So welcome to this slumberland sleep story.
I'll be your guide as you encounter a monkey called Caramel who uses his magic wand to open a portal to the land of lost things,
Where you go searching for your cat,
Chipmunk's giant ball of catnip.
And I wish you the most peaceful nights,
Sleep and pleasant dreams.
And before we begin,
You can take a few moments to settle down comfortably.
You can shift about a little if you need to,
To make yourself more comfortable,
And when you're ready,
You can let your eyes gently close,
And as the story unfolds you can take a few deep,
Relaxing breaths.
Allowing the out breaths to be a little longer than the in breaths.
This triggers the body's natural relaxation response.
And as you rely.
You find yourself at home.
In your cabin playing with your cat Chipmunk.
And chipmunk has a favorite giant ball of catnip.
And you're throwing that ball of catnip.
To chipmunks.
They catch it and swat it around with their paws.
They chase it around the living-room floor.
Rolling around on the carpet.
Almost hugging that giant ball at times.
And this giant ball of catnip.
Is Chipmunk's favorite toy.
There probably isn't much catnip remaining within it.
Chipmunk was given this giant bull.
When they're a kitten.
Just at the point of you adopting them.
And at that time they were just a few weeks old.
And so they were much,
Much smaller than this giant ball.
And even now,
A few years later.
The giant ball is still quite big compared to other balls that you have.
But it's still their favourite toy.
While Chipmunk plays with the giant ball of catnip.
You stroke.
Behind that ear.
And they swing around and almost swat you away,
As if they think you're joining in their game.
And then you have to leave them for a moment.
To go and carry on with other tasks.
You head into the kitchen to make some food.
And you look back as you head out of the room.
Seeing them playing on the floor.
Bringing the most comfortable smile to your face.
And in the kitchen you cut some food.
You prepare your evening meal.
You prepare some food for chipmunks.
The smells of the food.
Wafting to your nostrils.
Triggering a response.
To salivate a little in anticipation of eating that food.
You head back into the living room.
And you place chipmunk's food down on the ground.
You settle down into the most comfortable chair.
And enjoy your food.
And you call Chipmunk over.
And you see chipmunks.
Scurrying around at the side of one of the walls.
And you wonder why.
But you keep just calling chipmunk over to eat their food.
And so eventually chipmunk comes over.
Begins eating.
And you eat your food and occasionally glance down at chipmunk who's eating their food but they keep looking up and over at the wall.
And after finishing your food.
You take your plate through to the kitchen.
You head back into the living room.
You decide to try and find the answer.
Giant ball of catnip.
For after chipmunkers finish their food.
And you look around the floor and can't see it.
You look behind the seats,
Still can't find it.
You wonder where it's gone.
You look out into the corridor outside the living room.
Maybe.
Chipmunk had taken it out there and you can't find it.
You hunt everywhere.
Where chipmunk could have got.
And can't find his giant ball anywhere.
And so eventually.
.
.
You head back into the living room and sit down,
And when Chipmunk has finished eating,
And you take away Chipmunk's bowl and put that into the kitchen.
You ask chipmunk where their ball has gone.
And they just look at you and meow.
And you stroke them and.
.
.
They begin to purr.
You pick chipmunk up.
And carry chipmunk around as you look for that bull.
Chipmunk jumps down out of your arms and heads over to that wall.
And begins nudging at the wall.
With the side of their neck.
And rubbing the side of their body against the wall at one specific place.
And you go and look at that bit of wool.
There's nothing special about the wall,
It's just an ordinary looking bit of the wall.
You're really curious where that ball could have gone.
You even begin to search rooms Chipmunk couldn't have gotten in.
But to no avail,
You still can't find the bull.
And then you head back to the living room.
You rest down in the living room,
Really pondering where the ball could be.
Chipmunk coming up and resting on your lap.
And meowing and looking over at the walls.
And while you watch the wall.
So you have this thought that you just saw.
Some flashing on the wall,
A bit like lightning within the wall.
And a fizzing,
Popping sound.
Like electricity.
And you get near to the wall and there's no.
.
.
Wires passing through that area of the wall,
There's no electricity there.
And yet you're sure you just saw what looked like lightning in the walls.
And then for just a moment.
There was a slight whoosh sound.
As the walls seem to open up.
Portal had suddenly appeared and then closed again.
And there was silence.
And that hole was too small for you to be able to squeeze through and too quick for you to even try.
You're curious what this is so you begin to do some research.
You find an entry in your encyclopedia.
That talks of mysterious portals.
Of beings being able to come and go through these portals.
And in the encyclopedia it's just talking about rumours and old myths and legends.
But it's the closest thing you've got.
To a potential clue.
And so that night you settled down.
You drift peacefully asleep in bed.
Thinking tomorrow,
You'll set off to the library and do some more research.
And you could just buy another ball,
But it wouldn't be the same.
And a portal appearing in your home is a curious experience.
The next morning.
After feeding chipmunks.
And having some breakfast.
You set off into town.
In town visiting the library.
You explore the oldest books in the library.
Finding a book which talks about.
Those portals and those beings.
And it talks about how there used to be portals between realms that could open and close sometimes at specific times of the year or day,
Other times with specific spells or rituals.
One of the illustrations in the book you read.
As a fairy circles.
Were portals to the lands of fairies.
You read about portals.
For leprechauns being at the ends of rainbows.
About portals in.
Holes in trees.
For gnomes to appear from.
And portals which looked like rabbit holes.
Where dwarves would come from.
And you're curious whether this portal was created on purpose.
That was in your home.
Or whether it just appeared there for no good reason.
And as you kept reading,
So you.
Read about.
A species of monkey.
That were once found.
In an ancient woodland.
And those monkeys.
Seem to have magical powers.
And one of their magical powers.
Was to be able to summon up portals.
But this book is hundreds of years old.
And it also speaks of dragons at the edge of the map.
And the earth being flat.
So you don't know how much of what's written is true,
And how much is just the author's imagination.
And tall tales being told.
But from cross-referencing and doing other reading.
It sounds like the place those monkeys apparently are does exist.
As you set off on a journey.
To go to that place.
You have chipmunk looked after in the meantime.
And you may be on a wild goose chase.
But it's certainly an exciting one.
One that's got your attention.
And you find your way to the nearest town.
The forest with those monkeys.
You don't even know if those monkeys will be real or exist.
After all this time.
Just that this is the place that they're supposed to be.
And at the place you're staying in the town.
Just a couple of days journey from the forest.
You take time to settle down and drift to sleep.
So that you'll awake refreshed for your journey.
To try and find those monkeys.
In the morning.
And while you settle down and begin to drift to sleep.
After all the stress of the journey.
Or the overstimulation.
Of having to keep track of where you're going and how you're getting there.
You have a sense of beginning to relax your mind and body.
You focus on the top of your head.
And the sensations of your head resting on your pillow.
Feeling the temperature of the pillow under your head.
Feeling how comfortably supported it is on that pillow.
You're aware of the muscles around your scalp and the back of your head softening and tightening.
Gently relaxing.
How each breath that you take draws in peace and comfort.
And your awareness can move gently around your face.
And you can be aware of what it's like for that relaxation to begin to spread comfortably around your face and your ears and your cheeks.
And the muscles of the face.
Softening and relaxing.
The muscles around your eyes and across your forehead.
The muscles around the side of your head and over the top of your head.
Beginning to relax deeper.
And deeper.
And you notice how you can pay attention to fading tension or perhaps find that tension dissolves without paying it any attention at all.
And you continue to.
Allow that relaxation to spread down.
Around your mouth,
Relaxing your lips and your jaw.
Relaxing the muscles around the side of your neck.
Around the back of your neck and around your throat.
And as your jaw relaxes and hangs.
Loose in the limb and comfortable.
Relaxation can continue to move down to your shoulders and upper back.
And I don't know whether the relaxation happens fastest around your shoulders or.
.
.
Your upper back or perhaps down the tops or the front of your shoulders.
As that relaxation progresses around your back and your chest.
Softening and relaxing those muscles fully.
Deeply and comfortably.
And as the muscles soften and relax while you rest there.
Relaxation can begin to spread down the arms to the hands.
Travelling all the way down to the tips of your fingers.
And I don't know which arm will relax fully fastest.
Whether it be the left arm or the right arm,
Or perhaps the arms will relax at the same rate and speed as each other.
And as the relaxation continues through those arms.
It can flow down through your stomach,
Your sides and lower back.
All the way down to your bottom before extending deeply down through your legs to the tips of your toes.
And as your body becomes deeper and deeper relaxed while you drift.
Into the most pleasant sleep.
So your mind begins to relax.
And you begin to have a sense of a healing light.
Touching your forehead,
Enveloping your face and head.
With healing deep relaxation.
Absorbing.
Comfortably and gently into you.
With each in breath that you take.
Filling you with healing peace and calm.
Spreading that healing restorative energy.
Recuperative light down through your body.
Breathing in healing,
Calm relaxation.
And breathing out any stress or tension.
Aware of that healing light.
Passing down your name.
Softening and relaxing those muscles.
Spreading that healing light throughout the neck.
As it spreads down with the next breath to your shoulders.
Or in the back of your neck and down into your arms.
Gradually continuing that flow of healing light.
To the tips of the fingers.
With another in-breath.
The healing light can spread down through the body.
Softening and relaxing.
Calming those muscles and healing deep within you.
Filling the body with pleasure and deep relaxation.
As that light continues to journey down around your stomach,
Your lower back and sides.
Your buttocks and all the way down your legs to the soles of your feet.
Filling your whole body.
With that healing,
Restorative light.
And as you allow the light.
Flow with each breath.
You find yourself drifting deeper.
Deeper sleep.
Through the most pleasant dreams.
The most peaceful reveries.
Into the most comfortable.
Dreamless deep.
Sleep.
With your body recuperating and recovering from your journey.
And from all that has gone before.
Relaxing you and healing you in the here and now.
As you fall deeper.
Deeper sleep.
The next morning.
You awaken to the gentle sound of birds outside.
You go and have some breakfast.
Set off on your journey.
And it'll be a couple of days journey.
To your destination.
As you follow the road.
Out from the towel.
Walking through meadows.
And countryside.
Just absorbed.
In the peace and quiet.
And the stillness.
The landscape.
While you will.
You hear the continued sounds of songbirds.
You hear the rustling of leaves of the trees and the bushes.
Each step that you take.
And as night begins to fall,
So you begin to approach a bridge over a river and you head over that bridge.
You follow the path just a little further the other side of the bridge.
To a point you feel is a good place to set up camp.
You set up camp in that location.
Make yourself a campfire.
The fire crackling gently to life,
Its light dancing around.
The landscape.
It's warm.
Massaging your cheeks.
You have yourself something to eat.
You wonder.
How Chipmunk is currently doing.
And whether you'll actually figure out how to find them.
His favorite bull.
And after eating and sitting and watching.
The night sky.
Carefully fade into view.
And the fire burned down to the gentlest of embers.
Just giving off the slightest warmth.
You head into your tent and drift and float peacefully asleep.
And the next morning you awaken.
You have some breakfast and pack away your tent.
Hovering over the fire.
Following this river.
Knowing later today you'll find your way to the forest.
And hopefully you'll find those monkeys.
And today walking is much the same as yesterday,
Just open landscapes.
The most pleasant temperature to the air.
Occasional clouds drifting by in the sky.
From time to time,
Yet at your mind.
Play with your senses.
As you watch those clouds.
You imagine the clouds passing by,
Like a puppy playing with a ball.
More clouds look like a bird flying.
Other clouds look like a dolphin diving.
The cloud looks like a baby.
Another cloud carefully forms.
Into the shape of a tree.
Eventually you find your way.
To the forest.
And as you head into the forest.
So the sounds around you.
Quite quickly shift.
Everything becomes a little more echoey in the forest.
You can no longer feel any breeze on your cheeks.
Yet you can hear the rustling of the leaves overhead.
Soft beams of light.
Dance before you.
Dust motes float in the air.
Like small sparkling diamonds.
You can hear the sounds of birds echoing through the trees.
And the deeper and deeper into the forest you go,
The more you notice that there's a distant sound of calls of monkeys.
And so you decide to head towards that sound.
Cutting through the forest,
Navigating around the trees.
Running the fingertips around the bark of different trees as you go,
Holding on to some trees to navigate them.
Noticing the difference in the different bark from different trees.
Samba is soft.
Other bark is crumbly.
Some is sticky with sap.
And some is just rough.
As if.
From a worn old tree.
With a long history to be told.
And you hear the monkeys.
Getting closer and closer and you know you're getting closer to them.
And then you hear some movement in the canopy of the trees.
Some thudding and some cracking.
And the rustling of the leaves.
Then a monkey leaps down from the trees and lands before you and you take a step back in surprise.
And the monkey has the friendliest smile on their face.
And you're surprised that you can understand them talking.
And they're mainly here showing curiosity.
In who you are and where you're from and how come you're in this location.
Very few people visit here.
And you explain who you are,
Where you come from,
The books you read that led you here.
They say there's someone you should meet.
And at first they bound off the way they came,
But very quickly you call after them saying,
You can't keep up if they leap through the trees.
And so they come back and drop down beside you.
And they waddle along beside you.
As you walk.
Through this forest.
And you can sense from them as they're walking that they would just like to speed up the pace by jumping up into the trees and swinging and jumping but they're politely and patiently going to stick beside you.
And together you walk through the forest.
Towards the increasing sound of many monkeys.
And you reach a location within the forest.
Where you can see.
Not only are there many monkeys.
But they seem to have a whole community.
There's a clearing.
As a fire in this clearing.
Some logs around that fire.
There are some hearts.
Or buildings built.
Within the clearing and embedded within the trees.
And there seem to be tree houses within this area.
With walkways.
And ropes connecting all of those tree houses together.
And the best way to describe it is that it's a bit like a 3D city.
There are buildings along the ground and in the trees.
But the routes from building to building don't just go around like roads or footpaths.
They go vertical between layers and between buildings.
And the monkey takes you to a large building beyond the fire.
They knock on the outside of the building and take a step back,
With you remaining in front of them.
The door opens.
And a friendly looking monkey wearing a purple cloak and a purple hat.
Holding a magic wand.
Greets you and welcomes you in.
The gesture for you to take a seat.
And you explain to them about your experience.
About how all of this is just because your cat lost their toy.
And you had this strange experience.
As if there was lightning in the wall and a portal opened up.
And it sent you down a bit of a rabbit hole of a search to try to find out what was going on.
And you say that in fairness,
You did get drawn away.
With the excitement of the whole experience,
The novelty of the experience.
The thought of.
Getting lost in something curious and wonderful.
And the monkey,
Eventually.
Talks.
And acknowledges everything you've been saying.
And they introduce themselves as caramels.
They say that they're the wise ones.
Of this troop of monkeys.
They're the one who deals in magic.
They say that it sounds like Chipmunk's ball has found its way to the land of lost things.
And they explain,
Have you ever had that experience,
Where you put something down and it seems to just go missing,
And you're sure you know where you put it,
But it's no longer there?
And it doesn't matter how much searching you do,
It seems to have just gone.
Or that experience is where those items are.
Have fallen into the land of lost things.
And they say that they can perform.
A magic spell.
Move their wand in a specific pattern and a portal will open up to that land of lost things.
And they can hold it so that the portal will remain open for a short period of time.
Giving you time to do a search.
You say,
How big is the land of lost things?
How are you supposed to find?
Whether the ball has been lost to there,
And if it has,
If the land of lost things is a large place.
Where is the ball likely to be?
Could you reach it and get back to the portal in time?
And so the monkey caramels.
Says that that's a valid.
They'll create an entrance for you to pass through.
But what they're going to do.
Is perform an additional.
Magical spell.
And they'll perform that magical spell.
On a potato.
Imbuing that potato with magic.
And you can carry that potato with you.
And then when you want to find your way back home.
You can take that potato and eat it.
And eating the potato.
Will create a portal around you.
And that portal.
Will guide you back to your home.
And so are they.
Head out to the fire.
They take one of potatoes,
Baking in some foil on the fire.
They perform a ritual on that potato and you watch as the potato glistens and sparkles.
And then settles into looking just like normal.
And then they hand you that potato.
Can you place the potato?
In your bag.
They tell you.
That there will be some creatures through there that you can talk to.
And they'll be able to guide you.
To that ball if it is in there.
And they'll be able to help you get there quicker.
Then they perform their magic spell.
They move their wand in a specific pattern.
A portal springs to life before you.
And you can feel.
The air within this space.
Being pulled through that portal.
And you walk through the portal,
Turn around.
You see Caramel raise a hand and wave at you.
With a quick gesture.
The portal flashes shut.
And this land of lost things.
Seems to be vast undulating hills.
With piles of objects.
Almost like piles of rubbish.
Except a lot of it doesn't look like rubber.
And you see flashes happening in the sky.
And items floating from those flashes.
Gently drifting down.
And landing on the piles.
And you're curious.
How the items are coming through those portals that flash in the sky.
And managed to be falling slowly towards very specific piles,
Not just onto random spots on the ground.
And as you walk through the landscape so you also see other flashes on the ground.
Just above the ground.
And items just rolling.
Through those portals on the ground as they open.
And rolling and joining the mounds.
And other than the landscape.
And the mounds of objects.
You can't hear any better.
Or see any other life.
And you continue to explore.
And you feel like you've been walking for hours and yet you notice the time of day doesn't seem to have changed.
And then you suddenly think,
Actually.
.
.
You don't think you've even seen a sun in the sky.
There just seems to be a uniform daylight.
And then you notice some movement.
That's not like something falling or rolling towards a mound.
And you see what looks like an octopus.
And it's moving across the landscape.
Except unlike octopus living under the sea.
This octopus seems to have a little bit more structure to it.
It's using two of its legs to walk around,
And its other legs,
It's grabbing up different bits and pieces and seeming to almost categorize them and put things into an order.
And as you get nearer to that being.
The being notices you and calls out with a friendly voice.
And they're curious who you are and where you're from.
Saying you're not like any being that lives here.
The only beings here are like them.
This octopus-like creature says that they're the gatherers.
They gather up lost property.
Everything that falls through.
They gather it up and direct it to these mounds.
They then go through the mounds and try and sort all of the items out.
Cataloging all the items.
Trying to work out the history of the items,
Where they came from.
What their backstory is.
They can tell about the world they came from.
They said they've never been out of this world.
They've only ever known this place.
And they've only ever known this job.
But they learn about other worlds by the objects they find and interact with,
That when they touch an object,
It imbues them with the memories of that object,
Where it came from.
How it was used.
And how it came to be here.
And you say that.
You're looking for a giant ball of catnip which you think arrived here.
But you don't know where here it would be.
You don't even know how large this land is.
And this octopus-like creature says that they can help you to find it if it's been here.
They haven't seen it themselves.
But they have a trick that they can do.
They lie down on the ground.
Spreading out their eight legs.
They begin to hum with a very deep hum.
And it looks as if.
The mycelial network.
Buried within the ground here.
Reaches out.
Connect with their legs.
As it does,
So the humming starts to spread from the octopus.
It spreads out wider and wider.
Then you hear a hum in the distance.
And then another one and another one.
Until you hear humming all around you.
A new lesson.
And you walk.
Until eventually the experience comes to an end and the humming begins to stop.
And the octopus.
Comes out of what seemed almost like a trance.
Become more animated and they say they've just connected.
With all the other octopus in this landscape.
And they found the octopus.
Who's found the ball.
They describe where the ball is.
And it's a very,
Very long way away.
And there are no portals here.
But they say that there is something they can do.
They can treat you almost like an object that falls through here.
They can imbue you.
With the signal.
That makes it so that you need to be joined to a specific pile in this land.
And so they almost psychically do that.
Not psychically to you,
But psychically around you.
As if communicating with the land itself.
And on what feels like a cushion of air.
You rise up and you begin to pass through this landscape.
Following a path through the landscape,
Able to see all the different mounds from the sky.
Seeing portals flashing to life and fading.
Objects following their own paths to different piles.
As you follow a path.
Over many hours.
To a specific pile.
Being dropped on the top of the pile,
And you slide down the side of the pile to the ground.
And the octopus here.
Presents you with that ball.
And they are equally as curious about who you are and where you came from and how you got here.
And to explain the story to them.
Before saying you need to now head back.
You take that potato out of your bag.
You unwrap it from the foil.
You take a few bites out of that potato.
And then some more and some more.
Until you finish eating the potato.
And as you're scrunching up the foil.
Put back into your bag.
A glowing,
Pulsing light forms around you.
Envelops you and lifts you gently off the ground.
And as it clears.
You can see the inside of your home.
You can feel yourself lowering down and standing on your floor,
Holding that giant ball of catnip.
You touch your furniture.
And touch the walls of your house.
As if to just communicate that you're happy to be back where you needed to be.
You place that catnip ball down on a seat.
You head off to go and get chipmunked.
And you return with chipmunks.
Talking to them about how excited you are that you're going to be able to hand them their ball back.
You head into home.
And as soon as they're through the door,
It's as if they already know that catnip giant ball is back.
Because they jump out of your arms.
Bound across the floor and jump up into the chair.
Grabbing the ball with their teeth and their front paws.
Rolling around and kicking at the ball.
And playing with that ball.
And jumping down onto the floor with the ball and playing on the floor.
Then stepping back and nudging the ball towards you and you head over and pick it up.
And you play with them for a while.
At the end of the day.
They settle down in their bed,
Their ball beside them.
You head to bed.
You settle down.
You think about the journey that you've had.
You close your eyes.
You imagine yourself.
Wandering down a garden path,
Down some steps.
Into the garden of deep sleep.
And as you walk down those steps.
So you count yourself down.
Into sleep.
From 10.
To nine.
To eight.
To seven.
5.
.
6.
.
To five,
Drifting deeper.
And deeper sleep to fall.
Three,
Two.
One walking into the garden of sleep as you drift and float,
So peacefully,
So relaxed asleep,
Into slumberland.
