History AgonyOfTheFeet / Literature

* ''Literature/SouthAmericanJungleTales'': In "How the Flamingoes Got Their Stockings," the snakes give a costume ball and dress up in beautiful dresses. The flamingoes are jealous of them, and decide to get stockings for their legs the same color as the snakes' dresses. A barn owl gives them her "stockings", which are actually the skins of snakes she killed and ate previously. The flamingoes return to the ball wearing the stockings and all the guests admire them, but the snakes get suspicious. When they find out the flamingoes are wearing snakes' skins as stockings, they are furious and bite the flamingoes' legs, turning them from white to red. The wounded flamingoes run into a nearby river in a panic, trying to wash out the venom, [[JustSoStory and that's why flamingoes have red legs and always stand in the water]].

* ''Literature/SouthAmericanJungleTales'': In "How the Flamingoes Got Their Stockings," the snakes give a costume ball and dress up in beautiful dresses. The flamingoes are jealous of them, and decide to get stockings for their legs the same color as the snakes' dresses. A barn owl lets them borrow her "stockings", which are actually the skins of snakes she killed and ate previously. The flamingoes return to the ball wearing the stockings and all the guests admire them, but the snakes get suspicious. When they find out the flamingoes are wearing snakes' skins as stockings, they are furious and bite the flamingoes' legs, turning them from white to red. They run into a nearby river in a panic, trying to wash out the venom, [[JustSoStory and that's why flamingoes have red legs and always stand in the water]].

* ''Literature/SouthAmericanJungleTales'': In "How the Flamingoes Got Their Stockings," the snakes give a costume ball and dress up in beautiful dresses. The flamingoes are jealous of them, and decide to get stockings for their legs the same color as the snakes' dresses, and get "stockings" from a barn owl which are actually the skins of snakes she killed and ate previously. The flamingoes return to the ball wearing the stockings, and everyone admires them, but the snakes get suspicious. When they find out the flamingoes are wearing snakes' skins as stockings, they are furious and bite the flamingoes' legs, turning them from white to red. They run into a nearby river in a panic, trying to wash out the venom, [[JustSoStory and that's why flamingoes have red legs and always stand in the water]].

* ''Literature/SouthAmericanJungleTales'': In "How the Flamingoes Got Their Stockings," the snakes give a costume ball and dress up in beautiful dresses. The flamingoes are jealous of them, and decide to get stockings for their legs the same color as the snakes' dresses, and get "stockings" from a barn owl which are actually the skins of snakes she killed and ate previously. The flamingoes return to the ball wearing the stockings, and everyone admires them, but the snakes get suspicious. When they find out the flamingoes are wearing snakes' skins as stockings, they are furious and bite the flamingoes' legs, turning them from white to red and causing them to run into the water in a panic, trying to wash out the pain. [[JustSoStory And that's why flamingoes have red legs and always stand in the water]].

* ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'': When Menolly is caught outside shelter during Threadfall, she runs not only the soles off her shoes, but the skin off the bottoms of her feet before a dragonrider spots and rescues her. Years later, she comments that her feet are still unusually sensitive, indicating some permanent damage.

AgonyOfTheFeet in literature

* OlderThanPrint: In ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy]]'', simonists are punished in hell by being trapped upside-down in pits while their feet are on fire.

* Happens in all seven ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books to all three main characters. Justified to an extent -- their robes makes it rather easy to stomp someone's foot without it being noticed, so it's the main way they [[BeQuietNudge get each other to shut up]].
** In the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince sixth book]], Harry breaks his pinky toe by kicking a wall trying to enter the room of requirement
** In [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban book three]], Ron steps on Hermione's foot (to be fair, their environment is dark, so Ron can't see well).
** In book seven, Ron accidentally nudges a piece of white-hot cursed metal with his foot (long story).
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Hermione tries to kick Ron under the table when he makes a tactless comment to Luna during Bill and Fleur's wedding but strikes Harry by accident.
** In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', when Ron starts to make a blunder while they're out in public, Harry actually mentally laments that they're in Muggle clothes and thus it would be too noticeable to stomp on his foot.
* In ''Literature/TheCasualVacancy'', the book Rowling wrote following the ''Potter'' series, this happens deservedly to Simon Price after he aims a kick at his son and misses.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''
** In ''Literature/PrinceCaspian'', the Narnian mice weaponize this toward the Calormene soldiers. Justified because they cannot reach higher than the belt.
** In ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'', Aravis has to let Shasta ride all the way across the desert because the hot sand burns his bare feet.
* In the ''Literature/TransformersShatteredGlass'' story "Blitzwing Bop", a shopkeeper gets annoyed at Soundwave for accidentally chasing off his star attraction, and kicks him in the ankle in anger. Seeing as how, well, Soundwave is a giant solid metal robot and all, it hurts the shopkeeper's foot a lot more than it hurts Soundwave. (Though Soundwave does consider it "Most bogus!")

* In the ''Literature/JunieBJones'' book ''Junie B., First Grader: One Man Band'', Junie B. accidentally breaks her toe when she kicks her mother's watering can that has a picture of a cow. Her sore toe became important afterwards.
* In one of his stories, humorist Creator/PatrickMcManus discusses this trope, commenting on the somewhat magical propensity of already-injured toes to attract further damage.
* In ''[[Literature/MillenniumSeries The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest]]'', tiny-but-fierce protagonist Lisbeth finds herself fighting a giant with [[FeelNoPain congenital analgesia]]. To even the odds, she hides under some furniture with a nail gun and literally nails the giant's feet to the floor. He can't feel the nails, but he can't move, either.
* In ''Literature/AmberBrown Is Tickled Pink'', Amber and her mother and stepfather to be visit Camp Sukkatukket, a camp owned by the father of one of Amber's classmates, Fredrich Allen. When Fredrich spots them, he drops a hammer that he was using to repair the cabin porch out of shock and then starts hopping up and down. He dropped it because he wasn't expecting Amber and her family there and the two of them aren't even friends at the time. (Though they become friends during the visit.)
* In ''[[Literature/DragonridersOfPern Dragonsong]],'' lead character Menolly runs for her life from an approaching wall of lethal Thread and ends up running the very skin off the soles of her feet. The nerve damage is so extensive that Menolly has pain in her feet not only for the remaining two books in her trilogy, but for the entire ''series.''

* In ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest]]'', tiny-but-fierce protagonist Lisbeth finds herself fighting a giant with [[FeelNoPain congenital analgesia]]. To even the odds, she hides under some furniture with a nail gun and literally nails the giant's feet to the floor. He can't feel the nails, but he can't move, either.

* In ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesofNarnia Prince Caspian]]'', the Narnian mice weaponize this toward the Calormene soldiers. Justified because they cannot reach higher than the belt.
* In ‘’[[Literature/TheChroniclesofNarnia The Horse and His Boy]]’’, Aravis has to let Shasta ride all the way across the desert because the hot sand burns his bare feet.