this into a daily routine, muttering in a strange language I didn’t understand. If I had tried,
perhaps I could have deciphered a few words by my third night, but I hadn’t. I wanted out. I
wanted to return to the Gobi Desert, to my home, to where I was born and bred. Images of the
vast desert that I had run across every day haunted me. Mother’s smiles and acts of affection,
however rare, had always brought a smile to my face. Yet at that foreign place, I was only moved
to anguished tears. Mother and Aunt had gone a way I didn’t want to but would eventually.
Then, it happened. The monster, who had finally gotten tired of me, sold me to another
monster. I walked solemnly after him on the day I was going to be resold. Plans of escape had
formed in my mind the night before, but I was bounded to the rope (that the monster held in his
hand) tightly. The new monster seemed harsh. I was handed over to him while he handed lots
of paper to the old monster. He pulled unsympathetically on the rope around my neck, nearly
causing me to choke, and tied it to a rectangular wood. He spoke the strange language with a
younger monster. I discovered what he was saying only in the following night.
I was sleeping after what seemed like an eternity. Suddenly, I was woken up by loud screeches.
It clicked in my mind the fate I was to meet within a short period of time. How would they kill
me? I wasn’t prepared when the younger monster came to lead me to my death. There was a
blade ready to dispose me. The blood of a person freshly painted it. As I walked listlessly towards
it, something---or somebody, went crashing towards the monster holding the blade. A strange
language was being spoken. Loud bangs covered the night and some people were crying. I huddled
over to a group of asses, sheep and horses.
I was put into a strange container which seemed to move by itself. I could hear monsters
conversing at the front where they couldn’t be seen. Fear had enveloped me again since the killing
monsters had been taken away. These new ones were just as bad, I decided. When one monster
finally opened the container, I saw the Gobi Desert, my home, the place where I was born and
bred. Happiness filled me as I ran across the vast desert. An eagle up above was soaring across the
sky as if it had just returned home too. I was home.
I eye these monsters suspiciously. So what if some of them returned me to my home. They
were still unreliable and untrustworthy. One good leaf in a plant does not signify all the leaves
are good. A monster looks my way. It smiles and walks towards me. Cautiously, I step back,
wondering if I should gallop away now or wait. The monster looks me in the eye, as if speaking to
me. The words it speaks are incomprehensible to my ears, yet there is some truth in its eyes. ‘Trust
me, trust us,’ they say. ‘I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too big a burden to bear,’ a voice
echoes in my head and quite suddenly, I feel myself smiling and my eyes saying, ‘I trust you.’
