Cloudy Amaranthine
Author Note
Cloudy Amaranthine came from a moment of curiosity. I wondered what it would feel like to wake up in a world that followed emotion and imagination instead of rules. Zadora’s journey reflects the excitement and confusion of exploring a place that reacts to your thoughts. I wrote this piece to capture that feeling of drifting through something beautiful, strange, and limitless, the way dreams sometimes show us a world that feels more real than our own.
A girl named Zadora found herself in a cloudy dream world. Her body felt weightless and her face felt cool and crisp. The air smelled like floral perfume. Puzzled, Zadora noticed she could only hear her own thoughts. She surged with joy when she found a sprawling beachfront villa like the ones she had seen on the Alicante coast. It reminded her of a daydream about a foreign voyage she almost took. The white-stoned hacienda sat near a steep cliff that overlooked a vast ocean smothered in fog. Wanting a better view, she leaped up to the marble-floored balcony, then climbed to the terracotta roof.
Peering out into the misty lavender sky, she observed that the clouds came alive in the shapes of sea crabs, racing horses, and flying dragons. Suddenly, the clouds gained rapid thickness and she finally heard an audible swell and rush of water approaching.
“Oh my gosh, look at that wave! It’s monstrous, and it’s towering over my home,” she exclaimed.
A monster wave crashed into the beach house, yet she remained safe and dry. Emboldened, she sprinted off the cliff and dove into the endless ocean. Zadora laughed as the whirling wet wind brushed her face. Swimming with impossible stamina, Zadora found her hip suddenly rippled as if remembering another shape. Her lower half shifted painlessly into a sea mammal’s bottom half.
Zadora came across a pod of blue whales that dwarfed her. The whales spoke to her through calm telepathy of sonorous music. The majestic creatures allowed her to stay close. She rubbed against the gill-like grooves of these gentle giants and felt like their kin.
As if inside a reverie, Zadora felt she had some control over what was happening. Zadora left the whales and ascended toward the sky. She rocketed upward like a flying dolphin, bursting through the water and into the sky. She transformed into a cloud spirit, losing sensation of her body as it shifted its form. She flew with the wind like a floating kite. Feeling an adrenaline tingle in her chest, she shouted to herself, “This is too fun!”
As she soared higher, she discovered she was not alone. Zadora was astonished to see mystical beings, pearly white spirits drifting innocently in the firmament. Their translucent wings shimmered and their melodious songs enchanted her.
“Are we still alive?” one of the larger spirits asked in a soft, sleepy voice. It voices echoed and vibrated in her ears like a stone dropped in a well.
Zadora, ever the inquisitive soul, replied, “Wait, you don’t know? How could you not know?”
“We weren’t originally from this world,” replied the spirit. Zadora paused. Other worlds?
“Where are you…,” she began to speak, but she was cut off.
“No more questions!” all the spirits responded in unison.
Zadora sensed a chance for amusement and raced them through the thick rain-soaked sky. The large spirit, the leader, competed with her in a sprint through the sky.
Soon she left her companion behind and powered through the atmosphere into space. With new freedom, she explored the dark and soundless infinite. She felt like a small deity as she glided between distant lights and unknown globes.
After ages of drifting, she discovered she could manifest young companions. To show them what she could do, she imagined purple sky leviathans for them to face. She defeated and enclosed these creatures without harming them.
“We want your powers” the children demanded.
With a benevolent heart, Zadora granted them the abilities they sought.
They soared together in the quiet blackness of space. When any of them grew weak, a single calling was enough for her to restore them. For a time, it felt perfect. But Zadora began to sense something strange as the children grew restless. A new tension gathered at the edges of the cosmos. She became aware of other forces, powerful ones, who were not as gentle as she was.
Copyright © 2025 Ameer Kiani. All Rights Reserved