>>5992368>>5992395>>5992457>>5992828You move among the wounded Mujahideen, the last light of the desert sun casting shadows across the makeshift field hospital. The air is thick with the scent of sweat and blood, and the moans of injured warriors weave through the scorching heat. You crouch beside one of your brothers, carefully binding his wounds with strips of cloth. His parched lips crack open in a painful attempt at a smile as you offer him a flask of water.
"This is what separates us from the infidels," you murmur, voice low yet steady, as you pour a thin stream of water into his mouth. "We care for our wounded. The blue-eyed cowards abandon their own, leaving them to die."
Your eyes scan the rows of injured Mujahideen, looking for those most in need of aid. As you move to the next warrior, a raspy voice catches your attention. “Water…” The words are spoken in the rough tones of Frankish, the language of the invaders. Turning, you find a dying Crusader lying on the ground, his eyes pleading for mercy, his hands feebly reaching out for water.
Before you can act, a shadow falls across the Crusader. Zayd ibn Khalid, a veteran warrior who grew up in Damascus, whose face is marked by the scars of many battles, stands over him. His eyes narrow as he looks down at the wounded man. "You shouldn't waste water on such filth, brother Kamil," he says, his voice hardened by the bitterness of loss, having witnessed his family's farmland burned down by Crusaders. He clutches his scimitar, his knuckles turning white around the hilt. "They came to burn and pillage our lands, and you would give them the water meant for our own?"
You pause, feeling the weight of Zayd's gaze. The dying Crusader looks up at you, his eyes filled with the desperation of a man barely clinging to life. You know the water is a precious resource, more valuable than gold under the relentless sun.
> I understand your anger, brother Zayd, but if we deny them mercy, we become no different from them.> A drop of water won't turn the tide of this war, but it will help us remember who we truly are.> What would our ancestors think of us, if they saw us deny a dying man water?> You are right, brother Zayd, water is for the living, not the dead, it is better to offer him the mercy of death instead.>(Other)