I opened the door just a tiny crack and peeked in. Luckily, my robes were so busy with their new victim that they didn’t care.

“THEY’RE EVERYWHEREHEHEHEHE! HEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEHEEEEELLLLLP!” His abs were ablaze with horrible sensation, coursing like lightning up to his brain! No matter how hard he struggled, they weren’t letting him go anytime soon. I opened the door even further as the Dragon’s Heartstring tassels slithered down his sleeves and into his pits, and rode up under his tunic and over his nipples.

And the Galactic Radiance tassels were waving the feather duster all over his twitching size twelves like there was no tomorrow.

His eyes widened in sheer ticklish agony, and in the dim light he spotted it - a gleam of a jeweled object hovering in the air. A silver spider talisman with a bright red ruby for an abdomen, attached to a chain choker. And it was the perfect size to fit right in his -

His laugh became an uninterrupted, hysterical scream as the spider charm, spindly legs and all, swung deftly and directly into his navel.

At least I knew mercy, I mused to myself. I didn’t know whether to feel horny or afraid. There had to be a way to bring my clothes to heel - and I was getting tired of wearing the Arachnid’s Curse kit for the past couple of weeks.

Fear won. I flung the door open and fired a Silk String at the gloves blanketing his tummy, yanking them away. The clothes instantly turned and launched themselves at me, but I was ready for them. I raised a hand and stared hard, knowing that if I showed fear, the robes would sense it.

It worked. The wardrobe stopped just inches away from me, then fell back, arranging themselves into neat piles and shaking the last bits of dust off themselves. “Spider silk embroidery,” I explained as I strode over and plucked the amulet off of the boy’s belly. “Nothing a wash or two won’t fix.”

Holding the charm to the dim glow of the light orb fixture, we stared at the gleaming crimson jewel. “The Drider’s Eye,” I mused. “I’ve kept this for the longest time. It used to be the source of my power before I learned to channel it from within my person. I thought I’d lost it.”

“All that power, and you can’t clean your closet?” the youth reminded me. I looked around and chuckled, slightly embarrassed. “At least the first task is done. Of course, that leaves two more to go, and you’re only just getting started.”

“Tell me about it,” he replied with a roll of his sky-blue eyes.

**********

“So, where do we go from here?” he asked as we headed downstairs. “I’ve got your amulet, and the closet’s clean…”

“There is more ahead,” I smiled. “And trust me, this next task is not for the faint of heart. Or those who fear spiders, for that matter,” I winked.

He gulped. “Y-you want me to… catch some spiders?”

“In a general sense, yes,” I said. Then I stopped just in front of the cellar door, before reciting my next rhyme.

“Behind these doors, where shadows crawl, a silken colony has lain its sprawl. / Its residents clamber on eight hairy feet, searching for prey and visitors to greet. / One with a body of purest white, has a venom most potent in its deadly bite. / Find this one and bring her to me, and the final task is yours to see.”

His face paled as he listened. Spider colony? Venomous bite? A few nights ago, he would have had nightmares about something like this. But oh well, there was no turning back. Not while I was here.

I opened the cellar door and beckoned for him to enter, conjuring a small jar and handing it to him. “After you, good sir,” I smiled. “As soon as you find what you’re looking for, use this to contain it.”

“What about the venom?”

“That’s your problem, not mine. In you go!” I said, pushing him in. With a startled yell, he tripped over himself and began to fall down the stairs leading to the cellar, but caught himself with a mini-tornado as he drifted the rest of the way. As soon as he regained his footing, he looked round to see that I’d shut the door behind him.

“This should be fun,” I smiled as I mentally prepared a little surprise I’d set up for him down there. I closed my eyes, and let my mind wander inside the cellar…

The boy looked round wildly, terrified. The whole place was so dark he could only see just a few feet in front of him. He backed away, slowly, trying not to touch anything. Then he jumped a little as a light went on at the other end of the cellar. It was a small oil lamp, covered in cobwebs, probably kept here for several years. Yet the mystical blue flame seemed to hypnotize him. He inched closer towards it, feeling safer and more secure in its presence…

Little did he know, I could see through the eyes of my spider friends. It takes some getting used to, but it’s very useful once you know how to pull it off. I could see a hundred of my brothers and sisters moving towards him on our walkways of silk, closer and closer, and he wasn’t even aware of it… yet.

The youth let out another startled yell just then. He’d run straight into a nigh-invisible spider-web, so gossamer that it seemed as though nothing was there. But the silken threads were extremely sticky and strong as steel, and within moments he was held fast, the threads seemingly drawing his arms upward and over his head. He was lifted almost off the ground, higher and higher until he was literally standing on his toes, his soles stretched and vulnerable once more.

We gave him only a few seconds to realize the mess he was in as we crawled out into the light. His eyes widened in terror as he saw the hairs on each of our legs, seemingly magnified to almost microscopic detail. To be fair, even though we were moving closer to him by the second, he still held the jar in his hand with a grip like iron.

“Not again,” he whimpered to himself.

Then we made contact, our spindly legs beginning the attack on his sensitive nerve endings. We began by crawling over his stomach, drawing circles over his tight abs and already causing him to break out into hysterics. His skin was unbelievably tender, and even the slightest brush of our legs was enough to make him scream. We moved up his shirt and dove into his hairless pits, explored his pecs, even ventured up to his neck. For some reason, though, we left his navel well alone, at least for now. That I’d deal with later. Our sizes ranged from as small as a fingernail to fist-sized, maybe even greater, and he could FEEL each and every one of us enveloping his torso!

“HEHEHEHEHEHELP! GEHEHEHET THEM OHOHOHOHOFF! HAHAHAHAHA NOOOOO NOT MY FEET!!!”

He couldn’t even raise his legs to curl his toes, leaving his soles vulnerable. More of us had moved in and began skittering up and down and nibbling upon the ticklish flesh. It was like in the library, only now we were closing in on every part of his body.

Then a spider the size of Elethea - he couldn’t tell if it was her or not - crawled onto his stomach. He looked down, terrified, as she began laying a ball of webs, just under his navel. He cried out incoherently as her body hairs began tantalizing both of his sides at once, but it was no use. No amount of pleading could stop us. This was what I’d planned from the start.

My mage form couldn’t help but chuckle at his misery. So much for hospitality.

Within five minutes, his entire belly was sheathed in white. The big spider moved around, crawling over to the other side of the web to begin kneading his lower back. He looked down, fearing the worst, when he saw me - the white spider I was seeing through - skittering onto the top of the web ball. His eyes widened in terror as his whole body froze still, his laughter turning silent as I gazed up at him with my eight red eyes.

If I’d had lips, I would’ve been smiling with anticipation. As it was, I began drumming my peldialps rhythmically against the web ball, the final signal for his impending doom.

The web ball began to crack open, starting from right on top of where I was standing. A little black spider crawled free, then another, and another, and another. Soon, an entire mass of baby spiders was enveloping his stomach, and each of them was taking its turn to dive into his navel and drive him absolutely crazy.

“AIEEEEEEEEEEEHEHEHEHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEEEEEEEEEE! EEEEEEEEEHAHAHAHAEHE!!! HEEHEHEEEELLLLLP MEEHEHEHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!”

The white spider appeared to be directing the antics of the babies, and possibly all the spiders, with gleeful delight, waving my legs and feeler-limbs like a musical conductor. The victim knew now that the only way to save himself was to imprison me somehow. The jar was still clenched in his hand, but his arms were still stuck. At least, he thought of it that way. As it turns out, I did begin to feel sorry for him, so one of the threads binding his jar arm suddenly came loose, snipped free by a few spiders, and the whole thing fell apart. His arm freed up, he managed to grab the lid of the jar with his other hand, screwed open the jar, and slammed it on top of me. I was trapped, and the task was won. Realizing this, the spiders immediately began to disembark, and a few managed to open up a hole in the webs over his stomach, allowing the baby spiders to leave as well. I crawled around the inside of the jar as the webs fell away from him, allowing him to screw the lid tight over the exit (at least there were holes in it for the spider to breathe through). As soon as his soles touched the floor again, he turned for the stairway and ran back up as fast as he could, banging on the door to let him out.

“Did you get what I wanted?” I asked, still smirking. If only he’d known that I’d seen the whole thing.

“Yeah, I did. Happy?”

**********

“Two tasks have been completed,” I said as we made our way toward the back of the house. “There is just one more left, and the final test shall be unveiled.”

“This had better be good,” he panted as he looked out the window. “The sun’s just about to crash.”

“My courtyard, it seems, is quite out of shape,” I recited. “I hunt for its vandals, but they always escape. / I do my best to salvage my potion ingredients. But such is an increasingly frustrating experience. / I cannot afford to leave the safety of my halls. For a hidden danger lurks beyond my walls. / Those who ravage my plants lurk beneath the ground. You must find them, and smite them, wherever they are found.”

“Um, okay… But why won’t you… you know… just get rid of them yourself?”

I paused awkwardly. “That is not important right now. Just go out into the garden, and I will follow.”

“*Sigh* Fine. I hope this doesn’t turn out like the last two…”

At least he didn’t call me a heartless bastard for not helping him earlier. The white spider, still in the jar he’d given to me, tapped on the glass with a feeler in a manner that seemed to say, “Excuse me?”

I opened up the door for him. He stepped out into the garden, wondering what to do. Maybe blow the pests away with a wind spell?

He looked around. The last rays of the sun were just peeking over the forest. He realized with a thrill of horror that it was already nightfall. As the thought was processed, he took a step onto the dirt, and felt his foot plunge into a small hole. The soil seemed to grab his ankle, unwilling to let go.

I settled down onto the grimwood bench right next to the door, propping my bare feet onto the safety rail, wondering why I hadn’t prepared some sugar-coated crickets for just this occasion.

The boy looked round and scowled at me, taking notice of my soles, and I could clearly see that he wanted so badly to get his fingers on them for what I was putting him through. But no matter - he was in my hands now.

A new sensation pulled his attention back down. It was starting to tickle, just slightly at first but then more and more intense. And it was moving inexorably up his sole and over the top of his foot as well! He screamed in laughter and fear.

“Don’t worry,” I said, opening up the jar and letting the white spider do her work. “I’ll send in backup. Just raise your arms when we’re ready.”

“B-but - ” He didn’t get to finish. A dozen of the little things under the soil assaulted his feet at once, and he doubled over in laughter, trying to pull out his foot. He jammed the other one into the soil and tried to pull, but this was a mistake - his other foot went down, and he started to sink.

The youth let out an even louder shriek of hysterics. He wasn’t sure what to make of the new sensation, but it was somehow even more maddening than the spiders from earlier. Aside from his large plush soles, the spaces between his toes and even the sides and tops of his feet were now being tormented by hundreds of tiny little legs.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAH NOOOOOOOOOHOHOHO! GET ME OUT! GET ME OOOOOHOHOHOUUUUTT!!!”

I shrugged, whistling innocently. “In a minute, I’m really enjoying this.”

“YOU HEHEHEARTLESS BAHAHAHASTAAHHAHARD!”

“Why, thank you!”

“YOU’RE GONNA PAHAHAHAY FOR THIS! I SWEEHEHEHEHEAR!”

I sighed with pleasure. “It’d be totally worth it.”

As much as he wanted to kill me, there was nothing he could do with his feet trapped and tormented. He was now up to his ankles in the mire, with the dirt now beginning to work its way up towards his shins. The unseen ticklers were now reaching his ankles as well, taking full advantage of his predicament.

By the time his shins had become embedded into the dirt, I decided, reluctantly, to finally lend him my aid. If he remained stuck out here by nightfall, who knew what would happen.

“Alright, young man,” I said, taking out the jar with the little white spider he’d caught earlier. “If you want to live, reach up as high as you can.”

“W-WHAHAHAHAHAT?!”

“It’s the only way. Trust me.” I opened the jar and let the spider out, whispering a command to it before it scampered off into the darkness.

“WHAHAHAHAHAHYYY?! WHY SHOULD I TRUST YOHOHOU?!”

“I said, it’s the only way. Do as I say and you won’t be stuck in the dark and caught by something more dangerous!”

A whole army of spiders was now gathering in the branches of the tree above him, waiting for my command. It was at this point that the youth realized the gravity of the situation - it was either face his worst fear, or be doomed to laugh himself to death six feet under.

And now the mire had him trapped up to his thighs.

“NOOOOOHOHOHOHOHO! NOHOHOHOT LIKE THIHIHIHIS!!!” He thrashed and howled helplessly, the tickling no doubt reaching the backs of his knees by now. He tried to reach for me, but it was no use. I was too far away.

“Reach UP!” I called out to him. “Not to me, raise your hands to the SKY!” 

He couldn’t respond, but he knew I wasn’t kidding. A few dozen spiders were already descending from silken threads attached to the lowest tree branch overhead. He was terrified, but it was the only way. He raised his hands, and they came to them…

More and more spiders moved in, binding his wrists with silk. Within a few laughter-filled moments, the rescue cables were thick as ropes. But the other side of the battle was not about to give up so easily.

The soil around his feet began to give way, revealing an army of ants as big as your thumb. The swarm was already claiming his lower legs, crawling up over the backs of his knees. The poor boy screamed helplessly as he tried to break free.

But help was on the way. A whole swarm of spiders descended from above, crawling over his upper body to meet the masses below; not that it really helped the tickling, given how they clambered over his armpits and abs a second time.

“All right now,” I commanded. “Everyone… PULL!!”

The spiders yanked hard on the cables, pulling once, twice, three times, finally raising him out of the soil. The ants fell off, unable to handle the onslaught, and vanished under the soil.

I managed to catch him as they let him drop, and carried him back into the house. “Well, that’s settled then,” I said.

“But - they’re still there!” he replied.

“I know,” I replied with a smile. “Nothing an extermination spell or two won’t handle.” 

“I... Um... T-thank you,” he panted. “I still hate spiders, but... You literally saved my life. Is there any way I can repay you somehow?”

I winked at him as we went through the door. “Oh, I know just the thing...”

**********

Instead of taking him up to the guest bedroom, I took him back upstairs to the chamber at the end of the hall. “One final test remains,” I said as I set him down in front of the door. “You have come this far, but should you accept it, there is no turning back.”

He gulped, wondering what was in store. “I thought you’d take me out into the forest or something…”

“Oh no, I have a different idea in mind,” I smirked. “Go on. Open the door.”

He hesitated, looking at me, and then turned the door handle and pushed. He gasped in horror as he saw the full set of padded stocks, chair and all, I’d laid out at the center of the chamber.

“You will not believe how many silken linens I had to blow off to get my hands on this thing,” I laughed proudly.

“I hate you,” he snarled contemptuously, but thankfully, he didn’t go any further as he headed over and sat in the chair.

“What is this about, anyway?” he asked.

My eyes glowed red as I explained. “When I was a youthful lad like you, I was subjected to a terrible spell… The Hedonist’s Curse. It means I must regularly feed off a certain sensation to survive, depending on the preference I have when the curse is applied. And you should know what I like best from my prey…”

“You wouldn’t,” he gasped.

“It doesn’t have to be daily,” I said as I opened up the stocks. “I can survive for up to a month without having to torment someone. It’s painful, though.”

He looked at me, wondering whether he should go ahead with this or not, and it took him a full minute to make his decision. But with a final sigh, he lifted his ankles up and into the stocks, letting me shut them in. His long toes peeked cutely over the top of the board.

“Excellent,” I said as I unwound some silk string from my fingertip, threading it between his first and second left toes, before binding it to matching rings on the board. Even this already had him giggling. Within half a minute, all of his toes were tied back, leaving his arches vulnerable.

“I will have a full hour of feeding,” I explained. “Then I will let you rest. Ready?”

He gulped, realizing what he’d gotten himself into, but it was too late. He nodded frantically, just wanting it over with.

The first thing he felt was two pointed fingernails, each pressing into a tight, ticklish arch. They were kept perfectly still, and he was already giggling, unable to even wiggle a toe.

Then I dragged my fingernails lightly down his arches, and he jumped in the chair. “AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Laugh all you want, your soles are mine,” I smiled, my eyes glowing as I began to savor the tender flesh, walking two of my fingers up each of his soles, letting his laughter course through me and energize my system.

I played with his feet in this way for a good five minutes while he continued shrieking and tossing his wild brown hair. He was given only a few moments to breathe when I stopped, and then all ten of my fingers struck, dancing over his tender soles.

“EEEEEEHHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHE SHIHIHIHIT HEHEHEHEHEHE GEHEHEHEHET AWAHAHAHAHAY! NOHOHOHOHOHOHO!” He tried reaching for my hands, but his legs were perfectly straight, and he just barely missed the stocks by an inch. Perfect measurement.

I paused again after another ten minutes, clicking my thumb and index nails together. He gulped as I commanded the strings to tighten, pulling his toes back even further. Then I took out a thin metal bar with brackets on both ends from a nearby counter and set it on top of his toes, before clamping it to the sides of the stocks. It was just low enough that his soles remained perfectly still and stretched tight.

And then he saw the soap, the small water pail - and the scrubbing brush.

“N-no! I c-can’t move them!” he begged. “P-please! PleEEEEEEEHEHEHEHEHAHAHA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAAHHAHAAAAAAH!!!”

I had already begun scrubbing his tight soles with the brush, getting the dirt off of them after the previous escapade. He was screaming so loudly that I was grateful for the Soundproof Silk I’d set up all over the chamber. I didn't want to pay for new windows.

Up and down his soles went the brush, its evil bristles dispersing soapy froth all over his poor nerve endings. It was still another ten minutes before I finally stopped, picked up a washcloth, and dried off his feet. Even then, the cloth fibers still elicited peals of laughter from the poor youth.

When I was finally done, I let him breathe for a full minute while I let the spell do its work. His face was already flushed with red as he gasped and panted breathlessly.

“EEEEEEEEEP!” He felt a light pinch on his tight arch! And another one! Then on the other foot! A few moments later, he was back to square one, laughing his handsome head off as I alternated kneading the ridges his arches made against his sole-skin with my fingernail tips! Left, right, both at once! I had never had so much fun with a visitor since forever!

This game continued for about ten minutes before I stopped once more, resting a fingernail over each heel. “Just one finger and you’re already this far? Pathetic,” I chuckled.

“EHEHEHEHAHAHAYOU’RENOTEVENMOVINGITHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll put both of my fingernails dead still on your feet. Tell me if it tickles or not. Ready?”

His eyes widened as he tried to hear me over his laughter, his soles still tingling even after I removed my fingers. Then I came back and pressed my nails upon each of the sweet spots I’d noticed earlier, at the center of each arch. He threw his head back and shrieked like a banshee.

“Does it tickle?”

“EEEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEITTICKLESITTICKLESITTICKLESITTICKLESHEHEHEHE!!!”

“But I’m not moving them. Huh. Strange.”

“NONONONOHOHOHOHO YOU’RE LYING YOU’RE MOVING THEHEHEHEHEM!”

“I said I wasn’t. Says something, doesn’t it?” I removed my fingernails, and smirked as I looked at the clock. Only five minutes to go, and he still wasn’t dry.

I licked my lips, baring my needle-like teeth, my eyes glowing red. “Brace yourself,” I grinned.

“Brace yourself? For what?”

His eyes widened with panic as he saw my head move down to the level of his feet. He only had a moment to guess, his mind coming up empty before the finale hit like a dragon’s tail.

“AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!”

The pointed tip of my long, conical tongue had pressed into his sweet spot, and was now moving in an outward spiral, its saliva lubricating his poor soles and making them ten times more ticklish than they already were! He’d thrown his head back and screamed at the ceiling like a young girl at the sight of a spider (and why so many are scared of spiders even though most of the 40,000-plus known species are mostly harmless, I’ll never know).

I licked, I nibbled, I sucked upon every inch of the sole of his right foot, while he shrieked, thrashed, flailed his arms, tried to blow the horrible spider-mage away with his best wind spell but his laughter prevented him from concentrating! I only needed two minutes on his right foot before switching to the left, and by the time I was done with that one, his laughter had gone out. I looked up to see that he’d passed out in the chair, his chest still heaving rhythmically.

I would swear I hadn’t eaten so well in months.

Considering him done for the evening, I untied his toes, freed up his feet, and carried him up to the guest bedroom where I tucked him in and gave him a light kiss on his cheek. Then I headed over to my own room, wiped my feet with my bedside washcloth, tucked myself into my own silken cocoon, and drifted off into dreams of a ticklish youth, wrapped in spider webs, and ticklish indulgence upon tender, helpless soles.

**********

I woke up with a strangled yell, taking a moment to analyze my surroundings. It was only a moment before I realized that someone had wrapped me up in my sheets. Only my bare feet and my head stuck out from either end of the spider-silk roll.

“Morning,” a familiar voice chimed just in front of my feet.

I tried to look up, but I couldn’t even budge. That didn’t prevent me recognizing the voice, though. “Still bratty as ever, aren’t you?”

“On the contrary,” the youth smirked. “I’m the kind of mage who’ll go through Hell and high water to complete a contract. I assume I passed the test, right?”

“Well, considering that you survived the whole ordeal, I think I’ll be merciful.”

“So I get to have you, am I right?”

I wondered what that had to do with me being wrapped up like this, but hey, I am an elf of my word. “Yes, that was what I said. But first thing, who the Hell tied me up like this?!”

“I did,” the young mage chuckled. “And judging from how you were yesterday, I think you should know why.”

“Um, please care to explain?”

“When you asked me to take off my shoes, I couldn’t help but notice you feeling a little embarrassed that you were barefoot yourself. I suspected a bit of hypocrisy on your part, but I let it slide at the time because I was too much of a wuss to argue with you then.

“During the second task, you asked me to go into that one basement cell by myself, and never came in to help. I couldn’t help but wonder why you were so afraid of those little fudgers even though you had a spider motif yourself.

“Then in the third task, you balked at going out into the garden to take care of those pesky ants. You never even took a step outside of your porch to help. One thing I noticed, though… Your feet were bare in both instances. That must mean you don’t like to go barefoot when dealing with evil, tickly insects.”

“Spiders are arachnids, NOT insects,” I corrected. “Arachnids have eight limbs, insects six.

And please, just get to the point. Did you realize anything right before you rolled me up in my own sheets?”

He smirked, wiggling his fingers. “I believe you already know. And now I do too.”

It took me a few moments to realize what I meant, but the moment I did, my eyes widened in horror, and if my face could turn any paler, it would have.

He’d figured it out. Oh, no. Oh dear gods, no.

The first thing I felt was something being dragged down my bare right sole. I let out a startled cry and tried to scrunch my feet, attempting to shake him off, but I wasn’t successful. There it was again, down my left foot! I had to squeeze my eyes shut and chew my bottom lip to try and avoid exploding, but I only lasted a few moments. “NGAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

“The price of the Hedonist’s Curse,” the youthful mage smiled with grim intent as he dragged his index fingernails up BOTH of my HELPLESS soles! “Regardless of how you prolong life, you will become just like the very victims your procedures entail. You choose to literally tickle the life out of your victims, you become unbearably ticklish yourself.”

“NOOOOOOOHOHOHOHO! STOHOHOHOHOHOAHAHAHAHAHAP! GEHEHEHEHET AWAY FROM MY FEEHEEHEEHEEHEEEEEEEEET!” I screamed, unable to move, only able to wiggle my toes and kick my feet a little, and even then that wasn’t very helpful.

“In light of your behavior, I doubt it.”

I could not believe it! This man had not only found out about my greatest weakness, but was also turning it against me in a truly ironic manner that would’ve made myself proud. I would have congratulated him if it weren’t for the maddening sensations playing upon my helpless bare feet!

He played with my soles for a full twenty minutes, using the feather duster, his fingernails, the scrubbing brush from earlier, even his tongue. He kneaded my toes ticklishly with his fingertips and licked the spaces between. He scrubbed the sides of my feet with the brush, and dusted off the tops. He stuck feathers between my toes and tickled the soles, making my toes wiggle like worms and tickle themselves. And all I could think aside from my endless laughter was, how did he know? How did he know? How did he know?…

By the time he FINALLY let me breathe, I was a total mess. My long white hair was drenched in sweat, and my soles were literally tickled pink. “Y-you win,” I panted. “You know my secret. I am yours, forever and ever and ever.”

“That’s good to hear,” he smiled as he undid the sheets and let me drop to the floor, lying on my back, feeling the warm summer breeze just slightly tickle my toes. “Now, tell me just this once… Where is the Oracle?”

I had to wait for another ten minutes to stop hyperventilating. He managed to help me to my feet (I still giggled each time I took a step), and sat me down opposite him in the guest room. By the time I was fully recovered from the morning ordeal, I managed to give him the directions to the destination and once there, a street route to the Oracle’s arcane shop.

“And since you didn’t fool around with my runestone kit for once,” I concluded, “I might as well help you out of the Forest of Nightmares personally.”

“You would?”

“I owe you that much for the best night of my life,” I chuckled. “Get your shoes, kid. We’re going for a walk.”

**********

As I led him out of the courtyard and through the path, we talked about our magical skills, the world around us, what adventures he was planning to have, what we wanted to do in life. As we did so, I kept thinking about yesterday. He had just shown up at my door and already, I’d fallen for his talent, his charm, his gorgeous feet… I never thought I’d want that feeling so badly. And even when he’d tortured me in retaliation, I felt relieved to finally share my darkest secrets with him. That meant he was willing to accept who I was. And anyway, I actually didn’t want him to stop tantalizing my touch.

By the time we got to the end of the route, where the main route had branched off into the forest in the first place. “So… I guess this is goodbye?” the mage asked with a dejected sigh. “I was really beginning to like that place. Or you, anyway.”

My face brightened as I took that in. “You were?”

He smiled. “You’re not as bad as everyone says you are. You’re not a mean, sadistic killer. Well, not sadistic in that sense, anyway!” He chuckled as his sandal-clad toes curled.

“I want to come with you,” I said.

He blinked. “Y-you want to come?”

I smiled broadly. “I’ve never met anyone who accepted me for whom I was, arachnophobia aside. You may not look like it, but you’re in fact the nicest person I have ever met in the past two centuries. And hot DAMN, those feet…” I wiped a small string of drool from the corner of my lip, and he smiled awkwardly.

“Talon,” he said, offering his hand. I looked at him, a bit confused. “I’m Talon Borealis.”

There was a clicking noise from nearby, and he couldn’t help but shiver. Elethea had arrived on top of my traveling bag, which was being carried by a colony of finger-sized spiders. I picked up the bag with a smile, and opened it up to let her in, before shaking his hand with my own.

“Aranea Orbweaver,” I replied. “And by the way, please do not think you would be rid of me had you refused the offer. You’d probably get lost again, and I’d have to be there to help when you do!”

“Only if you want to know the feeling of a Hydra’s tongue between your toes,” he replied with a wink. We both laughed, and exchanged a hug. And off we went, heading off to our destination together.

In retrospect, Talon’s appearance in my life was a bit of a mixed blessing. The world had ignored me for far too long, and who knows what happened while I had went into hiding. Would they be more accepting of me like Talon was, or would they keep being afraid? And was he really hinting that there was going to be danger on whatever quest had led him blundering into my web in the first place?

That is a story for another time, of course. But one thing was for sure: Talon and I were destined to share a lot of ticklish adventures together.