Malachite’s first cloud making lesson was an unexpected event. Jade had to make a journey to visit here favorite Aunt, Marble, which meant that Granite had to take his 4 year old son Malachite with him on his daily cloud making chore.

Malachite loved watching his father make clouds. Granite would always start out by clearing his head by slurping up a gallon of water then he would shake the entire upper half of his body. Water would spray everywhere as the giant dragon’s head would shake like a wet dog.

He would then take a few deep inhales of air to get his internal burners primed and steam would start to come out of his nostrils. A few more deep breaths and suddenly there was a cloud climbing to the sky. Malachite jumped for joy. The youngster let out a yell, but instead of sound a small flame popped out of his mouth. The fire burnt the tail of an on looking sparrow. The bird quickly flew into the stream to cool his tail and gave Malachite a nasty look.

“Well my boy, your first flame,” Granite beamed with pride, “you should drink some water to cool your throat.”

Malachite took a drink, steam started coming out of his nose. He took a deep breath and there was more steam. So much so that the area around them started to fog up. Granite called over to Malachite, “please blow upward if you are going to make a cloud, your fog is so thick, I just walked into a tree!”

The birds that had been watching flew off for a clearing so they could watch the commotion more closely. Malachite grinned with pride. A thick low lying fog was one of his Grandfather’s specialties. He drew in more water and nothing. His little flame had gone out.

“No worry son, there will be many more days of cloud making in your future” Granite said, finding his way through the fog to his son, “you are a natural cloud maker.”