"Dueling Dragon" - 06/15/2006 (Lucid)

“Dueling Dragon”

06/15/2006

Dream #2

(Lucid)

In this next dream, I found myself in a large industrial yard, enclosed with high walls around every side. Everyone was hard at work at building something or other, and there was a long, inverted conveyor belt over our heads. It carried these big, bell-shaped weights that must have weighed 5 tons a piece. After watching this process for a few minutes, I then noticed that one of the bell-shaped weights didn’t quite look right. I couldn’t put my finger on the reason for it, at first. But then, the whole thing seemed to sort of unwrap itself; practically blooming, like some great dark orchid. What I first thought had been a solid, metal structure, stretched itself out to a wingspan of at least 40 feet. It was a dragon, hanging upside down from the conveyor belt like a giant vampire bat.

The very instant that I figured out what this thing was, it dropped down from the overhead belt and descended upon the yard. Yard workers started running and screaming everywhere as this thing was bellowing fire all over the compound. I remember that, while I was trying to get away, one of the huge weights fell from over top of me. I forgot who it was (someone I know in waking life), but someone yelled at me to get out of the way. I looked up just in time to see the falling weight, and then I quickly dove forward, landing on the ground just as the weight smashed down behind me. Had I been where I was, a split second ago, I knew I would have been pulverized by the heavy object.

I think the impact shook another one loose because, as I turned over on my back, there was another weight falling down toward me. I rolled to one side as fast as I could, and just BARELY got away from that one. It was so close that I think it landed on the sleeve of my shirt. I quickly rose to my feet, and discovered that I was one of the last people in the yard. Most everyone had fled through cargo doors on all sides of the yard, and most of those doors were now closed. The dragon was doing fly-bys and pretty much just napalming the area with its breath while I searched frantically for an open cargo door. In running from cargo door to cargo door - trying to stay out of the beast's sight - I saw that each door was set far enough back into the stone walls so that, even if the doors were sealed, I would still have a little nook in which to hid, even if for mere moments, while I scanned around for another door to try. Sprinting toward what might have been the last door I might have been able to try, I was running parallel to a wall while the dragon was swooping in behind me. It  had me targetted and was closing in fast. I looked at the wall beside me and had the sudden urge to try to run along it (ala Trinity, in The Matrix) Then I suddenly remembered how often running on walls has made me realize I was dreaming, in the past. Upon this realization, it then dawned on me that this, too, was a dream.

The dragon was now just a few feet behind me, and streaking in at full speed, like an falcon dashing in to pluck a rodent from the earth, upon its flyby. At the last moment, still in my own stride, I pivoted slightly to one side, dashed toward the wall and ran up it, diagonally. Following through with my changing center of gravity - as my body leaned to accommodate my now using the vertical wall as my floor - I then rotated into a sideways flip off of the wall, which carried me up over the passing dragon. Having cork-scewed my way over the creature, I landed on my feet on his opposite side, just in time to see the beast swooped back up into the sky, now in front of me. I ducking beneath the cargo door overhang and took the moment to gather. With the knowledge I was dreaming, I decided to turn the tables on this fearsome devil and I then stepped boldly out into the center of the yard.

The dragon had landed, by then, and was now standing with its back to me. As I walked out further, it slowly craned its head around toward me - followed by the rest of its body. What happened next is a bit of a blur, but I vaguely remember the dragon exhaling a huge stream of fire in my direction. No longer the least bit worried, I then put up one hand and used the knowledge that I was dreaming to keep the fire away from me, putting up a sort of invisible shield between us. Though I don't remember actually seeing a full shield around me, but - while I was standing inside this inferno - I could see what looked like a light blue 'wave' of interference, where the fire was colliding with my force-field. (Pure Neo moment, right there. Haha.) I also remember doing a little bit of hovering around the yard, and throwing some fireballs of my own at the dragon. (Never really stopped to think whether or not fireballs have any effect on dragons, but oh well.)

Anyway, somewhere throughout this little battle, my feet were back on the ground and I had forgotten that I was dreaming. No longer in control, I wasn’t making any progress in fighting this dragon and was, by now, looking for a way to escape. There were still a few survivors of the dragon’s invasion, who were scrambling toward these vents in the ground - that I hadn't noticed until now. I ran over to one of them and jumped in. Now in the company of a few of the survivors, we spent some time trying to navigate these underground vents, and they were getting smaller and smaller, the further down we went. Sooner or later, I was getting very claustrophobic and wondering just how the hell we were going to get out of this labyrinth of stone tunnels and archways. But then - as worry began to hit me - I remembered once again that this is all a dream!

So, even though I was a good 20-30 ft underground and encased in a concrete shaft, I bent down and drew all of my focus to my legs, then blasting off like a rocket and flying straight up through the ceiling of the shaft, boring through all of the earth above me and then exploded up into the yard again. I landed next to the fresh hole I'd made in the yard, and got ready for round two with the dragon. However, instead of the dragon, I was staring up a (humanoid) giant. He was big and lumbering, and he stood over me, looking down at me as if I was I was his next meal. I had been completely unprepared for this.

This surprise stripped me of my lucidity again, just as this giant started reaching down to catch me in his hand. I started ducking and dodging the numerous swings from this “guy,” and was again looking for a way out of the yard. One humorous thing I can remember is how Dumb this giant seemed. I mean he was “dduuurrrr” dumb. But he was strong and he was fast and - at probably forty-something feet tall, - that’s all the advantage he really needed. I do remember he was treating me like a toy and considered his trying to kill me as “playing with me.” Across the yard, I caught a glimpse of one of the cargo doors that wasn’t closed all the way. There was about 2 feet of space beneath it. Freedom awaited. I ran toward the door as fast as I could, and could hear the giant’s feet as he thundered after me. Having no time to stop, I dove to the ground on my stomach and slid under the door.

What I didn’t realize was that the entire industrial yard sat high atop a single rock formation. It was a column of earth and stone, which stretched up from the ground for what seemed like miles. As I slid out from under the door, I went over the cliff-side (which was about 5 feet from all sides of the industrial yard) and grabbed hold of the grassy ledge while my legs dangled over the distant cityscape far below me. The giant obviously didn’t know about this either. He just came crashing through the cargo door and the concrete above it - oblivious. I think he almost stepped on me, because I let go and ended up falling down beside the rock column just as the giant was falling as well. I caught myself on something though and wasn’t that far away from the top when I stopped falling. Hanging on for dear life, I looked down and saw that the giant had latched onto something also, and was now beginning to climb back up toward me. I started climbing also - up and to the left - moving clockwise up the rock formation like a mountain climber as the giant ascended after me. It was The most insane feeling to be scaling this pillar of rock, thousands of feet above the ground, with a huge giant coming up after me.

But, to make a long story short (as if that’s possible ,at this point) the giant somehow ended up losing his grip and falling down to the earth, from a distance so high that there had already been a few clouds between us and the ground. I don't really remember whether or not I heard the impact of him hitting the earth, though.

Shortly after this, I woke up.

"Back Through the Looking Glass" - 03/31/2010 (Lucid)

"Back Through the Looking Glass"

03/31/2010

Dream #1
(Lucid)

(This was a great lucid dream. Unfortunately, most of it was lost, when I actually woke up. =/)

The first thing I remember is walking through someone's house. The house was extremely large with a lot of inner hallways, and all of the lights were very dim, creating dark corners and nooks, all over. The blackness was accented, here and there, with small areas of yellow-orange light, from the lamps that modestly dotted the ceiling. I don't remember what I was doing in this house, or who it belonged to, but there was something about this house that seemed strange or foreboding. (I think it was just that I felt really uncomfortable in it. A lot of areas were just pitch black, and I think I just wasn't familiar with the place to feel at east.), Some time, during my aimless exploration of these rooms and hallways, I ended up gaining spontaneous lucidity.

I didn't really know what I wanted to do with myself, now that I knew I was dreaming, so I just continued to roam around the corridors of this dark house, simply taking in the never-ending wonder of being surrounded by such a vivid world created by my subconscious. Rounding a corner, I suddenly came upon a little boy - maybe 7 or 8 years old. He had his back faced to me, and I don't think he was wearing a shirt. I kept walking in his direction, and he didn't move. I believe he had a shaved head, but his image was slightly obscured by the dimness of the hallway. I never broke stride, and just watched him curiously as I passed. He didn't move at all. The boy just stood with his hands to the side, staring down the hall in the same direction I was walking. Even when I passed him, he didn't even acknowledge that I was there. He just kept...staring. For all I know, he could have been a statue. The light was so dim that I never really got a clear look at his face, so I just kept on walking, looking back momentarily and watching him. He still never moved, and just kind of faded away into the shadows, as the rest of the hallway did. I found the whole thing kind of creepy, but I didn't think too much of it, because after all, I knew that this was just a dream.

There was an open door to my left, and I stuck my head inside. I don't remember if I tried to turn on the light and failed, or I just walked in, but everything was dark inside the room. I looked at the wall to my right, and saw my reflection, staring back at me in the dark. A mirror. I stared into the eyes of my reflection, and he stared right back at me. I moved closer, and he followed suit, seemingly with his own pace - and subtle body movements that really just didn't seem to match my own. We just stared at each other as we walked closer. It was really no less creepy than the little boy in the hallway. Almost immediately, I remember the thread somebody had posted on DreamViews, saying that - the next time we encounter a mirror - we should walk through it, to see what happens. Since walking through mirrors usually causes a drastic dream scene change for me, I decided to have a little fun first. With my dimly-lit double staring back at me, I lunged at the mirror and sank my arms into it. I couldn't even feel the glass, this time, and it was like there was nothing there. I grabbed around behind my reflection, and noticed that he had done the same thing to me, bringing his arms out of the mirror to wrap around mine. I started pulling backward, to try to bring my reflection out of the mirror, and onto my side of the glass. He was a strong som'bitch, though, and kept resisting. It was pretty even. Again - like the last time I tried this, I was only able to bring him out just a little bit. This time, the stalemate made it feel like the dream was beginning to unravel, so I gave in, and let him go. Not wanting to lose the dream without doing what I'd meant to do, I stepped forward and sank my face into the mirror, followed by my whole body. The reflected image I was seeing - of the dark room behind me - stayed the same. My reflection was gone. It seemed as though I'd stepped precisely into the reflection. In the little bit of light still creeping in from the door, I saw that all the furniture and picture frames on the wall were the same way they had been, in the reflection. It was really weird. It was the first time that walking through a mirror actually felt more like walking into the reflection, through a window. Very surreal. As could almost be expected, though, stepping into the reflection - smooth a transition as it was - still made things become more unstable and, soon, the dream dimmed itself out and the scene completely changed.

I was now on day-lit plains, still lucid. There was nothing around me, except a line of very large trees. After walking a while, I left the tall grass and launched myself into the air, flying just high enough to get a better view. Within the trees, I could see large swaths of them that were cut down. Many of these tree stumps were massive. Maybe a hundred feet around, or so. Some of them had what looked like family crests carved into the flattened tops of the stumps. I surveyed a bit more and actually found a civilization of people living in the woods. They were completely integrated with the thicker, forest area and had rope bridges and huts and canopies strewn all through the trees. Dropping back to the ground, I came upon a commotion. A lot of these tree-dwelling people had wrangled some kind of very large animal, and they were having a hell of a time subduing it. Once I was able to get a good look at the animal, I could clearly see that it was a gryphon. A very big gryphon. And these guys just could not get it to keep its talons on the ground.

With nothing else to do, I decided to help out. I slung my hand out in the creature's direction and made a long string of rope manifest, attaching it to the gryphon's neck. I tried to pull downward, but was instantly lifted off of my feet. The power of this raptor's flailing around slung me around, like a rag doll. But it wasn't violent, in the least. It was as if I was weightless, and just flowing with the wind pushed off of its enormous wings. I never touched the ground after that - just kind of swung around like a kite tail. I tried to exert my will to put my feet on the ground, a few times, but I was completely overwhelmed by this upward flow that seemed to keep my afloat. It was actually a lot of fun.

The next thing I know, I'm back in the dark house again. Wandering some random hallways. Still lucid. I walked out a back door, and there were a lot of people hanging out by what I believe was a pool deck. I don't remember actually seeing the pool, though. I left them alone and high-jumped over the fence, landing on the other side. This was now more like an apartment complex, than a single house. I walked over to another one of the structures and made my way inside, into another set of dark halls. Soon, I was in another darkened room. There was a man asleep in his bed, who woke up with a start, after I walked in. He was an older guy. Had to be in his 50's.

It was right around here, that I started thinking about how long I'd been dreaming, and how much of the dream I was probably going to forget, when I woke up. I knew I needed to start writing something down, which I sometimes do to help review some of the things that have happened, before the dream ends. Knowing that I would need a pad and pencil, I looked at the man's dresser, and there was a set sitting on top of it. I began writing down as much as I could remember. While doing this, I'd thought I woke up. In reality, I had simply slipped into a False Awakening, with another dream following...

"Haitian Havoc" - 01/08/2007

"Haitian Havoc"

01/08/2007

Dream #3

I was on some mountainous, island paradise, though I'm not really certain whether I was villager or visitor. I think I was the latter, because I didn’t know much about the land until someone told me about its history. This village was on the top of a particular cliff; a flat, circular area, surrounded at the outer-edge of the hilltop by large trees and hidden from nearly all other points on the island, below, it seemed. Most of us were outside and there were a bunch of children just running around and playing, having a good time. Off to one side of the village grounds, there was a large, stone building whose roof was held up by stone pillars that seemed more fitting for a museum, than a structure built way out in some remote village in the tropics.

I don’t know how this bad blood was born, but our village apparently had a long-running conflict with a large community of Haitians that lived across a small body of water which sat a mile or two away from the bottom of our cliff. (Though I don't know that the area we were in was, specifically, Haiti, I just knew that the group on the other island was known as 'the Haitians'.) We could look down over the water, and their area, but they could not look up and see our village from below, mostly because of our altitude and the fact that we were surrounded by trees, on all sides.

I don’t remember what provoked them, but somehow a long-range firefight broke out between us and them. Most of the people in our village lived in fear of the Haitians because they had superior forces and armament, but - for some reason - I think it was our side, who had intially started the trouble with them. Whatever the case, our villagers were now shooting down through the trees, off of the cliff, and raining bullets down upon the Haitian’s territory. In turn, there were a lot of bullets coming up in our direction, from down there. The women and children around us were screaming; bystanders telling everyone to hide because the Haitians would soon be coming up here and looking for blood. Everyone scattered. All of the men took up posts in the trees, as hidden away from the open circle of the inner-village as possible. Bullets were riveting into the branches of the trees all around me as the Haitians continued firing from the distant land mass, far below. I saw one of our men - whom had been shooting back at them - get sprayed with bullets, a few feet away from me. He immediately went down; tumbling, like rag doll, from the branches which once held him.

A short while after the firing stopped, I looked out over the center of the village and saw a large group of men approaching with guns. Of course, I didn’t have a gun, myself. My heart started pounding and anxiety was like a bear hug around my chest. I could hardly breathe. Still in a tree, I was in a twisted position, trying my best to lay flat with a large branch covering most of my body so that I was partially hidden from view, staring down through the leaves at these men. They quickly corralled a few of our villagers and were making 'demands' that we were supposed to meet, so that they wouldn’t come back and lay waste to all of 'our' village's women and children. They then began destroying some of our tools and weapons, to drive home their point. One of the men slowly turned in my direction and squinted through the trees, directly at me. Immediately, he swung the barrel of his rifle at me and demanded that I come out of hiding. Reluctantly, I climbed down and walked over to him, completely unprepared for whatever fate lay ahead of me.

Once I came within arm's reach, the armed man grabbed me by my neck and spun me around, shoving his gun barrel against my back. I was then herded toward the building at gunpoint, and I could hear a frightful reaction from some of our other villages as they watched me get escorted off. I had a feeling I was about to be executed. For some reason, this man pushed me into the building where most of the women and all of the children were. Surprisingly enough, this room looked like a somewhat modern, yet impoverished, school. The children stared at us, wide-eyed, watching the man push me up against a table. He was about to make an example out of me and kill me in front of all of these children.

Even though my stomach was against the table, the man shoved his gun harder into my back, pushing me forward. The table slid for a moment but then got caught on something. The man kept on pushing, as if he was literally trying to push the gun barrel into my back, like a knife. He pushed so hard that the force of my body actually split the heavy wooden table in half and fell forward, through it, crashing against the next table down the row. He did the same thing again, driving the gun barrel into my back hard enough to press me through the table, splintering this one as well. The only thing in front of me now was the wall. With my chest forced against side of the room, I felt the gun against my back again. He started to push and he kept on pushing, really putting all of his body weight into this dime-sized point in my back. Talk about pain. I think he was seriously trying to impale me with the gun barrel. The pressure was squeezing me up against the wall, my back arching against the torturous sensation. I didn’t know what to do because fear of being shot in the back kept me paralyzed. The harder he pushed, the worse the pain got until, finally, it became unbearable. A low groan from my mouth escalated into a loud, agonizing yell. Just as I felt the gun was about to penetrate into my lower back, I woke up. The once-excruciating pain faded away as quickly as my eyes had opened.