The Wealth Of The Elves - World Public Library

The Wealth of the Elvesby Dr. JuiceIllustrated by Sergei Arsenev1

It was our third day at sea. We were on our way to Grandmother's house when thestorm hit. My brother, Lucas, and I had been lucky we were near the raft when thecruiser smashed into pieces. Luckier still, the raft did not fall apart. But that is whereour luck stopped.As the sun rose, it was getting hot again. “Mia, I'm thirsty”, Lucas complained,“Really thirsty.” I wouldn't let Lucas drink the sea water – it would only dehydrate usmore. The storm had pushed us past the sea border, we were floating in the ExclusionZone – an area outside of our people's lands. Here, all communications were blockedby the dwarves. No human would know we were there or be able to cross the line tosave us.We floated.2

We floated some more.It seemed like forever. We held each other and thought of our parents.Suddenly, we lurched. A dwarf fishing vessel came out of nowhere at incredible speedand grabbed us in a net full of fish. We were scared at first, then Lucas said, “I don'tthink they have seen us, but they are dragging our raft toward shore.” I agreed, “Wecan hopefully get their attention on shore”.We didn't know much about the dwarves. They keep mostly to themselves to protecttheir gold. Ever since they put up the Exclusion Zone, humans had left them and theelves behind it to themselves. As we got closer, “Look at that!”, shouted Lucas.3

The Dwarfshipyard waseven larger andgrander than Ihad imagined.We knew thedwarves wererich, but it hadbeen decadessince theExclusion Zonewent up,cutting off allcontactbetween thedwarves andour people.Our raftstarted beingpulled up to thedock. It didn'tlook like wewere going toget home – butwe were notgoing to die onthe vast oceaneither.4

Surprisinglywelcoming, astocky dwarfsaid, “Hi, folks.I am Gree –welcome to myshoreline and theLand of theDwarf Kings!”“Help'em out ofthat wreck!”, heyelled at hisservants.Gree continued,“You look'nhealthy just alittle tired andhungry. Let metake'n you to theguest house.Can't have'npeople starv'n onmy doorstep.Gree brags, “Wehave great meat– you'll be love'nit.”5

“Mia can youbelieve how muchmeat they have?”asked Lucas.Gree seated us atan over-flowingtable. “Have'n asmuch as you want,we'll trash the restanyways.”My stomachgrowled loudly andwe dug in gleefully.After we hadfinished, Gree said,“Let me show'n youhow I pay for this .Everything has aprice.”“Come tour'n mymines.” Hewheezed as weclimbed the stairs.“Need'm escalator.”he mumbled.6

“Look at all myworkers going toget'n my gold andmy coal. “, Greeboasted.“They work'n forwages, 10 of mygold coins a day.We have guards toprotect againstthe thieves – theyare every-where.”“They worse thanthose buynothing elves!They will ruineverything,” Greegrumbled .7

The gold mine wassweltering hot andsmelled of chemicalwastes that seemed torise as steam from thedeep tunnel. “Work'nharder!!”, yelled Gree atthe miners. “Need'mmore! Need'm more!More!”A servant called Greeaway for his nap andwe were thankfully lefton our own.“Why does he need allthis gold anyway?”asked Lucas. “I'm notsure,” I admitted. Italready seemed Greehad more than enough.We followed someworker dwarves whodidn't talk to us to thecoal mine. The filth ofthe coal mine was evenworse. “Let's get out of here, Mia. It's scary”, said Lucas.8

We walked out of thedark of the minesback into the street.Lucas said, “Mia,boost me up to see”.We both peer overthe wall. All thesplendor of the greatdwarf city seemed tovanish in a few feet.Decaying buildingsleaned against eachother to keep fromfalling down.“Where is all thegold?” I ask.Curious, we climbedthe wall and starteddown an alley intothe wasteland.We saw thateveryone does notlive as well as Gree inthe Land of theDwarf Kings.9

Handicapped and elderly workers lined the street, begging for handouts.10

We hurried alongquietly, trying toavoid eyecontact.As we exploreddeeper into theruins, passingthe beggars, thesmell hit us.Lucas said “Thisplace stinks.”The smell was sobad, my eyesstarted to water,but I grabbedLucas' arm justas he nearly fellinto a massivelandfill.The smellwas overpowering.11

Someone grabbed myarm. “There you kidsare.” said a servantdwarf, “Gree wantsyou back to your roomso you get a goodnight's sleep beforeyou start worktomorrow.”“If you don't work youdon't eat in the Land ofthe Dwarves. You willget the standard 10gold coins a day.”The room was astunning contrast tothe street we had justcome from. When theservant left, Lucaswhispered “I don'tunderstand - why arethere so many poordwarves with so muchrichness all around? 10gold coins seems like alot!”12

“I don't know, let'sget some sleep nowand try to figure itout in the morning.”We laid down in thesoft pillows andquickly fell asleep.In the middle of thenight, I wasawakened from mysleep with a tug onmy ear. “I am Ava – amember of the LightBrigade. I am here torescue you,” she said.“ You must get upand leaveimmediately. Thedwarves are not whothey appear to be.The rich live well,but all the otherdwarves serve them.”13

Just as she said this, awhite letter slidesunder the door.“That would be yourbill,” Ava said withdisgust.I held the letter andread in awe. We hadbeen charged foreverything!Ava explained “It willtake you years of toil inthe mines to pay off thedebt to Gree – mostnever do – they simplybecome slaves to hiscompany, which nowowns most of the DwarfKingdom.”Now I understood whythere were so manyhomeless dwarves – those that could not work in the mines ended up on the streets.I woke Lucas and showed him the bill. His face became red as he realized how we hadbeen tricked.14

Ava said, “Youmust come withme to the Land ofthe Elves whereyou will be free ofthis wageslavery.”We slipped on ourclothes andfollowed the fairy.We followed Avarunning as fast aswe could.“It is after curfew.Halt!”, shouted adwarf guard thatspotted us.Ava knockedover the shortdwarf with a flashof light andyelled “Run!”15

We ran.The dwarf guards chasedus but we made it to thewoods. The woods werethick and dark, but wecould see Ava's fairy glow.As we got deep into thewoods, we lost them.Ava flew in front of us anddid her best to knockaway insects as big as shewas with her light . Theywere intent on eating usalive.As the air cleared, Avaexplained, “To keep theprivileged dwarves likeGree in luxury, everyoneelse in the dwarf societymust work like slavesuntil they can no longerwork, and then they arediscarded. We fairies havesworn to save those thatwe can – but most dwarves are too far gone with their lust of gold to listen.”“You will like the Land of the Elves much better.” she said.16

Walking was hard and lasted a long time. Lucas was homesick and I was starting toworry we would never see our parents again. She told us about the great ExclusionZone the dwarves had built to keep the elves from meeting humans and destroyingthe dwarves' markets. It was really nice to have Ava to explain things. She assured usthe elves could help. “We have finally made it – this is the land of the Elves!” Avashouted with glee and a flourish of her hands. “Amazing!”, Lucas and I said together.From our overlook, we could see that all of the region was bountiful and beautiful.There we re no ugly alleys here, just waterfalls, trees and simple, elegant houses withodd rooftops.17

Ava took us to ahouse and knockedquietly on the door,explaining, “This ismy friend Sophia'shouse, She is a greatmaker.” The dooropened almostimmediately.After happyintroductions, Sophiasaid “Welcome to theLand of the Elves.You must be hungryand tired from yourlong journey. Won'tyou come in?”“I must leave younow,”Ava said whilegiving us each a minihug, “and go back tosee if I can rescuemore souls from themines.”With a kiss to each ofour heads, she flew back into the woods.18

“This is my husband, Liam.We were just about to sitdown to eat,” Sophia said.“There is plenty foreveryone”, Liam said as heserved us vegetable soupin bread bowls. While weeat, they explained howlife in Elf-land works.“Here, we are all makers –we encourage creativityand making things.”“What kind of things?”,asked Lucas.Liam continued,“Everyone makes andimproves things as theirinterests guide them. Wedon't operate like thedwarves - rather than sellour work so only a fewgrow rich, we share ourinnovations so we can allbenefit.”“This way, we all have abundance. Yes, sharing is the key to elf wealth,” said Sophia.19

After lunch, they took usto their garden. “Liam is abio-hacker, constantlyexperimenting with newplants like these grapesthat keep us from gettingsun burned,” explainedSophia.Liam continued, “When Idevelop a particularlyuseful plant - or a reallyyummy one - I share themethods to grow it andthe seed DNA so it can beused on the robo-farmsthat feed and providefree medicine for allelves.”“I like to garden with myhands though – it is morefun!” said Liam. As welistened to Liam in thefantastic garden, Sophialooked closely at us witha raised eyebrow andpointed at my arm. “Were you stung in the swamp?” she asked. I nodded and so didLucas. “These are infected, we need to get you to the doctor immediately.”, Liam said.20

“Doctors are expensivehow are we going topay?”, Lucas asked.Sophia and Liamlaughed kindheartedly and said, “Heis very old - you willlike Dr. Jackson.” Liamadded, “But don'tworry - there is nomoney here. ”-Dr. Jackson's office wasacross the street.Sophia explained whathad happened. After aquick check with whatlooked like a magicwand but clearly ranon electricity, Dr.Jackson grabbed awatermelon and beganto slice it.“We found thatgrowing medicine infruit makes it easierfor the younger children. Here, both of you have a slice and you will be as good asnew,” he said with a chuckle.21

On the way out, Lucaswhispered, “The olddwarves were allhomeless. Dr. Jacksonseems much happierand he was reallyhelpful. I don't even itchnow.” Overhearing, Liamsaid, “Everyone hasvalue – even the very oldelves. They have muchto teach us and there arealways useful,interesting tasks foreveryone.”On the way outside, Iasked, “Who does thework that no elf wantsto do?”Sophia explained, “Well,we make robots andcomputer programs fortasks we do not want todo ourselves. See thestreet cleaner. There is not much of that kind of work as we use only what we must,we do our best to avoid waste and recycle most everything else.”“Throw your watermelon rinds in the compost pile there”, said Liam.22

“What powers the robots?” asked Lucas.As Liam boosted uson his shoulders sowe could see, heexplained, “Thatwould be the solarcells. They arephotovoltaics thatturn sunlightdirectly intoelectricity. All therooftops collect thesun's energy, whichwe can useimmediately orstore in advancedbattery banks andultracapacitors forlater.The houses also allheat and coolthemselves too. Wecall that passivesolar. As littleenergy is wasted aspossible.”, explainedLiam .23

“There is something else I just don't understand. Where do you get all of your rawmaterials? Do you have mines like the Dwarf mines we saw?” Sophia said “It is ugly.”My heart sank as I pictured elves in a horrible mine. After a short ride in a tube-train,we get out at a dump. Our mouths fall open as we realize we had gone all the wayaround back to the dwarf garbage pit. Elf recycling robots (recyclebots) scavengedrecyclables to turn into feedstock for 3D printers and other digital fabrication toolsthat run elf society. “We have made more complex machines that provide anabundance of freely-available goods and services to all elves, liberating us frommenial labor, debt and servitude. We can now devote our time to non-economicpursuits that interest us. I like design and Liam likes farming. We all share our talents.24