"Where are we?" Clara asked as she looked around.

"Must've taken a wrong turn back there," Nutcracker said as he looked through the snow, not noticing that his hand was gone again. "Where did my sword go?"

"Oh, here it is," Estelle said, seeing his sword next to her when she pulled it out of the snow, she saw that it was attached to his separate arm. "Um..."

"Sorry," Nutcracker said, attaching his hand back in place. "That happens a lot."

A sparkle then appeared out of nowhere.

"A firefly?" Clara blinked in surprise.

"No, a snow fairy." Nutcracker explained, friendly.

"A real fairy?" Estelle asked, surprised of actually seeing a real fairy.

The Snow Fairy appeared out of the sparkle, giggled, and then bumps into Nutcracker. Her wing is bent, she tries to fly up but can not. She begins to shout in her own way at Nutcracker.

"Well, I'm sorry, but you should have been more careful." Nutcracker told her apologetically.

"Here, we'll fix this right up..." Clara took the snow fairy, deciding to fix the damaged wings.

The fairy felt secure and flew out, smiling its thanks for her.

"That's better, can you help us find a way out of here?" Estelle asked the fairy, nicely.

The snow fairy assembled more fairies. Before they went anywhere, the snow fairies decided to show them a little dance and as they finished their little dance, they flew through a wall and made an exit for them.

"I guess that was their thank you." Nutcracker shrugged.

"Where'd they go?" Clara asked.

"Must be making a blizzard somewhere." Estelle shrugged.

"You're probably right." Nutcracker said to her, then walked them out of the cave.

The girls looked in awestruck as they walked out of the cave and saw a very beautiful land with natural beauty in the village.

"Welcome to Parenthia." Nutcracker welcomed the girls to his land, it didn't even feel cold despite being winter and the trees had a very sweet exotic smell.

"This place looks so amazing." Estelle said, looking at the entire area out of amazement.

"It's so beautiful," Clara smiled. "The snow isn't even cold. The trees smell like peppermint. And I've never seen a sky so blue."

"It'll all be a memory if the Mouse King has his way." Nutcracker told them gravely.

"And you're sure the Sugarplum Princesses can help?" Estelle asked him as they walked along.

"They're our only hope of defeating him." Nutcracker gave a nod as they walked.

Little did they know, a certain fruit bat had been hiding among a tree and listening in to them. "Hmm... Interesting..." he chuckled and flew away to report to a castle that belonged to the Mouse King. He just knew that the Mouse King was going to want to hear this.

The Mouse King was visiting an ice chamber and walked out to it and clung to the bars as he looked down to see his newest prisoner as he made her sit on an ice cube. "Make a decision, my Queen?"

"I told you a million times already!" Cherry snapped, folding her arms, revealing she had been kidnapped as well and was held prisoner for marriage, how cliche. "I said no!"

"You aren't going to leave this castle until you agree to be my queen." The Mouse King said.

"Oh, I'm getting out of here..." Cherry glared up at him. "My husband's probably on his way as we speak..."

"Oh, please, he doesn't even know where you are." The Mouse King retorted.

"You'll never earn my love..." Cherry hissed.

The Mouse King snarled at her, he didn't trust her alone right now, so he pulled her by the arm and made her come with him.

The bat flew in just then.

"Well, what news do you bring?" the Mouse King glared to the flying rodent.

"I wish I could remember, but I'm so hungry... I feel weak, no faint..." the bat fell to the floor, and looked up, wondering if his story was being bought.

"For the record, I don't wish to have children..." Cherry folded her arms, glancing to the Mouse King, mocking him with his choice of minions.

The Mouse King just glared at her and then looked at the bat, knowing that he had to feed the bat to hear what news he had to bring. "You insolent little brat!" he snapped. "I should turn you into a ceiling fan!"

"That would be a shame," the bat bribed. "Then I couldn't tell you the juicy bit of gossip I overheard."

The Mouse King growled and threw down a silver platter with various fruits down on the floor. The bat felt fortunate and gobbled them all up, except for one banana. The Mouse King now just rolled his eyes, sighing out of annoyance of the bat.

"Thank you very much, Your Most Royal Majesty. May I say you're looking specially regal this evening, Sir, as your future fiancee is just as well." the bat said first.

The Mouse King smirked while Cherry rolled her eyes at that.

"Er, right... For starters, Nutcracker's back." the bat then said, trying to protect himself against any anger his master may have towards him.

"What, here!?" the Mouse King snapped.

"And he's got a couple of girls with him," the bat continued. "Don't know where they came from."

"I do." The Mouse King said, feeling the bump on his head from the girls.

Cherry wasn't sure who these girls were, but they gave her a little bit of hope.

"Now here comes the good part," the bat still spoke. "They're looking for a couple of Sugarplum Princesses who can, supposedly, defeat... you. Err... According to the Nutcracker."

"Sugarplum Princesses?" the Mouse King sneered at the title. "I've never heard of a Sugarplum Princess. Bring me the royal registry. And bring me the Nutcracker." he added the last bit sharply.

The mice nodded to him and went to do his dirty work.

The Mouse King then shoved Cherry back to her prison until she agreed to the deal. "And as for you, you stay right here!" he made her sit on the ice cube again. "Anything you wish to ask me?" he grinned, hoping one of them would be if he would release her and she would agree to the engagement.

"Yeah," Cherry looked at him, colder than the winter snow. "Why am I sitting on an ice cube!?"

"Just so then you can think about the correct answer and as soon as you get the correct answer, you can be free from this prison." The Mouse King said.

"Do your worst..." Cherry narrowed her eyes to him.

The Mouse King sneered at her and locked her inside yet again.

Cherry had a small sigh, even though she didn't need to eat to survive anymore, she still ate occasionally, more than Forte would anyhow, she then felt her stomach was weakly growling, she hadn't eaten in a couple of weeks now and now seemed like a good time to fill her stomach, but it seemed unlikely she would eat for a while.