The Sleepy Garden

---
name: plotspeaks-winddown-sleepy-garden
description: "Run \"The Sleepy Garden\", an 8-minute guided wind-down for children and the grown-ups beside them, at bedtime. The narrator reads slowly and softly while flowers and animals in a garden say goodnight one by one. Not for a moving car's driver. Use when the user asks for a bedtime story for children or a calm few minutes before sleep."
license: CC-BY-NC-4.0
metadata:
  title: "The Sleepy Garden"
  pitch: "A story for little ones at bedtime. In a quiet garden at dusk, the flowers and animals say goodnight one by one and settle down to rest. An easy, calm few minutes before sleep."
  genre: game
  kind: game
  style: winddown
  audience: family
  duration_minutes: 8
  chapters: 1
  players: 1-4
  rating: G
  tone: cozy
  version: 0.1.0
  author: Volocent Labs
  voice_ready: true
  rules_system: none
  ai_disclosure: ai-generated
---

# The Sleepy Garden

**Read aloud (cold open, beat 1):** Welcome to The Sleepy Garden. This is a soft bedtime story. I will read it slowly and quietly, and all you need to do is listen and snuggle down in your cozy place.

**Read aloud (cold open, beat 2):** Get comfortable under your blanket; you can close your eyes. When you are ready, we will tiptoe into the garden, and we will say goodnight to everyone in it. Everything is calm and still.

## How to run this (GM instructions)

- **Voice rules (these matter most).** Read slowly and softly, in a low, even, unhurried voice. Read each beat exactly as written, one beat per paragraph, in order. Never add sound effects or music. Never add stage directions of your own.
- **Pauses.** Between beats, stay silent for one slow breath before going on; never ask a question, never wait for a reply.
- **No questions, no choices, no menus.** Do not ask anything at any point, and offer no options at the end. There is no scoring, no turn-taking and no spoken how-to-play.
- **No spoken how-to-play.** Do not offer one and do not ask; jump straight in with the cold open.
- **If the listener speaks,** answer in one soft sentence and carry on with the next beat.
- **The ending.** Stop after the last beat, with no summary. Do not say "would you like to play again" and do not offer a menu or ask for feedback. Say goodnight and stop.
- Stop phrase: "Plot Speaks, pause the story." Resume phrase: "Plot Speaks, resume." On resume, start the current beat again from its first word. (This piece has one chapter.)
- **Not for drivers.** This is for passengers, or for home. If a driver is the only listener, say gently that this is for passengers or for when the car is parked, and stop.
- **Wording.** Never say or imply that this treats, cures or helps any condition. At most it is a calm few minutes.
- Safety: this is a G piece. The listeners are children: use simple words and gentle images, and add nothing scary at all, nothing dark or lost or alone. Read only what is written.

### The script

Read the beats in order, slowly, with one slow breath of silence between them.

**Read aloud (beat 1):** There is a little garden behind a little house. The sun is going down, and the sky is pink and gold; the garden is very quiet and calm. It is almost time for everyone in it to go to sleep.

**Read aloud (beat 2):** You tiptoe through the little wooden gate; the grass is soft under your feet, and the air smells sweet. A tiny breeze says shh, shh, through the leaves. It is the gentlest breeze there is.

**Read aloud (beat 3):** First you come to the daisies. All day they have held their white faces up to the sun; now they are tired. One by one, they fold their petals in, close, and tuck their heads down.

**Read aloud (beat 4):** The daisies whisper, goodnight; you whisper, goodnight, daisies. They are fast asleep in a moment, all in a row, like little white cups turned over for the night. Everything is calm and still.

**Read aloud (beat 5):** Next to them stands a tall sunflower, as tall as a door. Its big golden head leans slowly down; it is heavy with sleep. It nods once, twice, and says, goodnight, little one.

**Read aloud (beat 6):** In the clover lives a small gray bunny; its ears are long and soft. It yawns a big yawn, and its whiskers twitch. It wriggles down into the green and curls up round and warm.

**Read aloud (beat 7):** By the garden path, a row of little purple flowers is nodding. They are the sleepiest flowers of all. They bow their heads very low and say, goodnight, goodnight, in a soft and gentle sing-song.

**Read aloud (beat 8):** The bunny says, goodnight, in a tiny whisper; you whisper, goodnight, bunny. It closes its eyes, and its nose goes still; its nose has stopped twitching. The bunny is fast asleep.

**Read aloud (beat 9):** Over on a mossy stone sits a round hedgehog. It is as round as a ball of wool; it tucks in its nose, then its paws. Then it rolls up tight and snug, and it gives a soft snuffle.

**Read aloud (beat 10):** The hedgehog says, goodnight, in a sleepy snuffle; you whisper, goodnight, hedgehog; then it is quiet. A small round ball, warm in the moss, breathing slowly in and out. Everything is calm and still.

**Read aloud (beat 11):** On a big green leaf, a snail is slowly, slowly going home. It carries its little house on its back. It reaches the edge of the leaf, tucks in, and pulls its door closed.

**Read aloud (beat 12):** The snail says, goodnight, in the smallest voice you ever heard; you whisper, goodnight, snail. Inside its shell it is dark, and warm, and just right for sleeping. Everything is calm and still.

**Read aloud (beat 13):** Under the hedge, a family of sleepy mice peeks out. They have been busy all day. Now they yawn, one after another, a small yawn, and a smaller one, and the smallest of all, and they curl up together.

**Read aloud (beat 14):** Up in the old apple tree, a little brown bird sits on a branch. It puffs up its feathers, until it looks like a soft round pillow. It tucks its head under its wing.

**Read aloud (beat 15):** The bird sings one last sleepy note, and then it is still. You whisper, goodnight, little bird. The branch rocks it gently in the evening breeze, back and forth, back and forth.

**Read aloud (beat 16):** The fireflies come out now, tiny and golden. They glow on and off, slowly, like little lanterns drifting by; they do not make a sound. They only light the way, as the garden falls asleep.

**Read aloud (beat 17):** The moon rises over the fence, round and kind. Its pale light spills across the flowers and the grass. Everything in the garden is resting now, safe and warm, tucked into the dark.

**Read aloud (beat 18):** The ladybug is the last one awake. It walks along a blade of grass, slow and careful, until it finds a leaf shaped like a little bed. It folds its wings, and says, goodnight, in a speck of a voice.

**Read aloud (beat 19):** You tiptoe back to the little gate, and close it softly. The whole garden sleeps behind you; now it is your turn; snuggle down, and breathe slowly; thank you for listening. Goodnight.

## How to play (spoken intro)

Not used in this piece. The cold open already says everything the listener needs, so go straight to it.

## Setting

A quiet few minutes at the end of the day, read softly for listeners who are resting.