Percy clung to the mast of his ship when the water started retreating. The ship started sinking but not drowning as the terraforming team turned another ocean into a desert to breed more camels. The smiling face in the sky looked at him. This was personal.

He had given up on trying to find a job and was just trying to sail back home but everytime he got close to being on the right track, the terrain would change. He jumped out and started walking, abandoning his ship to the, by now fully established, desert.

He had walked only a few hundred meters when the cyclone hit. He sheltered behind a dune of sand but there was already something hiding there. He knew this was supposed to be a breeding ground now but that was quick. The camel looked just as surprised as he was when it saw him, but with the instincts of a creature that did not often find its preferred food it immediately tried to take a bite out of his face. Percy stumbled back and started running from the man eating camel. The face in the sky kept smiling.

The camel was much faster than any man and he was a malnourished traveller who hadn't found an accommodating terrain for months now. As he ran the terror took a backseat and a new emotion filled him. Anger. Blasted  smile. He wasn't going to die running for their entertainment. He turned on the spot and faced the camel snapping at his heels. The mutant was surprised and spread its wings to try and break momentum. Stunned to have another moment of being alive Percy  grabbed the camel's outstretched wing pulling it down to the sand and in a terrible, misguided moment he jumped onto it's back.

It bucked and kicked in a horrible parody of a rodeo. Where the bull might kill you but definitely didn't want to eat you or fly with you on its back, the camel did. Percy clung to the neck of the animal like a leech because the moment he let go would definitely be his last. It felt like an eternity had passed when the camel stopped resisting him. Something else had gotten its attention. Percy hoped it was something edible. He would have an easier time getting away if it was busy eating.

He finally looked up and the smiling face loomed out at him, not out of a distant sky now, it was bigger and growing. Stupid camel. It was going to kill them both. Why was it flying so close to the roof? This was almost worse than being eaten by a camel, crashing a camel into the roof. He hoped they would crash into the terraforming team's office. At least he would inconvenience the bastards that had made his life hell.

The left eye was growing brighter. Was he dead now? Was his dying brain showing him the light at the end of the tunnel? The camel was flying towards the light. It flew in like it was going home and the glass door closed behind them. Someone helped him off the camel and someone else pushed a warm coffee into his trembling hand.

"Welcome to the team. We think you have just the skills we've been looking for."