The Everlasting Storm

"Wasn't there an island, over there? Everything is hazy, but I could have sworn about a year or two I landed somewhere near the Storm."

In the sky, clouds are feared and avoided. They represent the thick, poisonous haze below, where predators dwell and people are a twisted and deformed version of sentient life. And though Cloud risings are terrifying events where even the highest islands become engulfed in the fog for a day or two, they mostly remain below the inhabited lands. Save for one location, a dreaded place with clouds rising as high as the sun.

Stormy weather

The Everlasting Storm is more than just a giant puff of high-level clouds. Its insides are permanently riddled with lightning bolts and a heavy purple rain. Even standing, let alone flying, in its vicinity is tiring. The thunderous growls of the region can be felt physically, and drew away most people. Of the few daring, or especially stupid ones who went inside to check if it was hiding something, none returned. A few fell even before breaking through the cloud boundary, struck down by a stray lightning.

Worrying disappearance

While even the environment of the Storm is unfit for life, it didn't deter a group of settler from creating a community on a nearby island. They all shared the same characteristics: a thick skin and a deafness that protected them from the worst of the Storm. A sheltered settlement, they liked to live in isolation and never asked many visits, though they would always indulge.

Recently, it has been found that the settlement has vanished. It's not that the inhabitant left behind a deserted island, but rather the island itself has disappeared. Sometimes, the heaviest islands cannot maintain themselves in high altitude and go down into the clouds, the islet was a light one, and the air around the storm is unusually dense.

"This can only mean one thing that I was dreading. I had a hunch when I last went circling near the Storm, it felt larger, more menacing than before. I initially thought it was a trick of the light, but it is yet another piece of evidence: the Storm is expanding.