TALE NUMBER TWO

December 22, 2023

By Mikel Areso

Ainoa had spent the whole day in the countryside, with her little brothers, dad and mom, walking through the forest watching animals and playing with the water of the river that came down from the clean and fresh mountain. They had seen tadpoles, snails, dragonflies, robins... even a squirrel!? Then it started raining and everyone came home soaked wet.

She was really tired, but not enough to give up the story her father was offering her to read sitting next to his bed. The light on the bedside table cast shadows against the backlight that made it seem like everything was coming to life. What a thick beard his dad had! Doesn't it itch? She thought. She thought she saw a little pink mouse nose protruding from the dark hairs on his father's chin. Ainoa's imagination always took flight at the slightest opportunity.

• Yes or no? Her father asked with a smile that made that little snout quickly hide.
• Yessss! Ainoa said coming out of her thoughts. The one from Basajaun, please. Again!

Dad put on his story-telling voice and began to tell one that Ainoa already knew by heart. How comfortable she was in her little bed! She curled up like a squirrel and prepared to listen to that story again from cover to cover.

Her father was now telling that part in which little boy Martintxo found Mary in the fountain of the stone washhouse hidden at the entrance to the forest. Sitting on the edge of the trough, Mary dressed her hair with a gold comb while her gaze studied the little boy through the reflection in the water. The murmur of the fountain's stream coming from the depths of the mountain was getting closer and closer. Ainoa was about to fall asleep.

Mary stood up and walked towards her.

• What's your name, little girl? Mary asked.
• Ainoa, she said in a low voice.
• How did you get here? We are inside a story. Have you gotten lost?
• Don't know. Ainoa said.

Mary walked around Ainoa several times very slowly and without stopping to look at her. He seemed to be studying her in detail.

Then she stood in front of the girl, shook her hand and told her to remain silent.

- Shhh! Come. Don't say anything!

They advanced to a place where the forest opened a little and gave way to light. They found an old log eaten by moss and moth where they sat in silence.

It was hot. Damp heat.

The light danced between the leaves of the trees, making visible a number of small things that followed the rhythm of the dance and that we normally do not see: flashes of specks of dust, whitish particles sliding gently, delicate cobwebs that float weightlessly, some tiny insect that insists on crossing that abyss...

Mary took a breath and whistled something very like the song of blackbirds at dawn: delicious music.

Then silence.

Soon, another whistle answered him in the distance. She answered too. It seemed like they were talking!

Mary took his hand and held it in hers. She was worried and there was a stiffness in her face.

• He is like that; be patient, dear. Mary whispered.

Suddenly, branches, leaves, lichens and moss moved slightly giving way to the shape of a huge man, whose silhouette was barely distinguishable from the background of the forest.

But, when he tried to look for her, everything was hidden again in the depths of the leaves.

• Stop hiding now, Basajaun! It seems incredible that you are so shy being the old you are! Look: this girl is Ainoa. I found her lost, in the forest fountain. I think she can help us.

Once again the branches and leaves trembled to reveal Basajaun. Now she could perfectly distinguish the eyes of that magical creature: large and brown, behind something that could be a face, full of twigs, hair and moss, with enormous eyebrows and skin like wrinkled wood. That pile of living and dead plant remains, formed an enormous beard that covered almost his entire body. If you looked a little, you could see a multitude of small animals going from one place of his figure to the other: bees, butterflies, worms, mushrooms and toads. A squirrel collected the acorns it found on its way through the thickness of its hair.

In case you don't know, the Basajaun is the lord of the forest.

It is very difficult to recognize. You can only see him if he wants to.

He takes care of the forest and chase those who want to destroy it or desecrate it. He hides their axes, chainsaws and handsaws from them. He steals their gasoline, eats their lunches and punctures their truck's tires. Sometimes it confuses them and causes them to get lost or fight among themselves. Other times, he sends the wild boars, horses, goats and deers to chase them. Sweep the leaves to erase paths and trials and thus mislead the enemies of Nature who, scared, no longer want to return.

Basajaun slowly approached the place where Mary and Ainoa were. He knelt on one knee on the ground, a few meters away, without stopping to observe the new visitor: a small girl with black, alert eyes who was torn between fear and curiosity.

- Look Basajaun, this girl can be the one to carry out our plan. We finally have someone who comes from the other side of the story! I have observed her well through the reflection of the water and I know that she has a good heart and is also very smart.

- I don't know if we still have time Mary. Basajaun said. Things are going from bad to worse.

Basajun's voice broke, as if he were about to cry. Thank goodness Mary, snapping her left hand fingers, changed the subject to distract that huge pile of branches and moss who, deep down, was like a child.

- We have to talk to Ortzi. I know he is doing his best to balance the energy in the atmosphere, but sometimes this brings consequences that no one wants, such as floods, soil loss, hurricanes and droughts.

Urtzi is the lord of the air and the atmosphere: he drives storms, hurricanes and gales, casts lightning and causes thunder. Its bow of colors can be seen on many occasions. Since he is quite boastful, he leaves his enormous rainbow to remind everybody his strength and and announce his presence from afar. He knows a lot about clouds, why they form, when it will rain and whether it will be snow, hail or drizzle. He is a good friend of the shepherd of the great mountain of Gorbea. They both talk hours and hours about the weater.

- It looks like there is going to be a storm this afternoon, so Urtzi is probably not far away. Mary said.

As they keep talking, the wind began to swirl around them, stirring up the leaves; Basajaun covered them with a canopy of branches and large green leaves. It was beginning to rain: heavy drops of a summer storm followed by a sweet, special aroma unlike any other known smell. The pattering of the drops became louder.

• It will soon pass, Mary said.

After a while, the wind calmed and light broke through the clouds. The sun began to shine very brightly, but the feeling of freshness was very pleasant.

A stream of bright colors appeared to the side. Ortzi !

As if fallen from the sky, Ortzi landed in front of them. He stood up and brushed the leaves from his clothing. This Ortzi is very conceited, Ainoa thought.

• Egun on danori (good morning everyone), he said in Basque.

Mary ran to hug him and Basajaun stood up. It reached almost to the top of the trees! The sticks and leaves that formed his mouth now drew a kind of smile.

• And who is this girl? A new lamia? Ortzi asked.
• No. She's Ainoa. She got lost in the forest. She comes from the other side of the story.

Ortzi began to study her with those blue eyes that seemed like living water and Ainoa felt a little uncomfortable.

Then Mary intervened, filling everything with calm with her silky voice.

• Look Ainoa: Mother Nature (she put her open hand in her brest) has a serious problem. A problem caused by men. But we are all in danger if this is not solved. We can't do much about from this side of the story. We can only try to remember the humans who read us to mind about what really matters. That is the purpose of stories.

That's why you have to pay close attention, because we are going to tell you things that you will have to use on the other side once you return to your bed and wake up. You won't be able to know where these ideas came from in your head, but the truth is that you will have them there. Make sure everyone listens to you.

Basajaun spoke. He stood up and stroked his beard; Tons of little bugs ran to hide!

• “Healthy soil is full of life.” He started.
• There are worms, ants, mice, beetles, crickets, earthworms, larvae, fungi and mushrooms that are only the part visible to us. Bacteria and viruses that live in harmony, feeding on each other and also on the leftovers of leaves, branches and trees and other remains of dead animals and also their defecations. All this is life.
• Much of the water we have on Earth is stored in this part of the soil.

They do all this thanks to humidity, which is essential for everything to remain in perpetual transformation. It is the cycle of life and death. Dead, decomposing elements serve to feed the living ones. It is the transformation of matter. It is neither bad nor good: it is simply that way.

The Sun makes the trees renew their leaves year after year, feeding the soil with a large amount of matter that is used for its renewal. Also the branches and trunks, which are first digested by fungi and lichens that transform their cellulose into sugars on which other animals and bacteria can feed.

As you see, it is a balance formed by many elements, all of them necessary for this living matter to evolve eternally.

This soil is the substrate in which trees plant their roots to support themselves and obtain, above all, moisture, but also some mineral elements that are necessary for them to grow and live.

• The trees, in turn, are responsible for providing the water that both the soil and themselves need, because through their breathing (yes, trees also breathe, although in a different way than you) they first conduct this water that is in the soil to its green parts, and there they use it to exchange the carbon present in the air for the water that they provide inside their leaves: the plant takes the carbon and releases the oxygen.

• 6? CO2 + 6? H2O = C6H12O6 + 6? O2

They do this through their stomata, which are small holes in the leaves that plants can open or close to exchange with the air and perform this photosynthesis function. If it's too hot or dry, they close their stomata to avoid losing too much water. But then they can't work either.

The point is that, when they open their stomata, the water that they have brought to carry out photosynthesis also evaporates, going from liquid to gas, greatly lowering the temperature of the air that now moves away from the plant towards the ground (as it is more colder than the surrounding air is also heavier, so it falls downward).

The latter is very important, since it is the part in which the vegetation intervenes in the atmosphere, providing a large amount of humidity that will later be 70% of the rainwater that will fall again not far away and feed life.

Just so you know, a tree offers a lot of contact surface with the air: it can be approximated to 25 times the area of the tree's shadow. This would be the total area of your leaves. So imagine what a great exchange capacity they have! The amount of water they are capable of evapotranspirating is gigantic. A medium-sized broadleaf tree is capable of evapotranspirating 400 liters of water every day!

• Of course, you don't see this water, because it is dissolved in the air and that is why it is transparent. But it's there. It's just like me, when I disappear from your sight.

Basjaun snapped his fingers and disappeared. Then he appeared right behind where Ainoa was. Everyone started laughing.

• But let's continue Ainoa. Basajaun said.

We have said that trees, through their respiration, make water go from the soil to their leaves, and from there to the air, once they have managed to exchange water for carbon. This water, now in the form of vapor and therefore invisible, greatly cools everything around it, since the transformation of liquid water into water vapor requires enormous amounts of heat. And where does this heat come from?? It is steled from its surroundings.

Be careful not to confuse water vapor with the water that we see when it is cold in winter, we breathe out through our mouth and we see a little cloud. That's not water vapor. That's air with liquid water droplets. Cluds are liquid or ice suspended in the air. Remember that water vapor is transparent!

Well, that air now mixed with transparent water vapor, once it has warmed up to room temperature, will rise and rise above the forest, since it is now more humid, and it turns out that humid air weighs less than air without humidity. It seems strange, right? As it climbs, he takes with him the heat he has stolen and therefore manages to cool the forest.

That humid air will be responsible for taking away the excess heat and producing rain, closing the cycle and feeding the soil with water again and again, to sustain the life we know.

• But, if we are going to talk about rain and clouds, Ortzi will better tell you. He knows much more about it that than I do.

Ortzi did a somersault and landed in the middle of the three, as if he were a tightrope walker in a circus. A loud clap of thunder sounded in heir sorroundings, as his feet touched the ground. Mary looked bored with his boasting. Ainoa and Basajaun hid their laughter again.

• My turn! Ortzi said. Opening his arms and showing off beautiful teeth behind his smile.
• The Sun heats the earth, it began.

Every year it sends us the same amount of heat.

The Earth responds by reflecting part of that heat depending on the different surfaces that cover it: clouds, sea, land, sand, ice or snow. These elements keep part of the heat and return the rest to space. Each one behaves in a different way: ice, snow and white clouds reflect much more than stone or sand. But there is a balance. Well, it existed, because now the Earth is absorbing more heat than before, because that balance has been broken. And that's why it gets hot day by day.

• And I have to say that you humans are to blame, with your determination to grow and grow, taking from Nature much more than she can give you. You're going to kill us all!

The brilliance of his eyes gave way to a bright lightning with its huge thunder that crossed the sky.

Ortzi continued with his explanation:

• The air in the atmosphere, which is a thin film that covers the Earth, like the skin of an apple, responds to this warming by increasing its temperature in some places more than in others, which causes it to swell slightly and causes a pressure difference between those places. This pressure difference is what causes the wind, since it is about equalizing those pressure differences. It is like water falling from the highest place to the lowest. The same.

Air can contain water, just as your glass of milk can contain honey. Even quite a few tablespoons. It is true that, if you overdo it, the honey settles to the bottom. That is called saturation: it can no longer contain any more and then it falls downwards. The same thing happens to air with water. There comes a point when they can't hold any more and then it settles to the bottom.

When the air reaches this point where it can no longer contain water, it is no longer transparent and fog appears. Fog is precisely the droplets of water that have formed and that have not yet fallen because they are extremely small, so much so that the air for them is like jam for an ant: they do not sink.

Well, it turns out that the hotter the air is, the more water it can hold without precipitating.

What does this mean? Well, with the warmer atmosphere, there is much more water dissolved in it and, therefore, it can rain much more intensely, causing torrents and floods.

• Basajaun doesn't like this at all, because so much water suddenly dissolves the soil and takes it away, leaving the plants without their environment.
• Think how much it cost us to make the floor! Years and years! And suddenly a flood takes everything into the sea! Ortzi said.

The leaves and moss that covered Basajaun's body suddenly acquired very dark gray tones, announcing that everything he heard brought him very sad thoughts. Mary gave him her hand and everything took on color again.

• As you see, there is a balance between all the elements that are part of Nature that we all shold not interfere.

The afternoon passed very quickly, and Ainoa learned many important things for life that in the world I live in, people seem to have forgotten.

Mary, Ortzi and Basajaun insisted on how important it was that I remember these ideas and take them with me to the other side of the dreams.

There you will have to talk about this to everyone: publish posts in Linkedin, wrie tales for chidren, talk it in the bus or in the office and we have to save this precious planet together!

When she was most comfortable, in Mother Nature's lap, little by little everything around her began to fade and Ainoa hugged Mary while her eyes closed from how sleepy she began to feel.

A twig from Basajaun's finger in Ainoa's pillow caressed her cheek.