Lenore

First off, I should explain a couple of things about Dink Smallwood - it's a free-to-download computer game created by a guy named Seth - who put himself in as the main villain at the last level. He's kind of known for his evil sense of humor.

The dream starts, as far as I can remember, in the game. Everything looks like the game - not at all realistic, and I'm viewing myself from above - but it feels real to me. As I enter the final dungeon, the floor starts falling out. I tell myself that it's normal for the game, but now that I wake up, I know it wasn't.

Somehow the dream shifts without me knowing it. I'm in a walled area instead of a dungeon, and I'm seeing though my eyes instead of above. Everything is realistic now, too. I just couldn't tell the difference.

To my right, a door opens and a few people walk through. I think they were both girls, but I can't be sure. They weren't really part of the dream.

We're in a house that is fairly good sized, considering it's in a densely packed neighborhood in a city somewhere. The people explain that I was in a virtual reality program - like a holodeck from Star Trek, if you're familiar - that was being controlled by Seth, the creator of the game.

I met Seth (at this point, I was pretty fangirlish. Part of my dream, because I'm not actually that big a fan of Dink Smallwood, so meeting Seth wouldn't be that big a deal) and watched him with another game he was working on.

I honestly don't remember what else passed before the rest of the dream, but my sister popped up, and one of the girls was revealed to be a friend of hers that I know in real life. Seth left the room where he was working and came out, doing something with this giant keyboard-thing he carried everywhere. It pretty much controlled everything in the house.

Then there was a slightly boring period that I don't remember well. My dreams do that a lot - slip away in pieces.

The next thing I remember is being attacked by a whole bunch of, like, Arab raiders or something, complete with curved swords and facial covers. Everyone in the house was busy fighting. That was when I realized I was dreaming, and started to control it.

Oh man, it was so fun. I never have lucid dreams. Sometimes I realize when I'm dreaming, but I can never remember to try controlling it. I stopped the swords before they could do anything and immobilized the attackers.

Then, of course, I lost the thought that it was all a dream. It was fun while it lasted.

We (we being my sister and me) left the house - returned once because we had forgotten something - and suddenly I was back in the game, in a level I had never seen before. My father was there too, watching. He was the only realistic looking thing in the game.

Then I woke up.

I got up, changed into my clothes, went to have breakfast.

Then I woke up.

I hate "dreams within dreams" but at least the lucid part was fun, if brief.

The dream started out with a fairly normal day - the main reason why I didn't recognize it was a dream.

After a time, my sister (I'll call her Mary) came along and we went outside for a walk. That should have been a red flag, since we never go for walks together. We see a friend building a fire. Just goofing around, we leaned the sticks against him like we're burning him at the stake or something.

Around this time, the dream shifts. Me and my sister are walking towards a dark forest on the edge of an old castle. For whatever reason, we're Miguel and Tulio from the Disney movie El Dorado (for the record, I was Tulio). We see an entrance to a sewer - the round sort, large enough to stand in. It's very clean.

We enter. We look around for a bit - it's sort of freaky looking. Like a cave. Up ahead, there's a squarish drain set in the wall. Large enough to crawl through, but only just.

My sister, being the sweet and kind person she is, decides that I should go through it. I'm not normally claustrophobic, but this was pretty weird. And suddenly I realized - I've had this dream before. But I couldn't control it - I forgot before I had a chance to. I spent what felt like half an hour in dream time crawling about in those weird drains, but for whatever reason, I enjoyed it.

The dream changes. I'm in a prison, outside in the fenced enclosure. I'm in for stealing. And, completing my Disney dreams, the guards are the ones from Aladdin. I get into an argument with them, but I don't remember what it was about.

The dream half shifts - I'm still a criminal, but I'm staying with a rich family. They know I'm a criminal, and they aren't pleased I'm there. I'm trying to do my best to fit in, but it's not going so well. Little things, like for example, one chair too few at dinner. Guess who has to eat elsewhere?

There was also the matter of the poisonous housekeeper, or whatever he was. He was part of the family, but he took care of all the household work. He hated me, and was constantly blaming me for things. For example, twice while we were making dinner for a lot of guests, he tried to break things around me. People believed him, of course - I'm the thief, after all. Eventually I just lost it and got very whiny.

As it turns out, the rich house belonged to the head guard (again, Aladdin) and two of my friends and my sister were his children. I ended up in a huge argument with the guard again, about how I wasn't evil. I didn't exactly lose, but I didn't win.

And then I woke up.