A Tale of Zach and Jerboa
Independent Schools Foundation Academy, Christopher Wilson Chow, Fiction: Group 2
A
n age of magnificent flowers and fruitful plants ago, there lived a tribe of friendly
Gobi Desert animals. Food was plentiful and was never scarce. They lacked nothing
and their lives seemed perfect.
Days went by in a blink of an eye. One hot summer day, the animals were playing
as usual in the soft sand. Suddenly, the sky grew darker and darker, and the wind picked up.
Almost all the plants soared into the sky; the roots were ripped from the soil and sand flew
everywhere and formed a huge tunnel reaching up to the heavens. It was complete chaos. The
animals started panicking and huddled together. “Ah! Tornado!” they screamed.
The angry tornado destroyed most of their food. It left the animals with no choice but to
attack and devour each other in order to survive. Soon, thousands and millions of desert animals
were killed. The desert animals were about to become extinct…
Life in the Gobi Desert was never the same after the tornado struck. Jack the golden eagle
became fierce and started hunting down animals for food. The other animals heard about this,
and many of them became bounty hunters. Jack was the most successful amongst the animals and
stored up a cave full of food. Slowly, the news of this cave spread in the desert and many animals
wanted to hunt him down.
One sunny morning, Zach, the Jerboa (a bounty hunter) heard loud chewing noises outside his
cave. “It must be Jack!!” he whispered to himself with a grin. So he leapt out of bed and looked
through his secret window. Slowly and quietly, he stepped out of his cave. Just before he was
about to pounce on Jack, Jack suddenly turned around. When Jack saw Zach, he picked up his
food, and in a flash, was gone. Of course, Zach didn’t give up, and he started searching for Jack.
Two days later, Zach found the pond where Jack usually took a bath. Zach hid behind a
little bush to wait for Jack. Suddenly, Zach heard the sound of splashing water. Tilting his head
sideways a little, he saw Jack. Still not showing his entire body, he put on his most engaging
smile as he said to himself “I’ve got you this time…” Without thinking, Zach let out a monstrous
scream that echoed through the desert as he leapt on Jack. Jack thought it was the end of his life.
Miraculously however, when Zach took off, he slipped. Thus, instead of landing on Jack, he landed
face-flat on the freezing cold water.
The animals in the desert heard the loud scream and rushed over to see what was happening.
When they arrived, they joined Zach to chase Jack. Jack saw a big, deep pit in front of him.
In desperation, he flapped his powerful wings and disappeared into the blue sky. But Zach was
running too fast and lost control. He fell into the deep pit. Luckily, Gazelle, the Gopher snake and
Sidney, the Snow leopard held onto his ears. Zach was very heavy and his ears became the rope
for a tug-o-war with Gazelle holding onto one ear, and Sidney the other. Finally, Zach lay on the
sand and was saved. Nothing was different with Zach from before except one thing-his pair of
ears is now as long as a rabbit’s!
Even thought Zach’s ears got longer, he actually liked them! They helped him listen for
approaching predators much better than before... and also because they were so humongous,
Zach’s body heat could now be released from his ears to prevent overheating in the hot desert!
I’d like to bring my story to an end by saying…and now I know for sure why jerboas have long ears.
