The Land of the Future 1: The Holy Wand

Prologue: Matterhorn

Shin-shin, snow fell on the soft ground of Matterhorn, covering the ski tracks made by yesterday's skiers, the strong continuous winds blew at the small little plants next to the ski track and the gigantic pine tree looming in front of the spot where the sun rises on First of August, Switzerland's national day.

It was about midnight and nobody was in sight, except for three humans tracking on  the snow. The one on the left was in his late 40s, he was very tall and thin with a false beard on his face. He wore a set of army clothes with badges of all kinds of colours, red, blue, yellow, green, and purple, standing out in the dark. On his feet was a small sports trainer and on his shoulder, was a rucksack with some food in it, and in his pocket was a 13-inch long wand.

The one in the middle was in his early 30s, he was fat and squatted with a mask on his face. He was wearing an equally colourful army uniform and a pair of boots. In his pocket was a shorter wand, measuring 10 and a quarter inches.

On the right, was a short person in his early 60s with a broken hat on his head. He wore a set of robes and a pair of ski boots. He was pushing a big black cart, like the ones you get in a supermarket, but a lot bigger. In it were two more pairs of ski boots, for the two others, three pairs of skis for all of them, and three sets of ski clothes for all of them.

The three of them had a determined look on their faces and they tracked tiredly up the ski path, despite the panting and coughing.

Soon, the band of three people reached a turn. After the turn was a very narrow and inhuman path leading into a big waft of unwelcoming fog and mist. After five more minutes of tracking, their destination was clear. In front of them loomed a gigantic cathedral and next to the cathedral stood a very tall building, the tallest building in the world, taller than what most people think is the tallest, Burj Khalifa. It was some unimaginable great architecture, it was even taller than Mount Everest and its height was 30000 feet. The building's width on the other hand was only 16 feet and its length was 13 feet. The building would easily be covered in fog and clouds in the morning, leaving only dark spots, which people think are dark clouds.

The person with the false beard walked towards the big glass door and pressed his palm against it. The door slid open and the person stepped in. He ran forwards into a lift and it started ascending at 330 feet per second. In 1 minute and 40 seconds, it reached the top of the building.

The person entered a small room and took a stack of files from a 6 feet tall shelf. Then, he went into the lift, and down he went at the same speed. When he reached the bottom, his ears ached like crazy and he rubbed them against a cushion. On his left hand was still the stack of files.

He put them down and sorted through them. He took the fourth stack of files labelled "maps'' and threw the others to one side.

Then, he opened the file carefully, and in the third pocket was a map labelled Matterhorn and on it was a winding path with twists and turns with occasional triangular marks on the path leading to a large red cross in the middle of the map.

Holding the map, he went back onto the snowy slope of Matterhorn. When he got to where the other two were standing, he immediately pulled up his ski boots, ski goggles, and skies.

When the other two got into their skies, he pocketed the map and pointed southwards. Then, he waved his wand and the cart that the old man was pushing disappeared. The person with the mask looked at the person with the false beard, waiting for his signal.

All of a sudden, the person with the false beard held up his hand and all three of them zoomed down a long winding slope with extraordinary speed.

Soon, they reached a stopping point and in front of them was a small snow pile. The person with the false beard lifted his wand, pointed it at the snow pile and the pile exploded, under it was another ragged wand, 15 and a half inches in length, but very thin.

The person with the false beard reached for the wand, but before he could touch it, a voice as loud as thunder shouted, "It is mine!"

There was a deafening bang and the person with the false beard collapsed onto the floor. The person with the mask reached for the wand, but before he could move a millimetre, the wand zoomed away down the slope, down down down...