Hey! I am so glad you guys seem to be liking this story! I always get nervous about posting stories because I end up freaking myself out that people won't like it and they'll stop liking me and all that nonsense. But then I see all the awesome reviews and I get excited about the next chapter. *Deep breath* Anyways, last chapter I posted a line from a famous Christmas story and told you that the first one to get it right would get a shout-out. And that person was…
Newsiesofchicago! Congratulations! The line was from "The Night Before Christmas", the ever so famous Christmas story. So, you get this shout-out and a plate of my famous homemade virtual Christmas cookies! Thank you guys so much for reviewing and keep it up because here's the next chapter!
Katherine started panicking when the mice approached her. She was close enough to smell their terrible breath. She was pretty sure she started shaking but she couldn't be sure because all she could think about was the fact that she was standing face to face with a mouse who was just about to kill her nutcracker. How is this even happening? Katherine asked herself as one mouse, who she'd heard called Morris, stepped even closer to her. Suddenly, she heard metal unsheathing itself. "Morris." A voice called. Morris and Katherine turned to see her nutcracker standing with his now free sword. "Step away from her."
Morris looked her over once and snorted a laugh. "She can't fight us anymore." He turned towards the nutcracker with a glare. "We'll just have to make do with you."
Morris lunged at the nutcracker, scepter raised above his head. Nutcracker blocked the attack with his sword and shouted, "Katherine, can you make it to the mantle?"
Katherine looked up towards the fireplace mantle, now high above her head with garland draping down to the floor. "There is no way…" She paused as the other mouse, Oscar, growled and went to strike the nutcracker. He elbowed Oscar, knocking him to the floor. "I'm staying down here." She ran to the nearest garland and jumped onto it, grabbing hold of the fake pine branches. After she was a few feet off the ground, she looked down. She took in a sharp breath. The mice had her nutcracker cornered against the fireplace. He couldn't fight off both of them at the same time. Thinking on her feet, Katherine yelled, "Hey, up here!"
The mice were idiotic enough to actually take the bait. They both looked up and Katherine swung her foot. Her slipper flew off her foot and hit Morris right in the head. He was knocked to the ground unconscious. Nutcracker used the distraction to swing at Oscar. His blade sliced through the sleeve of his shirt and blood started dripping from the wound. "Retreat!" Oscar yelled, covering his wound with his hand. The army of mice ran forward. While the army carried the still unconscious Morris through the mouse hole, Oscar followed him, a mouse soldier binding his wound as they all disappeared into the mouse hole. Katherine climbed down the garland and landed safely on the ground. Her nutcracker approached her and sighed. "Thanks for the rescue." He spoke.
"Oh." Katherine was surprised this nutcracker was talking to her in the first place. Seriously, nutcrackers don't talk… at all. "You're welcome."
The nutcracker reached behind his neck and undid the binding Katherine had made. "And also, for your exceptional nursing skills." She smiled as he handed her the ribbon.
Katherine looked around as if in a daze. The nutcracker noticed how her doe eyes sparkled when she looked around. He found it just added to her already natural beauty. With her hair pulled back, he could see the soft features of her face that seemed to glow in the firelight. The soft blue color of her nightgown suited her perfectly. "This has to be a dream." She said, trying to convince herself more than anyone else and bringing him out of his trance.
"Sorry, sweetie." The nutcracker retorted, "But this is all too real. I have to return to Parthenia while I have the chance. And before the Delancies come for you again." He sheathed his sword and started towards the mouse hole.
"Wait!" Katherine called. He stopped and turned back to her. "Would you mind changing me back before you go? Remember? I used to be… taller?"
"I'm afraid that only the Sugarplum Princess can reverse a spell cast by the Delancey kings." He sighed.
"Sugarplum Princess?" Katherine repeated.
"Yes." The nutcracker confirmed, "I've been searching for her since the Delancies turned me into a nutcracker."
"You were a human?" Katherine questioned in shock. Was the tale her aunt had told her true? Was this nutcracker truly a prince inside? The nutcracker nodded. "Well, how do we find this Sugarplum Princess?"
"I think I can be of assistance." A voice spoke. The pair turned to see the owl from the grandfather clock swoop down from its perch and land on the table above them. "You will find the Sugarplum Princess on an island. Across the sea of storms."
"But the sea of storms is impossible to cross." Nutcracker objected.
"Difficult, yes, but not impossible." The owl reasoned.
The nutcracker sighed and started towards the mouse hole again. When he noticed Katherine wasn't following him, he turned to her. "Aren't you coming?" He asked her.
"Me? In there? With you? I don't think so." Katherine said stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't even know the name you went by as a human."
"Jack." He answered. "My name was Jack. Sorry. It's been years since someone asked me for my name."
"Well, not many people ask a nutcracker his name." Katherine joked. Jack let out a laugh and Katherine decided she liked the sound of his laughter. It fit him. "But I'm still not going in there."
"Surely you don't want to spend the rest of your life the size of a mouse." The owl pointed out. Katherine looked at Jack and he shrugged.
"Even if we find the Sugarplum Princess, how would I get back?"
The owl leapt off the table. She flew over to the tree, grazing the ballerina ornament Katherine had hung. Swooping over the pair again before landing on back on her perch, she dropped the golden heart locket from the ornament's neck into Katherine's palm. "Once you've found the Sugarplum Princess, open this locket and you'll return home your normal size."
"But…" Katherine started, but the owl went back to being frozen atop the grandfather clock. Katherine sighed and put the locket on. "Am I really about to do this?"
"Only if you want to be normal height again." Jack told her, bringing her attention back on him. He motioned towards the mouse hole, "Shall we?"
Katherine stepped up next to him. "I swear this is all a dream." She said quietly.
"Believe what you want, this is real life." Jack retorted. Snorting a laugh, he started slowly towards the mouse hole again.
Katherine took a deep breath and followed him. The first few steps into the mouse hole were nothing special. It was pitch black and she wondered how Jack and she would ever find their way to this Parthenia. Suddenly, her feet dropped out from under her. She and Jack were sliding down a passageway that could only be created in her dreams. The walls were streams of ice blue and dots of multi-colored lights. Katherine saw multiple dark holes but she and Jack were heading towards a giant circle of bright white light. They dropped into the hole and Katherine landed on something fluffy. Taking in her surroundings, Katherine saw they had landed in some sort of ice cave. A thick layer of snow covered the ground they were sitting on and ice walls were on every side of them. "Where are we?" Katherine asked Jack.
"Huh." Jack clicked his tongue… or whatever was in that mouth. He made a clicking noise, that's all Katherine could sum up. "Must've taken a wrong turn back there. Now where'd my sword go?" He looked around. Katherine spotted it a few feet away, buried in the snow. She stood and picked it up, pulling up his wooden arm that was attached with it. She stuttered an amiable response when he stopped her by taking the arm. "Yeah. That happens a lot." With one small push, he clicked the arm back into its proper place.
Katherine was about to say something else when a small ice blue sparkle appeared in front of her face. She eyed it curiously, "A firefly?"
"Snow fairy." Jack corrected. Within a millisecond, the sparkle turned into a tiny fairy, dressed in an ice blue tutu. The fairy let out a giggle and started to dart away, but crashed into Jack's chest. He caught her in his hand and she dusted herself off. She noticed that her wing had been bent in the crash. She started what Katherine could only assume was shouting at Jack. All she heard come out of the little fairy's mouth was little tinkles. Like small ringing bells. "Well, you should've been more careful."
"Here. We'll fix this right up." Katherine stepped closer to Jack. She gently flattened out the crooked wing. The fairy let out tiny squeaks of pain but she was soon finished. The fairy fluttered her wings a little for a test. Realizing her wings were fixed, she quickly flew out of sight.
"Huh. Not so much as a thank you." Jack muttered. Katherine let out a little giggle. Jack smiled and walked up to a wall. Unsheathing his sword, he swung at the wall. All that resulted was a scratch to the ice. "The walls are solid ice."
Just then, a tinkling could be heard above them. They looked up to see hundreds of ice blue sparkles falling from the roof like a snow storm. Which was appropriate because the next second, they had turned into full grown snow fairies. Each one was wearing an ice tutu with a skirt made entirely of snowflakes. The fairies started an exquisite ballet dance to music they seemed to make entirely on their own. Katherine could only look up in awe as the fairies created fireworks out of themselves. She glanced over at Jack and couldn't help but notice how handsome he truly was. Even for a nutcracker. His chocolate brown eyes seemed to take in every single detail and searched for danger so he could protect the ones he cared for. Katherine was starting to truly believe that there was a prince hidden inside this wooden man.
A small tugging at her finger broke her train of thought. The fairy she'd helped was tugging insistently at her finger, trying to pull her to the center of the dance. "Oh no." Katherine rejected politely, following what the little fairy wanted. "I don't dance."
The little fairy huffed with a pout. Katherine shrugged apologetically. The fairy suddenly had an idea. She flew up to a group of older fairies and whispered the plan to them. The group flew down behind Jack and effectively pushed him into Katherine. The small fairy awes at the two of them looking lovingly into each other's eyes. Katherine was first to break the gaze, nervously tucking a stray hair behind her ear. Jack let out a chuckle at Katherine's habit. The snow fairies all gathered together into one ball of light. The light flew into the wall and left an exit in its wake, sunlight streaming into the cave.
"I guess that was their thank you." Jack noted. He gestured to the exit with a small bow towards Katherine, "After you." He and Katherine walked side by side out into the sunlight. What they didn't see was the flowers sprouting out of every footprint Katherine left. When they stepped out onto the small cliff, Katherine's breath was taken away at the beauty before her eyes. "Welcome to Parthenia."
Katherine took a moment to take in the scene in front of her. A beautiful forest with a river running through it was framed by a mountain range on one side and lush green fields on the other. "It's so beautiful." She breathed. Bending down, she scooped up a handful of snow. "The snow isn't even cold." She took in a breath through her nose. "The air smells like peppermint." She looked towards the sky. "And I've never seen a sky so blue."
Jack sighed. "Soon it will all be a memory if the Delancey kings have their way." He said sadly.
Katherine found in that moment that she hated seeing Jack, her nutcracker so sad. It broke her heart to see sadness in those beautiful eyes. "And you're sure the Sugarplum Princess will be able to help?" She questioned.
"She's our only hope of defeating them." With that, Jack led her to a path down from the cliff, leading to the forest below.
What the two didn't see was the bat hanging above their heads with the emblem of the Delancey brothers on a collar around his neck, listening to their whole conversation.
Okay. How'd you guys like that chapter? I couldn't resist starting to build the feelings between Jack and Katherine. Don't worry. Other newsies will come into play, but that's probably next chapter. So, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and here's to the pretty much already here Christmas season!
R&R please!
Quote of the Day: My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that? –Bob Hope
Song Suggestion: Walking in a Winter Wonderland –Amy Grant
(If you hadn't noticed, all the song and quotes for this story will be Christmas related)