The Lightning's Golden Friend

High atop the misty mountains, where clouds brushed against stone, lived a very lonely sphinx. She had the body of a lion and the head of a human, but she had no friends to share her wisdom with. Each day, she asked the creatures passing below her riddles, but none ever stopped to answer.

One evening, as storm clouds gathered dark and purple across the sky, something peculiar happened. A flash of lightning crackled through the air, and with it came a tiny splash. Something small and orange tumbled from the clouds and landed right beside the sphinx's great paw.

It was a goldfish, swimming happily through the air as if it were water!

"Greetings, tall friend!" the goldfish bubbled, its scales shimmering like tiny suns. "I'm Finn! The lightning always carries me on exciting adventures."

The sphinx had never met a creature who could speak so kindly, let alone one who could swim through storm clouds. "I am Seraphina," she whispered, afraid to hope. "Will you... stay with me awhile?"

Finn swam happy circles around her golden mane. "Of course! But first, you must guess my riddle. What has no eyes, yet sees everything? No mouth, yet speaks truth?"

Seraphina thought deeply under the glow of another lightning bolt. "The wind!"

Finn did a joyful flip through the air. "Correct! And now you have a friend who will always return with the lightning."

From that day on, whenever storms painted the sky, the sphinx would climb to her peak and wait. Each lightning flash brought her golden friend, and between visits, she was never truly alone. For she had learned something magical: friendship can come from the most unexpected places, even from a storm.

And somewhere, in the heart of every lightning bolt, a tiny goldfish swims toward a friend.