A Banquet Of Storms At Lyra’s Cottage | The Falls Bedtime Story Series For Sleep

Night Falls: Bedtime Story, Sleep Story, Sleep Podcast

Geoffrey recounts a magical dinner at Lyra's cottage where each course of the meal serves as a medium for shared memories. The guests experi

Key takeaways

• Wanda shares a memory of climbing the Shehalion Munro in Perthshire during a storm with her father.
• Geoffrey recalls a warm, soothing rainstorm in the Costa Rican rainforest featuring an unbothered sloth.

Main topics

• Magical feasts
• Shared memories

Notable quotes

Welcome to my banquet of storms, everyone.

Conclusion

The episode provides a soothing journey through sensory memories, teac

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:19) Hey, Geoffrey here. And welcome back to Night Falls. I hope you're ready for a wonderful deep night's sleep. I'm about to go and have dinner with an old friend. Fish and chips, to be precise. Very British. As a vegan, I'll be having lots of chips. Yum. Plus, it will be so good to catch up. And speaking of having dinner with an old friend, tonight I'd like to tell you about an evening when Devani shared an old story with us around the campfire. By the following day, her tale had sparked an idea in Lyra, who invited us all to her cottage for a rather unusual meal. Of course, with Lyra involved, we knew it was unlikely to be an ordinary dinner. Speaker 1 (1:10) First, I wanted to let you know that our trilogy of Nightfalls audiobooks, Discovering Nightfalls, The Magic of Nightfalls, and Dreaming of Nightfalls, are now available across Spotify and Audible. Each book brings together almost eight hours of uninterrupted stories from the falls, designed to help you relax, unwind, and drift off at your own pace. You can find them wherever you get your audiobooks. And if you do listen, we'd be so grateful for a review. It really helps us and helps more listeners find Nightfalls. Before we begin, here's the quick ad break that keeps this free content possible. To go ad-free, subscribe via the link in the show notes. Speaker 1 (1:56) If you've been listening to Nightfalls for a while, you'll know I'm a great believer in talking therapy. Because giving our thoughts somewhere to go during the day can sometimes help us settle better at night. I've used therapy myself, and looking back, there are times when I wish I'd found that support sooner. But when you're already going through something, finding a therapist who is available and takes your insurance can feel like another burden. That's where Rula can help. Rula is a healthcare company that helps you find licensed, in-network therapists based on your needs and background. Because care is available online, you can access therapy from home without traveling or waiting in an office. Rula also partners with over 100 insurance plans, making the average copay for Rula patients just $15 per session, with appointments available as soon as tomorrow. And Rula stays with you throughout your journey. helping with scheduling and checking in to make sure your care is helping you move forward. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit rula.com forward slash nightfalls to get started. That's rula.com slash nightfalls. You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. All right, now back to Nightfalls. Speaker 1 (3:23) The more time I spent around Devani, the more I came to see how her mind worked. And as I became acquainted with her moods and her quirks, I grew to understand her very deeply. One of the places Devani liked to share her thoughts was, like so many of my friends, around the campfire. Here the flames burned and the stories rolled out easily. Speaker 1 (3:54) On one particularly still evening, Devani settled down to share a story about a storm. Her affection for storms did not surprise me, as I knew Devani had mastered air magic under Lyra's tutelage, and though she understood when a storm was coming, down to the second the rain would start to fall, she was never scared at all. Speaker 1 (4:23) Devani had always loved the feeling of flying since she was a small child, jumping over rocks and stones and imagining herself with wings. She told us about a time long ago when she'd been paragliding and found herself caught in a storm. When she reached the mountain's summit, dark clouds were already gathering and great towers of clouds rolled overhead. Speaker 1 (4:56) Of course, many sensible people would have waited for clearer skies, but Devani was never one to shy away from a new experience. She admired the ever-changing patterns in the sky, and then she laid out her paraglider. When a gentle breeze rose behind her, she took a few steady steps forward. Speaker 1 (5:24) Devani soared through the cool, cloudy air, enjoying her flight as she always did. That day she had moved through the skies like a bird, surveying her kingdom below as she let the wind carry her up over the lands. Speaker 1 (5:44) At intermittent points in her journey, she looked down where the clouds parted to see bright blue rivers winding through the forests and tiny cottages resting peacefully among green meadows. From above, they seemed like dollhouses. The wind held her securely, guiding her from one ridge to the next with surprising gentleness. Speaker 1 (6:15) Soon she reached the edge of the storm, and soft rain drifted around her like a fine veil, a chill against her cheeks without ever making her uncomfortable. Wisps of cloud curled around her paraglider before quietly dissolving into the open air. Sunlight broke through gaps in the clouds, filling the sky with brilliant shafts of golden light that reached all the way to the valley floor. Then the thunder rolled through the mountains. The heart of the storm had come, but Devani felt like she was almost part of the weather. Speaker 1 (7:02) She had no fear, and she smiled as she went higher and higher into the sky. Because there was something wonderfully freeing about trusting the wind. Every current lifted her up before carrying her onward again. She wasn't trying to reach anywhere in particular. She was simply enjoying the endless mountain air. Speaker 1 (7:30) Eventually, the breeze softened, and the rain became little more than mist. Devani described her graceful descent into a quiet glen, tucked between towering hills. She reached the ground and found a tiny stone bothy with a slate roof and a weathered wooden door. Speaker 1 (7:56) Smoke no longer rose from its chimney, but it looked inviting even from a distance, as though it had spent centuries welcoming weary travelers. Now she was safe on land, she gathered her wings and folded every panel with the same care she had