The Truth About The Many Worlds Of Printed Pages

°•○•°Fourteen°•○•°

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.