“Yes, off with her shell!” Strawberry bellowed at the top of her voice, grinning from ear to ear as her declaration was met with laughter and applause. As the daughter of two showbiz personalities, she was already further ahead than most in her dream of stardom but in moments like this she felt confident that she might actually have the talent and presence to pull it off! Tania stood with her head bowed as the two playing card guards came forward and tore the velcro straps around her thighs open and lifted the shell off her back.

“Now, dear Mock Turtle,” Gemma smiled sweetly, “it’s into the soup with you so that you can boil up and be delicious for all the lovely guests here! But first,” she grinned a little cheekily, “I’m not sure they will have ever seen a turtle without its shell before, even a mock one! Perhaps you should let them take a good look at you first?” Wafting her arms delicately, almost as if swimming on dry land, Tania turned around slowly, allowing her lovely, green, painted body to be admired from all angles.

Although her front had been clearly visible since she arrived, even if somewhat obscured by the body paint, the removal of the shell meant that this was the first time any of the guests had been given the opportunity for a proper look at her delicious rump, round and firm and mouth-wateringly appetising. Under normal circumstances, there was no way a girl of such high quality as Tania would be wasted by being boiled but money talks and when a client of the calibre and means of the Millers ask that every girl served at their party be of the absolute highest quality, that is what they get!

When she finished her twirl, Tania stood with her arms out and allowed the soldiers, who were really very experienced members of Melanie’s catering team, to lift her off the ground and carry her towards the pot, still facing the audience. When she felt the warmth behind her which told her that she was close, she drew her knee up as close to her chest as she could so that her feet could pass over the brim of the pot. Once over the already delicious-smelling seasoned water, which was very warm but not yet boiling, just like a lovely hot bath, she stretched out her legs and gave a loud, theatrical sigh of contentment as they were submerged. The soldiers then carefully lowered her the rest of the way into the pot until she could stand on the bottom with the water coming to just above her belly-button.

“As delicious as you look, dear Mock Turtle,” Gemma spoke once more, her well-trained voice carrying to all the guests without any need for artificial amplification, “I think something extra is required to make the soup extra special for her majesty and her guests!”

“I have always heard it said,” Tania replied in her tremulous, resonant voice, beginning to wash herself with the broth she stood in as if taking a bath, something, she, Melanie and the other performers were pleased to see the children in the audience found very amusing, “that Mock Turtle pairs incredibly well with oysters! I don’t suppose you have any, do you?”

“Well!” Gemma clapped her hands together in delight, “It just so happens, dear Mock Turtle, that we do! Collected fresh from the beach this very morning!” This was the cue for one of the soldiers to go collect the tray of oysters which was in a special outdoor refrigerator which had wooden cladding to make it look like a classic pirate’s treasure chest. Between them they carried it to the front so that the birthday girl and other guests could get a good look.

Wanting to go all out with the theatricality, Melanie had made half oyster shells but mixing bread crumbs with some dried garlic flakes, grated onion sage and a sprinkling of black pepper with a little Girl lard to bind them then pressed the mixture into shell moulds intended for chocolate before chilling them and popping them out. Into each of these shells, which would disintegrate into their constituent ingredients in the soup and help to flavour it, she had placed one of the freshly-harvested testicles then poured a small amount of thick but very light-coloured gravy over each. The result, she thought, was incredibly impressive even if she did say so herself! Once everyone had been given the chance to admire her creations, they were carried over to the pot and tipped in where some bobbed around Tania while others sank, only to be picked up again in the convection currents and rolled around in the steaming broth.

“There, dear Mock Turtle,” Gemma as Alice smiled as if she had just helped her friend fix her makeup or pick out the prettiest dress for a party, “now you will be as tasty as tasty can be! But,” she frowned a little, “I fear it will be some time before you are ready to cook. If only there were something we could prepare faster? Oh do sit down, dear Mock Turtle, and enjoy your bath for here I am sure I see two lobsters approaching! What a perfect treat they would make!”

Holding hands, Becky and Andrea skipped happily to centre stage, followed at a short distance by the two men dressed as the Walrus and the Carpenter, the Walrus costume of course being far bulkier and awkward than that of the Carpenter but still, rehearsals had proved, allowing its wearer to move gracefully as her danced with his young teenage lobster partner.

Now that she was no longer the focus of the audience’s attention, Tania found the seat built into the back of the pot and sat down, allowing the broth to cover her chest and nearly her shoulders too. There was little left for her to do now but cook. If she was spoken to by any of the guests, she would improvise responses for as long as she could but there were no more scripted scenes for her character. Knowing that she needed to be discrete but desperate to feel some relief, the bald, dyed-green meat-girl slipped her fingers between her legs and began to gently massage her throbbing clit.

“What is this?” Gemma asked, feigning surprise. “Why, your majesty, I do believe they are going to dance for us!” Discretely, Melania activated the speakers in the rose bushes that would provide the backing track for Gemma’s song that the older girls and her coworkers would dance to.

“Will you walk a little fast, said a whiting to a snail,” she began, “there’s a porpoise close behind me and he’s treading on my tail!” The lobster girls and their costumed partners began to dance their elegant, balletic routine while many children giggled at the absurd lyrics. Some of the adults chuckled too but most were too focussed on the lithe young bodies of the red-stained girls to listen too closely to the song. “See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance!” she sang. “They’re all waiting on the shingle, will you come and join the dance? Will you? Won’t you? Will you? Won’t you? Will you join the dance? Will you? Won’t you? Will you? Won’t you? Won’t you join the dance?” The song continued and by the third chorus nearly all the audience were singing along, which was what the performers had hoped for as Gemma sang the final verse and finished the song by repeating the chorus three times.

The applause for this performance was even more enthusiastic than for Tania’s song which was comical but not exactly engaging in the same way.

“Thank you, your majesty!” Gemma gave another polite curtsey. “Perhaps you and your guests would care to hear the song again?”

“Oh yes!” Strawberry agreed enthusiastically. “Again! Again!” Many of her guests echoed this sentiment which was pleasing to the performers, especially as they had such an encore planned.

“Oh but your majesty,” Gemma continued, her voice full of concern once more, “I fear that it must be so hard for those poor lobsters to dance with their shells on! And besides, if they are to cook for you, I fear they may be a little too hard, even for Crispy Lobster!” Her joke was rewarded with another round of giggles. “I beg your permission that they may remove them?” Queen Strawberry gave permission with another imperious wave of her hand and the playing card soldiers came forwards to help the girls out of their padded lobster shells just as they had removed Lydia’s, leaving their lovely young bodies, toned and just beginning to blossom into adolescence, completely naked save for the red dye and the body paint with which it was enhanced.

If the dance had been captivating for the adults in the audience the first time around, the second performance was something else entirely! Despite their baldness and eerie, inhuman, almost insectoid appearance, watching the two talented young dancers perform completely naked was was truly a sight to behold! Once again, the children enjoyed singing along with the chorus, joining in from the very first one this time around now that they were familiar with it and when the song finished for the second time, the performers received an enthusiastic standing ovation.

Once they had taken their bows, the two lobster girls came and knelt down on the grass at the front of the performance area and four of the catering assistants in the playing card costumes but this time with the addition of very thick, industrial-looking gloves that went all the way up past their elbows, wheeled the two baths of hot oil into the space between them and the stew pot. Unlike the broth, however, the oil in these was not just hot but boiling, bubbling and spitting like a volcano preparing to explode as it waited for the excited girls whose delicious young bodies would soon be submerged within its cruel and fearsome embrace.


To be continued...