The Kitten's Beach Reverie: Original Long Bedtime Story

Just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and 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 as you begin to relax and drift with this sleep meditation,

I'm just going to tell a story about a kitten.

And this kitten lives in a little cabin in Scotland.

And one snowy day,

The kitten's resting in front of the fire and having the most incredible dreams.

The legs gently twitching as they imagine running around.

And then they hear the sound of their human preparing some food.

So they quickly jolt awake as if that sound triggers something inside them.

And they can smell the food being prepared.

And they walk through to the kitchen.

And on the kitchen floor,

In the kittens eating space,

The kitten sees a haggis resting on a plate.

They can feel their mouth beginning to water as they smell that haggis.

And they approach the haggis.

And in the most careful way,

This little kitten uses their first claw to carefully cut that open.

And almost like it's doing precision surgery,

The kitten carefully cuts slices.

And with the tip of its claw,

It pulls out tiny slices and slides them onto a separate plate.

And the human just stands and watches,

Always amazed at how this kitten seems to think that it's always fine dining.

As that kitten carefully cuts the perfect slices for its mouth and eats those slices of haggis.

And the haggis is almost the size of the kitten.

And yet the kitten seems to manage to eat half of it in one sitting before tootling over to the human and looking up at the human as if to say,

Can you save the rest for me for later?

I need to go and burn off what I've currently eaten.

And then that kitten heads outside through the cat flap and tries to almost tiptoe through the snow outside.

But each step,

It just sinks through that little bit of snow.

But it continues to try to tiptoe.

And the kitten goes on its walk through that snow.

It can notice how the sounds are dulled by the snowy environment.

How the light is dimmer with the grey clouds overhead.

The air smells fresh.

And there's the crunching of each footstep that kitten takes.

Like really tiny little crunches.

Almost like walking on individual crisps.

And as the kitten walks through the snow.

So they begin to wish that it was a little warmer.

That they're going out for a walk.

They wish it was a little warmer.

They start to think of what it'd be like to be wearing mittens.

Because they've heard that you can buy mittens for kittens.

And they like the idea of being one of those kittens in mittens.

But they didn't know how well that would work.

Walking in the snow.

They worried that their little mittens might gather up all the snow.

The snow might stick to them and make it harder to walk through this snow.

And so they continue.

Walking around the outside of this garden.

And as they walk around out in the snow.

Outside their home.

Walking through the garden.

Roaming around.

The human exits the property.

And they're wrapped up.

In their thickest coat.

And they've got their mittens.

As they walk out.

And they slide their hands into their mittens.

They head round to the shed.

They carefully open the shed.

And inside the shed.

They pull out a partially carved bit of wood.

And standing that in the garden.

They continue to shape and carve that piece of wood.

And the kitten stops for a moment to watch them.

Curious what it is that they'll be carving.

Trying to work out what it looks like it's becoming.

And they watch for a little while.

Seeing the person chipping bits off.

Just carefully sliding bits of wood off.

Almost like shavings of wood.

And the person seems to get so absorbed in what they're doing.

As if they're lost in their own world.

And the kitten continues to explore around the garden.

Trying to burn off some of that food.

Before they head back to the house.

They head into the house.

And they sit themselves down in front of the fire.

Allow themselves to begin to warm up.

Before tilting back into a seated position.

On their back two legs.

Closing their eyes.

Imagining themselves in a yoga pose.

Like they'd seen on the TV.

And they focus on keeping their balance.

And as they focus on keeping their balance.

Feeling the warmth of that fire.

On their face.

On their fur.

Feeling the way they move ever so slightly.

While keeping their balance.

Hearing the crackling of the fire.

They begin to drift into their own little reverie.

They drift inside their mind.

Focusing on the idea of maintaining balance.

And as they focus on that idea of maintaining balance.

So they start to hear the sound of rollerblades.

And they find themselves rollerblading along the promenade of the most beautiful beach.

Gazing out on a summer's day.

Over the sea.

Over the sand.

Blue sky.

Hearing birds overhead.

Passing all these humans that are much larger than they are.

There's a little kitten with the rollerblades on its back feet.

Rollerblading along that promenade.

The sound of each push of the rollerblades on the ground.

The feeling of the breeze on their fur.

The warmth of that Sun.

Saying hello.

In a kitten squeaky meow to every person they pass.

Thinking that they look so cool.

And they do twists and turns.

And they see a little skate park.

And there's no one in the skate park.

So they decide to rollerblade into the skate park.

And they speed along.

They do some backflips.

They try and grind along a bar.

They almost fall when they turn it into something cool.

And make it look like it was on purpose.

As they bounce on one front paw.

And land back on their feet.

And as they continue along the promenade.

They suddenly find something glistening and glinting that catches their eye.

And draws them towards it.

As if it's somehow reflecting light straight at them.

And as they get closer.

They can hear a boombox.

But all they can really make out is the beat coming from that boombox.

And next to it they see this six-foot robot dancing.

And they imagine that it would dance like when you say to a person to do a robot dance.

But instead it's dancing so much more fluidly.

And it looks incredibly heavy.

And yet seems so light on its feet.

Jumping both feet apart.

Toes pointing slightly out.

Flicking the heels out.

Bending the knees.

Launching.

Twisting.

Landing.

Facing forward again.

Seemingly moving every part of their body.

Managing to make sure that there seems to be no part that remains totally stationary.

Every part is moving to the music.

And they stop captivated by this dancing robot.

Along with many others.

And as quick as this robot seemed to have started dancing.

It seemed to suddenly stop.

And once it stopped.

People started putting money in a box that was in front of this robot.

And it was almost as if once there was a certain amount of money placed into that box.

The robot was happy to start dancing again.

And the music would start.

And the robot would dance.

And once the kitten had watched that robot a while.

And realized the robot seemed to only have one dance routine they knew.

They did it really well.

But they only had one dance routine.

They carried on along the promenade.

Wondering what else would be along here.

They saw someone dunking rope into soapy water.

And carefully with two hands pulling that rope out of the soapy water.

Carefully waving and parting that rope.

To create these really long flowing bubbles.

With rainbow colors.

Spiraling along the bubbles and catching the sunlight.

Before eventually the bubble would burst.

And almost in slow motion.

You could see that bubble bursting.

Until it's just to a point of liquid that dropped to the floor.

And they continued along the promenade.

Until they reached a turning.

Up a hill and into some woodland.

And they took off their rollerblades.

Put them in a little backpack.

Placed that backpack back on their back.

And walked on all fours up into the woodland.

And as they walked up into the woodland.

So the sounds were left behind them.

Of the beach.

The seabirds.

Of the people on the beach and the promenade.

Of that boombox in the distance.

Sound of the water rolling into the shore.

They started to hear the sounds of songbirds.

Sounds of the rustling leaves.

They walked deeper into the woods.

They turned off the main path.

Wandered among the trees.

Noticed how it got darker among the trees.

But the sounds of the rustling leaves got louder.

They didn't know where they were heading.

They were just exploring.

And as they walked.

They could hear their tiny little footsteps on the forest floor.

And the trees seemed to become more dense.

Until all of a sudden.

They saw something they'd never noticed before.

They saw what looked like a tree.

But no ordinary tree.

It was many many times wider than the other trees around here.

It was almost like a wall in the forest.

They were curious by this.

They walked to that tree.

They ran their claws of one of their paws around the tree.

Feeling the bark of that tree.

As their claws bounced along that bark so gently.

They walked a little way around the tree.

Realizing it was so wide.

It was so high they couldn't see when they tried to look up.

All the way to the top.

So they ended up.

Once they got round to the other side of the tree.

Lying on their back.

Having removed the backpack.

Resting their head on the backpack.

And looking up to try and see the top of the tree.

And even then they couldn't see the top.

They could just see that there were branches and leaves way up there.

Towering so high over the rest of these trees.

They wondered how anything managed to grow down here so close to the tree.

They wondered how deep the roots went.

And they had tried climbing trees before.

But weren't sure whether they could ever climb something like this.

They started digging their claws in and trying to shimmy up the tree a little bit.

They could see what looked like a hole in the tree.

They wondered whether perhaps it was caused by a woodpecker or some other bird or animal.

And keeping their stomach as close to the tree as they could.

And their fore paws as wide as they could.

And almost pinning their cheek to the tree.

They carefully shimmied up that tree.

Towards that hole.

And as they reached the hole.

They carefully reached in with one paw.

Then the other.

Then pushed their head in.

Then pulled the rest of their body through.

Once inside the tree.

They allowed a few moments for their eyes to adjust.

Their eyes to get used to the darkness inside this tree.

And there seemed to be a slight glowing inside the tree.

Enough just to see that there were steps rising up the center of the tree.

So they started ascending those steps.

And the wooden steps clinked and clunked under each footstep.

As the claws tapped on the wooden steps.

And that tapping gently echoed around the inside of the tree.

They continued to climb higher and higher.

And after what seemed like an incredibly long time.

They started to see daylight.

Then they came out of a hole at the top.

Near the top of the tree.

That led to a small platform.

Resting around the branches.

They walked out onto that platform.

And they could see over the whole forest.

They could see over to distant mountains.

Looking the other way they could see the ocean and the beach.

They realized they were so high up.

They could feel the slight swaying of the tree from up here.

And feel the breeze on their cheeks.

And then an owl landed next to them with a hoot.

And asked them who they were and where they came from.

And they explained that they're walking along the seafront.

Along that promenade.

They turned into the trees.

They found their way here.

And the owl said you look like you're gonna get a little cold up here.

It's rare for kittens to be this high.

And the owl gave them this tiny little tie-dye shirt.

With bold bright colors.

And they slipped that on.

Over their front paws.

Over their head.

And onto their body.

And they thought they probably looked cool in their shirt.

But had nothing to look in to find out.

They knew that it was exhausting work climbing up here.

But it was definitely chillier all the way up here than it was down at the bottom of the tree.

And the owl said that there's a secret up here.

If you're willing to find it.

And then it stepped back a few paces.

And with its head it appeared to gesture.

And the cat walked around the platform.

Looking for what was gestured.

And as they walked around they saw that there was a slide.

It looked like it spiraled down through the tree.

And the cat asked is that what you're talking about?

And the owl just hooted.

And so the cat jumped into the slide.

And spiraled in that slide.

Down through the tree.

And the cat felt like this slide was going on and on and on for so long.

It seemed like it was going on longer than it took them to walk to the top.

Climbing the stairs.

And some light was somehow getting into this slide.

Keeping it lightly illuminated as they spiraled down.

Deeper and deeper into the tree.

And after a while they started getting suspicious.

Because they still seemed to be going further and further down into the tree.

Even though they should have reached the bottom already.

They continued descending.

Until eventually the spiraling calmed down.

They started to slow down their descent.

The spiral straightened out.

And they slid off the slide.

And found themselves in a cave deep underground.

And inside this cave they could hear the sound of the ocean.

And they realized that some water must be getting into the cave from the sea.

That it was as if maybe there's an undersea cave.

And the water gets shunted from out in the ocean and into the cave.

Sploshes up somewhere in the cave.

They could be heard reverberating and echoing through the whole cave.

They could feel and taste the slight sea air.

That slight salty water air inside this cave.

And they could see what looked like glowing mushrooms illuminating the cave walls.

With the most beautiful electric blue glow.

And with curiosity they began to explore.

And they found the most incredible thing.

In a corner against what seemed just like a brownie black wall was a four-leaf clover.

Somehow growing.

And there was no other greenery down here.

And yet there's this four-leaf clover.

And they carefully reached down.

And with a claw they picked that clover.

They took their backpack off.

They placed that clover on the outside of their backpack.

As if to give them good luck.

And using a needle and some thread they just carefully sewed around the stem of the clover.

Just to hold it in place on their backpack.

Before putting that backpack back on their back.

And then continuing to explore this cave.

And as they explored so the sound of the ocean got louder.

They realized they must be working their way down in the direction of the sea.

Until they found their way to a bit of cave.

Where it looked like there was a lake.

And that lake kept rising and falling.

As if the water is getting pushed in and it rises.

And then pulled back out as the lake falls.

And they could see a faint glow of light shining in through the water.

At the back of the cave.

And then bouncing around in the water.

And gently illuminating this bit of cave.

And gently illuminating this lake.

And they can see the way the water in this lake.

As it shunts in and pulls back out.

Seems to be just wearing away some of the soil at the edge of the cave.

And they see what looks like a dinosaur tooth.

They go over and they carefully pick around that tooth with a claw.

And the way it looks.

It looks almost like a rotten dinosaur tooth.

Almost like it's totally withered away.

But they know that the actual remnants of a real tooth are probably long gone.

And it's more water damage that's been happening more recently on the remains of the fossil.

But they still find this interesting.

And carefully pick that tooth out of the ground.

Carefully uncover it.

While also trying to avoid this water that keeps coming in and back out again.

And they manage to get some water on the fossil once it's collected.

Just to remove some of that mud before backing away from the water.

To place that into their backpack.

They feel like they're getting a good collection of items here.

Making this journey worthwhile.

And they wonder what their route is to take back to where they need to go.

To get back outside of this cave.

They can see daylight through the water below.

But they wonder whether they could hold their breath long enough to swim down through this water that's coming in at them.

Maybe diving in just as the water is pulling out.

And maybe that way it would almost suck them out of the cave.

Then they wonder whether they're a strong enough swimmer.

So they decide to look and see if there's an alternative route.

And as they continue exploring they see what looks like a rabbit hole.

But instead of a rabbit they see a turtle.

And this turtle is pushing the soil back while trying to push forward through the soil.

Almost like it's trying to dig its way out of here.

And the little kitten follows that turtle and asks what it's doing.

And it says it's digging its way out of here.

It's nearly there.

And the kitten feels that they're probably a lot further underground than the turtle realizes.

The turtle says they can smell such things.

They know they're nearly there.

So the kitten offers to help.

And it's muddy work.

But the kitten uses its claws to carefully help dig this hole following the instructions of the turtle.

And the turtle happens to be right.

That they break through and come out a little way up from the beach.

And the turtle thanks the kitten and begins to flop its way along the beach.

Trying to power its way down to the sea.

While the kitten goes to some grass and starts rolling around on the grass.

Rubbing its paws in the grass.

Trying to dry itself.

Clean itself off a bit from the dirt it's got over it.

And then it hears what sounds like circus music or fairground music.

And realize it's come out so far along the beach that it's near the pier.

And so that kitten heads up onto the pier.

Walks along that pier.

Looks down between the slats of wood at the sea rolling in below.

Can see the lights of the pier.

The lights of the different amusements.

The sounds.

A ferris wheel on the pier.

Tents on the pier with different games.

And as they walk along.

So someone looking like a wizard in a purple robe approaches them.

Leans down and says we're looking for some fellows like you.

And the kitten feels like they're not quite looking at them.

And then this wizard reaches down and carefully picks off some of the fleas from the kittens back.

And holds them in his sealed hand.

And the kitten wonders what's going on.

And they say that they got a little flea circus that needs some fleas.

And these will do fine.

And the kitten follows that wizard back to their tent.

And they place the fleas into the flea circus.

And the kitten watches as those fleas almost straightaway seem to know what they're doing.

They start walking a tightrope.

They start carrying heavy weights.

Leaping all over the place.

Doing acrobatics.

And the kitten wondered whether this was the case in the past.

They'd imagined that flea circuses were actually not real.

That it was tricking people into saying that there are fleas doing these things.

When actually it was probably mechanical.

Like something hitting the inside of the base.

Making it look like something has just jumped.

Or affecting the tension on some wire.

Making it look like something has landed on the wire.

Or taken off the wire.

And mechanical swings.

And yet here were fleas genuinely carrying out circus acts.

And the wizard just stood there and smiled.

Almost as if they were smugly thinking.

You didn't believe that they would do that did you?

And the kitten thought to themselves you're right.

I didn't.

And just at that point the kitten felt perhaps they're starting to get a bit hungry.

All this exertion.

And the wizard seemed to pick this up.

And invited them through to a part of the tent.

And as they walked through.

It was almost as if they walked into an alien world.

It didn't look like they're in a tent anymore.

Instead they could see rivers of chocolate.

And it smelt strongly like chocolate.

They could see marshmallow clouds.

The grass seemed to be made of the finest fluffiest sugar.

Just waving gently in the breeze.

And then it started raining.

And out of the clouds.

The base of them started to turn a dark brown.

And chocolate raindrops started falling from the sky.

And it seemed almost like there was very little gravity here.

Because those raindrops were falling so slowly and gently through that sky.

And the kitten had that thought of wanting to test this.

And so it put its little tongue out.

And noticed that it was chocolate.

Designed seemingly especially for cats.

Landing on its tongue.

And the kitten explored and then found that there were pools of milk.

Rivers of chocolate.

And the kitten thought this seems too tempting.

Too good a thing.

And the wizard said you don't want to leave here do you?

And the kitten felt there's got to be something suspicious here.

Nothing is this good.

And so they decided to try and leave.

And the wizard said that you can't leave here yet.

And the kitten wondered why.

And decided to head the opposite way to the wizard.

And as this kitten explored.

They could hear this humming sound.

And so they followed the humming.

And they looked back and they could see that wizard.

Just sat there on a bench.

With a smile on their face.

Just watching.

And they followed the sound of that humming.

Out of sight from the bench.

Where they found a tree.

That seemed to be made out of gingerbread.

They managed to bite their way into the tree.

Where some bees flew out of that tree.

These honeybees explained that they do know the way out.

And as these honeybees flew out of the tree.

So honey started leaking from the cracks in the tree.

And flowing down on the ground.

And the bees said to follow them.

And so each of the bees found their toolboxes.

And went to a solid chocolate dam.

That was holding back a chocolate lake.

And they began to tap on that dam.

With their tools.

And chisel into that dam.

And they said they're doing so at a very specific point.

Then eventually they managed to break through this point in the dam.

And the kitten wondered whether the chocolate lake was gonna pour through this chocolate dam.

But instead they saw daylight.

And snow.

And the bees all flew through.

And they squeezed their way through.

And fell from that gap.

And gently plopped down onto the snow.

And found themselves back in Scotland.

Not far from where they lived.

And as they looked up.

They could just see clouds above them.

And they felt they could see the faintest hint of a hole in the clouds.

Where they just fell through.

And they were curious now.

Whether this was a dream.

Whether they were still actually doing yoga in front of the fireplace.

Dreaming this experience.

And they head back towards their home.

And on their way back towards their home.

They see this one most beautiful red rose.

Managing to break its way through the snow.

And they pick that red rose as they journey back.

Something to leave in appreciation for the human they live with.

They arrive back at their home.

They see that the human has nearly finished with their sculpture.

They find the way inside.

They see themselves in a yoga position in front of that fire.

They go over just behind themselves.

And they know that they are there dreaming.

That they're stood behind themselves.

While they're stood behind themselves.

Feeling like themselves.

Looking at that them dreaming.

And then they close their eyes.

And imagine themselves walking forward into themselves.

Before opening their eyes and finding themselves just meditating in a yoga position in front of the fire.

But they realize they're now wearing a backpack that they didn't have on.

They take that backpack off their back.

And they see on the floor next to them is a rose.

And they place that rose on the kitchen counter.

They see that four-leaf clover on the backpack.

And yet they know that backpack was only in their dreams.

Not something they've ever really owned.

And so they walk outside.

They walk around in the snow.

They begin to have a feeling of connecting with the here and now.

Connecting with their reality again.

Almost waking themselves up with that fresh air.

Feeling alert.

Making sure that they feel one again.

And they watch as the human continues with what they're doing.

Before they go and put the sculpture back.

Having decided they've done enough work for now.

Into the shed.

And then the human sits themselves down on a bench.

Just resting after that hard work.

Wrapped up in their warm coat.

With their mittens.

Wrapping their arms around themselves.

Tucking their elbows in.

Keeping themselves as warm as they can.

And they can see the human taking some deep breaths.

And seeming to just center themselves and calm themselves down.

Then after a little while that human walks across the garden.

Heads into the house.

Makes them both something to eat.

And notices how dirty their cat has got.

And so runs a tiny little bath for them.

In a bowl.

And sees the strangest thing.

That they're wearing.

A tie-dye shirt.

Wonders where that came from.

But takes that off them.

And plops them carefully into that bubble bar.

And gently massages their back.

Their shoulders.

Top of their head.

And carefully washes and cleans them.

And takes them out of that bar.

And smiles at the strange look on their face.

As they're soaking wet there.

With some bubbles on their forehead.

And between their ears.

And then dries them off with the fluffiest towel that they could ever imagine having.

And then sits with them in front of the fire.

As they warm up and dry off.

Before they have some final food to eat.

And the human has some final food to eat.

Then the human turns off the lights.

Heading off to bed.

And they settle down in their bed.

And they comfortably drift asleep.

And as they drift asleep.

So they dream of pleasant experiences.

They dream of wandering along a beach again.

Enjoying some warmth.

And as they walk along this beach.

They get distracted by a different smell.

Coming from one of the groups of people.

Sat down.

Enjoying the setting sun.

Around a campfire.

On the sand.

And they decide as they fall asleep.

Perhaps they'll go and wander over.

And see what these people are like.

What they enjoy.

And the closer they get to these people.

The deeper relaxed they feel.

And the deeper relaxed they feel.

The closer they approach those friendly people sat there.

Enjoying the campfire.

Listening to the gentle roll of the waves on the shore.

As that sun sets.

The moon rises.

And the stars twinkle overhead.

And the little kitten falls deeper and deeper asleep.