Milyza and the Dragon's Magic Mirror

Wizard of the Future

Andy and the other mice led Milyza all the way up to the top of the Crystal Mountain and up the tower on its top. They all felt exhausted and had to catch their breath once they reached the top floor of the tower. Then they were standing in front of a massive wooden door and the mice seemed too afraid to move on.

- Andy said: "We wait for you here outside, right in front of the door, alright?"
- "But what if the wizard goes mad and I need help" asked Milyza.
- And Andy replied: "We are sorry, but we are too afraid to go inside the quarters of the wizard of the future."
- "But how am I supposed to help you escape later if I'm trapped in there?"
- "Hmm.. Let's use my stink bomb!"cried Percy.
- "Is that a real thing or just like the goggles?"
- "Oh that's real! Percy is half mouse, half skunk." Said Mandy with a smile.
- "Alright! I'll shout >Nutsy< in case I get into trouble. You immediately throw your stink bomb into the wizard's quarters and keep the door open only far enough so that I can get out after it went off."
- "Got it!" replied Andy with a wink.
- "Thanks!" replied Milyza with a smile that showed complicity.

With that, Milyza knocked on the massive wooden door with a metal handle and then pulled it. The door opened a crack wide. She pulled again and slipped through. There was a young man in a white T-shirt and shorts, with short hair and horn-rimmed glasses, standing in front of a big mirror which was lying flat on a round stone table. The room was brightly illuminated with the sunlight shining through a large round window in the roof. There's no one else, so this must be the wizard of the future, thought Milyza.

- "Who dares to interrupt me in the middle of my mirror studies! I just saw this splendid future where Artificial Inteligence had made such magnificient progress and robots used this generic intelligence to make humans obsolete. But I still haven't seen how I will maintain my power... By Merlin's beard! Now I'll have to start all over again! Oh, It's you! Our newest and most promising apprentice. I'm looking forward to see your lightning success! How can I help you?"

- "Oh mighty wizard of the future! I shall do my best to do as you wish, but I also would like to ask you for help against the goblins."
- "Don't worry about the goblin! They are just doing what they are supposed to do."
- "But they are destroying my home and my family is suffering. You must stop giving them all this technology. They harm our beautiful nature and might bring the natural equilibrium out of balance!"
- "I see.. You don't have to worry about that. All this is expected and works in our favor. Look, the more nature gets destroyed, the more people depend on our technology for staying alive and maintaining acceptable living conditions. This gives us even more power and allows us to maintain control over these masses of stupid consumer sapiens. You and your family will be fine. Please accept this job offer and you will earn more than enough to easily buy whatever your family needs. Actually, this is why we need your help. We need to develop new gadgets now, so that we have them ready for mass productions before the need for them becomes apparent. As long as we are quick enough, we avoid rebellion by meeting the needs and are perceived as the heroes of innovation."
- Milyza is overwhelmed by all this cold blooded logic: "I understand. It makes sense. But is it fair and morally correct?"
- 'Don't talk to me about moral! Yes, natural resources are limited and only a much smaller population may be sustained as more technology is needed to withstand growing pollution and more extreme weather events. But the world has never been fair and without our entertaining distractions, people would still be killing each other in senseless wars. I only worry about not being fast enough. We will run out of natural resources some day and we have to get multi-planetary before that. If we do nothing, humans will become extinct anyway. Once the first larger asteroid hits our only planet, all knowledge is lost and all was for nothing."
- "But I don't want to live in a bunker underground, connected to live support machines! I want to live free and enjoy our beautiful nature. Why can't we live in harmony with nature instead of destroying it?"
- "Humans were just very lucky to evolve in a very favorable environment during the first few decades. It is up to us to prove that we can also survive in more challenging environments. If we succeed, future generations may enjoy the fruits of our hard work. Once we have colonized more planets, there may be a new abundance of natural resources and people may live happily and free of worries."

Milyza feels exhausted and doesn't want to continue arguing with this hopeless nut case. She only wants to live happily with her family now and if the world really should get destroyed by a natural disaster someday then that was destiny. She cried out loudly: "Nutsy!!" Only an instant later the room was filled with an unbearable stink and the wizard cried in pain while pressing his hands against his face. Percy must have hit him right in the eye. Milyza covered her nose as good as she could and tried to get to the door, when all of a sudden Nutsy jumped out of her hair. So the key word woke him up as well! Milyza tried to communicate with him, but all his attention was focussed on the wizard's mirror. Nutsy bypassed the wizard and jumped right in the middle of the mirror. There was a big puff of smoke and Nutsy was gone. In his place there was a huge golden dragon who grabbed the mirror, with a screetch broke through the roof window and was gone. Milyza ran as fast as she could and the mice followed her, while the wizard kept shouting in agony.