Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 516

A Few years later, more unrest developed in the farm. The mules were slowly, but surely, taking over. The
leader at that time was physically a donkey, but a mule at heart. This was one of the sneaky and deceiving
tricks the mules played on the donkeys to keep them calm. The donkeys absolutely despised their leader.
She had confirmed with the mules behind the donkey’s backs. She had cared about the mules more then the
donkeys. She was a mule. The donkeys started to call her ‘The Mule of all Mules’. The populations of mules
had increased every year on the farm and they started to dominate. The Mule of all Mules started to establish
rules that benefited the mules more then the donkeys. An example of this was that if any farm animal
showed signs of disobedience and disrespect they would be sent to the other mule-occupied farms to be
trialed. The reality of this is that donkeys had a much less chance of being tried fairly compared to the mules
due to their massive rivalry. The farm was already starting to conjoin with the other mule occupied farms
just as the mules wanted.
Donkey, and a lot of other donkeys took to the fields once again. They started destroying grass, stables, and
even got into physical clashes with other mules. Whilst this was all happening, the horses stayed remarkably
quiet. These events started to become a pattern, which lasted for months. Every time Donkey got home
from these violent protests he thought to himself, “How did this happen? How did our home become a war
zone?” The mules were much stronger than the donkeys, and the donkeys had to pay a price for what they
did. The farm was wrecked, with broken grass, destroyed stables, and many injured donkeys. Meanwhile,
the horses had slowly picked up their hay and started to leave the farm. The environment was too unstable
for young horses to grow up in.
One day, whilst Donkey was destroying grass in a heavily populated area, his best friend, Horse, approached
him. Donkey was surprised - seeing a horse out protesting was like not finishing an entire apple.
“I have some bad news,'' Horse told Donkey.
“What?” Donkey asked as he stopped destroying the grass.
“My family decided to leave, we are leaving tonight”, Horse answered.
Donkey was speechless, and just like that, Horse and his family took off, and the two never saw each other
ever again. The farm was slowly joining with the other farms, no matter what the donkeys tried.
*****
The farms had completely joined together. Most of the horses had fled. The farm was as bad as Donkey
pictured it to be. The blue skies had turned grey and the grass turned brown. Donkey had a look at the grass
and two thoughts had come into his head. The first one was what his friend Horse said many years ago:
“The grass is always greener on the other side”. That was the first time Donkey had thought about Horse
for many years. The second thought was a memory. The memory of him and other donkeys destroying the
grass. The feeling of freedom to self express. This juxtaposed the reality of the farm today. Donkeys were
controlled by mules and had very little freedom to choose their life’s path. Freedom was something that
donkey’s craved and missed. Donkeys were often manipulated and forced into situations that they didn't
want to be in by the mules.They were forced to pick up fallen apples and give them to mules all day
everyday for weeks. On top of this, donkeys were given very little to eat and lived in tiny stables.
One day, Donkey was walking when he saw a horse in the distance. It was Horse, he could not believe his
eyes. The two clicked hooves and were very happy to see each other.
“What are you doing here?” Donkey asked in confusion. After all, who would come visit this dump.
“I saw a photo of the farm on a newspaper. It looked great! So I came to visit. But this is nowhere as close
to what the photo seemed liked,” answered Horse. Donkey knew this was another trick the mules were
playing to try get more innocent donkeys and horses to come visit.