Elise began to blubber and whimper and sob as the guard looked to secure her with handcuffs. As he moved closer to clamp her wrists, Elise looked helplessly at Chloe. Chloe did not move to help her, instead she cleared her throat and smirked. "Ahem," she said, "Do you know who I am?"

"No…" the guard said, pausing for a second of securing Elise to gaze dumbfounded at Chloe. "You're uh..wearing a hood, lady."

"Oops, sorry, I forgot." Chloe pulled her hood down and both Elise and the guard's jaw hung open. Chloe, or Queen Annabell was a beautiful, yet spunky and boyish looking early teenager. Her short dark hair draped over her ears and spiked and frayed at the bottom. Her face, both thin and pale resembled the sculpted beauty of her mother's statue, but that wasn't what drew Elise's eye. Chloe had an eye patch that traveled across the left side of her face, offsetting her royal look.

"My queen!" the guard said gazing down at her with the same dumbfounded expression. "What are you doing out of the…"

Using the opportunity of the guard being distracted, Chloe wound up a punch and nailed the guard in the head. He fell right to the ground, seemingly unconscious. Elise held her hands to her mouth, but Chloe simply winked at her. "I may be short by adult standards, but I pack quite the punch...!"

Elise exclaimed with snot running down her nose, "Literally. You're awesome!"

"Come back when you're older, starfish!" Chloe said with another wink. "Now let's get out of here! I'm sure there's plenty more palookas where that came from!"

Chloe took Elise by the hand and led her down the alleyways of the castle town. She arrived at a manhole cover and said, "At long last...we're here!"

There was an insignia of a bell carved into the cover. Elise tapped it with her shoe. "What's that? Why are there so many bells over here?"

"The Mainland Village Green is a wedding town," Chloe said, "And there's a church on the highest hill where they say that a bell chimes for every child a wedded couple will have. "

"Sounds romantic!" Elise sighed with her cheeks a rosy red.

"You like that mushy stuff?," Chloe asked, lifting the metal manhole aside.

Elise nodded. Chloe rolled her eye. "You read too many fairy tails, starfish. I'm sure you'd love to hear that supposedly it tolled twice for the first King and Queen Chime and they had two children, Annabell the First and Sasha-Belle."

"Ooh yesh, that's very nice," Elise said. She gave a warm smile as they climbed inside the manhole to parts unknown. It was so cool learning about other parts of the world and the romantic lore and it reflected in the gleam of the young girl's eyes.

"But uh," Elise said, as she found herself at the bottom of a concrete sewer way. "Where are we going?"

"To the castle of course!" Chloe answered.

"The castle is a sewer?!" Elise said, very wide eyed.

"I remember when I was your age," Chloe responded drolly. "I took everything literally too!"

Chloe led Elise down darkened pathways in the sewer. They crossed large, brown pipes and Chloe made sure her new friend didn't fall into the dark bilge water below. All the while, Elise thought of two things, Chloe's eye patch and why she was so interested in Elise being a pirate.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Perhaps, Elise thought as they made their way to the other side of the sewer, maybe she's playing a game of dress up...Like when I pretend to be a pirate myself. There was no other way a queen would have an eye patch!

It made perfect sense in Elise's head and when she got to another ladder, Chloe careful escorted her to the top. They lifted a latch and found themselves in an enormous kitchen. A few feet away from them, a chef with a long, jagged mustache effortlessly sliced a fish open.

Yikes, Elise thought, good thing Tony didn't see that. He'd be feeling it next morning.

The chef eyed Chloe and smirked at her. "Out egan ares we? And eez thees yer leetle girly friend?"

Chloe shook her head. "Even better!" she said. "She's someone who's been to other islands!"

Elise smiled proudly. "I've been to four! Well actually I dunno if that ghost island counted."

Chloe's eye went wide. "A ghost island?! No way!"

The chef masterfully sliced the fish and balanced it on his knife. He laughed and pulled at his mustache. "You are such a dreamer, Queen Annabell. I assume you don't want me to tell zee minister about your latest escapade."

"Please no, Sue," Chloe told the chef. "I barely get out as it is."

"Eet veel be our leetle secret then," Sue the chef answered. "As long as you award me the Golden Skillet zee next time vee have a Fry-Off."

"Gotta love a chef who takes under-the-counter bribes!" Chloe winked.

Sue raised his knife again and was about to slice at the next fish when suddenly, a familiar gravely cry was heard. "Why must it end this was for me, pally? I've always wanted a four star-fish meal, but not when I'm the main course!"

"A talking feesh?" The chef said and twirled his mustache with intrigue.

"Tony!" Elise cried and ran to her trout who was haplessy bouncing on the table.

"Pally!" Tony cried with joy in his eyes. "I never tought I'd be seeing you here!"

Suddenly, Sue raised his knife with a look of anger on his face.

'ow are you so familar weeth my ingrediants," Sue the Chef said with a hostile glare.

"Eep!" Elise said, shuddering in fear.

"Does it matter?" Chloe said, suddenly stepping up in front of Sue and Elise. "You're really gonna kill a talking fish? Don't you know he'd make an excellent zoo attraction."

"Huh?" Sue said, shaking his head.

"That's right," Elise said with a happy smile. "most fish only say 'blub blub blub' and this one says "nice to meet you!"

Tony took a fin and bowed. "Dats right, nice ta meetcha!"

Sue continued to pull at his mustache and look aghast. Chloe then leaned in close to the chef, "I'll even throw in the Platinum Skillet next Fry-Off if you don't kill him."

"Sacre bleu," Sue put his hands together. "No one 'as ever won zee Platinum Skillet in feefty years. Eets a deal!"

He handed Elise her fish and Tony smiled in her hands. Everyone walked to safety, outside of the kitchen, and Elise asked Tony, "Tony, how'd you get here?"

"Dat fop and his dungeon master," the fish growled. "Since I was no use to their hamster wheels, they sent me to get executed."

"Executed?!" Chloe and Elise both said.

"Why exactly would they execute a fish?!"

"Because…" Tony said, "Imma part of this girlys pirate gang!"

A wide smiled curled on Chloe's face. "Pirate gang, you say?"

Elise and Tony didn't have much time to be reacquainted, because Chloe yanked Elise so hard, the little girl was afraid her arm was going to fly out of its socket.

Chloe dashed down out of the kitchen entrance, running up a flight of spiral stairs and into a posh bedroom.

Inside, everything had pink frills on it. Even the frills have frills, Elise thought.

A giant queen sized bed took up nearly half the room and looked like an enormous doily. It was covered in stuffed animals. An enormous bookshelf rose over the bed featuring so many books.

Chloe could have opened a library, Elise thought.

The wallpaper was covered in pink butterflies and a bevy of rainbow flowers.

Elise had to admit, for a girl as sporty as Chloe, she sure has a feminine room. "Well now," Chloe said, walking over to the bed and reclining on it. "Sit…"

Elise, feeling both a bit submissive and flustered, immediately sat on her rear. "Ok…" Chloe said, a miraculous and dazzled look in her eye. She leaned in close to Elise with such an entranced look, it made her feel a bit uncomfortable.

"Know anythin, about personal space, kiddo?" Tony asked, but Chloe ignored him.

"You are to tell me, Queen Annabell, everything about your adventures on the high seas."

Elise immediately froze. She didn't even know where to begin. Her adventure, even if it had only been for about half a week had already been so action packed that she could barely keep track of it. Instead, she managed a single word. "Why?"

"Because," Chloe said, her eye aglow. "I don't want to be Annabell Chime the Queen of the Mainland. I want to be Chloe Cutlass the Queen of the Pirates!"