Not a Cloud in the Sky: Chapter 1

It was Charlie who first saw it. Well, actually it was his dog.
Charlie was in his backyard playing fetch with his Labrador, Skye.
‘Catch, Skye!’
The green disc flew above her golden muzzle and sent itself hurling across the brown, wilted grass. She barked playfully and raced after the speeding target, her tongue flopping out of her mouth loosely. When she was within reaching distance of the disc, Skye leapt into the air and snapped her jaws shut, taking the disc back down to earth with her.
She awkwardly landed on her feet, hearing the sounds of praise come out of her owner’s mouth at her success. As Skye started to trot back to Charlie with her tail wagging in triumph, something happened. It has been a known myth that dogs have a sixth sense, an ability to see the unseen and hear the unheard. And this was no exception to Skye as she suddenly dropped the disc, sat on her haunches and stared up into the sky.
Charlie stood looking at his dog, confused at why she had not come back to him with the disc.
‘Skye?’
But the dog didn’t move. She continued to gaze up into the noon sky as if she had been forced to look at it. Still puzzled, Charlie looked up at the sky and was not at all surprised with what he saw.
A cloud.
A single white cloud in the otherwise, clear blue sky.
Though this wasn’t an unusual sight in Brisbane, he watched it curiously as it slowly glided across the blue sky. And as he watched, his unfortunate named dog continued to stare at it mysteriously.
After a few moments of silent cloud watching, Charlie shook his head.
“C’mon Skye its only a cloud, here fetch!”
He threw the green disc again at his dog, but this time aiming in front of her so he would catch her attention. It did, but only for a couple of seconds for as she ran over to snatch it from the grass, she dramatically fell to the ground.
“SKYE!”
What scared Charlie most about what had just happened wasn’t the fact that she had fallen so frightfully, but that she was making strange moaning sounds. He had never heard or seen Skye act like this before.
“What’s wrong girl? Are you hurt?”
He was afraid she had broken her leg, or worse. But as he reached forward to pet her, she recoiled. Skye rose to her feet and snarled at him, her teeth bearing menacingly. The sudden outburst caused Charlie to flinch and take a step back. It was only then he realized she was shaking.
She’s afraid, he thought, taking another step back from the shivering heap. As he looked into her massive brown eyes, he saw a mix of emotions but only one stood dominant, fear.
Then, almost like in slow motion, Skye collapsed onto the ground, her eyes wide open. It didn’t even take Charlie a second to realize she wasn’t breathing. With a choked cry, he ran inside screaming for his mum.
The dog’s body lay under the afternoon sky as the single cloud started to pulsate and wriggle.