From Chapter 1: To the End of the Steppe
Please tell me, Far Seeing Horse, but where is the end of the steppe?"
"That is easy, Thirsty Horse." replied the other without even looking up from his grazing. "For the steppe never ends, as you know."
"Yes, you are right, Far Seeing Horse." sighed Thirsty Horse in agreement. "For in fact I know this very well." But then he tossed his head and reared upon his hind legs as he neighed in his exasperation, "And yet there is something in my mind which says that it isn't so!"
Then Thirsty Horse thought for a moment before he asked, "Please tell me, Far Seeing Horse, for today this something is tormenting me very much. I do not doubt that your knowledge is true - but what must I do to know it for myself?"
That is how the Thirsty Horse of Mongolia began his journey to find the end of the steppe, yet was soon to discover that his destiny promised a far nobler reward for his efforts. After being chased by wolves and too far from his herd to turn back, he finds himself at nightfall in a village of men, where he drinks from the magic "Cup of Curiosity" and is transformed into a boy. Then Thirsty Horse is set upon a quest far more ambitious than simple geography: a quest to journey upon the Great Earth beneath the Stars for five years – and to find the secret of life itself!
From Chapter 2: The Cup of Curiosity Speaks
"Who is it who drinks from the Cup of Curiosity? Speak and tell me your name." is what the voice said; and which was enough to startle Thirsty Horse almost out of his skin! For where in this strange place could there possibly be hiding another horse? Could it be that Far Seeing Horse had set out to follow him to the end of the steppe? If so, and he was here now, then where was he? Faced with very few possibilities, Thirsty Horse made his way back to the smashed door and peered out – but there was no other horse outside!
While he looked, however, there came from behind him the peculiar sound of someone clearing his throat in a very loud and obvious fashion. Then the voice came again, this time rather more loudly, and with a somewhat more obvious note of impatience added to its timbre. "Hmm!" began the voice. "Now for the second time of asking, who is it who drinks from the Cup of Curiosity? Speak and tell me your name."
This time Thirsty Horse could not doubt that the voice came from within the Big Round Thing upon the Ground with Smoke Coming out of its Top, although for the life of him he still had no idea who had spoken. So puzzled was he, in fact, that he even looked questioningly from face to face at all the men there. But they all sat so quiet and still that they seemed to be in the grip of some strange form of hypnosis! While it was, in any case, plainly ridiculous to even imagine that any one of them could have spoken in the language of the horses! Thirsty Horse dismissed the thought, but then he had simply no idea at all who had spoken; and so finally he had no choice but to ask into the empty space and the air before him, "Who is it who is speaking to me?"
"Ah!" He heard the voice reply with really quite magnificent exasperation. "It is me! Can you not see me standing clearly before you?"
Well, Thirsty Horse looked here, and he looked there, and he looked all around. But still all he could offer in reply was a very honest, "No!"
"Then look a little lower, fool of a horse," came the voice again, "and you will see me. For I am the Cup of Curiosity."
Now Thirsty Horse, as has already been said, didn't know what a cup was. Yet he dutifully looked anyway, and then he replied, "I am sorry voice, but I do not know what a cup is, and all I can see before me – is a sort of a large nut."
There was a brief silence then before the voice spoke again. But when it did speak it was in a fashion that rather impressed Thirsty Horse with its fine and proud manner, although perhaps a little too much so really, he thought as well.
"Your eyes are looking in the right place, horse." came the voice. "However, I am not – a nut. Actually, I am the Cup of Curiosity, if you don't mind."
Then Thirsty Horse, having finally understood to whom he was speaking, replied politely but without really understanding why it was asked of him, "No – of course I don't mind. Not at all."
From Chapter 10
Such was the shape of the last mountain that its slopes never lost their steepness even when they reached the desert floor, but rather disappeared sheer beneath the ruffle of the desert's skirts as they billowed wide to trespass upon the mountain's feet. This arrogance of the desert was displayed with neither explanation nor apology, being just the power of the new world in its rightful place, claiming its own. Yet still it was a sudden shock of transition between one world and the next and it struck Thirsty Horse like a thunder bolt of change when finally he took that last step between the two. For to him it was the future foreseen now achieved: enough to leave him awed and silent before its dawn, wondering why his destiny had brought him here and what he should do now. But then, now that he had crossed steppe and mountain and steppe and mountain again, what else really could he think to do with this desert than to cross it in its turn? So it will come as no surprise to know that that is what he set out to do; nor that he hoped, not just to reach its other side, but in so doing to learn from the desert its secrets and its wonders too.
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