If you look up in the sky, you’ll see the clouds moving fast. It’s not a given. They’re driven by the wind. Sometimes it’s so strong that the clouds literally run across the sky, and sometimes it’s so weak that the clouds barely swing. Where does that wind come from? And who controls it? They say there are wind elves who fly among the clouds and blow them away. There are many of them, but people can’t see them. They fly high and hide among the clouds.
Once there was a sky elf blowing contest. The elves competed against each other. They prepared a starting cloud, two elves stood on it, and when the race started, they had to take as many breaths as they could and blow into the pile of clouds in front of them. Whoever blew the clouds the farthest won.
It was the turn of the elf Thundercloud, a strong man who could blow away stormy clouds. Next to him, Breeze the elf took off, a tiny elf who didn’t have much strength. He took care of the pleasant summer breeze, that’s all. The two elves found themselves side by side. As soon as it took off, they took a breath and blew with all their might into their pile of clouds. Thundercloud’s clouds rolled far and wide across the sky, but Breeze’s clouds overtook them and flew at such a speed that everyone’s vision went blank. They flew into the distance at lightning speed. The elves watched open-mouthed. They didn’t understand where Breeze had gotten such power. He had been blowing with exquisite gentleness.
“This can’t be true! Breeze must have cheated!” shouted a dozen elves. The jury immediately decided to try again. Breeze stood up again, took a breath and blew into the clouds. They rolled across the sky just like the first time. The clouds began to swirl in a huge vortex. They bumped into each other and the little clouds became storm clouds that would be hard to blow away. Everything in the sky stirred. There was a huge storm. All the elves hid, hoping that nothing worse would happen and that the storm would soon pass.
The eldest elf thought and looked sternly at Breeze the elf, “See what you have done? That shouldn’t have happened! It wasn’t supposed to rain today. Breeze, confess, where did you get such strength all of a sudden?” At first Breeze didn’t say anything, and then after a short time he sadly confessed: “I didn’t want to be last again. I always blow the worst of all. That’s why I took a strong wind candy before the race today, so I could blow stronger. I didn’t know it would be so strong. I’m sorry.” “Breeze, what you did is cheating. That’s not the way to do it. We’ll forgive you because you confessed. But first you have to make amends for what you’ve done. We’ll help you. Elves, let’s go! We’re going to disperse this terrible storm.”
So they all got up and chased the clouds across the sky so the sun could come out and the storm was over. It was hard, but together they did it. Then, exhausted, they each lay down on their cloud and slowly floated across the sky and rested.
The eldest elf noticed that Breeze still looked worried. He sat down beside him and said: “Don’t worry any more. You have made a mistake. It can happen to anyone! It’s more important not to repeat it. And as for the race, you didn’t have to cheat to prove you had the strength. There’s strength in gentleness. You just have to know how to use it.” Breeze never forgot the blowing races. He hasn’t cheated since. And he hasn’t been sad that he doesn’t have that much power. He’s learned to win with his own gentleness.
