The Desert & the Dreamer.

The morning light never felt kind anymore.

It poured through Layla's window in sheets of gold, filling her room with heat and brightness .... but none of it warmed her the way it used to.

Because daylight belonged to a different world.

A world without Malik.

She lay awake long after the sun rose, her fingers curled around the faintly glowing crystal lantern he'd given her. It still shimmered softly, even here. Its silver glow dimmed in the sun, but it never fully went out .... like him.

Every time she looked at it, her chest ached.

She pressed it to her heart now and closed her eyes.

His whispers from the night before still lingered in her mind.

"I would fight the stars themselves… just for another night with you."

And he had meant it. She felt it in the way he looked at her, in the quiet sadness that sometimes crept into his smile when he thought she wasn't watching.

But when the sun rose, he was gone.

Always gone.

When she finally rose, she washed her face, tied her hair back, and stepped into the courtyard.

Her mother was kneeling in the shade, grinding grain into flour. She glanced up as Layla walked by, her dark eyes narrowing slightly.

"You sleep too much," she said. "You don't eat. You drift through the day like a ghost."

Layla froze,

her hand tightening around the crystal hidden in her sleeve.

"I'm fine," she murmured, but even she didn't believe the words.

Her mother only shook her head.

"You used to laugh, Layla. You used to dance in the evenings when the children played music. Do you even see them anymore?"

Layla didn't answer.

Because her mother was right.

She didn't see them. She didn't see anything during the day anymore.

Her mind was always somewhere else .. in that impossible land of silver sands and stars so close she could almost touch them.

And with him.

Always with him.

The villagers noticed too.

When she passed through the square that afternoon, she caught their glances .... the way they watched her from behind veils and headscarves, the quiet murmur of gossip that followed her steps.

"She walks in her sleep."

"She's cursed, you know."

"She brought something back with her from the desert…"

The words stung, but she didn't let it show.

Instead, she kept her eyes on the horizon ... on the dunes just beyond the date palms, already gleaming faintly under the sun.

The desert called to her even now.

It always did.

She spent the rest of the day helping her mother grind more grain, mend a torn curtain, carry water from the well. The tasks blurred together in her mind, like shadows on sand.

And all the while, she felt the faint glow of the crystal in her sleeve and the faint echo of his voice in her memory.

"Come to me… when the moon is high…"

By the time the sun began to sink behind the dunes, her heart was beating faster.

She could already feel the magic stirring.

But this time… she also felt something else.

A faint unease.

That afternoon, as she'd walked through the square, she'd noticed something strange.

A faint, silvery shimmer in the air ... almost invisible ... clinging to her skin like fine dust.

And when she closed her eyes, she could hear something in it.

Not Malik's voice.

But something.

A faint, faraway sound, like the creak of old wood. Or maybe… a chain dragging through sand.

It lasted only a moment before it faded, but the memory of it left her cold.

Even now, as she waited in her room for the moon to rise, she couldn't shake it.

When the stars finally appeared, she didn't hesitate.

She slipped out into the courtyard and walked barefoot into the dunes, her lantern clutched tightly in her hand.

The moment she stepped past the last palm tree, the air shifted.

The real world fell away.

And there he was.

Waiting.

Malik stood on a high glass dune, his robes rippling in the soft, starlit wind. His golden eyes found hers instantly, and his smile ... oh, his smile ... erased all the ache of the day.

"Dreamer," he said, his voice warm and quiet.

She ran to him, and his hands caught hers before she could stumble.

"You waited," she breathed.

"Always," he replied softly.

But this time… she looked closer.

And she saw it.

The faint flicker of strain behind his eyes. The way his hands, warm as they were, trembled just slightly.

She lifted her fingers to his cheek. "You're… tired."

He caught her hand and pressed it to his lips, closing his eyes.

"I would burn out every star above us… before I let this end."

His words — as beautiful and poetic as ever ..... carried something sharper this time. Something desperate.

And the unease she'd felt earlier curled tighter in her chest.

But she didn't let go of him.

She couldn't.

They walked through the fantasy land as they always did, hand in hand. The glass dunes sparkled like moonlit rivers, the sky above stretched wider than she'd ever seen.

He showed her a new place tonight ... a narrow canyon where the sands glowed faint blue, and faint lights floated in the air like fireflies.

They sat together on a smooth stone ledge at the canyon's heart, watching the lights drift lazily above the water pooled below.

And Malik spoke again ... those quiet, haunting verses she lived for.

"Even if the desert forgets my name… you will remember me."

"Even if this wind fails me… I'll still find you."

"Even if dawn takes me… I'll stay here in your heart."

Layla closed her eyes, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"I don't want you to fade," she whispered.

He didn't answer at first.

And when he did, his voice was barely louder than the sigh of sand in the wind.

"Then don't wake."

Her eyes flew open.

But when she looked up at him, his faint smile was back ... gentle, warm, as though he hadn't said anything at all.

And she couldn't bring herself to speak.

Not yet.

Instead, she curled closer against him, and let the magic of their dreamland carry her.

For now.

For tonight.

She didn't know how long they sat there .... wrapped in starlight, her heartbeat quiet and steady against his.

And when he finally whispered to her again, it was so soft, so fragile, it felt like a promise and a farewell all at once.

"If I must fall… let it be into you."

When she woke the next morning, her pillow was damp with tears she didn't remember crying.

And the crystal lantern on her bedside table glowed just a little dimmer than before.....