In the depths of the wood

where trees are close together and the light only just reaches to dapple the ground, a large clearing opens up unexpectedly. There lives the old oak, who tells the wind the extraordinary adventures of the wood’s inhabitants.

He tells it about Parpar, the Caterpillar who was always afraid because he knew a great Enemy lived in the woods; the beautiful Silverina, the waterfall fairy who fell in love with an elf of the trees; the old Rock, whose wisdom helped countless people, but could not save him from conceit; and about Ashur and the beautiful and sad story of his daughter, Bath-alon.

The old oak of the clearing knows thousands of stories and loves to tell them to anyone who sits on the rock in the shade of his branches, or to anyone who, lying in bed, can smell the scent of the far-away wood.