Tiktaalik

Fighter jet and the talking duck:
Lucid - DILD

I’m walking through a quiet housing estate and stumble across a large, black military jet with a distinct triangular shape parked in a drive way. (I looked it up, it was an F117 - Nighthawk fighter jet). It’s completely out of place and I really want to fly it over the city, so I jump up on the wing and look for a way to get in. Lucidity starts to build as I know I can get in if I expect to find a latch at the side of the cockpit which I do and open it. I climb inside onto the seat and take the aircraft steering wheel. I realise I have no idea how to drive one but again knowing how dreams work, I tell myself I can just drive it how I would expect to. So I put my foot down on a car accelerator and turn the wheel like I’m simply driving a car. The jet pulls out of the drive and I turn it around a corner and proceed to take off down the path. I simply pull the wheel down and back, as I’ve seen pilots do in movies and the aircraft lifts off the ground and takes off effortlessly. I rise into the sky, just above the roof tops at a gentle speed, more like a helicopter then a jet. I have a nice Birds Eye view and I’m in awe of what I’m seeing, now fully aware I’m lucid within a dream. I see Roads that seem to connect logically. Housing estates, busy and lived in. Cars, signs and lamp posts too. It’s a fully realised place.

Suddenly, I’m grabbed around the waist by two arms that grip tightly. I look down and see I’m no longer in the jet seat but appear to be dangling from the bottom of it like a paraglider. An adult woman with a brown pony tail is wrapped around my hips, holding on for her life. I seem to recognise her, as if she’s a dream character I’ve met before but I’m unsure if I have. “oh! Pauline!” I say, with delight. “I need your help with something” she says with a serious tone. The weight of her body brings me down to the ground and I let go of my jet, now standing on my own two feet with her still hugging me from behind.

I’m now on a cobbled back street with a row of old terrace houses to my side. “What are the lyrics to the song 14 inches long?” she asks as if interrogating me. I have no idea what she’s talking about so I make up some lyrics. “Four-teen, inches, long! Baa, Baa, Baa!” I sing and make the noises of an electric guitar as if it’s some rock song. She doesn’t respond so I grab her arm and try to pull her to my front but as I do I realise she’s light, almost weightless and I accidentally throw her across the street and see she’s now taken the form of a small mallard duck! The duck lands with a bang on the floor ahead and I hurry over to see if it’s ok. “Sorry, you ok?” I ask feeling guilty. The duck jumps up and rustles it’s tail feathers and says “I’m fine” in a rather sweet, innocent voice (like Olaf from Frozen).

Talking to an animal was my goal but now I’m here I’m not sure what to do with it so I decide to do some experimentation. “Run through this house and I’ll meet you at the other side” I tell the Duck as I want to see if a DC can follow me to a destination successfully even without my eyes on them. The duck complies and hurries into one of the houses. It’s then I notice the house number is “13”. This brings feelings of fear, due to 13 being an unlucky number and I worry something nightmarish will happen within. Sure enough, a window smashes and the poor duck flies out of it and lands on the floor in front. “An elf tried to stab me” it chuckles as if it’s funny and not something to be worried about. I look to the window and see a small elf, one of Santa’s by the look of it with a green uniform and angry expression. “Ok, come with me” I tell the duck and hurry away from the horror house. I dash down the cobbled street and think “this has been a long dream” and that thought rather nicely brings the dream to a close.

Analysis:
Funny little dream and low-level despite good dream control. Some interesting and subtle influences here. Read a flying dream before bed, I also saw an advert for Top Gun: Maverick and the fighter jet within the dream was one I had a toy of as a kid. Pauline and the 14 inches long song was random, though I have done some measuring recently in my house and maybe it had some connection to the band “9 inch nails?” My goal tonight was to talk with an animal. I was hoping for a deer due to the competition but received a talking duck instead. Interestingly the duck appeared and talked without me consciously making it and shows that something in the background of my mind was working toward this goal even if I wasn’t consciously doing so at that time.

Winter competition entry:

Night: 08/12

Talking with Tipharot:
Lucid - DILD

I’m in a laundromat’s when suddenly Matt from the lucid dream YouTube channel “Tipharot” walks in and casually starts doing his laundry next to me. It’s a bizarre coincidence and I wonder if I should say hello. “So I’ve heard you’ve started lucid dreaming?” he says first, initiating a conversation as if he knows of me. “Yeah, who told you that?” I ask, wondering who are mutual friend is but he doesn’t tell me. “I’ve actually been doing this for over 2 years now” I say, explaining I’m not a beginner. Matt laughs as if that’s nothing in comparison to him and I can tell he still sees me as a beginner. Suddenly I realise I’m talking about lucid dreaming, one of my major dream signs! I start doing a finger palm reality check and Matt begins to do the same. The finger palm isn’t working and I know it doesn’t always so I get out my phone instead and look at the time. I look away and back and see the time has changed! I do the check again and once more it changes. “Surely not” I think, finding it hard to believe this is all a dream. I do the check a 3rd time and once more the time changes. Matt has finished his check and starts talking to me again but I ignore him and step away. “My results aren’t adding up” I tell him sternly, now believing I may actually be dreaming and he is trying to distract me. I do the check one last time and confirm. I look back at Matt with pity, now seeing the truth and that he is as an unaware dream character. “This is a dream” I tell him bluntly. His expression turns to one of confusion, then fear, as he realises the devastating truth that he’s just a figment of my imagination. Sadly the dream ends quickly here.

Night: 01/12/

Fly to the tree:
Lucid - DILD

I’m on my childhood street. I can’t remember how I became lucid but I think I noticed the strangeness of my situation. I don’t remember my goal so I simply jump up and fly into the sky. My flight it successful but I feel heavy, like my dangling legs are dragging me down and I fly into the bare branches of a large tree and cling on. I look around and then have some fun swinging from the branches like a monkey until eventually I wake up.