dreamphibian

A bunch of first and second year highschool students and I are standing in a room with blue and white tiled walls, florescent lighting and a concrete floor. There are windows in front of us and we're looking through them into a basketball gym. We are gathered here to ready ourselves for an event. The students all around me are mostly girls and are dressed in cheerleading outfits. I am wearing jeans and a grey shirt with the school's name and logo small on the chest.

Two of the cheerleaders are talking to me and the energy in the room is nervous. I feel kind of like I'm a student too, but deep down I'm still aware of my actual waking life identity. The girls tell me that we aren't allowed to wear the school logo during this event and I get a little bit worried.

A big male coach comes in, looking like a caricature of every mean grade-school coach ever, and yells at everyone to get ready. He gripes at me about my shirt and I respond by telling him I'm not enrolled here and that I'm 25 years old. He huffs and pouts away.

I know that my friend J is in the bandstands and I go to sit with her. The basketball gym is cold and blue. The cheerleaders come out and begin their routine. After talking to J for a few seconds I leave through the main doors at the end of the room. It's like I'm going through backstage at a film set, with all sorts of staff and equipment sitting around anxiously focusing on the event. I push my way through, uncaring.

The gym has transformed into a large movie theater when I come back and sit with J again. K and S are there too and we're all squished together on our part of the bench. J sits on my lap and we laugh. She's holding a baby who is apparently her little sister. K is holding another younger baby who is also J's sister. I am amazed by this because J's parents are septuagenarians and she is the youngest in waking life. Her mom bumbles around in a nearby corner which is stocked with toys, seeming tense and stressed.

I look around and see that the movie screen and the the wall it was on are now gone, leaving a very large opening to the outside. The concrete floor gives way to rocks and and shallow fast-flowing water and stone walls come up at the sides forming a sort of grotto. Small groups of people are exploring the area. It is a beautiful and refreshing sight.

I happily go exploring by myself. I come to a large rock bulging out of the water and bend over, looking for life. My sister KB walks up from behind me and is also looking, though less intently. I see different kinds of algae and some tiny fish.

Suddenly I spot a baby frog. I try to catch it but it escapes. Another one appears and I successfully capture it in my hands. I feel it wiggle for a moment before I let it go. I look back into the water and see a magnificent salamander, about eight inches from tip to tip, almost completely translucent, and having two tails. It is swimming around very actively. I have a hard time catching it but I succeed. I show it excitedly to KB then decide I have to show it to J.

I return to the bleachers carrying my prize carefully yet firmly and see that J is gone. I ask S and K where she went and they say they think she went to her room. We get her mom's attention and she agrees to lead me to the room. My sister, K and S all follow along.

This place is now an event center combined with a hotel, kinda like a resort. We go up several floors and eventually arrive in a very small, old film-showing room with yellow fabric walls and old, dark wood furniture. The door to J's room is here, made of that same dark wood. Someone in our group complains about the location of the room and I think to myself that it's not that bad.

J is there and she likes the salamander but is not very interested. Her brother is there now as well and they start acting incestual, flirting with each other, and I get really upset. I yell at them and fly away.

I find myself standing in a small room made from the same materials as the film-showing room. I see a small ornament, maybe a brooch, on a small round table. It has numerous blue and green smooth stones in a tarnished gold setting.

I am suddenly fully lucid and I remember the task to condense a color into a liquid and drink it. I think about using the small ornament but decide it has too many colors close together and it would be hard to single one out. I look around and see a long wooden box filled with dark, wine-colored apples. There is a blanket draped partially over them and I remove it, revealing some unidentifiable, slightly different colored fruit. I put the blanket back and prepare to extract the color from the apples. I notice there are a few bunches of similarly colored grapes among them.

I reach out and pull the wine red color out into my right hand without touching the fruit. I had intended to materialize a cup for it to go into, but the liquid seems to have replaced the flesh of my hand, which is now wine colored up to the wrist where it stops at a hard line. When I withdraw my hand I can see it is slightly translucent and the liquid within it is sloshing back and forth a bit. I put my lips to my open palm and slurp the liquid out, watching as my hand becomes flesh again. The liquid is cool and tastes like fruit punch. I smack my lips, savoring it, and smile at its pleasantness.

I fly off into an increasingly dark area down several corridors and begin to hear someone coming after me. It feels sinister. I fly faster into a dark bathroom and into one of the stall where I hide. The danger passes, having overlooked me. More occurs, but recall is almost nonexistent.