the way. Did you know that the temperature in Gobi could be extreme? No?’ He would have gone
on all day if I hadn’t shut him up.
I suddenly felt cold. I discovered that the sky was turning black. It was nighttime. A few
jerboas had already poked their little heads out of their burrows.
I decided to find a place to rest tonight. While we walked around looking for a place to sleep
in, George kept stopping at every single plant and giving long explanations just to be a ‘good tour
guide’. So you can see why I was utterly exhausted when we finally found a cave near a sand dune.
As soon as we got in, George immediately put his head under his wing. I didn’t know whether
I should be mad or amused. Before he started snoring, he muttered something about a challenge. I
was so tired that I didn’t pay much attention to what he said.
I lay down next to him and thought about home. I thought I would never fall asleep, but as
soon as my head hit the ground, I started snoring like George.
I woke suddenly the next morning. I looked out of the cave. The sand dunes had frosted over
in one night. Suddenly, I saw a snow leopard out of the corner of my eye.
I panicked and tried to calm myself down, telling myself that it wasn’t interested in us. Then
the leopard looked straight at me. My heart pounded. The leopard bared its teeth and snarled. It
leapt towards our cave. I screamed, grabbed George and ran out of the cave. The snow leopard
hissed and came after us.
I ran for my life, the leopard chasing me all the while. As I ran, I tried to devise a plan to get
us out of this mess. I couldn’t think of anything. Luckily, George muttered, ‘Trap… cave...’, still in
his sleep.
Looking around, I spotted a large rock nearby. I decided to take action. Putting George down,
I grabbed a stick and shoved it into the leopard’s mouth. While it was taken by surprise, I gave
it a push. It fell into the cave we had slept in not so long ago. I then rolled the rock across the
entrance. The leopard was trapped.
I collapsed, finally realizing how tired I was. George chose to woke at that moment. ‘Huh?
What did I miss? Was it the challenge?’
I began to tell him the whole story. He hushed me and cheered. ‘Excellent! Now I can take you
back to the master!’ He squawked and a swirling sand vortex appeared. I was going to question
him further, but I thought of the letter. Everything now made sense.
George probably noticed me thinking because he beamed and said, ‘Figured it out? Sir
Geoffrey chose you to become a Desert Survivor. You just passed the test! You’re going to be… no I
shouldn’t say! I’ll just say you’ll be having fun in no time. Care to join us?’
I grinned at him and answered, ‘Looks like this winter just got less boring!’ I took his wing,
and we jumped through the vortex together.
