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Elise McGill and The Thief of The Sea
Chapter 53: A Dish Best Served Cold

Chapter 53: A Dish Best Served Cold

The Cutepid did an excited dance and stomped his feet happily. "A talking fish? Oh me, oh my, what a lucky fellow am I?!"

Tony flopped helplessly on Archibell's plate. "Are you gonna eat me?! I can't imagine a worse fate than being in his paunchy esophagus!"

"Nope!" the Cutepid said, shaking his head. "If a fish can talk...that means he can…"

The Cutepid reached into his diaper prompting Elise and Tito to cover their eyes. "I need an adult!" Elise whimpered.

"Can't help ya there, kid," Archibell said. "I'm gonna need a therapist!"

"I need a shower!" Tito said, turning green and looking away.

At last, the Cutepid emerged with a miniature tuxedo vest and top hat.. "If a fish can talk, he can SING!"

"Why do you have a tiny hat and vest in your diaper?!" Elise asked, her mouth wide.

"In case, I ever realize my life long dream," the Cutepid giggled. "And come across a singing fish!"

Tony's wall eyes buldged and he croaked unhappily. "You really want me to wear dat? Dats been in your diaper!"

A wide smile spread across the Cutepid's face, making Elise, Tito, Archibell and especially Tony uneasy. "At least it's nice and warm."

Tony gagged as the Cutepid wrapped the vest around Tony's fins and placed the hat on his head. "Tha things I do for dis witchy broad."

"Ooh you look dapper," the Cutepid said. "Now sing Fishy Gal, Frank Finatra's hit song from the Fishties!"

Tony sighed and got up on his tail fin and started kicking it up in the air. "Hello sweet baby, hello sweet doll! I'm your one and only, I'm your fishy gal!"

The Cutepid watched with glee as Tony performed his best Frank Finatra impression. And when he finally stopped, the Cutepid did another barefoot happy dance.

"Oh how I hope dat witch didn't see me like that," Tony shivered. "If she had a pictobox on her, she'd post that on dat Hexstagram of hers!"

***

Once the fishy performance had finished, Elise, Archibell, Tito waited on the dining floor of the Love Lounge, surrounded by the guests of Rania and Raz's party. People drank from heart shaped glasses at high tables. Retro chic music from an old-fish-school band played loudly over them performed by four fishysauz in tuxedos, bowl-cut wigs and sunglasses with a fish bone bass, a fish bone guitar, a microphone and a set of barnacle drums. On the drum kit, an black-and-white checkered insignia bore the name, the Fishles.

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"What are we gonna do now?" Elise asked innocently. "I still don't like that we're going to break someone's heart. That goes against all the fairy tale stories out there!"

She gazed lovestruck at Tito who whistled innocently. "I wouldn't like it if someone broke my heart."

"Sadly," Archibell said, "That witch is leaving us no choice. She's the only one with tracking powers."

The groom, who was dining with the bride at a high table at the front of the room, raised his hand. "Waiter!" Raz asked in his debonaire voice. "Oh waiter! My sweet Sophia grows hungry!"

"Yes darling!" Sophia said, holding her diamond ring adorned finger up in the air. "I'm so hungry, I could eat a whale!"

"Avast! Their dinner awaits them!" Archibell cried. "Let's simply swipe the ring and get outta here."

Archibell arrived as the handlebar-mustached groom was combing his soup strainer. "Ah waiter," Raz M. Taz said, as he sprayed conditioner on his silky 'stache. "You know exactly what to get us!"

"Uh I do?" Archibell stammered and traded looks of bewilderment with his children comrades.

"The special!" Raz said, and grinned. "I always get it whenever I come here, because my latest flame is always special to me!"

Sophia blushed and batted her eyelids at her future groom. "Aww, Raz. You are so sweet."

"Well," the bachelor said, clutching her ringed hand and massaging it. "It is our honeymoon phase after all, ho ho ho!"--he positioned to a bunch of paparazzi with pictoboxes--"and the pictoboxes are rolling!"

Raz pointed a gloved hand at Archibell. "Now waiter, do not tarry, get us the special!"

Archibell and his comrades rushed behind the swinging doors of the kitchen. He grimaced. "What in Scallop's Law is the special?!"

He looked up and noticed there was no chefs or bus-boys in the kitchen. "Uh, who exactly is feeding the people here."

"That would be moi!" Bunting giggled as him and Sincirce emerged behind the stove.

"Dupree?!" Archibell said, his jaw nearly dropping. "What'd you guys do with all the chefs?!"

"Bound and gagged like the naughty fellows zey are!" Bunting giggled.

"Oi, I can't believe you did that too, Sincirce!" Tony shouted from below his platter. "Dats messed up!"

"What can I say, I'm a bad witch," Sincirce said in her sultry tone as she played with her damond earring. "I will do anything to get that piece of my diamond back. It's the only thing that matters to me at age 268."

Elise frowned in disproval and Tito twirled his finger around his ear, but neither of them managed to score any guilt from Bunting and Sincirce.

"Ho ho ho," the elegant chef said as he began to break eggs in a bowl. "You said zey wanted zee special. Well I can serve that to them. But first, get them an appetizer."

Archibell raised his eyebrows as the chef began to slice up sticks of butter too. "You mean Tony right?"

"Indeed," Bunting giggled balancing some butter on his knife. "Have zee fishy bite zee ring off zat leetle harlets finger and I'll serve them a dish best served cold!"

"What do you mean?!" Elise asked. "What's a dish best served cold?!"

Bunting grinned as wide as his knife. He removed a glass of reddish food coloring, or at least it resembled food coloring--it was blood red. He poured it in the batter and as it seeped through, it began to gurgle and hiss.

"Oh you'll see!" Bunting laughed to himself. "Zis is gonna be their just deserts!"