The hall of the chateau was beautifully decorated, laid with crystal that glinted like the snow capped mountains in the distance. As the finely dressed people milled about, all eyes suddenly turned to the woman who had just entered. And quite a sight she was: for starters, she was incredibly tall, towering over the other women at the gathering and some of the men. She had stark white hair flowing down her shoulders which made a striking and unusual contrast with her dark skin. Also unusual was how she was dressed. While the venue was heated, most of the women there were rugged up in stockings and furs. This woman, however, wore a flowing black silk dress secured by a pair of spaghetti straps that left her arms and shoulders completely bare. Also bare were her long and toned legs, made fully visible as she walked by the slit running down the side of her dress. Finally, there were her feet.
The first thing one would notice was their size; even compared to the rest of her body, they seemed huge, barely contained by the strappy sandals that seemed even more out of place for the climate. The stiletto heels on the sandals added even more to her already impressive height, and the silver polish on her toenails glittered with every step she took.
The woman who was turning so many heads was Sierra Slater, code-name Amazon, and she was there for one purpose. She killed time milling about the crowds, making vague conversation with the people who wanted to know where this mysterious woman had come from. All the while she subtly made her way over to a door in the corner and when the chance came, she slipped through unnoticed. She she strode down the hallway until a pair of guards at a stairway looked up, alerted by her heels clicking on the hard stone floor.
"I'm sorry ma'am, this area is off-limits to the party guests," one told her.
"Oh yes, I must have lost my way looking for the bathroom!" Sierra giggled, trying to sound drunk. She made it look like she was heading back to the main hall, but as soon as she was out of sight, she sat in a window with her legs dangling outside and kicked loose the straps holding on her sandals. She let the high heels slip off her feet and plummet down the side of the chateau into the icy stream running down the hill, freeing her feet and disposing of the evidence all at once. Sierra took a deep breath as she felt the crisp mountain air on her soles. For a moment, she simply enjoyed being barefoot, spreading and flexing her toes. Wearing shoes at all was already uncomfortable for her; high heels, even with sandals, was almost torture.
Sierra spied an outcropping on the wall above her and proceeded to leap out to it, using her upper body strength and her incredibly long and dexterous toes to launch herself up on top. She scaled the wall this way until she was at a balcony on the floor above, and slipped back inside. Now she was on polished marble floor that felt smooth and cold under her feet. She moved quickly but quietly, the only sound being a soft, slight sticking of her soles to the floor. This floor was almost deserted and she had no trouble reaching the staircase. When she did, she had to pause for a second to enjoy the plush carpeting that was laid upon it. She tried to press her feet right into the soft and mildly tickling carpet, spreading and scrunching her toes to let the fibers clump between them. While she could have stayed squishing this carpet under her feet all day, she had a job to do, so she just tried to enjoy the feeling as she walked up the stairs as much as she could.
On the next floor, several guards were milling around a large and mostly empty room, empty except for a section in the middle walled off with modern panelling and a locked door. Temporary carpeting had put down that was very rough and prickly compared to the stairs, but Sierra still found it stimulating to walk on.
"Hey, how did you get up here?" One of the guards shouted.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I must be lost," Sierra replied, still playing dumb.
"What are you doing here?" another guard asked. Several of them were surrounding her now.
"I..." Sierra thought a moment, then inspiration struck and she pointed down at her feet.
"I lost my shoes. You haven't seen them around here, have you?" The guards stopped short, staring at her feet for a moment, dumbfounded.
"I've been walking barefoot on these cold stone floors," Sierra sighed. "It's been so embarrassing." Balancing on one foot, she bent around the other and examined the now-blackened sole. "Gross! I got a fresh pedicure just for the occasion and now it's ruined." A guard approached her.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but we aren't concerned with your feet."
"Well... maybe you should be!" Sierra kicked upwards, catching his chin with her heel and knocking him on his back. A guard behind her went for a grab, but she leapt down onto her hands, wrapped her legs around his head and sent him to the floor. Seizing the moment of shock, she dashed out of the loose circle as fast as her bare feet could carry her... which was in fact very fast. Sierra headed to the tower access in the corner and shot up the winding staircase. These steps were bare, cold, hard stone, and the rapid slap of Sierra's feet hitting them echoed downward, soon joined by a flurry of boots and leather shoes. At the top of the stairs, she looked down at the trail of people coming up behind her.
"Give up, you're trapped!" one of them called.
"Not quite," Sierra grinned. With one super strong kick, she used her bare foot to shatter the window next to her and clear away the remaining shards of glass. Her smooth brown skin wasn't even scratched. She easily climbed out and swung up onto the tower roof as the first people to reach the window watched in disbelief. Sierra easily jumped to the roof of the building proper and made her way to the top, digging her toes into the tiles and crunching snow underfoot. She found the freezing wind whipping around her bare skin and the icy pinpricks against her soles, which would be painful for anyone else, exhilarating. In moments she was on the other side of the roof and dropped from the side to the closest window beneath, holding onto the window sill and then letting go to drop to the next one and repeating this process all the way to the ground. As soon as her feet touched the frozen dirt she was dashing down the hill away from the gardens and driveways at the chateau's front.
The snowy grass felt even better on her feet than the snowy roof. Each blade of grass resisted for just a second before giving under each massive foot, peppering her soles with dozen of tiny tickling sensations with every step. No footfall felt the same thanks to the random ways the grass bent, and Sierra was fully aware of every single one thanks to her supercharged nervous system. Sierra's feet splashed through a runoff of icy water and she gasped out loud, but it was a gasp of pleasure. As she reached the bottom of the foothills, the snow had started to melt to a damp, dewy covering on the ground. Confident that any would-be pursuers would still be scrambling to search the grounds of the chateau, Sierra allowed her pace to slow slightly and began to softly giggle out loud as the wet blades of grass slid and slithered all over her filthy, yet hyper-sensitive soles. When she left open ground completely and entered the forest around the hills, Sierra slowed right down to a walk so that she could savor every step. The grass was more sparse now around tree roots, moss, underbrush and patches of muddy bare earth that grabbed at her toes as she walked. It all left a much greater variety of textures for Sierra to feel under her feet and she loved every second. She was so delighted that she deliberately walked into a shallow stream to feel the water running over her feet and her soles slipping over the slimy mud and smooth stones.
Soon enough Sierra arrived at her rendezvous point and her barefoot romp through the woods was over. Sitting on a rock and propping her feet up on another, she inspected the damage of the mission. Her dress had predictably become a bit ripped and dirty, though all things considered it wasn't that bad. Not that she'd paid for it anyway, but it had felt nice to dress up... except for the shoes of course. She moved on to examine her feet, which had managed to become even dirtier than before. Streaks of dirt and mud curled around the sides and between her toes and her nail polish was a little chipped from all the climbing. Then there were the soles! The layer of black dust that the pads of her soles and toes had picked up from those old floors had mixed with the uncountably old tar and grime of the roof, then with the mud, pine tar and sap leaked from fallen branches in the forest into a sort of gooey coating. It squished a little as she flexed her toes, causing her soles to alternately wrinkle and smooth out again.
"Amazon, I'm here." Sierra turned to see her partner approaching, a woman in a thick coat and fur boots.
"Spider," Sierra grinned. "Do you have it?"
"Sure do." Spider pulled a hard drive out of her coat. "Your plan worked perfectly."
"I figured you wouldn't have much trouble with everyone distracted by a giant, white-haired, barefoot woman running around," Sierra giggled, wiggling her toes for emphasis. Spider watched before realizing she'd been staring at Sierra's feet.
"Well," she said, clearing her throat, "there's no sense in sticking around here." Sierra put her feet down and stood up, and Spider couldn't resist taking a glance at her soles squishing on the ground as she walked. They parted a set of bushes under a large rock revealing a motorcycle and a large backpack. Sierra got out a puffy jacket and slipped it on, covering her dress but leaving her legs and feet bare. Spider removed her winter clothes, revealing a sleek black motorcycle suit, and stuffed the clothes into the backpack. Sierra put the pack on and sat behind Spider as she started the bike. As they drove away, far from the chateau and its people clamoring over the grounds, Sierra leaned on Spider's back and pressed her body against her. Spider started feeling very hot despite the cold air blowing over her. Sierra sat her soles against Spider's boots and tilted her feet outward, letting the wind rush between her toes.
This, both women thought, is heaven.
