SWEETGIGGLES the Andromedian p

SWEET GIGLES: Grace and Nina and the Andromedian Prince

    “Its not like us to meet someone off campus,” Grace said, looking at her young friend, Nina. “I mean, sure we’ve helped a few with permission, but at a Dojo? I’m not a fighter like you are!” Azuba’s sun’s rays felt so good on her dark chocolate skin and golden wings. The Avia or Avian as some preferred to be called, flexed her muscles. “I’m a musician.”

    “And very good at making depressed people get over their sadness, something I’m not,” Nina pointed out. Her skin also was dark, though not as dark as Grace’s was. “But this guy is someone who can’t just walk into the campus without a body guard or two.”

    “I still wish you’d tell me who it was we’re going to see,” her friend grumbled. Nina rolled her eyes, and reached over tickling her shoulder blades. She smiled as her friend leapt into the air, her wings making a nice breeze.

    “Hey, not nice!” she giggled.

    “You do it to me all the time!” Nina laughed. She flexed her muscles and crouched into a sprint. “Anyway the Dojo is just a few miles up this way, lets get going!” Without much of a word, the New Kenyian speed off, her well toned body soaring down the horizon like a graceful animal of the wild.

     Grace rolled her eyes, her wings flapping rapidly as she caught up. Below her, the city of Galth shone as much as her skin. Silver and emerald towers glittered in the light, with aero cars of every kind buzzing by. Grace, being an Avia didn’t enjoy the vehicles all that much. They were too loud, too messy, and took up too much free space. But other than that, the city was gorgeous.

     It was nearly twice the size of New Los Angeles on Earth, with around fifteen million residents. Peddlers craned their necks, selling their goods on the streets. Signs of neon advertised the latest in comfort, food, or entertainment. On a News sphere, there was a report of the Egliadian Virus, which had been spreading across the galaxy for the last six months, listing six new victims. There was also news of the election of a new president in the Reformed States of America, a young woman no more than forty who waved to people on the steps of that Earth nation capital, Seattle.

     Finally, the arrived at the dojo. It was a huge building, five stories up, completely circular like an ancient arena. The brinks were out of place, dusty brown, with edges of rusty red. The building overlooked a massive ledge, just outside of the major traffic areas. Windows so small, no one could possibly look out of them comfortably lined each wall, three inches apart from the next. Forty eight in all. The smell of saw dust, sweat and blood laced the air, like some foul poison. And yet it seemed far better than the nuclear stench the areo cars gave off.

    “Thought you’d never make it,” Nina said with a smug grin. “Even running on two legs, I’m faster than you with wings!”

    “Let’s not be a smart ass, okay? Let’s just knock on the…,” she frowned. “Um, where is the door?”

     Nina giggled, and walked over to what appeared to be a blank wall. She stood there for a moment, meditating, then using her right index finger, drew some sort of design in it. And just as quickly, the wall vanished, revealing a decent looking door, with golden rings and the smell of incense. “Budadico, alamore ze molo’taire.” The door opened, and a bald, rotund man opened the door. They spoke in the language a few more seconds, and he nodded, moving aside to let the two girls enter.

************

    “Whoa!” Grace had to do a double take to see who was standing in front of them. “Is that…,” her heart skipped a beat at the young boy with gray hair, a black vest and white shirt. His pants were blue with Delutian buckles around the edges. And his wings fluttered as much as Grace’s, save for the fact that his wings were leather, and had strong bones at the edges. Bat wings.

    “May I present, his highness…. Prince Daniel Miyamoto, crown prince of Andromedian throne,” Nina said with a bright smile.  Her friend’s jaw dropped.

    “I was,” the boy said, his wings fluttering with sadness. He looked down at his feet. “If the revolution had never happened I might have still been.”

    “Oh, that,” Nina said. She knew a thing or two about revolutions, backstabbing. Andromeda nearly had been kicked out of the Galactic Federation afterwards, save for a few sly maneuverings of the new powers that be.

    “My whole family, my entire species, gone!” he whimpered. He walked down and sat down near his bed, his back slumped over. “And what does the Federation do about it? Nothing! They didn’t do anything when those Fascists took over, and massacred many innocent people! And to keep them in their little club! What a joke!”

     Grace walked over to him and put her wings gently over his shoulder. “Its okay.”

    “How could you know?!” he asked, pulling away. He saw the shock in her eyes, and shook his head. “I do apologize. I did not mean to snap.” He stood up and walked toward his window. “I’ve tried so many things to get over this sorrow. Nothing works.”

    “Well, we’ll see about that,” Nina chuckled, grabbing him by the wrist and twisting him forward. He crashed on the bed, his eyes wide with astonishment. Nina quickly pinned him there, and smirked.

    “Wait a moment, so soon? Isn’t there like an interview or something?” the prince asked, his heart rate increasing.

    “Nope, just this,” Grace giggled. She rushed towards his feet, and slipped off his boots, then his socks. “What cute piggy toes!” she squealed, girlishly, watching Dan’s ten little digits wiggle and flex in anticipation. Her wings shot forward and quickly enveloped both feet, swallowing his soles in feathery, ticklishness.

    “Oh damn, aha, no, aha I’m nohohot reheheheheady for thahahat yet!” He tried to kick, but the wings were strong, and stiff. It was like kicking a yellow wall made out of down. The more he kicked, the more the feathers tickled, seemingly alive. Up and down, back and forth. When he tried to bend his toes to crinkle them and prevent the tickling, the feathers acted as hands, and bent them back up, spreading them apart and keeping them there.

    “Awwww, who wants to play rough,” she teased. Her feathers dipped between his toes, and slowly slide them across them down and around. “Is the little boy ticklish on his toes?”

    “What about his tum-tum?” Nina laughed. She quickly bound his arms over his head, and then dug her fingers right into his stomach.

    “AHAHA STAHAHAHAHAOP! NOHOHOHOHHOHOHO, NOHOHOT THERE, AHA!” Dan’s eyes were red with laughter and tears. His face, equally red was growing hot, and though he struggled, there wasn’t much chance of him getting away.

     Grace used her free hands, to squeeze and tease his knees, making him jump and yelp even more. “Couchi coo!”

    “Stop, plehehehe, STAHAHAHAHOP!” His breathing was starting to get jagged, and his wings stopped fluttering in an attempt to fly to safety.

     The two girls giggled, and pulled back, leaving him a giggling, gasping goofball. “Oh… my … god,” he moaned. Dan lay flat on his back, his body occasionally jerking.

    “What did you think about that,” Grace giggled.

    “Intense,” he whimpered. “But I can’t say that did much to lift my mood, other than playful panic.”

     The dark skinned Avian giggled, and shot forward, dancing her fingers across his pits. “Really?”

    “No… no, plehehehease!” he whined. She stopped immediately, and smiled.

    “Not quite ready for round two, huh?” she asked. He shook his head, and lay on the bed for close to half an hour.

     The girls sat and talked with him about the past, and the present. His voice were always sad about the past, and bitter about the present. Finally, after the girls let him go to use the restroom, they decided to try again.

    “This time, though, I can’t see you tying me up,” he snapped. He flexed his muscles and slank into a fighting position. “Not unless you’re stronger than me.”

    “Hey, now wait, that’s not what we’re here for,” Grace said, frowning deeply. “We’re not fighters. We’re medical students.”

    “I’m sorry, but if you want to prove to me the reasoning of this exercise, you’d better prove to show your hand,” Dan said, his chest rising and falling. His face was fierce and hungry. “Its what my people do… did.” His gray brown eyes shone, as though he were asking them how they could deny his one last hope of clinging to the past.

    “She’s not a fighter,” Nina said, rolling her shoulders. “But I am. And I’ve seen my share of bad things too.” The young woman slipped into a fighting pose, and waved her friend away. “Just keep to that side, and you’ll be safe.”

    “But we don’t hurt,” Grace was confused. “Fighting doesn’t solve anything.”

    “The martial art we’ll be using isn’t a form of true physical pain,” Nina explained.

     They stood, reading themselves. Seconds passed into minutes, and then they rushed each other. Dan flattened his left hand, swinging it like a flesh and bone blade at Nina.

     She blocked it, with a thrust of her elbow, and kicked forward with her foot, hitting him in the shin. Dan backed away, and blinked. “Revenge is not a necessary element,” she said.

    “It is what keeps me driving,” he spat, and narrowed his body, thrusting forward. He rammed her stomach, and brought her to a knee. “It’s the only think keeping me sane.”

     “There are other things to keep people sane, friendship, hope,” she spat. Fist met fist, and they flew apart in opposite direction.

     Dan broke the distance, and swung his hands. His fingers pressed forwards her chest. She inched backward, rolling away, and swept with her legs to trip him. Dan leapt into the air, his wings flapping to keeping him safe.

    “Not bad, but that’s not quite perfect of the Tao Ze Wei,” he said. He folded his wings against his back and plummeted down, catching her shoulder, and bringing her down with him.

    “Nina!” Grace cried out.

    “Stay where you are,” the girl called. Using what strength she had, she pressed upward, and flipped Dan off of her, slamming him on his back, and used a rope to bind his wrists behind his back. There was a flash of pain in her hurt shoulder. She knew there probably would be, taking the chance of a collision like that. But had she not, she would have eventually been worn out.

     Dan grunted and yipped, leaping to his feet, and into the air, but without his wings, which she wrapped her arms around to keep from opening,  he couldn’t stay up. He blasted his head backward, hoping to catch her in a head bunt.

     Nina ducked her head, wrapping her legs around his waist, and shifted her weight as they plummeted. Soon she had him tight in a blanket hold. With a bright smile, her eyes twinkled in victory.

    “You win,” he moaned. “You may release me.”

    “I’m not so sure of that yet,” she laughed. She took off her belt and quickly, and gently tied it around his wings, to keep them comfortable. Then she took her fingers, and gently ran them across the thin membranes of his wings. It got the result she wanted.

     Dan buckled and thrashed, his eyes bugging out. “SHIHIHIHIHIHIT NOHOHOHOHOHO! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! STAHAHAOP!” he roared with laughter.

    “Just like your wings,” she teased Grace.

    “Not all that much like mine,” the Avian laughed, approaching the two of them. With a careful stab, she slid her feathers against a defenseless area of his bat wings, making him jump harder. “But close,” she giggled. “Now, you going to rely on friends, and joy, as an instrument for revenge?”

    “Whahahahat? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, NO MOHOHOHOHORE!” Dan laughed. Forty minutes in the first session was now shown in only five of the second, testifying how ticklish his wings were.

    “Hey, interrogation, pretty dark for you, Grace,” Nina said, a bit of impressed attitude in that. “But she’s right, friends can bring a better revenge against those who wanted you to suffer, than fists and blades.”

     Dan went nuts, unable to speak as he laughed so hard. A few times he vanished into silent laughter. The girls gave him a few breaks, but immediately once he managed to fill his strength again, drowned him tickling fingers and feathers again.

    “STAHAHAHAOP! I THOUGHT YOU HAHAHAD TO STAHAHAHAHOP WHEN AHAHAHASKED!” he whimpered.

    “We have, and do,” Nina said. “But I can see from your eyes, you want a real battle, and I’m kind of the head doctor in this session, so I can say what goes,” she giggled.

    “I’ll make her stop, if you decide to let go of revenge,” Grace said with a laugh. “Really, revenge will only damn your species to extinction. Going to rush into battle, instead of rebuilding and trying to wait for another opportunity is stupid.” She smiled, tickling his ribs as well as his wings. “Isn’t it?”

    “YEHEHEHEHES! YES! AHAHA!” Dan shrieked with laughter. There was truth in her words.

    “Friends and keeping safe and quiet are much better! When you declares peace, it will confuse the hell out of your enemies,” Nina acknowledges, tracing the veins along his wings with her fingernail.

    “YES, YES, YES, YES I AGREEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE, AHAHAHAHA, PLEHEHEHEASE NO MOHOHOHOHOHORE! NO MORE WIHIHIHIHIHINGS!” he cried with laughter, his body quaking.

    “Okay, Nina, he’s better,” Grace laughed. The two girls let him go, and let him lay there for a little bit. “Now, don’t you feel better?” she asked softly.

     At that point, shortly after the tickling had stopped and he had regained his breath, Dan looked at Grace. Tears began to flow down his eyes and he rushed over to her, sobbing uncontrollably. It wasn’t because of the stress of the therapy or the session. The years of past sorrow and hate caught up to him, the bitterness. Rage. Confusion. Loss. Everything came flowing out.

    “Poor guy,” she said. Her arms enveloped him first. Then her wings. Soon, he disappeared from view as he clutched her, holding on to her like a child holding on to a life raft in a flooding river. Grace felt her lips quiver and she began crying too. So sad, to be the last of his race, of his species, of his family. Grace held him for over an hour, as he wept, and then slept in her arms, the warmth of her wings calming him.

    “Did we help him?” she asked her friend, as they lay him on his cot, sneaking out of the room to give him rest.

    “Same as anyone else who asks for our help,” Nina said with a bit of sadness in her own voice. The girls had done for her, what they had just done for Dan in the beginning. “Time will tell, but I think we cracked away some of his hate and sadness.”

     Grace looked back at the room, and then followed her friend back to their house on the university. She was sure Nina was correct. She had felt calm as he started to sleep, and felt the rage of persecution slip from his frame as she held him. Only time could help and would tell now. But she was sure he’d be okay. And if not, she’d be sure to check in on him from time to time on the weekends.