Cheese- the Destiny of Colby Jackson

Chapter 3: The Mouse's Story

'A mouse came into my bedroom and told me to climb out of my window, so that's what I'm doing.' Colby readied his reply if anyone saw him doing this. 'I'm crazy,' he thought. 'I am crazy!' He was curious. He wanted to know the truth, and if that meant taking orders from a mouse, so be it. 

"The first terrible truth we need to get over with," began the mouse, who by now had crawled up the window seat and leaped from the room, "is that I'm a wizard." Colby's head slammed into the window frame.  This shouldn't have surprised him,  but somehow, he couldn't believe it. Well he could. Again, there was a talking mouse in his bedroom, what isn't there to believe? Colby still had his doubts.

"If you're a wizard, then why are you a mouse?"

"I will get to that in a minute. Patience boy," replied the mouse/wizard. 

"How many terrible truths are there? And why so dramatic?" Colby asked, the second question leaving his lips before he could stop it.

"Quiet," the mouse ordered seriously. It gave a flick of it's paw, gesturing for Colby to follow. The mouse scampered across Colby's yard, crawling right under the fence. Wishing he'd thought to put a robe or jacket on over his pajamas, he followed, shivering as the icy chill of the wind brushed his face. He followed the mouse down the street, turning right at the corner. He kept walking for what felt like miles, but was probably only a few blocks, trying to stay warm. He lost sight of the mouse a couple of times and panicked, only to find him again lost in a clump of grass or brush.

They came to an abrupt halt in front of what appeared to be an abandoned building that Colby had never seen before. "What is this?" he asked the mouse, his voice barely a whisper. 

"This," replied the mouse, "is your future cheese shop." That was certainly not what he'd been expecting. At first he thought this was the mouse's cruel sense of humor, but it's expression was serious. He waited for an explanation but the mouse said nothing. They stood in silence for a moment before the mouse beckoned, the best a mouse could beckon, for Colby to follow it. "Let's check it out then, shall we?" it said, scampering off towards the entrance. Frowning, he followed.

They entered the building, and Colby was right. It was abandoned and empty, save for the shelves lining the walls, a counter, and an old cash register. The front room that you entered in appeared to be for display, and the back room behind the counter for storage. 

Colby loved it. He walked over to the old cash register, and saw that it had a key sitting beside it on the counter. He lifted the key, slid it into the lock on the cash register, and turned it. It opened easily. Colby gasped. There were tens of hundreds of crescents, the currency in his town, in it.

"The funding to start your cheese shop," the mouse squeaked, startling Colby.

"Tell me," Colby demanded,"why you want me to start a cheese shop." The mouse sighed, as though he'd known this moment would come, and had been dreading it.  

"I used to be a wizard," he began. "Still am, really. I just can't use much magic anymore. Barely got this silly talking animal charm to work, and lucky I did, lest I'd be stuck as a mouse forever. I must say, I don't fancy it. 

"You see, I became a wizard a couple hundred years ago, after studying for several centuries before." Colby for once, wasn't surprised. It wasn't unusual for wizards to live for many millennia.  "I was working on deciphering a prophecy. A prophecy involving an evil wizard who wanted to take over the world, like any typical dark wizard. See, he was planning to get many followers and turn 'em against the Society of Wizardry. 

"Didn't work. I found out who he was and what he was up to. He'd disguised himself as a colleague of mine in the Society, planned to dispose of us from the inside out, if you know what I mean. I gathered up a squad of Society members, and we captured him. Imprisoned him with the highest security measures possible, we did. We held him for nearly a century, but he escaped. 

"Remember that night like it was yesterday. It happened the night after my ceremony to officially become a wizard. He trashed the Society's building and killed hundreds of people escaping. Wizards and normals alike. He was on the loose for a few decades, steered clear of the Society. He caused mayhem elsewhere. We failed to capture him. Then he came back. It was a few decades ago. He came back for revenge. Destroyed the society, and came after me. I had stayed to fight, to save the Society. He was just too powerful. He found me, and hew knew who I was. He knew I'd led the squad that captured him the first time. Death wasn't good enough for me, he said. He had a better punishment. And turned me into a mouse. He used a powerful curse I'd never even heard of. I tried every counter spell I know, but nothing worked. With every spell, my magic just got weaker. 

"I researched for years, traveled the best I could, being a mouse. Looking for a way to break the curse. I even traveled to the wizards who survived. The cowards who fled rather than stay and fight. Twelve years ago, I found it. It involved magic cheese, and a child of destiny. But how was I to know who the child was? I went to the record keeper's hall immediately, to look for a sign. A sign as to which child was the one destined to save me. I assumed it would be someone who loved cheese, so I watched and observed for a few days, but found nothing. No clues. The naming ceremony had already taken place, but the names weren't in the record books yet. I found your crib. Benjamin Jackson. I couldn't think of a better option, so I changed the letters of your name. Your first name. I changed it to Colby, thinking of the cheese, colby jack. You're the child of destiny, Colby." When he was quite sure the wizard, which Colby had started to think of him as, was finished, he answered. 

"I don't know what to do. How am I supposed to save you?" Colby panicked. What if something went wrong? What would his mother say when she found out a mouse had changed his name and wanted him to break his curse?

"You're going to save me by starting a cheese shop."

"Why do I have to start a shop? Wouldn't it be easier to just make a bit of this special cheese once? Not make multiple different kinds  and produce them everyday!"

"If you are able to mass produce it, there might be more wizards out there who survived that we can save. Once I'm able to use magic again, I can contact them, find them, and help them too! And it's also a cover for you. To protect you from said evil wizard. He's still out there, and if he finds out you saved me, and are trying to save other wizards too, he might.." the wizard trailed off.

"Kill me. I might die for helping break your stupid curse," Colby finished for him.

"Yes, but you seem like a boy who's willing to take the risk, right? Don't you like to live on the wild side?" Colby cringed at the wizard's attempt at humor. "Anyway, the evil wizard will think I produced the cheese myself, and not come after you. He'll just think I stole from the local cheese shop, I suppose."

"Do I have a choice in whether I help you or not?" Colby inquired, though he already suspected the answer. 

"Yes actually. I'm not going to force you to break my curse. But how would that feel on your conscious? You'd have a wizard stuck in mouse form permanently on your account." Colby couldn't tell if the wizard was trying to be funny or not. Either way, he was beginning to like this wizard. And he did love cheese, after all...