The Nutcracker

The Nutcracker

Clara was fed up. She wanted to go to a theme park, but Uncle Fergus had come to stay. Uncle Fergus had brought presents. He gave Mum a tin of elephant sweets. He gave Dad a yellow tie. He gave Grandad a kit to make aliens. Then Uncle Fergus gave Clara a box. In the box was a strange little man with a funny arm. "What is it?" asked Clara. "It's a nutcracker," said Uncle Fergus. "You put a nut under its arm and crack the shell, like this. You'll love it!"

Uncle Fergus winked at Clara. Then he whispered, "It's a magic nutcracker. It will help you sleep and give you wonderful dreams." But Clara didn't want a nutcracker. It didn't look magic – and she hated nuts. So she hid it. That night, Clara couldn't sleep, so she went downstairs to get the nutcracker. Perhaps it would help her to sleep after all. But the nutcracker wasn't there. Clara looked everywhere, but she couldn't find it.

All at once there was a flash of light and Clara began to shrink! Everything around her looked huge. Then she saw one of the aliens that Grandad had made. It was enormous! It reached out and tried to grab her. Clara had nowhere to run. She was trapped!

Suddenly, there was a yell from above. "Nutcracker Man to the rescue!" Clara looked up. It was her nutcracker. The alien gave a roar and jumped on the nutcracker. But Nutcracker Man took the alien under his arm and cracked him. The alien broke into little pieces. "That was cracking good fun!" said Nutcracker Man. "How did you do that?" gasped Clara.

"No time to tell you now!" cried Nutcracker Man. An army of aliens was marching towards them. Nutcracker Man biffed and boffed the aliens. He cracked them with his nutcracker arm. But the aliens kept coming. Nutcracker Man was in trouble!