Game 4Game 4 Outline| Game 4 |
Game 4 Outline |
The instant Prince Shane bursts into loud laughter, the entire crowd is spellbound. They all gaze with rapt stares as His Highness' glee increases and renders him helpless. You find yourself thinking that you can't really blame them. There is a quality in Shane's laughter that shares the regal magnificence of his massive barefeet, and that even draws enough of your attention away from his majestic tootsies that you become barely conscious of your fingers continuing to tickle his toes even as your tickling elicits peal upon peal of splendid hilarity.
Eventually, a courtier approaches you and respectfully requests a turn at tickling the prince's bare feet. You feel a curious reluctance to yield, but force yourself to let others in the room have a go. And have a go they do. To your amazement, it seems as if everyone in the room wants a turn at tickling those regal feet, not that that really surprises you when you consider the matter. After all, they'd probably never seen Prince Shane barefoot before, and you realize how much more likely you are to tickle your own friends' barefeet if it had been a long time since you'd last had the opportunity. And amazingly, Shane's magnificent royal laughter is going as strong as ever.
Coming to yourself, you look at a clock and realize that Prince Shane's bare feet have been getting tickled for eight hours without interruption! And the entire throng is as attentive as at first. By now, surely everyone has tickled the prince at least twice or thrice, but they have formed a circular queue, each foot tickler handing off to the next only to begin waiting for another chance.
There is one exception - the Chamberlain. (S)he beckons you over and whispers, "I forgot all about the Warlock of Ararat!"
"The whosie of whatsit?" you reply.
"The Warlock of Ararat," says the Chamberlain. "Many centuries ago, the Djoulikyans, who are ancestors of Prince Shane, became much more prosperous than they had been, and noone could explain the sudden upturn of fortune. Eventually, it was discovered that they were hosting among them the Warlock of Ararat, though noone had informed the court, as at the time warlocks were usually evil and were outlawed from most principalities. But the Warlock of Ararat discovered he had a curious craving. At first, like all warlocks, he gave those who came to petition him for boons decidedly mixed blessings and no sure improvements in their lots. But one day a villager who had come to petition the Warlock without the usual fee was so grateful not to be turned away at once that he actually kissed the Warlock's feet, and accidentally tickled him, which surprised the Warlock of Ararat so much that he couldn't help granting the villager completely good fortune in reply to his petition. The villager grew rich at once, and told his friends of his good fortune. When one of them had occasion to visit the Warlock, he tickled the sorceror's feet deliberately, and found his pockets full of more gold than he would ever need. The Warlock of Ararat soon found himself becoming increasingly ticklish, and before long could not resist the impulse to demand payment for his services not in chickens, goats and labour, but in foot tickling. His petitioners were asked to tickle his feet, and the more they made him laugh the more their circumstances improved."
You raise your eyebrows, and the Chamberlain continues, "This might have been all well and good, but the ruling prince of the Djoulikyans at the time was incredibly greedy. When he learned that the increase in prosperity of the population was all due to the Warlock of Ararat and his ticklish feet, the prince gave orders that the Warlock be tickled in perpetuity. At first this caused even further increases in the riches of the Djoulikyan people, but eventually they tickled the Warlock of Ararat to death, actually made him laugh until he died! You see, as he had become more and more ticklish, the warlock had lost control over that ticklishness so that he could not resist it. But as he was laughing his dying giggles, with the last bit of his strength he caused a great tablet to appear from the ground bearing his Curse of the Djoulikyans. It took more than a century to be translated, but eventually the tablet was deciphered to reveal the Warlock of Ararat's dying curse, that one day the Djoulikyans would hear the laughter of their prince on the occasion of his feet being tickled, and that the sound and experience would be so intoxicating that every native-born Djoulikyan who ever saw, heard, or tickled that prince into laughter would be overpowered by an irresistible urge to tickle his majestic barefeet forever, or until they all sickened and died, whichever came first. For centuries now the Djoulikyans have forgotten the curse of the Warlock of Ararat, or thought it a myth, but I have always been convinced of the truth of the curse, and you can see for yourself I seem to be correct."
You look horrified. "Then noone is going to be able to stop tickling Prince Shane until... it's too late?" you ask.
"Exactly," says the Chamberlain. The two of you turn your eyes in the direction of the throng, every member of which sports an almost vacant stare in which the only objects in the world of any significance are Prince Shane's helplessly ticklish barefeet, which are still being deliciously tickled by one and all in turn, while the prince himself is as spellbound as any of his ticklers.
Then something occurs to you. "But wait," you tell the Chamberlain. "You said that every native-born Djoulikyan was bound to feel an irresitible urge to tickle Prince Shane's feet. But you haven't tickled him, have you?"
"You see," the Chamberlain starts to say, when...
Written by stephan
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