Page 158 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

The King of Mice
With anger powered by fear, Clara fled past the clock at the top of the landing, down the wide staircase, through a whole herd of giant mice, and flung herself in front of the curio cabinet. Feeling like a melodrama queen, with her arms stretched out to protect her love, Clara faced the ratty rowdies rushing toward her – and she realized the ridiculousness of her position.
Clara was barely five foot two, and all of the – well, we can’t really call them meeslings anymore – these creatures had achieved rat-hood-and-beyond, by their exposure to Krakatuk. They towered over Clara, drool falling from their fangs; red-black eyes burning, with their claw-tipped paws dangling almost to the ground. If they had been kids, they would have been the schoolyard bullies; if they had been executioners, they would have been the gorillas in the black hoods carrying the axes; if mobsters, the goons. But since they had been mice, they turned into ratty, goony, bullies – or Rabulgoonies, or Goobulratties, or some such really, really, scary, rat-like creatures.
144