Poor Princess Mimzy, she wailed in sorrow and agony at the dreadful appearance that the mouse queen had cursed her with. The king himself was in a most pitiful state, moaning about what an unhappy monarch he was now and how nothing he could do would restore his daughter's looks and her happiness. Nevertheless he consulted every scholar, every physician, every wise man, every sorcerer, every medicine man, every person who could possibly give a solution to the problem. But not one of them had an answer.
However all hope was not lost, for you see the magician was familiar with magic such as this. Dark forces similar to the mouse queen was very common in his home country and growing up he had educated himself of such things in order to protect himself. He even had a special book that could help reveal the weaknesses of every magic user in the world. Husk began reading it almost as soon as the curse was cast and just as the king was reaching the point of hopelessness, the magician came running into the throne room, crying out.
"Your majesty!" He said. "Your majesty I have found it!"
"Found what?" The king asked.
"A way to not only break the spell on your daughter, but rid your kingdom of that awful mosue queen forever!"
"Truly? Well what are you waiting for? What is it? Spit it out man!"
"I have learned that the source of all her power is protected by a shell of darkness. Crack the shell of darkness and she will be destroyed and all her wicked spells will be broken."
"A shell of darkness? What is that?"
"According to my book it's what protects her power."
"Yes I understand that but what is the shell physically? What does it look like?"
"I don't know. My sources aren't always very specific."
with that knowledge given, the king summoned every young man in the kingdom with great combat skills and made a decree.
"Whomever braves the dreaded mouse queen and breaks the shell of darkness, will win my daughter's hand in marriage as reward!"
Nearly every young man who could handle a sword set out into the mouse queen's domian to break the shell of darkness, unfortunately none of them knew what the shell of darkness looked like. Was it a shield? A safe? A chest? A lock? They couldn't figure it out, and when the mouse queen caught them, she would turn them into living statuary. One by one, every young man in the Kingdom of Sweets was transformed into marble and granite, being used as paper weights, lawn ornaments, and book ends.
To make matters worse, Princess Mimzy just kept getting uglier and more miserable, and this in turn made her father become very impatient and temperamental with the magician.
"I warn you magic man!" The king raged at the magician. "If my daughter is not returned to her true form before the week's end, it's off with your head!"
"What?! Why kill me?!" The magician said.
"You said you could cure my daughter but that has yet to be seen! How dare you give us false hope!"
"But-"
"Not buts! Cure my daughter or..." And he made a throat-slitting gesture with his finger.
The magician gulped, his nephew Alastor became frightened. His uncle die? No. No that couldn't happen. He loved his uncle like a second father and his poor aunt, oh how would she even go on without the love of her life? He may have been too young to feel romantic love himself, but he understood how powerful it was. So the boy made a solemn vow. He himself would find someway to cure Princess Mimzy and save his uncle's life. But how?
"You'll be sure take care of your aunt when I'm gone, won't you boy?" The magician said that night. "Once I'm dead and in the ground, you're the man of the house."
"Don't talk like that Uncle." Alastor said. "I'll find a way to save you. I promise."
"I appreciate the loyalty and devotion, but it's no use. No one can defeat the mouse queen or save the princess because no one knows what the hell a shell of darkness looks like! Damn book! Couldn't it have at least given me that one detail!" He cursed before taking a swig of brandy.
"Don't drink when you're frustrated Uncle." Alastor warned. "You know it only causes you to go into fits of rage."
"I might as well drink myself into a coma, because I'm as good as dead."
"Not quite. You have until the end of the week. We just need to first figure out what the shell of darkness could possibly be."
"Every man has searched the mouse queen's lair from top to bottom, and smashed every object in the process, but nothing."
"Maybe it's not in her lair. Maybe it's on her person."
"Her person?"
"Well I know if I had something that precious I want to keep it very close to me, and with that in mind, there's something that's been floating around in my head for sometime."
"What?"
"Do you recall what she was wearing that day?"
"Yes. A crown, robes, a fine dress, jewelry-"
"And a nut."
"A nut?"
"Around her neck. Didn't you see it?"
"Yes." He said thinking back. "Yes I did."
"So here's my question, why would a queen wear something so simple?"
"It is a bit odd."
"And the book didn't say break a shell of darkness, it said crack it. Now you typically crack nuts right?"
In that moment it all became clear to the magician. A smile lit up his grumpy-cat like face. He jumped from his chair, picked up the boy, and spun him around while laughing.
"Oh you brilliant child! My neck is saved!"
The very next day, the magician told the king what he had learned. But there was still a complication to be dealt with.
"But the mouse queen won't let anyone get close enough to her to take the nut." The king said. "She turns anyone who comes near to stone."
"Let me go to her." The magician offered. "I'll pretend that I've come to entertain her. I'm sure I can get close enough."
"No good." The king said. "She doesn't trust magicians. We need to send someone whom she wouldn't view as threat."
"How about me?" Alastor offered.
"You?" The king said skeptically.
"At the party she called me a dumb peasant boy. Said that I was not worth a second thought. She'd probably never suspect that I'd cause her any harm."
"You mean you would actually be willing to face her? Alone?" The king asked.
"Out of the question!" The magician protested. "No nephew of mine is going to be turned into a stone knick-knack!"
"But Uncle I'm probably the only person left who could do it." Alastor said.
"I don't care! If you were to end up like those other men I'd never be able to live with myself and your aunt would die of a broken heart! No! I won't allow this!"
"If you don't then you will die!" The king declared.
"I don't care! It's not worth it!" The magician proclaimed. "My life is not worth sacrificing his!"
"Oh please!" The king pleaded. "Please! I'll give you anything! Anything in the world! Just name it!"
"No!"
"If he succeeds he'll marry my daughter!"
"He's only twelve!"
"When he becomes a man! When he reaches maturity, he'll be married to the princess, become a prince and eventually a king!"
"Yes!" Cried the hideous and misshapen head of Princess Mimzy. "If he can restore me to my true-self, then I give you my word that I'll take him as my husband when he becomes a man! Just please! Please! Free me of this nightmare!"
Alastor felt sorry for both the king and Mimzy, and he desperately wanted to save his uncle's life. So he convinced his uncle to give his consent to send Alastor to defeat the mouse queen. Many times he tried to talk his nephew out of it, but the boy was persistent. He had a very clever plan on how to get close enough to the queen. First he requested to be given two things, a chest of jewels and a small sword that he could conceal inside his jacket. Then off he went into the domain of the large mice.
"What do you want boy?" The mouse queen asked when she saw Alastor at the gate.
"Your highness." Alastor said bowing. "I am a royal messenger of the king, he has sent word that both he and his daughter have reconsider their refusal. They've consented to a union between your son and the princess, and as an apology, he has sent you these magnificent jewels."
"Bah!" She hissed. "My son no longer wants that girl! She's far too annoying! But I'm never one to turn away a gift."
She opened the gate and approached him, not a sign of suspicion anywhere on her. Alastor opened the chest for her and she marveled at the wonderful gems inside. She picked out one necklace trimmed of gold to try on, and lifted the collar of her robe. Alastor saw the nut dangled from her hairy neck and he quickly snatched it, and ran.
"Guards! Stop him!"
But he was much faster than those mice. They were terribly overweight from eating without care, and once he was far ahead, Alastor drew his sword from his jacket and brought it down on the nut as hard as he could. CRACK! The shell broke in two and there was an awful burst of darkness and smoke.
All the men turned to stone became flesh again, Mimzy was instantly turned back into the perfectly pretty princess she was before, all the mice fled the Kingdom of Sweets in fear, and their queen started to die.
"No! How dare you! How dare you destroy my power!" The mouse queen screeched as her body slowly crumbled.
"Mother!" Vox cried out in horror, watching her melt away to ashes and dust. But with her dying breath she uttered one last curse.
"Wicked little child! I curse you! The spell you broke, on your head falls! You shall crack nuts prince of the dolls!"
There was another crack of lighting and it struck Alastor. The boy's body became stiff and wooden, his head large, his mouth was stretched from ear to ear, and a huge wooden jaw replaced his mouth. He suddenly became smaller and smaller.
His uncle was not very far behind when this occurred and when he heard the lighting and saw the smoke, he hurried in the direction from which it came from. Upon reaching the source of the commotion, the first thing he saw was the mouse queen's dead body which filled him with relief. His nephew had done it. He had destroyed the mouse queen and saved his uncle's neck. Now he would become a prince. Oh how thrilled his aunt would be upon hearing such wonderful news.
"You did it boy!" The magician cheered. "Ha-ha! It's easy street for us now! Just wait til your aunt finds out about this, won't she flip her lid, huh?"
But he did not hear his nephew respond, nor did he see the boy anywhere.
"Alastor? Alastor where are you? You can come out now. She's dead. There's nothing to be afraid of."
He became worried when there still came no reply. He began to frantically search the area for any trace of the boy, then finally he found him. Only he was no longer a boy. He was a nutcracker doll.
"Oh my God!" His uncle fell to his knees in horror, carefully taking the wooden doll into his arms. "Oh Alastor...Oh no...This is all my fault. Forgive me, I promise I'll find someway to change you back."
"Save your breath old man!" The magician looked up to see the young Vox glaring at him with hatred. "Your nephew killed my mother! He'll pay for this someday! You'll all pay for this! I swear, someday everyone in this entire kingdom will suffer for the death of my poor mother! And your precious nephew will be the one to suffer the most!"
If the magician had not been so numb with terror and grief, he would squashed that wretched Vox instead of just letting him scurry away. The poor man couldn't help it, it was like a nightmare. A nightmare that he just couldn't wake from. And when he told his wife, the boy's aunt, what had happened, she burst into tears and became hysterical.
"This is not my boy! It's not my boy!"
"Honey-" Her husband said.
"Where's my boy?! Where is he?! Where is my sister's child?!"
"I am so sorry. But I swear to you, I will not rest until he is changed back."
"No! No! No this isn't happening! It is not happening! Oh God! Tell me that this is not happening!"
But despite her words of denial, she cradled the nutcracker in her arms like she had done when he was a small child and sobbed. Her husband held her while she wept, and swallowed his own tears.
"My love, even if it is the last thing I ever do in this life, I will bring our nephew back to us. As God as my witness, I will."