At midnight, the twelve chimes of the grandfather clock roused Jimin from his slumber. He sat up and wondered for a while where he was. As he looked up, he saw Godfather Drosselmeyer sitting on the very top of the tree in the place of the angel. "Godfather! What are you doing up there?" He said. But Drosselmeyer did not answer, because he was just a doll. Then Jimin saw the nutcracker. Oh, how sad it looked, lying there with a piece missing. Then the nutcracker-soldier suddenly turned over... and it smiled at him with its broken face.
He screamed and started to run for the door. He had only taken a few steps when he saw that the whole floor in front of him was covered in mice. Only they weren't ordinary mice, they were dressed as soldiers and had rifles. Out in front they were led by a terrible rodent pair with golden crowns on their heads. More mice had appeared from the cracks in the walls and headed toward Jimin. Jimin didn't know what to do, it was a terrible sight. Usually he wasn't scared of mice, but with so many, and a Mouse King and Queen, he panicked and screamed.
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But before he could scream, or cry, or run, the nutcracker doll rushed forward followed by his own army of dolls and tin soldiers, and the battle between the toys and the mice broke out all around Jimin's feet. The mice squeaked and guns and cannons fired on both sides. Jimin wondered why the whole family was not awoken by the terrible noise. Yeonjun would've loved to watch this battle. Toys and mice lay wounded on all sides, and the nutcracker was fighting with the Mouse King with the Mouse Queen behind him. The Mouse King was biting at the nutcracker whenever he could, but the nutcracker fought on. If only he was not broken he could have caught the Mouse King in his jaws, but as it was, all he could do was to dance, jump, and kick with his long legs. He was winning the fight with the king, but losing the battle, for he was surrounded by mice soldiers who caught him by the feet and started to drag him away.
"Oh no you don't!" Yelled Jimin, and he took off his slipper and threw it as hard as he could at the Mouse King and Queen. He just missed them, but they took fright and started to run. When the army of mice saw their king and queen running from the giant boy and his flying slipper they turned and fled in terror. In a moment they had vanished into the cracks between the floor boards, leaving their prisoner, the nutcracker, behind them laying on the ground. All the toys cheered and began to dance, until at last, when the first light came through the window they crept back into the toy box, or went back to sleep under the Christmas tree.
Jimin pulled himself back to his room and fell into a deep sleep. He awoke late on Christmas morning. When he went downstairs, he found Godfather Drosselmeyer and Taehyung. They had already fixed the nutcracker doll so that he was as good as new.
"Thank you so much, Godfather and Taehyung," said Jimin. "He is the best present I ever had. He is a friend." He then told them about his strange dream, and his Godfather put his head in his hand and listened to the dream. Once Jimin finished, Taehyung handed both a cup of cocoa and sat down. After a sip, Drosselmeyer said, "Interesting. Your dream reminds me of a story."
