They all tucked themselves in and continued to sleep. Suddenly, they heard a loud and
horrible roar. The blanket turned into a bloody scaly sheet of skin. It grew out four wizened
skulls and each skull turned to face each of them. Everyone was shocked and Nancy screamed
desperately. The monster snarled, “I’m the servant of the “God of Evil”. Hand over all your magic
tools, or I will blow your heads.”
The whole family screamed and screeched. They felt hopeless.
“Should we hand out the magic tools?” Sarah asked.
“No…no, we shouldn’t. We shouldn’t. We must fight till the last second. I have the feeling that
someone will come to help us,” Franklin answered.
In this critical moment, footsteps far away were approaching. A black shadow was seen far
away. It was dashing towards them and it became bigger and bigger. Little Nancy was so scared
that she closed her eyes tightly.
“Aar,” the horrible monster shrieked and writhed in agony. It jumped up and swirled and
twirled in the room fiercely. Bluish blood poured out from its back and flooded all over the place.
The monster started diminishing and it vanished at last.
Chapter Four - A New Teammate
Dr Franklin patted away the dust on his face and rubbed his eyes. He stood up slowly with his
trembling feet. To his surprise, he found an ape-like man standing in front of his eyes. The man
looked like a chimpanzee. Under his sooty face, what was seen was a cluster of messy mustache.
His filthy clothes were torn and muddy.
Seeing him, all of them were frozen into ice.
“Who…who are you?” Dr Franklin asked with a trembling voice, breaking the silence.
The man grinned, “Nice to meet you. I’m Tirian, the archaeologist that vanished in the Saxaul
Tree a month ago.”
Dr Franklin heaved a sigh of relief, he continued, “Nice to meet you too! I’m Dr Franklin, an
explorer. We also came here through the mystic Saxaul Tree. This is my wife, Sarah. My son,
Max. My daughter, little Nancy.”
“We’re so lucky that we have just beaten down that evil-monster,” said Franklin.
“Ha! Ha! The blanket monster won’t die by itself,” Tirian giggled, “When I was wandering
around, I heard you screaming. I sensed the presence of evil spirits. Not far away, a scaly blanket
monster seemed to be battling with you.”
Tirian sighed, “To defect the blanket monster, you have to identify its weaknesses. Its scales,
like the sutures of our skull, are extraordinarily hard except four weaknesses where the four
heads protrude out.”
“Did you save us and kill the monster?” little Nancy interrupted with curiosity.
“Of course! I carefully dipped the tip of my dagger with poisonous magic potion, then I tip-
toed next to the evil monster,” explained Tirian.
“What followed then?” asked Max.
“The monster didn’t notice me. So I used my full strength to jump on its back. I stabbed my
dagger in one of its weaknesses. The poison circulated around its body and stopped its heart from
pumping,” Tirian answered seriously.
Franklin was very pleased. He exclaimed, “Wow! You’re such a hero!”
