The halls were dark and silent, not a sound came from any of the rooms. Good, everyone should be alseep. I snuck quietly down the stairs from my bedroom to the living room, where we left all of our presents underneath the christmas tree. I wanted to make sure my snotty-nosed brother didn't steal my gift from Mr. Drosselmeyer again.
Mr. Drosselmeyer always gave out the best toys, though he never gave away the amazing lifesize puppets. Those, he could make them move and dance! He would always call the girl one Edel, fancy that. I heard he made that one out of the strange oak tree behind the church, the one with strange rumors. I'm quite glad that Mr. Drosselmeyer is my godfather. I heard he is a very influential man, one of the town officials I think. I bet he is, because he talks well with the adults and is very funny with us children. He once told me a story of a silly man who would believed he was a knight and attacked windmills, thinking that they were giants! Ha! During the Christmas eve party last night, he dramatically entered with his long red cape and mischievious grin. He would then magically bring out the large puppets and have them perform for us. Afterwards he pulled me to the side and gave me a present, a nutcracker painted as a gallant soldier. I loved it so much! My stupid brother was jealous and called it ugly. I just ignored him and out of no where, he was trying to pull it away from my hands and broke it! Can you believe it? Luckily Mr. Drosselmeyer fixed him right up and gave the culprit a scolding. Best of all, we all got to hear one of his stories! It was the best.
The old grandfather clock struck twelve. I looked carefully at it. Huh, that's strange, why does that owl on top of the mantle look like Mr. Drosselmeyer's face? I'm pretty sure he doesn't look like an owl. And why is the tree getting bigger? As a matter of fact, everything seems to be getting bigger. Why-?
Hehehe.
A cackle mysteriously echoed into the quiet room. I looked around frantically as the tree loomed over me.
Hehehe. Now let me hear your story, little Clara. Tell me an amusing story. Hehehehe.
Mr. Drosselmeyer voice? But why? I'm pretty sure he was in the guest room on the far side of the house. If he came down, then I would have heard his footsteps at least. Next moment there was footsteps but fast scurried ones. Shrill squeaks came from the dark corners of the room. Beady eyes glistened against the moonlight, an army of mice or rats stepped into view. Tromping down the path made for it, a disgustingly monstrous rat flaunted it's royal crown and gave a deafening shriek.
I backed into the presents when I notice something was moving underneath the tree. The boxes rattled open and wrapping paper crinkled as they were pushed aside. The toys were coming to life! One by one, their limbs were moving as if awakened from sleep. The soldiers and animals lined up in formation, standing their ground. A familiar figure moved up in front of the crowd. It was the nutcracker that Mr. Drosselemeyer fixed! My wooden soldier was leading the toy army!
Drosselmeyer's voice spoke from the shadows.
The rat king was thirsty for blood, but the toys swore to protect the masters of the house. At the last strike of the hour, the rats moved first and viciously attacked the brave soldiers. With no other choice, they drew their weapons and fired.
I managed to crouch behind one of the boxes before the rat army engulfed the opponents like a wave. Without breaking their formation, the toys readied their shotguns and took aim. I tried my best to move out of the way, not wanting to get hurt. From the corner of my eye, my soldier was exchanging blows against the monstrous rat king. The rat king was gaining the upper hand, towering over the nutcracker soldier. I couldn't let that happen, he is my soldier! I grabbed my slipper, aimed, and hoped for the best...
I couldn't believe it when I found myself on my bed. After I distracted the rat king with my shoe, my soldier took the chance and finished him off. Then he transformed into a handsome prince and took me to a faraway place with dazzling sugar plum fairies and a whole entourage of dancers. It was so wonderful.
Unfortunately, that morning was very upsetting. Some of the toys were chewed up from mice and my nutcracker was missing. I tried to tell everyone about what I saw last night, but nobody believed me. Mr. Drosselmeyer said that I must have dreamt of the new ballet story that he told me last night. He even showed the manuscript as proof, though was disappointed that I had to spoil the story to everyone. It does not help that his new "nephew" looks suspiciously like the prince I was dancing with.
Sure enough, Mr. Drosselmeyer published a ballet that was exactly like the one I had dreamed. He even called it The Nutcracker. Everyone else just laughed it all off, saying that I was being silly and the nutcracker Mr. Drosselmeyer gave me was a promotional gift. Nobody knew that he made ballets, but it was a great hit at the theater. He soon made other popular ballets, but with eerie rumors behind each one. They all say to me that it must be lucky to be the one the main character was based off of, but all I know is that the main character is me. No matter what everyone says, I can not shake this feeling. Everything that happened that night was real and Drosselmeyer was somehow behind it all.