It was minutes into our travels that the temperature of the walkways declined tremendously! In small holes were the forest cats cuddling with the owls hooting as the sky slowly turned dark. The luminescence of the stars in the sky circled the forest like a dome, as, even so, the night wasn’t safe. It was beautiful but not safe as the wolves howled, ready to hunt the flesh that holds the human organs together. The shadows of the irritable beasts lurked within the darkness of the forest’s ends.

Walking for miles with no shelter in sight, knees soon collapsing as the slow descent left me on the floor, curled into a ball with a pale blue face and hands as cold as ice. The soft blanket of snow slowly covered me, but not after I felt the wooden hands of the wooden prince cuddling me close to his chest. The cold air escaped my breath as I was left shivering in the quaint cold before my eyes opened to feel the warmth of what felt like my home; it wasn’t home but it soon durable for shelter, a little cabin on the side of the frozen lake in the enterpasses with such darling advisories to marvel at the image sitting down on the wooden boards of a cabinet. The image spread to four other images showing nothing but absolute darkness in my surroundings, words in my mind explaining the sad tales of utter betrayal.

“Four Children… separated... Four family members... rivals... none recognize the other; one betrays the nation; the other dies for the nation... one with no voice and one gullible to hell…”

The images swirled before the crashing of plates sounded like expensive china on the floor. There was nothing more to say with the matter in hand than for the soul to exit out of the heart to revert to what I once was, 9 years ago, a child. The child laughs before running farther away, which results in full pursuit. She skipped and hopped on the stars before popping down a hole, where in another minute the winds blew to a great extent.

“Catch me! Catch me!”

There the scenery changed to a beautiful meadow; a quiet riverbank to where there was the young prince again before he was nothing more than a wooden toy. There sat a calm young woman who placed her hand on her stomach as her husband watched in worry. In recognition, it looked like my godfather and his wife.

She sighed before saying, “Henry, I think it’s time I give you the surprise I promised.” Enclosed in a small box wrapped with the finest exquisite ribbon it could ever be wrapped in, there stood two small outfits, which confused him very much. He chuckled nervously as he elapsed the hussar uniform on his chest, which was nothing more than inches short of his chest. His wife held in her laughter as she enjoyed seeing her husband confused; sooner or later, he realized. Gently implementing his hand on her stomach, she chuckled before saying, “You’re getting warm.”

“Marcella, my darling,” Godfather's eyes welled up with tears before he smiled as his dear wife—which made me wonder if his wife was THE Mistress Marcella that Saragona had repeatedly told me about—soon received a giant embrace. "My darling twins, I welcome you dearly," he said, resting his head on her stomach. “This is your father, Henry.”

Watching this romantic story brought a lovely warmth to my heart, which was quickly extinguished when I heard the splash. As soon as the fish swam past, a maiden with golden hair and rose-colored cheeks slowly fell into the water, lying motionless as another person jumped down and grabbed the maiden's hand. The prince exclaimed, "Odette!" before covering his mouth. He embraced Odette as he desperately tried to swim up to shore, but it took nearly all of his energy to reach the surface. The water swirled like a typhoon dragging inside the floor, and my eyes popped open from the thud of the door opening beside me.

“I thought I’d bring you some pancakes.” Saragona brung in a plate of a 12-stack. The stack was covered in maple syrup up to the highest brim of strawberries and blueberries. He got out the freshly made china plates, putting the pancake slices on the plates before handing one of them to me. Sitting down on the bed, we ate for a short while, and as we ate, a question popped into my mind.

“Did you have cousins as well?” I asked curiously.

"Yeah, I did,” he answered. “Kit and Ruth.”

“Kit and Ruth?”

“They’re my twin cousins, born years before I did. Kit is the oldest twin, and he has a girlfriend. I forget her name,” he slouched against the wall after trying to attempt to eat the pancakes. It felt strange watching a nutcracker try to eat pancakes, but it was also amusing to watch. I held in my laughter as the pancake slice continued to slide down his mouth.

After futile attempts, he just gave up. I assumed that he wasn’t used to being a nutcracker for 13 years, and he was mostly used to being a human, eating food to regain his stamina. After eating for what felt like an hour, I got on my feet as we continued our journey through the snow straight to our next location.

Advancing further, I was met with the pointless sights of what appeared to be a dilapidated road; ahead, a tiny cabin stood directly beside a sign indicating the route to the KooKoo Kingdom. When we went to read the sign, Saragona was more fascinated by the old toy soldier that was propped up against his rocking chair.  Before the soldier could rise, he approached him, looking like he had a silly-battered leg on him. The silly old toy soldier got up and said, "By Candy Canes and Biscuits Gravy, could it be that our dear king has returned from his grave?" after shifting into a new position.

"King?" I inquired.

"To be clear, I am not a king, but I am the son of the fair king who formerly ruled these lands," Saragona replied.

The soldier said, "My humble apologies, dear prince!" as he got down on his knees. My name is Pantaloon. I used to be a soldier and the king's general! When I learned of the abrupt death of the royal family, my heart broke."

"Indeed, it was,” Saragona said, holding his hands close to his chest. The kind soldier then guided us into his cabin, giving us shelter and tasty cookies like the ones you’d get at the grocery store. Sugar cookies are what they’re called. Pantaloon then sat down on another rocking chair as he grabbed a pipe, smoking it. All we could hear was the clock ticking as each second disappeared as we just stared for quite a while into Pantaloon’s eyes. Soon, we heard his voice once again. “So, where are you two heading off to?”

“Marie,” Saragona nodded to me.

I leapt down from the stairs before approaching Pantaloon, reaching into my pocket to then take out the silver key piece that was found at Snowside Showdown and show it to Pantaloon. “I hope this can answer your question, good sir.” I spoke kindly as I handed him the piece. He inspected the piece before he screamed, his rocking chair flying backwards as his head hit the floor. The piece went flying into an empty glass vial, we just stood there, seeing Pantaloon try and get up from the floor. We approached him, helping him to his feet before he yelled out: “Ferrets are ferrets, and toys are toys,” he mumbled. “You children are in for a doozy!”

“A doozy, you say?” Saragona questioned Pantaloon as he mumbled and bumbled towards a library where there was nothing but books and other just inquires that he had owned. He even has history books of the royal family. We just stared over the rusty covers of the books, some showcasing the titles of the beautiful tales I’ve read back home in Germany:
Hansel and Gretel
Snow White
Cinderella
Briar Rose
Mostly all the Brothers Grimm stories, which I could read, some almost about an hour beyond Fritz’s reading level. Soon, we heard a giant thud behind us as we saw Pantaloon, placing a giant book down on the table. The cover of the book was a tad bigger than books back at home, in the middle of the cover was an inscription of two bells tied by a ribbon on the neck of a dove. Below the illustration, there was some writing:

Серебряный колокольчик Страны кукол.

“What does this mean?” Saragona inquired.

“I thought you knew young prince,” Pantaloon chuckled, “your mother is of russian descent.” Saragona shrugged as he pulled a chair for me to sit down on, like a gentleman that he was. I still didn’t know if he was being kind for reals or he was just failing terribly at flirting. Whatever it was, I complied and sat down as he just stood behind me watching Pantaloon open the book.

There was a lot of writing but it feels like when I look at it one way, it’s in english but in the other way, it’s russian. I shrugged as I listened to Pantaloon, reading the story in the best translation possible. All I remembered from this tale was that the fairies created the silver bell because it protected the kingdom from darkness and monsters like mice and snakes… mostly mice though. It also some healing factors as one ring on the body of a cursed individual would heal it of all ailments and curses. Even so, the mice had tried everything in their power to get hold of the silver bell but they never succeeded as the bell is trapped away in Mt. Fanta, where it is in a glass container and you need the silver key (which we’re trying to piece together right now) to unlock a certain door to grab the bell. We knew like half of this stuff but not the history behind it. Pantaloon then put the book back, sitting down on a velvet chair. “Are you sure you children are up to the task to get this… bell?”

“Yeah,” I answered, “we need to break Saragona’s curse, so he can return to the throne as the rightful heir because people think he’s dead.”

“And we have to do it before my brother gets hold of the bell.” Saragona added on.

“Your brother…” Pantaloon sat down, inquiring a little bit about something. He then spoke once more, “I remember him well… Lucanus, a small child yet a valued soldier.” Soon, Pantaloon started talking in tongues and we couldn’t understand any of it. We just slowly headed towards the door, pouring the key piece out of the vial and we dashed out of the home before Pantaloon spoke another word. “That Pantaloon…” he muttered under his breath. “What about him?” I asked.

“He’s nothing but an idiotic fool.”

“A fool you say?”

“A fool that one’s past doesn’t truly intertwine to mine. He hasn’t seen it in my eyes so why should he change stories that aren’t a true tale to linger?”

“Well a fool is someone who may know a certain point of your history,” I retaliated, “maybe that soldier that you call a fool may know more about who had done it. A fool can’t be someone that you deemed idiotic.”

He stopped before turning his head to me, “You call me a liar?”

“If the buckle fits,” I scoff before trailing ahead. I remember the phrase “pick your battles” and my battle right now is to prove a prince not to be the arrogant piece of shit that you’ve ever seen. I could see his face trailing up in anger as like he had been corrected and he didn’t like that. The next moment, my body flew backwards as my ass was submerged cold in the frozen icicle snow. He stares at me while his eyes held daggers, readying to shoot. He then screams, “I’m the prince! I know what’s right and what’s wrong!”

“Oh really?!” I snapped.

“Yes, I know what is right and wrong!”

“Then maybe it’s wrong to confuse me based on what you’re giving me!”

“What’s confusing you?!”

“Are you in love with me or are you just being nice so then you can stab me in the back?!”

A blush arose on his face with a small hint of anger arising as he then snaps, “N-NO! Why would I be in love with you?!”

“You are showing signs of it.” I grumbled as I got off the snow; dusting myself off, I grabbed his ear and as I motioned it to be twisted… BONK!!! “OW!”

I stood like a statue for what felt like a short while, looking at what in front of the tree. All I heard were mumbles as his arms tried to pull it out of the snow. I pushed it out of the way before pulling it back up.

“How does it feel to be a headless nutcracker?” I laughed a bit before he then exclaimed,
“JUST PUT ME BACK ON MY BODY, WOMAN!”