Magic Ballerina 1-6. Darcey Bussell

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      They scented the air. “It smells like they’re this way!” said the thin mouse, starting to walk away from the castle and towards the trees where Delphie and Sugar were hiding.

      “They’re coming over here!” Delphie whispered in alarm.

      Sugar looked dismayed. “I forgot that all of King Rat’s mice love sugarplums! I’d better magic us away!”

      But Delphie had noticed something. With the mice walking away from the castle, the door was unguarded. An idea popped into her mind. If they could just get the mice into the trees and properly away from the door…

      “Wait!” she hissed as Sugar lifted her wand. “This could be our chance to get into the castle! Can you get me some more sugarplums – and fast!”

      “It’s too dangerous!” said Sugar as the mice approached the trees.

      “Please!” Delphie begged.

      Sugar hesitated and then pointed her wand at the ground. With a faint tinkle, a pile of sugarplums appeared.

      Delphie picked up as many as she could. “Quick! Let’s make a trail leading away from the castle!”

      Sugar grabbed the remaining plums and they hurried through the trees. They placed one of the plums near the entrance to the wood and then another and then another, all leading down the hill away from the castle. Delphie glanced round. Already she could hear the mice crashing through the woods! Sugar put the last plum where the wood ended in a steep bank that led into a shallow but fast-flowing stream.

      Delphie suddenly had an idea of how to get the mice really out of the way. “If only we had some string.”

      “How about some ballet ribbon!” Sugar waved her wand and a big roll of pink ribbon appeared in her hand. “What do you want it for?”

      “To hopefully get two mice very wet!” grinned Delphie.

      She raced to the bank and tied one end of the ribbon round a tree on the left side and the other end round a tree on the right side. Then she smiled and grabbed Sugar’s hand. “Come on! They mustn’t see us.”

      She pulled Sugar back to the edge of the woods where there was a big bramble bush to hide behind, just as the smaller mouse burst into sight.

      “I found the sugarplum!” he exclaimed, snatching it up.

      The tall one appeared just behind him. “There’s another!” he cried, pouncing on the pale fruit. “And look! There’s more of them!”

      Peeping out from behind the bush, Delphie and Sugar watched as the mice began to run down the hill, scooping up the sweet plums and squabbling over them.

      “I saw that one first!”

      “I want it!”

      “No! I want it!”

      The two mice were so busy jostling and pushing each other that they didn’t see the ribbon stretched across the path until they both tripped over it.

      “Whoa!” shouted the mice grabbing hold of each other as they crashed to the ground. Over and over they tumbled down the bank until with two very loud splashes they fell, still shouting, into the stream.

      Sugar gasped, looking half-shocked and half-delighted. “Oh, Delphie! You’ve made them so wet!”

      Delphie grinned. “Maybe that’ll teach them not to be so greedy in future. Come on! Let’s get inside the castle while they’re busy drying off.”

      They raced towards the entrance. The wooden door had a huge metal handle in the shape of a rat’s head. Delphie turned it and the door opened. On the other side there was an enormous empty hall with a stone fireplace. Above it there was a framed picture of a black rat with a crown on his head and a red cloak.

      On the far side of the room were two towers of boxes, piled almost up to the ceiling with the words GLUE printed on the sides of them.

      “Look!” Sugar pointed to a table just in front of the boxes. Standing on top of it was a small painted wooden figure. He looked like a soldier wearing a red jacket with brass buttons, black trousers and boots and a sword in his belt.

      “It’s the Nutcracker!” Delphie said, running over and picking the figure up.

      But then she heard a noise. It sounded like footsteps marching towards the door on the left.

      “Get back in the hall!” came a voice outside the door. “You know King Rat said the Nutcracker wasn’t to be left on his own! Call yourself a soldier! Coming to me with poppycock stories about smelling sugarplums through the windows!”

      “But I did, Sarge. I really did. I…”

      “GET BACK IN THERE!”

      “Quick!” Delphie gasped to Sugar. “There’s someone coming! We’ve got to hide!”

      

      Delphie ran over and turned the handle of a door at the side of the hall. It opened into a small room which seemed to be used for keeping firewood. “In here!” she gasped.

      Just as they were about to go in, Sugar waved her wand at the table. There was a tinkling sound and she magicked up another Nutcracker doll. “I’ll put this on the table in front of the boxes so that they won’t realise the real nutcracker has gone.”

      Delphie and Sugar dived into the room and peeped back round the door just in time. Two mice hurried into the hall. One was dressed with boots and a sword like the mice outside had been. The other was wearing a smart waistcoat with gold buttons. He looked very relieved when he saw the fake Nutcracker on СКАЧАТЬ