The truth was, she wasn’t scared at all, and besides, it was much warmer up here. She’d flown straight up, light as a bulb, and it was only once she’d stopped and stood around that she understood why lighting that first light was so important. It was awfully dark in the clouds. She looked around for Oliver and it was only a moment before he was standing beside her, both their feet planted firmly in the air. “It’s quite nice, isn’t it?” he said. Nice wasn’t the word Alice was searching for. It was not uncomfortable, no, but it was strange, certainly. The cloud they stood on was fairly insubstantial—and she feared she’d slip through at any moment—but when she mentioned this to Oliver, he only shrugged and said, “As long as you’re hungry, I wouldn’t worry. It’s always best to float on an empty stomach.” Oliver was positively beaming. He kept reaching out around them, touching the dewy cotton of the clouds, running his fingers through their tangled strands.
