Dinner that night was freshly slaughtered goat cooked on hot stones, followed by airag, the
Mongolian word for fermented mare’s milk, in the family ger, a Mongolian nomadic tent. Hale ate
like a horse, resulting in a convex stomach. Mr Batbayer and Ms Enkhtuyaa were the owners of
the ger. They were very cordial and friendly. They told Hale and Dr Jazzaccentric the customs,
culture, history and climate of the country. They also told them the meaning of their names.
“You know what, ‘Batbayer’ means ‘firm happiness’ and ‘Enkhtuyaa’ means ‘ray of peace’,”
chorused Mr Batbayer and Ms Enkhtuyaa heartily.
Hale had a better understanding of Mongolia and some ideas for his short story began to
germinate in his mind.
The next day Hale and Dr Jazzaccentric thanked Mr Batbayer and Ms Enkhtuyaa for their
kind hospitality and went to search for wild Bactrian camels and Gobi bears which were critically
endangered. They searched and searched for the whole morning but in vain. Nevertheless, they saw
snow leopards, black-tailed gazelles, marbled polecats and Mongolian wild asses instead. Hale liked
marbled polecats the most since they were cute and adorable. Their pelage was yellow and heavily
mottled with irregular reddish or brown spots, which gave them the name ‘marbled’ polecats.
Out of the blue, the two explorers heard something which sounded like an air raid siren. The
wail became louder and louder.
“Dr Jazzaccentric! What on earth is that sound?” asked Hale frantically. “I have a bad feeling.”
“Thundering chocolate!” shouted Dr Jazzaccentric. “High-speed surface winds plus dense
clouds of fine, dry soil particles – it’s an intense dust storm!”
“How could that be!” screamed Hale. “We have to turn back! Now!”
But they were too late. A super large wall of sand, dust and soil, approximately hundreds of
kilometres wide and six thousand metres high dashed towards them like a tsunami, the monstrous
gale bellowing, howling and roaring, the dust murdered the sun, and the two explorers were
swallowed by the wild beast.
“Hale! Dr Jazzaccentric! How do you feel?” asked Ms Enkhtuyaa as Hale and Dr Jazzaccentric
regained consciousness. “Mr Batbayer and I have been worried sick about you.”
“What happened?” asked Hale.
“We knew you were in the dust storm, so we went to find you. We saw you two lying
unconscious in the jeep, and hence we brought you back to the ger.” replied Mr Batbayer.
“Oh thank you very much!” said Hale and Dr Jazzaccentric together.
The two explorers then left the ger and continued to search for wild Bactrian camels and
Gobi bears. Soon, they arrived at the place where they had come across the dust storm. Hale saw
something like a stream of lava flowing slowly by the sand dunes, but there shouldn’t be lava in a
desert! Hence, he walked closer to have a better look. It was a bright blood-red worm with a wide
body that was two metres long. It looked like a snake or a cow’s intestine and had lots of sharp
spikes at its head and tail.
“What’s that?” asked Hale.
“Exploding bread!” shrieked Dr Jazzaccentric. “It’s…… it’s the Mongolian death worm! It’s a
legendary monster reported to inhabit the Gobi Desert and it’s extremely dangerous.”
Suddenly, the worm spew forth a strong acid to the jeep. The jeep turned yellow and corroded,
and at last the whole jeep was gone. The worm’s next target were Hale and Dr Jazzaccentric. It
discharged electricity to them and in the nick of time, Mr Batbayer and Ms Enkhtuyaa came to
their rescue.
