Camel Love
The International School of Macao, Madeleine Z. Joslin, Fiction: Group 2
B
atukhan awoke to the blazing rays of the sunlight streaming through the torn parts of
the tiny straw hut the sandstorm had ripped up a few weeks before. It was another hot
day out in the Gobi, and Batukhan knew that he must climb out of bed soon, otherwise,
Malakh would be extremely aggravated with his younger brother. Batukhan shoved on
his shoes and trudged out to meet his brother and the rest of the Wagodi village people.
“Batukhan, take Raven out, and bring back some tamarisk and wild onions for breakfast,”
demanded Malakh who was the vegetable supplier for the whole village.
“Of course, Malakh. I’ll go get Raven now.” Batukhan was excited to go out with Raven into the
desert. Raven was an adventurous little camel that loved going out with Batukhan, her best friend!!
Batukhan climbed over the towering sand dunes to find Raven groaning with pain. “What
happened, Raven? You’ve got yourself stuck in some saltwort plant, my dear girl. Hold on, I’m going
to get you out of there!” Raven’s pain was clearly excruciating, but Batukhan, drawing strength
from the love and friendship he felt for this young camel, soon got her out of the plant safe!
“There you go, darling girl. You’re okay, aren’t you?” They both stood back up and were on
their way to find Malakhs’ usual order. After about half an hour of walking with great difficulty,
they found what they were looking for. The tamarisk and wild onion that they had been searching
for were at their finger tips.
“Raven, come on, hurry, dear! Help me pick these plants to take back to Malakh and the rest
of the Wagodi village people.” But when Batukhan took a closer look, he realized that all of them
were disastrously dried up and quite unusable. “I can’t believe it, Raven! They have all died in
the scorching sun! Come on. We better get a move on if we are going to hike our way through the
next 5 kilometers to find some FRESH breakfast.” So off they went, meandering their way among
the dunes of the Gobi desert.
After about 45 minutes of walking with great struggle in the hot sun, they arrived at another
spot. “Great! Let’s start picking out these healthy plants and hurry them home to Malakh.”
“Not so fast!!” yelled an unfamiliar voice resentfully.
Batukhan turned around in shock to find out who this person was. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did you
want some plants as well? Well, I’m sure there’s enough for both of us. If you want, I can help…”
But, Batukhan was interrupted in the middle of his sentence.
“I don’t want those dreadful plants. I want your camel, you foolish twit.”
“Oh, you mean Raven. No, sorry she’s not for sale. What was your name again?”
“The name’s Asenath. Now hand over the camel, or should I say hand over the nitwit?”
“No. Look, I’m sorry, I already told you, you can’t have Raven.”
“You boneheads don’t understand, do you? Look, my beloved Father is dying, and I need to
feed camel meat to him. Camel meat has a medicine in it that can keep people alive for a while
longer, at least until the doctor can come to see my dad.”
“Well, I’m very sorry to hear about your father, but maybe if you weren’t so bitter to us, I
would consider helping you find another camel for your dear father. Why do you want Raven so
desperately? There are plenty of other wild camels in the desert! Raven is my best friend. She is
the best thing that has ever happened to me. Please, I beg of you, don’t kill her!”
