‘Oh yes we can! Our plane is still operating properly,’ said the pilot, as he started the plane.
’We must look for him, for only the General knows the exact location of the last fossil fuels. We
must win the war!’
Another few hours passed, and the vol-corona flew back up to the ceiling to emit light. Rising
from a flowerbed, Deer turned to “Lesovik” as she stood up. ‘Good morning, Le…’
“Lesovik” woke up after hearing Deer call him. Deer was staring at him peculiarly, astonished.
‘Who… Who are you?’
Curious, “Lesovik” looked at his body. Strangely, his ghillie suit was gone, and he was no
longer a lesovik.
‘A human intruder!’ A rabbit, who just happened to see the General, screamed in fright.
‘I’m… I’m so sorry’, the General apologized whole-heartedly to the stunned deer, as the scream
echoed through the whole refuge, to the ears of fleeing lions and wolves, to the ears of escaping
gulls and ravens, until it reached the ears of Bookworm.
‘A human?’ the teeny-tiny Bookworm murmured. ‘A human?’ he repeated, angrily and loudly.
Bookworm was filled with rage, uncontrollably. His whole body began to glow scarlet red, and
grow in size: from a palm, to a tiger, to a tree, to a plane, until the worm became so long that its
tail could not be seen. ‘A human?’ he howled.
‘It is the Mongolian Death Worm, from the legends!’, thought the General, as he began
running away, leaving the stunned deer.
‘He’s here! The human’s here!’ Vulture cried to Death Worm, flying above the General.
The Death Worm looked down at him. ‘I knew you were up to something, from the moment
you entered the refuge, that’s why I took your disguise off.’
Death Worm rampaged, smashing the trees as it charged with its huge body. The creatures
were even more frightened than before, escaping with all their might, trying to avoid being
crushed. Fear was everywhere.
The General couldn’t run faster than the enormous Death Worm. The worm was about to reach
its prey, when...
‘Stop!’ It was the mysterious voice. ‘He is our only hope!’ This voice, as if enchanted with some
sort of magic, paused everyone’s movements at once. Death Worm seemed to have lost its rage; it
became more and more pale, until it was white as before, then shrunk back to its teeny-tiny size.
The General became calm.
The vol-corona flew away from the sand ceiling, and gathered in front of the General in the
shape of a woman, radiating both aura and aurora.
‘Human Nesofy Veltal, ’said the lady gracefully. ’Do not fear, for I am the mother of every
creature. I know everything. I sent you down the Gobi Desert for a very special reason: to save
the dying earth.’
‘Because of the pollution we humans have made?’, asked the General curiously.
‘That’s one of the reasons. Pollution surely had dealt so much damage to the earth, poisoning
every living creature. But there is more to that: the balance of creatures. Humans have always
thought highly of themselves, thinking that they are more righteous than other creatures.
They are only concerned about their needs, neglecting other creatures. That is totally wrong:
all creatures are important equally. When creatures of animalia and plantae migrated to this
underground sanctury, pollution above the surface worsened more rapidly, the climate change
hastened even further, and colour faded away…’
‘Colour? What is colour?’, questioned the General.
