A.N.) Well, if you read this through and wind up asking yourself “so, what was the point of this?”, the answer is of course that it has none. This is just a piece of total pointlessness based on something that I wrote during English class. The teacher gave us two random facts and had us try to connect them some way in a piece of writing.

The facts were: camels store fat, not water, in their humps

the leaning tower of Piza has never been quite straight

(--------------------------------)

“Oh, look. Camels,” Rhiannon remarked, staring dully ahead of her.

Sure enough, a procession of the large ugly animals lumbered steadily past them. But, since they contained the 108th camel that they had encountered on their fun filled trip to the Sahara (Rhiannon knew this for a fact because her cousin Kitty had decided to keep count of all the camels they saw on their desert adventure; they grew increasingly hard to keep track of as their ranks increased, but Kitty was a perserverent girl) Rhiannon was supremely disinterested.

“Lucky camels. They have plenty of water to go around,” Rachel, another cousin, commented darkly. “We, meanwhile, are going to run out, I’m telling you.” She gave them a meaningful look, shaking her head tragically. “I have heard dehydration is a horrible thing to experience.”

“Actually,” piped up Kitty in a perky voice “camels store fat, not water, in their humps. So they really don’t have water to go around! I read that in my guidebook! Weird, huh?”

“Charming,” said Rhiannon, studying her guidebook furiously. It did indeed offer lots of fun facts about the region, and the creatures that lived there, but she had yet to find anything about, say, what to do if you suddenly got lost in the desert with your two younger cousins whose parents would probably tear your flesh off in long, ragged strips if you didn’t at least get them out of this alive.

“-and do you know what happens, when you get dehydrated?” Rachel continued her fretting as though she had never been interrupted “Your insides eat themselves! It’s horrible! Isn’t that horrible, Rhiannon?”

“That’s starvation, not dehydration,” snapped Rhiannon. OK, if she ever got home alive this guidebook would be obliterated. It was the least helpful thing she had ever encountered.

Rachel, to whom the revelation that her insides weren’t going to be consuming themselves any time soon didn’t seem to offer much comfort, muttered “I wish we had gone to Italy like I wanted to. We could have seen the leaning tower of Piza and everything. Did you know it’s never been quite straight?”

“But this is fun!” said Kitty. “Well, kinda,” she added, as she thought of their situation. She giggled.

Kitty wasn’t so much dull- witted as completely cracked.

Rhiannon looked around her again. A few more camels went past. She decided that she never wanted to see another camel again.

“Hey!” Kitty exclaimed. “I have an idea!”

“What?!” Demanded Rhiannon and Rachel at the same time.

“I totally forgot about,” Kitty paused, digging into her purse for something “these!” she exclaimed finally, removing a bag of greenish- brown objects.

“What are those?” demanded Rhiannon, staring.

“Food, probably,” muttered Rachel.

“Nope!” exclaimed Kitty. “These are those camel treats I bought from that street vendor awhile back. He said they were magical!”

“Kit, I thought we told you not to buy them,” said Rhiannon with very weary patience.

“They were trying to cheat you out of your money,” Rachel added. “There’s no such thing as camel treats.”

“Yes there is! And now we can see if they work!” Kitty told her brightly. “The camels might like them, and then they’ll take us home.”

“In your twisted, warped mind, maybe,” said Rhiannon.

But Kitty was already running off in the direction of the camels. Rachel and Rhiannon glanced at each other helplessly.

“You know, camels are really bad tempered,” said Rachel quietly.

“KITTY!” screamed Rhiannon, seeing Kitty offering a treat to one and chasing after her.

But Kitty, strangely enough, did not get any body part bitten off.

“Aw, look,” she cooed happily, petting the camel. “He likes ‘em!”

And in fact, not only did the camel obviously enjoy the treat, but all the others were starting to crowd around her, looking completely docile.

“What...the...” Rhiannon muttered.

“Is she dead?” whimpered Rachel, who had been covering her eyes.

“Look for yourself!” Rhiannon exclaimed, running over to Kitty.

“Want to give one a treat?” Kitty offered, handing her one. The street vendor seemed to have attempted to mold them into the shapes of camels, but they had come out looking grossly mutated. Nevertheless, Rhiannon took one.

(--------------------------------------------)

And so, the three were saved. Saved by the amazing magical camel treats that only Kitty had been cracked enough to buy. For not only did the creatures consume all of them happily, but they mysteriously decided to both let the three humans ride them and to steer them toward civilization.

They were glad to be back. When they returned to the states, Rhiannon held a barbecue with Kitty and Rachel in which they roasted not only hamburgers and hot dogs, but their guidebooks, and Kitty adopted a camel. But, best of all, their next vacation was to Italy! The first place they visited was, according to Rachel’s wish, the leaning tower of Piza. She was right; the tour guide informed them that it had never been quite straight.

A.N) And so, that was my random pointless story- thing. Random, wasn’t it?