On the third day, Fred decided to explore the human aspect of the mysterious Gobi Desert. He
took a journey to the ancient city. It was a long journey and unfortunately when Fred arrived at
the ancient city, he was caught by the desert storm and got lost. After a few hours of wandering,
Fred found a shelter place near the ancient city, but did not know what to do. He didn’t have
enough food and water and felt very tired after walking for hours. Stumbling aimlessly under
the sun, Fred was dizzy and his vision was blurred. He fell down and thought he might die in the
Gobi Desert. Finally, he fainted. After a while, Fred saw a blurred image of a girl.
“Where..... am .....I?” Fred tried to sit up, but he was too weak.
A young girl walked towards Fred and gave him a bottle of water.
After drinking some water, Fred sat up and looked around. He found himself inside a warm
and comfortable cave. Fred looked at the girl. She was wearing some strange attire.
“Who are you? Why are you here in the middle of a desert? Where are your parents?”
The girl didn’t answer his questions, but took out Fred’s sketchbook from his backpack.
“You’ve seen my drawings?”
The girl smiled and began to draw some simple pictures. She then showed them to Fred.
Fred now understood this young girl didn’t know his language. However, her drawings
were nice and the meanings were easy to understand. Fred found it very funny as they were
communicating through the ancient media of human beings.
Fred soon realized the young girl came from a tribe living in the Gobi Desert. The tribe was
small but had a very long history. They were reluctant to build up any relationships with the
outside world. The young girl indicated to Fred that he was lucky to be found by her. If for other
people from the tribe, he would just be ignored and was very likely to lose his life in the desert.
The young girl also praised Fred for his paintings and expressed that she liked them.
Fred followed the young girl to walk into the end of the cave, where it was a large oasis with
many beautiful trees and plants. Some cattle were grazing on the pasture while children were
running and playing in the fields. Fred was so amazed and exclaimed, “What a wonderful world!”
The young girl then led Fred to a farm where her family lived. He was introduced to her
parents and family. They seemed unfriendly and angry with her, though. Fred saw the young girl
cry and felt very uneasy about this. Fred drew a picture showing he was almost dead in the desert
to the young girl’s parents and assured them that he would leave as soon as possible. The young
girl’s parents seemed to understand and talked to their girl more patiently. The young girl stopped
crying. Fred thanked her and apologized for making such troubles to her. The young girl smiled
and explained that her parents were kind people. They were afraid that the others might harm
Fred when they saw him. A stranger was not welcomed in this place.
The next morning, the desert storm had gone away. Fred thanked the young girl for such an
extraordinary experience. Before bidding farewell, he asked why their tribe isolated themselves
from the outside world. The young girl explained it was the war and fighting that caused their
ancestors to do so. There were many horrible stories about killings, conquers and slaughters. Since
they were small, they were taught not to trust the people from the outside world as they would
harm them eventually. Fred was curious and asked the young girl then why she saved him. She
pointed to his paintings. With a strange smile on her face, Fred knew it was a joke. The young
girl finally drew a weak man on the paper. “We won’t trust the people outside, but we won’t desert
* * *
