In Katerina's dreams, she was a little girl once more.
She could visit her beautiful ballet world. Most of her dreams were just memories, but she was very happy there. She could see Kalmia, who she considered her twin.
One night, however, she saw something quite different. It was as if she was having a vision. It felt different from a mere dream; she was somewhat aware that she was dreaming, which usually never happened.
As usual, she was a young girl again, dancing perfectly in the gorgeous land.
Just like that first day, Kalmia appeared from behind the fountain. She looked as young as she had been on that day, but her face looked more mature, and her expression was grave.
"Katerina…" she half whispered, extending her left hand.
"Kalmia," Katerina said.
They touched one another's hands.
Katerina yelped in terror. The palace was covering itself in ice! The fountain stopped running, and Kalmia's wrists were glowing blue. A pair of icy shackles appeared on them.
"Kalmia!" Katerina screamed.
Kalmia's voice was hushed and unmistakably that of an older woman.
"Listen, Katerina, my sister," she murmured, "the land of Katerenni is in trouble. This ice is the work of Nieve."
"Nieve…your…sister?" Katerina asked with a slight gasp.
"Yes," Kalmia replied. "She has the whole world frozen in her icy grip. She has gained loyalty; her top army is made up entirely of scorned girls whose former beloveds she froze. I foresaw a way to stop her, but I had to tell her or she would have attacked her servant."
Floating slightly above the ground behind Kalmia appeared the rippling images of the imprisoned Giselle and Odette.
"They were supposed to stop all this, and now Nieve's captured them," Kalmia explained with a sigh.
"But that's…!"
Katerina stared in shock. The two girls were wearing ballet costumes she had made.
"Giselle! That girl is Giselle!"
She couldn't believe her eyes. Giselle, from the ballet, defeat an ice queen?
"With her and Odette trapped, you're Katerenni's only hope!" Kalmia said through pants and tears. "Please, help us!"
It seemed like a dream, but Katerina knew Kalmia. This had to be real. If Giselle and Odette really were supposed to defeat Queen Nieve, and they really were imprisoned, she couldn't just keep sewing costumes and forget about it!
"I'll do whatever it takes to save this land!" Katerina cried out, tightly holding onto Kalmia's hand.
"Good luck," whispered Kalmia. And with that, the world around Katerina faded to white, and her eyelids fluttered open.
She knew what she had to do.
"Let's have the milkmaid number!"
Katerina watched her sister instruct from the left wing. Across from her was a ballet student, her blonde hair tied up tight in a bun. The girl's name was Kristyn Farraday.
"Lower the cow!" Natasha commanded.
"Dance like nobody's watching!" Kristyn's best friend, Hailey, encouraged her.
Katerina knew Hailey well. She liked designing costumes as much as Katerina did.
"Because nobody will be watching, except the cow," remarked Tara, another ballet student.
Katerina frowned. Tara Pennington had been very cheerful – friendly, even – when she had started at Natasha's school. But over the years, she had become so incredibly full of herself that Katerina could hardly believe she was the same girl. What was worse, her father encouraged her snobbery. Katerina had once heard him tell her how much better she was than the others by talking badly about them.
The seamstress snapped out of her thoughts to watch Kristyn danced. Katerina rather liked Kristyn; she was very creative. The young ballerina was giving it everything she had.
"Nice…good…" said Hailey.
Then, suddenly, the music changed. Katerina gasped. Kristyn was, as usual, making up her own dance moves, but the music had never done this before.
That was when she knew exactly who was right to save Katerenni.
"Stop!" Natasha ordered. "Stop the music, stop everything!"
Katerina saw a sound manager turn off the stereo, but the music wasn't stopping. Neither was Kristyn.
"That means you, Kristyn!" Natasha snapped.
The girl tripped and fell, tearing one of her shoes.
"Oh!" she cried.
Natasha walked up to the stage.
"Ms. Farraday," she scolded, "this is not the choreography we rehearsed!"
Katerina listened as the girl apologized and Natasha continued to scold her. It didn't seem fair; the girl should at least have a chance to write down her own classical ballet dance and do that for her instructor. It wasn't as if there couldn't be any more artists. Perhaps she should write her own ballet; she would undoubtedly be very good at it.
But before that, there was a much direr situation to fix.
Nieve stared into her ice crystal. No one seemed to realize Giselle was missing. Something was wrong. She must have escaped.
Her fury made her face turn icy blue rather than red. She stomped downstairs, her icy castle becoming colder as she went.
"Kalmia…"
"Get behind me!" Kalmia told the two girls with her.
Giselle and Odette ducked behind Kalmia as Nieve approached their cell.
"Kalmia, I will ask you only once," Nieve began in a tone of mock calmness. "Where is Giselle?!"
"Here!" Giselle squeaked, stepping out from behind Nieve's sister.
"So, something else is going on," Nieve scowled. "Enjoy your time here, withering lilies!"
And as she approached the door, she stage whispered, "You won't get out."
She looked again. The people of Giselle's village were dancing merrily. Lively music played as Prince Albrecht stepped into the middle of it all, no doubt waiting for Giselle.
Fool, Nieve thought. She isn't coming.
She saw the prince extend his hand as the music ended. But, as predicted, she didn't appear.
The ending chords played again, and Albrecht extended his hand again.
"You fool!" Nieve chuckled.
The chords played and the prince extended his hand a third time.
Nieve began as smile, but then she saw an older woman come out of the cottage.
The prince drew back in mild disgust. Nieve gasped. Had Giselle escaped just now and somehow aged?
"Uh, Your Majesty?"
Nieve yelped as she felt someone tap her on the shoulder.
"Oh, it's just you, Eira. What reason could you possibly have for bothering me?"
"That's Giselle's mother."
Nieve sighed in relief – then tensed up again when she the woman call, "Psst! Giselle!"
The woman was beckoning someone to come near.
"Look!" Eira cried.
"I think she's talking to you," said a girl who Nieve had never seen before.
"Me?!" said the girl next to her. "I'm not Giselle!"
Nieve's eyes widened. Yes, she was!
"You!" she ordered a passing faery. "Go to Giselle and tell me at once if she's missing!"
The faery weakly nodded and hastened to obey.
Nieve watched as the girl who had to be Giselle danced. Much closer to her, Albrecht was watching. It was like falling in love all over again.
"She's so beautiful," he told the young woman next to him. "I must have her as my wife!"
"So, you're a peasant, huh?" she said.
What did she mean?
"What?" he said. "Yes, that's correct."
"Single, are you? No fiancée?"
How did she know that?! Or did she even know that?
"No, no, no, of course not!" He had never agreed to be engaged in the first place. True, at the time he hadn't minded, but then he'd met and gotten to know Giselle, and his whole world had turned upside down.
"Not masquerading as a peasant to deceive Giselle into marrying you?!" she snapped.
Oh, wow, she'd caught him. Who even was she, wearing such strange clothes and seeming to know just about all of his secrets?
"Oh…I'm sure I wouldn't know what you're talking about," he replied quickly.
"Beef stew or foie gras?" she asked.
"Well, foie gras of course!"
"A-ha!"
She pointed at him.
That was it. The strange outsider had found him out. Now he was never going to break his engagement.
All of a sudden, Giselle began to dance in a way unlike any he'd seen before! When she finished, he and the peasants cheered.
"Your Majesty, Giselle is still imprisoned."
Nieve scowled. The faery had to be lying. She looked into her ice crystal.
The faery had been telling the truth. That meant the "Giselle" dancing in the village was an imposter!
Numerous questions were skittering in Nieve's mind. Who was this girl? How had she become such a perfect likeness of Giselle? And what if it was she, and not Giselle, who would dethrone Nieve?!
The Snow Queen was frightened. She had to stop this before it could go any further.
"Bring me my chariot!" she ordered.
The people cheered. Albrecht approached his beloved and pulled her close.
"My darling," he said, "you are more beautiful today than ever before!"
"Um…thank you," she replied in an uncertain voice.
Albrecht was concerned. Could she not see the lovely siren he could?
"Your eyes, blue as the sky!" he continued. "Your hair, kissed with strawberry –"
"Oh, yeah, right," she replied.
"And I've never seen you dance like that! Or anyone else for that matter!"
In her chariot, Nieve looked through her ice crystal. The way she danced…she could not be the real Giselle. She watched as Hilarion exposed Albrecht as an imposter, and they fought over the fake Giselle, who was obviously confused, until a strange girl pulled her away. Such a shock would have activated Nieve's curse in the real Giselle.
She had finally arrived. Nieve cleared her throat and the two men's attention immediately turned to her.
In shock, they both bowed down deeply. They knew what would happen if the Snow Queen thought they displeased her.
"Exactly what is happening here?!" she demanded in an icy voice.
"Oh…um…making plans for my wedding to Giselle, Majesty," Hilarion stammered.
"Oh, he hopes in vain!" Albrecht retorted angrily. "Your Majesty will be the guest of honor at my wedding to Giselle!"
An idea struck Nieve as she floated down from her sleigh.
"And where is the bride? Bring her here so I may watch her choose between you!"
If the imposter appeared, Nieve could very easily freeze her.
"I'm waiting!" she called.
"Your Majesty," Albrecht began quickly, "if we had known you were coming we could have –"
"Giselle is gone, ma'am," Hilarion interrupted.
"Gone?!" Nieve snapped. "Gone where?!"
"Uh…to the market, for buckets," he stammered in reply.
"Bucket…" Nieve repeated. "How did this happen?!"
"I…fear that she is not entirely well!"
"Go on."
"He's right, for once, Your Majesty," the prince interjected. "She was not quite herself today. She, er, spoke of not wanting to marry me."
"Silence!" the queen ordered.
The entire village was hushed.
"Did anyone else see anything?" Nieve continued.
"She was wearing pink shoes!" said a young man.
Pink shoes…
No!
Kalmia. It had to be. Her sister had been known for those little ballet shoes that gave all who wore them talent as a ballerina. Kalmia was still working, imprisoned though she was, to further the cause of Nieve's overthrow!
With a spike of anger having arisen in her, Nieve approached Giselle's mother.
"Where would she have gotten pink shoes?"
"From Claude the cobbler?" the woman replied with uncertainty.
"That is not the answer I was looking for."
Nieve blew an icy breath at the woman, freezing her.
"Find her!" Nieve ordered. "And bring her to me! Everything must be perfect."
"I will leave no turn unstoned," Hilarion stammered.
"Led by me, Your Majesty," Albrecht interrupted.
The two men looked at each other. They knew they thought alike: if the Snow Queen wanted Giselle, it wasn't for anything good. They had to find her and hide her away.
"Until then," Nieve continued, "dance! Go! Be perfect!"
The people stood in shock.
"Well?!" Nieve said with a glare. "What are you waiting for?!"
Immediately the villagers started dancing.
Nieve had been journeying far and long. She decided to rest at a kingdom known as the Land of Sweets. She could see some flower faeries dancing in the distance. She scoffed; those folk were of Kalmia's ilk. She had no need of them.
Then, through the woods, a gigantic nutcracker doll appeared, leading a young girl in a faery dress. Hmmm…
She appeared suddenly before the two of them.
"You two!" she ordered as they bowed to her. "Find a girl called Giselle!"
The Nutcracker merely shook his head.
"Here!" the queen proclaimed. She summoned an icy fog, which formed a circle. It became a looking glass, revealing the imprisoned Giselle.
"This is the girl you must find, only her shoes are now pink! You will inspect every dog house, mouse house, and gingerbread house in the land until Giselle is found a brought before me!"
"Oh!" the faery girl cried, raising her hand. "So, so Giselle is gone, like, vanished, like poof? Wearing pink shoes? Ooh! Sounds exciting!"
Nieve couldn't handle this. She blew an icy breath and froze the girl. The Nutcracker's mouth fell open.
"Anyone else craving excitement?" Nieve asked in an icy voice.
The Nutcracker shook his head.
Siegfried was a born hunter. He had learned to hunt from a very young age. His kingdom was one where hunting skill was something to be very proud of.
It happened on a day when he had been hunting swans at night. He noticed many of them gather near a lake and approached. To his amazement, the swans changed. Though the prince knew naught of it, these were the daughters of Cygnus and Leda – and one of them was missing.
It was then that Odette, or a girl who bore an uncanny resemblance to her, appeared.
"Odette!" gasped the princesses. They had been looking for her since she had gone missing and were happy and relieved to have her back.
Siegfried was stunned. The maidens were dressed in silk made to look like swan feathers. The oldest among them, Odette's doppelganger, wore a tutu of shimmering purple. He instantly fell in love with the young maiden, and Kalmia's magical shoes began to work an enchantment. This enchantment would eventually break the evil Rothbart's curse.
He approached the girl.
"I am fortunate to come upon such beauty here in the moonlight," he said to her.
She was quite eager to dance with him, and they danced. As they danced, the real Odette, locked away in the Snow Queen's icy palace, felt a strange glimmer of hope. She didn't know it, but the prince had, in fact, fallen for her. She had no idea that by the next night, her curse would be broken.
Siegfried was even more entranced by the fact that the girl seemed to be making up the steps as she went along. What a creative way to dance!
When the dance ended, he invited her to the ball the next night. She accepted, for which he was glad. His mother, Queen Vera, had been adamant about him choosing a bride, as he was to inherit his late father's throne soon.
The night of the ball arrived. Siegfried was ready. He knew exactly who he wanted to marry.
"Tonight, Siegfried, you choose a bride," his mother said.
"I will, Mother," he replied proudly.
Just then, a man appeared, leading who he thought was Odette into the room. He assumed the man must be her father, not knowing he was actually Rothbart, and the girl he was leading was his own daughter, Odile.
"I'm so glad to see you!" Siegfried exclaimed.
"Of course you are!" Odile replied in contempt.
They began to dance, and after a few minutes, an astonishing thing happened.
Two swans flew in, honking. When the sun went down, one of them transformed into a girl wearing strange clothes. The other became the spitting image of Odette.
Siegfried was confused. Was one of them a fake? If so, which one was real?
The Odette he had started dancing with was pulling him away from the other, and yet the other was coming closer, trying to catch Siegfried's attention.
Then, the music changed. One of the Odettes began to dance her own style, and that was when Siegfried knew.
"It's you!" he exclaimed.
Queen Nieve had been watching the strange girl through her ice crystal. She had transformed from Giselle's likeness into Odette's, which made Nieve more afraid. As the Snow Queen now stood inside Siegfried's pavilion, she saw that the curse had been broken.
"Something is not right here," she sneered. Then someone caught her eye.
It was a dark-haired, bespectacled young girl in strange, outlandish clothes. She was the exact same girl who had been with "Giselle"!
"You!" Nieve demanded. "Who are you?"
"I'm Hailey!" the girl said, a little too enthusiastically. "I'm just…hangin'."
Nieve scoffed.
"You don't belong in this story," she sneered before freezing the girl. She was then struck with an idea. If she took this girl, she could perhaps lure the imposter ballerina to her!
"People don't call ahead anymore," Nieve said, revealing the imposter with Albrecht and Hilarion in tow. "They just show up, out of nowhere!" She eyed the two men. "And you've brought friends!"
"Oh, look at you, with a house full, and here we are, barging in," Albrecht laughed weakly. "Where are our manners? Another time, perhaps?"
Nieve paid no attention. Instead, she focused her icy glare on the likeness of Princess Odette.
"So you're the one who's been changing the stories." The queen's icy voice filled the room like a blanket of a blizzard that blocked out the guiding moonlight on a cold winter's night. "Not following directions…well, dear, you're just in time for the show!"
She flicked her hand and revealed the young girl she had abducted.
"Hailey!" the strange girl cried.
"What do you think, 'Giselle'? Or, might I say…'Odette'?!"
"Let her go!" the girl ordered. "I'm the one you want!"
"Tut, tut," Nieve scolded, "don't be jealous. It'll be your turn soon enough!"
Her eyes glowed an icy blue as she told the girl how she had her friend trapped, and proceeded to force her to dance about a hundred quick pirouettes. At the end, the dark-haired girl groaned and fell to the ground. Nieve laughed evilly.
"Now it's your turn."