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Fermius Firefly

A Dream Log, whenever I remember the dreams I've had.

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Location: San Marcos, United States

Fermius is a pen name drawn from a series of short fiction I wrote when I published the small press magazine Stellanova (on paper.) I play RPG games to escape from my daily grind as a technology wage slave for the state of California. I eat out a lot in order to do my part in supporting our increasingly service level economy. I am butler to 2 feline masters. If you ask them they will tell you I'm not very good at it, late with dinner, don't have enough hands with brushes in them, and sometimes I even lock them out of their office.

Friday, March 28, 2008

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 well 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 didnt 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 500th rune with no sign of stopping.

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

        I reached 900 and realized that I didnt 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 900th 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 dont 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. Lets 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.

        Whats 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, were in my dream and Ill 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 didnt go away!

        Whered you go? We couldnt 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 well try to build up a platform.

        Im hungry already.

        Dont 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, Ive 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 whos dream this was, or if it even was a dream. And why, if it was a dream, didnt 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 didnt seem to be receding as fast as Id hoped.

Ad astra per technica,

FF

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