A Long Strange Trip... into Ashraen's Twisted Psyche

non-lucid
lucid
notes

I was at my grandparents house, and I went outside to get a Dr. Pepper from the fridge. All the cans had little holes in them, so the DP tasted flat. While I was out there, my aunt was rifling through a bunch of bags for a purse my cousin had lost. She kept asking me if I knew which one she had lost, but I had no clue.

When I went back inside, my other cousin told me "I bet that DP is flat, Granddad has been draining them." I looked over at the chair where my grandfather always sat, and sure enough, he was there. Well, my grandfather passed away about a month and half ago, so I realized it was a dream.

I levitated the TV to make sure, then explained to all the DCs in the room that I was dreaming. I went outside and attempted to float up to the roof to clear my head and enjoy the lucidity. For some reason, I had some trouble flying up there. Normally, I am an excellent flier in LDs, but I have had some problems in the last couple. I looked around and saw a horse, and then remembered that one of my dream goals was to use a vehicle or animal to fly, so i jumped on the horse and tried it... and lifted into the air effortlessly.

I began to fly around my grandparents' property (30+ acres), delighting in the novelty of cruising the skies on a horse. I was in the air a pretty long time, mostly just checking out the dreamscape and experimenting with my flying mount (accelerating, decelerating, banking, diving, climbing, etc.). A couple of interesting things were that I kept hitting a "ceiling" in the sky (the white particle board type that you see in office buildings) at certain places around the house. I was able to fly through it sometimes, bounce off sometimes, and make it disappear sometimes. I also saw my acoustic guitar in the field among some trees, just sitting on its end, neck pointing upwards, kinda like the "sword in the stone." When I landed in the grove of trees to look around, my mount disappeared...

So I summoned another horse (I'm not the best at summoning usually, but I did this fairly easily). Then I decided... why just ride on a horse.. how about a zebra? I turned the horse into a zebra in a fluid process, much like I was 'painting' it with a brush (altho I did not use my hands, just my mind). Then I hopped on and was back in the skies on my zebra mount!

At this point, I could hear my uncle and my dad talking, but I couldn't actually see them. The voices seemed to come out of the air around me. Mostly nonsensical talk, but then my uncle told me to look at the sky. I said "I've been flying in it the whole dream!" He replied, "No, LOOK at the sky, and the moon too!"

I looked at the moon, and noticed it was shaped like a yin-yang, with 2 separate halves. It was also extremely luminescent and shimmering like it was coated with multi-colored glitter. As I watched the moon, the two halves began to spin and intertwine, then separate again, almost like they were dancing with each other. It was quite mesmerizing, and held my interest for 5 or 10 minutes.

At this point, I FINALLY thought about dream goals. I was about to do the TOTM for July, but then realized it was already August and I hadn't looked up the new TOTMs yet! Then I remembered to go check out the Dream World Academy. I flew north to the canyon I had visited before, and when I landed on the edge, I lost my mount again. However, I saw a very large and regal looking zebra (much taller and with a shinier coat than the one I had summoned earlier) approaching me with a tall red-headed woman walking beside it. The zebra strode up to me and I hopped on it's back. I asked the woman her name, she said "Mariel." I asked if she was from the Academy, and she just gave me a knowing smile as if to say "you know that I am."

I pulled her onto the zebra's back behind me (it feels strange to call this creature a zebra even though it had the stripes, because it was by far the largest and most majestic zebra I could ever imagine), and we rose into the air, circling the canyon and heading down to the floor, where the Academy lay. I noticed the landscape around me was extra vivid, much like the world in "What Dreams May Come" when they are basically in a painting. As the Academy began to emerge into my view amidst a forest on the canyon floor... I woke up. Bummer.

So 2 LDs now I have sought the Academy and gotten close, but no cigar. I think my subconscious (I am an avid fantasy book reader) is enjoying making this a "quest" and playing with me. It's probably my own fault for remembering to look for the academy so late in the dream (this was a rather long LD, seeming to last well over an hour). Either way, next time I'm actually going to make it there...hopefully

Regardless, flying on a mount was cool and definitely something I'll try again (especially if I have trouble flying by myself again).