2. Come on, Little Snail!

Learning to respect everyone’s limits and to be patient.

It's been raining all night long. Little Celestial Fairy goes out of the nest of a squirrel which shared his bed of dried leaves with her. Suddenly, something bumps her on her head and she looks up. The squirrel is on the highest branch, collecting acorns for breakfast.

“Would you like some?" her new friend asks her, pointing to a heap he has piled up on a leaf.

“No, thanks," replies Celestial. "I'll take some nectar from those beautiful flowers."

And, waving goodbye to him, she flies towards a white bellflower plant.

After filling her belly, Celestial washes her face with a water drop falling from a leaf. Then she arranges her dress and runs her hand through her hair to comb it.

“I’m ready!" she exclaims happily. "Let's see if today I'm lucky and can find my wand!"

Then she jumps on to the ground doing a flip, but unfortunately she stumbles and falls down on something sticky.

“Oh, my, this is so disgusting! What's this?" she says rubbing her hands and shaking her dress.

“Hey, you, listen!" she hears somebody say. “This sticky stuff is my slime, which helps me slither on the ground."

And then Celestial sees it. It's a snail!

“I’m so sorry, little snail," she apologises. "I didn't mean to upset you. Where are you going so slowly?"

“I’m going to that lettuce field to have breakfast," the snail replies.

“Well, if you don't hurry up you won’t get there until dinner time!" says Celestial, amused.

" For me, breakfast means the first thing I eat when I wake up, whatever time it is, whether it’s  daytime or  nighttime,"  the snail answers.

“I’m looking for my magic wand,” Celestial says. “You haven't seen it, have you?"

"No, I'm sorry, but if you want I'll help you look for it when I finish my breakfast," says the snail.

Little Celestial Fairy believes it's really great that the snail wants to help her, but she thinks:

"If he goes so slowly, the night will come before we can start searching."

She decides to do something to make the snail go faster.

"Come on, hurry up!" she cries, pushing the snail from behind with all her strength.

And, suddenly, the snail loses his balance and falls over, with his shell upside down....

Please, darling, you'd better not help me. I'm not in a hurry, and besides, I like to go slowly, feeling the freshness of the wet ground."

But Celestial grows impatient. She has come and gone to the lettuce field four times, but the snail seems not to have moved.

“I've got it!" she says resolutely. “If you leave your shell here, you'll be able to move faster. We'll come back and pick it up la-ter!”

And before the snail knows what has happened, Celestial takes his shell off and puts it aside.

“Can’t you see? Now you can run!"

The poor snail feels naked. All his life he has worn his shell, which protects him and serves him as a house. Now he looks like a slug, and it's not that he doesn't like slugs; it's just that he wants to be a snail.

“Please, little fairy, put my shell on again," he asks her. “I’m cold!"

Celestial doesn't understand. She wants to help the snail go faster but he doesn't want to. What can she do?

And then, Sparkly, which has being making signals so that Celestial can hear it, whispers in her ear:

“Let him go at his own pace. If you want to help him, make his journey more pleasant... "

The little fairy hears the little voice and she realises it is right. She still doesn't know who this voice belongs to, but she's learning to listen to it.Then, she decides to tell some tales and sing some songs to the snail, so that the way is not so long and boring.

Finally, when the sun begins hiding behind the mountains, they get to the lettuce field, and the snail goes deep into the lettuce leaves to have "breakfast".

Little Celestial Fairy realises that there's no time left to look for her wand, but she's happy because she has spent the day with her new friend.

“I’ll look for it tomorrow,” she thinks. “Actually, I have plenty of time before the new course at The Fairies' School begins".

Without realising it, while keeping the snail company she has not thought about her wand all day long. What she doesn't realise is that now her wand is a little bit closer. But it will be a long time before she finds out. Her trip has just begun...

Would you like to travel by her side?

Respect the pace of others. Some people need more time than others to do the same thing.

Little Celestial Fairy thinks that the snail moves too slowly, because she can fly very fast. However, the snail is not in a hurry because all his life he has moved slowly and he knows he needs more time. Finally, he also gets to the lettuce field, and he enjoys a great breakfast-dinner.

Learn to wait if you want to do something but you can't do it straight away. Sometimes, if you get angry, sad or nervous, you do things the wrong way.

Celestial gets so impatient, trying to help the snail go faster, that she actually ends up being rather unkind. She wants to go fast to find the wand and doesn't realise that the snail can't go faster. Luckily, she listens to Sparkly and enjoys a good time instead of getting more and more nervous.