Deserts are some of the most foreboding and mysterious regions found on Earth.

The lack of water makes deserts generally inhospitable, but people have been living in and exploring deserts for more than thousands of years nonetheless.

Deserts are barren areas of land where it is tricky for plants and animals to survive. They form thanks to weathering processes, the results of wide variations between night and day temperatures.

This variation stresses rocks, which breakdown over time. Combine this with not much rain at all and you will find yourself in the middle of a hot, dusty desert.

But it is not all bad – maybe you will meet the little Prince.

It was now the eighth day since I had had my accident in the desert, and I had listened to the story of the merchant as I was drinking the last drop of my water supply.

‘Ah,’ I said to the little prince, ‘these memories of yours are very charming; but I have not yet succeeded in repairing my plane.

I have nothing more to drink; and I, too, should be very happy if I could walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water!’

‘My friend the fox —‘ the little prince said to me.

‘My dear little man, this is no longer a matter that has anything to do with the fox!’

‘Why not?’

‘Because I am about to die of thirst . . .’

He did not follow my reasoning, and he answered me: ‘It is a good thing to have had a friend, even if one is about to die. I, for instance, am very glad to have had a fox as a friend . . .’

‘He has no way of guessing the danger,’ I said to myself. ‘He has never been either hungry or thirsty. A little sunshine is all he needs . . .’

But he looked at me steadily, and replied to my thought: ‘I am thirsty, too. Let us look for a well . . .’

I made a gesture of weariness. It is absurd to look for a well, at random, in the immensity of the desert. But nevertheless we started walking.
When we had trudged along for several hours, in silence, the darkness fell, and the stars began to come out. Thirst had made me a little feverish, and I looked at them as if I were in a dream.

The little prince’s last words came reeling back into my memory: ‘Then you are thirsty, too?’ I demanded.

But he did not reply to my question. He merely said to me: ‘Water may also be good for the heart . . .’

I did not understand this answer, but I said nothing. I knew very well that it was impossible to cross-examine him.

He was tired. He sat down. I sat down beside him. And, after a little silence, he spoke again: The stars are beautiful, because of a flower that cannot be seen.’

I replied, ‘Yes, that is so.’ And, without saying anything more, I looked across the ridges of sand that were stretched out before us in the moonlight.

‘The desert is beautiful,’ the little prince added.

And that was true. I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams . . .

‘What makes the desert beautiful,’ said the little prince, ‘is that somewhere it hides a well . . .’

I was astonished by a sudden understanding of that mysterious radiation of the sands. When I was a little boy I lived in an old house, and legend told us that a treasure was buried there. To be sure, no one had ever known how to find it; perhaps no one had ever even looked for it. But it cast an enchantment over that house. My home was hiding a secret in the depths of its heart . . .

‘Yes,’ I said to the little prince. ‘The house, the stars, the desert–what gives them their beauty is something that is invisible’

‘I am glad,’ he said, ‘that you agree with my fox.’

As the little prince dropped off to sleep, I took him in my arms and set out walking once more. I felt deeply moved, and stirred. It seemed to me that I was carrying a very fragile treasure. It seemed to me, even, that there was nothing more fragile on all Earth. In the moonlight I looked at his pale forehead, his closed eyes, his locks of hair that trembled in the wind, and I said to myself: ‘What I see here is nothing but a shell. What is most important is invisible . . .’

As his lips opened slightly with the suspicion of a half-smile, I said to myself, again: ‘What moves me so deeply, about this little prince who is sleeping here, is his loyalty to a flower–the image of a rose that shines through his whole being like the flame of a lamp, even when he is asleep . . .’

And I felt him to be more fragile still. I felt the need of protecting him, as if he himself were a flame that might be extinguished by a little puff of wind . . .

And, as I walked on so, I found the well, at daybreak.

Antione de Saint-Exupery
The Little Prince – Chapter 24

You think that you know my heart
And you probably do
That’s why I’m always with you
I could stay with you for hours
In an empty room
And never get bored
Never have nothing to do

You’re my other half
You’re what makes me me
What makes me smile
When I fall down
And can’t get back, get back, get back up on my feet

Without you here I am boring
Something inside you is triggering
And makes me myself, makes me funny

You’re a beautiful thing
We’re a beautiful thing together
Even when the weather is low
You’re a beautiful thing
We’re a beautiful thing together
Even when the weather is low

We can find the rainbow
Up in the sky
You’d say don’t you cry, it’s all gonna be alright

If we ever got into a fight or war that would be bad
‘Cause you know all of my secrets
But I know all of yours

We make hours turn into seconds together
The weight of the world feel like a feather
‘Cause we’re holding it right in our hands

You’re my other half
You’re what makes me me
What makes me smile
When I fall down
And can’t get back, get back, get back up on my feet

Without you here I am boring
Something inside you is triggering
And makes me myself, makes me funny

You’re a beautiful thing
We’re a beautiful thing together
Even when the weather is low
You’re a beautiful thing
We’re a beautiful thing together
Even when the weather is low

You and me, together
We’ll forget what we have been told
We’ll live in our own dream world
You and me, forever
We’ll forget what we have been told
We will take on the whole world

Without you here I am boring
Something inside you is triggering
And makes me myself, makes me funny

You’re a beautiful thing
We’re a beautiful thing together
Even when the weather is low
And that’s a beautiful thing