Page 216 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

Piping a Different Tune
Pirlipat the Troll watched the return of the Mouse Queen, and in her heart of hearts, Pirlipat was ruing the day she had ever sworn allegiance to such a mistress. For Pirlipat now knew that in saving her own skin, she had lost it, and was now stuck with a troll-ish hide. She was almost at the point of accepting responsibility and fessing up that she, alone, had brought this curse on her head.
Just as Pirlipat was in the middle of a potential conversion, the Mouse Queen came back, and all the fear, all the terror, all the need to not get bonked by Krakatuk came rushing back to Pirlipat. So, when the Mouse Queen came back up to her troll, the troll groveled on the ground and excused herself for being in the Mouse Queen’s way.
Pirlipat lost her chance to pipe a different tune, and she was soon to find that she would be dancing, yet again, to the Queen’s command.
The Mouse Queen pulled out Drosselmeir’s pipe. She fingered the holes. She lipped the mouthed piece. She blew
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