Page 39 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

Paying the Piper
At the foot of Drosselmeir’s tower, the Mouse Queen once again climbed up a mouse-made snout-and-whiskers ladder, this time with Prince Reggie tagging along behind. He made sure to step extra hard on the noses of those who’d called him “Prince Runty Rhatt.”
At the top, the Mouse Queen squinted down her long pointy nose through the windows. Inside, Drosselmeir was mumbling and flipping pages and occasionally consulting a huge chart of a giant nut.
The Mouse Queen pretended to be amazed, “Would you look at that – studying and searching, all this time – for what I’ve got!” She looked at her Magic Nut, Krakatuk with fresh appreciation.
Knocking on the window, the Mouse Queen said in a sweet voice and with a wicked smile, “Are you looking for this, dearie?” And she held up her scepter, with Krakatuk strapped to the tip. She banged on the window and it turned to ice, shattered, and pelted Drosselmeir with little balls of hail.
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