Luna hopped through the tall meadow grass, her whiskers brushing golden wildflowers. The sky was wide and blue, stretching over every side.
Something white and fluffy drifted down from the sky and bumped right into her nose. She sniffed — it smelled like rain on warm stones! The little cloud wobbled in the grass like a dandelion seed caught in a breeze.
Luna gathered the cloud into the curve of her ears and began hopping toward the tall oak trees. The branches above knotted together so tightly that not even a breeze could slip through.
The cloud pressed flat against her fur, cool and damp. Luna squeezed her eyes shut and pushed sideways through a narrow gap — thistles scratched her ears.
She emerged into a field of sunflowers taller than she was. The cloud drifted upward — bump, bump, bump — against the broad green leaves. Too heavy with ground-air to rise.
Luna hopped from sunflower to sunflower, lifting the cloud with each jump. Her back paws ached and her whiskers stuck to its damp surface.
Luna climbed the smooth gray boulder at the meadow's edge and stretched her paws as high as she could. But the sky was impossibly far.
A gust of wind whipped through the valley, carrying the smell of cold rain. The little cloud tugged at her ears like a kite string pulling taut.
Luna leaped onto the wind current and rode it upward. The little cloud was tucked safely between her ears as the meadow shrank to a green blanket far below.
She watched as the small cloud drifted free and merged with a larger one overhead. The sky shivered with a soft golden light, painting the grass in warm stripes.
The golden light poured down over the meadow like honey. Luna smiled and curled up on her wind cushion, drifting among the clouds.
Far below, the meadow slept under golden stripes. The little cloud had found its home in the sky, and Luna had found her way back down.