In this bedtime story you explore the saturated, yet pleasing world of Pikuniku.
Suitable for all ages.
Narrated by Cate Barr
Written by Tamer Asfahani
Music by Nick May
Produced by Magdoos Media Limited
© 2025 Magdoos Media Limited - All Right Reserved
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Suitable for all ages.
Narrated by Cate Barr
Written by Tamer Asfahani
Music by Nick May
Produced by Magdoos Media Limited
© 2025 Magdoos Media Limited - All Right Reserved
Creators & Guests
Composer
What is Kids Bedtime Stories?
Relax and unwind with classic bedtime stories for kids. One of the best free bedtime story podcasts, perfect for those long trips and journeys with your kids.
British Podcast Awards Finalist 2024
Pikuniku
Snuggle down and cosy up, for tonight we explore the wonderfully colourful and bizarre world of Pikuniku.
You find yourself in a comfortable cave. The chamber you're in as large as a hall, and you can tell you are deep in this cave network. There must be chambers like this all around you. Then you notice you are facing what appears to be a ghost. At first you're alarmed, but as your eyes focus, you can see this ghost is not here to scare you. You sense it needs your help, or maybe it's just there to guide you. You're not sure, but decide to move and see whether the ghost follows you.
As you rise, you feel a lot taller than you remember. Looking down you notice you have very, very long legs. You also notice you have no arms, and your body - small in comparison to the length of your legs - is shaped like a small capsule. You immediately recognise yourself as Piku, a character from a platform-puzzle game you have played before.
You spend a few moments, under the blank gaze of the ghost, exploring your body and your movements. You try to recreate the movements you already know by tucking in your legs and rolling around. You're surprised how quickly you can move, and how smoothly you are able to roll across the ground. Having mastered rolling you try to jump back to your feet, but you've forgotten the length of your legs and don’t anticipate the spring. What you considered to be a little jump back to your feet has resulted in you launching towards the roof of the cave! With a thud, you fall back to the ground and carefully stand up. You chuckle to yourself, as the ghost watches on. Next, you extend your legs to see just how long your stride is. Walking is effortless, and the length of your strides are much longer than you had anticipated. You get from one side of the chamber to the other in no time and notice a small tunnel that leads you through to another chamber.
You decide to roll through the opening, picking up speed as you go. You come to an abrupt halt, hitting something hard – a wall of sorts. You can just about stand up, but there isn’t much room for manoeuvre.
As you contemplate your next move, the ghost drifts past. You had forgotten about the ghost, but now you’re convinced it’s following you. You gesture awkwardly at the ghost with your legs, and the ghost disappears through the wall before reappearing back in front of you. You try to find an opening but are unsuccessful. And there are no other passages out of this chamber, except back the way you came from. The ghost repeats its trick, disappearing through the wall and then reappearing a few seconds later before hinting you should kick the wall.
Reluctantly you wind up your legs and snap them towards the wall. A crack appears before the wall crumbles; this was a boulder blocking your way. You thank the ghost, who gets slightly fainter as the next chamber is revealed. There is a little more light in here and you can see this chamber is much larger than the one you came from. There are no obvious pathways out, but you do notice a number of platforms and boulders as well as a clear route up. The platforms are just out of reach, you try to use as much of the springs in your long legs to get to them, but you are too far away. You assess your surroundings and realise that, if you move a boulder to the right position, you could use it to leap up. You're concerned, however, because the power of your legs has already cracked and destroyed a boulder which led you into this chamber. You decide to try rolling a smaller boulder that you know isn't big enough to get you to the platform to see if it breaks. As you position yourself behind it, you slowly stretch your legs out to make sure you are the right distance away. Too close and you risk breaking it, too far and you'll just be kicking air.
After a few movements you're ready to kick the boulder, but hear a voice. You stop and turn around. It's the ghost again, and you look at it with surprise. It explains it’s always been able to talk, but wanted to allow you to explore your Piku body and the cave chambers in your own time. It explains that it is indeed a guide here to help you out of the caves and that the world outside isn't what it seems. The ghost fears the many wonderful and varied villagers that occupy this world are being conned into selling everything they have, including resources like food and materials used to build shelter for them. In order to aid the villagers you will need the ghost’s help to get out. You turn your attention back to the boulder, kick it and are delighted to see it rolls smoothly and positions itself exactly where you wanted it to go. The ghost praises you and, as you continue to make your way up the platforms, you become more fluid with your movements, able to combine rolling and jumping and kicking boulders to help you achieve maximum distance, easily traversing the gap to the top of the chamber.
On reaching the top, you find yourself at the bottom of a straight tunnel that leads directly to a badly fitted ancient door which leaks light around the frame. The ghost appears, fainter again. Congratulating you, it wishes you well on your journey. Before you leave, the ghost reminds you the villagers of this world can seem offish and difficult to talk to, but in reality they are warm-hearted and just need a reason to trust you.
You thank the ghost and roll over to the door, easily pushing it open. Behind you the cave is transformed by the light and the ghost fades slowly away.
The sunlight is piercingly bright. You know that coming from a dark place to a light place - or from a light place to a dark place - your eyes need time to adjust. But there's something odd about this light. You feel like it's a lot brighter than normal. You wonder if it's just a different kind of light. You can't quite place your finger on it but it feels unreal and slightly fake.
You realise you're on a hillside and, looking back, notice a big, bold sign that states: "Warning! Do not open this door, the beast sleeps ahead." You wonder what the beast is. You've just come through the door and hadn't encountered anything. You feel lucky you didn't meet the beast and are grateful to be out of the caves which had been surprisingly inviting.
There is a village at the foot of the hill, and you decide the best way to get down is to roll! Luckily, it’s a smooth route down, and you’re exhilarated by the speed you are able to achieve.
Suddenly you hit a bump! You're not sure what you've rolled over, but you assume it's a rock and don't look back. You realise you're very close to the village now, so begin to slow down.
You arrive to find a pleasant, happy and incredibly clean village. Slowly you stretch your legs and venture into the village. Immediately you're approached by what look like birds. Quite abruptly they ask you to repair a bridge you damaged as you came into the village. You hadn't noticed the bridge at all; not least the fact that you had caused any damage, but agree to help. As you approach the bridge, you notice the whole bridge has collapsed into the water under some kind of weight. You remember rolling over something earlier and you consider that you may indeed have been the cause of the damage after all. You start to think. You know the bird-like animals cannot fly, so you resolve to cross the water yourself. You know you can swim, and the lengths of your legs will allow you to propel yourself with more power than you are used to.
You leap into the clear blue water and kick. To your surprise, you launch yourself out of the water completely and before you know it, you find yourself on the other side of the river looking back. The bridge is beyond repair and, without any arms or hands, you're not quite sure what to do and how you can go about fixing the bridge.
You see a nearby tree and roll over to it. You have an idea. Maybe if you were to kick the tree down you could place it across the water. You try, but nothing happens. You kick harder, but still nothing. You try a few more times before giving up. The tree will not fall and you'll have to find another way. As you sit under the tree wondering what to do, you notice a large grey cloud approaching. But this is no ordinary cloud, it's making a noise and bellowing out smoke. You're sure clouds aren't supposed to make sound - unless there is a thunderstorm - and they certainly shouldn't be producing smoke.
On closer inspection you realise that it is, in fact, a robotic flying machine in the shape of a cloud. And it's making its way towards the village on the other side of the water. You don't have time to investigate now, you know that you've been tasked with repairing the bridge and don't want to disappoint the villagers. You hope whatever is going on continues long enough for you to join in later.
You look back at the tree, it's really the only way you can think to fix the bridge, but it won't fall. You feel bad trying to knock down a healthy tree, but your kicking does seem to have disturbed some of the life within the tree's ecosystem and there is now a spider hanging off one of the branches. You have an idea...
You approach the spider and before the spider knows what's happening, you've kicked it - gently, but with enough force to cross the water. Rapidly the spider fires out silk from its silk gland as it soars through the air, landing softly on the other side. You know that spiders can fly like this, using their webs as parachutes.
As the spider re-orientates itself, the mass of silk released by the spider slowly falls to form a bridge over the water. The spider is not happy, and chastises you, warning you not to do it again. You apologise and promise not to do it again. The spider forgives you and is proud that its web has been able to replace the bridge, even though temporarily.
Excited to let the villagers know you’ve fixed the bridge, you head into the village. As you approach, you realise the cloud has disappeared, leaving a trail of smoke behind. It's too late to talk to the villagers now, but the village appears even cleaner than before. Observing closely you determine the village is not cleaner, but CLEARER. There are fewer things around, like signs, or flowers or even houses! It's all very strange, but the villagers are too excited to talk to you and don’t seem interested in your news.
Having not been able to get the attention of the villagers, you decide to leave the new bridge as a surprise to discover for themselves. You head back to the tree to make sure the bridge is still holding.
As you arrive, the daylight is fading and darkness falls on the village behind you. You find the spider tending to the bridge, adding threads of silk to reinforce it. The threads tremble and glisten in the dying light. The spider seems to smile and invites you to cross the bridge in order to test it. With your long legs you could jump the gap, but know you must do as the spider has asked. Tentatively you begin roll across, nervous of being stuck. You are surprised by the soft, firm silk beneath you. On reaching the other side you express your gratitude to the spider, who blushes with pride.
You're at the tree base. It's been a long and confusing day, but you know you have completed your role in this mad world. But, you have a feeling your work is not done. You're not sure what tomorrow will bring, but under the tree you find yourself rolled up between the roots, comfortable.
You're tired now. As the world around you darkens you close your eyes and drift away, awaiting your next adventure.