Madison whimpered, as she had been for the past several hours. Alone, cold and anxious, the young Popplio girl had been held in her uncomfortable chains for what felt like several hours now, with no indication of when anyone would come for her. Part of her was glad for it, since everyone she had come into contact with so far on this island had treated her terribly. But also, her own fear was driving her crazy. She knew very little about what was going to happen to her, other than that it was not going to be fun. The fact that she only had herself to blame did not help her emotions either. The Popplio worked as a coast guard, one of the youngest in her country. As such she was a rookie and only assigned to simple patrolling – all she had to do was keep watch and give signals, and the more dangerous work would be carried out by one of her superiors. She was proud of becoming a guard at such a young age, but in this case, it had made her slightly too overconfident. She had been taught to stay far away from any trespassing ships she sees, but she had been silly. She went just a little too close before she confirmed that the ship was a threat, and before she knew it, it was an ambush. The pirates may have only wanted to scare her away, but upon seeing that she was about to give a signal of their whereabouts, the water-types that were guarding the perimeter of the ship were not going to let her roam freely. Her begging and pleading upon being brought aboard did not do much to help, and listening to her captors' conversations simply made things much worse. Standard protocol amongst pirates was to never abduct children. Not particularly out of any moral code, more that they were useless to sell as slaves. But Madison, being part of the authorities, was an enemy. An enemy that the pirates themselves had seen attempting to call for backup. They had no reason to show her any mercy. The poor girl knew that she was in for a serious punishment – it was just a case of finding out whether it would be a quick drop from the gallows or a slow and painful torturing. Having been forced into her cell rather quickly upon disembarking the boat, Madison knew almost nothing of what the plans for her were. The only conversation she overheard was when she was dragged before a Mew, supposedly the empress of the pirates, who gave a vague and simple order: 'Let Aurora deal with her however she wishes.' She did try and ask who Aurora was, but any questions were met with either ignorance or a smack. She could only imagine that, whoever this pirate was, she wasn't going to be the nicest. More time passed, but just when she was about to become more bored than frightened, she was jolted by a voice suddenly talking to her from outside the cell door. "Ah, here she is, the Popplio... I believe you are the newest prisoner, yes?" The voice was extremely rough and raspy-sounding. Deep and coarse, signifying a very tough, powerful and intimidating figure. The Popplio's fear grew to even higher levels as she listened to the voice of her punisher and imagined the large, terrifying villain that would be behind it. The voice was so strangely gruff that it was difficult to decipher whether it was male or female. Madison tried her best not to whimper again, and remained professional as she spoke back. "Wh-who are you!? I-I promise I'll co-operate with you!" "Oh, I bet you will~ State your name!" "M-Madison..." "Pleased to meet you. I am Aurora...you may have heard of me..." As she spoke, the figure on the other side of the cell unlocked the door and slowly opened it, revealing herself to the young captive. "We'll be spending a lot of time together today...and if I do say so myself, I'm very excited, hehe..." Madison was taken aback when she saw who the voice belonged to. Contrary to the tall, powerful sadist she had envisioned, Aurora was actually a rather small, petite, golden Eevee. She actually looked around the same age as Madison herself, and was rather cute. However, there were a few more peculiar things about her appearance. Her hair was very long and unkempt, the red dress that she was wearing looked very ragged and damaged especially towards the bottom, and a large metal gauntlet completely covered her lower left arm. Just as Madison was about to question the reason for her odd voice, she noticed a high amount of scarring and injury around the girl's neck, looking almost like she had been stabbed in the throat. Although she had already learned to fear Aurora, Madison couldn't help but have a little hope and empathy upon seeing her. She was a fellow child, who clearly had a rough past. A part of the Popplio was very happy to see another youth, and hoped that she may even be able to befriend the Eevee girl. "I-I'm sorry that you have to do this..." Madison said, forcing a smile to try and get the Eevee on her side, "I'm just a rookie, I wasn't thinking, really! I promise that I won't say anything if you do let me go..." "HA!" Aurora shouts, shooting down Madison's hopes of empathy quite quickly, "Let you go, that's rich! You know, normally when they catch enemy authorities around here they just feed them straight to the sharks within the hour. But I'm very pleased that the empress has treated me to a nice torture session with you..." "T-torture!? P-please, miss Aurora, you don't have to hurt me! I'll do whatever you say!" Madison pleaded, her fear now reaching panic levels upon mention of the word 'torture'. "I know you will, and I say you need to suffer!" Aurora replied. She had a wide smirk on her face that only grew bigger alongside the Popplio's fear. "I'm not gonna waste any more time, c'mere!" Before the captive had any further chances to plead for mercy, Aurora detached her chain from the wall and began very quickly dragging her out of the cell. Madison wanted to try and fight it, but the metal collar was almost choking her even as she tried to keep up with her captor. She may have been the same age, but Aurora was by far the more powerful of the two and effortlessly dragged Madison down a dark hallway and into another room. Trying her best to keep calm and avoid getting emotional, Madison began finding that very difficult once she looked around the room she had been dragged into. The dingy cell was almost welcoming in comparison. This room was not just a torture dungeon, it contained machinery and devices that Madison had never known about. The dungeon was vast, but the amount of equipment surrounding her still gave it a highly claustrophobic feel. Rusty chains, spikes, and dried-up blood adorned every implement. The Popplio tried her best to ignore it, but she couldn't look away. After all, she was inevitably going in one of those devices now. "Keep up!" Aurora shouted loud, doing everything she could to frighten her new toy even more. She pulled Madison over to a thick wooden table that had metal shackles attached to it. "Aww, are you scared? Don't piss yourself, I'm not gonna slice you up or anything...yet. Come on, get yourself up on this table. Now!" Although she may have been feeling slightly defiant at first, Madison was not going to risk ignoring orders from Aurora, especially not when she was standing right next to a device that looked like it could crush her head. She got up on the table promptly, giving out more scared whimpers and sobs that just made the situation even more delightful for her captor. Aurora was very well-versed in punishment and torture, but she didn't often get the chance to torture a girl who was a similar age to her. The thought of tormenting a fellow youngster gave her a thrill she hadn't felt in a long time. No time was wasted in tugging Madison's legs into position and securing her ankles into the tight metal. A third cuff wrapped around her tail, and a larger restraint in the centre of the table secured her whole torso, trapping her wrists tightly to her sides. All of the restraints were extremely uncomfortable and restrictive, and were designed to become painful in no time at all. "Hehe, you even look kinda cute when you're trapped like that..." Aurora taunted, as she took Madison's collar off and replaced it with a rubber-padded restraint that held her neck down to the table, finalising her captive's bondage. "I hope you're comfy...normally I'd have them a lot tighter but I don't want a weakling like you to squeal too quickly..." "Wh-what are you going to do!?" Madison asked in a quiet and terrified voice, barely able to move her head due to the restrictive collar. Aurora made sure to maintain eye contact with her, to get a good look at her terror. "Please...is there no kind of deal we can come to?!" "I have a lot of plans for you..." Aurora replied, ignoring the second question, "To be honest, normally I would start torture sessions with a little waterboarding to put on some real duress, but since I've got a water-type with me today, I'm gonna have to fast-forward a little... I think I want you to meet a new friend..." Aurora disappears behind Madison's view for a few seconds. Upon returning, she makes sure that her hands are in clear view, so that the prisoner can see the 'friend' she was holding...a very large and hairy eight-legged friend. The huge spider slowly crawled across Aurora's hands with it's thick and furry legs, it's owner offering another sadistic smirk as she looked past the spider at Madison's expression. The Popplio instinctively cringed and flinched upon catching sight of the spider's long legs, and turned her head as much as she can to avoid looking at it. "Hey! Don't you dare be rude to my pet! Look at him!" Aurora screamed in fake anger, forcing the captive to look back. The Eevee giggled a little, amused at the amount of power that she already had over her captive, how she was already so obedient before even being hurt. "That's right, isn't he cute? I've had him for a while... You're not scared of spiders, are you, little girl?" "N-no! I mean...a little... Aaah!" Madison's brief bravery was interrupted by the spider being moved slightly closer, startling her and indicating her arachnophobia better than any words could. "That's such a shame, because he really wants to meet you! Come on, say hi..." Aurora lets out more giggles as she holds the spider between two fingers and puts it extremely close to her captive's quivering face. This almost immediately results in loud squeals and screams from the terrified water-type, whose eyes can't help but widen as the spider's hairy legs get close to them. "Aaagh! P-please! Get it away!" Madison pleads frantically, her screams getting higher and mixing with sobs the longer the spider is held to her. She does not want to close her eyes at risk of angering her torturer, but her anxiety couldn't cope with the close-up sight of the large, furry spider, and it's owner's thrilled sadistic grin. It was obvious that Aurora was not just here to hurt her – she was here to get her own sick thrill purely from fear and distress. Any hope the Popplio had of trying to get on her good side had completely disappeared. Although Aurora does not hold the spider close for too long, it feels like an eternity. "Aww, okay then, I can tell you don't want to say hi to him...I guess I'll just, oop!" Aurora gives an unconvincing performance as she 'accidentally' starts losing grip of the spider. Deliberately moving her hand to Madison's neck, she places the spider onto her, it's hairy legs crawling against her collarbone. "Whoops! Hehe, hopefully he won’t bite!" The fear that rushes through Madison's mind as she feels the spider's legs land on her is beyond any fear she had felt before. She went into a panic attack in a matter of seconds, tears running down her cheeks as her mind only focuses on the horrible feeling of the eight long, furry legs touching along her neck. Although her restraints don't allow for much struggling and squirming, she still tries her absolute best, anything that will give her any slight chance of getting the arachnid away from her. She thrashes around as much as she can, letting out plenty of squeals and whimpers of terror as she remains helpless against the crawling creature. The minimal padding around her collar doesn't make it any less painful when her neck frantically struggles against it, and the rough metal around her ankles causes heavy reddening within a minute or so of her escape attempt. Aurora couldn't be any more delighted with the result – her victim's terror was some of the cutest she had ever seen, and she hadn't even gone to much effort yet. "Pfft, don't be a baby~" Aurora teases as she finally lifts the spider back up after a good few minutes. She smirks as she looks at the red marks around Madison's neck, before looking down to her equally reddened ankles. "That spider was a hell of a lot friendlier to you than I'm gonna be~" "D-don't you ever feel guilty doing stuff like this?" Madison continues to whimper as she speaks up, "I haven't done anything wrong, I'm the same age as you! Just please have some mercy!" "Hmmm...nah, not in the mood." The Eevee quipped as she went behind Madison again, before returning with a long, wooden cane twirling in her hands. As she speaks, she touches the cane against the soles of Madison's feet, rubbing it across gently and making the girl whimper a little more. "Besides, I haven't even done anything to you, those marks from the shackles aren't my fault! These marks will be though..." Before the Popplio could object any further, Aurora pulled back and swung the cane towards Madison's blue soles, landing a firm smack against them with the hard wood. The young girl lets out a sudden loud squeal that softened into a sob, her toes wiggling gently as the sting grew. "Bastinado was one of the first torture methods I learned about...it's adorable how quickly some people break after just a few hard whips and canes to their feet~" The Eevee said with a very sadistically excited tone, as she admired the reactions of her victim. She landed a second smack slightly harder, against the Popplio's heels. "Your feet look awfully soft and smooth...I wonder if I should specialise in foot torture with you~" “Gaahh..p-please no...” “Plenty of caning, hot wax, maybe some roasting over coals, maybe sticking your toes in a vice with some screws~” Aurora made cruel taunts to exploit her panicky prisoner’s sensitivity as much as possible. “It’s not like you’re gonna need to walk on them much, after all...” The harsh spanking of the cane against her sensitive feet made Madison sob much louder, her restraints causing further bruises as she flinched and thrashed after each strike. A quick and cruel succession of three strikes to the soles sent an immense sting coursing through her feet and lower legs, her toes curling and wriggling all around as she attempted to try and soothe the sensation. Her feet curled sideways as if they were trying to protect each other, but they were bound separately and helplessly. As if the pain wasn't enough, the threat of even more being inflicted on her feet was close to giving her another panic attack. It was only a minute into her beating and she'd already taken more than her soft, pudgy feet could handle. After around ten smacks, her tears were flowing. "Poor girl, can't even take a beating on her little feet..." Aurora taunts, as she strokes a single finger along Madison's sore soles, making her flinch and yelp. The frantic reactions at any kind of foot stimulation made Aurora excited, a fact she did not try to hide. "Can't handle much of anything on those feet, I bet..." "At...at least hit me somewhere else, please! Not my feet agaAAH!!" The prisoner's plea was quickly interrupted by another caning, just beneath her curling toes. "Normal beatings are boring...since it hurts so much more on the feet, why wouldn't I keep whipping your pathetic soles?" Aurora keeps a close eye on the physical damage caused throughout the beating, to determine when to stop. She may not want any huge injuries, but she does want to see some nice bruises. Luckily for her, not only does the cruel cane do a good job of marking the pudgy soles, but the bruising around her limbs also gets noticeably bigger, her struggling causing almost as much pain as the smacking. She finally puts an end to Madison's punishment, only after she was sure that it would hurt the poor girl to walk on such bruised feet. "You're much softer than even I expected. I think I might need to give you a break just to make sure that I don't accidentally kill you too early..." Aurora needed to give her victim a break of some kind in order to prepare her next plan. She didn't want it to be thought of as mercy in any way. "You're gonna get some rest for an hour or two, I expect you to thank me later!" "I-I'll thank you now! As long as the pain is over..." Madison replied, relieved that the intense pain had come to an end. Aurora promptly replaced her neck restraint with the collar from earlier, before unshackling her from the table. The Popplio smiled from relief as she got up, until she took her first step off the table, and a new wave of pain shot through her feet. "Aaah!!" "Oh yeah, I wouldn't stand too much if I were you. At least try and let those bruises heal." Aurora says as she tugs on her prisoner's collar to make her walk painfully back to her cell. "And don't worry too much...I'm not necessarily gonna hurt you when I come back..." ------------------------------ Madison fell asleep almost immediately after being left alone, needing the rest after the amount of energy she had exerted with her struggling and panic. However, a full good night's sleep was far too much to ask, and soon Madison was given a cruel awakening in the form of an open-palm smack to her sensitive soles. "Aaagh!! O-ohh...." Madison yells out loud before unfortunately realising her situation again. "C-can I please sleep for longer?" "This place ain't a hotel! You've had a full 90 minutes, now get up!" Aurora said sternly, as she grabbed Madison's collar and pulled it up to force her to her feet. "Nng..You can't do this to me!" Madison shouted, in a much angrier tone than she wanted to. The sudden rude awakening and adrenaline seemed to have calmed some of her fear down, and she was much more annoyed and frustrated now. "Ooh, what's that? Are you trying to talk back to me, little girl?" Aurora replied in a threatening tone, making sure to put the Popplio back in her place. "One wrong word out of your mouth and I'll have you walking on broken glass, you understand?!" "..." The prisoner's anxiety quickly returns, preventing her from doing anything stupid. Although still somewhat defiant, her tone returns to being much more submissive and pleading. "Please...I know you won’t, but you need to have some compassion..." "And YOU need to start walking with me! C'mon!" The punisher reiterates, before tugging on the collar again. This time, Madison tries her best to be difficult, staying still and pulling against her captor, but she is far too easily overpowered within a matter of seconds. Not even giving her enough time to be scared by the room's decor anymore, Madison was dragged quickly through the dungeon and led to a chair in the corner, which she was promptly forced down into. "I was gonna do this for an hour...but since you decided to gimme some trouble, I think I'm just gonna go until your body gives up..." "I'm not gonna try and fight anymore, it's useless...but please don't hurt my feet any more..." "Luckily for you I'm not!" The captor replies, as she roughly forces Madison's hands behind her back and ties them securely with rope. "As much as I'd love to beat your feet purple, there are many other methods of foot torture that don't involve too much pain~" The Popplio would much rather her feet were not touched at all, but soon they were being forcibly lifted up and placed into a set of wooden stocks. Her toes gently wiggled and curled, nervously feeling a slight breeze as her feet became much more vulnerable. Once Aurora had finished, the prisoner was locked nicely in the stocks, tight enough to trap her for good but not quite as painful as the earlier table restraints were. Her toes continued to wiggle out of anxious instinct, a sight that widened Aurora's smirk. "You know, I hope you don't think I'm just some kind of lonely freak who likes playing with people's feet." Aurora punctuates her speech with a quick drag of her fingertip up both of Madison's soles, eliciting a violent flinch and a giggly yelp out of the girl. "On the contrary, there are quite a few creatures around here who would find those soft paws of yours quite precious. You're gonna meet two of my favourites today." As Madison breathed heavily and tried to maintain composure, she watched as Aurora opened up a hatch in the dungeon walls. Inside it were two small goats, who bleated a little upon being exposed to light. The Eevee picked up a bucket nearby, and quickly began to pour some of the liquid within over Madison's stocked feet. "What exactly is that? Just water?" The confused Popplio queried, flexing her toes as the liquid splashed over them. "It's fresh from the sea! High in salt, which these goats seem to have quite the liking for, hehe..." "Ohh..." Once again, realisation set in and Madison became a little panicky. She had never been warned about any of these torture techniques, but she figured that her trapped feet were about to be licked. Not something that would normally faze her too much, but even the gentle breeze through the dungeon was stimulating her soles somewhat. They were very sensitive and tenderised. She didn't know what to expect, but she knew it wasn't going to be pleasant. A few seconds after the saltwater had been poured, the goats became interested and started to approach the bound girl. "A-are you sure this isn't going to hurt?" "Eh, maybe a little. But if you flinched at just one stroke of a finger, you're gonna go insane in a few seconds..." The Popplio watched on as the animals approached her bound feet, which struggled as much as they could but couldn't come close to escaping the stocks. The cold saltwater dripped from her footpaws as the two goats took some curious sniffs, before sticking their tongues out and taking their first lick of the girl's soles. Although Madison had attempted to brace herself, she wasn't even slightly ready for the sensation that was inflicted upon her soles by the tongues. All of her tender nerves were stimulated even just after the first lick, and after the second, she couldn't help but cackle out loud and thrash around in the stocks. The tongues were as rough and coarse as Aurora's voice, and their licks were hard, deep and slow. Every inch of her poor feet from heel to the tips of her toes was covered by the licks, ensuring that each ticklish nerve in them was constantly stimulated. Aurora sat back and watched, absolutely adoring the sight of the Popplio's ticklish feet being abused. "How's that feel, hmm?" The Eevee taunts as she enjoys the show. "I've seen those goats lick for days when they're really hungry...and I'm sure you can already feel that they’re tenderising those feet as they go~" "ST-STAHAHAHP PLEHEHEHEASE!!!" Madison's cackles grew into full laughter that echoed all around the dungeon walls as she became much more aware of the effect the tongues were having. Each lick did indeed feel noticeably worse than the last, even though it got to a point where she didn't think that was possible. The coarse tongues felt rougher and rougher as they kept dragging along the hypersensitive soles, and a loud squeal was guaranteed every time they forced her toes to splay and went between them. It felt like an eternity before the goats slowed down their licking...and even then, the slow licks were still just as torturous on her poor peds. "Ooh, I think they've almost licked it all off... it seems your tickle torture is nearing it's end..." "Oohohohohoh, plehehehease!!!!" "Actually, no, wrong!" Aurora lets out a cackle of her own as she lifts up the bucket again. "NO! NOHOHOHONONONOAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" A few seconds of pleading went nowhere as a fresh coating of saltwater was quickly poured all over her quivering feet, immediately making the two hungry goats lick even more ravenously than before. By this point, her soles are so sensitive that each lick makes her entire body shiver, that evil ticklish feeling shooting all the way through her legs and overstimulating the poor girl both physically and mentally. Her laughter began to transition into screams, which then grew silent due to their intensity. The stocks rattled due to the amount she was struggling, but they held those poor helpless feet safely in place and gave her no chance of escape. Tears of both laughter and distress soaked her cheeks, but her captor was loving every second. The more the young prisoner suffered, the more the young captor smiled. Torturing this Popplio was giving Aurora more happiness than any prisoner she'd had in months. Madison's body puts up a good fight but it cannot avoid exhaustion as the torture just doesn't seem to end. After many hours of the cruel ticklish torture, the Popplio suddenly goes limp, her laughter softening down to silence as she passes out from the torment. Truthfully, Aurora was rather proud of her victim for lasting so long against the licking. She barely expected her to go past a single hour. Gently petting her as she lay unconscious, the Eevee soon returns Madison to her cell, laying her down so that she can get her admittedly well-deserved rest. Aurora looked back at the young girl's body before leaving the cell, somewhat saddened as she knew that she likely would not get too much torture time with her. The pirates normally wanted her to break in slaves or extract information, so to get a chance to do nothing but abuse a cute girl her own age for sadistic pleasure was a delight. She wasn't going to let that Popplio go without terrifying her one last time. ------------------------------ The next morning was a very depressing one, despite Madison not directly being tortured anymore. Rather than being kept solely by Aurora, she was now on outdoor display in a pillory, her head and hands trapped in the wooden block. Almost every pirate that passed her either shouted abuse or threw something at her, with quite a few gathering around armed with rotten vegetables to pelt the young girl with. Being hit with odd-smelling tomatoes was hugely preferable to being hit with a cane, but the public humiliation did start to take it's toll on Madison after a few hours, the feeling of helplessness being cemented even further. She was still very much feeling the effects of yesterday's punishments, the stones and rocks beneath her bare feet causing her a fair bit of extra pain as she stood in the pillory. There wasn't a single soul on this island that showed her any respect or compassion, and she knew that the only conversation and company she would get would be from her golden-furred torturer. Meanwhile, Aurora was watching the pillory from afar, planning her next and final move. Empress May had ordered her to rid the prisoner from the island, deeming Aurora's skills to be necessary for more useful prisoners. But the Eevee had become attached to seeing her young captive suffer, and didn't want to just give her a boring, standard execution. She was going to give her something exciting, a final chance to relish in her fear. "Hey, squirt! How you holding up!" Aurora greeted Madison in a friendly tone, or at least as friendly as her rough voice could be. "It's your big day today!" "Wha? What's so big about it?" Madison enquired. She wasn't in any mood to trust the sudden joviality of her torturer. "We're gettin' rid of ya!" Aurora continued, unlocking the pillory and taking control of Madison via her collar again. "The boss says I'm spending too much time with ya, so I'm afraid I'm gonna have to send you on your way~" "R-really!?" The thought of freedom makes the Popplio's tail wag, restoring her hope at last. "Th-thank you! I promise I won't tell anyone what happened! Thank you so-" "Ah ah ah ah! Don't flap your tail too quick now! Just because you aren't gonna be here anymore, doesn't mean that you're gonna go home..." "B-but I know the way!" Madison replies innocently, "What do you mean?" "Hmm...let's call it your final test. C'mere!" Aurora drags the Popplio down a path leading towards the island's edge. The prisoner limped all the way, forcing her to tug hard and often on the collar to try and speed her up. The cute whimpers each time were a bonus too. Upon reaching the dock, Madison is pushed against a large anchor, which Aurora immediately starts binding her to. "W-wait!? What are you doing?" The confused and scared prisoner objected, "Y-you said you were letting me go! You can't tie me up again!" "Don't worry, things'll be over pretty soon for you...there's a lot of hungry sharks around this island, after all..." Madison's hope drained again very quickly, as she realised that her 'freedom' was a death sentence. She felt silly for ever expecting anything less. The sudden wave of terror caused by Aurora's words made her unable to try and fight, and she knew that she'd never make it off the island alive even if she did get away from her. As her hands were trapped in tight manacles and her legs were shackled to the anchor, she remained silent, and reluctantly listened to Aurora's cruel taunts. "It's gonna be such a shame that I don't get to be with you until the very end... but I'm sure the sharks will find you adorable before they bite. Now hold still..." Aurora bares a few of her claws and gives a sudden, painful and deep slash to Madison's right arm. "Nnnngg!!" "Oh, shush! You should be used to pain like that by now! Pity I didn't make you bleed more in the dungeon..." Aurora didn't want to give her victim the chance to calm down, and made sure to work quickly as she had the anchor lifted up and hovered over the ocean. Blood began to run down Madison's arm and drip into the water, as she whimpered more and began to cry. Her hope had been almost completely diminished – but there was one thing Madison knew that Aurora didn't. Madison knew her own underwater abilities, and knew that her captor's bondage may not manage to keep her once she was submerged. Although Aurora believed this was an elaborate execution, Madison knew that she was going to have a fighting chance at survival – as long as her blood didn't cause too many problems. "At least you'll get to enjoy plenty of water before you become fish food~ Really it's the most merciful death for a water-type. We'll be sure to send a postcard to your people to make sure they don't mess with us again! Bye bye now~" With a sarcastic wave, Aurora had the anchor drop, and her prisoner submerged quickly into the dangerous ocean. Almost immediately upon going underwater, Madison could see the silhouettes of what looked like sharks in the distance, soon obscured by the dark red of her own blood infusing with the water. She was terrified, but even in her vulnerable and traumatised mental state, she knew she had to work hard and survive this. Within a minute of liquid contact, her unique ability triggered, and her body began transforming in the way she did not let her captor find out about. Her legs and feet began to transition into a much larger and thicker tail, more akin to a regular seal, which gave her much better swimming ability. Most importantly, it drastically changed the shape of her lower body, meaning that the shackles holding her ankles to the anchor were no longer any use. Although she was unable to free her hands of their manacles, she was soon able to slip away from the anchor and begin swimming as fast as she could. She tried her best to not look too long at any shadows or figures she saw in the water, but she knew that several sharks were extremely close, having been attracted by her cut. She simply swam forward, only keeping her eyes open every few seconds to make sure she wasn't directly in the path of any hungry creatures. The sounds and feelings around her made it quite clear that they were in pursuit, but if she let herself get scared and hesitate then she'd be done for. Even when it felt like a bite had just barely missed her tail, she did her best to block all her fear out and be brave. It felt like almost half an hour passed, her exhausted and hurt body pushing itself far past it's limits to keep swimming, before she looked around a saw a clear coast. The water around her finally seemed to be totally blue, with no more bleeding from her wound to attract assailants. She was able to slow down a little, avoiding overexertion. Once she did, she smiled and laughed to herself. She had managed to escape. She was on the way home. --------------------------- It took a few hours before the young Popplio finally returned to her own shores, at which point she lay on the sand to catch her breath and allow her legs to reappear. Part of her just wanted to break down and cry, feeling heavily impacted by the trauma of her kidnap ordeal. But another part of her felt rather smug and happy, knowing that she had outwitted the arrogant captor that was determined to kill her. Regardless, she knew now not to let herself get too brave, and not put herself in the direct path of danger. But...in the unlikely event that she ever did cross paths with them again, she was at least going to have fun confronting the fellow young girl who tortured her.