The New Tales of the Gobi Desert
“Dinosaur Eggs and Attack of the
Robots”
The ISF Academy, Secondary Division, Andrea Wong, Fiction: Group 3
I
t was spring and Jennifer was looking outside her window on a propeller. She was on her
way with her friend, Shane, to the Gobi Desert in the southern Mongolia. They were on an
expedition to find dinosaurs fossils. Professor Theodore, a famous paleontologist and Jennifer
and Shane’s professor at university, had recently discovered a nursery of rare dinosaurs known
as therizinosaurs, which contained 17 clutches of eggs. This was a major find as not only was this
the largest colony of nonavian theropods, but was also the best documented site, suggesting that
therizinosaurs were social animals. Professor Theodore was hoping to find more fossils as evidence
that this was the case. He immediately contacted Jennifer and Shane to come help.
When their propeller finally landed at the airstrip nearest to the site, Jennifer scooped up all
her belongings and rushed outside. Professor Theodore announced,
‘Good afternoon, and welcome to the Gobi Desert.’ He waved his arm around. ‘I’d like you two
to meet Odval, she’s a local and her family agreed she could help us.’
Jennifer noticed the little girl that was standing next to the professor, the girl had short,
shabby hair and dark brown eyes.
‘The crew is waiting, come with me,’ said the professor.
The Gobi Desert didn’t look like any other desert; instead, it has gravel plains and rocky
outcrops. The professor got on a camel, and Jennifer exclaimed,
‘What? Camels?’
The professor looked at her weirdly and said,
‘Yes, do you want to walk there then?’
‘No…’
‘Then get on.’
Jennifer obeyed and they arrived at camp. Everyone was milling around, waiting for
something to do. A person in a lab coat saw Professor Theodore and ran towards him saying,
‘Professor, I followed all your orders and we can start digging right away.’
The professor nodded and said, ‘Good, we are ready to go.’
Jennifer and Shane followed the professor into a rather big tent, with the crew tagging behind.
‘Where is this place?’ Jennifer asked as soon as she saw all the camels.
‘Well, this is the stable.’ The professor replied. ‘Blake, please show me the location of the eggs
and we will start from there.’ nodding towards the man in the lab coat.
Blake quickly ran towards a table and took a piece of paper that was the map of Gobi Desert.
He pointed to a spot and showed it to the professor.
‘Crew, we will be riding camels there, so pick a camel and get on it.’ The professor ordered.
When the crew heard, some made faces, because they didn’t like camels, and some were
excited, because it was the first time they’d ever ridden on camels.
When everyone was ready, the professor said,
