Title: Cloud Basket
Fandom: Silmarillion
Challenge: Basket
Other prompt: Hot-air balloons
Rating: G
Length: 100
Content notes: N/A
Author notes: Thanks go to Zhie, Morgynleri & Runa for encouragement & sanity-checking.
Summary: Not just water vapor suspended in air



For Manwë's Maiar -- and some few, favored others -- clouds are not just water-vapor suspended in air, but pillows, purfles, entire ephemeral landscapes to enjoy and explore, play seeker and hider, push and pull and coax into new shapes, shaping the weather of the world in turn. A favorite shape is a bowl or basket, almost a nest, wherein a cloud-maia might curl, resting, letting the winds carry it hither and thither, the world laid out like a map below. When the Elves discovered the Art of sailing hot-air balloons, those cloud-baskets were inspiration for the first balloon baskets.