The cloud that kept searching for the rainbow

ONCE UPON A TIME, or rather, on a sunny summer day to be more exact, there was a white cloud that flew carefree above the blue skies of Greece. So much did he even enjoy summer time, that he travelled all lengths and breadths of our country: from high Olympus, till the islands of the Aegean, and from Thrace till Rhodes and Crete. And he would have kept flying carefree forever, had the storms of autumn not come.

When one autumn day he happened to fly above Athens, two dark grey clouds appeared in front of him, ready to start a storm. So much did he love the blue skies, however, that he got scared and ran as far away from them as he could. “I barely made it out alive”, he thought and didn’t stop to look behind not even for a moment. As soon as he was far away, however, he got curious as to whether they had followed him and whether there was a storm raging. He then looked behind, only to be encountered with the most beautiful sight of his life: the rainbow.

So enchanted was he by its beautiful colors, that he ran to catch it. Yet being close to it, the rainbow dissolved and disappeared in the skies. “You won’t catch me that easy”, he heard a voice telling him from a distance. He got furious, and promised to himself not to rest until he had caught it.

First, he flew above Egypt and the Pyramids, yet no rainbow was to be found. Then, above desert Sahara where the Bedouins with their camels found it hard to believe their eyes. “We never see a rainbow around here, as it never rains”, they explained to him, and he realized he should look even further.

Our good cloud did his best, and flew above even more seas and oceans, until he eventually reached distant Australia. Yet the skies he found were so clear, that the cloud found it hard to believe. “It’s because we have Spring in the southern hemisphere when it’s Autumn in Greece”, a tall mountain that was standing at the same spot for ages told him, and our good cloud realized he should search even further to find a rainbow.

He, then, flew above cold Antarctica, where it, anyway, never rained and where he felt so cold, he would freeze. And then, above even more seas and oceans, until he found himself in distant England. “Well, it never stops raining here, so you’d be very lucky to find a rainbow”, a bird that flew high to the clouds told him. Seeing his journey wasn’t  really getting him closer to his goal, our good cloud decided to return to Greece.

He travelled above even more countries, until he finally made it to the same spot from where he started: Greece. Yet, so many months had passed, that the other clouds had forgotten him. “Don’t you remember me?”, he asked them angrily. So mad did he get, even, that his color changed from white to black, and ferocious thunders came out of him, echoing through the skies. So loud was his cry, even, that the other clouds hid behind the mountains to be safe.

After letting all his despair out, he saw a colorful rainbow coming out of his raindrops. And the sight was more beautiful this time than he would have ever possibly imagined. “What I could find nowhere else in the world is what I found just in the place where I first started!”, he exclaimed, and the other clouds went out of their hideouts to see what had happened.

They were then met with something totally unexpected: the cloud, lighter and whiter than ever  before, was painted with the colors of the rays of the rainbow. So beautiful was the sight, even, that they could compare it to the greatest paintings from all over the world.