Hector & Sunny's Enchanted Pebbles 🐶 ✨ Sleepy Bedtime Stories For Kids | Rewind

[00:00:10] Hello and welcome back to Koala Moon, a podcast of original bedtime stories and sleep meditations for kids, designed to make bedtime a dream. Today, when Hector's human plans a surprise trip to visit an old friend by the coast, the two dogs find themselves exploring new sites, meeting a wise water dog named Cleo,

[00:00:33] and uncovering the legend of some mysterious golden and black striped pebbles, said to hold ancient magic. I can't wait to get started, but first, let's all make sure we're comfy in bed and try this lovely relaxation exercise sent in by six-year-old Gaia. Lie back, let your eyes close softly and choose a colour.

[00:01:02] Imagine you're holding a balloon in that colour and you're going to blow it up and then let all the air out in time with your breath. Breathe in, and when your chest is full, blow the air gently out as if you are blowing up your special balloon. Great. Now let the air whoosh back in and again blow up your balloon.

[00:01:30] Do that a few more times as I begin Hector and Sunny, The Enchanted Pebbles by Luke Prendergast. Before we begin, here's a quick ad break, then we'll start tonight's bedtime story. If you'd like to support our podcast, enjoy ad-free listening and unlock all our premium stories, you can join the Cocoa Club. To join, follow the link in the show notes. Hey Koala Kids, it's Kelly here from Koala Shine.

[00:02:01] Did you know that if you're a Koala Kids Plus subscriber through Supercast or Apple Podcasts, you have full ad-free access to every episode of my daytime story show, Koala Shine? That's alongside all your exclusive Koala Moon bedtime stories. And now, there's something brand new coming to Koala Shine. Shadow baddies. Something strange is sweeping across the Koala Kingdom. Shadowy versions of familiar faces are appearing. And they're not quite as cuddly as their sleepy forest counterparts.

[00:02:31] They're darker. They're naughtier. And they're causing trouble wherever they go. The characters you know and love are about to be seen in a way you've never seen them before. And stopping the shadow baddies will mean turning to the last person anyone ever expected. Packed with mystery, magic, excitement and cliffhangers, Shadow Baddies is a brand new series with exciting multi-part episodes landing every month. And if you're not yet a subscriber, but you want to follow the story from the start,

[00:03:01] now's the time to join Koala Kids Plus. Tap subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Or follow the link in our show notes to listen through Spotify, Yoto and other podcast players. Shadow Baddies. Coming October 6th. Exclusive to Koala Kids Plus and only on Koala Shine. Hector always knew when his human was planning something.

[00:03:29] Even before the cases were packed. Before he loaded anything in the car. Before he made cheddar sandwiches and wrapped them up in neat foil parcels. Hector could tell. Call it a dog's intuition. His spidey senses tingling. This time he was happily submerged in a dream in which he was swimming in the ocean.

[00:03:53] The water was a glorious glittering turquoise and filled with a whole array of multicolored fish. Hector, looking over his shoulder, saw that instead of his usual wagging doggy tail, he had the long and strong tail of a fish covered in golden scales that were the same colour as his golden Labrador coat. He even had gills so he could swim underwater.

[00:04:21] He, himself, was in fact a fish. He had just made friends with a pod of dolphins who all wore blonde wigs and sunglasses and who had invited him to visit their deep sea disco hall when he woke up. He was in the kitchen, lying on his soft red dog bed. His best pal, Sonny, was asleep beside him. Through the window he could still see that the sky was dark.

[00:04:50] What had woken him up? He didn't know. But one thing he was absolutely sure of. His human was on manoeuvres. Just then, as if on cue, there came the telltale creak of a floorboard. No matter how many times Hector's human had tried to fix it, the fifth stair from the bottom still creaked.

[00:05:16] And a moment later, his owner stepped into the kitchen. He had bed hair, it all stuck up in tufts, and he was still in his red checkered pyjamas. But his eyes were bright with a fresh idea. Just as Hector had suspected, he was up to something. Wake up, guys, Hector's human whispered. Sonny's eyelid flickered open. She looked grumpy.

[00:05:46] She was not an early morning kind of dog. She snuck a sideways look at Hector, which seemed to say, Hey, has your human never heard the well-known phrase, Let sleeping dogs lie? I know it's early, Hector's human said. But we're off on an adventure. Sonny, your owner has said that you can come along too.

[00:06:13] We're going to see my old school friend Joseph, who lives on the other side of the country by the sea. It's supposed to be absolutely beautiful. But it's a bit of a long drive, so we need to leave soon. This is your half-hour notice. See ya. And bubbling with evident excitement, Hector's human left the kitchen. Sonny let out a long yawn.

[00:06:43] I love an adventure as much as the next canine, she said. But I do sometimes wish your human would save his big ideas for after the sun's risen. An hour later, they were all in the car. The sun was finally up, spreading its gentle yellow rays across the cloud-strewn sky. And Sonny seemed altogether happier now it was daylight.

[00:07:14] Hector's human drove while the two of them sat in the back, their heads hanging out of the window, tongs lolling, watching English towns and villages and great expanses of autumnal countryside pass them by. In fact, the views were so vibrant and interesting that the car journey, which took several hours, seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. And before they knew it,

[00:07:41] the car was pulling up outside an old wooden house that stood on the edge of a steep and craggy hill. Hopping out of the car, Hector and Sonny could see that beyond the house, at the bottom of the hill, the steel blue sea spread out like a plate as far as the eye could see until it merged with the blue sky on the horizon. A man was coming out of the house. He was tall, with black hair and glasses,

[00:08:12] dressed in brown slacks and a dark blue knit jumper. This must be Hector's owner's friend. And much to their delight, Hector and Sonny spotted a dog with thick brown curly hair trotting along beside him. That was a pleasant surprise. Now they'd have a friend here too. Welcome, the man with glasses said, giving Hector's human a hug

[00:08:39] and stooping down to pet both of the dogs on their heads. Come in and drop your stuff off. And then I thought we could go straight down and take a walk on the beach. The two of them disappeared into the house and the curly-haired dog trotted over to Hector and Sonny. Hello, she said. I'm Cleo. I've been looking forward to meeting you ever since my human told me you were coming. You must be Hector?

[00:09:09] And you Sonny? Hector and Sonny chatted to Cleo, telling her all about the drive down and the sights they'd seen and asking her questions about her life down here on the coast. She was a Portuguese water dog, she told them, and loved everything to do with water and the sea. She seemed like an awfully wise and friendly dog, Hector thought, and she spoke with a low and gentle voice

[00:09:38] that put him in mind of crackling campfires and peacefully strummed music. Before long, the two humans emerged from the house again, with jackets and scarves on. Hector's human had a bright blue bobble hat on his head. He must have borrowed it from his friend. All right, guys, they said. Off we go.

[00:10:04] Hector and Sonny followed Cleo and the humans down the hill path. It didn't seem like an official path, more like one that had been etched into the hillside by the hundreds and thousands of feet that had walked this way over the years. Up ahead, the humans babbled away to each other, catching up after all this time, while the dogs brought up the rear,

[00:10:31] bits of rubble and scree slipping out from underneath their paws. Below them, the waves marched up the sea and broke on the shore in foamy white ribbons before retreating into the next wave. Something caught Sonny's eye, a bright glint at Cleo's neck. She looked closer and saw it was a gold and black stone on her collar,

[00:10:58] which had briefly dazzled in the spare afternoon sunlight. The stones were worn smooth on one face and jagged on the other, as though they were puzzle pieces that would fit perfectly into some other stones somewhere else. What's that on your collar, Cleo? She asked. Those two little stones there. These are the pebbles that we found on the beach down there.

[00:11:26] I gathered them up and brought them home, and my owner strung them onto my collar for me, so that I'd never be away from them. Wow, said Hector, peering closely at Cleo's collar. I've never seen pebbles like those before, with gold and black stripes. It's as though someone took the fur of a tiger and turned it into a stone.

[00:11:54] Tiger stones, Cleo repeated with a small smile. I like that. Well, actually, these stones are the subject of a mysterious story. A story? Said Hector, his tail wagging suddenly. There were few things he and Sonny loved more than a story. A story told by the fireplace at night. A story told on a long drive.

[00:12:22] Or even a story told by a Portuguese water dog on the way down to a crisp English beach. What's the story? He asked. Well, perhaps it's not so much a story, said Cleo, giving one curly ear a small, thoughtful twitch. More like a myth, maybe. Or a legend.

[00:12:50] It's been passed from one dog to another through the years, whispered on the blustery hill slope or barked across the shingled shore. And whether there's any reality to it at all, well, that's another question entirely. Now Sonny's tail was wagging too, like a dark red flame passing through a world of blues and greens and greys.

[00:13:17] Oh, we don't mind whether it's real or not, she said. After all, what's real and what's a story have very little to do with each other? Please tell us the story, Cleo. Please. Cleo let out a low, chuckling growl that told both Hector and Sonny that she was secretly pleased that they'd pressed her into telling the story. She'd wanted to tell it all along.

[00:13:45] All right, she said. Well, the legend has it that at the dawn of time down on this very beach here, at the very tip of England stood a rock. But it was not just any rock. No. By day, it looked normal enough. If a gold and black stripy rock the size of two humans standing on top of each other is normal. But at night time,

[00:14:15] that was when the magic happened. As soon as the sun dipped below the horizon, that big rock would begin to glow, as though the sun hadn't gone around to the other side of the earth, but had slipped right inside of the rock itself. It would glow all night long. And if you peered inside it, you would see all kinds of amazing things,

[00:14:44] dancing in swirling shapes. And then, at the very whisper of dawn, the glowing would stop and the rock would go back to being a normal gold and black stripy rock. As Cleo came to the end of the tale, Hector and Sunny let out simultaneous sighs. What a mesmerizing story. So windswept and magical.

[00:15:15] But, said Sunny, her little frown creasing her russet forehead, if those stones are on your collar, what happened to the big black and gold rock? Said Cleo, nodding appreciatively at Sunny's wise question. What the legend tells us next is that one night there was a storm that came in off the sea and hovered over the beach.

[00:15:44] It wasn't a big storm, bigger had been seen before, and bigger have been seen since, but a single fork of lightning lanced down from the sky and struck the stone right on its tip. The lightning broke the rock into dozens of pieces, which were strewn across the beach. They say that if the pebbles are ever reunited, the magical glow of the enchanted rock will return.

[00:16:15] But, of course, it's probably just a myth. Magic doesn't really exist, does it? It's merely an old dog's tale, no truth in it at all. Hmm, Sunny thought to herself. It certainly sounded like a fantastical story, but if two of the pebbles had been found and placed around Cleo's collar, who's to say the story wasn't true?

[00:16:44] Who's to say that the other pebbles weren't on the beach, waiting to be found and reunited? But she didn't voice any of these thoughts, because just then they reached the bottom of the hillside path. The sound of shingle crunching beneath the human's feet filled the air, and fine particles of salt spray coming in off the sea made glittering crystals in the three dogs' coats.

[00:17:15] Here, said Hector's human, picking up a stick and tossing it towards the shoreline, and they all bounded after it, Hector snatching it up and returning it to his feet. They played with the stick and then they went paddling in the frotty surf, going splish-splash, splish-splash in the shallows so that their toes tingled. Then they walked up the beach, which was not very long, a semi-circular bay

[00:17:44] enclosed by tall white cliffs on either side. Their humans were still chattering away to each other, reminiscing about the things they got up to when they were little kids back at school, no doubt. And the three dogs were padding after them, Sunny enjoying feeling the soft sea breeze tousled at the hair on her head. Then Hector let out a little yip.

[00:18:12] Hey guys, he said. Come here. Sunny and Cleo trotted over to him and followed the point of his nose to the ground where, hidden just beneath a couple of regular white pebbles, was something quite remarkable. A black and gold striped pebble, just like the two at Cleo's neck. Wow, whispered Sunny. Another one. I didn't think there'd be

[00:18:42] any more at all, Cleo admitted. How did you spot this one? Well, that's the funny thing, Hector said. It was just like when I saw the pebbles on your collar, Cleo. It wasn't so much that I caught sight of them. It was more like they caught me. You see, I wasn't really looking for it. It was more like I was focusing

[00:19:10] on nothing at all when I saw something glinting and glowing on the ground and there it was. And I got the strangest feeling that it was hoping, even trying to be found. The three dogs exchanged wide-eyed glances. The truth was, the same thought was on each of their minds. But it was Sunny

[00:19:39] who finally said it out loud. So the myth could be true, she said. There could be more of them. Cleo was nodding slowly. There could be, she said. Now more than ever, that seems like a possibility. Wow, said Hector, his eyes brightening and his tail beginning to wag.

[00:20:09] He liked to call his tail his wag radar because whenever he caught a whiff of something exciting, as he did now, a trembling scent mixing with the salt air, off it would go, wagging back and forth. If it's a possibility, then we should try to find them. We'll never know if the myth is true unless we search. And so it was agreed.

[00:20:38] By the simplest look of harmony in their eyes, they would search. Off they went, Hector and Sunny and Cleo in three different directions. To the humans, it seemed as though they had simply paused for a few seconds over who knew what, a stick or a washed up log or a peculiar looking shell and had moved on back to their aimless wandering across the beach.

[00:21:08] But if they had looked closely, they would have noticed that now the three dogs moved with greater intent. As though they had a purpose. They all tried to maintain the kind of attitude Hector had described, looking but not looking, not paying close attention to the ground but rather looking vaguely out of the side of their eyes into the middle distance,

[00:21:37] almost out of focus. At first, this felt rather strange indeed and once or twice Sunny felt herself going cross-eyed and a little bit dizzy. But then something wondrous happened. Out of the corner of her eye, a glint right at the bottom of a ridge in the beach. Hey guys, she yipped. I found another. And a few minutes later,

[00:22:06] there came a similar, happily startled yip from Cleo. She had found another, almost hidden under the hull of an old abandoned wooden boat. After that, the search became easier. They each became more accustomed to looking by not looking, to keeping their eyes averted in order to see something more clearly, as weird and illogical as that may have sounded. They gathered gold

[00:22:36] and black stripy stones hither and thither, under rocky outcrops, at the base of the cliff, even down where the water lapped gently against the sand. At one point, Hector's human whistled, but then Cleo's human told him that the dogs were obviously having too much fun and they could let them stay down on the beach, continuing whatever strange doggy business they were doing and come back up later

[00:23:05] for their dinner. All right then, said Hector's human, leaning down to give Hector and Sonny a scratch each behind the ears. But don't stay out once it's dark, he told them, to which they panted and nodded agreeably. They watched the humans head back up the hillside path to the house on the hill before returning to their search. Minutes ticked by, an hour passed,

[00:23:36] the sky changed from forget-me-not blue to slate and then to a breathtaking blend of lilacs and oranges and pinks as the sun sunk low across the sea. But so focused were they on their search that Hector and Sonny and their new friend, the wise water dog Cleo, didn't notice time passing until, at last,

[00:24:06] they stood beside a ginormous pile of gold and black stripy pebbles. The mound wasn't quite the size of two humans standing on top of each other. Details could get lost in transmission after all. But it was about as tall as the dogs and much wider. The three of them were looking at their handiwork with a mixture of awe and curiosity.

[00:24:36] They had done it, they each thought. They had collected up the stones. But have we collected them all? Asked Hector, voicing a concern they were all harbouring. What if there were pebbles that had been lost or that have been buried too far beneath the stones or have been swept out to sea? And what? Added Cleo.

[00:25:04] If the pebbles exist but the myth still isn't true, what if these are just like any other pebbles on the beach? Well, said Sunny, there's only one way to find out and it won't be long until we do. And the three of them looked out across the sea towards the horizon where the sun was now just a slender orange disk. It was sinking

[00:25:34] lower and lower, turning the sky deep purple and making the ocean light up as though the water had been transfigured by some ancient magic into liquid gold. They watched with quiet anticipation as the sun sunk and sunk until it was a mere lip on the horizon and then nothing.

[00:26:02] The sky dimmed, the purples faded, night spread its cloak over the sky and the thin curve of the moon like a smiling face revealed itself. The dogs held their breath and gazed at the pebbles before them. Now was the moment of truth. Seconds passed.

[00:26:30] They watched. Nothing happened. Cleo opened her mouth. She was about to say, never mind, it was just an old dog's tale anyway, when the words caught in her throat. Something was happening in the pile of pebbles deep down within them. They were starting to glow, illuminating one by one from the centre outwards.

[00:27:00] As though right in the mound's core a star had lit up and was radiating outwards. Soon the whole mound was glowing a soft gold and the three dogs looked down upon it, each of them carried off into the land of soothing contemplation. Who could say how long they stayed there, gazing at the enchanted pebbles?

[00:27:29] who could say what magical visions they saw moving in there? Dogs sleeping dreamily on sun-drenched fields, endlessly diggable earth, mounds of chew toys so squidgy and delectable they would satisfy every dog who ever lived until the end of time time and beyond.

[00:27:59] Soon Hector gave out a yawn, sunny too. Then Cleo found herself yawning alongside her two new friends. By now the sky was black with golden patterns etched across it where the final rays of light from the set sun or from the glowing rock, who knew, touched the edges of the clouds and made

[00:28:29] them shine. If you'd asked her, Cleo would have said the sky looked remarkably like the gold and black striped tiger pebbles just then, as though up above was a mirror of down below. Come on, she whispered, home time. We're all getting tired. what we need is a nice bowl of grub in our tums and to

[00:28:58] lie down by our human's feet and doze the night away. To Hector and Sunny that sounded like a perfect evening and so they dragged their eyes away from the glowing stone and followed Cleo back up the hillside path. It was darker now of course but somehow the moonlight and the starlight and the soft light from the

[00:29:28] enchanted pebbles meant there was just enough. Below them the sea was a blanket of deep blue. Above them the windows of Cleo's house were picked out in orange light and the silhouettes of their humans could be seen moving around inside. Hector licked his lips. He could almost taste his supper.

[00:29:58] He could almost feel the warmth echoing off the flames of an autumn fire, the crackle of embers in the grate, the softness of the blanket beneath his body. Somehow he knew just as he'd known when he woke this morning that his human had some kind of plan for them up his sleeve, that tonight's sleep would be a

[00:30:27] particularly long and cozy and peaceful one. And in the morning he thought to himself, if they arose before dawn, they would tiptoe down the hillside path to the pile of enchanted pebbles to watch their final moments of glow, to see once again for themselves that old myths and

[00:30:57] legends aren't just old dog's tales, they can be true. The world was full of magic, what a wonderful thing that was to know. And Hector didn't have to say it out loud. Just one look at Sonny and Cleo's faces as they pushed the door of the house open with their noses told him.

[00:31:27] They knew just as well as he did. Magic filled the world.