Page 214 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

Iced Coffee
In the meantime, poor Princess Pirlipat was stuck as the Mouse Queen’s troll, and she had dragged the sled around in circles, hither and yon, over the snow, through the Land of Sweets, until she dropped in a sweaty, sore and sick-at- heart mess. Amazingly, the place where she dropped was right in front of the entrance to the Sweeties hideout.
Coffee was so surprised when the sled stopped at her feet for Pirlipat had pulled the sled by, two times already – Coffee was so surprised, that she froze in her tracks. And when the Mouse Queen awoke with her second jolt of the day, she was so angry that she lashed out at the first person she saw, which was Coffee. Krakatuk came down on Coffee’s head and ‘kapow!” the Mouse Queen had iced Coffee.
There, Coffee stood – a perfect ice statue – beautiful and ice-blue, shimmering in the moonlight.
The Mouse Queen barely stopped for no more than a quick glance, because she knew where there was one Sweetie there had to be more. And where there were Sweeties, she
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