Camels No Information Report

• Lachlan A'Court, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2013

Camels, as normal as they may seem, are seriously misunderstood animals. People assume they are just a bunch of golden-coloured, humpbacked herbivores, but actually they are far more complex than we think.
Camels are born in the rain. There is only one place where it is possible to rain camels, a place at the centre of the Himalayas called Camelopia. As far as we know, no humans have ever been there or if they have, they haven’t made it out.
Every few decades, it rains in Camelopia. Camels pour down by the fat-filled-hump-load with their legs wrapped around their body, similar to the fetal position. They fall and collect in camel puddles called pods.
Once it stops raining, the camels stand up and decide where they would like to spend the rest of their life.
All camels develop wings. These wings don’t get tired from flying long distances, but they do fall off once the camel lands after taking flight for the first time. So the camels have to choose carefully.
Once a camel lands, it is given the initiation ceremony where it receives its first tube of toothpaste. They must squeeze all the toothpaste into their mouth, but they cannot swallow it. That is why camels have the frothy white foam around their mouth. The record for the longest time a camel has kept toothpaste in its mouth is 4 days and 9 hours 28 seconds.
A camel will roam around its new homeland after it has been initiated. The most important thing for a male camel to do is find is a stick. Once a stick has been found, the camel can go and find a wife. He will hold the stick in his mouth to show how much power he has. A female camel will choose her husband based on the size of his stick.
Camels have a religion, the Order of Camels or OC. Camels believe that camel life began when a horse named Gunter got lost in the desert. Gunter learnt to survive with little or no food for days on end. When Gunter found food, he stored it in a bag on his back. Because it was so hot the bag fused to Gunter’s back where it formed a hump. Eventually, he got a tan from being in the sun all the time, hence the camels’ golden coat. Some camels believe Gunter is still out there, roaming the desert, and some of those camels go out and look for him, this is why there are always camels in the desert.
When a camel nears the end of its life, it will begin a long journey back to Camelopia. On its return journey, the camel must swim, walk, or catch the bus. When it reaches the place of its birth, it will go to the exact same spot where it landed at the beginning of its life. It will lie there until it dies and is evaporated into camel particles that go up into the sky where they form into a new camel.