The day after we crowned Zazu our Champion Napper, his training officially began. And we immediately ran into a very large, very predictable problem.
I had the entire team—FaeLina, Gilda, Pip, Kaelen, and Sir Crumplebuns—gather in the Chamber of Slumber on the third floor. Zazu lay in the magnificent dream essence bed, with a determined look on his face.
And To mark the seriousness of the occasion, FaeLina decided to make a rare, formal appearance. With a soft shimmer of pink light, she made herself visible to the assembled team. Gilda and Pip gasped, seeing the tiny, energetic fairy for the first time in the real world. Zazu and Kaelen, who had seen her before, simply nodded.
"Okay," FaeLina said, floating in the center of the group with her tiny whistle and clipboard. She was now in her new, official role as the 'Nap Coach'. "This is a simple pressure test. The judges and the crowd will be watching you. We will be your practice judges. Now... go to sleep!"
We all stood around the bed and watched him. Silently. Intently.
Zazu squeezed his eyes shut. He took a deep breath. He fluffed his pillow. He adjusted his blanket. A minute passed. Then another. His face have a mask of pure, concentrated effort.
But finally, he sat up with a frustrated sigh.
"I'm sorry, Core," he said, looking defeated. "I can feel you all... watching me. Judging my every breath. It is the opposite of relaxing.
Napping is, by its nature, a private affair."
FaeLina threw her tiny hands up in the air. "This is a disaster! The entire kingdom will be watching him! If he can't fall asleep with six of his friends in the room, how is he going to sleep in a stadium filled with atleast fifty thousand screaming people?!"
She began to pace frantically in the air. "We need to make him immune to distractions! We need to create a stressful, distracting environment for him to practice in! We must forge him in the fires of annoyance!"
What followed was the most chaotic and least effective training montage in history.
First, FaeLina tasked Pip and Clank with creating "distracting noises." Pip, taking his role very seriously, began banging a pot and a pan together with a grim determination. Clank, meanwhile, played a cheerful tune on his internal music box, but at triple of the normal speed, turning it into a frantic, tinny cascade of notes.
Zazu lay in the perfect bed, squeezing his eyes shut with all his might. It was no use; he was clearly just developing a very bad headache.
Next, FaeLina tried "verbal discouragement" to simulate a hostile crowd. She hovered over the bed and yelled tiny, unconvincing insults. "Your napping form is sloppy! You're not even trying! Boo! I've seen rocks fall asleep faster than you! Boo!"
Zazu just opened one eye and gave her a tired look. "FaeLina," he said flatly. "That is not helping."
Finally, Sir Crumplebuns was tasked with "simulating unexpected physical contact." The plush knight gently, heroically, poked Zazu in the side with his Spoonblade.
Zazu sighed. "Sir Crumplebuns, I appreciate your commitment, but please stop poking me with your spoon."
The chaos training was a complete and utter failure. Zazu was now more stressed and wide-awake than he had been in his all years.
I realized we were doing this all wrong. We were trying to force him to ignore the pressure. But Zazu wasn't a warrior who could just block out the world. He was a scholar. He needed to understand it.
'Stop,' I projected, my mental voice cutting through the noise. The pot-banging and high-speed music box fell silent. 'This isn't working. We are trying to solve this problem with force.'
I had FaeLina clear everyone from the room except for Zazu and Kaelen.
'The goal is not to ignore the crowd, Zazu,' I explained, my voice now gentle. 'It is to find your own quiet space inside the noise. The bed is your anchor. The tea is your anchor. Let the chaos exist outside. Here, in this space, you are safe. Focus only on the comfort, not the distraction.'
As I spoke, Kaelen, who had been watching silently, walked over to Zazu. She didn't say a word. She simply poured him a fresh cup of his own Nightcap tea, her movements calm and deliberate. She had spent a lifetime learning how to find a perfect, still center in a world of inner chaos. Her quiet, steady presence was more calming than any spell.
Zazu looked at the tea. He looked at Kaelen's calm face. He looked at the perfect bed. He took a deep breath and lay down.
This time, he didn't try to block out the feeling of being watched. He accepted it. He focused inward, on the gentle warmth of the tea spreading through his body, on the genuine comfort of the dream essence mattress and on the feeling of safety that was the core of my dungeon's magic.
And then he fell asleep.
It wasn't the instantaneous, legendary nap from before, but it was a solid, deep, and peaceful slumber.
[NAP QUALITY: 85/100 (Excellent)]
He had found his way of nap.
FaeLina looked relieved, but still worried. 'Okay, so he can sleep with us watching quietly,' she projected. 'But how do we prepare him for the actual roar of a stadium?'
I had one final idea. The best way to simulate an overwhelming, stressful environment... was in a place where I had total control.
'We're going to take the stadium to him,' I thought, turning my attention to the Dream Weaver's Annex.