In the dead of night
International Christian Quality Music Secondary and Primary School,
Ng Ka Chung Josephine, Non-Fiction: Group 3
A
bear growled in the dead of night, breaking the silence of Gobi Desert. That’s a
warning for a foreigner plus loner like Daybreak. Normally she could fight a bear, but
not in this foreign land where she didn’t even know where to step.
Daybreak was a pretty female snow leopard with smoky grey as her based color
pelt and black spots on top. Her shimmering black eyes glowed in the darkness and locked on the
direction of where the bear growled. Her long tail straightened.
Her jaws let go of her prey quickly. It must have picked up the scent of blood in the air. She
licked off the blood on her mouth and her heart started to race. Lowering her body, she carefully
retreated. Daybreak looked at her half-eaten prey for one last time with nostalgia and left. She
couldn’t bear the risk of leaving a blood trail for the bear to track her. She found the sandy
surface of the desert strange to walk on but she could manage that. When the growling of the bear
slowly faded away, Daybreak immediately ran into the darkness. It was hard to run steadily with
her left foot yelling in agony to her. Although this desert was as cold as her homeland, every step
was like stepping on burning lava due to the pain. However that’s not the worst part- the sand
was. The sand was getting into the wound that she received while hunting that delicious black
tailed gazelle.
Her front paw hurt because of the prey that she couldn’t even finish eating. Her stomach
stopped grumbling but she still felt the need for food. This might be an average day for other
snow leopard, but not for Daybreak. Before that sandstorm, everything was alright. Daybreak was
a natural hunter, and she used to work together in harmony with her mate Afterglow. They could
catch something to eat almost every day. Until that day, when that sandstorm came and killed
him. He was gone and Daybreak was lost, she had no idea how she got to this deathful desert.
Snow leopard was not meant to live in deserts. She would die if she didn’t go back to the place
where she belonged.
Daybreak slowed down a bit and lift her paw up. She licked away the sand and continued her
journey. She must find a way back to her homeland. Daybreak couldn’t survive here. Imagine
walking in burning sand every day with only little water. She was suffering a lot. Leopards were
known to be tough animals, but she wasn’t used to this kind of place.
Daybreak had been starving for at least two days because preys were scattered. Not to mention
water. The last time Daybreak saw water was four days ago. She could only rely on the blood of
the prey she caught to survive.
Trotting back to the cave Daybreak found yesterday, she laid down on some plants. It’s sure
cold at night, she said to herself. Daybreak started to groom her dusty fur. The fur on her tail
tip was white, that was how she got her name. The fur was like the first beam of sunlight that
appeared at dawn. It had only been a few days in this desert but Daybreak had already started to
become thin. Daybreak started to see a slight contour of her bones. She sterilized her wound with
her licks and went to sleep.
Waking up to the massive amount of light in the mouth of the cave, Daybreak set off to
continue her journey. Daybreak thought she could smell the freshness of plants. There must be
