Ree-Imagined Worlds

One day, a cloud dropped the seed it was holding.

The cloud hadn’t quite meant to drop it right at that very moment, but these things happen, and then they happen as they will. So the cloud didn’t worry about the seed and floated on its way.

The seed twisted and twirled around in the blue sky.

It bounced off the edges of other clouds, it floated in breezes, trade winds, zephyrs and gusts, and on one occasion, it narrowly skimmed a flock of birds chattering loudly to each other.

When the seed finally floated out of the blue sky, there were mountains, then tall towers of trees, then lots of branches and leaves wrapped in misty memories of clouds and, finally, the ground of earth and moss and dirt.

The cloud seed landed on a newly growing tree. So new, it was still growing out of its fallen tree fruit and didn’t yet have any leaves. The tree didn’t mind the cloud seed, and the cloud seed decided not to float further.

The tree slowly grew and grew and it had clouds for leaves.

The clouds told the tree trunk and branches of life in blue skies, thin air, ice-cold wind currents, rays of sun, and of gathering rains and growing in furies of storms. The tree shared its memories of earth, filtered sunlight, birdsong, and the myriad creatures who looked to it as a home.

Sometimes some of the clouds eased off the tree to join the mists and fogs rising into the cloud skies, and sometimes new tendrils of clouds descended to visit the clouds of the tree.

Sometimes a human traveller stumbled across the tree of clouds. Usually lost, they would stare earnestly at the tree, give it a wide berth, sometimes bravely rest against its trunk, thread their fingers disbelievingly through its cloud-leaves.

Sometimes a traveller left a love heart. Either drawn in the cloud leaves or in the press of an open palm, or even a little token hanging from a branch. Then they would be ready to move on, beyond the tree.

The tree accepted these touches and gave them to the clouds take into the sky.

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Backstory: I got the idea of a Tree made of Clouds one day at school pick-up back in mid-2023. Unusually for me, I was able to draw a tree of clouds that I liked fairly quickly (in my autodesk sketchbook app, and then coloured and textured in my photoshop express app).

But. The words refused to come. For more than 6 months, words refused to come. Finally, I decided that maybe the tree didn’t need words. Then, the words came. This is the first draft. Maybe I’ll edit. Maybe I won’t.