Panthera unica
Good Hope School, Sharon Ko, Fiction: Group 4
Present
“Dad, why is the desert so cold at night?”
The Gobi desert is the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky, white and blinding
in the light, yet shadowy and mysterious in the dark. Cloudy hazes of mountains sketch
themselves on the horizon with needle grass that brings sweet dreams, nightmare and death.
Parker glances up. The last glow of dusk dims away. Stars appear in the east. Night encloses him.
“Come sit near the fire, Cooper.” Parker is building a fire and stacking up dry woods nearby. “I
see you still haven’t heard of the new tales of the Gobi desert, have you?”
“You mean the tales about how the great beast destroyed the Mongol Empire?” yell Mason and
Tyler, Parker’s two mischievous nephews.
“No, I mean the newest tales,” smiles Parker.
The three of them shake their heads.
“Well, I suppose I can tell you one for your bedtime story.”
“The Gobi desert is very special in its own way. There’re the golden eagle, the brown bear,
the Bactrian camel, and also the snow leopard. But don’t you think it’s strange to find so many
endangered animals especially in a desert like this?”
“Spooky…” whispered Mason.
“A stone tower was also said to be found somewhere in this desert. And since then tales of a
mystical creature who lived here and turned animals into human beings and fed on them were
told. This brought coldness to the desert making it one of the coldest deserts on earth. Now, only
some brave ones live here. Last time a young man went in, no one saw him again. ”
The fire crackles and mysterious shadows dance in the flames around them. They all lie on the
soft sand and get cozy near the fire.
“It all began... ”
1929
It was the day when he came. He was slender and tall, with ghost-pale skin and thick black
hair. His irises were black with blood red pupils.
Bits and pieces of debris and ashes drifted everywhere. Deaths followed him.
The needle grass was frozen in the now familiar crisscrossed pattern, and crumbled to grey
senselessness before his prodding hands. His lips stretched to show a gruesome grin. There was
nothing in the remains but the smell of rotting corpses which blended with the chilliness in air.
The desert was accursed, they said.
What was more, he had to feed on blood to survive.
The Prince of Darkness.
The Devourer.
Eurynomos.
1947
It was almost midnight. The sand gave off an eerie white glow and was transformed by the light
of the moon, which, at its full, hung like a great luminous pearl on the radiant breast of heaven.
