Once, There was A Library in my Closet

Eye of the Sand Beast

They were glaring at each other, like cats would when they don't realize their ground should be shared. Three men. One pillar. No way out. 

For a few weeks, the three men survived on the edges of the pillars together. They do not remember how they all arrived at the pillar or why they were stuck there, but such thoughts were too distracting when there were two others maliciously staring at you from the far edges of the pillar. 

One man looked to be some sort of rogue. He was dressed in black leather and several empty sheaths belonging to missing blades. His black eyes were cold and his face was freshly cut, although the shadow from his hood made it hard to see.

A second man seemed less "murderish" than the other, wearing a simple farmer's outfit, but it was tattered and worn with signs of it being stretched downward. It almost looked like the attire was forced onto the man. The only guess one could make from his sheer appearance would be that he was a priest. One look at the man, and the two others could see he seemed unstable. Constant muttering and twitching and glaring back and forth, back and forth between the strangers were quite unsettling. 

As for the third man, he was heavily dressed in animal hide, with just enough rabbit fur at the cuffs and insides to keep him warm from the climate of the area. His shaggy beard hardly matched his younger appearance. This man appeared to be a nomad. The only thing he knew about himself was that there was a way down. He just had to wait. And wait. But for what, he didn't know.

The three men lived on the pillar for what seemed like ages. When they grew hungry, each of them would take turns foraging or tending to a small patch of crops, as an unspoken pact between the three. Days and nights passed and the rogue and nomad eyed around for a way out. There were endless pillars of land stretching up higher and higher yet, to the point that the tops disappeared into the constant grey fog. The bottom was unseen through the fog too and as for the width of the territory... It was best that the men didn't care for escape as they did for survival.

One day, the priest was noisier than usual. He was seemingly lost in time and space, yelping and muttering and rubbing his eyes fiercely. The nomad watched as the priest inched his way toward him, eyes crazed and shaking like a mad man. 

He snapped, and attacked the nomad. 

The two men fought for mere minutes. The priest was remarkably strong but the nomad's head was clear, and he used it to his advantage. With a sweep of his arm, he crashed his hand against the priest's neck. The strike itself wasn't enough to kill the priest, but the temporary stun gave the nomad a perfect chance to reach for the head and twist it around with all his might.

A piercing cry echoed through the chasm of pillars. 

The nomad threw the corpse aside and glared at the rogue, who was glancing around to find the source of the cry. He waited for the nomad to attack.

A sense of respect overwhelmed the nomad, and he didn't dare attack the last man. He would feel wrong to attack someone who didn't start anything. They should survive, not fight. But when he looked down at his bloody hands he knew that he no longer belonged on the pillar. He gazed up at the rogue, who was as quiet and patient as he was from the start, then ran to the edge of the pillar. The rogue was shocked for a brief second as the nomad leaped off the edge and fell into the depths below. The rogue was finally left alone, able to claim the pillar as his own.

The nomad woke with a jolt. He was floating in warm water, with the sun bright in his face; it was hot. He flipped himself over and peered around to spot any land, but he hardly had to look. Wherever he had landed, and how, he was floating in a salty cove. He waded to shore and dragged himself out of the water. The bright sun felt like fire on his skin. The fact that he was stepping on sun-baked sand wasn't making it any better. He appeared to be in the middle of a desert. The pillars of land were nowhere to be seen.