A Sleepy Journey To The Enchanting Dragon: Bedtime Tale

This is a bedtime story where you find yourself relaxing on holiday in a cabin in the woods. You step through a portal and see people around a tree playing musical instruments. You head over to them and they take you to a nearby village to a snow fairy who lives in a tent. She says she will be taking you to a nearby castle, setting off in the morning.

You head to the castle and get asked to go on a quest to a dragon that has hoarded something of vital importance to the land. At the top of the mountain range, you find a bar full of pugs. Through to the back of the bar, you meet a fortune-telling penguin, who shares a reading with you before you continue through the mountain on a waterslide to the far side of the mountain range and find your way to a room of nothingness where you encounter the dragon.

The dragon goes through an experience and returns the item of importance, which you then return to the castle. Before returning to the cabin and drifting asleep into Slumberland.

Transcript

So just take a moment to allow yourself to begin to relax and just let your eyes close and with your eyes closed you can comfortably breathe in and breathe out.

I don't know whether you'll drift to sleep faster to the spaces between my words or whether it'll be to the words themselves and as you comfortably fall asleep I'm just gonna tell this bedtime story in the background and in this bedtime story you find yourself relaxing in a cabin and you're on holiday in a cabin in the woods and as you relax in that cabin so perhaps you have the most comfortable fire burning in the fireplace,

The warmth tickling your cheeks,

Light and shadows dancing around the walls,

Just enjoying relaxing in the cabin,

The faint sound of birds in the woodland outside,

Just creeping through the window,

Sitting in the most comfortable chair,

The kind of chair that you almost sink into so deeply that it's almost like you become one with that chair,

So relaxed in the chair,

The fire almost hypnotic in the way it dances in the fireplace,

Relaxing deeper,

Sometimes lost in thought,

Other times finding your mind,

Just wandering as you wander,

Pondering different thoughts,

Really just enjoying this experience and as you enjoy relaxing deeper and deeper into that incredibly cozy armchair you hear a sound at the door,

A rapid knocking on the door and with curiosity you prize yourself out of that chair,

Still a bit dazed from your deep comfortable relaxation,

You hear that sound wrapping at the door again,

You get to the door,

You open the door and you see a woodpecker on the doorstep and it jumps back a step or two as you open the door and drops something from its beak,

It drops a small shiny tiny stone and with slight jerky head movements it looks up at you and it looks at the stone as if to encourage you to pick that stone up and so you carefully reach down,

Woodpecker keeping its eyes on you following your movement as you reach all the way down,

Take hold of the stone and it's so incredibly smooth and almost shimmering in how shiny it is,

With that kind of shininess where you don't know if it's just incredibly reflective or if some of that shininess is coming from within the stone itself and as you stand back up holding the stone watching the bird and the bird watching you,

Your brow furrows a little wondering why this bird bought you this stone but you thank the bird out of politeness,

The bird gives a couple of little nods and then flies off you head back into the cabin,

You close the door behind you and as you close the door you feel a deep sense of curiosity at the unusual experience that just happened,

That bird seeming to bring you a stone and while walking back to that chair you try and shake off the strangeness of the situation,

The fact that it seemed like the bird did that on purpose and you sit back down in that chair,

You place the stone on a small little coffee table beside you and you then just relax back into the chair resting an arm either side of you slumping yourself down,

Sinking your back deep into that cosy armchair,

Your eyes occasionally flickering and shutting for a moment as you become absorbed in the relaxation,

Your cheeks warming from the warmth of that fire and as your cheeks warm from the fire and you open your eyes from time to time looking around,

You notice something unusual,

You start to hear the faint sound of tambourine playing and your ears begin to focus more on that faint tambourine sound,

You start to wonder where it's coming from,

It's faint and you can't work out the location it just seems to be there,

You can't work out whether it's from outside or perhaps there's a radio on or some other device that it could be playing on within the cabin and that tambourine sound gets a little louder and while it gets louder,

So it reaches that point where you become more alert here,

More focused,

More curious you start looking around you,

Trying to figure out what's going on and you see that that shiny stone beside you is glowing even brighter now and you reach over and you touch that stone and you notice that it's giving off some warmth and you watch that stone with curiosity,

Seeing how it's getting warmer and warmer and you notice a slight glow coming from the stone and it's an indistinct orangey glow,

Kind of the glows of a fading fire in a fireplace and you watch as that glow becomes stronger and stronger,

Just a dim light glowing from that stone,

Spreading out further and further from the stone until the glow is beginning to caress the walls of the cabin and as that light expands around the inside of this cabin,

Inside of this room the sound of the tambourine increases slightly in volume and you realize it seems to be coming from somewhere in front of you,

But you can't see anything in front of you for it to be coming from and you look and pay close attention and in the dim light,

You notice that light seems to be almost becoming a cone emanating from that shiny stone almost like the light of a projector that projects a cone of light onto a wall containing an image only the image that you see forming before you isn't forming on the wall in front of you,

It's forming on the space between you and the wall,

Almost like a hologram that as the stone seems to be charging more with the warmth of the fire,

So that dim light seems to be turning more into that holographic image,

Becoming more opaque with every passing moment and what's forming before you looks like an African Savannah with a vast vista stretching out,

Coarse grasses,

The most beautiful orange sunset areas of reddy orange dirt,

And you can see some people underneath a tree,

Enjoying some shelter from the sun playing different musical instruments,

As the tambourine gets louder,

So you begin to hear other instruments,

Someone dancing around playing a piccolo someone playing a viola,

And you stand up and walk towards this holographic image,

Only as you walk towards it,

So you start to feel the warmth as if there's a warmth from within this hologram,

And the more you walk towards it,

The warmer you feel,

And the more you realise this isn't the warmth of the fire this seems to be warmth coming from this projection,

And those people playing the musical instruments are carrying on completely oblivious to your presence as you walk into that hologram,

And find that when you walk forward,

So the hologram seems to become more solid,

More real,

As the room seems to fade around you until you find yourself only surrounded whatever direction you look,

By this savannah,

And when you turn back and look back the way you came,

You can see this unusual beam of light,

Like a cone of light focusing down onto a stone but you can't see the stone,

Just a cone of light passing into a vanishing point,

And you know that the other side of that vanishing point is that stone and you walk around to the side of the cone,

And you look at the side of the cone,

You look at the side of the point,

And you reach down with your hand,

Trying to pick up the invisible and it turns out you managed to pick up that stone,

And the cone rises up at the back,

But then begins to fade,

And you're left with that shiny stone in your hand while you are here,

In this savannah and you hope that that stone can be triggered by warmth again,

To open a portal home later,

But for now you're curious where you are,

Why you're here,

And what this has to do with the woodpecker and so you head over to those people,

Playing their music,

And as you walk towards them so you notice the playing changes,

From playing seemingly arbitrary but harmonic sounds to playing tunes that you recognize,

Even most unusually,

A familiar yet distant sonata that grabs your attention,

That they could possibly be playing that on these instruments here,

And as you approach so they eventually notice you,

But they don't seem startled by your appearance not as startled as you were by theirs,

And they tell you that they were here waiting for you,

They're like the welcome party,

They were just in their own world they get lost in the music,

Almost like drifting into a reverie,

And they load all of the musical instruments into a wheelbarrow as one of them begins pushing it over the bumpy ground,

The instruments bouncing up and down,

And part of your thought as you walk along with them is that you would like to just be able to pad those instruments a little bit,

Because you're worried about them getting broken,

But they seem to just throw them in and walk along without a care in the world and as they're walking with you,

So they talk to you,

Asking you what your world is like,

And you wonder what they mean,

This all seems the same world you've seen this kind of landscape before,

Even if you've never been here,

But you don't interrupt,

You answer them and then encourage them to keep talking and they share about this place,

They share that you're going to a very small village nearby,

And this village will be the start of a long journey,

And you didn't even know you were going to be going on this journey just moments ago,

And you try and get more details,

But they're very vague and feel they're not the ones to answer,

And they carry on,

Wheelbarrow bouncing over the rough ground the sun,

Now over the horizon,

Yet the sky still has some red,

The sounds of the night time creatures,

The sounds of night time birds,

Filling the air,

The air much cooler than it had been just a short while ago as in the distance you can see the lights of that village,

And some flickering of some campfires within the village,

And so you head with these people all the way to the village and at the village,

They place the wheelbarrow outside one of the homes,

And one of the people walks with you and guides you to a small tent and they twang the line of the tent three times,

Almost like the sound of knocking,

And then there's a slight humming coming from within the tent,

And a slight glow,

And out of the tent flies a fairy and this fairy seems to be coated in silvery sparkles,

Her wings,

Her movement,

Like the movement of a sparkler as you swing it in front of you those sparkles dancing and jumping off of her,

And she hovers in front of you,

Almost as if she's sizing you up,

And she tells you that you've got an adventure to go on and that you should rest up,

Because in the morning she'll guide you on a long walk,

All the way to a nearby castle and she then shows you to another tent,

You settle down in that tent,

Listening to the gentle movement of the tent around you,

As the wind blows a gentle breeze the sounds of nature beyond the tent,

The most comforting,

Calming night time sounds and as you rest in that tent,

Feeling so calm and comfortable,

So you start to drift,

Peacefully asleep,

Your eyes closing your ears gradually focusing inward on deep relaxation,

As your body drifts and floats peacefully asleep sleeping so well all night,

Ready to awaken,

Feeling so refreshed in the morning and come morning there's a slight glow through the tent,

Of the morning sun,

And the tent gently pulsing in the breeze and you feel so refreshed,

You feel so relaxed,

It feels like just the right time to awaken and leave this tent like you've had the best night's sleep ever,

And so you leave the tent,

You stretch,

Stretch your arms,

Your shoulders,

Your back,

Stretching your legs doing a big morning stretch,

Breathing in that fresh morning air,

Hearing the new morning sounds of this area around you,

Beyond this small village and for the first time,

You can now see what this village is like,

You can see that there are many people staying in tents,

And there's a couple of small wooden structures but everyone looks so happy and interacting,

And the fairy comes and finds you,

And takes you over to have something to eat and you eat some food,

With those people you met the night before,

And then the fairy says it's time now,

To go and so you set off with the fairy,

Both walking through this landscape,

Walking from that village,

Heading through what looks like open savannah and walking all day,

And while walking,

You stop occasionally to have a drink,

To rest before continuing and after nearly the whole day of walking,

You notice that what you thought was just flat land,

Now has lumps on the horizon and that there are distant mountains here,

And the fairy says that's where you're heading,

The castle is on the way to those mountains and from the castle,

You'll journey into the mountains,

And that it will all make sense,

And so with curiosity you continue,

Following the fairy you stop and camp once the sun has fully set,

And the next day you continue on your journey,

And you can hear the thunderous rushing of water gradually approaching,

As you continue walking,

And eventually you come to a vast river,

The torrents of water,

Pummeling down that river and together with the fairy,

You walk along the side of the river,

And you can feel the spray of that water,

Tickling your face as you walk and the warmth of the sun,

Warming it off your face,

Almost as fast as it settles,

And this river leads to a waterfall,

And you ascend up the side of the waterfall the fairy just flying up alongside you effortlessly,

As you put in the hard work to climb,

And at the top of the waterfall,

You can see in the distance that this river leads right to the castle,

And so you continue along with the fairy,

Heading to that castle and as you near the castle,

You can see the bridge that goes over the water to the castle,

Situated on an island with that water parting and wrapping itself around the outside of the castle and with the fairy,

You head up to the door,

You knock on the door and wait,

The sound of that water thundering around behind you,

Heading off in the distance,

Following the river and after a moment,

The door opens,

In a very grand way,

And you walk in,

To a highly echoey chamber,

Each footstep you take,

Reverberating around the walls and you can see gold everywhere,

Massive paintings on the walls,

Light streaming in through stained glass windows,

Illuminating the inside of this space vast rugs on the floor,

And the footsteps echo around the chamber,

Until you reach the first of the rugs walking on the soft rugs,

The sound of each step,

Absorbed by the thickness of the rugs,

So thick they're almost springy and barely a sound can be heard,

From each step,

And you walk towards a throne at the back of the room and as you approach,

You find it curious,

That whoever's on the throne,

Seems to be shadowed from view the light streaming in through the windows,

Creating coloured shards,

Weaving,

Interlacing through this room and as you get closer,

So the light,

Begins to make your eyes blink as you walk through it and it isn't until you're out the other side,

Directly before that throne,

That what's sitting in the throne with a large hat,

Hanging loosely down from their head,

Lifts the hat and looks over at you and in the friendliest of voices,

And the most grateful of voices,

They say that their name is Balsam and you notice they're a platypus,

And they jump down off the throne,

They head over to you and as they head towards you,

So they pick something up,

Off a golden table,

They carry that towards you and they hand it to you,

They ask you to open it,

And as you do,

You see that it's a map they tell you that they need your help,

That there's a dragon,

Which has been hoarding things from throughout the land and there's something that they've hoarded,

Which is of vital importance to the land,

It's a lamp,

That brings the brightness to the land not the brightness like the sun,

But the brightness that we all feel,

That lightness of a pleasant hello,

Of helping someone,

Of being helped and so they need you to go and get that lamp,

They tell you that the woodpecker flew through space and time to arrive at your cabin to find you,

To ask you for help,

And it was your curiosity that led you here and they tell you that a gnome will help you start your journey,

You'll need to follow that map,

Find a strange land,

And recover the lamp and you look at that map,

Unfurling it before you,

And you can see the distance to the mountains,

And you remember you were told you'll have to head to the mountains and you do a longer sigh than you'd hoped would be noticed,

When you look at that map and see how far it is to go but the platypus just tells you to follow the gnome,

And you're sure you sensed a slight smile from that platypus and so you follow that gnome,

That talks with a deep and almost gruff voice,

And yet is encouraging,

Encourages you to a doorway in the far left of this chamber and so you head to that door,

And you follow the gnome up the stairs,

Those stairs spiraling up higher and higher,

Seemingly climbing for many,

Many minutes and you think to yourself that the castle is big,

But it didn't seem that high from the outside,

But you continue climbing,

And climbing,

Until eventually,

The gnome opens the door and you find yourself on the roof of the castle and the wind is rushing around you,

And the gnome tells you there's an expedient way of getting to this first point on your journey,

Of getting to those mountains over there and it was felt that that would be best for you,

To take the quick route to the mountains,

And you wonder what they're talking about as you look around the rooftop and as they carry on talking,

So you can see them holding on to something,

And pulling it,

And pulling it,

And even as they're talking,

Their voice is straining,

And they're almost trying to hide how much strain they're having as they pull,

And pull,

And pull,

And then you realize there's a giant slingshot on the roof of this mountain,

And they pull that slingshot all the way back across the entire roof,

And they attach it to what can only be described as a hook and then they go to the other end of the rooftop,

They look out towards the mountain,

And there's a mechanism that allows this end of this slingshot to be moved along the rooftop and lined up and you can see them working out in their head,

Maybe up a bit,

Looking back at you and working out how heavy you might be,

And they're making adjustments to the angle the slingshot will fire at and they're making noises like they think that'll probably be fine,

And they're moving the slingshot along,

Making subtle adjustments,

Squinting and looking off towards the mountains,

Working out the exact point they want you to aim for they then show you over to the slingshot,

And they say just sit down here,

And then they pull out the top hat,

They slap the top hat and it pops out into a top hat shaped top hat they sprinkle what you could only describe as fairy dust,

Because it looked just like that silvery,

Sparkly,

Shimmery dust around the fairy and they seem to sprinkle that over the top hat,

They place the top hat on your head,

Pat it onto your head,

And they tell you keep that on your head,

You're going to need it and with that,

They don't give you time to ask questions,

They're just to ask if you're comfortable,

And before you even have time to say yes or no they release the hook,

And in a fraction of a second,

You can feel the wind on your face,

You can see the castle disappearing behind you,

And incredibly rapidly,

You can see the mountains approaching before you and you hang on to that top hat,

Tighter than perhaps you thought you would,

And as you get near to the mountain,

So the top hat feels like it's going to come off of your head as you hold on to it even tighter and then the mountain rapidly comes into view,

This enormous range of mountains,

And the top of the top hat suddenly explodes,

And out the top of the top hat is what looks like a parachute and as the top hat parachute opens out and unfurls above you,

So the top hat seems to take hold of your hands,

In a firm yet delicate way and it seems to be directing you,

Turning a little left,

Turning a little right,

Catching in the wind,

Bit of an updraft here,

A little bit more right,

A little bit left,

Lowering down and you can see what looks like a really old structure here,

In the mountains,

And it seems like this top hat is guiding you into that location and just above the ground,

The parachute sucks back into the top hat,

And you fall the last foot or so to the ground landing on your feet,

The top hat in your hands you place that top hat back onto your head,

As your feet land and crunch down into the snow,

And the wind whistles around you and you're just a short walk from that structure,

And you look back at the map,

And you see you've already covered half the map,

Landing at the mountain and you see that this is the first marked location to head to,

And it's only taken you a moment to get here,

Although you've no idea how you're going to get back,

Because you're fairly sure there isn't a return slingshot and you walk to that structure,

And you walk around the structure,

You run your fingers around the wall of the structure,

Feeling the stonework and you can feel that this structure is giving off a slight warmth,

From the outside it looks really old,

And like perhaps it isn't even in use,

But it isn't to the point of ruins you head to the door,

You knock on the door,

And a small window on the front of the door opens,

One of those sliding metal windows,

And some eyes look at you through the window asking who you are,

And you explain who you are and where you've come from,

And then that window slides shut,

And you hear lots of latches and clanging and clicking,

And sliding of locks and bolts and then the door creaks and swings open,

And you see within this space,

That the atmosphere in here seems slightly smoky,

With particles floating in the air as the light from outside shines in the small windows,

And the dim lights inside illuminate those particles in the air,

And your eyes begin to adjust from the bright light outside on the mountain where the light of the sun reflects all around you,

Making it extra bright,

To in here where it's dim,

And you look around,

And it seems very lively in here,

There's instantly the sound like it's a lively bar,

Up high here in the mountains and as you look around,

So you find it slightly unusual,

That at every table that seems to have someone sat at it,

They're all pugs,

There are pugs drinking beer,

Pugs drinking whiskey and wine pugs sitting at a table,

Gambling,

Perhaps playing poker,

One rowdy pug,

Suddenly jumps up on the bar,

You hear some of the glasses clatter and shatter to the floor as it seems to start tap dancing and singing rowdily and pirouetting on the bar,

With another pug trying to talk them down and you see at the back of this space,

Is an arched door with no door in that frame,

Just a curtain across the space and the curtain has some tears in it,

And seems like it's probably hung there for many,

Many years and you walk through this space,

And almost like you've got a circle around you of,

Yes I'm here,

Look at me,

You walk through the space and the different sets of pugs just seem to stop talking and stop what they're doing,

To look up at you as you walk past them,

And yet once you've passed,

They carry on with whatever they were doing even when you walk past the pug playing a really old out of tune piano,

It stops playing for a moment while you walk past,

Only to continue again once you've passed it and you walk through that curtain,

Just having a feeling like that's where you need to go,

And through the curtain you find a really quiet room,

Even more dimly lit,

Just a candle on a table,

And almost no movement of the air here and sat at the table,

Wearing sunglasses in the dark,

As a tie-dye penguin,

And this tie-dye penguin seems to shimmer and sparkle the colours dancing around their feathers,

Almost pulsating,

And before them,

They have some cards,

Arced out in front of them and they gesture for you to sit,

And so you sit on the chair,

Opposite this penguin,

And as you sit there,

So they fold up those cards tap the cards on the table,

Shuffle those cards,

They then ask you to handle the cards,

To shuffle the cards and as you shuffle those cards,

They ask you,

Have a thought about the mission you're on,

Think about what you'd like to achieve,

The path you're on here and imagine imbuing those cards with your mission,

And so while shuffling the cards,

You think about your journey,

Where you're going,

What you've been asked to do and then you hand the cards back,

And you feel a little bit spacey,

A little bit like your mind is drifting,

And wandering deeper,

And deeper and they start to place a couple of cards out,

Before you,

And they put the rest of the cards to one side,

And they turn over the first card and they make a gentle noise of understanding,

They turn over the second card,

And they hesitate for a moment,

And they turn over the third card and they say they know,

What you need to know from this,

And they look back at that first card,

And they say this first card,

Is a sign and drawn on this card,

Looks like a road,

Leading to a forgotten city and they say that card says you're going to be heading to a foreign land,

Somewhere you've never been before,

And you're going to be going on this adventure and you'll see signs on the way,

That teach you something about you,

While you focus on helping others,

And then they move to the next card and on this card,

Is a row of concentric circles,

A moon and a sun in the sky,

And multiple circles connecting things and they tell you that this card is an echo card,

It's a card symbolizing being somewhere,

Doing something,

But what you give out comes back to you repeatedly,

Like an echo and it could mean something even deeper than that,

Because the next card,

Just looks like a giant chimney,

Like a victorian chimney smoke coming out the top,

And that chimney standing tall,

And they tell you that chimney symbolizes the release of something,

Like letting something go or perhaps lifting something,

Like lifting a weight of something,

And they tell you that what you need to move forward with your journey,

Because you're going to have to travel through the mountain pass and continue following that path to the lands beyond the mountain range,

Is to take a look at a specific book,

And the book is in the library and so they then show you to the back of this room,

And you descend some steps,

Now going deeper underground,

Deep into the mountain and you descend all the way down these steps,

And at the base of the steps is another room,

And they open the door to that room and they show you around this room,

And it's a vast,

Cavernous library of old books,

With the deep smell of those old books with holes containing scrolls lining the outside walls,

And then rows of bookshelves,

Stretching up into the darkness overhead,

And off towards the back of this room,

Beyond as far as you can see and they walk you through this library,

Knowing exactly where they're going,

As if they know where every single book here is,

And they find the exact book they're after they pick up that book,

They walk through this library,

To a table that's designed specifically for opening up old books and they place on some white gloves,

And very carefully,

And daintily,

They open the book,

They turn the pages,

And as they do,

You can hear the gentle tinkling of chimes coming from the page turns,

As if the book is imbued with magic,

And they turn those pages carefully,

One page after the other,

The sound of each page as it carefully turns a slight smell,

Wafting up off the book,

And then they stop at a page,

And they start to read on that page,

And they're reading to themselves,

Mumbling slightly as they do and then they find the entry they're looking for,

And this entry seems to be some kind of spell or incantation and they place something on the book to hold the page open,

They go and grab a tiny glass jar,

And then they potter around,

Going to different points in this library there are small drawers dotted all around one wall,

And they open different drawers,

Pulling out different items,

A little bit of magnolia here,

A little bit of thyme there grabbing different items,

Some sunflower petals,

The heart of a dandelion,

A four leaf clover,

And then with a pestle and mortar,

They grind it all up adding a tiny drop of water,

Sprinkling in a little bit of that fairy dust,

Continuing to crush that up and turn it into a paste and then with a very tiny spoon,

Scraping it into the bottle,

Going to a special drawer,

That's connected to the outside,

Through a large tube to the surface and as they open the drawer,

So you see there's some snow in the drawer,

And they take just a pinch of snow,

With a bit of a flourish,

They drop that into the mix and a little purple puff of smoke rises from the concoction,

And they swill it round a little,

And it's you and they tell you to drink this,

That this will help you on your journey,

It will help you feel comfortable,

As you travel through the mountain pass and into the new land,

And it will light your heart,

With peace and calm,

Lighting your way in the dark,

Allowing you to gently glow and you quickly drink the liquid,

And it feels so warm and comfortable to drink,

Bringing a deep sense of peace through your mind,

Through your body they then go to one of the walls with the scrolls,

They pull out one of the scrolls,

And behind it is a button,

They push the button,

And the wall slides to the side,

Opening up a hidden door they tell you this will be a quick way to skip a chunk of the mountain pass,

And they wish you good luck,

And so you walk through that door you hear the door shutting,

Sliding behind you,

You hear dripping,

As if you're walking into a cave,

And then you hear the sound of running water,

The same kind of sound of that fast flowing river and then the cave begins to be more illuminated,

And you come out in an area where you can see and smell that flowing water and you can feel the coolness of the water,

Of the spray tickling your cheeks,

And it seems like the melting snow from the caps of these mountains has seeped down into these caves and here it is flowing through the caves and probably out and down the mountainside,

The other side where you want to go and next to this river,

You notice that this bit of the river has been carved and shaped,

And just on the side is a wooden boat,

A little bit like a kayak and you know what you're expected to do,

And so you place it just in the water,

Attached to the side with a bit of rope,

Holding it in place against the flow of the water you climb into it,

Take hold of the oars,

And with one single yank,

You release the rope,

Hold onto the kayak,

As suddenly,

The thundering water seems to almost catapult that kayak down this fast flowing river,

Almost like being on a water slide as it rapidly travels,

And you can see the cave ceiling and walls around you flashing by rapidly while you shoot through this cave,

In a straight line,

Holding the oars,

Holding the kayak,

Traveling steeply down this river and after many minutes,

Suddenly the kayak bursts out from the exit of this cave,

Jumps down a small waterfall,

Splashing down onto the river below and does the same down another small waterfall,

And then another small waterfall,

Each small waterfall landing in a wider river than where you just came from,

And so each river being slightly calmer than the one before,

Until eventually,

You land down in a calm river that's barely pushing the kayak along,

And so you start to paddle through the water finding that this side of the mountains is dense forest,

It's so lush,

The rains are probably trapped predominantly this side of the mountain and you can hear the sounds of nature around you,

Feel the warmth of this environment,

The sound of each stroke with the oars,

Pushing through the water,

The left and the right,

The feeling of that water pushing back against those oars,

Pushing on the left and the right as the kayak moves carefully and slowly along this river and you continue on for some time,

Until you start to get tired and the sun starts to set,

And with that you pull up to the side,

You climb out of the kayak,

Drag it up onto the shore,

You tie it to a nearby tree you then craft a hammock between two trees,

You rest in that hammock,

Thinking about the day,

About your time here,

About everything that's happened since you just lazily sat in front of a fireplace you put your hand in your pocket and you feel that shiny stone,

And all that has brought to you so far,

As you drift and float so peacefully and deeply asleep to the slight swaying of that hammock and the next morning,

You climb down out of the hammock,

You pack that away,

You look at the map and see where you are,

You work out how far you have still to go and you continue your journey along the river,

And after journeying for some time,

So the river leads to a lake,

And you can see the lake on the map,

And you know this is the place to stop you're here in this strange land,

And you look around,

And yet it seems familiar,

And comfortable,

And just slightly mysterious and following the map,

You head away from the lake,

Heading deeper and deeper into the forest,

Brunching through the undergrowth pushing past branches,

Ducking and weaving around trees,

Smelling the scent of the forest,

Intermingling of different smells until eventually you find a rocky structure,

And you know that this is what you've been looking for and at the front of this structure,

There's a small pile of rubble,

As you move that rubble out of the way,

You begin to descend into this structure and as you descend,

Your body gently glows illuminating this space,

A slight dripping of distant water,

And you continue walking with your body illuminating the space until you find a door,

And above the door,

It says pathway to the room of nothingness,

And you walk through that door,

Following the pathway then you open the door,

And the sign above the door just says room of nothingness,

You walk into that room,

And as you do,

It feels like the strangest experience you stop being aware of each footstep,

You can no longer feel the ground beneath your feet,

Yet you don't feel like you're falling there seems to be no up,

No down,

No left,

No right,

You look around you,

There's no back or forth,

Just a nothingness,

A very comfortable nothingness where your body feels effortless and weightless,

That glow of your body just fades into the nothingness the stress and tension on your body from all the walking,

All the journeying,

Fades away,

Any discomfort you feel fades away into nothingness any discomfort in the mind,

Body,

Through the head,

The arms,

The legs,

Just seems to fade into nothingness,

Almost as if the nothingness is absorbing everything and yet you feel like you're still walking,

There's just nothing here,

And then in the distance of nothing,

You hear what sounds like deep,

Powerful breathing and you find,

Sleeping in nothing,

A dragon,

And you can hear that dragon breathing in,

And out,

Deeply and powerfully and you slowly approach that dragon,

And around them and around you,

There just seems to be nothing,

No ground,

No ceiling,

No walls and yet,

They're at the same level as you,

And sleeping,

And you're approaching them,

And as you get closer,

So your glow begins to touch their face and it alerts their eyes,

And they gradually wake up,

And in a deep voice,

They ask who you are,

Why you're here,

And you explain about the lamp the importance of the lamp,

And how this dragon had taken the lamp,

And they say in their deep and booming voice that they didn't realise the lamp was so important they're going through a process of transformation,

And this here,

This nothingness,

Is like the cocoon they're in while transforming,

And to transform,

They go through a stage of hoarding gathering up objects,

Different materials that they find,

Almost like nest building,

And the transformation creates a space of nothingness,

From which to happen it's not something people normally see,

Or witness,

And now they're more awake,

Where normally they'd sleep all the way through the transformation they tell you they'll give you the lamp,

And so you get handed that lamp,

Which they hand you from behind them they then say they're more awake than they should be for their process to happen,

And they now need your help,

To be able to drift back asleep,

To let the process happen and so they ask you to guide them back asleep,

And so you ask them to close their eyes,

And you say just focus on the sound of my voice,

And as you focus on the sound of my voice just imagine my voice,

Just gently moving around in your head,

Like it's on a carousel,

With fairy lights dancing around your head,

As you follow those fairy lights and hear some gentle,

Calming,

Sleep music,

Like a lullaby in the distance,

So faint you can only just about hear it,

As your ears try to focus on that gentle lullaby in the distance and as you focus on that gentle lullaby with your ears,

Watching those fairy lights on the carousel,

Weave around you,

Undulating up and down,

Up and down like they're undulating with each breath that you take,

Up and down deeper,

Up and down deeper and deeper,

As you watch that happening so notice the way your eyelids are getting heavier and heavier,

In the same way that your head is becoming heavier,

Like your neck and your breathing,

All the way deeper and more relaxed asleep and you help to guide the dragon back asleep,

You notice as you watch them,

The way their breathing is relaxing,

The occasional twitch they give,

As they release what they don't want from within their body drifting deeper and more relaxed,

All the way asleep,

And while they drift deeper asleep,

Now,

You notice something unusual,

The transformation is beginning as you watch,

A glow,

Sparkling,

Twinkling,

Begins to happen around them,

And out from them,

It looks like,

There's light emanating in patterns from their body pulsating away from their body,

Almost like echoes of spirits,

Like ethereal beings,

Pulsing,

Echoing,

Moving,

Like balls of light,

Out from their body and those balls of light,

Begin to form and take the shape,

Of small dragons,

Ethereal looking dragons,

With just a hint of color,

Within the balls of light,

Flying in this space of nothingness as that dragon sleeps and dreams,

As those balls of light,

Those ethereal dragons,

Begin to become more physical,

As you watch the birth of new dragons,

The birth of this new life and after the process has ended,

So the dragon comes back around again,

Awakens,

As the nothingness dissipates slowly,

Carefully,

And you find that,

You're in a space,

In a clearing in the middle of the forest,

And the dragon is just resting here,

In this clearing,

And the young dragons are flying around it,

A bit haphazardly at first,

As they get used to flying for the first time and the dragon explains,

This is how dragons are born,

The dragon goes to sleep,

Into a special kind of sleep,

And out of the spirit of the dragon,

More dragons are created and the dragon agrees to give you a lift back to the castle,

And so you climb on the dragon's back,

It launches powerfully into the air,

Flapping its wings,

Followed by a horde of baby dragons trying to keep up,

Rapidly flapping their wings,

And it powerfully flies over the mountains,

Flies all the way back to the castle,

Lands down on the roof of the castle,

You climb off,

With that lamp,

You thank the dragon,

It launches off you descend all those spiral stairs,

And you hand over this lamp,

And the gnome takes the lamp,

Lights the lamp again places the lamp into what looks like a pedestal with a glass dome casing,

And that dome casing is positioned in such a way,

That it seems to make air get sucked in underneath,

Through gaps within the stone making that air swirl,

Making the lamp even more powerful,

And the light of the lamp begins to shimmer and sparkle and shine brighter and brighter until it's almost like the light of the sun,

Too bright to look directly at,

And yet,

Emanating magic to all beings,

To the hearts of all beings and you get thanked for your work,

And told that it's probably time you find your way home,

They say that you can find your way home the way you found your way here and you go over to a fireplace,

You sit down by the fireplace,

You relax to a cosy chair,

You place that shiny stone next to you,

Near the fireplace,

And you wait patiently and wait,

And wait,

And wait,

Until you notice a light beginning to emanate from the stone,

And what looks like a hologram forming before you,

And you recognize it as being your room and you're told to remember,

Take that stone with you in case you want to return ever,

You're always welcome here and so you walk,

Through that portal,

Finding yourself back in your room,

Hearing the crackling of your fireplace,

Seeing that most cosy of chairs,

You walk around to the side of the portal you pick up that stone and you place it on a different location,

You put it on a windowsill,

Where it's not in direct line of any sun,

And it's away from the fire and you sit for a while by the fire,

In that cosy armchair,

Relaxing deeply and comfortably,

Pondering the experience you've had and as night drapes itself over the land outside,

So you head to bed,

Settle down in bed,

And drift and float so peacefully,

So comfortably asleep to slumberland

Reviews

Very soothing and helped me settle to sleep quite quickly thank you x