The Exam Above the Thirsty Village

The day of the exam arrived, and the sky was frighteningly clear.

Madam Naseem sent the pupils to different places. Faris went to a small forest in the north, and a girl called Joud went to a wheat field in the east.

Then she said to Rana, "You will go to the Valley Village. It hasn't rained there for months."

Fluffy carried Rana over mountains and deserts until they reached a place unlike anything she had ever seen. The village below was brown all over, the fields were cracked like the crust of stale bread, and the river running through it had shrunk to a thin thread of mud. The trees around the houses were wilting, their heads drooping.