The Unicorn Between Worlds - A Multiple Part Bedtime Adventure Podcast
by Dion Anderson
The story takes place primarily in the back garden — a sprawling, magical New Zealand bush and forest that, unknown to most, sits on a Thin Place: a natural crossing point between ordinary reality and Luminos, the Shimmering Realm, a world of pure magic where unicorns, dragons, and fairy-folk live alongside each other. The crossing point is hidden inside a massive, ancient pōhutukawa tree.A young unicorn named Prism has fallen through a crack between realities — pulled off course by the mischief of The Smudge, a villain who is less terrifying monster and more bumbling, grumpy, cloud-grey fox.
Episodes
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Episode Thirty: "Same Garden, Always Magic"
The finale. Home. The garden, in full, beautiful, morning light. Everyone assembled one last time — or not the last time, never the last time, just this time. Ember toasting. Pip producing things. The pixies improving something. Thornwick arriving on his rock. Coral visible in her tree. Root warm...
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Episode Twenty-Nine: "The Long Way Home"
The journey home through Luminos — a long, warm, unhurried goodbye to every Luminos character. Clarity walks them to the gate — upright, clear, his old scrambling gone, his new frequency running through the pathways like a clean signal. He is everything he was named for. He promises to be at the...
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Episode Twenty-Eight: "The New Wardens"
The formal ceremony. Scarlett and Danica are invested as Junior Wardens of the Bright Gate by Queen Aura, in the Court of the Bright Morning, with every character present. The Silver Fox clan attends — Clarity and his restored kin, silver and elegant and finally home. Ember is there, having come...
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Episode Twenty-Seven: "The Trial of the Three Signs — Part Three: The Sisters"
The final trial. Two handprint locks, one on each side of the sealed door. They must press simultaneously — but the timing is felt, not counted. It only works if they are paying complete attention to each other. Scarlett's instinct is to lead. She stops herself. Danica's instinct is to follow.…
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Episode Twenty-Six: "The Trial of the Three Signs — Part Two: The Light"
Danica's episode. In the Hollow of Silences, alone, in total dark — not frightening-dark, just very, very dark. She walks in the dark and isn't frightened. She is curious. She thinks about everything that has made the Light Between come: laughter, love, warmth, belonging. She thinks about…
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Episode Twenty-Five: "The Trial of the Three Signs — Part One: The Growing"
Queen Aura sends word — the girls have been doing the work of Apprentice Wardens and the time has come for the formal Trial of the Three Signs, which will recognise them as full junior Wardens of the Bright Gate. The Trial takes place in Luminos, in three parts. Part One is Scarlett's: a sealed...
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Episode Twenty-Four: "Prism's Goodbye (And Prism's Hello)"
Prism, at the gate, ready to go back to Luminos for the last time as a visitor — she will be a visitor to the garden now, rather than a resident — turns to the girls. "I forgot to tell you something," she says. "In Luminos, there is a crystal meadow where young unicorns spend their first years. I...
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Episode Twenty-Three: "The New Frequency"
The crystal Pip produced is examined by Clarity, by Dion, by Queen Aura. It carries a frequency that is genuinely new — not existing in any of the old crystal-pathway records, not part of the gate's original design. It is something the Light Between has created by contact with the healed…
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Episode Twenty-Two: "The Court of the Bright Morning"
The Court of the Bright Morning — described in full, extraordinary beauty: crystal spires grown from living stone, flowering everywhere, open to the Luminos sky, filled with creatures from across the realm. Clarity is there — silver and clean and official in his gate-regulator capacity, greeting...
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Episode Twenty-One: "Queen Aura's Invitation"
Preparations to go to Luminos properly — not to the pathways, not to the gate-edge, but into Luminos itself, to the Court of the Bright Morning where Queen Aura holds her gatherings. Dion explains the Court — a place of extraordinary beauty, open-aired, built from living crystal and flowering...
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Episode Twenty: "The Box"
The box — *For S & D* — which Dion placed in Coral's keeping and which has been in Scarlett's pocket since Episode 9, waiting for the right moment. Dion says: the right moment is now. They open it in the clearing, together, all of them. Inside: two small cloaks — deep green for Scarlett, white…
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Episode Nineteen: "The Morning After Everything"
The first morning of the new normal. Dion is at breakfast. The garden is settled and peaceful. The gate is open and glowing gently at the wall. A small water-sprite called Ripple has come through the gate overnight — young, slightly lost, cheerful, having taken a wrong turn in the crystal…
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Episode Eighteen: “Coming Home”
The return through the pathways is warm and celebratory — Ember flying properly, Pip producing a flag that says ALL DONE, Root passing a warm stone through Pip's ear as a hello. On returning through the gate, every creature who held watch is there. The pixies have lined the path with firefly-pod...
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Episode Seventeen: “The Space Between Worlds”
The crystal pathways in full — described in extraordinary detail, crystal-lit, frequency-humming, vast and geometric. Ember discovers she can fly properly in the pathways and is magnificent. The group reaches the wound: a jagged crack from floor to ceiling at the junction of three pathways, the...
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Episode Sixteen: “The Warden Returns”
The morning after. Dion at the kitchen table. Breakfast with his daughters — ordinary and extraordinary simultaneously. He goes to the clearing and is greeted by every creature. He speaks to the whole group and acknowledges what the girls built — not just a mission team but a family. He explains...
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Episode Fifteen: “The Night the Garden Woke Up”
The great gathering episode. Every creature who has been part of the adventure assembles at the wall: Gerald awake, Coral descended from her tree, Thornwick arrived overnight, Lace at her stone, Yllib in his best moss, Wave and Shimmer at the pond edge singing, the pixies having decorated the…
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Episode Fourteen: “Three Days to the Moon”
The three days of preparation. Day One: the pixies begin decorating the path and the wall — pixie cairns, moonflowers encouraged by Root, the stone wall cleaned. The Smudge sits in Danica's light and, in the fullest expression of the Light Between yet, speaks his full backstory — he is Clarity,...
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Episode Thirteen: “The Heart of the Matter”
Prism reveals she has known since approximately the second day that the Heart Crystal is inside her — placed there by Dion when she was a foal, as the final safeguard. It releases when the fear that has been holding it down releases. The whole group speaks to Prism in turn — each character…
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Episode Twelve: “Ember’s Hoard”
Ember's origin fully revealed. Her mother Brightwing, a great fire-dragon of the Western Reaches of Luminos, was trusted by Dion with the Fire Crystal before Ember was born. Brightwing sent the young Ember through the crack in the gate to keep it safe and to be in the right place when the right...
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Episode Eleven: “Into the Tall Trees”
The morning briefing reveals the remaining three crystals: Deep (pond), Fire (Ember's hoard — Fern is suspicious), Heart (unknown). Wave and Shimmer are introduced — they have been in the garden pond for four days. The pond test: the girls must let the dolphins carry them underwater (a test of...
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Episode Ten: “Prism and the Photograph”
A quieter, deeper episode. Prism tells the girls everything about Dion — how they met in the Crystal Meadow when she was a foal, how he laughed at himself when a cloud-bird took his hat, how he taught her to navigate the crystal pathways, how he told her about his daughters before they were born....
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Episode Nine: “Coral and the Very Long Story”
Coral reveals the Dissonance — not a creature but a force of absence, a symptom of the crack in the crystal pathways left when the gate broke. It has been growing for six years, slowly expanding, threatening both worlds. Dion has been in the Crystal Archive researching how to stop it. Coral…
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Episode Eight: “Up Into the Clouds”
The group arrives at the great tōtara. The tree offers Scarlett climbing holds — Root working through the wood, responding to her Verdant Speech. She climbs, is carried by a cloud-bird to retrieve the Wind Crystal from the crown nest, and for the first time sees the whole garden laid out below…
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Episode Seven: “Pip and the Extremely Useless Hat”
Pip is properly introduced — appearing from a blackberry bush, producing items from his ears including the sun hat Danica claims for the rest of the series. The group travels to Coral's eucalyptus to get information about the Wind Crystal and Dion. Coral tells the girls that Dion visited the…
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Episode Six: "The Creek Runs Backwards"
Fern reveals Dion's true situation: he is alive in Luminos, sealed on the wrong side of the gate he closed six years ago. She reads his letter to the girls — warm, funny, loving, containing the line "I love you both more than the garden loves the rain." On the way to the third crystal, the creek…
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Episode Five: "The Map is Upside Down (On Purpose?)"
Fern produces the map to the second crystal — the Dew Crystal, found in a spider's web at dawn. Problem: the map is already partially scrambled (The Smudge has been at it). Thornwick the tortoise is introduced — the keeper of accurate maps, living under a mossy rock near the creek. Reaching...
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Episode Four: "Gerald is NOT a Morning Person"
The earth-sprite Gerald is enormous — about the size of a large armchair — made entirely of compacted soil, pebbles, and the occasional confused earthworm. He is not grumpy by nature; he is simply profoundly attached to sleep and deeply unimpressed by being awoken. The episode follows the group's...
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Episode Three: "Fern Has a Clipboard and Dewdrop Has a Bruise"
Fern and Dewdrop officially introduce themselves. Fern is brisk, efficient, and treats the situation like a project management exercise. Dewdrop is enthusiastic and immediately crashes into a flower. They explain the crystal system in more detail and reveal that the first crystal — the Root…
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Episode Two: "The Unicorn Who Smelled Kumara"
Prism steps out of the ferns, shaking all over, her coat flashing from white to pale blue to pink as her emotions shift. She is young (about the same age as Scarlett in unicorn years), speaks in a rush, and is clearly terrified — but also completely distracted when she spots Danica's biscuit....
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Episode One: "Something in the Garden"
A normal afternoon in the garden turns strange. Nibbler is acting oddly — sniffing at the base of The Big Red pōhutukawa and yowling. Scarlett investigates while Danica toddles behind her eating a biscuit. They discover strange hoof prints in the soft mud — shimmery, faintly glowing, definitely…
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About this show
The story takes place primarily in the back garden — a sprawling, magical New Zealand bush and forest that, unknown to most, sits on a Thin Place: a natural crossing point between ordinary reality and Luminos, the Shimmering Realm, a world of pure magic where unicorns, dragons, and fairy-folk live alongside each other. The crossing point is hidden inside a massive, ancient pōhutukawa tree.A young unicorn named Prism has fallen through a crack between realities — pulled off course by the mischief of The Smudge, a villain who is less terrifying monster and more bumbling, grumpy, cloud-grey fox.
Hosted by
Dion Anderson