Thread: The Princesses' Trap

From the moment it entered the bowels of the castle foundation, the strange beast set about making itself at home. It was perfectly designed to carry out its mission. This creature could move through packed soil and rock as easily as a man wading through a waist-deep bog. Its mouth in front was nearly as wide as its entire body, and for good purpose. Its tentacles tunneled and vibrated into the solid mass before it, breaking it up and scooping it into its innards. There, what would be considered unhealthy dirt by men would be processed for all its nutrients, be they small blind animals like lizards and rats, insects, even to the size of bacteria. With this haul of sustenance, the creature survived and thrived. The dirt flowed through its body, processed for food, and the remainder passed through in one of two forms, as desired by the creature. It could fill in behind it as dirt, as if the creature's passage had never occurred. Or, it could be transformed into a gooey slurry that coated the cave walls and floor, quickly drying to support a surviving tunnel that would become the creature's network for quick movement. Deep under the lowest level of the castle, it had transformed a large room into its home base, and from there, a growing network of tunnels was permeating the castle walls, with the inhabitants suspecting nothing. The creature did not operate by instinct. It had intelligence, one that had bonded with Prince Bloodworthy for mutual desires. It called itself Tellilicus, and once it was ready, it would make its attack. Its myriad tentacles were capable of doing so much more than scooping dirt and rock into its maw. Bloodworthy had infected Tellilicus with the desire to revenge itself on the humans who looked down on his kind, with a specific target in mind. With a map of the castle rooms memorized to the centimeter, it had made a tunnel up into the castle proper and twisting along within its thick walls. Those walls that helped make the Castle impregnable to a human army gave Tellilicus the space to set his own trap. He could listen to vibrations through the stone, tell where humans were walking, where they positioned their heavy furniture, and could even hear some conversations. He knew the sound of the princess's voice, and the location of her bedroom, and the bed within it. He dug a tunnel to edge of the wall located just above the head of her bed. When the time was right, when she was asleep and helpless, and far from her infamous sword, that last four inches of wall would be swallowed up in an instant, and them he could seize her. Carrying her with him, he would fill in the tunnel behind him, so no trace of his tunneling, no clue as to how Princess Elizabeth had disappeared, would be left behind. Tonight was the night. Tomorrow was the celebration of Saint Dimitri, the patron saint who had led Carpathia to independence three hundred years ago. Food and drink would flow among the citizens, even among the guards of the castle, for Carpathia stood strong and independent still, unthreatened by any neighbor. Once the Princess went to sleep, there would almost no one capable of hearing her cries of alarm. Certainly not in time to witness her abduction. Tellilicus positioned himself behind the bedroom wall, half a dozen tentacles pressed against the rock and soil, to 'hear' the vibrations of the Princess and any others that might be present.