Kids Bedtime Stories

Journey

Cosy up and snuggle down, for tonight’s story is all about Journey.

You wake to find yourself standing on a rock overlooking a vast desert. A warm breeze caresses your face and you can hear the sound of singing. It is coming from behind you. You turn and see a fellow traveller. You observe the same red hooded robe that you wear yourself and the scarf that floats gently in the breeze. It requires only the slightest movement of the air to set it in motion. You stand together and the singing stops. You understand that it is time to start your quest and together you jump from the rock.

The sand is soft beneath your feet and you find that you can move quite easily. The sandscape before you undulates, rising and falling like waves on the ocean. To your delight, you discover that by holding your feet still you can surf the downward slopes, and as your momentum carries you over the next crest of sand you leave the ground and for the briefest of moments you hover, weightless in the warm air...

Together with your companion you approach the ruins of an abandoned city.

Your companion has gone ahead and is standing on top of a half-submerged building. The surrounding sand almost covers the shuttered windows, but not quite. There is something trapped inside. Next to your companion a rectangular tablet hovers in the air. It glows with a white light and its surface is carved with the intricate design of an ancient rune. The singing begins once more, and you know what you must do.

The moment your fingers touch the tablet it vanishes before your eyes. There is a release of locks and the shuttered windows fly open. Hundreds of tiny pieces of cloth burst out. Like butterflies they rise into the sky enjoying their freedom. You watch them dance and you wish that you could join them. Your companion senses your wish to join them and leaps, joining the delicate flutter above. You leap too and the pieces of cloth instantly surround you. They move as one and settle on your scarf. They weave themselves into the fabric, making it longer and longer. It glows with an intricate pattern of runes, and you can fly!

Flying is much faster than walking and in no time at all you reach the heart of the city. Here more of the buildings remain intact and you navigate between tall towers and the remnants of the vast bridges that span between them. Your companion begins to sing and descends towards the base of a majestic tower. Intuitively, you follow but find yourself in a world lacking in sunlight. The sand that surrounds you is hanging in the air like a dense, dark cloud. You can barely make out the muffled sound of your companion’s song. Through the fog you see the glow of a tablet and the bright blue outline of two magnificent doors pierce the gloom. You stand before them. The air clears and your companion has gone. The sound of singing has stopped, and you know that you must face this trial alone. You reach for the tablet and the doors swing open…

You find yourself in a magnificent hall. There is no ceiling and light pours down from above. The walls are covered in murals that depict the city as it once was, a thriving, vibrant metropolis. You stare in awe, and you wonder what happened to destroy such beauty.

Ahead of you, the floor slopes gently downwards encouraging you to walk towards a huge spiral staircase. Its steps are made from polished marble and the rails are of the brightest gold. You are surprised to see the staircase rises upwards, but descends as well, down into the bowels of the earth. You hesitate, but only for a moment. You know that you can end your journey here. You can choose to climb up towards the light that bathes the tops of the towers. Up to where your companion rides the wind and sings. But upwards is not your destiny. Your journey is far from over and with your hand gripping the golden rail you step down…

As your eyes adjust to the gloom you see that you have arrived at the foundations of the city. You are surrounded by colossal boulders, carved with runes and steeped in a powerful magic that supports the towers above. The space seems endless and in the darkest corners you think you sense the slightest movement. Your heart beats faster in your chest.
You wait.
You watch.
You hold your breath.
But nothing happens.
You continue to explore. You are following a path that weaves between the giant foundations and is now littered with fragments of rock and rubble. On close inspection you see that some of the pieces are carved with runes. Here the foundations are scarred and chipped, as if gnawed by some enormous beast. Something here feeds on rock, and you are walking among the crumbs of its meal.

You see what appears to be the end of a series of steppingstones leading into the shadows. They increase in size incrementally. The smallest is by your feet, and for a moment you imagine them to be the spine of a skeleton: the bones of a dinosaur wired together in a museum to form the giant frame of a once living and breathing creature. You perch on the tip of the very last stone, and empty the breath from your lungs. As the last of your breath leaves your lungs, beneath you the stone begins to vibrate…

Suddenly, you are tossed into the air. You instinctively curl into a ball in an attempt to cushion the blow as you crash into the ground. You are gripped in fear and you stare wildly at the stones as they curl and flick like a giant tail. Then you hear the song. But it is not like the song of your companion. It is a rough, out-of-tune and painful jumble of notes that hurts your ears. You stare into the shadows and you see a giant boulder rise into the air. It turns towards you and you see red eyes glowing, the mechanical jaw with its massive teeth opening and closing. You realise that this is what ruined the city. This is what gnawed away at the foundations until the towers fell and the houses collapsed.

You look around, searching for somewhere to hide, somewhere to escape this monster. You spy a raised platform to your left. You run crouching towards it and throw yourself acrossits surface. You are surprised to find it cold to the touch. Like ice. It fans out before you like a frozen lake. You slide along its pristine surface until you reach an area which is covered by more fragments of stone, but these are not like the others. These are small and thin. Some have straight edges and sharp corners with intricate designs carved on one side. You realise it is a broken tablet. Behind you the jarring song is interspersed by the sound of steel teeth crunching down on stone. You have awakened one of the machines that destroyed the city, but for now it’s distracted and you know you must stop it.
Working frantically but accurately, you begin to assemble the broken pieces of the tablet. As you place the last piece of this ancient jigsaw together the tablet becomes solid and glows an iridescent white. It fills the air with the sound of a thousand voices singing and you see the machine falter. It rears its head one last time before crumbling into dust.

Exhausted you lay back and listen to the singing. You have passed this trial and you know there will be more but for now, you need to rest. You feel the cold marble beneath your back grow warmer. It softens into sand and you snuggle down. You are tired. You close your eyes and you drift away, awaiting your next adventure.