Once upon a time there was a toy soldier made with much care. This toy soldier longed to make every child who played with him happy, and he always did, even as he aged and decayed through the years of love-filled abuse his child owners inflicted on him through their play. At last, when the toy soldier was so fragile no child could play with him, his final adult owner left the toy soldier on a shelf to remind him of his childhood, making the toy soldier unable to make anyone happy, whether others or himself…
Act 28: The Nutcracker Prince
(((The Wardrobe)))
In the seemingly muddiest and deepest puddle on the largest cobblestone street that cut through Kinkan Town to the town square now lay a small Nutcracker with a large mouth, a gold crown on top of medium gold-brown hair and a red and gold uniform. No one passing by, even if they had noticed the forgotten toy in the mud, would've heard the Nutcracker's cries, for the Nutcracker was not really a toy at all. After all, normal toys don't cry!
"Please…" the Nutcracker whispered in anguish. "Drosslemeyer, you sick wretch…can't you just destroy me and get it over with? I can't take it anymore…must you delight in seeing my life being ruined so?"
"Aw, poor Nutcracker," Drosslemeyer chuckled derisively as he eyed the image of the Nutcracker in the muddy puddle. "I'd give you some hope so that you can be disappointed again, but since my darling descendant decided to break my machine, I can't give you an ending! Ha, ha, ha!"
"Please…just destroy me!" the Nutcracker moaned, invisible tears running down his painted face. "Burn me! Anything! Just…end my story…please, Drosslemeyer…please!"
'Aotoa said that only those who are descendants of Drosslemeyer-san have the ability to write stories that come true…' thought Ahiru. 'But Fakir is supposed to be his most direct descendant…could there be someone close enough by blood to Drosslemeyer-san to rival Fakir's power? Or…is something else going on? I don't know…'
Ahiru was still thinking about the magical story unraveling and Mytho's concerns when she suddenly noticed Fakir turn around as if he'd just seen something interesting behind him.
"Qua?" she asked in concern.
Fakir looked at her as if confused. "Do you hear something?"
"Qua?"
Ahiru listened carefully, before she too realized she could hear something…something that sounded oddly like a man crying.
Fakir ran to discover the source of the voice, and Ahiru flapped after him as fast as her small duck legs could carry her.
"Drosslemeyer…"the voice cried as if in pain, "must you continue to torment me?"
Ahiru's eyes widened. Fakir immediately stiffened at the mention of the old storyteller's name, and looked around the street frantically for the source of the mysterious voice.
"Show yourself!" the young writer barked, his eyes and voice filled with suspicion. "I know you're there…now come out right now and tell me how you know Drosslemeyer!"
There was a silence, before the voice whispered in a very quiet, incredulous voice, "You…you can hear me?"
"Quack?" inquired Ahiru, meaning to say, "Who are you?"
"I am a cursed man,"the voice answered Ahiru's question.
"QUA?"
"You can understand her?" Fakir demanded, his eyes flaring with distrust.
"Yes, I can understand her," the voice replied in a very mild tone,"although I do not know why, for I have never been able to communicate with animals before, talking or otherwise. I know not how you can understand me, Lady Duck and Sir…but I would be most grateful if one of you could get me out of this puddle; I don't much like having mud in my eyes."
Ahiru looked around and finally noticed a Nutcracker lying facedown in a very muddy puddle.
She quacked fretfully and rushed over to try and push the Nutcracker out of the mud. Fakir looked astounded, but nonetheless helped Ahiru by picking the Nutcracker up off the ground.
"My most esteemed thanks," the Nutcracker said, sounding genuinely grateful without his mouth or face moving at all. "May I inquire as to who you are? I have never known anyone who could understand me…are you a wizard?"
"No," the green-haired writer answered. "My name is Fakir…and the duck's name is Ahiru. I won't tell you anymore of our business unless you tell me how you know Drosslemeyer."
"Quack!" Ahiru reprimanded. 'Fakir, you don't have to be so mean!'
"It is all right, Ahiru-san," the Nutcracker assured her. "Fakir-san has plenty of reasons to be distrustful of me…but I assure you, my awareness of Drosslemeyer is not because I support his heartless writings."
"Quack quack-quack qua?" Ahiru asked.
"I was in his stories," the Nutcracker assented. "I am Prince Helios of the Kingdom of Theia. I was the main character in two of his tragedies…and it is not because I wished to be."
Fakir raised an eyebrow. "What is your story?"
Helios sighed. "The first that started my life of misfortune is unlikely to be still in print, as it was written when Drosslemeyer was a young man. It was his first story…his oldest story. It was called The Nutcracker Prince."
Fakir's face scrunched up in thought. "I've never heard of that story."
'If Fakir hasn't heard of it, then Helios-kun is likely right,' Ahiru thought to herself. 'Fakir's read almost every story ever put in the library…'
"I shall have to retell it then," the Nutcracker commented sadly.
He sighed, before starting to recite the story as if he had memorized it by heart.
"'Once upon a time there was a prince who longed to make people happy. He was engaged to a princess who was known as the unhappiest woman in the land, for she was always crying. The princess could be pampered endlessly, and yet, the only known thing that had ever been able to make the princess stop crying for an instant was eating nuts. Ever since she was the smallest of children, she had loved them: peanuts, walnuts, pecans…any nut known to man. Upon hearing this, the prince cracked all of the finest and rarest nuts for the princess with the utmost care, trying to make her happy enough to smile just once. However, the prince did not know that the princess was already loved by someone else: a storyteller who had been the princess's childhood friend. The storyteller grew very jealous of the prince trying to make his love happy, and determined to have the chance to marry the one he loved, placed a curse on the prince, changing him into a Nutcracker until someone could love him in the form he was in. The storyteller and the princess married, and they created a happy life together…while the Nutcracker prince, being unable to move or speak, was forgotten by all.'"
Helios gave a very long sigh, as if every word of the story had put him through intense pain.
"Quack quack quack!" murmured Ahiru, her voice filled with regret.
Helios, if he could've moved, likely would've given Ahiru a smile of gratitude. "Thank you for your sympathy."
Fakir frowned slightly. "Wait a minute…are you trying to tell me that Drosslemeyer wrote a story to spite you because you were engaged to the woman he loved?"
"Yes," Helios replied in a very depressed voice. "What saddens me is that it was apparent I was not in love with the princess…if Drosslemeyer had merely talked to me, I would've been happy to help him…but somehow I think he finds my suffering more amusing. From what I can gather, the princess and Drosslemeyer lived very happy lives together and had many children. But Drosslemeyer became obsessed with writing after he wrote my story with only his power, instead of merely finishing stories that had gone into motion, and eventually became so ambitious and heartless with his stories that he drove his family away. Drosslemeyer died alone, without any knowledge about what happened to his family… Yet, only just a year ago, when I was sure he was dead…he wrote a second story about my misfortune."
"Quack quack-quack-quack qua?" asked Ahiru.
"The second story?" Helios repeated ruefully. "Well, it definitely wasn't any better than the first."
He sighed once more and started reciting the second story.
"'Once upon a time, there was a toy-maker who found an old, broken Nutcracker lying forgotten in the snow around his town square. He did not know, however, that a magical storyteller had cursed this supposed-toy into his form, unable to be human once more until one loved him as the Nutcracker he was. The naïve toy-maker decided to fix the Nutcracker in his shop, and then brought the toy with him to the Christmas party his innocent goddaughter Clara's parents were hosting. The toy-maker gave Clara the Nutcracker for Christmas, and Clara was delighted with her present. She held the Nutcracker with her as if he were her Prince Charming, and as she slept, the storyteller from the far corners of death, longing to make the story more interesting, used his magic to give the Nutcracker life in Clara's dreams.
"When Clara was threatened by the horrible Mouse King, the Nutcracker prince defended her and killed the menace. The Nutcracker prince then invited Clara to the Castle of Toys that the toy-maker had created for him at his toyshop. The Nutcracker's friends, the toy-maker's finest toys, performed beautiful dances for young Clara…nothing was ever more beautiful…but after the performances, just when the Nutcracker prince was about to explain to Clara what was happening and who he was, there was a loud bong of a clock. The castle began to dissolve into darkness and the music faded. The Nutcracker prince's touch became cold, he began to shrink and his arms froze in place as Clara awoke in her bed once more at the sound of the grandfather clock chiming seven in the morning, the wooden Nutcracker in her arms.
"Innocent Clara, as any normal person would, assumed it was just a wonderful, romantic dream and hurried to get ready for the new day without a second thought. She never noticed that her precious Nutcracker had tears in his painted eyes, neither did she notice her Nutcracker collecting dust in her room in the next months. In fact, no one ever noticed the Nutcracker again.'"
Helios gave yet another sigh.
"Since then, my life followed the ending of The Nutcracker. Then today, Clara's brother Fritz was playing with his toy soldiers, making them try to destroy the 'Monster Nutcracker,' and he accidentally pushed me out the window…and no one cared."
Ahiru looked very sorry for the cursed prince; even Fakir looked a little less suspicious and more understanding.
"So your story was started again because your ending of not being noticed has been changed, since you're no longer trapped in the house. And obviously, the magic has returned to Kinkan Town because nothing in your story could be considered normal with a 'Mouse King' and a curse."
"I guess so," supposed Helios, "or Drosslemeyer decided to go at it again and make my story a three-part tragedy."
"Quack!" dissented Ahiru.
"Drosslemeyer no longer holds any control over Kinkan Town," Fakir agreed. "I destroyed the machine that wrote his stories…I'm the writer now."
"You are?" Helios asked, sounding very surprised. "But…but you would have to be related to-"
"I'm the most direct descendant of him, yes," Fakir responded.
"Is that why you know about Drosslemeyer's powers?"
"No. Ahiru and I were in one of his stories…The Prince and the Raven."
"The Prince and the Raven…" Helios repeated, sounding thoughtful. "Clara's mother was reading that story to Clara and Fritz not too long ago…are you a prince as well then, Fakir-san?"
Fakir shook his head. "No…I was the knight. Ahiru was Princess Tutu. We changed the path of the story so that Drosslemeyer couldn't force us to create another tragic end."
Helios's painted silver-gray eyes, if they could move, likely would've widened. "I bet that's why you two can understand me; you have been subjects of Drosslemeyer's power, the same power that's still keeping me in this form."
Ahiru then thought of something. 'We did change our destinies…and Fakir is the story's writer now…why can't he give Helios-kun a happy ending too?'
"Qua!" she tried to articulate her thoughts to Fakir. "Quack-quack quack quack quack quack!"
Helios, who could understand the duck, immediately started to protest.
"Oh no, Ahiru-san, it's all right! I wouldn't want to force Fakir-san to do anything just because he feels sorry for me!"
"Baka," Fakir snapped. "You obviously don't want us to just throw you back in the mud and go on our way. Besides, I write Kinkan Town's story now; a story has started because of you, and I intend to finish it."
With that, he slipped Helios securely into his bag. After a minute, the Nutcracker at last whispered a very quiet "…thank you, both of you."
"Quack!" Ahiru assured him cheerfully.
Suddenly, during this most optimistic moment, a foreign-sounding chorus of music sounded from not too far away, and Fakir and Ahiru turned to look in the direction of the town square.
"Quack?" Ahiru wondered.
"I don't know," Fakir responded.
Abruptly, a little boy shoved past Fakir rather rudely as he ran ahead toward the town square.
"Oops… sorry, sir!" a preteen girl who looked like the boy's older sister apologized for him.
Both Ahiru and Fakir caught a slight, sad groan from Helios and assumed the girl must have been the naïve girl from his second story, Clara. She had curly ebony hair that reminded Ahiru of a black-haired Lillie and a pretty yet rather stupid-looking face that reminded Fakir of a goose.
Clara started to run after her brother Fritz, but Fakir stopped her.
"What's going on?"
"Madame Ruza's troupe just entered town!" Clara explained to him in a tone a lot like that of a very excitable, yipping dog.
"Madame Ruza?" repeated Fakir questioningly.
Clara's dark eyes were very bright as she raved her response, only accentuating her likeness to a goose.
"She's a witch! Her troupe travels all around, giving performances with their magic! They say she's a master puppeteer and performer, and today she's going to make her puppets dance without even moving their strings!"
"What?" said Fakir, sounding taken-aback at Clara's last sentence.
He looked ready to ask her to tell him more, but the goose-like girl had already run away, not even noticing her Nutcracker now in Fakir's bag.
"A witch?" Helios repeated interestedly.
Fakir's eyes narrowed. "There have never been any witches in Kinkan Town before, not even during The Prince and the Raven…"
He glanced down at Ahiru. "I think we had better look into this."
"Quack," Ahiru agreed, and the two raced off for the town square.
"Madame Ruza?" Drosslemeyer repeated, looking slightly surprised, before his face cleared up and he laughed. "Ha, ha, ha! So that little fox is still around, is she? I thought she already died of grief for that story I wrote for her!"
The image in his gears changed to that of a middle-aged, violet-haired gypsy woman taking a ballerina puppet out of a cabinet in her caravan.
Drosslemeyer laughed again as his gear image went into a close-up of the brown-haired, purple-eyed ballerina puppet in Madame Ruza's hands.
"Ah! How are you fairing, Demi-chan? Still miserable, how marvelous! This story can be tragic for both you and the Nutcracker! Heh, heh…the Knight will write a story to try and save the Nutcracker from his fate of loneliness…and your hopelessness, Demi-chan, will guide the Knight's story to dance amongst the finest of tragedies!"
I'm afraid that is all for today. Is a fun story awaiting us? A sad story? Or maybe…?
Name Notes:Helios - name of the Greek god of the sun
Theia - name of one of the Greek Titans who was mother of Helios and his sister Selene, the goddess of the moon
Ruza - name of a tributary of the Russian Moskva River; name of a Russian town nearby itMusic Notes:
"The Wardrobe": starts when Fakir yells for the source of the voice to reveal himself and ends as Helios tells of the prince being cursed in "The Nutcracker Prince."
The piece "The Wardrobe," is from "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" soundtrack.
