A Warning Too Late

   Clouds are weird!
   It was a fact that had many times entrapped Tommy Tigerson deep in thought. They could hold water, glow, race across the sky, block the sun from shining, and dissipate as quickly as they formed a variety of shapes on their errant journeys across the sky.
   They had no purpose at times it seemed, yet at others, they brought life giving water or the protection of shade from the summer's blazing heat. He twisted sideways more while remaining on his back so that he could get a different view of the clouds.
   "It's like magic don't you think Jim," he asked with excitement in his voice?
   "Yeah," replied Jim, "they really are amazing."
   They stared up into the sky for a long while in silence.
   Tommy's imagination was on fire as he painted his own world with the clouds.
   A looming tower sprouted from a field of cotton fluff, while a short distance away a chariot was pulled across the bright blue expanse nestled between two white mountains by turtles. A silhouette of a giant appeared atop one of the mountains, standing guard for a while as the chariot passed by, and then evaporated on the wind, becoming the smoke plume of a volcano.
   Day was just giving way to night when the warning roused him from his daydreaming.
   Tommy's world shattered around him like ice cracking away during the spring thaw. He bolted upright and looked at Jim, who's face resembled the clouds they had been watching.
   "Was that the first horn or the second," asked Tommy?
   "First... I think," replied Jim hesitantly.
   A moment later, a second horn blast rang out, long and shrill, echoing down the valley.
   "Oh man, no way," exclaimed Tommy as shock crept across his face.
   "That's not good," replied Jim, scanning the the valley and the sky all around them, "I don't see anything, do-"
   The shriek Jim let out made Tommy wet himself as his best friend disappeared from his side, up into the clouds above him. His own scream drowned out any thought other than the one that told him to RUN!
   His faculties didn't fully return to him until he had run halfway down the mountain path towards the village. His mind was fuzzy and his vision blurred by tears. He didn't remember leaving the mountain top where he wast posted to man the signal fire that was to be lit in warning to the other villages further down the valley.
   A dozen thoughts raced through his mind at once. Had he lit the fire? Did Jim really get carried off into the clouds? Did he really see what he thought he saw? If so, that meant they were real! They aren't real thought, they are just creatures of myth, used in stories to frighten little children. And young men it seems! Did anyone else see it? Is that what the warning horns were for, or was the village under attack?
   A quick glance over his shoulder as he splashed through the stream just before the village told him all he needed to know. There was no smoke plume coming from the mountain top. His heart sank into his stomach as the dereliction of duty mounted the already crushing failure and emotions that drove his foot falls one after the other as far away from what he had seen.
   Tommy crashed against the gate made from hewn logs at a full sprint, banging his fists upon it and screaming at the top of his lungs, wailing to be let in. He put his back to the gate and scanned the mountain path where he had come from, then the sky, looking for any sign of the beast he thought he had seen. Darkness threatened to claim him, creeping in from the edge of his vision as he began to hyperventilate. He kicked against the gate with his heel, pleading for someone to hurry. Fresh, hot tears bore a path down either side of his face as he screamed in rage at the mountain. He felt himself falling backwards, his body becoming weightless as darkness washed over his vision; The gate finally opened behind him. He didn't feel the ground come up to meet him as he passed out from sheer terror.