Marie was ridding on the magical flying sleigh. Next to her was her new husband, Keric, her beloved Nutcracker Prince. Marie was so happy, and tired. She rested her head on his shoulder, and went to sleep.
When Marie woke up, she was back in her parlor. It was as if last night's adventures were all a dream, except, her nutcracker was gone. As she was pondering everything, Fritz came running into the room. "Marie! It's Christmas Day! Time for more presents!"
"Are presents the only thing on your mind?" Marie asked.
"Of course! We're like that every year!" Fritz stated.
"Well, this year's different!" Marie retorted.
Then Marie and Fritz's mother, Frau Stahlbaum, came into the room. "Children, Herr Drosselmeyer and his nephews are here."
"Nephews? Doesn't Godpapa only have one nephew?" Marie asked, confused.
"No, he has two." Frau Stahlbaum answered, "Remember, they were both at the party last night."
"No, Mama, there was only one nephew at the party, Keric." Marie replied.
"And Eren. He danced with Anne, one of the maids." Frau replied, "Go into the Front Hall, now."
"What about the presents?" Fritz complained.
"Later. We have guests now." Frau then led her children into the Front Hall, where Drosselmeyer, Keric and a boy whom Marie had never met before (but strangely looked liked her lost Nutcracker), were waiting.
Marie hugged Drosselmeyer and Keric, and shook Eren's hand. "It's nice to meet you, Eren." Marie said.
"We met last night, Marie, but this is our first time talking to each other.
Marie looked confused.
"Why don't we talk in privet?" Keric suggested.
Marie led Keric and Eren into the library. Once inside, they sat down on one of the family's large velvet couches. "What's going on?" Marie asked. "At the party last night, I remember Godpapa Drosselmeyer coming late with five presents, including my now missing nutcracker, and Keric. Eren, you weren't there, but everyone's saying you were. And after the party, I went into the parlor to check on my nutcracker, had a nap, shrunk, witnessed a battle between the toy soldiers and some mice, fainted, woke up in a snowy forest where my nutcracker had transformed into Keric, the snowflakes danced, Keric and I sailed to the land of sweets and got married, there was a party, a magical boat, then this morning, everything was gone!"
Keric held Marie's hands. "About the Nutcracker," he said, "we were both him."
Marie looked confused. "How?"
Keric answered, "Years ago, Uncle worked for a King who ruled a kingdom named Potsdaleville, and another, The Land of Sweets. Uncle was The Royal Magician, Clock and Toy Maker. Me and Eren were his apprentices."
Eren continued, "In the castle, their lived a mouse kingdom, ruled by the Mouse Queen, the Mouse King's mother."
"I don't remember a Mouse Queen." Marie interjected.
"She's dead now," Keric answered, "that's one of the reasons why her son was so angry."
"Oh." Marie said.
"Before the Mouse Queen died," Eren continued, "she cursed the King's daughter and the only way to break the curse, was for a strong jawed male to crack open, with his teeth, a nut that gave even the best nutcrackers difficulty."
"What was the nut called?" Marie asked.
"The crackyourtooth nut." Keric answered.
"Good name." Marie replied. "Did the Princess have to eat the cracked nut?"
"Yes." Eren replied. "And the lucky lad would marry the vain Princess. Me and Keric have the strongest jaws and teeth in the land, so we flipped a coin to see who would go first, I won, the Princess's curse was lifted and the Mouse Queen was angry."
"How angry?" Marie asked.
"She cursed us!" Keric answered, "She was going to turn us both into nutcrackers, but Eren pushed me out of the way."
"That's very heroic." Marie said.
"Thank you." Eren said. "But, the King didn't think so."
"What happened?" Marie asked.
"The King forbade us from marrying his daughter, but he did give us The Land of Sweets. His exact words were, 'How dare you try to make a wooden doll my son-in-law!' I protested, the King was going to make me marry his daughter" Keric answered.
"Why didn't you accept?" Marie asked, she was glad he didn't, but she wanted to know why.
"It wasn't right." Keric answered. "Eren was the 'champion', I was just the brother. Long story short, the three of us were banished, the King gave us The Land of Sweets to compensate, and I accidentally killed the Mouse Queen."
Marie's eyes grew large. She couldn't believe it.
"The curse on me, well, there were only two ways to reverse it. The temporary way, and the permanent way." Eren said, "The temporary way, was for someone else to take my place, like Keric."
"We switched about every three months, and tended to stay in our kingdom." Keric said. "The permanent way was to defeat the Mouse King, and win the hand of a maiden with inner beauty so radiant, it penetrates to the outside."
Marie took in the news. "I'm that beautiful?" she asked, she was only a girl, and one who thought that her mother, aunts & cosines were prettier. She was told she was beautiful, but thought that was just something you told every girl, especially if she was related to you.
"Of course, my love." Keric answered, and then he kissed her. "When I met you last night, I knew you had to be the one." Marie smiled. "So I convinced Uncle to switch us. Which he found surprising, since I had only been 'myself' for a week."
"You did that, for me?" Marie asked.
"Of course."
Marie blushed. Then, something occurred to her. "How will we tell my family?"
The boys fell silent. They hadn't thought about that before.
All the three could do was think. Then, suddenly, Drosselmeyer appeared. "Children, Frau & Herr Stahlbaum insist that you all come join them in the parlor."
An idea hit the children. They looked at each other, then Keric said, "Uncle, we need your help."
A knowing look appeared on Drosselmeyer's face. "I knew this would happen." He sighed. "Well, my dears, Frau & Dr Stahlbaum only believe what they want to, and they'll never believe what's happened, no matter how much proof we have."
"So what do we do?" Marie asked.
"Simple, don't tell them." Everyone gave Drosselmeyer a puzzled look. So he continued, "All we tell them, is that Marie & Keric are friends who have crushes on each other. Then, once you become teens, we'll say you want to be married."
The children absorbed the info.
"So, what everyone will think is my wedding, will actually be my vow-renewal?" Marie asked, wanting to be sure she got her godfather's message.
"Exactly." He replied. "Now, to the parlor."
Marie, Keric & Eren, now having a plan, followed the magical Herr Drosselmeyer to the parlor.