Editing Hassan (section)

=The Origins of Crazy Hassan=
Hassan was doomed.

He knew it. There was no denying his fate, as the midday sun beat relentlessly on him, burning his exposed flesh ever deeper. He lay sprawled on the shifting sand, his legs and arms too weary to continue. He could not walk nor crawl nor even cry for help as the desert slowly started to devour him.

He had been mad, he sobbed, to have tried to cross the Sea of the Torturous Sands this time of year, but he had been given no choice. The camels had to get through, they were needed there to help the people, to build a new future by rebuilding the destruction the war had brought.

The camels. Allah most gracious, the camels! They were surely doomed, he mourned. He had led them to near exhaustion miles away from any water, not even they could survive out here he realized. Not only had he killed himself and failed his customers, but he had harmed his camels...

His lower body was covered by the shifting sand now, but he did not struggle, the desert had judged him unfit to live and would take him into its bosom, to be wracked with pain and thirst forever. He thought of all those he had let down, would they ever know the truth about him or how he died? He prayed they wouldn't, he prayed his god would forgive him, and he prayed his camel would make it...

He felt a tug on his ragged shirt. Slowly, Hassan turned his face to the side. Above him, looking expectantly was his lone remaining camel.

"Flee, my good camel! Away with you...there is naught but death here! Leave me, for I have failed you!"

Yet the camel paid him no heed. With a rumbling grunt, the camel lowered its head and bit down on Hassan's tunic again.

"No, let go!...flee..."

Slowly the camel started to drag him from the sand. Hassan emerged from his half grave, still begging and sobbing for the camel to let him die in his shame. Yet, the camel seemed not to hear or care for his command. With one ragged step after another, it began to walk backwards and drag Hassan along the dunes.

Hassan pleaded once more before his senses betrayed him and he lost consciousness to the heat...

A cold splash hit his face. Hassan blinkingly opened his eyes. Was he dead, had he arrived in paradise? A thousand questions raced through his mind when he saw his surroundings. He was in oasis, one that was familiar to him no less and only a short walk from his destination. He looked at the pool of crystal clear water beside him and began to drink rapidly. Content with his fill he looked up and saw him.

His camel, lying motionless but for a few rattling breaths, watched him from behind. He hurried over to it's side and fell to his knees at his head. Still weak, he flopped forward onto the body of the great animal. He wrapped his arms as tightly as his strength allowed and wept bitter tears, he knew he was too late.

"I'm...sorry..."

The camel slowly turned its head to him. It's deep dark eyes said everything Hassan would ever have to know. With a last gasp, the camel died in his arms.

"I will never do such evil again..."

A few days later, his strength returned and the camel buried in a nondescript grave, a man left the oasis. He had come called Hassan, a beaten and broken man on the edge of life. He would leave, not as a man, but something more.

He was Crazy Hassan and the world would hear of his great deals.