"Are you alright?" Charlotte asked carefully coming down from the tree. "You're not hurt, are you?"
"I'm okay." The nutcracker said recovering her slipper from the floor. "Excellent arm you have there, my dear."
Charlotte walked toward him.
"I haven't seen anyone throw that good since-"
But upon getting a good look at her face, the nutcracker suddenly became speechless. There stood a girl who was more beautiful than any girl he had ever seen. Her face seemed made of lilies and roses, delicate white and red, her eyes shimmered like morning dew drops, and her blond hair was like a train of buttercups. He was confused, because no girl, no matter how lovely, had ever beguiled him like this before.
"Is something wrong?" She asked him after along awkward silence had passed.
"Huh? Oh! Sorry!" He said blinking. "Everything's fine. Here's your slipper my dear."
"Thank you."
He handed her the slipper and she placed it back on her foot.
"This has to be a dream." She said. "There's no way that any of this could be real. There's just no way."
Charlotte rolled up her sleeve and pinched her arm. Unfortunately there was no change. Charlotte didn't snap her eyes open and find herself laying in bed as a little girl again. She was still a young woman standing in the middle of the drawing room with her nutcracker now capable of speech and movement.
"Wake up!" She said pinching herself again. "Wake up! Wake up!"
"I think you're awake Miss." The nutcracker said.
"No I'm not! If I was you wouldn't be talking to me and I wouldn't still look like this."
"I'm afraid I do not follow. Would you mind elaborating?"
"Well first everything gets big, or I get small, I'm not sure which one happened yet. Next I grow up in just three seconds, then I get attacked by giant mice, and now I'm talking to a living nutcracker. These are not events that normally happen outside the dream world."
"Wait a minute, did you just say a living nutcracker? What is that?"
"It's you."
"Me?"
"Yes."
"You're saying that I'm a nutcracker?"
"Yes I am."
He burst out laughing at what he believed to be a ridiculous notion.
"Ha-ha! Me? A nutcracker? Is that some kind of joke?"
"Um..Are you saying that you don't think that you're a nutcracker?"
"Of course not! That's wacky nonsense! Ha-ha! Why in the world would I think something like that?"
"Oh...Uh...You might want to sit down or, maybe take a few deep breaths."
"Why?"
"Because this isn't going to be easy to hear."
"What do you mean?"
"Well I...Oh dear, how do I put this?" She wondered. "On second thought, maybe it's best if I just show you."
"Show me what?"
She ushered him to stand in front of the glass ornament with the reflective surface and he was startled by the image he saw.
"Ah! Ah! What?! What is that?!"
He smile remained but his shock and terror was obvious.
"Is that me?!" He tried not to get hysterical.
"Yes." Charlotte said.
"But that doesn't look like me. I'm not tall or made of wood or have a jaw like this. Though I must admit the teeth are pretty accurate. I never did have normal chompers." He opened his mouth and gave his teeth a few pokes with his wooden finger. "Is this some kind of a trick mirror?"
"It's no trick. That's what you really look like."
"But that can't be me! I'm not a nutcracker! I'm a boy! At least I'm supposed to be a boy! What's going on here?!"
"Calm down. The last thing you want to do is panic."
"Panic? I'm not panicking. No, I'm perfectly calm. Calm but very upset by this recent discovery." He said, breathing slowly. "Alright, Alastor, don't lose your head. Just think back to your last memory and work from there."
"Alastor?" Charlotte recalled.
"Let's see. The last thing I remember was cracking that nut and then...Everything went black." He looked at his arm. "And wooden apparently."
"So you really are a boy who was cursed." She concluded. "I can't believe it, the story is actually real."
"What story? What do you know?"
So Charlotte proceeded to tell the nutcracker what her godmother had told her about the mouse queen's curse on him and how he ended up in her house.
"And I've been like this for eight years?" He asked.
"Yes." She confirmed.
"But it feels like I just got knocked out for a few hours." He tried to comprehend the news the best to his abilities. "I'm not even a boy anymore, I'm a grown man."
"I can relate. Sort of. I'm not really a woman. I'm only thirteen years old, but then somehow I aged up. Oh good lord, what'll Mother and Father say when they see me like this? I know they wanted me to grow up soon, but not this fast."
"It seems we've both become entangled in a very confusing situation." The nutcracker said. "Might as well take this time to get introductions out of the way."
He gave her a gentleman's bow.
"I am Alastor."
She responded with curtsy, as she was always taught to do so when meeting someone.
"My name is Charlotte."
He took hold of her hand and kissed the back of it, which made her feel slightly flustered.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Charlotte." He said. "Thank you very much for coming to my aid earlier. Had you not thrown your slipper, I'm certain that rat would have reduced me to a pile of splinters."
"And I would like to thank you for defending me." She said. "I'm sure that if you hadn't of stepped in, I would have become the wife of a mouse."
"You're very welcome my dear, but don't let your guard down just yet. If I remember correctly, that rodent isn't the type to give up easily. At some point he'll probably return to take you by force or turn you into something ugly."
"Or kill you." She added. "My godmother told me that he won't rest until you're destroyed."
"Fair point. We should probably leave this place. Get as far away from here as possible."
"But what do we do about the fact that I have hit puberty way too early and that you're made of wood? I don't know about you, but I can't live like this."
"Not to sound insensitive but your problem doesn't appear that bad. I mean, you were going to end up looking like this sooner or later."
"But not this soon. I've skipped part of my life, and how am I going to explain this to my parents? They probably won't even believe that it really is me. I mean, who would actually believe that a child was magically transformed into an adult in mere seconds?"
"Again, fair point. It's clear that we need to figure out someway to regain our original forms. Question is though, where do we start?"
"I have no idea."
That was a problem. Where would they start? Who would they go to?
At that moment, the two heard the sound of a door opening. They looked in the direction from where the sound came from and discovered that a door had somehow appeared in the grandfather clock. Curiosity peeked, they went to the door and opened it. A long stairway going up was on the other side.
"This is new." Charlotte said. "When did the clock get stairs? Can a clock even have stairs?"
"I've never heard of such a thing but then again I've never heard of anyone getting turned into a nutcracker before." Alastor said. "Should we go up? See where it leads?"
"I'm not sure. How do we know if it's safe or not?"
"Tic-toc! Tic-toc! Tic-toc!" They heard a voice chant from inside clock.
"Who said that?" Alastor asked.
"I don't know." Charlotte stepped inside the clock and looked around. "Hello? Is someone there?"
"Tic-toc! Tic-toc! Tic-toc!"
The words were being spoken by a figure who stood up on the mid-section of the stairway. His shape made her think of her godfather.
"Uncle Husk?" She called. "Uncle Husk is that you?"
At the mention of that name, Alastor briefly became still with shock. Then he looked at the figure and got the same idea as the girl.
"Uncle!" He called eagerly. "Uncle come back! It's me, Alastor!"
"You know him?" Charlotte asked.
"He's my uncle. How do you know him?"
"He's my godfather."
They would have asked each other more questions on the subject and pondered on the coincidence longer, but right now they were very desperate to catch the figure going upward.
"Uncle Husk what are you doing in here?" Charlotte called as she ran up the stairs.
"Uncle wait!" Alastor called while running with her.
As they went further up the steps, they noticed giant wheels, gears, lever , and mechanics all round them. Some going tic and some going toc. They were right inside of the clock. Standing behind the glass frame where the numbers were printed and the hands were screwed in. If circumstances were different, Alastor would have been amazed to find himself so close to how a clock worked and probably try to study every function. But now was not the time to indulge in his love of mechanics, he needed to catch the figure whom he believed to be his uncle.
"Look there he is!"
Charlotte pointed over to the figure stepping into another room. They followed him as fast as they could.
"Uncle Husk!" Charlotte called just as the figure had taken his first step in the doorway.
The figure stopped and turned around. It was not Husk. The figure looked like Husk, he looked like how Husk would appear if he was mixed with some odd-looking puppet and a grouchy cat. But the maiden and the nutcracker were positive that it couldn't be the same person.
"I'm sorry." Charlotte said. "I thought you were my godfather."
"Can I help you two?" The strange man asked.
"Maybe. My name is Charlotte and this is Alastor. We may not look it, but I'm not really a woman and he's not a really a nutcracker. We're victims of a spell."
"I see." He said. "I am the inventor, I make magical toys and mechanical devices that will aid others when they need it the most. My solutions are free but no guarantees."
"I don't suppose you'd know how to change us back?" Alastor asked.
"Possibly. I'll have to know what I'm dealing with first. Come inside, and let me have a look at you two."
Charlotte and Alastor nodded and followed the inventor into the room, hoping that he would be able to at least give them some answers.