Can you hear it?

Close your eyes,

listen carefully.

Can you hear it now?

Dancing,

playing,

singing of songs.

The creatures of nature in a merry hymn.

Dryades jumping from leaf to leaf.

Aurae blowing to make them spin.

Daphnaie and Maliades playing tag,

giggling and hiding,

among the fallen fruits of the trees.

While Naidas is watching the sky,

waiting,

waiting,

for rain and puddles to splash around within.

But not all of the cretaures of nature are merry playing around.

For Anthousai is sitting down,

yawning and resting her back

against a chestnut tree.

And Leimonides has long since withdrawn.

She's laying on a branch,

thinking of happier times,

of when the ground was as beautiful

as the sea of colours rustling overhead.

Aegle watches the two in sadness,

wishing they would join the dance.

As the oldest of them all,

she knows what will come.

And she has long since decided,

what memory is best to bring along.

For soon Hesperides will be there

and she will take them all to bed.

And when they sleep

they dream

and Aegle knows what dreams she wants.

Not that of tiredness and sadness,

not that of wishing for the past.

Instead that of dancing, playing, singing,

of beauty and fun,

of happiness and of knowing that she laughed until the end.

But she knows that Anthousai and Leimonides are not to be convinced.

So she joins the other to shine light on their games,

and have fun so she can sleep

and dream

of happy things.

Did you hear it?

The dancing, playing, singing?

If you didn't, then listen some more.

For their happiness,

their games,

their laughter, their songs.

Those are the perfect sounds for sleep.