In the middle of a hot desert, where the sun ruled the sky like a tyrant, there was a world of constant heat and shifting sands. A simple dung beetle named Khepri lived here, where life seemed to be non-existant. He lived in a world of endurance, change, and strength.

The hot sands went on forever in every direction, and the shimmering heat lay in waves over the blistering sand making the sky look like a distant mirage to him. But even though things were hard, Khepri loved his job. Khepri rolled balls of dung across the hot desert floor with steady purpose. His was, he knew, not that he knew very much aside from dung, the most vital job of the desert.

For many, the desert seemed like it had no living things in it, but Khepri knew better and dung beetles like him were the hidden stars of this empty place. With single purpose he found every last morsel of nutrition and used it to stay alive. Each dung ball was a valuable resource because it provided food and shade from the hot sun. He thought of little else. Oh, how Khepri loved his job.

It wasn't easy to stay alive, of course. His health was constantly in danger because of the intense heat. The sand under Khepri's feet felt like hot fire and made him push himself to the edge. Khepri kept going even though things were hard because he often thought he had inherited his grit from the dunes themselves. It was as fine a balance to stay alive as it was to balance a dung ball.

At noon, when the sun was at its strongest and making shadows that faded in and out in the heat, Khepri hid behind a single rock. With the cooler shade from the stone surrounding him, he took a short break and enjoyed the brief relief from the oppressive noon-day heat.

But time was running out, and Khepri knew the trip had to go on. Khepri got up from the rock's cover with a new sense of purpose and pushed through the sparkling waves of heat.

His hard work paid off as the day came to a close and the sun's vast fiery orb dipped below the horizon, turning the sky a beautiful shade of red and gold. Khepri felt better knowing that another day had passed and another dung ball had been rolled to its final resting place. Khepri loved his job.