The White Gate-Escaping Aeris

The dream began long before i can recall what was going on in it. It started in a place I've dreamed of before i call Aeris. this wasn't the Aeris I've dreamt of before though, it was only "supposed to be" Aeris. It looked more cartoonie is the best way to describe it. Well, me and three other people were in it. For all intents and purposes I'll call them my dream wife, gatekeeper, and the other guy. Well from where i can remember me, my dream wife, and the gatekeeper are riding on the back of a ?hippo? (it was the size of an elephant though). The other guy was tied to a rope tied to one of the back feet flying behind. the hippo was hopping(gigantic hops) down a river. We were all trapped in Aeris trying to escape(except the hippo). I looked back at the other guy and wondered what it'd be like to be back there and we switched places. everytime the hippo landed i'd be submerged in the river till he jumped again(i almost drown once so being underwater in a dream is frightening to me). near the end of our journey the rope broke. they went ahead. i was trapped in a clam under the water. the clam had air but it was quickly filling up with water. i broke it open bracing for a rush of water but none came. once i broke the clam open i was in a giant rubber ball with a small circular ?door?. i opened that expecting the same as before but this time i was in a metal container with a similar circular door. i opened the door it spun open like the inside of a gun barrell at the beginning of a James bond movie(best way i can describe it). a series of these doors opened one right after the other and i was standing on a set of steps leading to a white gateway. the gatekeeper was dressed in white with a white top hat. this white gateway was the gateway from Aeris to Earth (or the "supposed" Aeris to my usual dreamscape). All four of us passed through and i told the gatekeeper i wanted to leave the gate open. i felt like it was great that the gate was opened and nothing or no one would ever be trapped in there again. He said no but that i could keep a key(it was a golden skeleton key). he closed the gate and then he(the gatekeeper) and the other guy went there separate ways. me and my dream wife just started walking and talking. it felt great like we never get to just walk and talk(although we do all the time in other dreams). we walked to a dojo/gym and went inside. the gatekeeper was there. it is almost like the dream ?skipped ahead a couple of years? (Im a security officer in real life) I was in my uniform and he was in a black gi (is that how you spell it?). so know he was in all black and the gym was padded in all black with a padded black obstacle course. he said officers (apparently he was a security officer too) had been coming by all day to sign up for his training senario but none had come back. he was mad and let down.(oh, without the top hat his hair was black too). We wished him the best and left. we started just walking and talking again(dont remember what we talked about but it was insignificant like just being able to talk to her was all i wanted). We walked into a McDonald's and there was the other guy behind the counter. his hair was long and he looked sloppy, disheveled and out of shape. Me and my dream wife asked him why he would choose such a mundane job after experiencing what we all had. he didn't answer. we jumped on one of the tables and jumped across all the tables to leave (maybe to show him we were more exciting than him? Although in real life i would never belittle someone for their job. a job's a job). We left McDonald's and started to walk and talk again but i somehow became lucid. she wasn't right beside me at the moment and I had to tell her "?I would never see her again?"( i'll probably see her tomorrow when i go to sleep). i walked up to the wrong girl at first and didn't realize it(probably because i was lucid and extremely anxious) the other girl was not as pretty as her but i figured maybe this is what she looks like in real life. I heard her voice "I'm over her dummy". I turned and saw her face just radiant and beautiful and clearer than its been in a long time (i can still remember exactly what she looks like right know)and her hair looked a lighter brown. I ran over to her and tried to tell her "I will never see you again" but i began crying uncontrollably. The love and the pain, the feelings were just so extremely intense. I really believed i would never see her again. all i could do was hold her and lay my head on her chest and cry, trying the whole time to tell her. She tried to console me and was saying something along the line of "whatever you're trying to tell me its ok." i heard the people too the side of us, the group the wrong girl was in, start to make fun of me for crying but i could care less about them. and while i was still trying to tell her i woke up.
the things that seem the most significant after thinking about the dream are that the dream was once again about four people. their were also four gateways ( the clam, the ball, the metal container, and the door) and the fourth gateway was white as well as the keeper dressed in white. also the change from white to black for the gatekeeper, the moment i saw her face, and my sadness.