At dusk during an evening of their travels, a gang of brigands blindsided the travelers, attacking and raiding the goods.
Along with these goods, the bandits took the women and children, leaving the men to suffer from their wounds. Of these men, Big Abdul was left behind, wounded. He watched desperately as the bandits took off with his beloved Fatima and son.
At the bandits’ encampment, the women and children were put to work: cooking and cleaning and taking care of any wounded bandit. Year after year past and Small Abdul saw his mother grow weaker and weaker with hopelessness. He knew it was time to make an escape – he just needed a way out. He knew a large group of bandits would be returning with stolen supplies as he had been spying on them, unseen because of his size. Of these supplies, Small Abdul discovered that they would be raiding a village with the fastest camels in all the land. Small Abdul knew that, once the bandits returned from the raid, it was his chance to escape with his mother, Fatima.