Page 200 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

Escape from Whack-a-Mouse
Just as Coffee had puzzled out the entire story, the Mouse Queen condemned the very people Coffee decided to help! This placed a difficulty before Coffee, until she noticed that although the Mouse Queen said she was going to ax, do away with, and string up Franz and Clara, the Mouse Queen never even took one step toward them. In fact, the Mouse Queen kept her distance!
And that distance was growing. The Mouse Queen dithered and dallied and did nothing. So, while the Mouse Queen’s back was turned, Coffee slipped her hand into Clara’s and pulled her into the bushes. Clara, being quick-witted, did the same to Franz, and he slipped into the bushes right behind – except that with his out-of-size head, he whacked the higher branches that Coffee had missed and a giant load of snow slipped off and buried the three, instantly blending them into the landscape of ice and snow.
It couldn’t have gone better if they had planned it.
One second the Mouse Queen was tittering on about sprinkling roasted Nutcracker with a bit of salt, on toast –
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