{"id":206,"date":"2010-08-02T08:06:33","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T12:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=206"},"modified":"2010-11-26T06:52:25","modified_gmt":"2010-11-26T11:52:25","slug":"cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=206","title":{"rendered":"Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"

My first new piece of writing in two months. Hopefully, I haven’t completely lost the touch.<\/em><\/p>\n

\tI fell from a cloud. It was a long way down, and I had some time to think, to reflect. Life had been pretty good to me on that cloud, full of joy and happiness and friendship. But then the cloud soured, and turned grey, and I knew that it would soon be time to leave. And when the cloud turned black and begat a thunderstorm, well, then I walked to the edge, looked over, and walked off.<\/p>\n

\tI’d been on a high cloud, way up in the sky, riding near the sun, and so I’d thought to hit another cloud on the way down, find a new place of friendship. Of course, the damn rain had cleared the sky out, and the only thing beneath me was the ground. I tried steering for the clouds I could see, but they shifted and moved and dodged away, and so I was left falling towards the earth, wondering what would happen when I got there.<\/p>\n

\tThe ground hurt when I hit it. I’m not sure if the ground hurt more or I did. The impact made a crater, and left me at the bottom of it. Then I had to deal with the horrible realities of the earth. Crushing pain, fear, anguish, pestilence, hate. They swarmed over me, dragging me further down into the ground, digging a pit from which there was no escape. I became a hollowed out shell of my former self, a ruin hidden away in the ground.<\/p>\n

\tEventually the earth-bound creatures became bored of me. They had had their torture and their fun. The foul beings filled the pit in over my head, and left me there to rot in the dank earth. And so I stayed there for some time, biding, recovering, until I was strong enough to climb out of the dirt. When they came for me again, I ran, and such was my recovery that I out-distanced pestilence and hate and anguish. Only fear could keep pace with me, but my endurance outlived its, and so it fell behind in the end.<\/p>\n

\tNow I was left looking upwards, wondering how I might once more climb onto a cloud. They had strange movements, and might dip to the earth, but it was easier to go climb to their heights, and so I headed for the mountains, seeking a way to the peaks. The realities had gone there before me, hoping to catch me, and once more I had to run. This time I ran at them, and their moment of amazement let me burst through their filthy hands and climb high into the mountains.<\/p>\n

\tThere, I climbed onto a cloud and let it drift away. I made mocking faces at the realities of the earth as they hooted and howled and called out from their lowly location. I smiled and relaxed as the cloud drifted onwards, knowing I would soon be back in the lap of friendship and joy and happiness. Many a blissful day passed on that cloud, and I made friends and lovers under the night sky, as the stars twinkled above. It was a heavenly time, full of dancing and song.<\/p>\n

\tNo good time may last, and the cloud began to turn grey and ill, and thence to black, and the revelling stopped, and the friends became enemies and the lovers quarrelled. Seeing this, I fell from the cloud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first new piece of writing in two months. Hopefully, I haven’t completely lost the touch. I fell from a cloud. It was a long way down, and I had some time to think, to reflect. Life had been pretty good to me on that cloud, full of joy and happiness and friendship. But then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[36,4],"tags":[21,22],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sRIK4-cloud","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":493,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=493","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":0},"title":"Our Land","date":"May 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Armies clashed that day on the field, as magic tore into mundane. Bow and arrow met flintlock, and fire from the mages was countered by the roar of cannons. Elves there were, and trolls too, and for once they fought on the same side of battle, the sylvan creatures using\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":227,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=227","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":1},"title":"I Cried as I Sung","date":"August 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I walked through the ashes of my life, and I cried as I sung. I sung for my prayers and my hopes, and I cried as I picked each hope out of the ash where it had fallen, and cradled it lovingly. I would then put them in a rucksack,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":724,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=724","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":2},"title":"The Journey North – Part 4","date":"June 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The three friends glanced at once another with bemused expressions, ones that changed as the shock of combat wore off from grim focus to delayed surprise, and thence to laughter. \u201cReally, Canere? You fired sparks at its butt?\u201d Ira, by now, was laughing, her whole body shaking, even as she\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":358,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=358","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":3},"title":"Breaking an Empire #6","date":"November 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The sixth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. The final month of training passed quickly, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":424,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=424","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":4},"title":"Breaking an Empire #17","date":"February 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The seventeenth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. It was then that a great shout rent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":312,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=312","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":5},"title":"Hia Breoedd, Part #3","date":"October 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the third in a short #FridayFlash serial based in The Four Part Land. Events that take place here will have a large impact in upcoming TFPL novels. Sighing, he settled himself down for the night, for although it was early, his planned arising and departure would entail a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}