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Transcript

Starlight Through the Forbidden Forest: A Two-Hour Sleep Journey with Hermione · Muggle Snuggle: A Boring Harry Potter Podcast to make you Sleep

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A two-hour magical journey for sleep. Welcome. Dear listener, welcome
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to the quiet hour. Hello there. How wonderful that you
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: found your way here tonight. I am so glad you
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: are with me. Here in this soft place, in this
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: gentle hour, where nothing is ass-uffy, except to breathe and
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to listen and to let the world drift further and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: further away. If you're tired, That is exactly right. If
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: your eyes are heavy, that is exactly right too. This moment,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: this very moment is yours. My name is Hermione and
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I will be your guide this evening. I have always
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: believed that some places hold a particular kind of magic.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: A quiet kind of magic that does not announce itself
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: with sparks or spells but simply waits, patiently. until the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: right person comes along to notice it. Tonight, I would
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: like to take you somewhere I have loved since I
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: was very young. A place where the trees grow taller
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: than memory. A place where the stars fall close enough
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to touch. A place that has waited all these centuries
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: for you to wander through it. For the next two hours,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you and I are going to walk very slowly and
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: very gently Through the forbidden forest at night, we are
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: going to follow a path that only appears in moonlight,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: a path that wends between ancient trunks, past clearings where
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: silver light pools on the moss, past streams that sing
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: to themselves in voices only owls can understand. We are
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: going to meet the creatures who call this forest home,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: the centaurs and the unicorns and the thestrals and the phoenixes,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: and all the smaller, gentler beings who live in the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: spaces between the shadows. This is a story told in whispers.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: It is a story told in breath. It is the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: kind of story that asks nothing of you except to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: lie back, close your eyes, if you wish, and let
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the images rise up like smoke, like mist, like the
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: softest kind of magic. You are safe here. The forest
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: knows you now. It has been waiting for you. And
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: it would very much like to show you what it
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: looks like when the world is sleeping. Let us begin.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Breathe in slowly. Hold the breath for a moment. And
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: as you breathe out, feel your body settling. Just a
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: little more deeply into whatever surface holds you tonight. Your bed,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: your pillow, your favorite chair. Whatever supports you, it supports
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: you fully. You do not need to do anything. You
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: do not need to be anywhere. You are already exactly
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: where you need to be. Breathe in again and out.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: In and out. Each breath a little slower than the last.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Each breath a little softer. The world can wait. Tomorrow
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: can wait. Everything that ever worried you. Everything that ever
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: hurried you. Everything that ever asked you to be more
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: than you. Are right now. All of it can wait
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: just outside this little circle of warmth and stillness. You
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: are here. You are present. And that is enough. Let
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: us begin our journey. The night is very clear. Above
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the forbidden forest, the sky has unfolded itself like a
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: great blue-black blanket, and pinned to it are more stars
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: than you have ever seen. They're not the distant, indifferent
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: stars of the city sky, the ones that struggle to
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: be seen through the haze of lamplight and pollution. These
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: stars are bold. These stars are bright. They blaze down
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: through the canopy of the forest with such intensity that
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the leaves and branches seem to glow from within, as
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: if each leaf has captured a piece of starlight and
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: is holding it, trembling, until morning comes to take it back.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: You stand at the edge of the forest, where the
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: grass of the open lawn meets the first row of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: ancient trees. There is no clear boundary. The trees simply begin,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: suddenly and without apology, as if they have always been there,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: as if the lawn has been borrowing space from them
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: and they have graciously allowed it. The trunks are enormous.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: They rise up and up and up, far higher than
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: you would have thought possible, far higher than the eye
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: can comfortably follow. until at last they dissolve into the
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: high canopy where the smallest branches brush against the stars themselves.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: The mbork of the nearest tree is rough and ridged,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: deeply grooved by centuries of weather. If you were to
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: press your palm against it, you would feel the texture
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: of time itself, each ridge a year, each groove a season,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: each rough patch a memory of some long-ago storm. Some
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: of the bark has flaked away, revealing a smoother, paler
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: layer beneath, the way an old stone wall reveals the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: original stone when the plafter falls off. Moss grows in
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the grooves, deep green and velvet soft, and small ferns
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: sprout from the crevices, their tiny fronds curled tight against
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the night. The air at the forest edge smells different
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: from the air on the open lawn. The lawn smells
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: of cut grass and warm earth and a faint tang
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: of distant rain. But the forest smells of moss, of bark,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: of pine needles crushed underfoot by centuries of passing creatures.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: It smells of mushrooms, of wild garlic, of the sweet
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: rot of fallen leaves giving themselves back to the earth.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: It smells of cold water from the streams and of
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the dry, papery scent of old owl feathers. And beneath
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: all these familiar smells, There is something else, something that
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: is no name. It is the smell of magic. It
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: is the smell of a place that has been left
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: alone for so long that it has developed its own opinions,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: its own personality, its own quiet and watchful mood. You
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: take a step forward. The grass gives way to soft moss,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: which gives way to a carpet of fallen leaves, which
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: gives way to the bare earth of the path itself.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: An earth that is so dark and so rich that
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it looks almost black in the starlight. Your footfalls are muffled.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Even your breath seems softer here, as if the forest
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: has put its finger to its lips and asked for quiet.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: And so you walk, slowly, gently, one step at a time,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: deeper into the trees. The path ahead is narrow. just
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: wide enough for one person to pass, and it curves immediately,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: bending around a great trunk so wide that you cannot
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: see around it. As you turn the corner, the open
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: sky vanishes behind the canopy, replaced by a ceiling of
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: leaves and branches woven so tightly together that they form
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: a kind of green roof, pierced here and there by
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: a single shaft of starlight that falls through and pools
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: on the ground like a drop of liquid silver. The
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: first shaft of starlight falls on a patch of moss
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: just ahead of you. The moss glows. Not figuratively, it
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: literally glows, a soft pale green that pulses gently like
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a slow heartbeat. As you watch, you realize that the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: moss is not the only thing glowing. The bark of
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the nearest tree is covered in a thin layer of
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: luminous lichen, pale blue and pale green, lighting your way
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: like the softest possible lantern. You do not need to
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: be afraid of the dark here. The dark is well lit,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: in its own gentle way. You follow the path. The
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: path knows where it is going, even when you do not.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: It curves to the left. past a fallen log so
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: old that it has become a garden of its own,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: with ferns growing out of its cracks and mushrooms sprouting
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: from its sides. The mushrooms are small and pale, with
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: caps the color of cream and stems no thicker than
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: a finger. They grow in clusters, in little families leaning
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: against each other as if sharing secrets. Some of them
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: glow faintly, a soft creamy yellow that matches the starlight,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: as if they have absorbed it and are now giving
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: it back. The log itself is enormous longer than your
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: tall and so old that its heartwood has rotted away,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: leaving a hollow trough that has filled with rainwater and
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: become a tiny pond. Tiny insects skate across the surface
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: of this pond, leaving silver trails behind them, a single
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: fallen leaf. half red and half gold rests at one
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: end like a tiny boat waiting for an invisible sailor
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the path curves to the right past a pool of
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: standing water so still and so clear that it has
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: become a perfect mirror reflecting the canopy above and creating
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the illusion of walking between two forests one above and
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: one below both equally mysterious The reflection is so perfect
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: that for a moment you cannot tell which way is
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: up and which way is down and you feel the
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: delightful vertigo of standing on the edge of two worlds.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: You pause for a moment by the pool. You look
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: down into the water. And the water looks back. It
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: is not your reflection that you see. Exactly. It is
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: something more like a suggestion. A soft impression of a
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: face that is somehow also the face of the forest itself,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: half woman and half tree with eyes like pools of
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: amber and hair like trailing moss. She smiles at you.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: You smile back. She does not speak. She does not
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: need to. The smile is enough. It is a welcome.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: It is an invitation. It is the forest telling you
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: that you are expected. That you are wanted. That you are.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Exactly where you should be. You stand up. You walk on.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: The path begins to slope downward now. Very gently taking
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: you deeper into a hollow between two small hills. The
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: air grows cooler. The smell of water grows stronger. And
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: somewhere ahead, very faintly, you can hear the sound of
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: moving water. the soft gurgle and splash of a stream
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: tumbling over stones. The sound grows louder as you walk.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: And then, around one more curve, there it is. Stream.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Not a large stream, not a rushing torrent, but a
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: gentle one, perhaps three feet across, running over a bed
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: of smooth pebbles and round stones and The water is
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: so clear that you can see every pebble, every grain
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: of sand, every tiny fish that darts between the shadows.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: The starlight falls on the surface of the stream and
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: breaks into a thousand tiny diamonds, each one dancing and spinning,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: each one a small celebration of light. Think lip by
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the edge of the stream. The moss is soft and
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: damp beneath your knees. You cup your hands and dip
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: them into the water. And the water is cold, but
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: not uncomfortably cold. It is the kind of cold that
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: wakes you up just enough to make you feel alive,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: then settles into a pleasant coolness that lingers on your skin.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: You lift the water to your lips. You drink. It
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: is the cleanest water you have ever tasted. It tastes
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: of stone and rain and the faintest trace of mint.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: It tastes of years. It tastes of patience. It tastes
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: like the very first water that ever fell from the
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: very first sky. Think, Stame, you continue along the path,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: which now follows the stream. The stream is your companion now.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: It walks beside you, murmuring to itself in its quiet voice,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: sometimes louder where the stones are rough, sometimes softer where
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the bed is smooth. It is telling you a story.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: The story has no words. The story is the sound itself.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: The story is the way the water moves. The way
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: it pauses in the still places. The way it hurries
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: over the rapids. The way it curls into eddies and
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: spins like slow dancers. The way it stretches out thin
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: and smooth over the flat, stones like glass being poured.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: The path follows the stream for a long way. The
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: trees on either side grow closer to the water, their
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: roots reaching down into the bank, gripping the soil. Drinking
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: from the stream, some of the trees have grown so
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: close that their branches interlock overhead, forming a kind of
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: green tunnel through which the stream runs. Walking through this
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: tunnel is like walking through a cathedral, except the cathedral
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: is alive and growing and breathing, and the candles have
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: been replaced by the gentle glow of the luminous moss
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: that clings to the tunnel walls. After a while, the
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: path opens up into a clearing. It is not a
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: lodge clearing, perhaps thirty feet across, but it feels enormous
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: because the canopy opens above it completely and the sky
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: pours in, all that vast expanse of stars. You step
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: into the center of the clearing and look up, and
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the stars look down, and for a moment, you are
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: held in the gaze of something very old and very patient,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: something that has been watching this forest for longer than
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: humans have walked the earth. In the center of the
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: clearing is a stone, a single standing stone, taller than you,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: narrower at the top than at the base. Its surface
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: is covered in moss and lichen. But here and there
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: you can see markings carved into the rock. Spirals. Eyes. Hands. Stars.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: They are very old, these carvings. Older than the school nearby.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Older than the village in the valley. Older than the
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: kingdom itself. They were carved by people who looked at
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the same sky. Who felt the same wind. who walked
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: this same forest, and who wanted very badly to leave
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: behind some sign, that they had been here, they had
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: been here, and now you are here too. You rest
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: your hand on the stone. The stone is cool. It
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: is not cold like the water. It is cool in
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the way that deep shade is cool, in the way
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: that stone cellars are cool. in the way that anything
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: that has been holding still for a very long time
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: tends to be cool. And it hums, just slightly, just
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: enough to feel, a vibration so faint that it might
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: be your own pulse except that it is steady, and
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: your pulse is not. You stay by the stone for
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: a while. You do not think about anything in particular.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: You simply exist in this clearing, under the sky, beside
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: this ancient rock, and you let the stars pour down
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: on you. The stars are arranged in patterns that you
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: do not recognize. You look for familiar constellations, the ones
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: you know from astronomy books, the ones that look like
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: bears and hunters and maidens in cups, but they are
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: not here. These stars belong to a different sky, or
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: perhaps to no sky at all, perhaps to the imagination
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: of the forest itself which has been drawing pictures in
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the dark for so long that the pictures have become
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: real the way a story told often enough becomes true.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: You see a constellation that looks like a sleeping cat
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: curled in a tight circle, its tail wrapped around its nose.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: You see a constellation that looks like an open book,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: its pages spread wide, its words invisible but implied. You
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: see a constellation that looks like a cup of tea,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: steam rising from its surface and delicate wisps of light.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: You see a constellation that looks like an owl, wings spread,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: beak open in a silent call. And you see one more.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: A small constellation, just above the horizon, made of seven
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: stars arranged in a curve. It looks like a smile.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: It looks like the smile of someone. very old and
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: very kind. Watching you from a great distance, glad that
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: you are here. Glad that you have come so far.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Glad that you have not given up. You smile back
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: at the stars. When you are ready, you move on.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: The path leads out of the clearing on the other side,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: climbing a gentle slope now, away from the stream, back
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: into the deeper part of the forest. The trees here
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: are different. They are older. Their trunks are not just
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: wide but strange, gnarled and twisted into shapes that look
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: almost deliberate, as if the trees grew with some purpose
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: in mind. As if they meant to be exactly this
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: shape and no other. Some of them lean together over
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: the path, forming arches and tunnels that you walk through
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: like a procession through a cathedral. Some of them have
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: hollows in their trunks large enough to stand inside. Some
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: of them have grown around stones, swallowing them whole so
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: that the stones appear to be part of the wood itself.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: The light here is different. It is dimmer, greener. The
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: color of light filtered through a thousand layers of leaf.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: It is the color of dreams. If dreams had a color.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: It is the color of underwater places and shaded grottos
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: and the inside of closed eyes in summer. You walk slowly.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: The path is soft under your feet. Every now and
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: then you hear a sound. A small sound, almost nothing.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: A twig snapping somewhere in the underbrush. A rustle of leaves.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: A tiny chirp, the voice of a sleeping bird disturbed
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: briefly by your passing. Each sound is a punctuation mark
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: in the long, Soft sentence of the forest's silence. Each
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: sound is a reminder that you are not alone here.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: That you are walking through a place that is allied
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: in a hundred different ways. That the forest is watching
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: you as you watch it. After a while, you begin
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: to hear something else. At first, it is so faint
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: that you think you are imagining it. But as you walk,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: it grows clearer. It is music. Very soft music, played
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: on instruments you cannot identify. Instruments that sound like nothing
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: you have ever heard before. The music is slow and
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: haunting and very beautiful, with a melody that rises and
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: falls like the breath of someone sleeping, with harmonies that
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: seem to come from everywhere at once, from the trees
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: and the stones and the stream and the wind. You
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: follow the music. The path opens into another clearing, larger
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: than the first, and at the center of this clearing,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: you see them. Long before you reach the clearing where
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the centaurs are gathered, the path takes you through a
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: place that is quieter than anywhere else in the forest. Quieter, even,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: than the hollow with the standing stone. Quieter than the stream.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: quieter than the deepest part of the night. It is
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: a glade, a small one ringed by old yew trees
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: whose dark foliage blocks even the faintest starlight, so that
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: the inside of the glade is darker than the forest
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: around it. But it is not an uncomfortable darkness. It
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: is a darkness that feels almost like a second skin,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: like a soft, dark blanket wrapped around you, like being
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: held in a great quiet hand. You step into the glade, carefully,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: because you cannot see the ground, but your feet know
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: where to go. The moss here is thick, deeper than
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: anywhere else, and it yields beneath your weight, like a mattress.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Each step is silent. Each step is soft. Each step
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: feels like you are walking on clouds. You stalk in
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: the middle of the glade, You wait. You do not
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: know what you are waiting for. But you wait all
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: the same because the forest has asked you to wait
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: and you have learned to trust the forest when it
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: asks things of you. And then very faintly you hear them. Wings.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Think of wings of small birds. Not the soft flutter
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: of sparrows or the quick beat of finches. These wings
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: are slow. They are heavy. They beat the air with
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: a sound like silk being drawn slowly. A cross silk.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Like a long, low whisper that rises and falls and
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: rises again. You look up and for a moment you
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: can see nothing. The darkness is too complete. But then,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: very gradually your eyes adjust and you begin to see
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: shapes against the slightly less dark sky above. Shapes that
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: are tall and thinned and graceful. Shapes with wings. Shapes
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: with long, bony heads and skeletal bodies that should by
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: every rule of beauty be ugly, but are not. De-strolls.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: The strolls. You can see them because you have seen death.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: You can see them because you have lost someone and
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: grieved them. and gone on living, the vestrals are visible
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: only to those who have understood, in the deepest part
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: of their hearts, that death is real and loss is
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: real and that both of them, somehow, are part of life.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: There are seven of them. They circle the glades slowly,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: their wings moving in unison, their heads tilted, as if
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: they are listening to the same music you are listening to,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the music of the forest breathing in its sleep, while
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: one of them descends. It lands on the ground in
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: front of you, ten feet away, and folds its wings
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: against its bony body. It is not a beautiful creature.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: By any conventional standard, its body is skeletal, its skin
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: drawn tight over its ribs, its face a skull with eyes.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: But its eyes are kind. Its eyes are gentle. Its
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: eyes hold the wisdom of a being that has been
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: to the other side and come back, that has seen
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: what lies beyond the veil and has chosen, for reasons
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: of its own, to remain here, in this world, in
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: this forest, in this gate. It watches you. You watch it.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Do you know not move? You do not speak. You
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: simply hold the gaze of this strange, gentle, terrible creature,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: and it holds your gaze in return, and for a
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: long moment, the two of you share something that has
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: no name. A recognition. A kinship. An acknowledgement that you
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: both know something that most people never know, that you
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: have both looked into the dark and seen not horror,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: but peace, not nothingness, but a continuation. Not an end,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: but a different kind of beginning. The testral bows its head.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Very slightly. Just enough. You bow your head back. It
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: spreads its wings. It launches itself into the air with
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: a single, powerful beat, and the wind of its passing
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: ruffles your hair and the leaves around you, and then
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: it is gone, rejoining its companions, and the seven of
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: them circle the glade once more, slower now, more gently,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: as if in benediction, and then they fly off into
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: the dark, toward whatever dark place they go when they
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: are not here. The glade is quiet again. You stand
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: there for a long time feeling the imprint of that
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: gaze still on your face, feeling the weight of that
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: gentle bow still on your heart. You think about the
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: person you lost, you think about the loss, and the grief,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: and the long, slow road that led you, eventually, to
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: this place. You think about how loss does not end love,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: How grief does not end memory. How the dead are
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: not really gone, but only move to a different part
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: of the same one. The forest knows this. The Thistrals
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: know this. And now, you know it too. More deeply
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: than you knew it before. You step out of the glade,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: back onto the path, and you continue your journey. But
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: you walk differently now. Lighter. Stittier. As if some small
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: weight has been lifted from your shoulders, some small burden
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: has been set down. The forest notices. The forest is glad.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: After the festal glade, the path turns east, following the
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: curve of a low hill that you have not noticed
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: until now. The hill is covered in old heather, dry,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: and silver gray, which crackles softly under your feet. The
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: smell of the heather rises around you, dry and sweet
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: and faintly bitter, the smell of high places and open country.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: You walk along the curve of the hill for a
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: long time. The heather rustles. The wind plays with it,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: sending small waves across the surface, like wind across a sea,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: except the sea is purple and silver and very still.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: From a distance, it would look as if the hill
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: were breathing, as if the whole hill were a sleeping animal,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: its fur rippling with each slow breath. At the far
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: end of the hill, the path dips into another hollow,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: smaller than the others, hidden in a fold of the
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: land so that you cannot see it until you are
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: almost upon it. This hollow is different from the others.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Where the others have been dark and mossy, this one
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: is bright. Where the others have been lit by the
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: faint glow of luminous moss, this one is lit by fire.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Not a wildfire. Not a dangerous fire. A fire that
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: does not burn. A fire that sings. In the center
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: of the hollow is a small bird no larger than
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: a dove, sitting on a low branch of a dead tree.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: The bird is the color of flame. Its feathers are
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: deep red at the base, shading to bright orange in
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: the middle, shading to yellow at the tips, shading to
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: white at the very ends. Its eyes are black, sharp, intelligent,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: full of a knowledge that is older than the trees
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: around it. Its beak is the color of polished gold.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Its talons grip the branch with the casual confidence of
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: a creature that has nothing to fear from anything in
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: this forest, or any forest, or any world. It is singing.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: The song is unlike anything you have ever heard. It
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: is not the song of a small bird, twittering and bright.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: It is not the song of a nightingale, melancholy and beautiful.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: It is the song of fire itself, given voice. It
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: is the crackle and roar and hiss of a great flame,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: but transposed into melody, into harmony, into something that the
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: human ear can hear without being burned. It is warm.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: It is bright. It is full of the kind of
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: joy that only comes from having survived something terrible. from
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: having been burned down to ashes and having risen from
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: those ashes. Again and again, for centuries and centuries, you
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: sit down at the edge of the hollow, on a
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: smooth stone that has been placed there, you suspect, by
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: someone who knew that visitors would come and would need
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: a place to sit. You sit and listen to the
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: phoenix sing. The phoenix knows you are there. It has
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: known since you entered the hollow. But it does not
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: stop singing. It does not change its song. It simply continues,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: treating your presence as a part of the natural order
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: of things. As ordinary as the wind, as the stars,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: as the moss on the stones. This song goes on
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: for a long time. It weaves through the hollow, bouncing
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: off the heather-covered walls, filling every corner with its warmth.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: You feel the warmth on your skin. Although the Phoenix
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: is too far away to be radiating physical heat, it
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: is a different kind of warmth, a warmth of spirit,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: a warmth of being, a warmth that comes from being
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: in the presence of something ancient and unkillable and good.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: After a long time, the song ends. The Phoenix ruffles
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: its feathers, settling them back into place, and turns its
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: head to look at you. Its gaze is direct. It
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: is not the indirect, sidelong glance of a small bird.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: It looks at you the way an equal looks at
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: an equal, with respect but without deference, with interest but
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: without pity. It is looking at you the way it
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: would look at another phoenix or at the sun or
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: at any other being worthy of its attention. It does
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: not speak. Phoenixes do not speak. but it holds your
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: gaze for a long moment. And in that moment, you
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: feel something pass between you, a recognition, a kind of blessing,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: not a blessing of words, but a blessing of fire,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: of warmth, of the ability to rise again from whatever
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: ashes have fallen on you. The teenix spreads its wings.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: They are vast, far larger than you would have expected
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: from such a small body, and they catch the last
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: of the starlight and turn it into fire. For a
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: single breathtaking moment, the hollow is filled with light, with
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: the color of every flame that has ever burned with
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: the warmth of every hearth that has ever been lit,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: with the hope of every dawn that has ever followed
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: a long night. And then the phoenix launches itself into
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: the air. and the light goes with it rising up
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: and up, and up, until it is just a bright
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: point against the stars, and then it is gone, and
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: the hollow is dark again, and the only light is
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: the soft glow of the moss. You sit for a
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: while longer in the warmth that the phoenix left behind,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: which will linger here for hours, maybe days. a kind
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: of invisible fire that does not burn but only comforts.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: When you finally stand and continue on your way, you
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: feel warmer than you have in a long time. Not
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: physically warm, although that too, but warm in the way
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: that only hope can make you warm. Warm in the
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: way that only the promise of renewal can make you warm.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: The forest notices. The forest is glad. After the center's clearing,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: the path takes you deeper into a part of the
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: forest that feels almost untouched by anything human. The trees
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: here are enormous, the oldest in the forest, their trunks
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: wider than cottages, their roots sprawling across the path like
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: the legs of great sleeping giants. The bark is so
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: deeply ridged that you could lose your fingers in the grooves,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: and the moss that grows in those grooves is so
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: thick it looks like fur, soft green fur, covering the
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: trees from base to crown. You come to a place
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: where the path widens into a small hidden valley, and
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: in the center of this valley is a pool. The
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: pool is not large, perhaps 20 feet across no larger,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: but it is the most perfect pool you have ever seen.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: It is round, exactly round, as if someone had drawn
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: a circle on the ground and then filled it with water.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: The water is so still that it has become a mirror,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: reflecting the sky above so perfectly that you cannot tell
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: where the water ends and the air begins. The trees
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: that surround the pool are reflected in it, upside down.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: They're roots in the stars. They're crowns in the earth.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: And for a moment, The world seems turned inside out,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: and you feel the delightful vertigo of standing between two skies.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: The edges of the pool are lined with soft grass,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: impossibly green, the green of a child's drawing of grass,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: the green that exists only in dreams and in places
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: like this. Tiny white flowers grow in the grass, so
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: small you almost miss them. But when you look closely,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: you see that each one is shaped like a tiny
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: star with five delicate petals arranged around a center of
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: pure gold. You sit down at the edge of the pool.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: The grass is soft beneath you. The air is still.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: The only sound is the faint rustle of leaves overhead
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: and the distant, very distant, sound of the stream you
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: passed earlier, now reduced to a whisper. You wait. You
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: have learned, by now, that the forest gives its gifts
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: only to those who are willing to wait. And after
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: a long time, very softly, you hear the sound of
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: hooves on grass. The unicorn approaches from the far side
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: of the pool. She steps out of the trees as
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: if she has always been there, as if she has
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: only been waiting for you to look in the right
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: direction to see her. She is white, but she is
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: not just white. She is luminous. She is the color
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: of moonlight on fresh snow, the color of the first
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: light of dawn before the sun has quite arrived, the
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: color of something that has never known anything but kindness.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: She's smaller than you expected unicorns to be, about the
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: size of a large horse but more delicate, more fine-boned,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: more graceful in every line. Her horn rises from her forehead,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: slender and spiraling and gleaming with a soft, pearly light
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: of its own. Her mane falls in soft waves along
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: her neck, almost long enough to brush the ground. And
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: her tail is a long, silken curtain that trails behind
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: her as she walks. She walks to the edge of
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: the pool. She lowers her head. She drinks. Do wash her.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: She knows. You're watching. She does not hurry. She drinks slowly, gracefully,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: lifting her head between sips to look at the sky,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: to look at the trees, to look at you. Each
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: time she looks at you, her eyes are dark and deep.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Eyes in which you can see, if you look long enough,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: the reflection of stars that have not yet risen in
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: the sky. When she has finished drinking, she raises her
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: head fully and looks at you. Not a glance, a look,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: a long, held, considering look. It is not unfriendly, it
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: is not particularly friendly either. It is simply the look
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: of a creature that is assessing you, deciding what you are,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: deciding whether you are worth the time it would take
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: to come closer. You sit very still. You do not move.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: You do not speak. You simply let her look. After
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: a long moment, she makes her decision. She walks around
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: the edge of the pool toward you, her hooves making
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: no sound on the soft grass. She walks slowly, with
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: the unhurried grace of a being that has never had
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: cause to hurry, that has never been afraid, that has
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: never known anything but the patient rhythms of the forest.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: She stops in front of you, close enough to touch,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: close enough that you can feel the warmth of her
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: breath on your hands. You reach out, very slowly, the
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: way you would reach toward a wild bird, the way
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: you would reach toward anything wild and precious and easily frightened.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: You let your hand hover in the air between you,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: palm up, fingers open, offering nothing, asking nothing, simply present.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: She steps forward. She lowers her head. She presses her
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: soft muzzle against your palm. The touch of her is
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: the softest thing you have ever felt. Softer than velvet,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: softer than down, softer than the inside of a flower petal.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: or the surface of a soap bubble, or the underside
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: of a baby's hand. It is a softness that seems
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: to come not from her skin, but from somewhere deeper,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: from some quality of her being that has nothing to
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: do with fur or flesh and everything to do with
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: the kind of creature she is. You stay like that
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: for a long time, her muzzle against your palm, your
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: hand against her face. The two of you sharing the
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: soft grass by the pool under the soft sky, surrounded
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: by the soft trees, in the softest possible moment of
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: a very soft night. After a while, she steps back.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: She looks at you one last time, with those deep, dark,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: star-filled eyes. And then she turns, and she walks away. Back,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: across the pool. back into the trees, and the trees
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: seem to swallow her up, and she is gone. But
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: the warmth of her muzzle lingers on your hand, and
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: the smell of spring lingers in the air, and you
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: know that you have been blessed in the quiet way,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: that this forest blesses those who treat it gently. You
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: stay by the pool for a while longer. You look
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: at your hand, the hand she touched, and you can
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: see In the dim starlight, a faint trace of silver
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: on your palm. A trace of her. A blessing you
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: can carry with you. A memory that will never fade.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: When you are ready, you stand and you walk on.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: The forest notices. The forest is glad. After the unicorn's pool,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: the path leads you through a part of the forest
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: that is somehow smaller than the rest. The trees are
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: shorter here, the canopy lower, the spaces between the trunks narrower.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: It feels as if the forest itself has crouched down,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: made itself compact, become a child-sized place for child-sized beings.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: And indeed, when you come to the next clearing, you
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: realize that this part of the forest belongs to the
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: House Elbis. The clearing is small, no larger than a
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: village square, and it is filled with tiny houses. They
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: are built into the roots of the great trees, with
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: doors no taller than your knee, windows no bigger than
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: your palm, and chimneys that trail thin wisps of smoke
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: into the still air. The houses are made of wood
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: and stone and moss and bark with thatched roofs of
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: dried leaves, and they look as if they have grown
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: here rather than been built, as if they are as
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: much a part of the forest as the trees themselves.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: The clearing is full of house elves. They are small,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: barely reaching your waist, with long, pointed ears and great,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: soft eyes and faces full of a strange, sad, gentle wisdom.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: They are going about their evening business. Some are cooking
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: tiny meals on tiny fires. Some are mending tiny clothes
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: with tiny needles. Some are simply sitting on tiny benches
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: outside their tiny doors, looking up at the stars with
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: expressions of such profound contentment that you feel Just by
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: looking at them, a little more content yourself, one of
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: them notices you. She is older than the others, her
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: ears longer, her face more lined. Her eyes deeper, she
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: walks toward you. Very slowly, with the careful dignity of
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: someone who has lived for a very long time and
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: learned to treat every moment as if it were precious,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: she stops in front of you. She looks up at you.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: She does not seem afraid. She seems, if anything, pleased.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: She reaches up with one long-fingered hand and touches your knee.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: Just a touch. Just a brief contact. The kind of
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: touch that says hello without saying anything. Then she turns
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: and walks back to her house. She does not invite
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: you in. She does not ask you to stay. She
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: simply acknowledges you. in her own way, and then returns
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: to her evening. And that is enough? That is more
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: than enough. You stand at the edge of the clearing
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: for a while, watching the house elves go about their business.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: They are not performing for you. They are not aware
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: of you as an audience. They are simply living their lives,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: in their small clearing, in their small houses, in their
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: small way, and they are happy. They are happy in
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: a way that most people never achieve because they have
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: learned to want very little and to love what they
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: have and to find joy in the smallest things, in
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: a hot meal and a warm fire and a clear
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: sky and the company of friends. You think, watching them,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: that there is something to learn here, something about happiness,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: something about contentment. Something about the way a life can
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: be full without being busy, and rich without being loud,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: and complete without being complicated. The old house elves. The
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: one who touched your knee looks up at you from
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: her bench. She smiles. It is a small smile. A
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: tired smile. A wise smile. A smile that says, yes,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: you understand. You're beginning to understand. You nod to her.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: She nods back. The conversation is complete. You turn away.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: You continue on the path. The forest notices. The forest
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: is glad. After the house elf's clearing, the path leads
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: you into the deepest part of the forest. The trees
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: here are old beyond reckoning. Their trunks wider than any
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: you have seen before. their roots heaving up the ground
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: around them like the backs of great buried whales. The
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: air is still and heavy, the light is dim. Even
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: the moss seems reluctant to glow here, as if conserving
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: its energy for some future need. And then, without warning,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: you feel it. Cold. A cold that has nothing to
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: do with the temperature of the air. A cold that
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: seeps into you. From the outside. From the inside. from
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: every direction at once. A cold that settles in your
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: chest and squeezes, gently but firmly, as if trying to
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: extract something from you. A cold that takes with it
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: every happy thought you have had in the last hour,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: every peaceful moment, every gentle feeling. A cold that leave
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: you hollow. A Dementor is near. You cannot see it.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: You can only feel it. It is somewhere in the trees,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: somewhere in the dark, gliding between the trunks, drawing closer
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: with each passing second. And as it draws closer, the
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: cold grows colder, and the hollow grows hollerer, and the
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: happy memories that the forest has been giving you all
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: night begin to drain away, like water from a tipped glass.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Think remember a happy moment. The warmth of the phoenix song.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: The touch of the unicorn's muzzle. The smile of the
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: old house elf. And then, suddenly, you cannot remember them.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: The Dementor has taken them. The Dementor is feeding on them.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: Drinking them down. Leaving you with nothing but the cold
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: and the dark and the fear. Nini's weaken. Your breath
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: comes in short, sharp gasps. Your mind races, but only
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: toward bad thoughts, only toward memories of loss and failure
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: and grief, only toward the worst parts of your life,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: which the dementor is magnifying, making louder, making closer, making overwhelming.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: You want to fall? You want to give in? You
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: want to let the cold take you? Because the cold
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: is easier than fighting. Because the hollow is easier than feeling.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: Because giving up is easier than holding on. And then,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: deep inside you, far beneath the cold, far beneath the fear,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: far beneath everything the Dementor is doing to you, you
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: find something, a small, warm, glowing thing, a single ember,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: in the great hearth of yourself, a spark that the
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: Dementor cannot reach, no matter how hard it tries. You
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: focus on the spark. You let it grow. You feed
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: it with your breath, with your attention, with the last
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: reserves of your will. And the spark grows, and grows,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: and grows, until it is no longer a spark but
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: a flame, and the flame fills your chest, and the
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: flame pushes back the cold, and the flame drives the
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: Dementor back, step by step by step. until the Dementor
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: is gone, fled into the dark, unable to withstand the
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: warmth you have summoned from within. The cold fades. The
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: hollow fills. The memories come flooding back. One by one,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: the phoenix song, the unicorn's touch, the house elf's smile,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: all of them returning to you. and returning stronger than
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: before because you have lost them and found them again,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: and that has made them precious in a way they
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: were not before. You stand in the dark, breathing hard.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: Your heart pounding. Your body shaking. But you are still standing.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: You are still you. You are still here. The forest
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: is proud. You continue on the path. Centaurs. They are
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: gathered in a loose circle, perhaps a dozen of them,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: sitting and standing among the trees at the edge of
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: the clearing. Some are young, their coats glossy and dark,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: their beards still sparse. Some are old, their coats silver-gray,
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: their faces weathered by centuries of forest weather. They are
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: not looking at you. They are looking at the sky,
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: and they are singing. Their voices are deep and resonant,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: each one a different note in a chord that has
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: no clear beginning and no clear end. They are not
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: singing words, exactly. They are singing something more like pure sound,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: pure feeling, the sound of the forest itself, being expressed
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: through voices that have known these trees since they were saplings.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: You stalked at the edge of the clearings, You do
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: not want to interrupt. You simply stand and listen, and
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: the song washes over you like warm water, like a
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: long soak after a long day, like the embrace of
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: someone who loves you very much and does not need
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: to be told. The song is in two parts. The
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: lower part, sung by the older centaurs, is like the
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: deep roots of the forest, slow and steady and patient.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: The upper part sung by the younger ones is like
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: the leaves, light and shifting and quick. The two parts
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: move around each other, intertwining, separating, finding each other again,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: and the effect is like watching two dancers who have
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: known each other for so long that they no longer
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: need to think about the steps. This song has no
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: lyrics that you can understand. but you do not need
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: to understand it to feel it. You feel it in
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: your chest. You feel it in your bones. You feel
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: it in the back of your throat, where it makes
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: you want to cry, not because you are sad, but
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: because you are moved. Because something in this song touches
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: a place inside you that you did not know was there,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: a place that has been waiting all your life for
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: someone to find it and sing to it. After a
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: long time, the song ends, not with a final note,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: but with a slow, fading each voice dropping away, one
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: by one, until only the youngest centaur is left, holding
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: the last note for what seems like a very long time,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: until at last even he falls silent, and the clearing
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: is filled with the soft, ringing after echo of what
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: has just passed. The oldest centaur turns to look at you,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: His eyes are dark and deep and very kind. He nods. Once. Slowly.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: It is not a greeting. It is an acknowledgement. It
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: is a recognition that you are here. That you listened.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: That you are welcome. You nod back. He turns away.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: The centaurs begin to disperse, slowly, melting back into the
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: forest as quietly as they appeared. until there is no
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: sign that they were ever here at all, except for
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: the fading warmth of their song in the air and
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: the faint impression of their hooves in the moss. You
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: cross the clearing. On the other side, the path continues,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: deeper still. You walk. You walk for a long time.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: You cannot say how long, because time moves differently here.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: Time moves the way water moves in the streams, slowly
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: and without urgency, taking the path of least resistance, never
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: in a hurry to arrive anywhere, content simply to be moving.
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: The forest changes as you walk. The trees grow even taller.
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: The canopy grows even thicker. The sounds of small animals
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: grow fainter, replaced by deeper sounds. the groan of ancient
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: trunks shifting in the wind, the slow creak of branches
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: rubbing against each other high above, the occasional far-off call
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: of an owl, low and resonant and strangely comforting. The
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: path passes through a grove of silver birches, their pale
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: trunks glowing faintly in the starlight, their leaves rustling with
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: a sound like the faraway laughter of children. The birches
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: are slender and tall, growing close together, and you weave
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: between them like a needle through cloth brushing against their
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: bark with your fingertips as you go. The bark is
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: smooth and cool and it peels away in thin papery
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: strips that you can take with you if you wish.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: As a souvenir of this place, beyond the birches, the
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: path enters a darker section of the forest where the
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: trees are old oaks and the canopy is so thick
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: that almost no starlight reaches the ground. Here, the only
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: illumination comes from the luminous moss that covers every surface,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: giving the woods the look of an underwater cave with
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: everything glowing a soft, pale blue-green. The air is still
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: and cool and very quiet. You feel as if you
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: are walking on the floor of the ocean, as if
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: the air is water, as if the trees are seaweed
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: swaying in a slow current. then come to a fallen
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: oak so large that it would take six people holding
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: hands to circle its trunk it fell a long time
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: ago perhaps a century perhaps more and in that time
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: it has become a small world of its own moss
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: covers it from end to end mushrooms grow in rings
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: along its length small trees have sprouted from its surface
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: their roots reaching down into the rotting wood drawing nourishment
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: from the ancient trunk. Insects live in its crevices. Birds
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: nest in its hollows. A whole community has made this
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: fallen tree their home. You sit on the fallen oak
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: for a while. It is surprisingly comfortable. The moss is
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: soft and dry. The wood is solid beneath you, despite
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: being a hundred years dead. You lean back against one
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: of the small trees that is grow from its surface,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: and you close your eyes, and you listen. The forest
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: around you is full of small sounds. The chup of crickets,
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: the rustle of small animals in the underbrush, the soft
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: hooting of an owl somewhere nearby, the creak of branches overhead,
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: the drip of water somewhere, falling leaf to leaf to
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: leaf to ground. Each sound is small. Together they make
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: a kind of music. The music of a forest at night.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: The music of a world at rest. You open your eyes.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: You stand. You continue on. The path climbs now. Up
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: a long gentle slope. The trees thin out a little.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: The stars become more visible through the canopy. And then,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: just as you reach the top of the slope, the
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: trees stop altogether and you step out onto a ridge
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: that overlooks the entire forest below. From up here you
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: can see the whole of the Forbidden Forest spread out
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: beneath you. A vast dark sea of treetops rippling slightly
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: in the wind. With here and there a clearing that
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: catches the starlight and shines back up at you like
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: a small payload lake. Beyond the forest, you can see
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: the distant lights of Hogsmeade, tiny orange pinpricks in the darkness.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: And beyond Hogsmeade, the black shape of Hogwarts Castle, its
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: towers just barely visible against the sky, with a few
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: warm lights burning in the highest windows. You sit down
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: on a flat rock at the edge of the ridge.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: You pull your knees up to your chest. You wrap
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: your arms around your legs. And you watch the world.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: The wind picks up a little. It is cool but
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: not cold. It smells of pine and distance and the
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: faintest trace of wood smoke from the village. It moves
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: through your hair and across your face and you close
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: your eyes and let it move through you. And for
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: a moment you are not separate from the wind. For
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: a moment you are part of the wind. For a
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: moment you are the wind. You open your eyes. The
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: stars are still there. The forest is still there. The
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: castle is still there. You are still there. Everything is
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: in its place. Everything is at rest. You notice, for
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: the first time, that you are not alone on the ridge.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: There is another figure sitting on a rock a little
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: distance from you, looking out at the same view. It
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: is a person, an old person, you think, though it
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: is hard to tell in the dark. They are wearing
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: a long robe, dark gray or black, and their hair
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: is long and silver white. They are not looking at you.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: They are looking at the sky. You do not approach.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: You do not speak. You simply share the silence with them.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: The way you might share a bench with a stranger
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: on a quiet afternoon, two people who happen to be
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: in the same place at the same time, needing nothing
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: from each other except the unspoken acknowledgement that they are both, briefly,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: part of the same world. After a while, the figure stands.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: They turn, just slightly, and you catch a glimpse of
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: their face in the starlight. They are smiling. Not at you. Exactly.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: At the world. At the view. At the simple fact
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: of being here. On this ridge. On this night. In
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: this life. They walk away. Along the ridge. Into the dark.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: And you do not see them again. You sit for
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: a while longer. Think about the figure. You wonder who
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: they were. You wonder where they came from. You wonder
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: where they were going. You decide it does not matter.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: They were here. For a moment. And you shared the
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: stars with them. And that is enough. That is more
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: than enough. You stand. You begin the walk back down.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: Into the forest. Along the path that has been your
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: companion all night. The path down is different from the
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: path up. The path down feels easier somehow. As if
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: the forest is helping you. As if the trees are
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: leaning slightly out of your way. As if the stones
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: are rolling themselves aside to give you a smoother footing.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: The forest welcomes you back. The trees rustle softly as
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: you pass. The moss seems to glow a little brighter.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: The stream that you passed earlier is louder now. As
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: if it has been waiting for you to return. As
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: if it is happy to see you again. You pass
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: the standing stone in the first clearing. You pause and
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: rest your hand on it again. It hums. The same
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: low hum as before. And this time you understand what
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: it is saying. It is saying welcome. It is saying goodbye.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: It is saying come again. Whenever you wish. It is
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: saying nothing ever ends. You pass the stream. You kneel
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: and drink again. The water is just as cold, just
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: as clean, just as full of years and patience as
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: it was before. You splash a little on your face
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: and the coolness wakes you gently without startling you the
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: way a friend might touch your shoulder to let you
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: know it is time. You pass the hollow where the
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: centaurs sing. There is no music now, but the air
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: still hums with the memory of music. You stand for
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: a moment in the hollow and let that memory wash
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: over you. You pass the silver birches. There is no
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: sign of the unicorn, but the smell of spring is
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: still there, faint but unmistakable, like perfume left behind in
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: a room after someone has gone. And then, very gradually,
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: the trees begin to thin. The path begins to widen.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: The moss gives way to grass. And you step out
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: of the forest and back onto the open lawn where
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: the stars are still blazing above you and the air
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: smells of cut grass and warm earth and the faint
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: tang of distant rain. You turn and look back at
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: the forest. It stands there, dark and patient and full
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: of secrets, just as it has stood for a thousand years.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: just as it will stand for a thousand more. It
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: does not call after you. It does not beckon. It
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: simply waits, knowing that you will be back. Knowing that
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: you carry it with you now, knowing that a part
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: of you will always live among those ancient trees. You
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: turn away. You walk back toward the castle, whose warm
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: lights are waiting for you, whose stone walls are ready
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: to wrap around you, whose beds are ready to receive you,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: whose silence is ready to cradle you until morning comes.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: You cross the lawn, past the lake, where the giant
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: squid is sleeping, its tentacles curled around itself like a
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: sleeping child clutching a blanket. You can see the squid's
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: outline in the moonlight as soft, dark shape just beneath
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: the surface of the water rising and falling with its slow,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: slow breath. Once, a tentacle breaks the surface and waves
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: as if greeting you and then slides back beneath the
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: water and the ripples spread out and fade. You climb
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: the stone steps to the front doors of the castle.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: The doors are massive, made of ancient oak bound in iron.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: carved with scenes of the founders and their adventures. The
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: iron handles are cold under your hand. You push and
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: the doors swing open without a sound, the hinges silent
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: and well-oiled, the magic of the castle taking care of
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: even the smallest things. The entrance hall is dark, lit
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: only by a few torches burning low in their brackets,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: casting pools of amber light that fail to reach the
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: high ceiling. leaving the upper reaches in shadow. Your footsteps
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: echo on the flagstones, but softly, as if the castle
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: is whispering hush. The marble staircase rises before you, branching
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: in two directions at the landing, and you climb it slowly,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: your hand trailing along the stone banister, which is cool
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: and smooth and has been touched by countless hands before yours.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: You pass portraits on the walls, but the subjects are asleep.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: They have drawn curtains across their frames or turned to
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: the wall or simply closed their painted eyes. Only one
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: or two are awake, and they nod to you as
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: you pass, acknowledging you without speaking, respecting the quiet. At
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: the top of the stairs, you turn down a long
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: corridor lined with more sleeping portraits. Past suits of armor
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: standing at attention in their alcoves. Past suits of armor
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: that are not standing at attention but are slumped against
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: the walls in poses of deep slumber, their helmets tilted forward,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: their visors closed. Even the armor sleeps here. You reach
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: the door of your common room. The portrait of the
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: fat lady is dozing in her frame. her head resting
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: on her hand, her snores gentle and rhythmic. You do
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: not want to wake her. You do not need to.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: The door opens at your touch, recognizing you, welcoming you.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: The common room is dark and warm. The embers of
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: the fire are glowing in the grate, casting a dim
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: red light across the stone floor. The armchairs are empty.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: The tables are bare. The candles have burned down to stubs.
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: You cross the common room to the dormitory stairs and
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: you climb them. And you push. Open the door to
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: your room. Your bed is there. It has been there
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: all along, waiting for you. The curtains are half-drawn. The
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: sheets are turned down. The pillow is plump and inviting,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: fresh from its case, smelling of lavender and clean cotton.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: You undress slowly, moving with the soft, deliberate motions. of
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: someone who is very tired and very content. You fold
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: your clothes and set them on the chair. You climb
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: into bed. You pull the sheets up to your chin.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: You rest your head on the pillow. The mattress receives you.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: The pillow receives you. The sheets settle around you like
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: a soft embrace. You close your eyes. The bed holds you.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: The room holds you. The castle holds you. You are home. Outside,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: the wind blows softly across the lake. The forest whispers
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: in its sleep. The stars continue their slow, eternal rotation
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: across the sky. The world turns the way it always has.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: the way it always will, taking you with it, gently, patiently,
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: carrying you through the night toward morning. But morning is
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: a long way off, and you have all the time
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: in the world. You sleep. And now, dear listener, we
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: have come to the gentle end of our journey. You
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: have walked a long way tonight, through starlight and shadow,
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: through song and silence. through the company of creatures old
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: and wise. You have listened to the centaurs sing. You
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: have touched the unicorn's soft muzzle. You have drunk from
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: the stream. You have rested your hand on the standing stone.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: You have stood on the ridge and watched the world breathe.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: And now your body is tired. In the good way,
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: the way that comes from a long day and a
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: long walk and the kind of peace that only the
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: forest knows how to give. It is time to rest.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: Breathe in. Slowly hold the breath. And as you breathe out,
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: feel yourself letting go. Just a little more. Of every
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: small tension you have been carrying in your body, the
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: tension in your jaw, the tension in your shoulders, the
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: tension in your hands. Let it all drift away like
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: leaves falling from a tree, like snow melting on a
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: warm stone. Breathe in again and out, in and out.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: Your bed is there beneath you, supporting every part of you.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: The pillow is soft beneath your head, The blanket is
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: warm across your shoulders. The room around you is quiet
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: and safe and yours. The night is deep, and the
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: world has settled, and there is nothing left for you
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: to do now except sleep. The forest is asleep now.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: The unicorn is asleep. The centaurs are asleep in their
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: hidden places among the trees. The stream is whispering its
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: lullaby to itself. The standing stone is humming its slow,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: low hum. The stars are watching, the way stars always do,
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: with the patience of things that have been burning for
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: millions of years and will burn for millions more. You
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: are watched over. You are protected. You are held. Sleep now.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: Let your eyes close. Let your breathing slow. Let your
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: thoughts become softer. and softer. Like footsteps on moss. Like
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: rain and I. Leaves. Like the sound of the centaurs.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: Fading into the distance. There is nothing you need to remember.
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: There is nothing you need to hold on to. There
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: is nowhere you need to go. Just sleep. Just breathe.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: Just be. The night is long, the morning is far away,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: and you have all the time in the world. Sleep.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: Breathe in. Slowly, count to four as the air enters you. One, two, three, four.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: Hold the breath. Count to four. One, two, three, four.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: Breathe out. Slowly. Count to four as the air leaves you. One. Two. Three. Four. Pause,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: count to four. One. Two. Three. Four. And again. Breathe in. One. Two. Three. Four. Hold. One. Two. Three. Four.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: Breathe out. One. Two. Three, four, pause. One, two, three, four.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: With each breath, the world grows softer. With each breath,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: the bed grows warmer. With each breath, your body sinks
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: a little deeper into the surface that holds you, and
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: the surface holds you back, gently, securely. the way the
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: forest forheld you as you walked. Breathe in. One, two, three, four. Hold. One, two, three, four.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: Breathe up out. One, two, three, four. Pause. One, two, three, four.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: There is nothing else for you to do now. There
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: is nothing else for you to think about. There is
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: nowhere else for you to be. There is only this breath.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: And the next breath. And the breath after that. Each
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: one a small rest. Each one a small release. Each
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: one a small step further away from the waking world.
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: And a small step further into the world of dreams.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: Breathe in. One. Two. Three, four, hold. One, two, three, four.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: Breathe out. One, two, three, four. Pause. One, two, three, four.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: The forest is asleep. The unicorn is asleep. The phoenix
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: is asleep dreaming of fires yet to come. The centaurs
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: are asleep in their hidden places, their songs still echoing
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: in their dreams. The thestrals are asleep on their high perches,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: their wings folded tight. The house elves are asleep in
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: their tiny houses, their tiny fires burned down to tiny embers.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: The forest is asleep. And so, dear listener, are you?
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: Breathe in one, two, three. Four Hold One Two Three
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: Four Breathe out One Two Three Four Pause One Two
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: Three Four The stars are watching The stars are patient
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: The stars will be here when you wake Sleep And
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: now As sleep takes you deeper, you may find that
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: you are still walking, still in the forest, still on
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: the path. But the path has changed and the forest
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: has changed and you have changed too. The trees are
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: taller now, taller than before, so tall that their trunks
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: are the color of night itself, dark and smooth and
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: faintly starlit. The leaves are silver, not green. and they
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: chime softly as the breeze moves through them, making a
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: music like distant bells, a music that has no melody
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: but only feeling, only peace. The path you walk is
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: not dirt now but light, a path of soft, warm light,
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: like a beam of moonlight laid down on the ground
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: for you to follow. The light is not bright, it
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: is gentle. It is the kind of light you can
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: look at without squinting, the kind of light that asks
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: nothing of you except to follow. You follow. You pass
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: through clearings that you have never seen before, clearings filled
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: with flowers that bloom only in dreams. flowers of every
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: color that ever existed and several that have not yet
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: been invented. You pass streams that run uphill, that sing
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: in harmonies, that turn into mist just before they reach
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: their source. You pass creatures that have no names, creatures
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: of light and shadow and kindness, creatures that smile at
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: you as you have, that bow to you as you have,
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: that wish you well as you have. You come to
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: a place that is not a clearing but a room.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: A room made of light, with walls of soft gold
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: and a floor of soft silver and a ceiling. of
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: soft blue. And in the center of the room is
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: a chair. The chair is old and wooden and very comfortable,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: with cushions of moss and a back shaped like a
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: pair of wings. You sit down. Think. Think. Think. Laith,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: across from you, in another chair, is someone you know,
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: someone you have always known, someone who has been with
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: you all your life, even when you thought you were alone.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: They do not speak. They do not need to. They
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: are simply there and their presence is enough. Their presence
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: is everything. They smile at you. You smile back. And
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: in this room of light, In this dream within a dream,
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: in this quiet moment that is happening outside of time,
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: you understand something that you have always known but have
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: never been able to put into words. You are loved.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: You have always been loved. You'll always be loved. The
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: forest loves you. The stars love you. The unicorn and
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: the phoenix and the thistrels and the centaurs and the
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: house elves and the trees and the streams and the
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: moss and the standing stones love you. The person in
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: the chair loves you, and you love them. And the
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: love that passes between you is the oldest thing in
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: the world, older than the forest, older than the stars,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: older than time itself. This is the truth that the
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: forest has been showing you. All night long, in clearings
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: and glades and hollows and pools. This is the truth
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: that the centaurs were singing about. This is the truth
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: that the unicorn pressed into your palm with the touch
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: of her soft muzzle. This is the truth that the
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: phoenix lit the sky to show you. You are loved.
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: You are loved. You are loved. And with that truth,
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: The dream begins to fade. The room dissolves into light.
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: The chair dissolves into light. The person across from you
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: smiles one more time, and then they, too, dissolve into light.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: And the light is everywhere. And the light is you.
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: And you're the light. And the light is sleep. And
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: sleep is peace. And peace is yours. Now and forever. Sleep. Snips,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: just sleep. Think now. The night is deep and the
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: forest is dreaming and you are part of its dream.
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: Let the dream carry you. Let it rock you gently,
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: the way the stream rocks the leaves that have fallen
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: into it. Let it hold you softly, the way the
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: moss holds the seeds that have fallen into it. Let
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: it sing to you, in its own quiet way. In
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: the language of stars and trees and unicorns and phoenixes
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: and all the gentle creatures of the dark. You have
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: walked a long way tonight. You have seen wonders. You
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: have rested in clearings you will never forget. You have
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: been blessed by the forest. And the forest has been
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: blessed by you. And the blessing goes both ways as
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: all true blessings do. And now it is time to rest.
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: The bed holds you. The pillow holds you. The blanket
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: holds you. The room holds you. The castle holds you.
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: The forest holds you. The night holds you. Sleep holds you.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: And beneath all of these, beneath everything holding them all,
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: holding you all, is something older and kinder and gentler
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: than any of them. You know what it is? You
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: have always known. You have known it since you were.
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: Very small. You have known it since before you could
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: put it into words. It is love. It is love
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: that holds you now. It is love that has held
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: you always. It is love that will hold you tonight, tomorrow,
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: and every night and every day for the rest of
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: your life. Sleep now. Sleep in love. Thanks. Finn. And so,
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: Dear listener, as we come to the end of our
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: journey together, I want to thank you. Thank you for
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: spending this hour with me. Thank you for trusting me
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: to guide you through the forest. Thank you for being here,
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: in this quiet place, in this soft hour. This story,
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: this walk, this journey, was made for you. It was
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: dreamed for you. It was whispered for you. And I hope,
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: Very much. That it brought you a little closer to sleep.
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: A little closer to peace. A little closer to the
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: quiet magic that lives inside all of us. If you
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: would like to hear more stories like this. More walks
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: through enchanted places. More journeys into the gentle unknown. You
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: know where to find me. I will be here waiting.
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: The next time you need a friend to walk beside
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: you in the dark. Until then, sleep well, dream kindly,
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: and remember when you wake that the forest is still there,
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: in the quiet part of your mind, ready whenever you
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: wish to return. Good night. Sleep now. The stars are watching.
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: And so am I. Before you drift away entirely, before
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: sleep takes you in its soft hands and carries you
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: off to wherever sleep carries people, I want to leave
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: you with one last thought. You are not alone. Even
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: when the day has been hard and the night feels
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: long and your mind is full of worries that will
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: not quiet and your body is tired in ways that
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: sleep alone cannot fix, you are not alone. There is
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: a forest inside you, just like the one we have
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: walked through tonight. It has ancient trees and quiet streams
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: and luminous moss. It has the strassels and phoenixes and unicorns.
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: It has centaurs who sing at midnight and house elves
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: who smile at strangers. It has standing stones that hum
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: with the memory of everyone who has ever rested a
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: hand against them. It has clearing after clearing after clearing,
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: each one filled with some small wonder, each one waiting
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: to be discovered. All you have to do to find
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: this forest is close your eyes. That is all. Just
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: close your eyes and breathe and let the world fall away.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: The forest will be there, on the other side of
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: your eyelids, waiting for you, patient and gentle and glad
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: that you have come. And when you find it, you
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: will know that you carry within you everything you have
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: ever needed Every kindness you have ever received. Every kindness
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: you have ever given. Every memory that has ever made
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: you smile. Every dream that has ever made you reach
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: for something just out of grasp. Every song that has
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: ever moved you. Every touch that has ever comforted you.
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: Every loss that has ever broken you. Every time you
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: have mended yourself and got on. These are your trees.
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: These are your streams. These are your Thistrals and Phoenixes
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: and Unicorns. They live in you and you live in
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: them and nothing, not even the deepest cold, can ever
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: take them from you. So sleep now, dear listener. Sleep
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: and dream of forests. Sleep and dream of stars. Sleep
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: and dream of soft, dark woods and warm. Kind strangers
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: and the touch of a unicorn's muzzle on your palm.
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: Sleep and dream of magic. The kind of magic that
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: is real. The kind of magic that is you. Good night.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: Save well. I will be here when you wake. The
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: stars are watching. And so am I. Always. Think. Think.