Once upon a time in
small country called Zania lived a very charming young Prince Daniel.
On his twenty third birthday, Daniel
wanted to ask his parents to allow him
to travel around the world without servants or bodyguards.
Secretly, Daniel was
dreaming about finding some unique and unknown place
and writing a book about
it. In Zania, nothing was unknown anymore and Daniel
believed that maybe far, far
away, he would find something new and that had never
been seen before. For
months, Daniel was preparing everything for his adventure
and was very excited at
the thought of leaving the palace alone, for the
first time.
Just days before the
big birthday party, his father, King Jerry called Daniel
to his bedchamber.
“My
son,” King Jerry said slowly “you are going to be twenty- three years
old next week. Now you have to do something very
important for me and your
country”.
“What is it?” Daniel
asked. He hoped it would be something important and not difficult.
“You must be married
right after your birthday”.
“What must I do? Is it a joke?” Daniel asked.
“Daniel”, the king
raised voice a bit. “I am very serious
right now. You
must get married next
week”.
“I don’t think that”.
“Daniel, you have to do
it for me and your country. This is our secret
tradition all princes
and princesses must follow”.
The king sat on a chair and continued speaking.
“See how great and
powerful our country. We have great nature and great
army. Our people are
happy and they love their kings and queens, because
we give them such a wonderful
life. But, of course we need the money to
take care of it all thank
you to our richest families, who share their wealth
with us”.
“You have money too,
why do I have to marry a woman I don’t know”.
“I have the highest
power in our country. But the highest power is not the
money I need every day
for my people. This is why, for so many
generations, the successor
to the throne has had to marry someone from one
of the richest families”.
Daniel did not know what to say. He only knew from
how serious the king was, the
coming marriage was true.
“Daniel, you will be the
next king and this you must marry the eldest
daughter of our “Grand
Bank” owner, Lady Liana”. The king
quickly
finished his speech.
“Father, I don’t want
to get married”, - Daniel replied again. “I want to
travel, I want to see
the world. I don’t even want to be a king”.
King Jerry looked at Daniel and said very strictly:
“ You are getting
married Daniel. I cannot change anything. This is the
Secret Law. We do not
want to start a war here. Now go and get ready to
meet Liana and her
family. Don’t worry, she is gorgeous”, the king winked
“you two can travel together
anyway”.
“I
am not marrying”, Daniel left the king’s chamber slamming the door hard.
The prince
was ready to leave the palace immediately.
He went to his bed room
to pack some of his belongings when a strange
woman appeared not far behind from a small cloud of
dust. The woman looked
around and smiled. She was young, beautiful, dressed
like a queen and was
wearing a small crown on her head. Then the women
quietly stepped closer to the
prince and blow some of the dust from her hand.
Daniel looked back at her right
away and smiled. He was hypnotized by her magic dust.
“My prince, I know
everything”, surprisingly, the woman’s voice sounded
very old and a bit scary.
“You father wants you get married without love and
be stack here. How
unfair” she whispered. “Only I can help you. Come with
me, I will show you
something amazing”.
The woman took Daniel’s hand and brought him to a
mirror on the wall.
“Look very well, this will be you very soon”.
Daniel looked at the mirror and saw a fat king
napping on the throne.
“That’s you, my prince.”
“No”, Daniel replied.
“I cannot look like that, fat and ugly”
The woman started to laugh. Then she looked at
Daniel’s eyes and said:
“My prince, only I can
help you. I will show you many wonderful places,
unknown courtiers and
the lands full of mysteries. Look again in the mirror,
look at these beautiful
pictures. See, rivers, oceans, deserts. Thunderstorm
on a sea, big ships
with gold, rain forests far, far away. You can see all of
this only if you do
what I say. Only what I say my prince”, the woman was
speaking more and more quietly
almost like she was singing.
Daniel was amazed by the pictures he saw in the
mirror and of course he agreed to
do everything.
“This is the magic
jacket. Wear it and in minutes you will be in one of those
places”.
Daniel took the jacket and wore it.
“You will never take it off”, the woman smiled
and disappeared.
Daniel did not hear her laugh because after wearing
the jacket he immediately fell
asleep.
When the prince woke up
and all he could see was a candle light somewhere near.
Then he recognized a table and a picture on the wall.
The room was not dark, but
without any window, the light was coming only from the
candle. And in this
second he heard a few tiny noises somewhere near the
bed. Daniel looked on the
right and saw a group of well-dressed mice steering
at him.
One of the mice stepped forward and started to talk:
“Our Great Prince! We
are happy to see you in our Mice Kingdom!”...
