Page 42 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

The Mouse Queen smiled at Drosselmeir, and taking up Reggie’s rhyme, sang, “No need here, for a rest or a breather. I’m eager to see you’ve become so much meeker. A weeper, a griever, and you the receiver. A pleader, a squeaker, and me the Grim Reaper!”
And then the Mouse Queen struck the tower with Krakatuk, that mighty Nut, and snow began to fall. It built up on the windows so quick and so thick that Drosselmeir was locked up inside.
Turning to the sniveling Mouse Prince, the Mouse Queen snarled, “Quit sniveling, you mangy mouse! Do you want to meet your future bride with a snotty nose?”
And much to the dismay of the living ladder, the Mouse Queen stamped and stomped all the way back down, leaving behind a blubbering Reggie, wiping his eyes and blowing his nose, so he could follow after. But as soon as the Mouse Queen was back on land and with Reggie just starting down, the meeslings whose noses were still smarting from his pointy boots, pulled away and broke apart – leaving Reggie in mid-air with no ladder below.
The meeslings all thought the bump on the butt that Reggie got at the bottom of the tower was just what he deserved for being such a bully, on the way up.
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