Toadette's Story

Chapter 11 - Princess Daisy's Ticklish Soles

Finally, we made it to the bottom of this hellhole. Despite the actual smell not changing, this was a breath of fresh air. Gone were the small and cramped rooms that all blended together. This here was a giant and expansive space. Right under us was a river storming around the area.

Princess Daisy hid her hands in her pockets. “Can we try and make this quick?”

“I dunno, I’m kinda getting used to the cold here.”

“Real funny.”

Jokes aside, being quick wasn’t really an option. Out of all the rooms, none were as dark as this one. We’d have to skim every single corner just to make sure no stone was left unturned. And combined with the massive scale of the area, searching the floor space here would take an eternity.

“OW!”

What stupid thing did the princess do this time?

“Only in the Mushroom Kingdom do idiots put random blocks everywhere!”

I followed her groans until I bumped into her backside. Blocks? Well, she wasn’t wrong. A mass of stone blocks spanned from the floor to the ceiling, like a tower. Not only that but they were pushed right against a wall.

“I think we found them.”

The princess cocked her head. “I’m pretty sure blocks can’t walk and steal stuff.”

“I meant behind them. There’s probably a door or some hole carved in the well. It’s not that uncommon if you’re on the run.”

While she stood dumbfounded, my eyes scaled the massive structure a second time. I could only shake my head in disbelief. “You’d have to be either real strong or have a lot of people helping you to set this--”

SPLASH!

What the? That was odd. It sounded like something came out the water. Must’ve been a small fish or something since whatever it was disappeared.

The princess rotated her arm. “Just give me a second, and I’ll bust these down in one hit.”

“Why not? That’s the quickest way to break your hand.”

Those stone blocks, in particular, needed weapons to destroy them. Hmm... Silver hammers could work well, but it wasn’t like we had those on hand. Dead end.

“Unless you got a hammer hiding somewhere, we’re screwed.”

“We’ll just come back tomorrow then. I can’t believe I actually wanna be back in Peach’s castle now.”

Odd how the princess seemed to have a disdain for Her Highness. I mean, she wasn’t the nicest person like I expected, but you’d think that mean attitude they both shared would make them the perfect friends.

I folded my arms. “Did you learn your weird foot punishment stuff from her?”

“Ha, reverse that, and you got it right. Peach wasn’t a fan of it back then, but I sure got a kick outta it.”

“Back then?”

The princess nodded, rubbing her hands together. “Yeah, I was about 8 or something. Had pretty feet back then and still got some cute toes now.”

Wait, so Her Highness wasn’t always like this?

“If she didn’t like doing this stuff, then what changed?”

“Ooh, you want a story. Well, I’d love to talk your little head off. But first, can we like get to civilisation?”

Aw, I wanted to learn. At least we were finally on our way back up to the surface. It wouldn’t take nearly as long as descending.

Or so I thought. It didn’t take long for my thoughts to get shattered as something heavy clapped against the water. You’d think an earthquake was going on with how much the platform vibrated. Dropping on all fours, I wasn’t ready for the giant wave ready to crash on us.

I poked my head above the raised river, spitting out bursts of water. Damn it! This place was throwing problem after problem at me. Now both myself and Princess Daisy were soaked from head to toe. And after I’d gone through such lengths to keep her from freezing to death.

Worse yet, the water rendered my poor glasses useless. Drenched and covered in specks of dirt, those lenses couldn’t serve my eyes at all. I folded them up and shoved them in my wet pockets, squinting to make some sense of what surrounded me.

As the river descended near its original level, the princess finally emerged out of the filthy water. Her hair and clothes switched from warm colours to a dark and musty tint.

“I hate this stupid place!!”

Who could blame her? But my body being soaked was a minor nuisance compared to the insides of my shoes. In every free space, that water took refuge. Yuck, my toes felt simultaneously slippery and slimy. It only took seconds for them to get wrinkly, too.

AAH! Caught between a rock and a hard spot. And I couldn’t just barefoot this place since that’d be equally as unpleasant, if not worse.

“Question...” Princess Daisy tapped on my shoulder like she was ringing a bell.

“Yes?”

“Is that thing a squid or an octopus?”

Son of a bitch, it was happening. Craning my head up, my eyes met the one creature I didn’t want to encounter down here. A wild Electro Blooper. Just seeing it pulse white and yellow reminded me of the terrible shock these things can give. And in this water-filled environment, to have a giant one soaking in the stuff was nothing short of horrifying.

“Okay. On three, you want to run to the pipe. Don’t argue…”

“You sure abo—”

“Don’t.”

The giant Blooper was not leaving my sight. Oh, but how good could I run with my shoes heavy and sloshing through water? Guess there was only one way to find out.

“Go!”

My feet stomped forward, but behind me, there was a shriek. Goddamn it! I spun to see that two long tentacles had wrapped around the princess. Tightly, as a matter of fact. Like a snake.

“Why didn’t you move!?”

Trying to pull the tentacles off her, she said, “Don’t tell me to run on three if you’re just gonna say GO!”

…I stayed silent on that.

Before I could come up with a new idea, the princess began to slide away. No, no, no! The Blooper was reeling her in!

“Grab a pole!”

“I only see columns!”

“Whatever!”

Screw these word games. Something had to be done about the Blooper. We didn’t have to kill the thing, but at least get it distracted or scared or something. I fled behind one of the gigantic support columns that held the floor above us.

Suddenly, two sharp sounds echoed through the room. Biting my lip, I just had to peek around the corner.

Two more tentacles centred on the princess, who hugged the brick column. They danced around her, but what were they doing specifically? Much of the column hid them from me. My poor heart felt like it was gonna burst out of my chest.

“My shoe!”

Huh? One of the princess’s shoes landed in the water, with a sock landing a great distance away on the platform. Then another shoe was swept away by the current while another sock landed safely.

“Hey, those are the only shoes I got right now, idiot!”

Maybe her shoes were making her difficult to grip for the Blooper.

Back to planning an attack, we had nothing to hit this thing. Why didn’t I think ahead before coming down here!? It did nothing but cause problems for us.

“Hahahahahaha!”

Now the princess was laughing. Enough of this corner stuff. I popped out, only to scream and flail my arms. This bastard wasn’t slick! Its tentacles were tickling her feet! Oh, and I thought I had seen everything. Nope.

Princess Daisy kicked her feet back and forth, but she couldn’t go anywhere. Those tentacles on her stomach glued themselves to her. And her feet being touched only caused her grip to get looser and looser.

Between her laughter, she shouted, “N-Need help!”

The pulsating Blooper’s eyes didn’t let a single one of us avoid it. Yet, the risk was worth taking. Yelling, I sprang from the edge of the platform to give the beast a heavy kick.

SMACK!

Oof! That concrete was not the most pleasant thing to hit, let me tell you. While I sat with half my body in the river, the Blooper didn’t let up on the princess. In addition to sweeping up and down her feet with the tips of its tentacles, its suction cups would latch on and off the princess’s dusty soles. All the while, her laughing got louder and her grip weaker.

If the Blooper could intercept me in the air like that, clearly, a direct hit was gonna be an obstacle. Hmm... No, I wasn’t giving up! Even if I lacked a weapon, perhaps I’d be able to outsmart this thing. Somehow.

“I’m slipping!”

Princess Daisy’s fingers began dancing up and down, ready to let go of that column. As her body wiggled from the tickling, the Blooper’s tentacles performed at lightning speed. You could hear the scratchy little sounds of the tickling from metres away. Her toes flexed and curled all over the place, and combined with her legs kicking, there was little chance the princess would hold onto the column for long.

Okay, Toadette. Think about something you saw today that could help. Pipes? No. Water? No, it swims. Um... Shoes? The image of the princess’s shoes drifting away in the river stuck in my mind. Out of the corner of my eye, one of her socks sat limply on the floor. Collecting it and its twin, I smiled.

“I got it.”

The second time down here that I’d have to do this. Who would’ve guessed? Kicking my shoes off, my wet feet had the displeasure of walking on this nasty floor again. The bits of dirt under my feet sent shivers up my spine, but I took a deep breath.

“Hey, ugly!”

The Blooper’s eyes didn’t shift, but I knew this thing saw and heard me.

“You want her so bad!? Try tickling her everywhere! Her stomach, ’tween her toes, her face, you’re missing a lot of ground!”

Come on, stupid. Take the bait…

I continued, “What’s wrong? You don’t want a nice royal dinner? Believe me, the bottoms of her feet taste... scrumptious. Especially when they’re all black and dirty like now.”

Holding back a puke, I crossed my fingers. Please, fall for it.

Still blind to fine details in this darkness, the princess’s facial expression was a mystery. But her barrage of insults pretty much told me everything she felt about me at that moment. Let’s see, spore head, check. Fungus, check. Mush-for-brains, yeah, of course, she called me that.

Within seconds, tentacles began to fly out the water like white and yellow bullets. One after another, they targeted Princess Daisy. Six in total, I counted. Added with four, we had ten tentacles, all focused on sending the princess into a tickling frenzy.

She let out more laughs as the tentacles did just what I suggested. One of those slimy things slid back and forth between her dirty toes. And on the other foot, another tentacle trilled its end on the top of her foot. Two extra tentacles went up and down on her hips which... Ugh. If she were as ticklish there as I was, that must’ve felt horrible. But continuing, a free tentacle had gotten a spot that surprised me: behind the princess’s ear. Finally, the last tentacle played with her cheeks, probably soaking up the tears she was leaking out.

I had this bastard right where I wanted him. Let’s see him try and intercept me now! With both my sneakers in each of my hands, my toes clutched onto the edge of the platform. The Blooper was so close to reeling the princess off the platform. A few seconds, if that. But he wasn’t suspecting that Toadette here had one more strategy.

Airborne, I launched both my shoes into one of the Blooper’s eyes. Yes! And for stylish points, I backflipped off its rubbery skin and just landed on the platform. Immediately, the place began to rumble. Green waves crashed on me once more, sending me swirling to the wall of blocks.

It must’ve been one whole minute I had spent underwater. By the time I got a hint of air, my insides felt twisted.

No Blooper. But what about the princess?

Taking a step without slipping was a new challenge in this cold and wet place. My legs were so sleepy, my clothing heavy, and my eyesight strained. Wobbling, I wiped my damp hair out of my eyes. The colours yellow and white started to come into view.

“What in the world...” Princess Daisy breathed as heavily as me, hunched over and dripping wet.

“Your socks, princess.”

They may have been drenched beyond belief, but it was still safer than having her walk around barefoot.

“I thought you turned on me for a second. Can’t believe you got the thing to let me go.”

“Some of ’em have ten tentacles max. I knew he couldn’t knock me out if he was messing with your ticklish feet.”

She slapped me on the back, causing me to flinch. “Neato!”

All of this just to find some stolen goods. Huh, it’s strange. Despite this being somehow scarier than half the stuff I dealt with in the past, it was exciting. I stretched my hand out to the princess, wiggling my fingers.

“To the castle?”

She stared at my hand for a few seconds. Oh well. I began to retract it until-- OW! She clasped it real tight and smiled.

“You lead.”