Cloud Riders (8 page)

"Yeah,” Will said.

The giraffe farted.

Isno settled down, obviously less bothered by the giraffe form than the bear's. “Too neck long?"

Paul looked at his companions and smiled. What a group. Then his thoughts turned to Vicki and the comedy of events flew from his mind. He glared at reshape the giraffe.

Reshape flash-formed into a flying giraffe neck without body, legs or face. Seconds later he became a sunlit cigar with upward spiraling red and yellow smoke. At the tip, the fiery ash consumed the cigar and twisted into a beautiful plant winding skyward upon its cigar ash. “Oh, now I am a beanstalk. I do not care for being a beanstalk,” he moaned in a sound no beanstalk had ever uttered.

"Reshape?” Paul said, a finger to his mouth in thought. “Can you control your shape changes or do they just happen?"

"Why?” Reshape the beanstalk said in a confused female voice. “Do you not find me pretty?"

"You're the prettiest beanstalk I ever seen, Reshape,” Paul said, somewhat mesmerized. So beanstalks were female. “Wait a minute!"

"Wait me?” Isno asked, cocking his head toward Paul.

"Not you, Isno. Reshape is trying to make me forget Vicki and Holly have been kidnapped and he knows where they are."

"Yeah,” Will agreed.

"Almost worked,” Reshape said. “Call it a test."

"Why?” Paul demanded. “What the heck is this all about, Reshape? Is it about games? Maken Fairchild didn't mention anything about games. There's a little girl by the name of Vicki Sue Winsome out there in the clutches of some beast who calls himself Claude Nab.” His voice broke. “She could
die
!"

"Paul human like no beanstalk?” Isno sounded very concerned. “Pretty very beanstalk."

"A beast has your sister, mate? What about Holly, I'm thinking?” Will asked in a worried voice. “Blimey! You think maybe the same kidnapper took Holly?"

"I don't know,” Paul shouted as he glared at Reshape.

"Hey, mate, don't take it out on me, kind of like."

"Sorry.” Paul lowered his chin to his chest and took several deep breaths. His voice filled with a conquered quality. “Reshape, whose imagined life is this? Yours or mine? Or Will's?"

"An interwoven balance. If you do not mind a beanstalk's evaluation.” The stalk laughed as Will, Paul and Isno stared at it. “Perhaps a few less questions and more thought could be put on your goal, young Paul."

"Easy for you to say,” Paul said.

"Yeah,” Will said.

They flew slowly and Kid Badd's earlier attack became nothing more than an unpleasant memory. One part of Paul soared free, light-hearted, an aviator performing tricks with each change of thought. The second part marched boldly into how to rescue Vicki, waiting for an answer to visit in a flash of insight. At least now he had some human company. Trailing behind those thoughts, trying to keep up, a faint question on how one saves a solar system.

Reshape flash-changed into different sunlit configurations of animals, plants, bugs, tools and several household appliances. Will searched the sky around him, perhaps trying to spot the Horrid Ice Castle where Reshape said his sister could be found. Isno stayed hunched down watching as they passed other clouds, his small cloud comfortable as a soft pillow.

"Master,"
a friendly female voice came into Paul's consciousness.

Paul jerked his head around to see who owned the sultry voice. “Who are you calling master?"

"I didn't say anything, mate, don't you know,” Will said. “I'm not into, like, calling anyone master."

"Cat master?” Isno asked.

"I heard a voice, Will. Didn't you hear it? Calling me, master,” Paul explained apologetically.

"Master, you ride on my back."

Paul looked down at the fluffy white of his unicorn's back, then up to its horn. “You mean, you can talk?"

"You are so funny, Master. I speak and you ask if I can talk."

"You're talking to the voice in your head, mate?” Will said. “Get a hold, I'm thinking."

"It's my unicorn cloud ride. I guess you can't hear her."

"Clouds talk? You're pulling me."

Reshape flash-changed into a hyena and made hysterical laughing sounds.

Paul stared at Reshape. “What do you find so funny, Shape Loser?"

"Reshape.” He stopped laughing the second he became an elephant-sized red mosquito. “Call me Reshape,” he said without a trace of emotion.

"Maybe you need to suck some blood out of me, huh, you big bully?” Paul felt like a child testing a parent to see how much he could get away with, but kind of wished he hadn't put a voice to his cheeky thoughts. “You're big enough to suck the blood out of a dinosaur."

"Yeah,” Will said, wide-eyed.

Isno sank deeper into his cloud pillow. He buried his head between his front paws.

Reshape became a pair of red and yellow underpants. He made a noise resembling the blowing of one's nose rather vigorously.

"Master?"

"I'm sorry. Reshape and I were talking,” Paul said to his unicorn.

"Master. Aren't you going to ask me my name?"

Noticing Isno's lack of attention and the fact Will didn't hear his unicorn gave Paul the realization his mount used thought-transfers to speak. “You have a name?” he asked aloud.

"
Oh, Master. You are so funny. Would I ask if I did not possess a name?"

"Maybe, if I imagined it to be like that,” Paul said. “You have a name and you aren't giving it to me. Why?"

"
Master, I can do nothing without your wishes. I remain unable to give you my name unless you ask me for it."

"I wish you to not pay any attention to that rule and speak when you need to speak."

"I am full of joy!"

"So, what's your name?"

"Silk."

"Silk, I'm glad to meet you."

"Thank you, Master. You give me joy and the strength to maintain shape despite the winds."

"What winds?"

"The winds your imagination hold away from you."

"Guess I should have mentioned that,” Reshape said, now a red-breasted robin the size of a hippopotamus. “The breezes up here are kind of deceptively active in tricky ways."

Paul wondered if Reshape thought he talked to a complete idiot. “Apparently about as active as you find convenient?"

"Ah, there is my worm. I have no control over the weather, clouds and even you at times,” Reshape the oversized robin confessed. “Small limitations, I assure you, when compared to all I can do."

"Human sister?” Isno said with a purr. “No now lose?"

"Yeah,” Will said. “Holly?"

Paul took a deep breath. Some kind of protector he turned out to be. His cat had to tell him why he rode on Silk to begin with—dumb of him, and disloyal. “Yeah, Isno. Silk, go toward Horrid Ice Castle. Hurry."

"Good I?” Isno purred.

"Good you,” Paul assured.

"Master, do you want the name of the cloud puff Isno Gravity rides upon?"

"Yes, Silk. Does Isno's cloud puff have a name?"

"Master is so funny. Cloud puff is named Huff. It is no relation to me."

"Isno's cloud puff is named Huff? Silk is so funny."

"Hey, mate, does she know the name of my Cloud?” Will whispered, hoping his cloud wouldn't hear.

"Master, she pulled away from her family group of clouds. Their last name is Bunch. He rides Blanch. Blanch Bunch. They were all sun yellow and made fun of Blanch for her whiteness. Master. So she left home."

Paul told Will what Silk had said. “Why not ask Blanch to speak to you?"

"You're pulling me, right, mate? That sounds so weird.” Several moments of silence followed. “Okay. Okay! Talk to me, Blanch, if it's okay, don't you know. Speak!” Several more minutes passed. Will tipped his long body backwards and began to laugh.

"What did Blanch say?” Paul asked.

"You're pulling me so hard I'll have a limp for life, mate. Good one!” Will said between gasps. “You're making this whole thing up, I'm betting. Maybe you're nuts, but you're funny, mate.” Will laughed, until Paul's lack of response brought an end to his mirth. “You aren't making this whole thing up, mate, for sure?"

Paul looked in the direction of their flight. “Yes, I make it up. And, no, I don't make it up. I'm in what Wizard Maken Fairchild called my parallel-imagined-life. So are you, in yours. But I think we are all on our own imagination trip, all mixed together like some kind of stew that's still cooking. For all I know it's all turning into some kind of joke mush! Silk talks to me, I can't help it if Blanch doesn't do it for you. Maybe Blanch Bunch can't talk to anyone from England.” He grinned at Will. “If I had my way I wouldn't be the only one who hears my cloud. Okay?"

"Sorry, mate."

The reflected golden sunlight made Silk glow as if Paul rode upon a neon sign. His ice crystal mount, no doubt cold as the inside of an ice cube, felt warm to him. Will and Isno's ride remained white.

They traveled toward a destination not under Paul's control, unless the direction came from his subconscious imagination.

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Paul felt joy from his freedom of travel, but feared he didn't have complete power of command. “Charge toward Vicki and Holly, Silk!” This neither speeded nor slowed their forward motion. “It's okay, Silk. Go at your own speed.” Paul grinned, enjoying the ride and wondering what exactly he did control. The whole thing confused him and he had to press his lips tightly together to keep wisecracks in.

Far ahead of him, he heard Vicki's laugh. He called, “Vicki! It's me! Paulie!"

"Blimey, you heard her?” Will asked. “Hear anything from Holly kind of like?"

Isno awoke and looked at Paul with quizzical eyes, then dropped back to sleep. Obviously he found Huff very comfortable.

"No. I heard Vicki laugh, up ahead, Will.” A warmth spread through Paul as he mind-wished Silk to increase speed. The cloud's acceleration improved, Paul held onto her back through his imagination's directive.

Huff and Blanch kept pace.

Still Paul could hear Vicki's unmistakable laugh. The echoing sound haunted him. She didn't sound frightened.

A rainbow of sun reflections remained with Reshape as he followed behind the group. He had morphed into a toy poodle, turned upon himself and became engulfed by a giant hippopotamus wrapped in a long colorful beanstalk. “You don't have to call me Reshape if you don't want to,” Reshape's hippo-beanstalk shape said in a strange hippo-beanstalk-bear voice. “Call me anything you want. A name is but a name."

"How about Vicki Forgeter,” Paul snapped at Reshape. No answer. “Sorry, just being a wise guy. It's one of the things I'm really good at."

"Oh, Master. You are so funny.

"I was talking to Reshape,” Paul answered Silk's thought-transfer. “I'd never wisecrack to my ride, being as if you threw me off I bet I'd drop back to earth like an anchor.” Paul gave it some thought. “I think."

"Mate, you think I'd fall back to England?” Will glanced at Paul. “Or where you came from, kind of like?"

"Or you could imagine yourself riding another cloud,” Reshape, now an ostrich, said, as it lowered its head and became a large goldfish, about the size of an elephant.

Below them were clouds, each a potential ride.

Reshape flash-changed into a golden flying octopus, tentacles flailing up and down as if wings to keep it aloft. From what Paul could see, none of the other clouds could change shape quite the same as Reshape.

Far ahead Vicki again haunted Paul with her laugh. Then, from a far direction that defied location, she screamed. A fist of panic squeezed Paul's stomach. “Vicki!” he cried out. “Go fast, Silk, toward—"

"Toward sister's scream, Master?"

"Of course!” Paul yelled at his cloud ride. “Where else?"

"You are the navigator, Master."

"Do you know what direction to go?"

"I go in the direction I go, Master. Is Master giving Silk a riddle?"

"Find Vicki is the direction to go. Okay, Silk?"

"I am puzzled, Master. Am I unworthy? Do you wish another cloud ride to replace Silk, Master? I love to please my master, Master."

"You are totally worthy, Silk. I'm pleased to have you as my ride. I'm just trying to get you to set our course toward Vicki.” He thought a moment, and then said, “I order you to understand me. Please."

"I please you, Master! Joy and pleasure fill me. Thank you."

Will spoke quietly, Blanch keeping pace with Paul and Isno's rides. “Not to interrupt, mate. But are you saying your cloud doesn't know where we're going, like?” He held up his hand in a gesture of apology. “Don't mean to interrupt, but shouldn't someone know where we're going?” He pressed his lips tight together. “I've been up here riding Blanch for
five
years and never knew where I was going, don't you know. Going nowhere, for
five
years, all by myself, weren't I. Now I'm with your lot kind of, and still don't—"

"Will, we're going in the direction our clouds take us. So we have a direction, okay? We just don't know exactly what that direction is."

"I go in the direction Master tells me. Master is so funny."

Defeated. How could Paul navigate when the direction of Vicki's scream seemed indefinable? When one didn't know where a sound originated, finding it could be a matter of mostly luck. “Silk, couldn't you figure out where Vicki's scream came from?"

"We fly there now, Master. May I continue?"
Her flight remained uninterrupted or altered in any way.

Paul glanced over at Isno in time to see him lift his head and spring to his feet, legs braced, his claws digging into Huff's surface. “Human my! Bump we!” He bared his long fangs and blew out an open-mouthed hiss. “Out look!"

They headed toward a massive golden cloud stretched across the sky like a giant pillow without their cloud rides slowing.

"Blimey!” Will confirmed Isno's reaction in a loud voice.

Paul gritted his teeth and prepared for the cloud crash.

Will put his arm over his eyes and Isno did the same with his front paws.