New Tales of the Gobi Desert
Independent Schools Foundation Academy, Sum-Ki Natalie Cheung, Fiction: Group 1
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any years ago in the beautiful Gobi where the grass was jade green, the trees were
emerald in colour and the flowers were like different colours of beautiful jewels,
there lived a farmer named Tobin who sold dairy cattle.
Tobin’s dairy cattle had black spots and snowy white coats. They produced the
creamiest cheese, the most mouthwatering yoghurt and the finest milk in the world.
Since the dairy cattle were so good, people from far away heard about them and came to buy
the cattle and their dairy products. One day, a renowned Italian chef came to Gobi to buy a dairy
cow. Tobin wanted to impress the Italians and so he sold Lily, his finest dairy cow, to the chef. The
Italian chef went back to his own famous Italian restaurant, il Babbo Natale ristorante (the Santa
Claus restaurant) where he used the Gobi cheese to make the most delicious macaroni cheese,
tastiest pizzas, and yoghurt gelato. The Italians loved the Gobi cattle and they wanted to breed a
similar breed. When Tobin heard this, he was furious.
Tobin thought “I shall sell all my cattle to the Italians and pretend that they are another finer
kind of breed. The cattle will breed and breed and more dairy cattle will graze all the grass in
beautiful Italy. Italy will then become a desert one day.” He whispered with glee, “The Italians will
then start buying dairy cattle from me again and I will raise the price of my cattle! Hee hee hee, I
will be rich!”
In Italy, the people loved the cattle and the cattle grazed all the grass in pretty Italy.
Eventually, they were left with no grass and scenic Italy was becoming like a desert. The Italians
cried and wailed and begged Ceres (an ancient Roman Earth Goddess) to help them.
Ceres saw the Italians in her magic mirror and thought one day, “I must punish this wicked
Tobin for selling these ridiculous dairy cattle to the Italians.” Ceres started to work on a bitterly
cold night and poured buckets and buckets of sand from heaven to Gobi and very soon, Gobi
became a desert.
When Tobin woke up, he was stunned as he screamed, “Daaaaaah…” before he fainted. His
cattle died gradually because there was no more juicy jade green grass for them to graze on.
From that day on, Gobi was no longer a place of grassland with summer flowers. Instead it
became a chilly desert with only camels, golden eagles, snow leopards and jerboas. No dairy cattle
could be seen from then on. Gobi became a very sandy place.
The Italians realized that some gods had been watching over them and they knew they had
to manage the grazing of the dairy cattle properly. Italy then turned back to normal while Gobi
remained a desert. That’s not very fair, isn’t it? So don’t upset Ceres ever again, because she will
not give you another chance.
