The darkness seemed total and still at first, but soon, they noticed that it wasn't so. It was moving, and streaked with swirls of faint light, like that of the Milky Way in the night sky, the spirals growing into constellations, shining brighter, until they fainted away when what seemed to be the whisper of sunrise appeared in the infinite blackness spreading beyond them.

Then the darkness was gone just as abruptly as it had appeared, and Siena's feet hit the ground, penetrating ankle deep into the soft, cool, desert sand.

She teetered and would have fallen should James not be holding her around her waist. He pressed her close to him for a short moment, as if he was happy that he didn't lose her during the transport, then settled on holding her hand as he took a step back from her and they both looked around.

The place was breathtakingly beautiful, Siena decided as she pushed the book into her bag, safely out of sight of the inhabitants of this world.

Ridges of sand spread infinitely around them in all directions, they could see nothing else but the uncountable grains glowing mysteriously, shining like star dust under the moonlight and even though the landscape looked like nothing-- undulating sand dunes stretching endlessly-- it was the most beautiful thing Siena had ever seen, the mysterious radiance of the sands was fantastic and inimitable. It was cold, Siena shivered and wrapped her free arm across her body, never letting go of James' hand.

He squeezed her hand tighter in his, lending her his warmth and courage.

"Let us go. We need to find him before the snake does. I'm sure we are close to the well..."

Siena nodded. "There." She pointed into the silvery darkness in an apparently random direction but she was sure, somehow, that it was correct, either the jewel glowing brightly upon her chest or her mere instinct seemed to be guiding her.

"All right. Lead the way," James said immediately even as he pulled the revolver from the pocket of his uniform just like the Pilot in the story, and she was elated by his leap of faith.

She climbed up the side of a sand dune towering to their left, whose wide, rounded peak lay under a particularly bright star, pulling James behind her. Sure enough, they found the well and the crumbling, ancient stone wall in the valley beyond it, seconds, minutes or hours later-- neither of them could say how long it had taken them to climb the slippery hill coming away under their feet as they walked, making them slide two steps back for each step they took forward.

However, the instant they reached the top they noticed the Little Prince sitting on the tall wall beyond the well-- a stone, medieval village well looking alien in the middle of Sahara where all wells were simple, unadorned holes in the sand-- thanks to the first rays of sunlight turning his blond curls golden.

Just like the Pilot and the Prince in the story, they found the well at daybreak, James mused, puzzled by the ways this parallel book universe assimilated him and Siena, turning them into characters in this version of the story.

"There he is..." Siena breathed, moved by the sight which she, until that movement, did not believe she would really get to see. It was all so unbelievable and magical. "Let us hurry, the snake can't be far..."

She pulled her hand from James' to rush, sliding down the sand, towards the child, but he caught her again. He understood her worries, but he was not going to allow her to take any risk herself; he would not let anything happen to her.

'The sand at daybreak is honey-coloured, thousand miles from any inhabited region,' Siena noticed, agreeing with Exupéry, as she slipped silently down the sand dune at James' side, their hands closed around each other as if they belonged together. It was only a shade or two darker than her and the Little Prince's hair.

"You are not my Pilot," the little man perched high on the wall accused without a preamble, pale forehead wrinkled with confusion when he saw them approaching. "But you... Are you my Rose?" he asked, looking at Siena.

Siena shook her head, feeling too moved to speak, almost not following James' words when he replied for her. "She is my Rose..."

He trailed off hesitantly as if he was afraid that she would correct him. She didn't, and the new surprise simply attached itself to the shock of being here, a handful of steps from the Little Prince.

"We are here to propose you a safer journey back to your Rose," James added.

The boy's eyebrows drew together in thought laced with suspicion, but he let himself slip off the wall and into James' arms the moment they stopped underneath.

James dropped the revolver into the sand before he caught him safely, without hesitation. Siena pulled the gun from the sand and dropped it into her bag before she looked up to meet James' eyes.

"Which way?" he whispered, not trusting his voice. It was wonderful, feeling the little boy's weight in his arms, it was incredible that they could save him.

Siena smiled at him, tears of understanding blurring her vision as she pointed in a random direction, knowing it was right yet again.

James nodded and as they started to walk, never setting the boy down, Siena noticed a flash of gold at the base of the crumbling wall-- a golden bracelet uncoiling in a hurry, a flash of moon-coloured lightning slithering into the darkness, disappearing between the stones.

She looked at the two men at her side, unable to resist the urge to caress the little one's golden curls, earning herself a smile. The Little Prince did not try to argue with them. He looked relieved when he leaned his head, with the face as white as snow from the close encounter with almost certain death, against James' broad chest as they carried him away.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked simply, voice feeble with tiredness, a while later, while they moved forward through the never changing landscape.

"The plan was to leave you with Siena and go look for them myself," James said mysteriously, playing with the boy's curiosity. "But I just feel safer to keep both of you close, so we are all going."

"Going where?" the boy asked, looking between them, a hint of a smile caused by their little game tugging at his lips.

"Have you ever thought that there must be a better way to return home than the one offered by the snake?" Siena asked, watching him shake his head, making his golden curls tremble in the wind. "Have you never recalled your migratory birds?" she added.

"But..." the boy muttered, looking unconvinced. "Even if they flew as far as Earth, why should they return now? And then, my planet is too far..."

"They return now because... I just know they do. We simply need to find the place they'll fly above. And don't worry about the distance, you'll be fine," Siena assured him, recalling how the Little Prince never seemed to need food or drink during the eight days of his acquaintance with the Pilot. A little sunshine was enough for him.

"There is only one thing you need to remember before you leave," she said, breath faltering with exertion. It must have been hours of walking later, hours filled with silence once they gave up asking questions which the Little Prince never replied to, hours after he woke up-- Siena didn't blame him for falling asleep in James' arms, it seemed a rather comfortable place to be. But now she was feeling that they finally arrived where they needed to be, and soon they would have to say their goodbyes. She slowed down, squeezing James' arm, which her own was wrapped around with her fingers, suggesting he stopped. "We will rest now while we wait, and you must ask James to draw a new muzzle for your sheep. I'm certain that your Pilot made a mistake; he forgot to draw the leather strap, and without it, you'll never be able to fasten it on your sheep."

James stopped, understanding and accepting her feeling of being in the right place, depositing the laughing boy onto the warm sand.

It was the end of the day, twilight was falling gently upon them, and James had been carrying the child the whole day... Siena wrapped her arms around him without thinking and drew him into a grateful, bone-shattering embrace, hiding her face blooming with blush into his chest. He was... perfect... so easy to... fall in love with... No. After this quest, he would be her dear friend, rather than a simple colleague, but nothing more...

"You are a little like my Rose, Siena, I can feel it..." The boy laughed again, sending the sound of thousands of bells into the twilight morphing into dusk. "You need to try to understand her, give her all the time she needs before you run away only to search for her forever, hoping to find your way back," he added, looking at James, who nodded knowingly to him before Siena called, disturbing the exchange of manly wisdom, "There they are!"

Indeed, a huge flock of birds appeared above the horizon in the place where the endless sands, still copper coloured like James' hair from the setting sun, began to bleed into silver, the colour spilling upon them from the rising moon.

James sprinted off into the falling darkness and returned moments later, a flock of migratory birds held by what looked like a harness in his hand.

"They are the same birds... My flock..." the boy muttered, "How did I never think of this myself... James, would you fix the muzzle, please?" he begged even as he passed a piece of paper and a pencil to James who in his turn handed the leash holding the birds above them like so many kites surfing the wind to Siena who now sat on the sand, feeling incredibly tired.

The little boy came to sit in Siena's lap in the meantime, making her feel tearful and emotional. She would forever miss this little boy, she realised, one arm raised high above her with the pull of the impatient birds, the other wrapped tightly around the little man whose own arms were laced just as strongly around her.

"Thank you, Siena, James," he muttered, voice muffled by Siena's shoulder.

Siena felt his small hand disappearing into the pocket of her coat briefly and raised a questioning eyebrow at him when their eyes met, receiving only a shake of his head and a conspiratorial wink in answer.

"It was our pleasure. We will never forget you, little man," she assured him then, rising to her feet even as he stood up, her cheeks glistening with tears as she watched him hug James, so much taller than him, around his waist.

"Siena is right," James muttered, voice thick with unshed tears. "We will never forget you; we've been dreaming about meeting you our entire lives. Have a safe journey home. And take care of your Rose, she needs you."

The boy nodded knowingly before he took the two steps back to Siena, taking the leash from her hand. "He needs you too, like my Rose needs me, even though he doesn't understand it himself entirely yet, just like you... Love... always takes two..." he whispered in her ear, a thing easily done as he was only a little shorter than her. "Goodbye, my friends," he added in his normal voice. "Take care of each other; you both deserve it."

Then he was off, and Siena felt James' arm attaching itself to her waist like an anchor, holding her feet in the still warm sand even as she wished to leap into the air and touch again the little golden-haired man growing smaller and less visible above their heads through her tear-filled eyes as the moments passed.

And then he was too far, unreachable, and the only thing Siena could do was to turn in James' embrace, hiding her tears in his pilot's uniform. She wrapped her arms around his waist, the tears falling ceaselessly from her eyes not allowing her to perceive anything else but his soft, "Hush, please don't cry," and his warm, large hand caressing her hair while the other closed around her pendant before they were sucked into the swirling, moving darkness, then thrown on the white wooden parquet of the office-lab of the Bibliophiles' Society Headquarters.