"Big Bad Hellhound" - 10/04/2020 (Lucid)

"Big Bad Hellhound"

10/4/2020

(Lucid)

(This dream was obviously brought on by a mish-mash of games that my girlfriend and I had been playing, this weekend, as well as the movie "Shazam," which we'd watched last night.)

I was with my girlfriend, and a few other people, hanging out in someone's home. "A Nightmare on Elm Street" was coming on TV, and my girlfriend said that she had always wanted to see what it was all about, and that she was interested in watching it. Immediately, this struck me as weird, because she is certainly not the "horror movie type," in general. I tried to warn her against it, saying that the movie contained some pretty insanely-disturbing imagery, and that she may not know what she's quite getting herself into. She didn't care and insisted on watching it, so we just let the movie play. The only thing I remember were a couple of brief scenes (that are not actually in the movie). One, where someone - likely Freddy, in disguise - was gorily ripping an entire electric guitar out of someone's body, tearing it out through their chest cavity, and another, where a man, possessed by another entity which had manifested itself as a second head on his neck, was forcefully trying to push the head back down into the skin of his collar. (This was reminiscent of some of the Seven Deadly Sins manifestations, in "Shazam.") Before long, my girlfriend was saying that she had enough, and didn't want to watch anymore.

There was a shift in narrative, here, where the entire scenario became some sort of horror-movie, itself. I was trapped in the house (not sure where my girl and the others had gone), and I was trying to escape some sort of killer stalking around, inside. For some reason (that I can't recall), I couldn't go out the front door, as it was like I wasn't "allowed" to be in the home, or something, and couldn't alert the homeowners that I was there. Anyway, I ended up escaping through a back window, and out into the neighborhood, at night. There was an oversized pick-up truck, basically doing donuts in the street, and a young woman came running up the sidewalk, telling me - as she passed - that she had to sneak back into the house I'd just left, because she'd left some sort of item there. It all felt very much like an MMO game kind of encounter, where players are all just off doing their own thing, and often crossing paths, along the way. Then, when I started thinking about where I was going to go, next, a full-on map HUD display popped up in my field of view, as if I was playing a game. (Specifically, it looked like the map from "Dying Light," which my girl and I had played.) I could see that I was on an island, with no way out, and my mind apparently rationalized that I had completed my objective - escaping the house - and that I had to kind of "exit" the whole setting, as if returning to the lobby, after a game.

Suddenly, I was attacked on the street, by some lumbering person. (I want to say that it was a zombie, but I can't be sure.) While trying to fight off the attack, I could see something like one of the "QuickTime" animation buttons showing up in my field of view, as if I had to repeatedly press a button, in order to escape the attacker's clutches. The more I panicked, the faster this gauge was moving, and I could see little flashes of light forming in my field of view. At this very moment, I knew that my way of "escape" was to "wake up," and that the little flashes of light were my eyes trying to open up into the real world. However, though this was "lucid dreaming" logic, I don't feel that I ever got fully 'lucid,' at all and I was just going through the motions of trying to wake myself up.

Immediately, the entire scenario shifted, again, and this time, I was watching some unknown character wake up, on a television screen. He jolted up out of bed, as if awakening from a nightmare. I was now in a different house, along with some of my closest waking life friends, and we were huddled around the TV, watching whatever movie this was. Sooner or later, we had left the house and were walking around, outside. Again, it was night out, and it was eerily foggy. Judging by the architecture of the streets around us, everything had a sort of an Old Germany / Western Europe feel to it. (We had also been playing "Zombie Army Trilogy.") We'd discovered a pack of "demon-dogs" that were roaming the streets, and we had to sneak, stealthily, around them, to avoid getting spotted. However, when turning onto another, misty back alley, we'd seen a group of the dogs at the far end, and they saw us, as well. What was worse, though, was when we watched what looked like a group of tall trees shift into focus, through the mist, behind the dogs. Though I couldn't see the tops of the "trees," through the fog, I quickly became aware that these weren't trees, at all. They were *legs*. Specifically, they were the legs of another, enormous, demon dog. This one, though, was well over 50-feet tall - like a giant Hell Hound of a gritty anime, brought to life.

The beast belted out a wall-shaking roar and thundered into a sprint toward us. Naturally, we turned and ran the other way, fully aware that we were not going to be able to outrun this thing. Finally, coming to the end of the road - in the form of a high bridge or overpass, we instinctively dove over the railing, turning back while in the air, just in time to see the massive jaws of the gigantic beast snapping shut just, a few feet over our heads. Inevitably, though, we continued to fall away, off of the elevated road, and down toward what would have been a certain death.

But - just like that - I was back with my friends, again, roaming the streets of this foggy, old-world environment, slipping around in the dark, to hide from the demon dogs. Then, just as before, we saw the towering legs of the "alpha," stepping out of the fog. It sprinted at us, once again, but before turning to run, I remembered that this had happened before. Still, instinctively, I ran, bolting down the street, with my friends, away from the towering hound behind us. Glancing at the builds that flanked us, I remembered a conversation my girlfriend and I had been having (the night before), about wall-running in a video game.

Suspecting, now, that I was merely in a dream, I shifted my sprint to the right and took a few, diagonal steps up the wall beside me, twisting into an acrobatic flip and - somehow - dodging the enormous dog that had been chasing us. Afterward the dog was either destroyed by us, or simply disappeared, altogether (though I can't remember which).

Shortly after ridding ourselves of the beast, my friends and I were talking about what had happened. I don't recall much of the dialogue, but I specifically telling them about my having to wake up, so that I could remember everything that went on, in the dream. The last thing I remember of the scenario was one of my friends telling a hilarious joke that had everyone cracking up, just as I was purposefully pulling myself out of the dream and waking myself up.

(I'm not sure, but I believe this one might have resulted in an actual false awakening, because I remember waking up with my laughter actually carrying over from the dream, and into waking life. My girlfriend was lying beside me, as usual, but I didn't get out of bed. I just relaxed, as if to drift back off to sleep. Then, moments later, I was waking up, again. I still don't know if the laughing bit was real or another dream, though, so I'm not counting it as a false awakening in this journal entry.)

"Third Degree Burns" - 03/19/2009 (Lucid + FA)

"Third Degree Burns"

03/19/2009

Dream #1

(Lucid)

I was with DV Member "Burns", and some other dude. They were going out, for the first time, and I was there - third-wheeling it - hanging out with them and getting wasted at some bar inside a mall. I can't remember what Burns was having, but I had a gin and tonic (which is not a common drink for me), as did the other guy. I remember paying for the first round, but nothing about who got the others. Burns seemed really vulnerable, though, as if she had just come out of a failed relationship and was really touchy and suspicious of this other guy. They kept getting into tiny spats which, eventually, turned into a huge argument. She was being really catty, and he was being pretty insensitive, just kind of shrugging off everything she said, which obviously helped make things worse.

A little later, I was sitting on a small group of steps, shuffling cards (which I often do, to keep myself busy when I'm bored or agitated), and the two of them were standing a couple of feet away from me, still going at it. Finally, I spoke up and said something like: "You know, I'm just going to come out and say it. You're both being assholes to each other. I've been here, the whole time, and I think you're both being really unfair to each other and it's only making things worse for no reason." Realizing I was right, they both apologized to each other. I also apologized to Burns because I kept calling her 'Burns' instead of her real name. She said it was ok, that she found it endearing, and that I could keep calling her Burns if I wanted to.

Later, after everything was cool again, Burns and the dude were gone, and I was strolling around the mall. Glancing into one of the stores I was passing, I saw a girl I used to work with and had previously had a huge crush on, before we'd, unfortunately, had a big falling out. She noticed me and began to talk to me. The atmosphere was really awkward, because before now, she'd been avoiding me for over a year, and we'd pretty much just stopped talking to each other, altogether. Now, she was actually putting in effort to make conversation with me, which was surprising. She began to take on a saddened, almost solemn tone, and she asked me why we never really became good friends, instead of acquaintances. She immediately followed this by asking why we never became more than just friends.

By the look in her eyes, she seemed really sincere - almost heartbroken, at the thought - which really affected me. All I could answer with was "I don't know" (because I didn't know), but just seeing her like this really made me miss her being around, and I could feel myself getting a little choked up. She told me that it wasn't too late to fix things between us...and then she admitted that she wanted to grow old and have kids with me, someday, which to say the least - blew my mind. The whole time we were talking, the multi-screen TV setup in the background was playing some presentation about 'love'. She then began laying her sentiments on really thick. She was telling me that I'd have to be devoted to her - and only her, and about how I'd better not go around talking to other women and whatnot. By then, I was thinking to myself "Whoa, slow down...you've been avoiding me for over a year, and now you're talking to me like we're exchanging vows??" I knew that something was out of place. There was something very weird about the way she was acting, and this whole situation in general.

I took a quick look at my surroundings. The mall was practically empty, now, and when I turned back in her direction, she was gone. The only one anywhere near me was a female store clerk, who was looking at me like I was nuts, because I was just standing in one spot and looking around like I was lost. I said, outloud, that "this can't be real." The clerk said something or other, doubting my assertion. I started thinking backward, to earlier events, and I came to the realization that this couldn't be real because I didn't remember ever driving to this mall. I was just kinda "here." I began to suspect that I was dreaming, but things were really vivid, and I couldn't discern anything to specifically prove my suspicion.

Raising one hand toward a stack of magazines in the store, I tried to levitate them with telekinesis, but they wouldn't budge. Then, looking upward, I tried to 'will' the lights to flicker, but that didn't really work, neither. Finally, I tried to manifest my old crush again. I looked back at the TV screens that were playing the 'love' program, and tried to visualize her coming into view. Slowly, she walked through the wall of screens like they were made of liquid, and she was standing before me, once again. "I knew it!" I said, now certain that this was a dream.

I glanced around the mall again, trying to think of something constructive to do with my remaining lucidity. It was then that I caught a glimpse of something on the ceiling. It was an arm sticking out from over a suspended light fixture. It quickly tucked itself away, just as I looked up, but not before I could make out the dingy, red and green fabric of the long-sleeved sweater.

"Ha! Get out here, Freddy!" I called out, knowing immediately who it was. The second I yelled for him, a security guard suddenly grabbed me by the wrist. I quickly turned to face him, just in time to see his face morph from some ordinary stranger into the twisted, burned-away visage of Krueger. I didn't notice the change of the security guard outfit back to the sweater, but it was instantaneous. Krueger was grinning evily, and I could tell he was ready to try his hand at killing me again. Happy that he showed up, I rolled my wrist out of his grasp and jumped backward. "What's up, man?!" I challenged him, slinging one hand down after the other, I made razors that matched his gloves slide out of my fingertips - like I'd done in our first meeting, but this time with both hands. I could actually feel them break the skin with a dull pinch. Freddy came at me on a mission. We started hacking and slashing at each other, ducking and dodging wild slices and stabs, and blocking each others nails with our own - though there were no sparks when our hands clashed, as there had been on the first time we fought nails-to-nails.

We moved deftly through the mall while fighting, kind of 'gliding' over the ground in long dashes and matching strides, as if we were aggressive ice skaters chasing each other around the rink while throwing blows. For all his trying, though, he couldn't lay a hand on me. It came to be that I was chasing him at one point, and he was dashing backward while facing me and fighting off my attacks. We were moving really fast, and I thought I could get him with a distraction. I slashed at him, saying "Duck!", which he ducked. I did it again with the other arm, saying "DUCK!" which he ducked again. And then, mixing it up instead of "Goose!" which is how the kids' game goes, I said "Moose!!" and pointed over Freddy's shoulder, jokingly implying that there was a moose behind him. Briefly confused, Freddy turned his head to look behind him and said "Huh?!?" Just then, as soon as he wasn't looking, I slammed my shoulder into his body, throwing him off of his feet at full speed and making him crash into a corner, sprawled upside down with his legs in the air. I exploded into laughter, pointing at him. 

I could feel the dream's solidity fading, but before I had time to think, Freddy was back on his feet and the fight was back on. This time, I was the one dashing backward, while he advanced on me. I tried to show off a bit and jumped into the air, flipping upside down and trying to offset gravity by running on the ceiling.  By trying to manuever myself so that I would still be facing Freddy - which involved putting a half spin in, with the flip - I became disoriented. Now, there was practically nothing but a fading blur in my field of vision. I could still make out his arm swinging for me, and I tried to sneak a peek at my hands, in order to bring the clarity back into the dream - but I was doing so in the midst of ducking and dodging his attacks, and things were just too frantic to solidify.

The dream faded and I woke up. At least, I thought I woke up.

Dream #2 

(False Awakening)
(Lucid)

I woke up in my bed, and there was a really hot blonde, straddling my pelvis. Surprisingly, I didn't think too much of it, at first, and I glanced at the TV. There was a horror movie on, but I can't recall what was going on, on the screen. I looked back at the girl, who was looking seductively down at me, and that's when I suddenly realized that I was still dreaming. The moment I figured this out, the girl's eyes rolled all the way back into her head, until they were nothing but white. Her facial features quickly deteriorated and her mouth became freakishly slack-jawed, as she turned into a demon right before me.

(I immediately woke up for real. I came to the computer to type up my notes and browse DV. I checked on what the lucid tasks of the month were, and went back to bed with a mind to attempt a WBTB.)

"Granny Gunfight" - 09/27/2006

"Granny Gunfight"

09/27/2006

Dream Two

*image credit*

(I had some B6, before bed, and my dreams were very vivid, last night.)

In this dream, I was in a Home Depot, or some other large hardware store. There was an older woman walking around the store, who I knew was up to something. Though I didn't know the details, what I did know was that this old lady was bad - like gun-toting, crime-spree-committing, "I'll-Shoot-You-In-The-Face-if-you-cross-me" bad.

Anyway, we (I?) were trying to capture this old woman. As I was walking down an aisle of this hardware store, I looked over and saw the woman looking back at me. As soon as she noticed that she was being watched, she took off running, disappearing behind one of the tall shelves. I ran after her, and once turning the corner to follow her, I saw that she was running along the wall of one of the aisles, horizontally, on all fours (looking much like the way that the xenomorphs from the movie "Aliens" can run on the walls and ceiling). She was scurrying quickly and getting away from me faster than I would be able to do anything to stop her. As flees, she reaches back with a pistol in her hand and fires off a couple of pot shots, which miss me.

Instinctively, I pulled a shotgun out from [somewhere] (Actually, I think I got it from a cop car, during the first dream of the night, which makes me think the two were connected, but I'm not certain, so I didn't bother to post that one.) It was empty, though. I started searching and asking, around the hardware store, for shotgun shells (as if those were something that you would just find hanging around at Home Depot). Some woman, who was standing in line at the register, kept saying "They're over here," but she had her back turned to me, and there were a lot of people standing around, so I couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. She kept saying it, over and over: "They're Over here." Finally, I'm like "WHERE THE F*** ARE YOU?!" Then, a random woman turned around, looked at me, and nonchalantly said: "Right here."

She pointed to an empty gun rack and picked up the last two shotgun shells that were remaining. Irritated, I yelled "TWO?!" I mean, what the hell was I supposed to do with two shotgun shells in a firefight?

I took them anyway and loaded up the shotgun. Then, I went searching for the old lady.

I don't remember too much more, after this, except for one thing: As I was going around, hunting for this old (inhuman?), pistol-packing woman, I saw the lady that led me to the shells, running across the aisle, in front of me. She'd pulled out a pistol of her own and was firing back at someone [or something] as she dashed passed my line of sight. I ran and caught up with her, looking back to see that she had only fired twice but had taken out the deadly old woman with a well-placed shot (to the neck, I think).

The woman that had given me the shells then pulled out a badge, showing me that she was an undercover cop.

(That's all I could remember.)

"Mindsweepers" - 03/03/2009 (Lucid)

"Mindsweepers"

03/03/2009

Dream #2

(Lucid)

(This one was pretty interesting. I've had dreams within dreams before, but I've never had a dream where I was in someone else's dream. I don't remember a whole lot of it, but the whole concept of how this one played out was awesome. I happened to catch the end of Vanilla Sky, last night, which I hadn't seen in ages. I'm figuring that's probably what inspired this dream.)

I was with two other guys, and we were part of an operation that sent us inside the mind of a mentally-disturbed girl. We were supposed to locate some sort of blocked memory, from her childhood, that was going to help her psychological therapy along (kind of like the premise for the movie "The Cell"). I don't remember anything from the "real world," in this dream, but once we entered her mind, it was as if we were entering a warehouse. Instead of going through a surreal "dream world," with vivid landscapes and fragmented continuity, we walked through a massive storeroom with various objects and boxes filed away, all over the place. Each of these objects represented the girl's memories. What was most surreal was that some of them were gigantic in size, such as a very large, pink, children's bike that stood up in a corner, some 15ft tall.

After roaming around this warehouse of memories, we came to a huge 'docking area' door, at the far end of the building. I went over to take a look, and one of the guys told me to be careful, because this was where all of the girl's childhood nightmares were stored. Tampering with it in the wrong way could unleash any or all of her forgotten nightmare creatures, to run rampant within her mind, which could send her into an even worse psychological state. It was also, apparently, where we were going to find clues to the blocked memory.

The guy who knew the most about what we were doing here - a young American (judging by the way he talked) of middle-eastern descent - came over to a panel, near the door, where I was standing. The panel was very high-tech and had a screen on it with a scrolling marquis of all types of monsters and disturbing images; a display of the atrocities held behind the door. The apparent technician opened up a service hatch in the floor, under the computerized panel, and crawled down inside of it. He got to work, doing...something or other, and we just kind of watched him, from above, while he worked. He was supposedly able to navigate the contents behind the door this way, in order to find clues within the girl's nightmares, to whatever memory it was we were looking for.

A few seconds after he started, an alarm began blaring. The guy below us began panicking, saying that something had gone wrong, and the door was about to open, releasing something from within. He stayed below, in the hatch, and the two of us - left up top - scrambled backward as the enormous door hissed and ascended high over our heads. Immediately, a goliath of a monster stomped out from storage. It was 20ft tall, easily, and had a top-heavy, muscle-ridden body with arms like redwood trunks...and it looked really, really pissed off.

The tech-guy screamed out that we had to keep this thing from getting away, into the different corners of this girl's mind, or it could do irreparable damage to her. In a bit of a strange twist, I realized that this was a dream world, and that I was good at dream control. Not sure if anything was going to work, because this wasn't my own mind. (In essence, I became lucid, without really becoming lucid.) I squared off against the massive monster, and planted my feet, pulling my hands back to one side and trying to summon a 'kamehameha' energy blast (ala Dragon Ball Z). When I threw my hands out, in front of me, though, nothing but a pitiful wave of distortion shot out of my palms, doing absolutely nothing to the monster. He charged in, toward me, and I dodged off to one side, jumping toward a wall and running straight up it, vertically, until I was higher than the beast's head. When I was high enough, I did a twisting backward flip over the monsters head, throwing my hands downward, repeatedly, and trying to fire multiple blasts of energy at the monster's head as I flipped and twisted over top of him. Nothing but short puffs of failure bursted forth, from my hands. I landed the impossibly-high flip, perfectly, though, crouching and facing the towering creature, completely out of ideas.

Suddenly, just as soon as the action had started, it stopped. Time had rewound, and we were instantly back, roaming through the storage facility, again, just beginning to approach the large door. I began to notice that we'd done this, before. I remembered the monster, and I recalled trying to use powers. I, then, realized that this wasn't the girl's dream. It was mine. I was now actually lucid. The first thing I did was look at my hands, and everything was just about as vivid as it was, before. I had to actively try to visualize my hands as being distorted, before they began to warp and change shape. The DC's I had been with, previously, were still playing their roles, though, and they were going to work on the hatch again. I told them there was no need for that, because I was the one dreaming. It took some coaxing, but I got them to abandon the mission so that we could go and find something else to do. I distinctly remember one of them protesting - citing the importance of the mission - as we were walking away from the hatch, and me telling him to "just shut up, DC", feeling frustrated after my attempts at beating the monster before had been so futile. The thought crossed my mind, to try fighting it again, but I didn't really feel like wasting the dream on it.

(Unfortunately, that's all I remember, and I woke up shortly after that. I came to the PC to take down my notes and then went back to sleep.)

"Skipping Class at DWA" - 02/25/2018 (Lucid)

“Skipping Class at DWA”

02/25/2018

Dream #2

(Lucid)

 (Pic Source) 

(I’d awoken at about 4am and was up for about 10 minutes, before laying back down. Remembering my intention to try to search for the DreamWorld Academy – a fun activity/project, that many of us at DV had done, for some time – I began to focus on the environment where I’d last seen it, in a previous lucid dream, which can be read, here. Sometimes we have light, ambient music playing through the night, but the room was quiet, aside from the sound of my girlfriend breathing. With this in my conscious mind, I focused on the sound of her breath, as well, and attempted to incubate her into the dream, as a dream character. After a short while, I fell back asleep, and initially had one dream about trying to get a drink from a leaky fridge. Then, I slipped into another…) 

The first thing I remember was being on a waterfront ledge, with my girlfriend. It was set on the outskirts of a big city, and felt a lot like being down near the water of the Lincoln Memorial, when we took our D.C. trip, lately. While walking along the water, I realized that I was dreaming. I’m not quite sure what tipped me off, but I think I just realized that I didn’t know where I was. (What I didn’t realize, though, that the waterfront setting looked a lot like the area outside the DreamWorld Academy, the last time I saw it in a dream. If I would have looked around, with this knowledge, I likely would have found it, immediately. Instead, as is so often is the case when becoming lucid, I got sidetracked.) 

I told this “projection” of my girlfriend that I was dreaming, and attempted to coax my subconscious into maintaining lucidity by telling Her to repeat that she was dreaming, over and over (which I often do, myself, to keep the awareness fresh in my mind). She started repeating it to herself and we continued to walk long the water. Coming to the edge of the platform upon which we were walking, I saw a small gap between us and the next platform, and decided to try to walk across the water. Not wanting to add any complications with getting her to follow me, I picked my girlfriend up and took a step off of the ledge, trying not to think about the softness of the water and touching down onto it. My feet sank just a few inches below the liquid, but I focused on forward motion and began to walk as if I was only in shin-deep water, though I could feel nothing between my feet. Soon, I’d floated my footsteps to the other side and flew up to land on the other platform. Before long, we were walking through the parking lot and I was trying to think of what else to do before I woke up. I thought that bike-riding could be a fun adventure in a lucid dream, but she protested and I didn’t want to sour the moment, so I decided we could go for a drive, instead, and just explore wherever the dream took us.

Next thing I knew, we were speeding down a highway. Night had turned into day, and there was a lot of traffic on the road. Immediately, I thought of the Matrix: Reloaded, and decided to have some freeway fun. Knowing that it would be too hard to keep track of my DC girlfriend, once the dream got busier, I left her sitting in the passenger seat and either phased up through the roof or called through the sunroof. (I can’t remember which.) Now, standing on the roof of the car, which was still speeding down the freeway, I lunged forward and hit the pavement running, super-speeding up the road and passing the cars in my way. Still thinking about the Matrix, my subconscious mind brought about chaos as the cars in front of me started crashing into each other and piling up. I attempted not to break stride and began jumping over them and dodging them while they flipped and spun my way, at one point running sideways along the bed of an 18-wheeler in order to avoid another wreck. Before me, I saw the two big rigs from the actual movie, slamming head-on into each other and causing the same, slow-mo explosion from the film. I jumped onto the bed of the nearest truck and then launched myself into the air, flying above the explosion and seeing a warped, surreal view of the cityscape as it dropped away, below me.

I don’t remember landing, but I was soon walking another city street, this time with lots of other people, doing their own thing. Lucidity was fading in and out, and I was beginning to just “go along” with the dream. Suddenly, a tall, light-skinned black guy with a bushy beard; a jacket and hoodie; and an obvious, “up-north” swagger stepped out of the crowd and walked up to me. Mysteriously, he said something about having to talk to me, later, and sifted back into the crowd. Still not quite sure of what my conscious state was, at this time, I soon found myself in a classroom. (I didn’t even realize that I’d been looking for the DW Academy, so the classroom went completely unnoted.) The same guy popped up, again, and I instantly became lucid, when I saw him. He stepped to me, again, and said something like “you ate it twice, in this dream” or “you did it twice in this dream.” (Something like that.) I really didn’t know what he was talking about but, intrigued, I asked him his name. Still talking like a hip, but nonchalant, New Yorker, he said his name was something like “Saultello, the Great.” I wrote it down on a notepad, in order to try and help in remembering it, once I woke up (which I often do. I don't remember the exact way I spelled it, but I believe it was "Saultello").

The scene changed (or there is a gap in my memory), and I remember sitting on a curb and talking to some old man. The sun was going down and everything was a dark orange hue. The man was rambling about something, but my lucidity kicked in again, and I instantly stopped paying attention to him. I realized that I’d been dreaming for a long time and started going back over my memories of everything that had happened, to keep them fresh in my mind until the dream faded and I woke up.

"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.