The darkness did not fall; it gathered, drawing across the desert until the last colour left the day.

In Wadi Rum, the night settles close to the ground.

Silence holds.

Beyond the firelight, a camel calls, the sound carrying unbroken across the dark.

The air cools. The sand gives back the day’s heat in slow release.

Nothing asks for attention. Nothing insists.

The desert does not receive you. It permits you to remain.

The fire burns lower. Above, the sky draws in until distance falls away.

No longer beneath the stars, within the space between them.