They ride the wind atop the clouds. They’re made of mist, as are the clouds themselves. Even so, the Cloud People are born with their own individual sail boats, all white and also made of mist, and are able to travel great distances over the clouds. They are vulnerable to two things only: They might sail into a part of the sky that is too warm and thus dry up and evaporate. Or they might grow too heavy and thus condense into water, falling to the earth as rain. Even so, they are masters of harnessing the wind and are great voyagers, if they can manage to hop from cloud to cloud, always renewing themselves with the clouds’ mist.
What do they do when there is a thunderstorm?
3 Responses
I think the. younger ones can’t resist diving from the top of a billowing storm cloud to the bottom where it’s gray and dark. If they generate enough speed they can execute a U turn (or whatever that’s called in sailing) and dive back into the storm cloud. This is risky behavior since chances are they may come close to a bolt of lightning which will be powerful enough to zap and evaporate them. Of course, you can’t convince kids of the reality of such threats, and so many young wind riders are lost in this way. It’s a rare cloud person who can survive until later years. They have to avoid clear skies, the obfuscation of night time, the temptation to ride too high on the thinnest and most fast moving clouds. It’s important to be able to gauge distances so that cloud hopping is possible but not fatal.
Perhaps they have myths about the possibility of falling to the earth as rain and then rising up again in mist or fog to regenerate. Perhaps dissolution in whatever form is so common that they enjoy the ride. Anyone have thoughts on these wind riders?
I like to sit on my patio and watch the storm clouds roll in. The wind turning from a breeze to almost into a cyclone. The clouds turning and churning to a beat that only can be heard by them. Ancient lore tells of the People of the Mist, how they are a people that live in sailing vessels that was created when the earth formed. I use to chuckled at how the ancients would spin these tales about things that could only come from a mind that spent too much time on the wacky weed. But that changed one night as I watched the clouds, as that night was when I first saw a misty boat. I was watching as a tornado that was trying to form, when I saw the misty boat swirling around the top of the cloud. First one, then as the tornado formed there were more than I could count or comprehend. The People of the Mist were what actually formed the tornado, or kept it from forming, then as soon as I saw them, they and the tornado retreated back into the clouds. A storm chaser in one of those vehicles that they drive into the tornado had parked in front of my house. I ran out to them and described what I saw, they looked at me and asked if I had an earlier meeting with Jim Beam. They may have dismissed me as a ignorant kook like the ones with no teeth they always interview after a tornado past through a trailer park, but I know what I saw, and I know that when I pass on from this life, I hope I turn into a Person of the Mist, traveling across this great land and inspiring more lore that confirms the ancient stories of The People of the Mist.
Since I, too, am a cloud gazer, I read your post with great attention. Such possibilities! The People of the Mist, the Cloud Riders, the Wind rRders, all in their sail boats. If we were up there, and a tornado came along, what a temptation to ride at that speed, being swept along but also sailing over the clouds, as a cloud being, like the wind, so very fast. Imagine their joy at such a feat, riding the fastest winds of all yet pausing at times, as mist, to hover and absorb and be absorbed. All those different shapes: the long high lines of white, so wind-blown or the billowing bursts of sunlit white piling up on itself until it is colossal, or the pudgy single clouds that dot a blue sky, tempting the wind rider to leap from one sky island to the next. Mythic.