Freeing The Dwarves (Long Bedtime Sleep Story)

Just take a moment to allow yourself to begin to relax.

And as you begin to relax,

I don't know whether you'll drift deeper to the sound of my voice or to the spaces between my words.

And while you begin to comfortably drift to sleep,

I'm just going to tell this sleep meditation in the background.

And this sleep meditation is about an owl.

And this owl is sitting in a tree in some woodland on a snowy night.

And the snow is falling down in large flakes,

Large clumps of snow,

Just slowly falling down to join the snow on the ground.

And as that owl rests in that tree,

All hunched up,

Keeping itself comfortable,

Feeling the wind passing through its feathers,

Hearing that wind as it passes its ears,

The owl can see out into the darkness,

Into the nighttime.

And there's a certain glow in the way the light bounces around off the snow on the ground,

Bounces around off the low white clouds,

And is even bouncing off of each individual clump of snow falling through the sky.

And as that owl just rests there,

Listening to the sound of the snow hitting the branches of the tree,

That dull thud of each individual clump of snow,

It closes its eyes and begins to drift into a reverie.

And as it drifts inside its mind,

It begins to imagine what it would be like to be somewhere warmer.

And while it begins to imagine being somewhere warmer,

So it begins to feel warmer.

Almost like that warmth in its mind begins to pass through its body.

And as it imagines being somewhere warmer,

So it begins to hear the sound of waves rolling in on a shore,

Then begins to catch glimpses of light,

And just flashes here and there,

That start to form into the scene of being in a tree,

Looking out over a sandy beach,

With the sun blazing overhead,

Feeling the warmth of that sun on its face,

Hearing the sounds of seabirds,

And the rustling leaves of the tree that it's resting in,

The sounds of children playing way down the beach,

And it launches out of that tree,

And flies down to the beach,

To some driftwood resting on that beach.

It lands so delicately on the driftwood,

Almost as if it weighs almost nothing at all,

And from this close,

It can hear almost the individual grains of sand being pulled back into the sea,

As those waves pull back into the sea,

And the owl rests on this beach,

Gazing out over the sea,

Having this feeling like it would rather be here than where it was,

That it prefers the warmth of this weather than that dark,

Cold,

Snowy night,

And that although it liked the dulling of the sound caused by the snow,

It preferred the warmth of the sun,

And as that owl rested there on that beach,

It could hear a plane passing overhead,

And with its incredible eyes,

It gazed up at that plane,

And it saw the strangest of things.

It saw that piloting that plane appeared to be a fish,

That it appeared that the plane was full of water,

At least the cabin,

And what you could see through the windows,

Was full of water,

And the fish seemed to be piloting the plane,

Almost like it had a headset on,

And like it was moving its head slightly left,

Right,

Up or down,

Or tilting itself slightly to control the movement of that plane,

And so the owl watched as that plane flew overhead,

Curious about where this place is,

Where it had taken itself inside its mind,

To this unusual land,

And it wondered what it would be like to be a fish.

It knows what it's like to be a bird,

It knows what it's like to fly,

But what would it be like to be a fish,

And it decided to fly up and try to reach that plane,

And so it flew up,

And the plane wasn't as far away as it thought.

It turned out that the plane looked a long way away,

But actually the plane was smaller than expected,

And the fish was a normal size,

And so that owl flew towards that plane,

And the size of the owl compared to the plane meant that they were almost the same size as each other,

And the owl flew so much quieter than the plane,

And it gazed in to try and get a closer look at that fish,

And how it was piloting that plane,

And it could see that the fish seemed to have to give a lot of concentration to that piloting,

And from up here,

Looking down over the ocean,

The two of them noticed what looked like a giant jelly island bobbing up and down on the sea,

And it seemed to wave and move and bob with the waves as they flowed under it,

And then noticed that little tentacles could just about be seen coming from that jelly island down there,

And the owl realized that it was a giant jellyfish just floating with the currents of the ocean.

It didn't seem to be putting any effort into directing itself or trying to go anywhere,

And the owl wondered whether it was going to get close to the shore,

Or whether it was going to start putting some effort into moving itself away from the shore,

And the owl watched with intrigue as that jellyfish got closer and closer to the shore,

But before the jellyfish reached the shore,

It started to glow and pulsate with colors of light,

And despite the bright sunlight shining down on the ocean,

And the twinkling was reflected off the waves as they rolled by,

The circular colored lights glowing and emanating from that jellyfish increased and increased,

And got brighter and brighter,

Until the owl began to hear a hum,

And then that jellyfish seemed to almost push itself out of the water and start to rise up into the sky,

And as that hum continued,

So the owl noticed that the humming started coming from other areas around them,

And as they looked around,

They saw that other jellyfish were rising up out of the water,

Until in every direction above the ocean,

The owl could just see hundreds and hundreds of glowing,

Pulsating jellyfish with their tentacles hanging low beneath them,

Almost touching the water,

While they towered high above the water,

Seemingly swimming in the air,

And the owl wondered what on earth was going on,

And the fish started weaving and piloting around those jellyfish to avoid them,

Before deciding to pull up to fly higher than the jellyfish,

The owl on the other hand decided to head back towards the shore,

And to get a different vantage point on what was going on,

And the owl landed back on that driftwood,

And looked out over the ocean,

And could see the way seawater was still pouring down off of the backs of some of those jellyfish,

That were still rising up out of the water,

And could hear the hum of each of the jellyfish individually,

And how that hum was beginning to synchronize,

Almost like the hums of all the jellyfish,

Started off at different times,

As each one independently began their ascent into the sky,

But then once they were in the sky,

They would join in,

Synchronizing their hum with the hum of the others,

And although the hum was loud,

There was a certain comfort to the hum,

There was a certain deepness to the hum,

Something that seemed to almost resonate through that owl,

Almost making its feathers tingle,

And twitch with the excitement,

Or the electricity from that hum,

Like having some kind of a massage,

Pulsating down through the body,

And the owl almost felt like it wanted to go with that humming,

Buzzing,

Massage-like feeling,

And drift inside deeper and deeper,

And become even more deeply relaxed,

And as it felt that way,

So the sky began to turn purple,

And it was such a calming,

Profound experience,

And the ocean began to turn golden,

Almost like the most perfect golden ocean of a sunset,

And that ocean quietened down,

As if the waves stopped making a sound as they reached the shore,

And background sounds,

Like the sounds of children playing off in the distance,

Faded away,

And the sounds of seabirds began to fade away,

And it was as if this land was transforming into something else,

And then mountains started forming off in the distance,

And then seemingly forming closer and closer,

But not blasting their way up from beneath the ocean,

Just seeming to begin to appear,

Almost like someone was shaking sand,

And turning that into a different picture,

And the ocean was the last thing to start to disappear,

With that ocean turning to an ocean of sand,

Before it began to turn into the greenest,

Most beautiful meadow,

Surrounded by forest,

With mountains in the distance,

Mountains around the outside,

Almost like this was a closed off valley,

With those jellyfish high overhead,

Seemingly causing this with their hum,

And then that hum began to die down,

And those jellyfish just remained there,

Hovering in the sky,

Silently,

Their tentacles hanging down,

Just gently waving,

Almost like waving in a breeze,

Pulses of light traveling up and down them,

The slight flapping,

Moving of the underside of the jellyfish,

As if to keep them floating on the spot that they're in,

With the whole experience,

Somehow feeling profound,

And the owl began to fly through the meadow,

Flew out as far as the first jellyfish,

And as it flew out,

And perched on the grass,

Underneath that first jellyfish,

It could smell that slight salty smell in the air,

Giving away where these jellyfish came from,

The owl could still hear that fish flying overhead,

And could look up and see that fish circling around,

Trying to work out what's going on from up there,

And the owl walked over walked over to one of the jellyfish's tentacles,

And the tentacle seemed to rise up in front of the owl,

As if to meet that owl,

And the owl gently touched that tentacle,

And as it did,

It was almost as if it had created a psychic connection with the jellyfish,

And this jellyfish communicated that we're the keepers of wisdom and knowledge,

That we hold all of the knowledge of the universe within us,

Of all of the multiple universes,

That we're the keepers of the sacred libraries,

And this owl wondered what they were talking about,

And the jellyfish communicated into the owl's mind,

That in the future,

They will be in their own libraries,

Where they'll be keepers of their own area of knowledge,

For those seeking knowledge and wisdom to come and find,

And that they're immortal,

They were here at the beginning of time,

In one form or another,

And they'll be here at the end of time,

But to them,

There is no difference between the beginning of time and the end of time,

They're timeless,

To them,

All time is now,

And they're able to process that,

And process the input of every now happening at once,

From others past,

Present,

And future,

And that there's a big chunk of now for them,

Where there's nothing but them,

But now is when they've manifested as these time keepers,

As these knowledge keepers,

In this form,

And that you happen to be here,

To see this,

And the owl wondered,

What kind of a dream this was,

And the jellyfish communicated,

This isn't any ordinary dream,

You've travelled back through time,

To a time before the times you know,

To a time when we began,

Here,

Taking on this role,

In this place,

In this form,

And the owl then watches,

As the different jellyfish begin to slowly spread out,

As if they're beginning to travel to various locations around the planet,

Where they'll settle into their new locations,

And while they travel out and around,

The golden apple falls down before that owl,

And the owl scratches at that apple a bit,

And realizes it's just like an ordinary apple,

But it looks golden,

And it's glowing,

And the owl cuts the apple open into slices,

And starts to eat some of that apple,

And as it does,

It hears the sound of an eagle,

And the sound of giant beating wings,

And it wonders where that's coming from,

And it turns its head,

And pinpoints the direction of the sound,

And then sees off in the distance,

A large creature heading its way,

And that creature gets closer,

And closer,

Until it's almost upon the owl,

Where it suddenly swoops down,

And the owl realizes that it's a griffin,

With its body of a lion,

Its giant eagle wings,

Its eagle head,

And it lands so gracefully,

Pops its wings back on its back,

Tucks them in,

And as it lands,

It seems to almost let out a lion-like purr,

Which seems out of place from its beak,

And it heads over to the owl,

And in a deep,

Almost booming voice,

It talks with the owl,

And asks what brought the owl here,

And the owl explains the experience they've had of thinking they were drifting into a reverie,

And the griffin suggests that the owl can climb on their back,

Perhaps they can help with something,

So the owl flies up,

Lands on the griffin's back,

The griffin runs a few steps before launching up into the sky,

Spreading its wings out,

And with one big,

Deep flap,

Flies up into the sky,

And then flapping relatively slowly,

With noisy swooshes,

Flies through the sky,

Off towards the mountains,

And while flying,

The owl watches as those jellyfish are still gradually,

Slowly moving away from this area,

Traveling off in different directions,

Spreading out more from each other,

And the griffin arrives at the foot of the mountain range,

And on arrival at the foot of the mountain range,

There seems to be some creature,

A tall,

Slim,

Humanoid creature,

With quite pointy features,

Slightly pointy ears,

And this slim creature explains that they could do with the wisdom of an owl,

Do with the thinking of an owl,

Perhaps thinking outside the box in some way,

They've heard that owls are some of the wisest creatures,

And the owl didn't want to say anything,

In case they sounded like they were either boasting or trying to play their abilities down,

And so it's often best just to be quiet,

And just to go with the flow,

You've got nothing to prove to others,

Just proving things to yourself,

And the elf asked what they suddenly drifted off and daydreamed about for a moment,

And they say it doesn't matter,

What would you like some help with,

And the elf explained that they can't really go up the mountain,

They're not really suitable for the cold weather up the mountain,

The griffin is far too large to land up the mountain,

It's too steep,

And the areas to land are too small,

But they need someone who can go up the mountain and solve a bit of a puzzle up there,

To find a way into the mountain,

And so the owl says that they'll help,

They ask where they need to reach,

And the elf says that they'll fire an arrow,

And that arrow will land where the owl needs to reach,

And the owl questions the ability of someone to fire an arrow that high up a mountain,

That if it's within reach of an arrow,

It's probably within reach of someone climbing to it,

But then the elf draws back their bow,

And as they do,

The arrow starts to glow and shimmer,

And as it starts to shimmer,

It's almost like sparkles start to come off that arrow,

As if the longer the elf holds that arrow tight,

Holding that bow pulled back,

The more charged the arrow seems to get,

And the arrow seems to almost shiver in the bow and vibrate,

And it vibrates faster and faster and faster,

Until eventually the elf lets go,

And that arrow launches up that mountain,

And it keeps going,

And it passes halfway up the mountain,

It passes two-thirds of the way up the mountain,

And almost at the top of the mountain,

It starts to slow down,

And then digs in to the mountain and stops,

And the elf explains that they're magic,

And they're able to perform certain magic abilities,

And so they were able to apply some magic to that arrow,

But they've got a perfect shot,

They've got perfect aim,

But they can hit a moving target at over a mile away,

And they knew that the owl has very good eyesight,

And so would be able to see where it lands,

So the owl takes off and begins to fly,

And it flies up the lower part of the mountain,

Then flies up into the snow line,

Then continues to fly higher and higher up the mountain,

And can start to hear the sound of the wind blowing across that mountain,

Almost whistling around their ears and through that mountain range,

And they fly higher and higher,

They can notice how the temperature is dropping,

How the snow is beginning to fall higher up here,

That the weather seems to go from a cloud suddenly arriving at the mountain,

Snow falling,

And then almost straight away,

It can be clear again,

But not any warmer,

And the owl flies higher and higher,

Heading towards where that arrow landed,

And as it continued to fly higher and higher,

It wondered what it would be finding at the arrow,

And it landed perched right next to the arrow,

But all it could see was snow,

So it waved its wings to try and brush away some of that snow,

It flew up a little bit to get its feet off the ground,

And then tried clawing at the ground a bit to try and dig down a bit into the snow,

Until eventually it managed to clear enough to reach rock,

And once that owl had reached the rock,

It then went a little bit closer to the arrow,

And saw that the arrow seemed to be embedded in a very specific rock,

A rock that almost looked like it wasn't attached to the rest of the rock,

And the owl wondered whether that's what their job was,

Was to somehow move that rock,

But they felt that they were too small to be able to move the rock,

And they tried to nudge it with their beak,

But didn't manage to move it,

They tried to push against it with their whole body,

While flapping their wings to try to add extra pressure,

And still couldn't move it,

But off in the distance they could still hear that aeroplane,

So they had an idea,

The aeroplane wasn't very big,

But perhaps the two of them together might be able to move that rock,

They tried pulling on that arrow,

And realized that arrow is well and truly wedged into the rock,

And they could see from how much of the arrow was stuck back out of the rock,

That probably almost half of the arrow is inside the rock,

So they flew back down to the forest,

They managed to find some vines,

And they carried those vines and struggled with those vines all the way up to that rock again,

And trying with their beak to attach the vines to that arrow,

They did their best they could with that,

To make it so that it hopefully wouldn't slide off the arrow,

But the end of the arrow was sticking out enough to prevent things from sliding straight off,

They then flew to that plane holding the vines in its mouth,

And they attached the vines to the tail of the plane,

While holding some vine in their mouth as well,

And communicating with that fish from just looking at it,

And making a few gestures,

And the fish and themselves understood what needed to happen,

And the owl felt the fish is probably as out of the water here as they are,

Unsure what's going on,

And the owl didn't know if this would work,

If a fish in a plane and an owl could remove a rock in a mountain for an elf,

And they both pulled and pulled,

And they seemed to be getting nowhere,

Then all of a sudden the rock moved and started rolling down the mountain,

And the owl was able to let go,

But it was attached to the back of the plane,

So the owl had to quickly,

While the plane was being pulled backwards and down,

Land on the back of the tail of that plane,

While the fish maintained control,

And kept the plane as steady as possible,

And kept the plane pointing in a single direction,

Had to carefully unpick that vine from the tail of the plane,

And as soon as it had done that,

The owl almost got launched up into the air,

As the plane suddenly stabilized,

Pointed forward,

And the tail rose up,

And the owl flew alongside the plane,

Thanked the fish for its help,

Was sure they'd find their way back soon to wherever they came from,

And then headed back to where that rock was removed,

And when it arrived back on the mountain,

It saw that it was a tunnel inside the mountain,

And so the owl initially carefully walked into the tunnel,

It could hear the sound,

Almost like hammers striking something inside that tunnel,

Somewhere off in the distance,

It walked into the tunnel,

Until it realized it was in an area wide enough to fly easily,

And it could just about see with its eyesight,

In the dark of this tunnel,

There was a very slight glow,

Almost like there was a slight blue glow from some moss and ice mixed together on the walls of the cave,

And it flew through the tunnels,

And started to head down deeper and deeper into the tunnel,

Before coming out in a giant cavern,

And seeing this cavern illuminated and red,

Seeing that there was some lava flowing down like a waterfall,

Down one side in this cavern,

Down into a large lake,

Deep underground beneath the mountain,

And there seemed to be structures around the walls,

Up over the lake,

Around near the waterfall,

And hundreds and hundreds of dwarves roaming around,

With tools that seemed to be pushing rocks around,

In wheelbarrows that seemed to be carrying different tools to break rock down,

And they wondered what they were all doing,

And then one of them saw the owl,

And so the owl flew down,

And explained how they'd ended up trapped in here,

And they've continued working despite being trapped,

But they hadn't found any way out,

Part of a mountain had collapsed,

And filled in the entrance,

And there was no way that they could break through that amount of rock,

They've been trying ever since,

But part of that rock that filled the entrance was just too loose,

And that if they had knocked too much of it away within what they could reach,

What was above it would just collapse and fill the space,

And could even cause harm,

And so they've been trying to find alternative ways out,

While also just carrying on with the work they're supposed to do in the mountain,

And the owl didn't think to ask what it is that they do,

Why they're chipping away at all this stone,

In a mountain full of lava,

And the owl was curious how although it's very warm in this area of the mountain,

It isn't so warm on the outside of the mountain,

Or in the tunnel that the owl had followed,

And the owl realized that the rock that had been moved was just one small rock at the top of an entire cave-in of rocks,

And that the elf had managed to aim its arrow at that one top rock,

Just a small rock at the top that needed moving,

So a smaller creature could make its way in,

But the owl didn't know what more it could do,

It had found its way in,

It had followed that path,

But the only way that it got down to here was because it could fly,

So the owl flew back to go back and let the elf know,

And the griffin know what it had found,

And to ask what it's supposed to do next,

And the elf said,

And the elf said,

Now we know the entrance is open,

Now we know the way in,

Now we know that they're all okay,

We can perhaps find a way of getting them out,

We just needed someone like you to come and help first,

So the owl wondered what on earth they're going to do to help,

Because nothing that could fit through that hole would be able to help from the inside,

And nothing could help from the outside without running the risk of things caving onto the inside,

Or onto them on the outside,

And the owl followed the elf and the griffin into the forest,

And the elf said that we've got a friend to go and meet,

And they headed into the forest,

And the forest got darker and darker,

And as it got darker and darker,

So the owl could see fireflies seeming to light different patterns in the sky as they flew among the trees,

And as they got deeper into the forest,

So a fog began to form,

Just a low fog that was almost like water,

The way it would move as it was traveled through,

Until eventually the owl could smell the smell of some distant fresh water,

And they came out by a lake in the middle of this forest,

And the elf got something out of its pocket,

And blew into that instrument,

Which sounded like a light sounding whistle,

And then it waited,

And waited,

And after a moment suddenly something burst out of the lake,

Out of the water,

With a slight buzz,

Followed by a sparkling trail of light,

And flew over to the elf who held the hand out,

And this little fairy landed in the elf's hand,

And the elf explained to the fairy what the situation was,

That they've finally been able to find a way into the mountain,

They just need to be able to somehow get into that mountain in some way that can get the dwarves out,

And get them free again,

And the fairy is the person they thought might have a solution,

And the fairy said that they do know a way that we can do this,

So the fairy,

The elf,

The griffin,

And the owl traveled from that lake deeper into the forest again,

Until in the distance they could hear thudding sounds,

And the owl wondered if they were searching for a giant elephant,

And then eventually they found a clearing,

And could see this giant tower in this clearing,

And out of the entrance of the giant tower came a giant,

And all of these creatures barely made their way up past the ankle of the giant,

As that giant gazed down upon them,

The giant asked what they wanted,

And the fairy flew up to the giant's head,

And explained to the giant what the situation was,

And that they've got a solution,

They think they know what they can do,

And then the fairy waved their wand over the giant's head,

And in almost a bright flash of light in an instant,

That giant shrunk down to be as small as the fairy,

And the giant then climbed up onto the griffin,

And they all found their way back through the forest,

All the way back to that mountain,

And back at the mountain the elf said that the owl will need to carry the giant,

And the owl,

The giant,

And the fairy can fly to the mountain,

And fly up up into that hole,

And so the giant climbed on the owl's back,

Held on,

As the owl struggled,

Having never carried anything on its back before,

To fly up,

And fly into that hole,

And the fairy naturally seemed to glow,

And sparkle,

And illuminate the way,

As they flew into the hole,

And flew down to the ground,

Inside the mountain,

And the fairy then told everyone to stand back,

Told the owl to stand back,

And then waved her wand over that giant again,

And in a flash the giant suddenly became its full size again,

Only this time it was inside the mountain,

And the giant had no problem from inside the mountain here to walk forward,

And just barge those rocks out the way,

Almost as if it was just any old blank sheet of paper,

That it was just walking straight through,

And just breaking through so easily,

And it made sure to push all the rock forward as it walked,

And some bits of rock fell down around it,

But to the giant it was nothing,

And all of the creatures inside the mountain kept back while the giant did this,

And all of these dwarves for the first time,

In a very long time,

Suddenly saw the daylight,

And they're used to working underground,

And they wondered about the stability of this mountain,

And they had to carry on doing their work,

Carrying on supplying the rest of the land with materials,

And doing what it is they love doing,

And the owl was thanked for their part in helping,

And as the owl was thanked,

They were given a lift back to where they came from by the griffin,

And that griffin landed back in that meadow,

And the owl dismounted,

But wondered how it was going to get back to where it came from,

How it was going to wake up,

Or whether it was even going to be able to wake up onto the beach,

And change this world to be like on the beach,

And the griffin explained that this isn't a dream,

This is a deeper part of reality,

That you'll be able to find your way back,

Just rest beneath a tree,

Drift into a reverie,

And your mind will take you where you want to go,

So the owl rested beneath a tree,

Resting on a thick tree root sticking out from a tree,

And as it rested there,

And closed its eyes,

And focused on drifting inside into a reverie,

It began to see shapes moving around,

And different colors flashing here and there,

And then began to hear the sound of an ocean,

And feel the warmth of the sun,

And as the owl opened their eyes,

They could hear the distant sound of children playing,

And they looked out over the ocean,

They could see that fish piloting that plane flying overhead,

They could hear the distant sound of seabirds,

They could smell the salty air,

And they wondered how they now transition back to their own reality,

And they were told just to follow the lines,

And they just heard that voice follow the lines,

And as they closed their eyes to focus on that voice saying follow the lines,

They realized it was the voice of the jellyfish they'd connected with earlier,

And as they were focusing on that voice of the jellyfish,

It was as if they connected on some psychic level with them,

As if they could see where that jellyfish was,

And they realized the jellyfish almost seemed to be in a cave,

Almost like a giant library inside a cave,

With books around the outside,

Rising from the ground way,

Way up above that jellyfish,

And they seemed to be using their tentacles to move those books around,

To move that knowledge to where it's needed,

And they had some helpers in there as well,

Helping to move the books around,

And they could hear that jellyfish just saying,

Almost psychically,

Follow the lines,

Just open your eyes and trust and follow the lines,

And so they opened their eyes,

And they flew up into the sky,

They just started flying around,

Initially in different directions,

Until eventually they had this feeling like there was a direction to head,

And at certain points that feeling would get stronger,

Like it's a time to change direction,

And then they started almost having a sense that there were lines around the planet,

And that they were able to almost sense those lines,

And follow those lines,

And while they followed the path that felt instinctively right,

They found that ocean beginning to disappear from beneath them,

That beach beginning to disappear,

The blue sky beginning to disappear,

As they found themselves flying over snow,

And then over snow-covered trees,

Before settling down into themselves in a tree,

And having that sense of opening their eyes in that tree,

And they gazed out and saw the large chunks of snow slowly falling down to the snow below,

They could feel the coolness of this snowy landscape,

They watched and enjoyed,

Seeing the way a squirrel was enjoying the snow,

Carefully trying to walk on the surface,

Trying not to break the tension of the surface of some more compacted snow,

Before jumping,

Spreading its legs,

And splatting straight into a mound of snow,

Leaving a squirrel-shaped imprint in that snow,

Before popping its head up out of the imprint,

And then leaping from a standing position out of its own imprint,

To avoid disturbing it,

And seeming to almost take pride in looking back at its imprint from where it leapt to,

And then carrying on carefully,

Scurrying around,

And then when it finds another area of soft snow,

Seeming to do the same again,

As if it's leaving its mark,

Having fun in the snow,

And the owl looked around and realised that there was at least half a dozen squirrel imprints in different parts of the snow,

As if it's been going around,

Intentionally leaving leg-spread squirrel imprints throughout this forest,

And that it seemed,

The owl noticed,

Like the squirrel was wiping away some of its footsteps with its tail as it walked away from them,

So that it would be a bit confusing,

As it would suddenly look like there's just a random squirrel imprint,

But no footprints near it,

But the owl was also aware that as the night draws on,

Snow will continue to fall,

And eventually these imprints will probably fill up with snow,

And begin to disappear,

And that anyone who's missed it will miss out,

And will never even realise that this had happened,

And the owl rested back,

Tucked itself back,

Almost into a hole along the back of the branch,

Into the trunk of the tree,

To keep itself just out of the wind,

Just out of the cold,

Almost like the tree is giving it a hug and looking after it,

And it rested there and let its eyes close,

And it began to drift and float asleep,

And as that owl drifted and floated asleep,

So a grandmother,

Sitting between two beds of her two grandchildren,

Who had just started to rest and sleep,

And were breathing in that sleep-like way,

And had turned over,

And had started to dream,

Closed a book,

And said that that's the end of the story,

Of the adventure of that owl,

And placed that book on a nightstand between the tables,

Turned off a light,

Left the children's bedroom,

Pulled the door to so that there was just the slightest crack of light coming through the door from the landing outside,

Just in case the children needed a bit of light during the night,

And then she carefully walked downstairs,

And sat in front of the fireplace,

And thought to herself about how she used to enjoy these stories of the owl and its adventures,

Always curious what it would get up to in the next book,

And how the author came up with these seemingly random ideas for these stories,

And she sipped a cup of tea that had started to go a little cold,

While she'd been upstairs reading to her grandkids,

And decided to make herself another one,

And she went to the kitchen,

And while the kettle was boiling,

She just gazed out of the window,

Looking out over her back garden,

She could see the sunflower up the side of the kitchen window,

The way it was swaying just slightly in the breeze outside,

She could see the way the moon illuminated the back garden,

She could hear the sound of the occasional bird that hadn't yet fallen asleep,

While the kettle was boiling,

She carried her recycling out,

And while outside in the garden,

Took a few deep breaths of that fresh country air,

Feeling that refreshing feeling of the air passing through her nostrils,

Down into her lungs,

Before breathing out,

Feeling deeply relaxed,

Then heading back inside,

Finishing making her drink,

Then sat back down,

Holding that warm cup between her hands,

And enjoyed some time relaxing,

After having put the grandkids to bed,

And settled them down,

Before it's her time to head to bed,

And settle herself down,

And while she was relaxing,

She decided to colour in a colouring book,

To help her relax a little more,

A little deeper,

To give her something to focus on,

As she prepares her mind for sleep,

And so she had a colouring book of geometric shapes,

She carefully coloured those shapes in,

In her own specific way,

And once she'd finished the picture she was colouring in,

And had finished her drink,

She settled down,

Went to bed,

And began to fall asleep,

And as she drifted asleep,

So she snuggled up to a hot water bottle,

While she snuggled down to sleep,

And began to dream of riding along the most beautiful sandy beach,

On the most incredible electric blue horse,

With a white mane,

And a white tail,

That flowed,

And bounced in the breeze,

As she galloped along that sandy beach,

And galloped deeper,

And deeper,

Asleep,

Into the most pleasant dream,

Smiling as she slept,

Knowing she'll wake,

Looking forward,

To the next day,

To the children,

Sharing their dreams,

From the story she'd told,

And she drifted and floated so peacefully,

So comfortably,

And relaxed,

Asleep.