To Love A Nutcracker

Chapter 16

The next morning when Charlotte awoke, she expected to find herself back in her own bed in her own room of her own home. And she expected to wake up as a little girl. But she awoke to no such things. She woke up as young woman, inside the cave of another world, and in the arms of a nutcracker. At first she was quite startled and almost screamed, but then recent memories came back and her alarm subsided.

"Oh dear." She thought. "Mother and Father must have surely discovered I'm gone by now. They must be so worried, they probably think that I ran away, and I can only imagine how angry they'll be when I come home."

She glanced at the cave entrance and saw that at long last the blizzard had passed. She quickly woke up everyone else and they made ready to continue their journey. Then suddenly, they heard a noise come from Charlotte's stomach.

"What was that?" Anthony asked.

Charlotte blushed.

"I suppose I'm a little hungry this morning." She chuckled softly.

"Then it's a good thing we're going to Flower Valley next." Niffty said looking at the map. "Oh I always loved to go there. Everything was so warm and beautiful with flowers and trees, and fresh fruit. Kiki and I would have picnics there and gather wild flowers to set in the royal dining hall. You know the flowers that grow there always smell sweet and their stems never have thorns. Not even the roses."

"Normally I'm a winter person." Anthony said. "But I sometimes I like to take a break from all the snow and ice, and expand my horizons."

"And see Miss Vagatha." Niffty added with a wink and nudge which caused the former snow fairy to glare at her.

"Who's that?" Charlotte asked.

"She's a bossy and hot-tempered cynic who thinks that flowers are better than snowflakes." Anthony said. "In other words she thinks her job is more important than mine."

"Vagatha is a flower fairy." Niffty explained. "The leader of the flower fairies, she can be very temperamental and unladylike. But she's awfully pretty and much kinder than she lets on. She and Anthony bicker a lot though because-"

"Cork it Bo Peep!" Anthony interrupted. "Now is not the time to talk anyway. We're in a hurry, remember."

The walk to the Flower Valley wasn't very long at all, lasting for only ten minutes. However the valley didn't look anything like how Niffty had described it. It was cold, dry, and barren. All the plants had died and nothing could grow in place of them.

"Did we come to the right place?" Alastor asked. "I don't even see any flowers here."

"Everything looks dead." Charlotte said in a melancholic tone.

"Oh good Heavens, what happened here?!" Niffty gasped in horror.

Anthony didn't speak though. He looked afraid of something. So afraid that he ran from the group and started desperately searching for something.

"Anthony what's wrong?" Alastor called after him.

But he didn't answer. It was almost as if he was going into a state of panic. Perhaps he was and he just wasn't being vocal about it.

"Please don't be dead!" He kept thinking in his head. "Oh please don't be dead!"

"What is he looking for?" Charlotte asked.

"I'm not sure." Niffty said.

They followed him, and searched just as he did. The three of them didn't know what exactly he was trying to find but they still wanted to help. Eventually, Charlotte discovered a well in the ground that had been boarded up. She could smell the scent of lilac and dewdrops coming from the other side of those boards. It made Charlotte think of fresh flowers in a garden, of the morning after a rainfall, of all the wonderful scents that she could smell in springtime. Something about that smell made Charlotte very curious about what could be in that well. So curious that she started trying to pry the boards off.