The Cloud People
Long ago the earth was beautiful and new. The air sparkled, the sky glistened, the water glowed, and all the people that lived on the earth just called themselves the Earth People. In this Time of Legends, as it was called, the planet lived and breathed, and all living things were able to communicate freely with the wise and powerful earth. All the creatures of the land and sea and air understood the earth's desires and instructions.
The humans of the land lived their lives peacefully. They worked all day under the warm sun, and at night they gathered under the sky to watch the millions of stars twinkle in the heavens. They were happy.
In one corner of the planet, life was no different; the people enjoyed their existence, they liked their lives... except for a few, a few who were never happy, a few who wanted more than the earth offered. Those few didn't appreciate how good life was, and they showed bitterness toward the other people who were happy. The unhappy people shut themselves up in their houses and dwelled on contrary things. They were contrary people, and they studied meanness. They collected and studied all types of meanness they could find. They looked for it everywhere, and they brought it into their homes. They stirred the meanness around, and they boiled it down. They distilled it, and dried it, and rendered it into powders and potions. The contrary people found that their potions of meanness had great power. The potions and powders could make mountains shake. They could make rivers stand still. They could make the sky go black.
They sprinkled meanness on the forests, and the trees withered and died. They spread it on the ocean, and the water turned stale and stagnant. The contrary people placed their evil potions on the creatures of the earth, and the creatures lay down sick and died.
Then the contrary people traveled up into the highest mountain cliffs and dropped the meanness out into the sky, and the sky filled with evil black clouds, clouds so thick that the contrary people could step off the mountain onto the clouds and walk about. And they did. They rode off on the black clouds, and from then on they called themselves the Cloud People.
The Earth People looked up into the sky at the black clouds, and when they did, a stinging rain fell onto their faces, burning their skin and blinding their eyes. The rain withered and scorched everything it fell upon.
The Earth People pleaded with the Cloud People to stop the rain and give up their black clouds. But the Cloud People laughed. They didn't care. They were high in the sky looking down, and they refused to give up their lofty perch.
The Earth People spent day after day in their houses watching the black rain fall. Occasionally a night breeze would blow the clouds back, and the Earth People would gather out under the stars like they had in the past. Then, together, they discussed how to solve their terrible problem. Time was short, for each day the clouds would roll back in and the stinging drizzle would continue killing the land.
Finally a decision was made to seek out the help of the wise and powerful earth. They knew that the earth itself, the earth they walked upon and treasured would have an answer. A group was formed and they traveled far across the dying and perilous wilderness to deep caverns that would lead them underground to the earth's heart. To speak to the planet's heart was something only the very brave would attempt, because the earth's power roiled with danger and unpredictability for creatures as frail as humans. But after hearing the Earth People's plea, the earth agreed to help.
The earth then consulted with the wind, and the wind knew what to do. The wind raised a great maelstrom about the mountains that carried the black clouds and the Cloud People away from the ravaged land. And the wind kept blowing. It blew the black clouds away from the mountains and over the plains, across the plains and over a great sea. The Cloud People trembled and cried out in fear as they sped over the landscape. It seemed the wind would never stop blowing.
But eventually the wind did relent. And when the Cloud People looked down from their lofty perch they found themselves over a vast and barren desert. They didn't have the ability to return back to the mountains they had come from, so there they stayed. The rain from their dark clouds still fell like it had all this time, but the stinging rain fell on the barren sands. It could do no harm. The desert sands were stronger than the black rain. The sand absorbed the rain and remained unharmed. And then one day, the desert began to bloom. Fabulous greenery topped with bursts of flowering blossoms sprang from the ground. Trees thick with fruit erupted out of the rocks. Birds and other wild creatures arrived to lounge in the lush beauty of the oasis. The Cloud People discovered that the desert was more tenacious than any meanness dropped upon it. So when the black rain fell, it was a blessing to the desert. Any rain is a blessing to a desert that may not see rain for years at a time.
When the cloud people looked down at the lush oasis they fell in love with what they saw. They yearned to walk among the fabulous plants and flowers. They cried to the wind to help get them off the clouds so they could go down to the desert oasis. They promised to give up their evil ways... and their black rain. They would have promised anything. They desired the oasis that much.
The wind heard and, without explanation, blew them back out of the desert and over the ocean, across the plains and to the mountains. And there the Cloud People were able to walk off the clouds and back down to earth.
The Cloud People left for the desert and the oasis they longed for immediately. They left the mountains and traversed the plains. They sailed across the ocean and set out for the desert. The journey took months, but the vision of the paradise burned in their memories.
When they reached the desert, they plunged into the sandy wasteland in search of their vision. But when they got to the place where they thought the oasis should be, it wasn't there. The beautiful place had gone back into the sand, only to bloom again another time. The Cloud People refused to believe the paradise was gone. They continued to search. They searched deeper into the desert than anyone had ever gone before. The vision of the oasis possessed them, they couldn't let it go. They wandered so far into the desert they were never able to find their way back. The Cloud People were never seen again.
Eventually, the black clouds around the mountains faded and drifted away, and the Earth People resumed their peaceful life. And whenever someone thought of dwelling on any sort of evil or any contrary thing, they were reminded of the Cloud People's story. And as proof, they were told to look up at the shadow of black that still clung to the undersides of the clouds. It was there then. It is there now. It will always be there.
