Mellowcloud

Mellowclouds are a species native to the dewdrop peaks. They are indistinguishable from normal clouds, but they are capable of thought, movement, and rudimentary communication. They are mostly solitary creatures, only interacting with one another to convey important information.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Mellowclouds are composed of water vapour and water droplets collecting together around a small fluffy cotton-like core. This core is the actual body of the mellowcloud, and is about the size of a closed fist. In the centre of this core is a small amount of lyathos, allowing it to float and, more importantly, to have some level of control over their movements. The water that it collects around it disguises it from potential predators, serves as a food reserve, and provides a bit of protection to the core of the mellowcloud. Older mellowclouds are much larger, having had more time to develop their cloud than young ones.
Mellowclouds are not actually capable of vision, in the typical sense, as they do not have eyes or any similar organs or appendages. Instead, they are able to feel the world around them through the water in the air, giving them a sense of their environment and what is surrounding them.

Genetics and Reproduction

When a mellowcloud grows too large to support its own weight, the core will begin to swell, collecting all of the water vapour and droplets from within its cloud. It uses this water to form more lyathos inside of its core. It then goes through a form of mitosis, separating into two different cores, which then each depart and go their own ways, collecting more water and growing larger until the process must happen again.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Mellowclouds subsist entirely off of water and the lyathos within them, through the process of aquasynthesis. They need very little to survive, but they collect the water around them instictively and are not in control of this collection, hence their storage and growth into much larger clouds.

Gray Clouds by Pixabay

Geographic Distribution

• Dewdrop Peaks

Mellowcloud Communication

Mellowclouds are capable of communicating with one another on a very basic level. They can convey information about dangers such as predators or intense winds, as well as point out interesting and potentially dangerous elements of the environment.
They can do this by changing their forms - they can become darker by condensing themselves into a smaller area, or become brighter by expanding further outwards. They can morph the shapes of their clouds, to an extent, as well. They use this capability to portray danger and direction. The darker a cloud makes themself, the more immenent the danger, and the shapes with extend on the axis of direction.

Mellowclouds & Sightseeing

Some tourists to the dewdrop peaks like to keep a lookout for mellowclouds that may be floating by. There are certain tour guides that like to describe themselves as experts in this regard. However, very few of these guides are angels, the only sapient species native to and truly familiar with the region; this is because cloudspotting is a stressful activity for the mellowclouds to be on the receiving end of, and it can cause diminished growth and reproduction. However, the angels do not do a great job of conveying this information to their visitors, and so the problem persists.