Chapter 40: Sophie's Nutcracker
Agent BM: You know she will
At Honey's house, the family was getting their house ready for Christmas. Zeke had put up the lights on the mansion, and Honey had decorated the inside of the house with the help of Sophie. Now the whole family was decorating their tree.
"This is fun." said Sophie, as she put an ornament on the tree.
"Yes, it's nice to be having a real Christmas." Honey agreed.
Baby Zack was in his playpen while his family decorated the tree, but Buzz, Bumble, and Stinger were watching over him.
"Okay, now all we need now is the star." Zeke informed.
He pulled a plastic silver star out of a box, and held it up to his family.
"So who gets the honor of putting it on?" he asked.
"Why don't we let Zack do it?" Sophie suggested.
"Good idea." replied Honey.
She picked Zack up, and with his mom's help, he put the star on top of the tree. And Zeke plugged the whole thing in. The lights came on, and the tree looked beautiful.
"It looks great." observed Sophie.
"Well I better get dinner started, mom and dad are coming over." said Honey.
That evening, Wanda and Trevor knocked at the door. A droid answered the door, and let them in.
"Hello, everyone." greeted Wanda.
"Hi, Grandma, hi Grandpa." Sophie told them.
She hugged them, and Honey and Zeke came up to them. At the dinner table, Wanda and Trevor informed their family of some exciting news.
"I won two tickets to a ballet in a card game. And I'm taking your mother to see the Nutcracker." said Trevor to Honey.
"Ah that's nice." replied Honey.
Sophie looked confused.
"What's the Nutcracker?" she asked.
"The Nutcracker is ballet; they show it around Christmas time. It's about a young girl named Clara is given a nutcracker doll from her godfather. That night when Clara goes to sleep, and has a dream where the nutcracker comes to life, takes her to a magical world full of candy, cookies, and sweets. Then the nutcracker battles the evil mouse king, and in the end Clara wakes up and everything is back to normal." Wanda explained.
"Sounds kinda weird." Sophie replied.
"It's no weirder than what goes on in the city." Zeke pointed out.
Everyone laughed, and sat down to eat.
The next day, the Shaws went to a Christmas party at the castle. And it was quite a party, there were green, red, gold, and silver decorations. Christmas music filled the room, along with the tasty smell of food and baked goods.
Everyone was there, all of Sophie's classmates and their families, Miss Twilight, and many others. Sophie was with the other kids, munching on some Christmas cookies, when she saw Lucy. She looked glamorous as usual, but she also looked uncomfortable.
"Hey, Lucy. What's wrong?"
"Nothing, it's just this necklace."
Sophie looked closely, and saw it was the necklace she'd previously shown her.
"So you're finally wearing that thing. Looks kinda heavy though."
"Oh, it's fine."
But the others could see she was clearly struggling to stay up.
"Lucy, maybe you should..."
"I'm not taking it off. This is the price of being beautiful. And for the first time in a while I don't feel miserable."
A couple magnaguards came by and helped Lucy sit up.
"Thanks guys." Lucy told them.
One of the guards handed Sophie a wrapped up gift.
"Give that to your mom, advance copy of my new book."
"You wrote a book?" Sophie asked.
"Me and Kevin, yes. It's about my struggles, comes out officially in January."
"Is it good?"
"I've read part of it, it's a page turner." Mocho mentioned.
"Mocho, you agree with everything Lucy says." Sophie told him.
"But I'll give it to my mom. You sure you're gonna be alright?
"Just enjoy the party and let me worry about details." Lucy assured.
Meanwhile, Honey and Zeke were talking with Rancis and Vanellope.
"I have to say, this is a really great party, Vanellope." Honey told.
"Thanks, luckily we still had all these decorations in storage." Vanellope replied.
"It's a nice way to celebrate the Christmas season, and that we're finally getting our fortune back." added Rancis.
"Congratulations." Zeke said.
"Where are your parents?" Ralph questioned.
"They're seeing the Nutcracker ballet." Honey explained.
"The Nutcracker. I've heard of that, the land of sweets and candy reminds me of Sugar Rush." Vanellope sighed.
"Yeah, our old home." added Rancis.
When the time came to leave, Sophie gave Honey the present.
"So Lucy wrote a book on her life? I'll have to give it a glance later on." Honey said.
As the family got into the car, Honey got a call from her parents.
"Hey Mom. What happened? Sure we'll be right there."
Then she hung up.
"Something wrong, Honey?" asked Zeke.
"Mom and Dad's car broke down at the theater, we gotta go pick them up."
And so the family drove to the theater.
After picking them up, they drove home.
"So how was the ballet?" asked Honey.
"Oh it was beautiful." Wanda told.
"Those dancers did a pretty good job." Trevor added.
"We'll all have to go next year." Zeke suggested.
Sophie was just looking out the window, letting the adults talk, when her grandma spoke to her.
"Oh, Sophie. I picked a little something up for you at the gift shop."
"Really?" Sophie asked hopefully.
Wanda reached into a bag, and pulled out a nutcracker doll.
"Here you go."
"Oh, a nutcracker. Thanks, Grandma." Sophie replied, taking the nutcracker.
That night, as Sophie was getting ready for bed, she looked at the nutcracker that she'd placed on her dresser.
"How could something that looks like that be the inspiration for a ballet?" she thought.
But she then turned off her lights, and went to bed.
During the night, Sophie was fast asleep when the nutcracker started to blink. Then it started to move, it jumped off the dresser and onto the floor. As it started walking out the door, it accidentally bumped into her desk, causing the mouse to fall to the floor.
The noise caused Sophie to open her eyes.
"What the?"
As her vision cleared, she saw something leave her room. Confused, she looked back at her dresser, and saw that the nutcracker was gone! Now fully awake, she leapt out of bed.
"There's no way that thing came to life."
She scurried out of her room, and saw the nutcracker walking down the hall. She continued to follow it down the hall, and down the stairs. It went into the living room, and suddenly the clock struck midnight.
And then something weird happened. Sophie began to shrink, she got smaller and smaller, until she was the size of the nutcracker doll.
"What is going on here?" she asked herself.
Just then she heard the sound of squeaking. It was coming from the other side of the Christmas tree. Curious she snuck over, and peeked around the bottom of the tree. To her surprise, she saw rats, and not ordinary rats.
These rats were walking upright, and wearing soldier clothes. And the nutcracker, was trying to defeat them.
"What in the world?"
The rats came at him with mini swords, and they seemed to be being led by a middle aged man. He had tan colored skin, had brown eyes and hair, and he wore a gray uniform, black boots, and a multi colored rank badge on his chest.
"Raythe?" Sophie whispered.
Rythe ordered the rats to continue attacking, and it looked like the nutcracker was losing. Thinking quickly, Sophie took off one of her slippers, and threw it at the one of the rats. It managed to distract the rats soldiers, and the nutcracker managed to fight them off.
Rythe was angered by this, and commanded his rats to retreat. And they all disappeared through a small hole in the wall.
"Wow." Sophie breathed.
The nutcracker turned around saw her, and right before her eyes, he transformed into a man, who had a resemblance to Zeke.
"Who are you?"
"I'm the nutcracker prince. Thanks for helping me."
"You're welcome. But do you know how I can get back to my regular size?"
"I bet the Sugar Plum Fairy can help you."
"Where is she?"
"Come with me."
He held out his hand to her, and Sophie slowly took it. Then the nutcracker prince took her through the same door as the rats, and Sophie closed her eyes.
Sophie slowly opened her eyes, it was very bright now. After her eyes adjusted, she realized she wasn't in her house anymore. Instead she was in now what looked like a winter wonderland. The sky was light gray, snowflakes were falling, there was at least three feet of snow on the ground, and everything seemed to sparkle.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"Welcome to the Land of Snow." the nutcracker prince told her.
Despite being in a completely strange place, Sophie had to admit it was beautiful here.
"Come on, this way."
He led her to a sleigh, that had some horses hitched to it. They got in it, and the horses took off. As the two went down a path, they didn't know they were being watched by some rats. They quickly scurried away back to Raythe.
"That girl is here?" he asked.
The rat squeaked.
"(Growls), there's something about that girl I just don't like. Get rid of her."
His rat soldier squeaked back, and scurried off.
Back with Sophie and the nutcracker prince, they were still riding through the snow.
"So do you really think this Sugar Plum Fairy can help me?" Sophie wondered.
"Probably, she's the most powerful in this land."
As Sophie looked at the snow, she noticed something. The snowflakes seemed to be going in random directions. Then one flew towards her.
"What the?"
Looking closer, she realized that the snowflake was actually a tiny fairy. The fairy waved at her; and Sophie smiled and waved back. And then it flew away. Things were going smoothly, when suddenly they were being ambushed by the rats.
They had their sword drawn, and ready to attack. Sophie screamed, while the nutcracker prince looked shocked. But they quickly got over their fear, and got ready to fight. The nutcracker prince drew out his sword, and Sophie had her Jedi powers.
The fight began, as the horses continued to run. The rats sword fought the nutcracker prince, and Sophie used the powers of the force to battle them. After defeating the rats, they scurried away in retreat.
"Whew, that was close." said the nutcracker prince.
"What was that all about?" Sophie wanted to know.
"The Rat King must be behind this. We better try and get you home soon."
They then went through a tunnel, and left the Land of Snow.
When Sophie looked around, and saw she was now in a whole new world. All the snow was gone, and so was the cold. Instead the weather was sunny, the sky was blue, and the air was warm and smelled sweet.
"Where are we now?"
"The Land of Sweets. This is where the Sugar Plum Fairy lives."
This place was way different from the Land of Snow. The ground looked like it was made of vanilla wafers, the rocks were gumdrops and jawbreakers, the trees were licorice, and the fruits on them were caramel apples.
"Wow." Sophie breathed.
The horses stopped, and the nutcracker prince helped Sophie out of the sleigh.
"Come on, we have to find the Sugar Plum Fairy."
And they went off together. Back with Rythe, he was furious that his rats had failed.
"Well if you pathetic rodents can't get rid of her, I'll just have to do it myself."
He grabbed his sword, and left for the Land of Sweets.
In the Land of Sweets, Sophie and the nutcracker prince came to a large castle made out of solid chocolate. He knocked on the door, and it opened. They were escorted through the hall by gingerbread men, until they came to a throne room.
On the throne sat a woman that looked like Honey. She had golden hair and green eyes, but she didn't wear glasses. And she was wearing a pink and purple gown, purple slippers, and a pink crown. On her back were sparkly clear wings.
When she looked up she was surprised to see Sophie.
"Nutcracker prince, what's going on?" she asked.
"This young girl helped me fight off the Rat King's army, but she's stuck this size, and needs to return to her own size and go home."
"Can you help me?" Sophie pleaded.
"Hmm, I think I may be able to."
Just as she stood up, the rat soldiers charged into the throne room. The three were shocked, and then saw Rythe coming into the room.
"Destroy them, my minions!" he commanded.
The three then sprang into action in defending themselves. The nutcracker prince fought with his sword, the Sugar Plum Fairy used her powers, and Sophie used her jedi powers. Rythe grew angry, and decided to end Sophie himself.
As Sophie fought off the rats, Rythe stopped right in front of her.
"I've had it with you, you little brat." he snarled.
He held up his sword, ready to strike, when suddenly, the nutcracker prince drove his sword into Raythe's back. He fell to the ground dead, and all the rat soldiers scurried off scared.
"Whew, thanks." Sophie told him.
"You're welcome." replied the nutcracker prince.
"Now to get you home." said the Sugar Plum Fairy.
She placed her hand on Sophie's head, and Sophie felt the room beginning to spin. Then everything with fuzzy.
"Sophie, Sophie." called a voice. Sophie opened her eyes, and thought she saw the Sugar Plum Fairy. But once her vision cleared, she saw it was her mom.
"Mom?" she asked.
"Come on, it's to get up." Honey told her.
Sophie sat up and looked around. She was back in her room, and the nutcracker doll was still on her dresser.
"I'm back." she whispered.
"Back? Where did you go?"
"The nutcracker came to life, and took me to this magical world with rat soldiers and Raythe was their leader. We defeated them, and the Sugar Plum Fairy helped me get home."
"Oh, Sophie. You were just dreaming."
"I guess it was just a dream."
"Come on, let's go eat breakfast."
Sophie got out of bed, and followed her mom out of the room. But before leaving, she looked back at the nutcracker. She looked at it curiously, then shrugged and left. But little did she know, the nutcracker winked.
That's chapter 40, plz review