Axelkite

              I dreamed I was playing Axelpyre, Gnome mage, when suddenly I was not playing anymore. I was on the beach, a strong wind was blowing and I was unfolding some sort of silk kite, to which I was attached by a makeshift harness. I had a long cord run out along the beach and a young paladin was on the other end.
              I started to shake out the silk, to make it fill with the breeze. I shouted out to the paladin to take up the slack. He started running. The cord tightened and pulled me off my feet. I scraped along the ground with the unfilled kite twisting behind me. I bounced, sand flew as I dug in trying to right myself. I finally managed to get the Paladin to stop. I walked back to my starting area, a low dune on the edge of the beach. I tried to explain that he wasn't to run unless I told him to.
              The wind picked up over the lip of the dune and I began the process of filling the kite again. I had it working fairly well and it was strong enough to start pulling me, so I shouted at the Paladin to “Take up the slack!”
              In the wind, apparently he didn't hear me too well and started paying out the line instead of reeling me in. The kite even though it was not quite full, pulled me over the lip of the dune. As soon as the kite was on the lee of the dune it deflated and I plummeted down the slope tangled in both the kite and the cord. I called in the Paladin and bundled up my experiment to head to the watch tower along the bluffs overlooking the beach.
              “Take the cord, mount up, and just stand here. Don't do anything!” I instructed, looking up at the Paladin who was at least three times my height, perhaps more. I climbed up the scaffolding a sort of ramshackle wooden structure around an unfinished stone tower. At the top of the tower there was a good wind blowing, but the kite was terribly tangled.
              A gust of wind pulled the tangled kite out of my hands and rather than be pulled into the on-going construction, I jumped out into the wind, hoping against hope that my weight would pull the kite into shape.
              No such luck.
              I landed with a wet smacking thump at the feet of a blonde Stormwind Guard. She made a small yelp and watched as I struggled out from under the kite.
              “Are you all right?”
              “Yes, yes. The ground broke my fall.” I managed to sputter.
              The guard's eyes narrowed, hovering between a matronly concern and anger at having broken her stoic guard face. She started to extricate herself from the coils of the cord that had fallen around her.
              “So what time are you done here today,” I asked, looking up over her rather large chest plate.
              “Not soon enough.” The guard's “all business on the round end of the sword” attitude was back. But I'd seen her soft feminine side and decided that I liked the look of it.
              “Seriously, I'd like to buy you a drink for the trouble I'm about to cause you.”
              At that point I heard the clopping of hooves and looked down just in time to see my Paladin racing down towards the beach after a Troll. The troll was mounted on raptor back, and had a string of footmen getting further and further behind. The Paladin charged into the fray, his part in my great experiment forgotten. I watched in horror as the cord between us tightened. I shouted “Get back!” at the guard, but the cord tightened around her boot and yanked her off her feet. I hit her with a slow fall spell just as she went off the bluff, and mere seconds later I followed, my harness yanking me out into the open air. I fell, but while looking up into the billowing kite, I was struck by the idea of light wooden cross braces to hold it open, rather than relying totally on wind power.
              Soon the guard and myself were dangling a few feet apart. She pulled her sword and before I could even shout “No!” she'd cut the cord.
              I plummeted past her, silk kite rippling behind. She gracefully righted herself just before the kite blocked my view of her.
              About halfway down the bluff, I bounced off a rock as the kite snapped fully open. I shot back up into the air past the drifting guard. Bouncing again against the side of the bluff. “That's going to leave a mark.” I muttered as the kite dragged me back up over the edge of the bluff and then impaled itself on a protruding part of the scaffolding. I smacked against the base of the watch tower, missing the slender (and probably more forgiving) legs of the scaffolding by mere inches. I dangled in the air, watching the guard land gently on her toes along the beach. She really was a graceful thing, I thought to myself. She glared up at me. I waved and flashed her a big grin.
              “How about two drinks?” I shouted down at her.