The Wind Child

By William Propsner

Clear Wing floated gracefully among the wispy clouds of his world.

Daydreaming with not a care in the world and while floating on a soft breeze, Clear Wing could not see the wind web ahead of him.

Sensing something was ahead, Clear Wing opened his eyes just in time to avoid getting entangled in the wind webs sticky webbing.

He would have had no problem releasing himself from the sticky lines of the wind web, but his wings were still clean from the blue rain he flew through.

Clear Wing was a sky dancer on the tiny planet, Ragra. There were thousands of sky dancers on Ragra, but only the clan that Clear Wing belonged to could float the highest.

Sky dancers would float for days on end gathering sky dust for their cloud gardens. On this particular day, Clear Wing had gathered his first fill of sky dust and deposited it on his family cloud garden. Now, he was taking his time and doing what he does too much of, daydreaming.

Clear Wing’s father always warned him of his daydreaming, but Clear Wing would only nod in agreement and say, “yes father, I know, I’ll be more careful”.

And that was the end of it. Clear Wing’s father would shrug his shoulders and just pretend that his son would be more careful.

Clear Wing would smile and go along his merry way, out to gather more sky dust for the garden. Off he would fly to get up to where the sky dust was plentiful.

Sky dancers were very small creatures. Some no bigger than a blade of grass.

They had long slender bodies and six long skinny legs. Their two front legs were mainly for collecting sky dust and for protection. Each front leg had a sharp claw that could grasp sky dust without any trouble. They had long slender gossamer wings which were silent while they flew. On very rare occasions, a sky dancer had to defend himself from their only enemy in the sky, the cloud jumpers.

The cloud jumpers most came out at night so Clear Wing always knew he would have a few hours before he had to return to the safety of his home.

Clear Wing was the youngest sky dancer that was ever allowed to gather sky dust alone. He learned how to gather dust from his father, who was the leader of the Council of the Sky on Ragra.

His father, White Wing still held the record for the most sky dust ever gathered on a single run. He had gathered enough sky dust for every family’s home garden. Enough that everyone could stop gathering for two seasons.

Nearing the end of the gathering season, Clear Wing was daydreaming more than usual. He had his eyes closed for the longest time while in his dreamworld. He failed to notice that he had floated far past the home boundary. After a long period, Clear Wing opened his eyes and looked around.

After a few moments, Clear Wing found that he was long past the boundary and was also lost. He could not see any recognizable areas. He only saw the one lone dark cloud looming right in front of him. He knew he must turn around and soon. He felt that he was truly in danger.

Clear Wing quickly turned around and began flying as fast as he could back toward his home cloud.

Looking back, he could see the shape of a cloud jumper. He thought it did not see him, but then all of a sudden the jumper flew quickly out of the dark cloud.

Lucky for Clear Wing, the cloud jumpers were large and slow flyers. That is why there were fewer cloud jumpers than sky dancers. A sky dancer was a faster flier and could move quicker in and out of the clouds.

The last time a cloud jumper caught a sky dancer was long before the days of Clear Wing and his family.

Clear Wing flew as fast as he could toward home. He did not want to be the one sky dancer that would ruin the record by being the one sky dancer that was devoured by a cloud jumper.

Clear Wing did have one weapon that could slow the cloud jumper down even more. Clear Wing had the only silent scream voice that a cloud jumper could not stand. He had a shrill high pitched scream that most creatures could not hear. But it was deafening to a cloud jumper.

With one big inhale, Clear Wing drew in enough air and let out the longest silent scream he ever did.

All at once the cloud jumper that was chasing him and almost upon him, flapped his broken wings and fell thousands of meters to the ground. Clear Wing had made the cloud jumper pass out. He was safe.

Arriving home, Clear Wing began to tell his family what had happened and how he defeated a large cloud jumper.

His family listened with wonder. All except his father, White Wing.

His father was not happy.

After Clear Wing told his story a few times to his little brother and sister and repeated it for his friend, his father put his front claw on Clear Wing and gave him a good round of advice.

“Son, I don’t mind your daydreaming and your days of leisure. And I don’t mind that you come home with little to no sky dust for our garden. You are still young and you are still learning. But you must always remember who you are and why sky dancers have lived so long. It’s not because of our gardens. Or the fact that we are the only ones on Ragra that have seen what is beyond the clouds. It is because we are smart.”

Clear Wing listened to his father carefully and apologized for his daydreaming. He promised to do better.

“I promise father, I will be more careful and I will be a better example for my brother and sister. And father, I will make you proud of me.”

White Wing smiled. “Son, I have always been proud of you. No matter what you do in your life, succeed or fail, I will always be proud of you. Just remember that when you are alone and far from home.”

Clear Wing smiled and hugged his father.

“And always remember one thing son,” said White Wing.

“Yes, father?”

“Remember son, I don’t ever want to see you on a cloud jumpers’ menu.”

Clear Wing frowned, then laughed when his father hugged him and laughed.

Clear Wing lived for another two thousand years.

- Total nr. of readings: 1,943 Copyright © The author [2020] All Rights Reserved. This story may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author except for personal use.