Page 201 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

and the next, she was staring – mouse mouth agape – at the spot where her dinner had stood. Where had they gone?
Of course, the Mouse Queen blamed anyone but herself and immediately started slamming Krakatuk on any nearby mouse’s head, until the only mouse left was poor Reggie’s headless body on the sled. Mechanical mice ran in circles everywhere, nose-dived into snowdrifts and flipped over sideways, then spun their wheels until they all ran down.
That’s when the Mouse Queen realized she had destroyed her own army.
A bit down in the mouth, but determined to rid her land of the Nutcracker and his dangerous jaws, the Mouse Queen glared down at the trembling Troll squeezed under the sled. Yanking the poor princess-turned-troll to her feet, the Mouse Queen kicked the sled back onto its runners, climbed on, and with imperial command yelled, “After them!”
Which was kind of funny because she didn’t know the answer to, which way had they run? But Pirlipat the Troll didn’t even bother to ask. She was too busy trying to please an angry Mouse with a lousy look – and a mind ready to strike first and question later.
So, Pirlipat trudged and nudged the sled as quickly as she could. And this time, for the first time, she did it without any sort of a grudge. For she was just happy NOT to have been cracked by The Nut.
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