Thread: Court waiting to pass judgement on my abilities?

Hey guys, this is a dream from a while back that has always stood out to me. To me it's the what I consider the first positive step onto the road to full lucidity, although at the time I had only told one friend (the one I trust to not think I'm bonkers with the whole dreaming thing). It came at a time of no real significance in my life in terms of friends, family or school; I was simply floating through life at this point only casually being interested in lucid dreaming. The night before I made no special preparations, I simply went to bed with the intention of sleeping. Just thought all this background information might rule out any suspicions people might have about the dream being heavily influenced by my waking life, such as stress or tension.

The dream itself was fairly short. It opened with a large Venetian style courtyard, great balconies and running on the left and right sides of this square and the far end was almost like a swirling cloud of dark blue and black gas which extended into the sky, the sky having a similar texture. Despite this the dream was not dark or anything, the balconies and houses were all brightly lit by candles and fireplaces within the houses and the dream characters around me were all wearing period clothing and suitably cheery. In front of me, placed in the centre of this square, was a large flat basin of water built into the cobblestone floor. The water was completely flat and calm and had a dark, almost inky texture to it.
Standing overlooking this water and surrounded by dream characters I knew what I had been placed there to do. I also knew that within this crowd of richly dressed nobles watching me was the Queen or Princess of wherever I had been placed. The people accompanying her must have been some form of council, but I did not really pay much attention to them. I remember raising my hands out in front of myself, facing towards the water and the great gas cloud beyond that, but remaining in a relaxed and composed stance, as if meditating or praying rather than preparing to pounce. I then began to visualise lifting the water from the centre of this great pool into a large swirling ball, raised a few metres above the pool. As I did this I slowly began to raise my hands as if "lifting" the water up.
Slowly the water began to rise up and form into this great inky swirling ball. At the time I remember a slight surprise, one which nearly put me off my visualisation but I swiftly recovered from. The people gathered around me were amazed at my ability, I got the impression I was there to prove myself and my dreamer abilities to them, as if to prove that this was in fact my dream. I remember the Queen saying something briefly before a small round of applause, the inky mass remaining in suspension. At that point in the dream I knew I had proven to them and myself that I was absolutely the dreamer and could control the world around me.

Sadly nothing more came of this dream, no full blown lucidity. Hopefully it can be appreciated why this is seen by myself as a good step forward though. I'd love to hear others thoughts on this