Page 175 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

Personally, the Gingerbread Men, as they shivered and shook, thought Mother Ginger was perhaps a bit overly zealous. For they were in the middle of what seemed to be a month-long snowstorm and who - they thought, as their teeth chattered a telegraph message about how cold it was – who would come out, on a night like this?
Who indeed?
For just as the Gingerbread Men were shivering and shaking their bitterly, cold complaints about the uselessness of standing guard – and doesn’t it always happen this way – someone appeared deep in the trees, slogging their way through the snow.
Who could it be?
Fearing the sharp teeth of the oversized mice that had run them from their Castle, the Gingerbread Men drew closer together. Quick! They all thought, We must run, run, run as fast as we can to tell Mother Ginger! But they were all frozen to the spots where they stood. And this time, it wasn’t the cold that had them shivering and shaking. It was fear.
Who was coming?
The harder the Gingerbread Men looked through the trees, the deeper the shadows seemed to grow. The more they tried to see through the snow, the thicker it seemed to blow. And yet whoever – or whatever – it was, was coming nearer and nearer. The Gingerbread Men felt like they could melt from terror – but they were frozen through and through, as the shadow came closer, and closer.
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