Kennel Wizard, Tidal Wave

        Dreamed of putting the kennel up in the wilderness and pretending to be stuck inside. One of the guys with us raced over to the castle to get help.

        “Quick, lets disassemble it and put it in the back of the car and go hide to see his expression when he gets back.” I started to take the top of the kennel off.

        “That would be too cruel, why not just climb out and we’ll wait in the bushes for him to get back.”

        We waited, hidden in the bushes, until our friend brought back the wizard from the tower. Good thing the wizard had a sense of humor. He invited us all back to his castle and gave us each a hearthstone. (WoW influenced rather than Diablo II influenced. Man does that company have some power.) I opened mine up and discovered that it had a long scroll in it.

        The wizard explained that the scroll had runes of power on it, and that we too could be wizards if we just read through enough of the runes properly. There were over a thousand runes on the list. I glanced through them and asked a couple of questions. The other two people with me read through a couple of the runes and then got stumped. Sparkles of magic fell around them and their scrolls vanished.

        “Not too bad,” said the wizard, “I got to nine and look what I can do.” He grew to giant size and began to rain fire down on some troll creatures that had been attacking the west wall of the castle. I looked at the scroll in more depth. As I looked I wondered why it was so difficult to read further than just a few runes. It all seemed to make sense to me.

        I started reading aloud. I got to the fifth rune when I felt the first magical distraction, I was wreathed in a silver blue glow. I kept reading, at the ninth rune I burst into flame, dramatic, but I didn’t feel anything. By this time the folks of the castle and the wizard had come to watch what was happening. I emptied my thoughts of anything but concentrating on the runes. I continued to read and every fourth or fifth rune some special effect would happen. I grew to 12 foot high, I sprouted wings, I became encased in block of ice for several seconds, and I just kept reading. At one point I felt the infusion of another intelligence and suddenly realized that I could understand the runes all the way to the end of the scroll, and that I might not want to read to the end as I would be summoning something large and potentially dangerous. I kept reading though, determined to read as far as I could. The original wizard stood watching, jaw dropping as I read past the 500^th rune with no sign of stopping.

        I knew as the dream continued that I would likely make it into the 900’s at least. I was getting hungry and my bladder was filling up, but I continued.

        I reached 900 and realized that I didn’t have to read the runes in order, I could skip ahead if I wanted. I chose to continue in order, though, realizing that I would need all of the powers to deal with what was coming.

        I hesitated before reading the final rune. It finished, and the scroll vanished. There was a rumble from the courtyard of the keep and I blinked there in an instant. There was a large demonic being in the courtyard, the final rune had been its name. If I had stopped any time after the 900^th rune, I would have still had to face the creature, but without its name.

        It prepared to blast me, and I called her name and asked to talk first. I shrugged off its attack, reflecting enough of it back to make it clear that great pain would be the result of any continuation. I healed the burns. She shrank down to my size and I asked for a table and chairs to be brought out. We sat, I offered her food and drink, knowing that she would be bound by the hospitable act to remain a good guest.

        “You presume to be my equal?” It voice still rumbled as though it were 50 foot tall.

        “I don’t even know what you are, but let’s delay or prevent the pain that both of us are sure to suffer if we continue down our original path. What harm to speak and take food and drink if you are truly more powerful than I? What a pleasant respite for you if it turns out that you are not.”

        “Interesting, this has never happened before.”

        “Have you ever won, whatever that means, before?”

        The creature thought for quite a bit. “No, no, not really, but you have far fewer soldiers than the last few.”

        “Did the last few read through the entire scroll?”

        “You read the whole thing?”

        There were murmurs of confirmation from the people at the edges of the courtyard.

        The creature transformed into a rather attractive woman, sat and took a drink of wine. “Let’s talk, then,” she pulled a plate of sandwiches to her.

        When I woke up I was somewhat surprised, as this sort of dream usually ends in flames and running and destruction. (For all I know it might still have been headed that way and I just woke up too soon.)

        This morning I dreamed I was playing along the shore with several of my friends, tossing a Frisbee around and splashing through the shallow water. The water began to recede rapidly, actually stranding fish and rays several yard out from us.

        “What’s happening?”

        I looked out at the growing wave in the distance. “Oh, a tidal wave.”

        “What do we do?”

        “Nothing, I just have to get up and use the restroom.”

        “What?”

        “Sorry, we’re in my dream and I’ll be back in a minute.”

        I got up and emptied my bladder. Then crawled back into bed as I still had 90 minutes before I had to get up. I fell almost immediately back into the dream. We were still on the shore, and the wave was still coming.

        “See, it didn’t go away!”

        “Where’d you go? We couldn’t find you anywhere.”

        I decided to skip trying to explain and motioned for them to follow me. I ran over to a large culver and into a large drainage tunnel. “We should be safe here, buy the time the water displaces the air we should be able to swim to the surface.”

        The wave crashed ashore and washed over the culvert and tunnel. We were up to our necks when I said “OK, Now swim for it, and dove out of the tunnel and up to the surface, which was about twenty feet above us. I knew that we would likely be pulled out to sea if we stayed in the open water, so made for some steel poles that were still sticking out of the water.  “We can hang on to those until the water recedes.”

        “How long is that going to be?”

        “Several hours I would imagine. So grab whatever you can find that floats and we’ll try to build up a platform.”

        “I’m hungry already.”

        “Don’t worry, I still have most of our lunch in my bag.” I opened up my backpack to show them the bags of chips and the deli sandwiches safe in their zip-locked bags.

        “How did you think to grab that!”

        “I told you, I’ve had this dream before.”

        Soon we had a small platform built into the steel support beams and were sitting in the sun, eating and drying out and arguing about who’s dream this was, or if it even was a dream. And why, if it was a dream, “didn’t we bring the cooler with us” because now we were all thirsty as well. I opened up my backpack and pulled out four cans of Dr. Pepper, still chilled.

        “Coincidence.”

        “Right.”  I smiled and passed them around, suggesting that they lick the condensation off of them first. The water didn’t seem to be receding as fast as I’d hoped.

Ad astra per technica,

FF

Under the Office

        I dreamed that one of the cats knocked down a cereal box, and then pushed it through the house. At least, following the trail of Raisin Bran everywhere, that is what I assumed happened. (This based on something that really happened.) Apparently the box of cereal wasn’t enough, as I came to the end of the trail I found potato chips and prunes mixed in. I couldn’t think of where the prunes would have come from as we hadn’t purchased any recently. I used my blanket from my office chair to sweep up the nearly empty box and bags, revealing a huge break in the floor between the hallway and my office.

        I don’t remember ever seeing that, before.

        There was light coming from below. I knelt down and looked under my office. There was about a 3 foot high crawl space below my room. I could see several other snack food type bags tossed into the corners of the area. I suddenly realized that it wasn’t the cats. I spotted an old blanket that I thought N had sent to Good Will, and a couple of older cat beds, ones that I’d been wondering what had happened to them. I was wondering to myself if this would be a good place to isolate the sick cat when something under the blanket stirred.

        It so startled me, that I woke up.

Ad astra per technica,

FF

Travelling with Cats

        I dreamed this morning that I was on some sort of vacation, and N and I had stashed the cats in a public restroom during a downpour, just because they were kind of panicky in the tent. (Too much noise for the fur children.)

        When it was all over, two of them came out without a fuss, N easily picking them up and putting them back in the car. I had to take the carriers into the restroom and capture the other two to get them to come out. All the while N was at the door watching to make sure they didn’t run out and escape into the wild.

Ad astra per technica,

FF

Pool?

           I dreamed I was in the countryside, headed for a resort area. I was talking about the great pool that had been there the last time I'd dreamed about it. (Yes, I knew I was dreaming, but that didn't seem to make any difference to the people who were with me.) I showed them the really pretty goldfish I'd won in the "Swimming under water like a fish" contest.
           The goldfish was really a lovely mix of orange and yellow with golden fins, each fin extra long and double. She had great billowy clouds of fins all around her whenever she stopped and turned in place. Quite mesmerizing to watch. She said she was happy to be visiting again, and hoped that some of the other people had thought to bring her brothers and sisters with them so they could all visit.
           The group of us parked and immediatly got out of the car and made our way up past the row of cabins to see the pool.
           The pool had been filled in. We could see the outline of the pool, and the turf had been laid so that the edges of the sod were eerily reminicient of lane lines. Only the half Olympic sized pool on the top of the hill remained. I asked a passing groundsman "Why?"
           "Hardly anyone swam in it, because it was haunted."
           "But that was the reason to go swimming in it."
           "Well, it's still haunted. And sometimes, I l swear I hear people swimming out here in the middle of the night. Look at the sod, the grass keeps dying right over the lane lines, no matter how I water, or how I fertilize. It just ain't natural, I tell you."
           The goldfish and I exchanged glances, thinking the same thing. "Come on guys, lets get checked in. We'll come back tonight after everyone is asleep."

Mansion

           I dreamed I was invited to a gathering at a large mansion. It was so large that at first I thought it was a hotel. I was apparently planning on staying for the summer and had several bags when I arrived. The front hallway led to a set of stairs that curved up to the second and third floors. My rooms were on the second floor, of the hallway to the left. I took off my shoes so I wouldn't mark up the dark wood floor. I could see my footprints in the mirror like surface of the wood, the moisture fading rapidly away as I walked.
           I met some other guests and we talked for a bit about how large the hall was, that we could easily hold a dance in the hallway alone. I thought it was a bit narrow for that, but suggested that if we danced reels it would be fine. While we were talking my bags had vanished. As had everyone elses. I suggested that they had just been taken to our rooms. I asked who was sharing my suite, but it turns out, that even though there were two dozen of us, we each had three rooms, with a private water closet and a two person shared bath. Each of us had a sitting room, an office and a small bedroom. I was amazed by the tiny size of the rooms, but having three would mean I had plenty of space. I think the office was all of 7 by 8 and the bedroom no more than 8 by 10. The sitting room had a couple of chairs and a short couch with one small table, which looked like a chess board, I thought that was nice. The sitting room was between the two other rooms and was also only about 8 by nine or so. There were no chess pieces in the drawer of the table, but there was a deck of cards and five dice as well as some checkers. I resolved to take my origami paper and make a chess set.
           The water closet was at the end of the narrow hallway on the side of the office. I didn't immediatly see where the door to the common bathing area was at first, it was hidden as one of the wall panels in the hallway.
           I sat in my sitting room, debating whether to unpack first, or to go and find out who else was visiting.

Star Party, with Dragons

        I dreamed I was sitting in the back yard with several friends, looking up at the sky and watching the stars, looking for satellites and meteors and generally just relaxing. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a large meteor, I thought. It stayed lit for a long time, though, and then changed directions and swooped low over the house, a green pulsing dragon that was a thin as a sheet of paper and several yards long.

        It whooshed over the house, but I was the only one who’d seen it, and couldn’t convince my wife and friends to join me in the front yard where I suspected we might be able to get a better view of it.

        I went around the side yard and heard the whooshing up above, a second green dragon, like a flat neon sign, swept down out of the sky, shrinking as it approached. It wrapped itself around my right arm, its head resting on the back of my hand. Suddenly it was bound to my arm, like a glowing tattoo.

        There was another whoosh, and this time a red dragon bound itself to my left arm and hand.

        A third whoosh, and the green dragon, still large rippled in the sky overhead. I could feel the two dragons in my arms ripple sympathetically with it. My friends and wife came around to the front as it sped up into a ring of bluish stars around a hole in the sky.

        N asked how I got the dragon marks painted on so quickly and cleanly.

        They writhed out of the way of her touch and she jumped back.

        “I don’t have a clue as to what they are doing, but they sure look cool.” I flexed and the dragons swirled around my arms, leaving a warm tingle where they moved.

It wasn’t uncomfortable, and not really that scary for me, though everyone else was saying we needed to get to the hospital to have them removed.

I didn’t have that feeling about them, though and while I agreed that a doctor’s visit might be prudent, I didn’t feel that I was being consumed, or any such thing.

       

Ad astra per technica,

FF

Car Dreams, Barbeque

        I dreamed again of taking a road trip with N and several of the cats. This time none of the cats got neck-broke and skinned. This time we did end up breaking camp and trying to coax the cats back into the car before a massive downpour. We barely made it, and spent a couple of hours curled up in the car with the cats snuggled up on us. (Much like we were last night in bed.) When morning snuck up on us we drove into town to put some gas in the car and buy some breakfast.

        While I was fueling up, a Plymouth satellite pulled up to the pump ahead of us. It looked almost exactly like Cecil, but with the fender dent pounded out and the paint much worse for wear. There was a young couple who had all their worldly possessions packed into the car. They were talking about how this might not have been the best deal on a car they could have got. I agreed that the miles per gallon were not great, but even as full as the car was it should still give solid performance, once they got the tire fixed.

        The rear driver’s side tire was completely flat. “Oh, man, we can’t afford to get that fixed.”

        I hailed the garage mechanic over to ask him what a tire repair would cost.

        “Don’t bother, we can’t afford it, and we only have to get about thirty more miles.”

        “That’s thirty miles of hell if you plan on driving on the rim. Besides, I used to own a beige Plymouth a year older than this one, and I hate to see it in such shape.”

        “The inside is worse!” the owner popped the hood, revealing a rust covered interior.

        I looked in at it, there were no oil or fluid leaks, though, so the engine looked and sounded fine other than a layer of rust. “That’s nothing a steam cleaning and some enamel won’t fix. I adjusted the carburetor’s idle a bit and got the engine to smooth out a bit. “I’ll pay to repair the tire.”

        “No, thanks, we ain’t got that far to go,” and the kid pulled the car over to the air compressor and filled the tire, then took off.

        “At least the car sounds like a car should sound,” I commented to the mechanic as they pulled away.

        We arrived at our destination, and a friend of mine was there with the woman who was going to be his fourth wife. I asked what had happened to the previous, and he showed me a letter she’d written from her mission. It seemed the men in her parish were in need of more than just having their souls tended to, so she felt she was just the one to do that, but wouldn’t be coming back.

        That was a bit of a surprise and completely out of character from what I know. (It has sort of been a year for that though, so in the dream, not so surprising.) The friend and the bride to be cut me off from the rest of the group to talk to me in private. I figured it would be about the upcoming wedding, but it wasn’t. They wanted to know I N and I would be interested in joining them for a Convention in Chicago in July.

        “My sister-in-law’s 60^th is that weekend, so we’ll all ready be there, perhaps we could stop by a day or two.”

        I looked at them, “Why all the secrecy?”

        “We don’t want to encourage some of the people here to go, they sort of stalk her,” my friend explained. His new girlfriend then lifted up my kilt.

        Since I’d just gotten out of the shower and we had everything else in the laundry, well, she got more than she bargained for.

        Soon, the dream was back on the road again. This time we were driving into a city nestled between several tall desert mesas. Some of the buildings in the city were nearly as tall as the surrounding outcroppings. I was trying to keep the cats from walking up on the dashboard while I was driving. I knew I should have bought that baby gate and put it across the deck in back. I was in a weird mental place at that point, I knew in the dream that we were nearly home, but my brain was awake enough to know that this was nowhere near home, nor in fact looked like any place I’d ever seen. The dream unraveled at that point, so I didn’t even get to see what our actual home looked like in the dream reality. I woke up a little disappointed about that.

        After moving the cats around so I could stretch out, I was in a rather oddly curled and twisted position, I fell back almost immediately into another dream. This time without cats. I was in the hot tub with N and a couple of her friends. One of whom got out and as she did so I was faced rather closely with the fact that they’d been tubbing bottomless. Large wet and furry is what I have to say about that. Yikes, almost sexy, but not quite.

        After that came the barbeque, N and I had fish steaks and everyone else had brought chicken or steak, no hotdogs or hamburgers at all. The veggie tray was larger than the snack tray. I commented on how it was obvious we were all getting older. I had to go inside to get out of the sun, it was well over a hundred and I felt like I was melting. I wanted to get back into the hot tub just to cool off.

I couldn’t get the AC unit to power up, so started hunting for a screw driver to disassemble it. While I was hunting for the screwdriver I discovered that someone had plugged it into a socket in the kitty condo I had built. I laughed and plugged it into the wall socket. We didn’t have power in the kitty condo because it was summer and the cats didn’t need the heating blanket.

I found myself stuck in bed, unable to move. I could feel my heart begin to race and I started sweating, breathing suddenly became very difficult. A large black leopard padded up to my face and told me not to worry, I would wake up in a minute. It then padded down to the sliding glass door as though it were on guard, and waiting for me to wake up.

Ad astra per technica,

FF

Resort

       I dreamed I was visiting Dad when he revealed that he'd purchased, some forty years ago, a resort in New Zealand or some other pacific island nation (That part wasn't really clear.). He'd been having a management company run it since then, but thought it would be a good time for one of us to go and make sure things were running smoothly, and to look at possible expansion or improvement. So far the investment had paid for itself and was returning a few hundred dollars a month in profit, most months. He signed the company over to me for $10,000 cash!
       I found myself in a small forested preserve on the edge of a large rolling plain. There were several lodges and a common set of showers/changing room/bathroom. The lodges themselves didn't have private toilets, though each had a chamber pot. There were residence dormitories at one edge of the property where the staff had apartments. They were actually nicer than the lodges. There was also a central dining area, and a large covered pool with a strong steel fence around it “to keep the hyenas out.” (Which made me think we were in Africa rather than on a pacific island.)
       I made my way to the common bathrooms, to discover that they were all in use by female visitors. Apparently the international signs had been taken down, or never installed. We just had to wait until one of the changing areas was clear. I spoke to one of the staff members, who indicated that this wasn't usually a problem, as they rarely had this many guests. Especially since they'd replaced him as the manager.
       He indicated that the staff was small, and very much like a family. They liked that the owner had made a strong profit sharing plan for them, and they felt almost like they were working for themselves rather than a foreign owner.
       I knew who he was immediately, and talked to him a bit about the changes.
       “You do know that the general management position was only temporary, that's why you weren't moved into it.”
       “I have the same pay, so I'm not really complaining.” I could tell he was worried about losing the local control his family had enjoyed for the last few decades.
       “But you thought you should have the GM job.”
       “Well, I do. But we never see the owner, and how would he know?”
       “I'm the owner's son, well actually the new owner, and I know. The GM will be leaving at the end of the week.”
       “Then the job will be open?”
       “Not really, I plan on staying and running things myself for a time. I have heard good things about you, though. I don't plan on changing anything. Except the bathroom situation. And we may want to be crowded like this a little more often, to pay for those changes.”
       My manager was speechless. I assured him that his honesty and candor about how things worked was a good trait, and that If I decided not to stay, I would certainly think of making him the GM. There was more than just the resort to manage, however, I had several farms that helped provide the food for the resort, and a small opal mine as well as a copper and topaz mine that really only operated during spring break as a field trip for a local college. I wanted to know how those businesses interacted, and I thought it would be a nice addition to the resort to add the mines to the resort's attractions, if I could figure out how to do so safely.