a story from The Floating Isles
The Sleeping Garden
This morning you wake up and the whole island is quiet. Too quiet. You look out of the window of the House of the Little Mages. The Great Garden is grey and...
Reading level
Same story, gentler or richer words.
The Floating Isles
The Floating Isles are islands adrift in a calm sky, in a realm where magic only ever helps: it grows, it heals, it changes one thing into another, and it lets you speak with animals and objects. It never harms. On the home island, the House of the Little Mages sits at the highest point, where young mages learn their first spells, and the city where the families live spreads below. Inside the school grounds lies the Great Garden, the green heart of the whole island. Here nobody loses; you find your way by being kind and full of ideas.
Read aloud, slowly and warmly. Stop often to let the children answer. There are no wrong answers here, only new ideas to try.
The same adventure as the simple telling, with a little more room to breathe. Read it aloud, or let an older child read it themselves. The beats and the puzzles are identical; only the language has grown up.
Before you begin
This morning you wake up and the whole island is quiet. Too quiet. You look out of the window of the House of the Little Mages. The Great Garden is grey and still, as if it has fallen asleep. The flowers are shut. The fountain makes no sound.
You are two little mages. You pick up your bag. You look at each other. "Let us go and wake it up," you say together. The golden path is waiting.
What is your mage name? Which magic do you choose: Light, Grow, Change, Voice, or Float?
This morning you wake to a silence so complete that it feels like a held breath. From the high window of the House of the Little Mages you look down over the home island, and your stomach tightens. The Great Garden, the green heart of the whole island, has turned grey and motionless, as though something has coaxed it into a deep sleep. The flowers are shut tight. The fountain, which usually murmurs all day, makes no sound at all.
You are two young mages, and this is your first real adventure. You shoulder your bag, glance at each other, and without quite planning to, you say the same words at the same moment: "Let us go and wake it up." Below you, the golden path winds away into the quiet.
Choose your mage name and your magic, Light, Grow, Change, Voice, or Float, before you take the first step.
For the grown-up Setup, the rules, and the answers. Open it when you are ready (it has spoilers).
The Sleeping Garden: Rules for the Grown-Up
The Guide for the Grown-Up explains how the game works (the bands, the energy stars, helping, twists, all of it). This page has only what is special about this adventure. A failed roll is never a defeat; nobody loses.
Setting up
- Print the map. Each player puts a small figure (a building-brick minifigure works well) on the Start.
- Each player chooses one magic: Light, Grow, Change, Voice, or Float. Two different magics work best, because combining them is half the fun.
- Give each player five energy stars (five small tokens or bricks). These are spent and refilled during play.
- Build the objects that come up (a key, a flower, a bridge) from household bits and bricks as you go. Anything can be anything.
- Keep your dice and the dice-band table from the back of the kit beside you.
The surprise
Once at each stop the players may roll for a twist; read the matching line. The Guide explains how it works.
| Roll | Surprise |
|---|---|
| 1 | A Messenger Butterfly flutters past and gives you one free hint. |
| 2 | You find a glimmer of energy: take back one energy star. |
| 3 | A kindly breeze: the next challenge is Easy. |
| 4 | The Mist Cat appears and purrs. All is well; carry on. |
| 5 | A wise creature lets you repeat one roll later, whenever you like. |
| 6 | A little song drifts by and everyone dances for one happy turn. |
How it ends
The Heart of the Garden is not a battle. The "antagonist" is the Lonely Sprite, who sent the garden to sleep only because it wanted a friend. The adventure is won when the children offer it friendship. Let that land gently; it is the whole point. See the puzzles page for how to play the heart, and for the solutions to the three stops.
Stop 1: The Vine Gate
You come to a tall gate. Green vines have tied it shut with a big knot of leaves. The gate will not open.
A soft grey cat steps out of the mist. It is the Mist Cat. It purrs and looks at the knot, then at you. It seems to want to help.
How do you open the way? Could a magic make a gap? Could you ask the vines kindly to move? Try something and see.
When the gate swings open, the first sleepy flower opens one petal. The garden is waking, just a little.
The path brings you to a tall gate, and your way is blocked. Over the seasons the vines have grown across it and pulled themselves into an enormous, stubborn knot of leaves, and the gate will not give so much as an inch.
Something stirs in the haze beside the path. A cat the colour of fog pads out and sits, curling its tail neatly around its paws. It is the Mist Cat, and everyone on the island knows it turns up exactly when a hint might be useful. It studies the knot, then turns its calm eyes to you, as if to say: well, what shall we do about this?
How do you open the way? You might coax a gap to grow, change the knot into something looser, or simply ask the vines, politely, to step aside. See what you can invent.
The moment the gate swings wide, a single sleepy flower unfurls one petal, as if testing whether morning has truly come. The garden is waking, just a little.
For the grown-up: the solution
The challenge. The gate is tied shut by a thick knot of vines and will not open on its own.
Intended solutions. Any of the magics can solve this:
- Grow a gap in the vines, or grow a vine staircase over the gate.
- Change the knot into something looser, or into a key for the latch.
- Voice: ask the vines politely to unwind and step aside.
- Light can reveal a hidden catch that, once seen, is easy to undo.
- Float lifts a player gently up and over the gate to open it from the far side.
Fallback. If a roll misses, the Mist Cat nudges a loose vine to show where to start, then the players spend an energy star or combine two magics to finish. Nobody waits at this gate for long.
Make it simpler. For a very young child, lay a length of string across the doorway and let them pull it aside to "open" the vine gate.
Stop 2: The Flower Bed
Now you reach a bed of flowers. Four of them have drooped and lost their order. A tiny voice hums a little rhyme: "First the sun, then the sea, then the berry, then fly free."
The flowers want to stand in the right colours, but they have forgotten how.
Which colour is the sun? Which is the sea? Can you set the four flowers in the order the rhyme sings?
When the flowers stand in their order, they open wide and turn their faces up. Two more corners of the garden turn green again.
Beyond the gate lies a wide flower bed, and here something has gone gently wrong. Four flowers have drooped and forgotten where they belong, their colours muddled. As you draw near, a thread of a voice hums an old planting rhyme, the kind a gardener might teach a child: "First the sun, then the sea, then the berry, then fly free."
The flowers clearly want to stand in their proper order again. They have simply forgotten which colour comes where, and they are hoping you can work it out.
Each line of the rhyme is a clue to a colour. Which flower is the sun, which is the sea? Set the four of them in the order the rhyme sings, and see what happens.
As the last flower slips into place, all four lift their heads and open wide, turning their faces up to a sky that is slowly bluing. Two more corners of the garden shake off their grey.
For the grown-up: the solution
The challenge. Four flowers have lost their order. A small voice hums the clue: "First the sun, then the sea, then the berry, then fly free." The players must set the four flowers in the right colours.
Solution. Each line is a colour:
- "the sun" = yellow
- "the sea" = blue
- "the berry" = red
- "fly free" (off into the clouds) = white
So the order is yellow, blue, red, white. Build or place four flowers in that order. Logic and a little vocabulary do the work here, not a magic.
Fallback. If the children are unsure, read the rhyme again slowly, one line at a time, and let them place one flower per line. Getting there with help still counts as a full success, and tops up an energy star.
Make it simpler. For a very young child, set out just two flowers, a yellow sun and a blue sea, and ask only which one comes first.
Stop 3: The Talking Fountain
You come to a stone fountain. It is not singing. It is not even dripping. The water sits still and grey, and the fountain looks a little sad. You lean close. "Hello?" you whisper. The fountain sighs. It wants to feel happy again.
What could you do to cheer it up? Maybe a song. Maybe a joke. Maybe a kind word. What do you try?
When the fountain feels happy, the water leaps up and sparkles. It begins to sing again. Now only the very heart of the garden is still asleep.
The path opens onto a wide stone fountain, and the first thing you notice is the silence. No splash, no trickle, not even a drip. The water lies flat and grey as an old coin, and somehow the whole fountain seems to droop, as if it has forgotten how to be glad. When you lean in to listen, it lets out a long, low sigh. It is not broken. It is only waiting for a reason to sing again.
How do you coax it back? A song, a joke, a few kind words? The fountain does not need fixing so much as cheering. What will you try?
At the first sign of real cheer the water leaps upward, catches the light, and breaks into a bright, splashing tune it had clearly been longing to sing. Now only the very heart of the garden remains asleep.
For the grown-up: the solution
The challenge. The fountain has gone quiet and sad and will not flow. It does not need fixing; it needs cheering.
Intended solution. This is a Voice moment. The players speak to the fountain and lift its mood: sing it a song, tell it a joke, or offer a few kind words. Any genuine attempt to cheer it should work. Light (a warm glow) or a combined magic is a fine alternative.
Fallback. If the children freeze, have the fountain ask a tiny question of its own ("Do you know any songs about water?") to give them a thread to pull. The moment they try, let the water leap and sing.
Make it simpler. For a very young child, just blow the fountain a kiss or wave hello together, and let that be enough to make it splash for joy.
The Heart of the Garden
At the centre of the garden you find a small, sad sprite curled up tight. It was the sprite who sent the garden to sleep. Not to be unkind. It was only lonely, and it did not know how to ask for a friend.
There is no fight here. There never was a real villain.
What do you say to the sprite? How can you show it that it is not alone?
When you offer the sprite your friendship, it smiles for the first time in a long while. All around you, the Great Garden wakes up at once: flowers open, the fountain sings, and the island is bright and warm again.
You did it together. You were kind, and you were full of ideas. Well done.
At the centre of the Great Garden, where the golden path finally ends, you find the cause of all of it: a small sprite, curled up as tight as a fist, with a face full of worry. This is the one who sent the garden to sleep. Not out of malice, you realise, and not as any kind of villain. It was simply lonely, so lonely that it did not know how to ask for company, and a sleeping garden was the only way it knew to keep anyone near.
There is nothing here to defeat. There never was.
What do you say to the sprite? How might you show it, in words or in a gesture, that it does not have to be alone any more?
When you offer your friendship, plainly and kindly, the sprite's worried face softens into the first smile it has worn in a very long time. And all at once the Great Garden wakes around you: petals spring open, the fountain sings, the Mist Cat stretches in a patch of new sunlight, and warmth pours back across the whole island.
You solved it the way every adventure on the Isles is solved, together, with kindness and with your own ideas. Well done, both of you.
For the grown-up: the solution
This is the resolution, not a puzzle, so there is no band and no roll. The players find the Lonely Sprite curled up at the centre. It sent the garden to sleep because it was lonely and did not know how to ask for a friend.
Play it softly. Let the children decide how to reach out: a kind word, an invitation to play, a promise to visit. There is no fight and no trick. When they offer friendship, the sprite smiles and the whole garden wakes at once. End on that warmth. The children have won by being kind and full of ideas, which is the only way anyone wins on the Isles.
Here nobody loses. If a try does not work, you just find another way.
Read aloud together, pause often, and try ideas. There are no wrong answers.
