Page 108 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

As Reggie saw the Mouse Queen raise Krakatuk, his heart shrieked. Crying out in fear, he tried to dodge the blow. But there was nowhere to go, inside the clock, and she smacked him right between the ears.
Reggie’s ears rang and his whole body tingled – he felt he was being torn apart, from the inside out. And so, he was.
For at that very moment, the Mouse Queen had turned Reggie into the handsome young prince of Mother Stahlbaum’s dreams – but without the handsome part, or the rich, and, definitely, yes definitely, without the generous part.
But, thought the Mouse Queen as she surveyed her handiwork, he’s definitely a prince and he has the finest, longest yellow teeth of any prince I have ever seen. And his eyes were a flashing black, with just the right dash of rodent red! Yes, the Mouse Queen thought, he’s so cute I could fall for him myself.
And with that tender, motherly thought, the Mouse Queen kicked Reggie out of the clock and onto the landing. Then, with the instinct of a mouse, born and raised in a fine manor home, she imitated the deep, somber tones of the butler and announced her son: “His imperial, royal highness, Prince Reginald Rhatt.”
And then she hissed out the door to her son, “Don’t come back again unless the Nutcracker is destroyed – or I’ll turn you into something worse!”
And with those loving words, she stomped back down the long corridor, growing more irritated with her son with every step and every second it took her to get back to the plate of fudge she’d left, only a few minutes before.
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