in the seventh month i was alone, again, and could hardly drag my feet through the cold. slowly i wove through great pillars in the sand, hundreds of feet tall, and each pillar was its own made of a different stone. as i passed from underneath their silhouettes the sun returned and I was blinded. i threw my head down. i held eyes closed until i felt the shadow of the next silhouette. cold again. in that seventh month hunger tear through my chest and my head was stuck in that awful loop. i am an animal it told me, and i am afraid.
then passed a winter storm and i was hunkered in the windshade of a pillar, this one a soft green, smooth and brilliant, and its bulging figure left an imprint in the hailfall like a shadow. I saw similar shadows far in the distance, and once the storm was past i rose again. It took an hour to stand. turning to face the stormside of the pillar my eyes fell on something, some structure too small and short and godless to belong here in my trial.
my animal mind stole me away and i had approached this structure at once. it revealed itself as a peculiar shack or shopping stall emanating light and heat. i could feel it, the comfort, from so far away. one wiser may have seen this for a trap, but my stomach in knots I had no choice and was completely entranced. growing closer my nose caught a stench, so bizarre and fruity in some memetic way and suddenly i was on all fours, rolling in the sand in anticipation.