Emma and the puff clouds left the Cloud Kingdom in haste and flew
down to the earth to look for the Silver Lining. It wasn't as easy
to find as Emma had thought it would be. The puff clouds didn't
fly nearly as fast or as straight as the Starcatcher, so it took
a long time just to get to her little brick house on the farm.
But they flew much faster than puff clouds usually do. They flew
over dark oceans and across desert sands. They flew over mountain
tops and over valleys. They flew over quiet city rooftops and over
the sleeping countryside. Finally, they reached Emma's house, and
she pointed out the treetops in the east where she had seen the
Silver Lining.
Sure enough, it was there. It was caught in the branches of
a tall oak tree, and it was tangled up good. Emma and the little
puff clouds had to get on all sides of it and pull and pull. At
last, it came off.
They looked at it sadly. The splendid Silver Lining was full
of holes. The tree branches had torn it.
"We can't take it back to the Cloud Prince like this," said
the puff clouds.
"But we have to," said Emma. "I don't know how to
fix it, do you?"
The little puff clouds twittered and shook.
"Besides," Emma said, "I'm sure the Cloud Prince
will be glad to have it back, even if it is a little torn."
"You don't know the Cloud Prince," moaned a puff cloud.
But they didn't have any better suggestions - little puff clouds
are very nice and playful, but they really aren't too good at solving
problems - so they all flew back to the Cloud Kingdom.
They found the Cloud Prince draped across the arm of his throne
in the silky shape of a pearl-gray tiger-striped cat. He was asleep,
and purring, but as soon as Emma spoke, he sprang awake and glared
at them all with yellow cat eyes.
"We found your Silver Lining," Emma said.
She held it out in her arms. "I'm afraid the tree branches
tore it some, but I'm sure it can be fixed."
When the Cloud Prince saw the holes in his magnificent Silver
Lining, he exploded. He swelled and he grew and he hissed and he
spit like a cat, and he was so angry that he hovered in between
different shapes, not quite one and not yet another. The skies
shook, and all the clouds in his kingdom scurried away in ragged
fright - all except the little puff clouds, who knew they ought
to stay with Emma. Shivering in fear but bravely standing by her,
they crouched behind her legs.
"How dare you?" the Cloud Prince shrieked. "How
dare you bring my Silver Lining back to me all full of holes!"
He swelled and he grew and he spit and he hissed and he twisted
furiously around and around until he became a whirling, screaming
funnel of black winds hissing and spitting out lightning and thunder.
He blew the little puff clouds out of the way, and two big ugly
metal-gray clouds swept Emma off her feet.
"Where are you taking me?" she cried, very much afraid.
But their only answer was a howling wind. Emma felt herself being
blown through the air like a sail. Ahead of her, she saw the ominous
mushroom shape of a towering Storm Cloud Castle. Lurid green lightning
flashed all around it, and when they flew into its wall of freezing
rain and hail, blackness closed in around her.
She could feel the rain and the hail raking her face like pieces
of broken glass, but she couldn't see where they were going, and
she couldn't hear anything but the howling wind. Something hard
struck her outstretched arm, and when the green lightning flashed,
she caught glimpses of things hurtling past her in the storm -
leaves, pinecones, branches, frogs, little birds, and one wet and
bedraggled looking seagull.
The wind became so hard that it almost took Emma's breath away,
and it rose to such a screaming whine that she thought her eardrums
would burst - then, she felt herself tossed into space, where she
tumbled around but did not fall. The wind had stopped. She floated
like an astronaut in a spaceship, weightless, gently turning upside
down and sideways, but not really knowing which way was up and
which way was down.
Everything was still so dark she couldn't see
a thing - until she saw the Silver Lining flung toward her and
beginning to float weightlessly just as she was. The Silver Lining
glowed with a dim, phosphorescent kind of light, barely enough
for Emma to see that she had been thrown into a hole in the middle
of the Storm Cloud Castle. It was like the eye of a hurricane,
except there was no sunshine. All around her, in every direction,
the freezing rain continued to blow and the wind continued to howl
and the green lightning flashed. But right in the middle where
she and the Silver Lining were, the air was utterly still.
Then the thundering voice of the Cloud Prince rumbled the air
like the surface of a drum and shattered the lightning like green
splintered glass. Goose bumps raced all over Emma's skin, and her
knees shook like jelly. "You cannot escape from the Storm
Cloud Castle! You will stay in the awful darkness, surrounded by
the storm - you will not see the sunlight of day or the starlight
of night - until my Silver Lining is repaired!"
Emma tried to call out, "But - "
"Don't waste my time!" boomed the Cloud Prince, and in
a burst of sulfurous lightning he was gone.
Emma broke into tears. It was so unfair, and so unreasonable!
She cried hard for a minute - until she looked up and saw that
all of her tears were hanging around her in little droplets, reflecting
the sad, pale light of the Silver Lining. In spite of her predicament,
Emma laughed at her silly-looking tears.
"But what in the world will I do now?" she said aloud. "I'm
all alone."
The Silver Lining - droopy, limp and dejected - floated closer
to her.
"Except for you," Emma said. "And you're no help
at all."
Copyright © 2009 Sigrid Sanders| All Rights Reserved