Equine fragments
Impressions of cruel gold
British International School Shanghai Puxi, Serena Migliorati, Fiction: Group 4
‘Love me.’- says Gobi
Serenus thinks about this…she does love Gobi.
Love cannot be found on a bold- golden yellow- layer in the middle of nowhere. A senseless
desert, with no love itself, cannot ask love. Gobi cannot pretend that the citizens of the world
would fall in love with an enclosed slot. It is a slot. Like a puppet, it is controlled and manipulated
to lie on the Earth’s crust to be, in the way, of two countries. And yet, it is loved. Loved, because
it is peculiar. It is, strangely, quiet and lonely. Perfect to visit in a depressed mood, or perfect for
a confused teen that doesn’t know what to live for. Gobi gives you solitude, desolation and large
valleys of silence. Gobi gives you time to think.
It is a psychological enabler. Gobi makes you think you are a man on a mission. You think you
are an explorer uncovering the biggest mysteries of the world: a land that has never had company.
It has never been discovered completely. Asking for love to us is common; it hasn’t received much
love because it was once immune. It was his destiny to be unloved. Things change though, and
people have become enchanted by Gobi, because it a good listener, never interrupts. His destiny
has somehow been changed, and people give Gobi their full attention, because it is a natural
wonder. The serenity he offers gives you peace and makes you calm. ‘Serenus’-like me.
I come from the side where humans live. The side of Gobi that is more rough, and more weak,
so that it can grow trees for the humans, where there is enough water to sustain life. Sustaining
life is not the desert’s job. Sustaining life makes Gobi’s power weak. Making people suffer should
be his job.
Serenus is my name in Latin. A French explorer that once came to our ‘cottage’ called me this.
She said that it sounded calm just like the desert. Serenus means calm, and I’m glad. It is calm
like my spirit, and free, like my instinct. Horses want to have freedom, which the desert can give
you, if you get Gobi what he wants: attention. Horses like galloping through empty spaces, and
Gobi can offer that. Although it is dry, it can make you realise your dream: independence from
the destructive humans. I trust Gobi. But he doesn’t trust me.
This might be why obstacles where invented…to test trust.
‘Hate me’ – provokes Gobi
Violet can’t stand Gobi. All her thoughts on Gobi are scattered into hatred.
‘Detest’ is a stronger word than ‘hate’. We detest Gobi; we don’t hate it. Of course, anyone
might wonder why a free-spirited horse would detest Gobi. Obviously, they don’t understand.
I’m galloping because my legs want to. I long to be free with other companions. I do not want
to be stuck in an endless sea of fake gold. Sand is useless to me. It just makes journeys longer,
and slower. Why would someone cover the Earth’s crust with sand that just lies there, and does
nothing other than go into your eyes and painfully, increasingly, burn them? Ridiculous fake gold
is a temptation to humans. It’s a trap. Gold means richness, but it doesn’t mean life.
Gobi is an evil genius.
He convinces creatures to traverse him to be tempted to fall into his evil trap. He gets you
stuck in the middle of his core, and slowly it will get you hungry, and thirsty, mostly tired. Gobi
