So just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax.
And as you begin to comfortably drift to sleep.
I don't know whether you'll fall asleep faster to the sound of my voice or whether it'll be to the spaces between my words.
And as you comfortably drift asleep,
I'm just going to tell this bedtime story in the background.
This is a bedtime story.
About a couple of guinea pigs.
Named Pixie in Puddles.
And both guinea pigs are detectives.
And these guinea pigs are out on a case.
Following some curious clues.
It's the case.
Of the broken lemon tree.
And they'd gone to investigate the circus.
Looking for clues about the lemon tree.
As they entered the circus.
They found cotton candy,
Wrapped so finely.
Around a branch from a lemon tree.
And Pixie tried some of that cotton candy and established that it had the most unusual flavour and it melted on their tongue.
And so they replaced the remainder of the cotton candy and the branch in a bag.
To store it for evidence.
And they set off.
Continue to explore for more evidence.
And while they explored.
They found a ball of string.
And it wasn't just any ball of string.
It was a ball of string.
That was the theory of everything.
It was very much like the cotton candy,
Only a little bit thicker.
And its colour.
Was a little bit redder.
And this ball of strength.
Was threaded.
Through a leaf from a lemon tree.
And then went down a hole in the ground.
And Pixie pulled on that ball of string.
And the ball of string kept winding and winding and winding,
And seemed almost never-ending.
And so Puddles suggested that perhaps they head down the hole.
To see where that ball of string goes.
So they lit a torch and headed into the hole,
And began wandering down the hole.
The feet tapping away.
On the path as they walked.
The light dancing around this hole.
That string seeming to absorb the light.
As if delight was magical.
And they follow that string.
Deeper and deeper into the hole.
And they had a theory about this string.
And they didn't know whether to share it with each other yet.
And they follow that string.
And this hole is an unusual hole.
It was wide enough for the two guinea pigs to walk down,
And yet,
It seemed almost like it was created by a worm.
And so they continued.
To follow that light into the worm's hole and it continued to go deeper and deeper.
And as it went deeper and deeper,
So the air pressure began to change.
And they had to hold their noses and swallow.
Before continuing on walking.
And they continued following this hole deeper and deeper.
And then,
Although it felt like they were continued to walk in a straight line,
Suddenly they felt like they were walking back upwards again.
Each step that they took seemed like.
They were heading uphill rather than downhill.
And they continued walking further and further.
Feeling on one level like they were still going deeper and deeper but physically feeling like they were going lighter and lighter moving up and then eventually.
.
.
They could see daylight at the end of the tunnel.
So he continued to walk.
Heading towards that daylight.
And although on one level.
They felt like they'd just been walking deeper and deeper.
They were now coming out as if they'd walked back up again.
But they know they walked in a straight line.
This hole didn't curve.
And that string continued on through this place.
Weaving through grass.
Wrapped around trees.
And this was a curious place,
A very different place.
To the circus they left.
It was bright.
And airy.
And there was trees and grass and roads and footpaths.
And then they saw.
A kitten coming towards them.
The kitten had a contraption around its neck,
Hanging just under its chin.
And as the kitten approached.
In the sweetest of voices.
The kitten asked.
Who these guinea pigs were.
Where they came from.
With deep curiosity.
And the guinea pigs explain that they're following a ball of string and they followed the string through to here.
And they were stood beside the strings.
They looked down at the string and acknowledged it.
And the kitten said the name is Ducky.
And that they explore this area.
And so they may be able to help.
And they don't know when the string appeared,
But they say they know it wasn't there last time they walked past here.
And I said I think I know.
How you might find some clues.
And so darkly.
Took the guinea pigs back.
To their home.
Went through the cat flap.
Jumped up on a table.
Tapped a few times on a laptop.
And a page of Pictures appeared on the screen.
And Daki.
Scroll through the pictures.
Padding on the laptop.
Then padded.
To open one of those pictures and it opened as a little movie.
And the string was there.
And Ducky closed the movie.
Scrolled through again and opened another movie.
And the string was still there.
Sadakhi closed the movie.
Scrolled through a bit more and found another movie and opened that movie.
And there was no string in the picture.
And so they watched this movie playing through.
And they all sat patiently and silently watching the screen.
And the movie.
From the camera hanging under Ducky's neck.
And you could see Ducky's chin.
At the top of the image.
And the camera bobbed gently around as Ducky moved.
And then at one point out the corner.
Of the image.
There was a flash of light.
At a moment later.
The string.
Rolled past.
And was suddenly across the side of the view of the screen.
And so they now knew.
When the string appeared.
They continued watching.
And they caught the sight of something.
Unusual.
But the video ended before being able to catch exactly what it was.
So the guinea pigs thanked Ducky for their help.
Jumped down off the table,
Found the way back through the cat flap.
And went off.
To try and find out.
What that was they saw on the camera.
And they knew when that happened and they knew which way whatever it was they saw went.
It was just like a blur that went past.
But they had an idea of its direction.
As they're headed off from where the string lies.
And cut off through the houses.
And around the back of one of the houses.
There was a hole in the trellis at the base of the house.
And they snuck through that hole.
And inside the hole.
Underneath the house.
They found a portal.
It was spinning and glowing,
Almost like a dark cloud with a white centre.
Hovering in space.
And they felt that maybe this is where.
.
.
Whatever was in the footage came.
So they went through that portal.
They didn't know where this journey was going to take them.
They came out in a forested area.
The sounds of forest birds.
Broad leaves.
And there was some rain dripping down,
Striking those leaves.
Leaves almost springing that rain back up,
Flicking it elsewhere in the forest.
Water trickling down the sides of trees.
Dripping sound of rain in the canopy overhead.
And pexium puddles continued on.
Through this space,
They could see some footsteps,
Some footprints on the ground.
And they follow those footprints.
Puddles got out their magnifying glass,
Looked very closely at the footprints to try and work out the shape and size.
How deep the footprints were to try and work out the weight of whatever it was,
To work out the size of it.
It was definitely bigger than they were.
When they compared the footprints to their own.
And as they walked along.
They reached a point where there was a puddle in the ground that was far too deep for them to be able to easily cross.
So they both grabbed a hollow bit of grass each.
Then they walked into that large puddle.
And they just breathed.
Through the grass as they walked along the bottom of the puddle,
The grass poking at the top of the water.
And they felt it was so silent under the water.
Compared to outside.
In that forest.
They walked up the bank the other side of the puddle.
Whatever it was that had come past here was big enough to have walked straight through the puddle.
Presumably without needing their own snorkel.
And they continued to wander through this forest.
And saw that those footprints turned off.
Into the forest itself,
Off from this path.
And it's much harder to walk off of the path scrambling.
Over branches and.
.
.
Under broad leaves.
And while they continued walking,
They heard a strange noise.
Than ahead of them.
They saw.
They think they're looking for.
There was a capybara.
And it was just grazing,
Just eating a little way ahead.
And they walked out.
It said that it had got lost and got tangled in some string.
And as they tried to get away from it,
The string crossed rubbed on itself,
And next minute it seemed to propel them through from one place,
Through a hole,
And then they sprung out and shot off.
And they found themselves thrown out.
Through that trellis.
And suddenly a portal opened up and they fell through it.
And they explained what their experience was,
But said that they weren't responsible for that string,
They just fell over it.
They don't know who put it there,
How it got there.
The guinea pigs helped to guide the capybara back the way they came.
They climbed up on its back to cross that puddle.
It found its way back.
Heading back towards that hole.
Through the portal.
And they decided not to follow the string.
See where that went.
The end of that probably exploded through like the capybara.
They'd have to take a different avenue.
So they went back through to the ball of string.
They noted.
That that clue led to a dead end.
That it led to a wormhole.
That's their string theory at least.
But it didn't actually lead to finding.
Whoever it was.
That broke the lemon tree.
And so they continue to explore around this circus.
And as they walked around the circus.
There were people milling around.
Children eating cotton candy.
Those children eating toffee apples or at least trying to.
There was the sounds of different rides and games and flashing lights.
Everything seems so overstimulating.
So pixie and puddles just kept their heads down,
Kept themselves in their own world.
And continued to explore.
Looking for further clues.
And they found another lemon tree leaf.
And it was broken from being stepped on.
As they tried to work out what direction whatever stepped on it went.
And they headed in the direction they thought.
And it looked like it was stepped on by something quite big and heavy.
And they could see flattened down areas of grass.
They continue to follow.
Those footprints.
And the footprints layered into the nearby vineyard.
So they wandered into that vineyard.
They walked carefully and slowly.
Through the vineyard.
Could see some kites circling overhead.
They wondered if those kites had seen anything.
But the kites were too far away to call down and ask.
And as they walked through the vineyard they noticed.
Some of the trees had been damaged.
As if something large had brushed past them.
And they wandered through this vineyard.
Out through a gap the other side.
Heading out along.
A large road.
Heading further into the countryside.
And it was a little while before they realised they hadn't been seeing any other clues.
So they decided to stop,
Look around,
See if they could work out.
Something has a clue here.
Did whatever it was,
Go in a straight line.
Direction they're going?
Did it veer off?
Did it head a different direction on this road?
And they looked around.
And they found.
Just a simple broken branch on a tree.
They didn't know if it was a clue.
They decided to head that direction.
And as they head that direction.
They started heading uphill through some woodland.
And there was more broken branches.
Whatever it was tried to push through here.
And they continued on.
Climbing.
Up through this woodland.
And their little legs.
Struggled with the distance here.
With how thick the undergrowth was.
But eventually they reach the clearing.
From the clearing,
They were able to get a better look of the surrounding area.
And they saw something unusual.
In the distance.
They saw what looked like.
A giraffe.
Wearing a poncho.
And so they started heading.
Towards that giraffe.
And the giraffe was breaking its way.
Through the.
.
.
Woodland before it.
And they managed to eventually catch up with the giraffe when it stopped to feed.
Went round in front of the giraffe.
Its legs splayed in a very awkward position while its head was lowered down.
They wandered up to its face.
Almost eye to eye.
So they could be seen and heard.
They said to the giraffe.
But looking for someone who damaged the lemon tree.
That's backed by the circus.
The giraffe said that was me.
And they apologized.
They said that.
.
.
They went to the circus.
Though looking around.
They saw a tree that had this yellow fruit on it and it looks so tasty.
As they grabbed some of that yellow fruit.
It turned out not to be as sweet as they thought it would be,
And they were so shocked by the experience.
They pulled away from the tree,
Accidentally damaging it.
And then stormed off,
Trying to almost escape.
The strange experience they had.
Seem to keep constantly biting them the more they chewed on that fruit.
Until eventually they managed to eat the whole fruit.
And that biting kind of experience disappeared.
But as they ran they knocked things over,
Including strange items that seemed to be lying around the circus.
Pixian puddles felt that they'd solved the mystery of who damaged the lemon tree.
But they were still curious.
Wear a ball of string.
Had come from that could create wormholes.
And why was this giraffe wearing a poncho?
And a waterproof one.
And the giraffe said that they were told.
To go to the circus.
Because at the circus it's raining tacos.
And they went there.
To eat these tacos that would be raining from out of the sky.
But then it never rained tacos.
It rained water instead.
And then they try to eat some of the string.
That tasted really good,
That was the string that they saw the children eating.
That's wrapped around a stick.
And it got caught in their mouth.
And so the whole experience wasn't exactly what they thought it was going to be.
And pixie and puddles asked.
What made them think that it was going to rain tacos?
And the giraffe said.
Camille told me.
Camille the Camel who lives in the circus.
And so Pixie and Puddles headed back to the circus.
They found their way.
To where Camille stays.
And it turns out.
.
.
Than in all the commotion.
Camille had been trapped at the circus.
Had used that commotion to be able to escape.
And Camille had tried to use that ball of string.
Create a portal back.
To her home.
Except that the ball of string inadvertently got knocked down.
And so Camille had to run off in a different direction.
And so Pixie and Puddles decided to try to find Camille.
And went back to where that ball of string was.
And broke off the string.
Knowing that it's not worth attempting to reel in all the string that's gone somewhere,
But just break that off,
Leave that as it is,
And take the ball with what's left with them.
And they took that with them in search of Camille.
And they knew that the damage.
Caused by the giraffe.
That directed them one way.
Obviously isn't going to be the direction Camille went.
So they went off looking in a different direction.
And it didn't actually take them that long.
Before they found Camille.
She'd found her way from the circus,
Over a hill.
Round and over a bridge,
Over a river.
Into a nearby farm.
And have found a space to rest in that farm.
Out of the rain.
And pixie and puddles.
Explain that.
They've been searching.
For who damaged a lemon tree.
And when they'd found that out.
They heard the story.
And have come to find out if they can help.
And Camille explained that they just want to be able to get back to their home.
They come from a land that's much warmer and drier than this,
A place of sand dunes.
But they needed to create a portal.
To get there.
And their time a circus they'd overheard.
A mystic person saying about a ball of string they contained.
Whose thread could be used.
To create wormholes.
The balls of string.
Spin around and literally release magic worms which create the holes.
And those magic worms are the size they need to be.
For the hole they need to create.
But in all the commotion.
The ball of string was lost to them.
And they weren't going to hang around.
Go searching for it.
And Puddles pulls out that ball of string and says,
But I don't know how to use it.
Camille explains what you need to do.
You need to tie the ends together like a lasso.
And spin it over your head.
And then throw it forward as if lassoing the space in front of you.
And once you've done that,
One end of a wormhole will open.
And then you do a flick of the wrist.
And it creates a loop.
Within the rope.
And that loop in the string passes down and through the loop created.
Into that wormhole.
And it twists and loops in just the right way.
It opens up the other end.
And then the two ends meet.
A wormhole.
Snaps into place and the string shoots off through the wormhole,
Ensuring it remains open.
As a giant ethereal worm gets created.
To burrow one wormhole to the other.
And then the wormhole solidifies.
Puddles thinks this all sounds very technical and they've never been good with lassos.
And so they.
.
.
Offer Pixie the chance to do this.
Pixie thinks it'll be fun.
They think about where this wormhole needs to go.
And then Pixie makes that lasso.
Spins it above their head.
Whips it forward.
While it's spinning,
It snaps into place,
Opening one side of the wormhole.
They flick their wrist in just the right way.
So a loop spins.
Down the string.
Passing through.
The front of the wormhole.
Snapping in place,
Suddenly they see a giant worm appear and almost in an instant shoot down that wormhole.
Linking the front and the back.
That wormhole solidifying as it goes,
And the string shooting down through that wormhole with it,
And passing off somewhere in the distance.
And then the three of them head over to that wormhole.
Walk through that wormhole having the same experience.
That Pixie and Puddles had had before that it felt like they were walking downhill.
Going deeper.
Deeper.
And then at some point it felt like they were now walking uphill.
Gradually walking.
Closer and closer to the exit.
And eventually they walked out of the exit.
Into wide open desert.
And that string.
Was lining across the desert and the sand being blown across this desert was gradually covering over the string.
And some of that sand was blowing into the holes.
The camel looked around and Camille smiled.
And faint pixie and puddles.
And could see where she needed to go.
And she walked off.
Saying goodbye.
Finally being home.
And Pixie and Puddles felt like they'd done a good thing here.
They walked back.
Through that wormhole.
Finding the way all the way back.
To the other side.
They broke off the string again.
With that ball of string on them.
They wondered who they should give it to.
They felt they weren't the right people to keep the string.
They're just guinea pigs.
So they.
.
.
Decided to head back.
Towards the circus and see if they can find out.
Who the right person would be to take over control of this ball of string which can create wormholes.
And they asked around at the circus.
And one of the animals said that the best person to have that string,
The most trusted person in this area.
Elvis the Elf.
He's the King of the Elves.
That the elves live.
Through a portal through the waterfall.
At the base of the river.
In the land of the elves.
And so pixie and puddles.
Left the circus.
Wandered down in the direction of the river.
Walked all the way down to the riverbank.
Began walking along the edge of the riverbank.
The sound of the water trickling alongside them.
The warmth of the sun.
Rising in the sky.
Running through their fur.
The breeze.
Tickling their ears.
The air smelling so fresh.
Along the edge of the water.
And being so small.
They're very,
Very close.
To the water.
And this river runs all the way along to a cliff.
When they get to the cliff.
They have to find their way down.
So they very very carefully navigate down.
A narrow path that weaves left and right.
Down to the base of the clip.
And the river continues at the base,
And between the river at the top and the river at the base is a thundering waterfall.
And they walk up to the edge of the waterfall.
And they carefully shimmy along the edge of the waterfall to squeeze around behind the water.
They climb up a few rocks.
With the spray wetting their fur.
And they can see what looks like a cave here behind the waterfall.
So they head into this cave,
The sound of the water echoing through this cave.
And as they go deeper into the cave,
So they begin to hear a humming that begins drowning out the sound of the echoing water.
And deep in this cave.
They find an electric blue portal spinning and humming and pulsing.
They pass through that portal.
And find themselves in the most beautiful valley.
And they can see that among the trees in this valley.
Bridges connecting from one tree to another.
Vast treehouse structures.
Weaved among the trees.
Entire communities walking around in the treetops.
And they're seen almost as soon as they enter the valley.
And one of the elves bounds the way down.
And runs over towards them,
Asking who they are and why they're there.
And they explain.
The mission they've been on.
And they've got a ball of magical string that creates wormholes.
And they were told that the king of the elves is the person that's the best one to look after this ball of string,
The most trusted person.
And the elf leans down and opens out an arm.
The two guinea pigs run up his arm.
Up onto his shoulder.
One sitting on one shoulder,
The other scampers across and sits on the other shoulder.
They hold on tight and the elf leaps their way up and through into the trees again.
Bounding up those trees.
Up among thee.
Buildings in the trees.
And takes them to meet Elvis.
And they head over to Elvis,
Scampering down the elf's arm again.
They carry that ball of string.
And Elvis instantly knows what the ball of string is.
And why they've brought it to him.
And he thanks them for what they've done and for their bravery.
And he hands them.
A taco.
He tells them these were supposed to rain from the clouds.
But it never happened.
So I had to go out and buy one.
And it's really good.
But had extra,
So here's one for you too.
They climb back onto the other elf and clinging to the taco between them.
They get taken back down.
To the valley floor.
And they sit on the valley floor enjoying the tacos.
Deciding it is the best taco they've tasted.
They wonder what their next mission will be.
Before heading back up.
Through the portal.
Heading back up.
To the waterfall.
Following that river.
And then they find their way all the way home.
And wants home.
They settle down.
Relaxing in front of a fire.
After both having a bath.
Both now incredibly fluffy and poofy.
Just drying off.
And relaxing.
Before heading to bed.
Then they head to bed at the end of the day.
And after such a long day,
Putting in so many steps.
Having to focus their mind on so many things.
They find it no trouble at all to just drift comfortably and deeply asleep.
And I don't know which one fell asleep the fastest,
But they drift and float so peacefully asleep.
Into slumberland.
