* * *
around and palm-smacked my forehead.
I was in a desert, most likely the Gobi Desert. I had absolutely no idea why I got teleported
here. It must have some connections with the multi-coloured flames back in my hotel room.
There wasn’t much to describe about this endless piece of barren land. There was almost
nothing to be seen except yellow sand, drifting restlessly in the air. The temperature was so high
that I could see steam rising from ground to that agonizing sun which was about to melt my flesh
and bones.
I sat down under shade of the cactus, pondering ways to survive. I needed two primary
resources----water and food. For water, I needed to find an oasis. But it seemed impossible to
navigate through a desert. As for food, I didn’t know. Maybe I could eat camels’ meat…
As if answering my questions, not far away, a young camel ( judging by its size) was
striding aimlessly.
I yelled in delight. For half an hour, I was distraught by seeing no living creatures. I walked
towards him briskly and jumped on his humped back. The camel kicked around, snorted angrily,
and ran frantically as he tried to throw me off his back. All I did was to embrace his neck,
tightened every time while he struggled. After fifteen minutes, the camel finally knew he couldn’t
escape from me, and stopped his useless struggles. And I was completely exhausted.
“Can you have softer grips? My neck is sore,”
Said a voice which came from nowhere. Now I looked at the camel I just tamed. He was
speaking perfect English. I screamed. Why do weird things always happen to me?
“Calm down, buddy. I am not the only camel in this desert who can speak. I’m used to human
freaking out when they hear me talk.”
“Hold on. You mean you’ve seen others in the desert. Have you seen someone like me, getting
teleported here?”
“Yeah, you’re just another unfortunate visitor,” the camel replied.
“So what happened to me? Am I stuck here for good?”
The camel thought for a few seconds, and said,
“It depends. It’s because there’s a portal back to the urban area on the other end of the desert.
We are in the middle. All we have to do is to cross this land, find the portal and leave this stupid
and dangerous continent. But maybe we can’t survive this harsh voyage.”
“But the desert is your home, right? I thought camels love this extreme weather…”
“It is not my home. I was forced to migrate here. I want to leave here as much as you do.” I
dared to ask again,
“So I’ll have to ride you? Are you fast enough?”
To my surprise, the camel smiled,
“You’re looking at the only camel which can reach supersonic in the world.”
So off we went. I discovered that this camel was not lying to me. I felt my face like peeling off
while he reached top speed. In about two hours, we had already covered half of our voyage.
I began to develop friendship with the camel. After all, he was my only company in this
perilous adventure. He told me the Mongolian government was evil, as they were planning assaults
to the nearest countries by sending armies through the portal. I told him that it was ridiculous, but
