Shortlisted
New Tales of the Gobi Desert
Ying Wa Primary School, Tang Cheuk Sang, Steve, Fiction: Group 5
Prologue
T
his is the morning news. A strange and occult phenomenon happened in the Gobi Desert. A
41-year-old archaeologist disappeared under an old Saxaul tree. His collaborator fainted at
that moment.
This is what he recalled, “At that time, we were dripping all over and almost out of
breath by the violent sun. Out of our expectation, we found a verdant tree, we wanted to sit beside
it without hesitation. Then, I heard a big bang followed by a loud scream. The archeologist vanished
into the thin air and I heard an eerie and cryptic voice which was spoken in an alien language.”
When the collaborator woke up in the hospital, his body kept trembling. Searching teams were
sent to search for the archeologist all over the desert, but their effort was in vain. Instead, what
they found were the archeologist’s clothes next to the lush green Saxaul tree…”
Chapter One - Set off to the Gobi Desert
Dr Franklin, a keen explorer, was lying on a brown sofa with his hazel brown eyes glued onto
the TV screen for quite a while. He was intrigued.
“How could this be happening?” he muttered with a frown.
He was astonished by the correlation between the missing people and the tree. He kept
searching for information about the Saxaul Tree in the State Central Library all day long.
He buried his head into heavy stacks of books. According to the “Mystical and Supernatural
Phenomenon Encyclopedia”, all these just happened at night, only when it was full moon. Even
animals had no chance to escape. There was once a man who tried to destroy this evil tree with a
bomb on 8 September 1952. The bomb couldn’t explode; instead that crazy man vanished forever.
The Chinese believed that this Saxaul Tree was the “God of Tree” that possessed powerful magic.
Dr Franklin was deeply fascinated by this mystic tree. In spite of the foreseeable danger, he
was determined to plan an expedition to the Gobi Desert with his family at last. After collecting
all the necessities and survival kits, they started off. It was winter and the freezing gusts,
like stabbing knives, blew right onto their rough skins. The temperature was about minus 40º.
Snowflakes fell from the sky and covered the rough sand. Dr Franklin and his family slowly
walked into the remote, borderless and arid desert. As they were walking in the desert, like shag
on a rock, gales of laughter approached their ears from far away. They followed the sound and
saw some traditional ger camps. The nomad families living inside the ger camps came out and
welcomed them warmly. They were all wearing thick and colorful clothes embroidered with
special patterns. Franklin’s family was so delighted and decided to ask for a stay in their cozy
house. Pots of hot mutton and salty tea were served to them. After chattering for a while, they
all fell fast asleep. The dark night came and the cruel, ruthless and cold winter breeze blew
with strong whistles. Dr Franklin was woken up by the whistles and he glanced out through the
window. A full moon was hanging in the dark sky, without any companion. To his surprise, Dr
Franklin saw a tiny green spot in the sky. He lept up from his bed, let out a scream and shouted,
“
