On a distant beach, a young wave churns eagerly anticipating her maiden voyage to the golden sands. The young ones must wait their turn to visit the shore, spending their time in a careful preparation resembling a perfect dance, observing the mature waves depart the middle of the ocean and gracefully break into dry land.

Lynde doesn’t tire of the stories told by her elder sisters, tales of colossal and peculiar creatures that inhabit dry land. Creatures she imagines as powerful as the endless sky. However, the sky she knows well, it has been there since the beginning of time.

When the night comes, all is quiet except for the lullabies she hears, enchanting sounds that the night shift waves perform to maintain the balance of the world. She gazes at he vast sky covered by a tapestry of blinking lights she knows by name. When Lynde first heard that, when they arrive for a visit, they are no more in their own dimension, she shed a tear. But now she almost envies them, able to travel for millennia, visiting all the worlds before their light dims and finally fades away.

The waves’ constant and natural companions are the clouds. Among them, it is Saethern she waits with excitement every day. He is now mature enough to carry the condensed drops of the sea to bathe the firm, luxurious ground. He tells her about adventures, how the land creatures react to what they call rain; how they tremble when his older brother zaps the trees with thunderbolts.

Today, Saethern arrived late, and Lynde noticed he was puffier than usual.

“You missed the last drops today. What happened?” She said.

“I don’t think I should be telling you.” He said, annoyed.

“And I don’t like when you act all stratocumulus with me.” She could be annoyed too.

“It is not that, Lynde. I just don’t want to worry you.” His voice was the tender whisper she knew.

“Worry? Clouds have no worries.” She laughed without a care in the world.

“Lynde, you still know very little of things, you are only allowed to point direction to little fish.” Now he was the one laughing.

“And what IS wrong with that? I remember not so long ago you also were only allowed to point the right direction to the wind. So, my time of seeing new things and having my own adventures will come.” He puffed up again as she said that.

“And you think going to shore and licking sand is all you are supposed to do for the rest of your existence, until you join your ancestors at the bottom of the ocean?” He sounded sad.

“And what IS wrong with that again?” She could not see why he was so short-winded today.

“You can’t even ask different questions, that is what is wrong.” He went too far, she turned around, foaming. He knew what foam meant. “Sorry, babydrop.” He knew she would mellow being called by her childhood name.

“Puffypaste!” She was in the game again.

“Lynde, I have to leave.”

“So soon? You just got here!” She said, trying not to show his visit was the highlight of her unchangeable day.

“I mean leaving for good.”

“Oh now you’re just pulling pranks like your brother.” She paused. “Is your family moving away?” She knew of some cloud families who relocated when there were too many of them, but Saethern’s family was not big.

“Fact is, I think all of us will have to leave.” He noticed how she began to foam again. “Eventually.” He added.

“What does eventually mean? Surely it won’t happen before I see dry land.” She was terrified by the idea.

“I overheard today there will be changes.” He said.

“The world was always like this. There is no change except for the currents, you know that.” That much she knew!

“This is bigger than currents.” He was always so uncomfortable with currents since he started carrying the drops. Warm currents would make him feel heavy and sweaty. Cold ones would make him shiver, and sometimes drop frozen rocks. He had yet to master how to regulate his inner temperature.

“Probably just rumors from your cumulonimbus cousins.”

“No. I saw the words coming out of our King Jovis and your father Nayray themselves.” He remembers those words well.

“If my Papa knows it, how come no one in my family talked about it yet? We waves talk all the time, there is no secret in these waters my sisters don’t know.” She said proudly. “And I will not leave!”

“They can drag you. Do you think it is hard?” He asked, smiling.

“Saethern, I have to see dry land. I have to, you understand that.” There was urgency in her voice.

Saethern stretched his arms, moving closer while Lynde arched herself up, gently whispering: “You can still do it.”