Merry Christmas, everybody. This year is a bit different, but I hope you're all still having a good day. This the conclusion of TLN 2. We'll see Russell getting home, and how things have been since he's been gone. Hope you enjoy.
Chapter 14: Home Free
"Russell... Russell..."
The little boy trudged through the snow, trying to follow the source of the voice, which he was sure was his brother calling for him. As he made his way through the forest, he nearly tripped over something. One look down, and he noticed... that it was Carla's poster, half-buried in the snow. Smiling, Russell picked it up and dusted it off. It still looked good as new.
"Hey!" He called, running through the woods, "I found the poster..."
He continued to run until he finally made his way back to the big field where everyone was playing. Russell grinned as he made his way over to Carla, "I found it!" He declared.
"Oh, Russell!" Carla was delighted as she picked the child up and swung him around in a hug, "Thank you so much! And you're safe as well."
"Safe."
Bill sighed with relief as he approached his brother, "Yeah, Rus. You went into the woods and didn't come back after like ten minutes. We were getting worried so we tried looking for ya..."
Wait.
Ten minutes?
"Ten minutes?" Russell asked, "You mean it's only been ten minutes."
"Well, yeah. But it sure felt like forever. Where did you go, anyway?"
By now, the rest of the guys and girls made their way over to the boy. Russell smiled, "Well... let's just say I made my way back to the Winter Kingdom again. On another adventure."
The girls were intrigued, "Really? You went back to that place again?" Carla asked.
"I sure did."
Rudy rolled his eyes, "Oh, boy. Here we go again. He had another dream."
Russell frowned at the rich boy, "It wasn't a dream this time. I actually went there. And they remembered me. Not to mention, this time, there were Winter versions of the girls beside Princess Carla."
He looked at Camille, Wendy, and Cheryl, "You three were part of the royal court. Camille was the princess' advisor, Wendy was a handmaiden, and Cheryl was part of the royal guard. The first female on the team in fact."
"How interesting," Camille said.
"Cool." Wendy added.
"I like the sound of that." Cheryl chuckled.
Lulu stepped forward, "Who was I?" She asked.
"You were the evil Sugar Plum Fairy Queen." Russell answered for her, "And you were working together with the Rat King. Stella was her lady in waiting. Or rather, fairy in waiting."
Both Lulu and Stella looked at Rudy and Donald respectively in surprise as Russell continued, "Angie was a little ballerina." Angie herself giggled, "And Bertha... she was a soldier, who worked alongside the original Nutcracker."
Bertha smiled, "How intruiging..."
"Hey, hey, hey. This sounds like an interesting story." Albert grinned, "I'd like to hear about the whole story."
"Me, too!" Harold added.
"Yeah, tell us." Bucky also added.
Everyone was agreeing to hear the story, even Rudy. Russell smiled widely, "Well, since you asked for it, gather around and I'll tell ya."
And gather around everyone did, as they began to pay attention.
"Well..." Russell started, "It all started when I noticed how purple the skies were..."
THE END
And there you have it. Russell comes home, and tells everyone about his adventure. And if you wanna know the story again, just go back to the beginning to when the adventure started.
In all seriousness, I'm so glad to get this done. It took a good chunk of the year to work on it just prepare it for the holidays. Thank you all so much who read this tale.
And a BIG SPECIAL THANK YOU to Nostalgia-Margo, who co-wrote this with me and allowed the use of her characters. I look forward to doing more with you and this FA world of ideas, Margo.
With that said, again, I hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas today, in spite of everything going on. And let's hope for things to get better by the time 2021.
I love you guys. Take care 3