{"id":548,"date":"2026-08-30T10:02:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tiquenervoso.com\/?page_id=548"},"modified":"2026-08-30T10:23:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:23:26","slug":"o-caracol-mole-e-o-cardo-picao","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tiquenervoso.com\/en\/post\/o-caracol-mole-e-o-cardo-picao\/","title":{"rendered":"The Soft Snail and the Spiny Thistle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caracol was different from the rest of the family; he was always very small for his age, slender, with a fragile shell, and very, very slow. On top of all that, he was shy and had few friends.
On a day of heavy rain, he got lost on his way back to his town and found himself in the most dangerous place for a snail, the cycle path.\u00a0
\u201cThis is no place for a snail!\u201d he thought.
After that, everything happened very quickly, a hand appeared above him, getting closer and closer, and grabbed him! The snail froze with fear at that moment, and just when he least expected it, the same hand gently set him down by the side of the road in a spot where there were already some plants.
\u2013 You can\u2019t walk like that amongst the bikes \u2013 exclaimed the voice from behind the hand \u2013 You could have been run over!
It was his lucky day. He\u2019d never had such close contact with a human before, and, to be honest, they didn\u2019t have the best reputation amongst the snail community.\u00a0
\u201cPerhaps not all humans pose a danger to us,\u201d thought the snail. \u201cAfter all, not all snails are the same; the same is probably true of humans.\u201d
The rain had already started to ease off and the sun was peeking through the clouds again, the Snail was wandering through the fields, trying to find his way home.\u00a0
\u201cThe ants must surely know a shortcut,\u201d he thought, but every time he was just about to catch up with one, it had already moved on. \u201cThese ants are so busy and so quick!\u201d
By this time the sun was shining, the rain had stopped completely and the snail could now recognise where it was, it had strayed a long way and would have to find shelter to spend the night nearby.
A essa altura, o sol j\u00e1 brilhava, a chuva tinha parado completamente e o caracol j\u00e1 conseguia perceber onde estava; tinha-se afastado bastante e teria de encontrar um abrigo nas proximidades para passar a noite.
Night was beginning to fall and the snail was winding its way round the town of thistles to avoid any interaction with them as much as possible, when it heard:
\u2013 Psst, psst\u2026 Are you lost? You look lost! Are you on your own? \u2013 It was a thistle that lived on the sidelines, and from there it could clearly watch the snail, which was completely ignoring it.\u00a0
The Snail tried to quicken his pace, but he was so slow that the thistle had plenty of time to keep trying to talk to him. At one point, the Snail found himself forced to reply:\u00a0
\u2013 I\u2019m sorry for being so close to the outskirts of your town, I don\u2019t mean to cause any trouble! I\u2019ve had a bit of a setback on my way back to Snail Town and I\u2019m looking for somewhere to spend the night. I\u2019ll be on my way early tomorrow, I promise!\u201d\u00a0
The Thistle replied:\u00a0
\u2013 It\u2019s going to rain heavily tonight, you should sleep somewhere sheltered \u2013 your shell doesn\u2019t look very sturdy to me\u2026 Come up here; you can rest amongst my leaves. \u2013 The Snail couldn\u2019t hide his astonishment at this invitation; he\u2019d grown up believing he should avoid that city of thistles at all costs, because all snails were forbidden from entering it.
\u2013 Thank you, but I can\u2019t accept that. In fact, I don\u2019t think I should even be here talking to you.
The Thistle looked at the Snail and said:\u00a0
\u2013 Trust me. The rain\u2019s going to be really heavy tonight, I\u2019m afraid something might happen to you if you don\u2019t get shelter in time! Besides, you can see the stars from my tallest leaves. \u2013 The Snail realised he didn\u2019t have much choice and took shelter amongst the Thistle\u2019s leaves.\u00a0
Once it was settled, he asked him:
\u2013 If snails have such a bad reputation round here, why did you insist so much that I should come up?
The Thistle replied:
\u2013 Did you know that thistles and snails used to live in harmony? \u2013 The snail listened, puzzled, whilst the thistle continued:
\u2013 Nobody talks about the old days anymore, but my grandmother still told me lots of stories. She never agreed to ban snails altogether\u2026 it\u2019s true that back then it was necessary to lay down rules; I know that some snails misbehaved and ate the green leaves of the thistles\u2026 But before the conflicts, the thistles and the snails lived in harmony; we\u2019re very different, and that\u2019s precisely why we can help one another.
We thistles, with our spines, used to shelter and protect whole families of snails \u2013 fragile, soft creatures like you \u2013 from the elements and predators. In return, you showed us the world through tales of your endless journeys. \u2013 The Snail listens intently to the Thistle; no one had ever told him about the ancient times before. The thistle adds:
\u2013 I\u2019ve always wanted to know what the world is like. We thistles always live in the same place, whereas you carry your home on your back \u2013 I imagine you spend a lot of time travelling. You must have seen so much by now! Will you tell me what the world is like?
The snail curled up on one of the thistle\u2019s tall leaves whilst telling it about his travels.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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O Caracol era diferente do resto da fam\u00edlia, foi sempre muito pequeno para a sua idade, esguio, de concha fr\u00e1gil e muito muito lento. Al\u00e9m de tudo isso, era t\u00edmido e tinha poucos amigos.Num dia de chuva forte, perdeu-se no caminho de regresso \u00e0 sua cidade e deu por si no lugar mais perigoso para […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":518,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"blog-tique","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-548","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiquenervoso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiquenervoso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiquenervoso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tiquenervoso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tiquenervoso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tiquenervoso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":560,"href":"https:\/\/tiquenervoso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/548\/revisions\/560"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tiquenervoso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiquenervoso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}