Klara and Maks find a ladder in the forest that leads into a secret land among the clouds, where a smiling cloud warns them about a rainbow door and something waking beyond it.
One warm summer morning, Klara and her little brother Maks walked through the forest. Sunlight flickered through the leaves, and birds sang high in the branches. Klara wore her favourite yellow dress, and Maks hugged his green plush frog close under his arm.
Then, beneath the biggest oak tree, they stopped. Something strange leaned against the trunk: an old wooden ladder. It rose and rose until it disappeared into the clouds.
Klara stared up at it. "Where do you think it goes?"
Maks’s eyes went wide. "Maybe all the way to the sky."
So they climbed.
The rungs felt smooth and warm, as if the ladder had been waiting for them. A sweet smell of flowers drifted around them. Higher and higher they went, until the forest below looked tiny and far away. Then they heard it.
A soft giggle.
A fluffy white cloud floated in front of them, with bright eyes and a wide smile. "Hello," it said. "I’m Fluffy. You’ve reached Cloudcuckooland."
Klara and Maks looked around in wonder. More clouds drifted past, some with caps, some with glasses, some with scarves trailing behind them like ribbons. Everything in the sky seemed light and soft and secret.
Fluffy waved them on, but when they followed him a little farther, he stopped so suddenly that Klara nearly bumped into him.
Ahead of them, half-hidden in a puff of cloud, stood a huge rainbow door.
Fluffy’s smile faded. "Don’t touch that door," he whispered. "Something on the other side has just started to wake up..."
Klara tightened her hand around Maks’s, and the rainbow door gave a tiny, glowing shiver.