Chapter 4: The Snowfield

He held his head in his hands as he slumped over the familiar wooden table of his childhood home, still trying to absorb the tragic events he'd been party to.

His sister had passed on before his very eyes.

The last time he'd seen her she was a young girl, just barely keeping the house afloat but swearing it would stay in shape so her brother could come home from the war with his soldier's pay and care for them both again.

Just a day ago was their first – and last – reunion. He guessed she must have been a lovely young woman before the consumption withered her away, her brown hair cascading around her emaciated body. How surprised she'd looked to see her beloved brother, to the contrary, had aged not one day since the day of their separation.

So obsessed had he become with his life in what could only be described as a fairy tale that he'd neglected to ensure something very important.

That time in both worlds flowed identically.

How had he begun to recall her? He'd been in his workshop and found himself starting to construct life-size clockwork replicas of people… it wasn't until he'd painted the last face on the last doll that he realized he'd constructed replicas of his parents and sister. To him, it had only been a year or two settling in and starting his business.

Outside, it had been so much longer.

The faerie had appeared so apologetic… she'd been certain he had nothing to return to, so she'd never told him. He'd become so immersed in his new life he'd never wanted to speak of his humble past. And so he'd let himself drift away from his past… she explained to him that the length of time and his rudderless existence made it difficult to send him back to the correct time, but she'd try and get him as close as she could.

As he'd learned to his horror, he'd missed years of the world he'd once been part of. And all that time, his dear sister had waited patiently… gotten married, had a son, lost her husband, and now…

At first all he'd done upon reaching her bedside was stumble over his apologies as he'd clutched her hand close. And all she wanted to know was – had he been happy?

She smiled as he tried to tell her of his new profession, of the wonderful world he'd found… he began to promise to take her…

… and her face froze, a doll's empty gaze remaining as the life flowed out of her. With shaking fingers, he pressed her eyelids closed for the last time.

After the fact, he'd stumbled through notifying the proper authorities of her passing. There was little estate to manage – his family had never had much in the way of means. There was just one loose end…

"Uncle, you must eat something. Mother wouldn't want you to starve."

A warm bowl of porridge sat in front of him. He looked up at the sapphire eyes of the blue haired young boy next to him. "Come now… I assure you I didn't burn it."

He was still just a child… Even if he insisted was " a grown up 9 year old!" on meeting his uncle for the first time.

And yet for a boy who'd lost everything, it was almost eerie the way he smiled and never once cried over his great loss.

The boy sat down with his own food. The toymaker made his best effort to eat in spite of the rock knotted into his stomach. "I heard you telling Mother you were like… an inventor… a clockworker… oh, and you make toys. That's so amazing!"

It didn't feel so amazing now.

"Ah, what I'd give to see them… is your workshop close by?"

"Hmmmm…" he found himself saying, "It's in… it's…"

His disaffected nature began to leave him as remembered he was talking to a child. A child that was dearly missing the same person he was.

He felt his flair for storytelling rise up and a genuine smile spread across his face. "It's in a most enchanting place. The snow is made of powdered sugar, and when it gets wet it turns to syrup!"

The boy's eyes widened. "Did you ever get stuck to it?!" he said, his smile growing, "How would you wash it out of your hair?!"

"Oh, they make a most marvelous hair tonic that even chewing gum wouldn't stick to! And outside my bedroom window, every night I see a magnificent pink lake in which the most beautiful swans swim all year round!"

"The lake doesn't FREEZE?!"

He couldn't stop the story now that he had this child's full attention. "Oh no, because the secret of the Rose Lake is that it's made of the most pure red juice, always perfectly warm even when the snow's out!"

"What kind of toys do you make!? Did you bring any!?"

A sad shake of the toymaker's head. "Not now… I was in too much of a hurry… but I've built train sets that encompass entire towns… little ballerinas that dance for days… and even clockwork helpers that can help me carry materials into my home and cook my breakfast before I have to turn the key again!"

The boy now seemed entirely uninterested in his own porridge. "Uncle, Uncle! You MUST take me there! I want to see it, the lake and trains and the ballerinas and –"

A loud knock on the front door interrupted the both of them from their lovely conversation. The toymaker rose and opened it at once. Outside stood a dour woman in a steel grey gown, behind her some rather burly looking men.

"Oh, we didn't know anyone else lived here," she said, "We were informed yesterday of a destitute youth whose family has passed on."

"His mother is passed, but I am his uncle," the toymaker said sternly.

"An uncle?"

She squinted at the toymaker behind her glasses. "This is the first I've heard of it. Are you planning to take on his care?"

For a second he hesitated… then he looked back into his nephew's eyes. This was the first time he'd seen the boy show fear. "We've already made arrangements for a workhouse to send him off to. We can't have him becoming delinquent, after all. He can become a productive citizen."

A workhouse… all his life his father and mother had fought to keep their children out of one of those wretched places… to think they were so desperate for more bodies that they'd come swooping in so suddenly at even the prospect of one more young soul to throw into the unflinching machine…

"Those arrangements are unnecessary," the toymaker said gruffly, "As a matter of fact, I own a manufacturing firm of my own, and a boy his age would do well to apprentice there. I'll be taking him back within the week in fact."

His courage grew. "I don't suppose the city intends to prevent me from taking my only nephew home with me?"

The woman started to shrink back. "No… no, that will be fine. As long as he isn't running about picking pockets and starting fights, you can do whatever you want with him. We'll… notify the council the situation has been resolved at once."

The toymaker gruffly slammed the door in her face, glad to be rid of them. He looked into his nephew's eyes…

…. The glowing smile on his new apprentice's face was the first sight to bring him joy all day.

Miku lay on her back in the guest bed staring long and hard at the ceiling above her. In spite of the darkness of night outside, in spite of her looking out upon the stars, in spite of being in her bed clothes, she found herself incapable of falling asleep.

Hours had already passed in this darkness. Meiko was fast asleep on a soft couch. The little family had already gone to sleep – to Miku's surprise, even the dolls needed sleep even if they could sleep on solid wooden beds. As it was, Kaito had simply chosen to sleep on the floor. He cared little for fine arrangements, and as he'd insisted, he didn't need a mattress or blankets since he couldn't get cold or uncomfortable anyway.

She found herself watching the unfamiliar sky. None of the constellations she knew to look for were present. Stretching across the sky were several golden strips of light, like ribbons of stars through the heavens. She's have to remember to ask Kaito or Meiko what they meant. She started trying to count the glowing lights, hoping her mind would finally drift off in the wake of some mental work.

Nothing.

She heard a familiar clicking sound in the rafters and looked above to see Oliver's toy bird flittering from beam to beam. "James… being naughty again…" Miku whispered.

The bird flitted out through a slit beneath her door. Finally Miku could stand the silence no longer and she crawled out of bed to chase the bird. She tiptoed along the floor trying to be as quiet as possible.

That's when she finally noticed someone else was awake.

James settled atop Kaito's tall hat, taking the nutcracker by surprise. "Ah, James, that's not nice… Oliver will be looking everywhere for you!" he scolded quietly as he grabbed the bird gently in his wooden hands.

Kaito turned and saw Miku, his painted eyes growing largerin surprise. "Ah! I didn't wake you up, did I?!"

She shook her head. "I can't sleep… at all…"

Now her nutcracker appeared worried for her. "It's not the curse is it?"

'ACK! I hadn't even considered it…'

"M…maybe…" she stammered. "What about you?"

Kaito smiled and shrugged. "Nope. I probably slept too much before!"

He examined the toy bird in his hands for a few moments. "Hey… let me take a look at him…" Miku said, "I know… a little bit… about toys."

Obediently Kaito handed over the bird and the two walked down the stairs towards Big Al's tool bench as Miku began to search for something to gently pry open the bird's casing and examine the inner workings. She hadn't want to tell Oliver this, but she'd been dying to tear open his "pet" and find out how such a creature functioned.

Fortunately, Big Al did seem to own a few finer tools – some of the wood crafting lying around the workshop included precise etchings and finer carving work. Ironic for such a loud and boisterous man to appreciate work that took quiet patience.

Miku grabbed at a flathead screwdriver and gently pried at an opening in the casing around the bird's tummy. Soon it snapped off, exposing an intricate network of gears… and a few odd pieces she'd never seen before. Even so…

"This is just the way that Gakupo makes his toys…" she murmured.

"Gakupo? Oh, the man you thought built me…" Kaito said, "You know, come to think of it, if Drosselmeyer built me, how did I get to your godfather's house anyway?"

Miku tried to use every technique Gakupo had taught her to work backwards through the solution of what might be malfunctioning in this toy. She knew how the gears should work together, but the odd little nodes… they seemed to practically glow. Were they magical somehow?

"Kaito, I have to say, there's a lot I don't know about Gakupo… and the way you were all describing this 'Drosselmeyer' person, he sounds a LOT like him. Maybe they're related… except this Drosselmeyer had a nephew and Gakupo doesn't seem to have any other family aside from us."

But Gakupo did build a toymaker that resembled himself in a castle that clearly resembled the one in this magical world. 'So maybe he had a nephew before… and something happened to him so he doesn't like to talk about it.'

Kaito watched Miku quietly as she worked at the toy. "Um… Miku… I have a question…"

She didn't look up from the job. "Yes?"

"…am I really an ugly doll?"

Now she looked up from the bird again. "What?!"

Kaito's face was getting harder to read. "The mice keep calling me that…" he said, "That I'm an ugly little nutcracker. Does everyone else think that way?"

He started to walk away from Miku, turning his body from her as he seemed to be examining his appearance in a piece of reflective glass. "I mean… there's nothing wrong with you!" Miku exclaimed.

But even as she said it, she knew that wasn't what Kaito needed to hear. Why would he take the opinions of mice so seriously anyway? "Honestly, you look a lot nicer than most nutcrackers. You don't have one of those horrifying grins or the weird teeth… or the beards…"

"So… I'm not that ugly for a nutcracker?"

'Augh! I have to salvage this!'

"No! I just meant, you're a very handsome doll, Kaito. You have that nice wooden smile and soft hair… your uniform is prim and neat… and your red cheeks always make you look happier."

As he turned his face back to her, Miku thought she noticed something else unusual about Kaito, just for a second… then she simply saw his doll's face, with his painted features, little wooden nose, and the well-defined mouth large enough to crack nuts inside.

She smiled for him. "Besides, do you think those creepy mice know the first thing about beauty?" she joked, "I doubt they even bathe! At least you're clean."

Kaito began to laugh. "Well I do have a nice layer of varnish, so it's not hard to stay clean!"

'There… he's smiling again…'

More and more Miku began to notice that regardless of Kaito's normally happy demeanor, he did seem to lose himself in his thoughts when left alone with them. And yet again she found herself wondering what had happened to make him "fall asleep".

But… seeing him smiling again… she didn't want to break that. Something about Kaito being so happy and cheerful all the time no matter how much danger they faced made her want to stay strong too even though she was still frightened of her predicament.

She finally spotted something ajar in James' casing – one of the odd glowing nodes seemed to have slipped out of its proper place. "AH! Maybe this is what did it!"

Miku reached for a tiny pair of tweezers and nudged the little pebble-shaped object back into its proper place, then screwed the tiny little bar back over it with expert precision. Snapping the bird's casing back together again, she held James in her hands, hoping she hadn't hurt him.

To the contrary, the bird took flight through the house… Miku quietly began to follow his flight path, just as she saw the bird slip back into Oliver's cracked open door.

"Wow Miku… you're really good at this!" Kaito said, beaming from cheek to cheek.

… for the first time, someone besides her godfather was complimenting her technical skills instead of discouraging them. "Thank you, Kaito."

Sweet Ann threw open a large wardrobe. "Now, I don't know how well any of these will fit a human, but you're welcome to anything you need!"

Miku peered into the wardrobe, wondering if all of the clothes would look more like doll's dresses. Still, she seemed to have some luck with finding some clothes closer to her world's sensibilities. She spied a lovely sky blue coat with a white fur trim and navy blue bow, matching it to an ankle length navy blue skirt. She grabbed for a long-sleeved white shirt and pulled out some navy gloves and white, fur-lined boots. 'There… that should give me a little more modesty…' she thought, blushing at a far shorter skirt that would have cut off midway down her thighs. Miku wasn't at home, but she wasn't comfortable dressing quite so scandalously…

"Oh, how lovely! It brings out your hair!" Sweet Ann cooed as she sat on her white bed. "Here, just go change behind the divider, I won't look! Oh, and I think I know the perfect accessories!"

Miku was about to stop her from looking for anything like that. Yet the rag doll had such a broad smile as she leapt from her bed and ruffled through her vanity, Miku just didn't have the heart to stop her. As Miku walked behind the wooden divider and slipped off her nightgown, the doll woman added "By the by, you've no idea how grateful I am to you for fixing James for Oliver. He loves it so, but clockwork mechanics are well beyond Al and I…"

Now a question that had bothered Miku almost from the start nagged at her and now seemed the best time to ask.

"How did you come to adopt Oliver?"

For a few moments, all Miku heard was silence, to the point that she was concerned she'd asked a rude question. "I suppose everyone finds it strange for dolls to care for a human child…" the ragdoll finally said.

"We found Oliver when my dear husband still practiced carpentry closer to the city… just wandering around without anyone to look after him. At first we thought maybe he was the son of some official but… the more we spoke to him, the more we wondered if he came from the World Beyond…"

"The World Beyond?" Miku asked. That was an odd turn of phrase.

"Oh! It's where you seem to have come from!" Sweet Ann said, her voice growing ever more cheerful, "Every now and then we see humans from there… we don't know how they get in. Either they get lost or the faeries find them… some of them have done quite well here though!"

As Miku slipped into the skirt, the sky blue hem settled just above her ankles. It certainly felt thicker than her nightgown. 'I'm not the first…' Miku thought to herself, 'Good. Then there must be a way for Gakupo to get here and find me.'

"Anyway, Oliver took a liking to the two of us and we couldn't well let such a nice young lad spend his life in an orphanage! So… my husband moved his carpentry business here to Bonbon and I opened up this sweet candy shop!"

Miku tugged the sweater over her head, pulling her long hair through. "Some of the humans definitely didn't approve of dolls raising a little boy. The dolls think we're crazy, but they don't interfere with us. Anyway, I'd trade all the finest spun sugar in the Candyfloss Mountains for even one more day with my sweet Ollie!"

All Miku could think of was how brave Ann and Al were to uproot their entire lives just for their son. It was no small task to throw away a family business like that. So many sacrifices they'd made… as much as her mother could get on her nerves, Miku had to admit with a stab of guilt that the matriarch of the Hatsune household had gone through more than enough trouble on her own trying to keep the three of them together, surviving on just the inheritance her grandfather had left behind and whatever Gakupo was sending her.

In that moment, Miku vowed that she would do anything to return home – for as much as her mother's controlling nature could upset her, she could already imagine how losing her only daughter forever would devastate her. Even Mikuo would be frantic by now… how she found herself missing his bossiness and pranks.

Sweet Ann began to hum to herself as Miku stepped out from behind the divider. "Ah, it looks pretty on you!" she said, running over and fussing at the coat.

Miku curtsied politely. "Hey, you don't have any hair ribbons, do you?" she said.

Like a shot, Sweet Ann pulled out a blue ribbon with a white jewel and slipped it around her head. She looked so proud of herself. "Ah, I'm kind of jealous! You wear that better than I did!"

She slipped another pair of white ribbons into Miku's hand for her to form her pigtails again. 'I'm starting to think Sweet Ann should own a dress shop instead of a candy shop…' Miku thought to herself.

"AH! You're really okay with just lending us this?!"

Big Al proudly patted the large wooden sleigh as Kaito excitedly danced around it. "Well of course, the three of you can't just walk to Drosselmeyer's workshop!"

Miku had to hold back her laughter as she watched Kaito trying to pet the horse rigged up to the sleigh. 'I'm surprised it's a real horse… I would have been sure it would be a toy of some sort…'

The horse snorted in the poor nutcracker's face… only making him start laughing even harder. "Sorry I upset you, Mr. Horse!"

"Besides, all the dolls love Drosselmeyer…" Sweet Ann said, "We're all worried about him. It's the least we can do to make sure he gets back safe."

Kaito was practically vibrating with joy, so much that Miku half expected to hear some of his wooden parts clacking around from his excitement. "Can I drive the sleigh!? I'll be real careful!"

Before she could say anything, he'd already started to climb up into the driver's seat. Meiko rushed forward and grasped his leg. He didn't seem to notice her touch, but as she spoke he seemed to finally notice her presence.

"Kaito… it's not your place to handle live animals!" she scolded, "You should sit in the sleigh, with Miku."

He looked so disappointed…

"Yea, Kaito! If you sit with me, you'll be ready in case we're attacked by mice!" Miku said, thrusting out her mitten-covered fists, "I know I'll feel a lot safer sitting next to you!"

That cheered him up.

"You're right! Okay, Meiko, you drive, and I'll protect the sleigh!"

He clambered over the front of the sleigh into the back. As Meiko followed into the driver's seat, she tossed a relieved wink at Miku. 'I guess he's had trouble with horses before,' Miku thought to herself with a chuckle.

Miku began to leave for the sleigh as well when suddenly Oliver rushed forward and gave her a big hug around her waist. "Thanks for fixing James! Thank you so much! I'm thanking you because he can't talk!"

Miku leaned down and gave the small child a hug as well. Just feeling human arms around her gave her that familiar comfort of contact again. "You take good care of him. Don't worry, we'll save the toymaker and James will get regular checkups, all right?"

For just a moment, Miku wondered if this warm feeling of making a child happy was what gave Gakupo so much passion for his craft.

As the sleigh glided through the fresh snow, Miku and Kaito stayed alert, watching all around them. They'd been set upon by mice so many times already, they couldn't afford relaxation. With Meiko's steady hand on the reigns, they could focus only on the snow around them. For the moment, Kaito even seemed to tense to try singing a sleigh song.

But as they traversed the Candied Plains, nothing appeared amiss. Early on, Meiko had stopped to alert them to several sets of tracks – some of them clearly belonged to mice, but many of them were more humanoid. "The army's been through here," she had muttered, "We need to stay away from them… they'll take care of the mice, but they won't exactly help us either."

The tracks never entirely faded, though Meiko tried to stay just far enough away to hopefully not draw any attention from a straggler.

Eventually just watching for an attack that never came began to wear at Miku – unlike her companions, she wasn't a soldier. She had to try and break up the monotony somehow. "Ah, Kaito, have you started to remember anything else? Before you 'fell asleep'?"

Kaito continued to watch the snow, though he did seem to perk up at being the center of attention again. "It's kind of a mess right now," he said, "I mean, now I remember more of what Drosselmeyer looked like, and more of what kind of person he was… but the weird part is, I don't remember much of the kind of person I used to be. How I became a soldier or… or even when I was built… the sort of things you'd expect someone to know."

"Meiko, you used to know Kaito, right? You can probably tell him more about where he came from and –"

The brunette curtly cut her off. "I need to focus on the road."

Miku glared at her – did she always have to be this rude with everyone?

"Well hey, Miku, didn't you say you think Drosselmeyer sounded like your godfather? Maybe there's stuff you know that could help jog my memory too!" Kaito said.

Miku scrunched up in the sleigh. "Well Gakupo did know your name, you said you heard it when he fixed you!" she reminded Kaito, "Hey, what about his voice? Did it sound like Drosselmeyer's? Did he tell you anything important?"

Kaito tapped his jawline with his finger. "I was still mostly asleep… not having a working jaw and all… he had a really kind voice, though. He apologized for not being able to help me."

At that she winced – had Mikuo known the toy he'd so carelessly broken was alive, he'd probably feel guilty. Miku's mind drifted back to the conversation she'd had with Sweet Ann, where she spoke of the World Beyond.

"Is it common for people to come here from the place I did?"

At that, her nutcracker shrugged. "I think you're the first one I've met. Though if they're all kind and smart like you, they must all be wonderful people too."

Kaito said that statement with such sincerity that Miku thought her cheeks might have turned as red as his own painted ones were. "Miku, can you tell me more about your godfather? Just in case."

Kaito sounded so hopeful, how could she let him down? "Gakupo… he's brilliant, really. When I was a child his toys seemed like they moved with magic… I was too young to understand how all the little parts worked together."

Thoughts of happy times surfaced as she recalled so many wonderful days. "Every time he came to visit, it was always so happy… he loved trying out new toys on me and my brother. And he'd tell these… outlandish stories about them!"

She leaned back wistfully. "Ah, when my father was still alive, my parents would just get caught up in it with them… sometimes I think they were trying to see who could outdo each other in the more magical tale. But… after my father died… I stopped believing in magic…"

Not that such an event could ever stop her godfather from finding a way to keep her happy. "Gakupo seemed to know I didn't believe anymore… so the first toy he gave me after my father died… was a little toy cat. And after he told me this… ridiculous… story about the cat fighting an army of mice by itself… he asked me if I wanted to know how he'd made it. Then he just… slipped open the casing with a screwdriver and pointed to all the gears."

She'd never forget exactly how he spoke of his craft after that. "As I watched all the little turning pieces, at first I was frightened… it was like even my childhood had died. But he pointed to each little piece… and he said the point of a toy is to light our hearts and imaginations. Either by the child who plays with it, or the maker who crafts it. Everything he ever built was a new possibility. He told me to him, that was magic too."

"After that… I kept having him teach me how he did it. I wasn't an apprentice, but he started by bringing me simpler toys and letting me take them apart… I never got as far as building one by myself, but it wasn't all that long ago I used to draw the plans up…"

At that Kaito started to interrupt. "What do you mean, used to? You haven't stopped making toys, have you?"

He could really be so simple… something charming but at the moment something vexing as well. "I… well… my mother wants me to marry into a rich family and be well taken care of. Gakupo isn't in the position to take me on as an apprentice – he's far too busy, always traveling around… so… I kind of… stopped…"

Kaito looked genuinely upset. "But you were so happy! Why would your mother think someone wouldn't marry a pretty, kind, clever girl that makes toys!?"

"Sometimes parents have their own needs that diverge greatly from their children's," Meiko interrupted.

Her voice was so cold it made Miku shiver in place. There was a story there all right, but Miku knew the soldier wouldn't be telling it. "Look, it was… easier, okay?" Miku said, "We've been fighting so often, I didn't want to keep pushing back anymore… besides… maybe it's best for me…"

At that the nutcracker actually let out a "harrumph." "What's best for you is what makes you happy, right?"

At once the conversation was interrupted by a loud explosion. The horse bucked and took off, leaving Miku and Kaito to hang onto the sleigh for dear life as Meiko tried to get them back under control. "What's happening?!" Miku cried out.

"That sounded like a cannonball! The battle is moving this way!" Meiko shouted, "We've got to stay out of the way!"

The previously calm snow field began to fill with dozens upon dozens of doll soldiers, locked in vicious combat with the mice. What they lacked in sheer numbers they had in sheer tenacity and skill. "All the soldiers are… dolls?!" Miku exclaimed.

"The infantrymen usually are!" Kaito exclaimed, "It's almost impossible to kill a doll… so the king usually sends them out first since they're more expendable."

Another series of explosions sounded out as a row of cannons opened up, scattering doll and mouse alike. Miku worriedly scanned the snowfield until…

… she saw him again.

Len. The Mouse King. Barking out orders and taking the field, a holy terror with his sword as he tried to cut through the doll soldiers.

"The Mouse King… he's here…" Miku said.

The sleigh jerked around as Meiko got it back under control, but she looked shaken. "We need to find another path…" she stammered, "Kaito, please… please promise me you remember something…"

Kaito was clutching his head, his eyes screwed shut. "There's…. there's another path through the mountains. Like, in a cave… but… it's dangerous… something about it is dangerous…"

A cannonball exploded near the ground, showering the occupants of the sleigh with snow. The horse was clearly too spooked to take orders anymore and it was all they could do to stay still as the sleigh passed straight into the battlefield…

Trampling mice and dolls under its feet.

"Who dares interrupt our fine battle!?" The Mouse King shouted.

He was looking right at Miku, his pink nose and long whiskers twitching with rage as their eyes locked. He frightened her, this creature that had cursed her to such a bizarre place.

"Ignore the dolls! The Nutcracker and the princess are in that sleigh and I want them more!"

And then they were away, plowing through the trees as the mountain approached… finally crashing near the opening of a great cave. The horse ran off, leaving the scattered occupants of the now-ruined sleigh to stand up.

"Miku… are you hurt?!" Kaito cried out.

Her injured arm was burning with pain – she'd landed right on it. Yet she gritted her teeth and tried to ignore the pain. "I'm fine! Is this the cavern?! Does this go all the way through?"

Kaito stared up and examined it closely. "I think so… no, I KNOW so! I remember this now… but… I also remember it was dangerous somehow…"

Meiko took a few steps closer. "That's because it's full of magic," she said, "Surely even someone like you can detect it?"

Miku tried to focus – she wasn't sure what magic was supposed to feel like but… she started to notice the sensation of pins running along her skin. For just a moment, it made her recall when the Mouse Twins magic passed over her.

Then… it was gone.

Miku jerked her head over her shoulder in fright when she heard a familiar voice. "This way! The sleigh crashed out here! Stop them before they enter the Crystalline Cavern!"

Just hearing Len's voice again made Miku jittery. "We'll have to chance it! We can't let them catch up to us!"

The three fugitives tried to gather what supplies they could from the snow before they ran into the open mouth of the cavern. Whatever danger lay inside, Miku tried to brace herself for it. The darkness began to consume all light… their footsteps pounded on the rocks…

Eventually, they heard no further pursuit. Whatever was in these caves, clearly the Mouse King himself was no more eager to face it than they were.

Finally, everyone seemed to relax and slow their escape. Kaito began to take point, trying to navigate the caverns for everyone. As if matching Len's name for it, Miku saw the rock walls slowly being covered by glowing multi-colored crystals. What little light remained seemed to be emanating from them as they glowed softly. The deeper they ventured, the more the lights chained. Miku stopped running, examining the dancing lights on her skin. "Ah, Kaito, this is so pretty! It's like a rainbow!"

"It must be the magic in the caves... for crystals to glow like this, there must be a source deep within the earth just pumping it out," Meiko whispered in awe.

Even Kaito stopped walking a few moments to admire the spectacle. "I think I'm starting to remember this place a little bit, now…" Kaito said, "I mean, I remember the crystals anyway…"

Miku looked ahead into the many little lights. "Do you remember the way out? It might not be easy with so many reflective surfaces…"

She ran her hand along one of the crystalline walls. She half expected it to be candy given the world she was in, but it just felt like normal, non-sugary rocks. "It's not rock candy, Miku… I uh… already checked…" Kaito said.

Before Miku could ask how a doll could "taste" anything, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Whipping her head around quickly, Miku spied what looked like the silhouette of a young girl. "Kaito, Meiko, did you see that?!"

Kaito was staring straight down the path. "Yea, there's someone there! Hey, come back!"

"Wait, Kaito, don't start calling out to her, it might be the mice!" Meiko scolded, "Have you no concern for how reckless you're being?!"

The girl turned around and started to run deeper into the crystals. "Wait up, please!" Miku shouted, chasing after her, "Do you know the way out!? Do you know where we're going!?"

With Miku in hot pursuit, she tried to keep up with the girl. Was it a lost human? Another doll? Maybe they could help each other…

The girl's pigtails bounced behind her as Miku kept up her chase… and was she laughing?

Miku stopped her chase as she found herself approaching what appeared to be her own reflection in a massive crystal wall…

… when the reflection looked into her eyes with a sickening grin. Whatever Miku was looking at, her eyes were pale white and soulless.

Miku whirled around, looking for Kaito and Meiko… but there was no sign of them. She was entirely alone.

Her "reflection" laughed. "You really aren't that tough on your own, are you?" it said to her.

Kaito stayed entirely focused on his chase of the boy he'd seen… he didn't think the boy looked that feminine, but maybe in the dim light Miku and Meiko thought they'd seen a girl.

But something about the boy seemed to draw him out of his focus on their single-minded goal. If he followed the boy, he'd understand something important. Maybe some clue that would lead him to his creator, or to break Miku's curse…

When the boy suddenly ran through one of the crystals on his own, Kaito slowly came to a halt, his heavy wooden footsteps trailing off. He walked closer to the crystal, touching its surface…

The boy turned around, his mop of blue hair flopping around his head, putting his own hand up to the other side of the crystal to match Kaito's doll hand.

Kaito was staring straight into the white eyes of a perfect reflection of himself.

Except… this one was human.

A/N:

So I forgot to announce it properly last week, but this is a bonus Christmas update! Come back on Friday for the normal release, and maybe get that gaping cliffhanger resolved!

Oh look at me, killing family members again. Poor Kaito, he's practically collecting dead parents out of all these stories. That's also two dead sisters for Gakupo and two dead fathers for Miku. Thank you, Disney, for teaching me the value of fratricide in plot development.

So we got another peek at the villainous Len, but still just a tease really. Something fun about a story like this where the major plot details are pretty well known is that I don't have to worry about whether I kept certain major plot points properly secured. The surprises and conflict come from the new presentation of familiar plots and the new material added on top of it.

For example, there's nothing I love more than screwing with the heads of my cast and especially messing with Kaito.

In case it wasn't obvious, I put Miku in a 19th century version of her 2012 Snow Miku costume.