Thread: Raven Knight's Dream Travels

I was in my friend Alicia's bedroom. I looked around. Alicia was sitting on her bed listening to music. I wandered into the hall because I was a bit bored. The rest of the house didn't look like it normally does, but I didn't think that was unusual. I walked down the hall, which was much longer and darker than normal. In the living room I saw there was a door into the kitchen. It was mostly closed, but was cracked open. I could hear voices in the darkness beyond. I decided to eavesdrop…

I put my ear to the crack and listened carefully. I could hear a couple of people talking in hushed voices. One of them was definitely Alicia's mom, I didn't recognize the other. They were talking about gardening? Planting cantaloupe, to be exact. Something about a hole in the back fence between Alicia's yard and the neighbors' yard. It had been a risk to privacy but now it was hidden because the neighbors had grown the biggest cantaloupe Alicia's mother had ever seen. I was wondering how they had done that. My mom loves cantaloupe, so if I could find out, she would be happy. They kept talking about the cantaloupe, but nothing was said about how it got so big. I also heard talk of hidden treasures…

I went outside into Alicia's back yard. Strangely enough, it was dark in the house but it was still pretty light outside. It was around twilight where the sun has set but it is still light out. I looked around the yard. I didn't notice the fact the yard was much larger than normal. And it was filled with lush green grass where Alicia's real yard is little more than dirt.

I went to the back left corner of the yard, which was where I knew the hole in the fence had been. Sure enough, there was a huge cantaloupe blocking the hole. I wanted to see more of it. I started digging in the dirt on Alicia's side of the fence. It was hard to dig in. Lots of clay. I wondered how the cantaloupe could even survive in such soil. I kept at it even as it got dark out. I was finally making progress. I hit something hard. A rock? I would have to dig the rock out of the way. I started digging around the rock and pulled it out. I was about to toss it away when I saw it was shiny!

I kept the rock and used my shirt to polish the dirt off of it. It was beautiful! It looked like a diamond! It was a perfectly cut crystal. I wondered if there was any chance it might be a diamond… I examined it more. Well, I had not bothered being careful with my trowel when digging… I had jabbed at it many times, and a normal crystal would surely have been chipped and scratched… but not a mark on this one. Maybe it was a diamond! I wondered if anyone had seen me out there. I would keep the diamond! It was mine! I scooped the dirt back into the hole and went into the house. I returned to Alicia's room, and she was still listening to music. I didn't think she'd even noticed I was gone. Perfect. I wouldn't be suspected of the missing diamond! I was excited about the diamond, but then I woke.

Note: I spoke to Nomad today and he says his dream body is still sick… and he can actually feel a bunch of tiny bugs crawling around inside him! Yuck! How many eggs did that damn scarab lay? My first goal was to get those things out of Nomad, so with that in mind I used my light / sound machine and slipped into a WILD…

I was in the sick bay in the tower on the moon. I looked around. I saw Angel sitting next to Nomad, who was sleeping in one of the sick bay beds. Angel had her full attention on Nomad. I went over to them and looked at Nomad. He woke up and looked at both Angel and me. I asked how he was feeling. He said weird… he could still feel them moving inside him, which was a really creepy feeling. I figured it no doubt was…

"Ok," I said, "Let me try to control them telepathically… get them to leave your dream body that way." I stood by Nomad in the bed and focused on locating those bugs. They were small scarabs. They weren't actually doing anything yet, but I wondered what they were supposed to do. The first thing to do would be to get them out, their purpose could be discovered later. I sensed that I had contact with them. I order you to leave this man's body immediately, through whatever means you can that does not cause him any further harm.

"What the fuck?" Nomad said as he suddenly sat up in bed, "Ugh… this ain't good…" He vomited. He vomited tiny scarabs all over the bed. More tiny scarabs were coming out of his nose. Scarabs were coming out of his ears… it appeared they were finding whatever orifice they could to make an exit through… Scarabs came from under the covers, and I didn't want to think about what orifice those ones had come from… I telepathically told the scarabs to gather on the floor next to the bed. They all began doing that. Soon Nomad stopped vomiting, and it was only the odd straggler scarab that vacated his body. Nomad lied back down on the bed.

"What was that all about?" Angel asked me.

"They had to get out some way…" I said as I looked at the crowd of bugs on the floor at my feet.

"That was nasty," Nomad said, "But at least that creepy sensation of something…" he paused and spat out a scarab in his hand. It immediately hopped from his hand and joined the others. "That sensation of things crawling inside of me has stopped."

"How are you feeling?" I asked Nomad.

"Tired," Nomad said as he lied his head down and was looking at Angel, looking into her eyes.

I saw that Basara and MoSh were there with us. We all did a healing spell on Nomad. Golden energy flowed through Nomad and dark energy was forced out of him. I collected the dark energy in a small dark shard. Nomad was now fast asleep, possibly having dreams within dreams. Everything around me faded to black and I woke.

Biology 101, Lesson One; Scarab Dissection.

I was in a strange place with Nomad. I looked around. I didn't make note of what the surrounds looked like because everything I could see was infested! Infested with spiders! They weren't big spiders, they were all small ones. Tiny ones, moving constantly over the various surfaces. At first I had thought the surfaces themselves were moving… but no. It was the spiders. I wondered where they had all come from.

"Angel needs soul healing," Nomad said, not even seeming to notice the spiders. He turned and walked across the scene, crushing numerous spiders with each step. I was pretty sure he wasn't noticing the spiders. I saw some of the spiders crawling up on him, through his hair, on his arms, up inside his shirt. He didn't respond.

"Nomad!" I said, "You might want to get those things off of you! They could be poisonous!"

"What things?" Nomad asked, now confirming that he didn't see or feel the spiders. When he was speaking a spider crawled into his mouth. Yuck!

"You're covered with spiders!" I said, "Don't you see them? Can't you feel them?"

"Stop messing around," he said, "There'll be time to be silly later."

"Hey!" I said, "All of you spiders, on Nomad and everywhere in this inner world! Come to me immediately! I command you to obey me!"

All of the spiders immediately responded, which was actually a bit of a surprise to me. They all swarmed from the distant areas of the landscape and gathered into one crawling mass right in front of me. A spider, no doubt the one that had crawled into Nomad's mouth, now crawled out his nose and joined the others. Nomad was just looking at me strangely. Like he thought I was stark raving mad.

"Raven?" he asked, "Are you feeling ok?"

"Yeah," I said, "Much better now, thank you." I looked at the crawling mass of spiders. I wondered what I should do with them… send them through a portal to someone I don't like! Yeah! My ex bf was scared of spiders… dump them all on him in the middle of his dream, wherever he might be at the time… and watch him freak out! It would be hilarious. I was now laughing to myself.

"Maybe you should get some healing," Nomad said as he saw me laughing over apparently nothing.

"Look at the spiders," I said to Nomad as I indicated the crawling mass, "Who do we know that can't stand spiders?"

"Loaf?" Nomad asked.

"No, no," I said, "An asshole! Think about assholes! I'll give you the answer… my ex bf James! I should dump these spiders into his dream and watch him freak out! That would be hilarious!" I kept laughing.

"Uh… Raven?" Nomad said hesitantly, "There aren't any spiders there…"

"Says you," I said, "Even though you ate one and it crawled out of your nose!"

Nomad raised his hand to his nose as if to check for a spider. He had a really concerned look on his face. I believe he really thought I had lost it.

"Wow," a man behind me said. I looked and saw Q. "You have been finding a lot of creepy crawlies… I'll put these spiders with your new scarabs." Q and the crawling mass of spiders disappeared.

"See?" I said to Nomad, "Q saw the spiders! Ok. We need a healing spell here, right?" I focused on Touch My Heart. I could actually hear it playing. This didn't trigger a reality check… The song played through, and the area filled with golden energy. The song had just finished when everything around me faded to black and I woke.

I did have a dream within a dream. I forgot to write it down. It was a nightmare. I woke up, and Angel was by my side. She said I had a fever, but the doctor said I would be okay.

Thank you for healing us.

I don't remember healing Angel very well. I probably didn't notice the spiders because I like spiders. That's gross that they were crawling in me. YUCK.

Dream healing is real healing.

Spiders. Enough to make this Loaf force himself awake.

I was in a building. It looked like a large office building. I was walking through the halls. I had the idea I wasn't really supposed to be there. I was looking for someone. A scientist. I wanted to ask him about building a really good AI. I knew this building had all sorts of scientists in it, and some of them were very skilled computer scientists. I wandered through the halls for a while. I saw someone coming. I ducked out of the way into a room on the side…

That was a mistake… there were even more people there. Everyone was milling around and talking. It looked like some kind of office party. I tried to blend in. There were lots of cakes and other treats laid out on a big table in the middle of the room. It all looked delicious. I jumped three feet when someone touched me on the shoulder.

"Excuse me," a man behind me said.

"What?" I said, trying to act casual. I was sure I had been spotted as an intruder and I would be thrown out. I looked at the man behind me. It was Dr. Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds! I was now staring at him with what I am certain was a really dumb look on my face.

"You must be new here," he said, "My name is Spencer. Doctor Spencer Reid. It's nice to meet you. I… uh… saw you looking at the cakes. The ones with the chocolate frosting are really good." He smiled warmly and then walked off into the crowd. I guess I was blending in better than I had thought. I took one of the cakes and ate it. It really was good. I was eating my third cake (they were all cupcakes) when it finally hit me… maybe Spencer Reid could help me with my AI… he is, after all, a genius.

I headed through the crowd in the direction Spencer had gone in. I didn't see him. I came to the exit to the hallways. Where had he gone? I cursed quietly to myself that I had lost sight of Spencer Reid. I turned to go back into the crowd when I saw Spencer heading for the door.

"Excuse me," I said, "Dr. Reid?"

"Yes?" Spencer said as he turned to me.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" I asked.

"Of course," he said, "And call me Spencer."

I followed Spencer in to the hall. He kept walking, clearly expecting I would keep up. I followed him as he went. He said he had to make a quick stop, but then we could talk if I wanted. I followed him into a room. There was a large window looking into a laboratory. There were several scientists in full isolation gear. On the table was a huge spider… about the size of a great dane. The huge spider had a single eyeball on its back. All eight of its legs were tied down to the table, and the eye was looking nervously around at the scientists. One of the scientists produced a scalpel. He walked over to the eye and was preparing to cut.

"What in the world…" Spencer said to no one in particular. Then he went over to the window and started pounding on it. "No!" he yelled at them, "Stop! You don't know what you're doing!"

One of the scientists over there waved at Spencer and gave him the thumbs up. The one with the scalpel made a cut around the eye. White pus came out of the injured eye. A horrible sound came from the creature.

"NO!" Spencer said again, pounding on the window a couple more times and then turning his back to it, "Those fools… they have no idea…"

In the other room I saw something in the pus was moving. I soon realized what it was. It was tiny spiders! Hundreds, thousands of them! They swarmed over the scientists, eating straight through their protective gear. I heard the scientists screaming in pain and terror, and then the sound was cut off. The swarm of spiders exited the suits, leaving trails of blood. They ate through the door to the lab and disappeared from sight.

"Those fools!" Spencer said, "They weren't supposed to do that! Why did they have to go and do that? Why? Why?"

It looked like he wasn't going to be much good to anyone right now. I left the room, wondering where the spiders had come out. They had left the lab through the left side of the room as I was looking at it… so now I turned right, then right again to find where they had come out. I saw there was a trail there. Huge numbers of spiders. But wait a minute… I could control them.

"Hey!" I yelled at the spiders, "All of you! Come to me!" The spider trail stopped and started coming back to me. They gathered around me, a huge circle of crawling spiders gathering around me. Now the trail from the damaged laboratory led straight to me. I guess I should have specified where they should stop… the spiders were actually crawling up on me. All over me… but they weren't attacking or biting. They were just there. It tickled…

"Not in the face!" I said as a spider crawled up onto my face. It stopped and went back down.

"What in the world?" asked a stunned Spencer Reid as he came around the corner and saw me standing there with the spiders all over me, "Who are you?"

"I am the Lord of the Flies," I said, and I didn't think it was odd that I was controlling spiders IWL… after all, they were alien spiders… they would be more intelligent and would recognize who I am.

"Lord of the Flies?" Spencer asked, puzzled, "The Lord of the Flies is the devil… you're not…"

"No," I said, "The Lord of the Flies is someone who controls spiders and insects! See? They obey me!" I wondered what to do with the spiders now… A man behind me spoke. I turned and looked. It was Q.

"Well," Q said, "More spiders. I'll put these with the others." Q and the spiders disappeared, leaving Spencer looking even more confused. Everything faded to black and then I woke.

Note: I had only one main goal for this night. That goal was to transfer a couple more spell effects to both Nomad and MoSh. I fell asleep with my light / sound machine and slipped into a WILD…

I was on the moon. I was in the biodome. I knew that one of the spells I was going to transfer could do considerable damage, so it would have to be tested out in a safe place. What better place than the Outer Realms? When there, a whole bunch of enemy DCs could be set up for MoSh and Nomad to test the spells against. DCs with varying power levels. I wondered where Nomad and MoSh were. I got one answer right away. Nomad was floating over the koi pond in lotus position. He seemed oblivious to anything going on around him. I stood there and watched him for a few minutes. I figured there was no need to disturb his meditation before MoSh arrived. I sat by the edge of the pond and watched the colorful fish swimming around. A bunch of fish with nothing to worry about except for swimming and finding food. No dark energy, no hostile attacks, no nothing. Of course they also had nothing to do but swim and eat… and, as the long piece of shit hanging from one of the fish's rear end reminded me, shit. Swim, eat, and shit. Sounded very boring to me.

My watching the fish was interrupted when I heard someone behind me. I turned and looked. MoSh was standing right behind me. I hadn’t even noticed he had arrived. I tried to hide my surprise at seeing him there. I said we had just been waiting for him. I looked back over at Nomad, who was still floating in lotus position.

"Hey! Nomad!" MoSh yelled, and then he threw a mantra ball at Nomad. The ball hit Nomad in the face.

"This is a dream," the ball announced.

Nomad opened his eyes and caught the ball. It was purple. He ate it. He said it was fruity. He then floated over and landed between MoSh and me. I told them we had better go to the Outer Realms for this one. I opened a portal to the Outer Realms and we all went through it.

On the other side we were in a vast expanse of nothing. Apparently it was the Outer Realms when nothing had been set up for us. I could see a white glow in the distance in one direction, and an eerie purple glow in the distance in the opposite direction. The light and the dark obelisks, nick-named by James and me long ago as Yoda and the Emperor respectively. We had no need to seek out the obelisks.

"So what now?" Nomad asked as he looked around at the desolate landscape, "There's always been a world set up here before…"

"First the songs," I said, "Then if Q isn't here to set something up by the time that's done I'll contact him telepathically."

I transferred the two songs to each of them, Nomad and MoSh, the songs were Master of Puppets (mind control and defense against mind control) and the Immortal Fire spell (just causes massive destruction in all directions). I used Unforgiven Too by Metallica to get that done. Shortly after I finished that Q appeared.

"So," he said, "It's time to test these out." He snapped his fingers and the entire area around us changed to a training area. Q had supplied Nomad and MoSh with plenty of DCs to test the spells out on. MoSh incinerated a large number of DCs with one use of Immortal Fire… Nomad seriously over-killed a single DC by focusing the power of the entire spell on that one DC… They were still testing the spells out when everything faded to black and I woke.

In MoSh's last dream last night he saw Asuka was acting strangely and there was a dark aura around her. My WILD tonight was dedicated to checking this out. I used my light / sound machine and slipped into a WILD…

I was inside MoSh's inner world. I was outside the house that I recognized as his. I went over to the door. It was partially open. I went inside. I looked around. I knew I was looking for Asuka to see what might be wrong with her. I heard something in the living room area. I went in there. I found Nomad. He was sitting on the couch playing video games. I didn't notice what the video game was. Nomad looked over at me when I entered. It caused him to die in the game when he did.

"Ah," he said as he laid the controller down, "This game sucks." Then he looked over at me. "Now that you're here we can track down Asuka."

"You mean you don't know where she is?" I asked Nomad, "And where's MoSh?"

"Hey!" came a voice from behind me. I turned and saw Asuka had just come in the door. And she was angry. Very angry. "What the fuck are you two doing here?" she asked, "Did you come to bring more of your shit in here? Did you come to drag MoSh off to get him killed? Or maybe you've decided you want to get ME killed? Well I have had enough of your shit! And if MoSh won't tell you to stay away from us, then I've had enough of him, too! I came here to have a nice quiet life with MoSh, but there's been nothing but trouble since I got here!"

"What's with all the screaming?" said a voice form the stairs, it was MoSh.

"Yes! You!" Asuka turned towards MoSh, "You tell them to go away and never come back or I'm outta here! If you think you're worth putting up with this much shit for, you're wrong! You have to choose, them or me! Well? Which will it be? Tell them to go or I'm leaving right now! You have 30 seconds to choose, so you'd better get it right!"

Asuka was finally quiet. The silence was loud now. I could see a dark aura around Asuka. MoSh was beside me now, looking at Asuka with a concerned look.

"What's wrong with her?" he whispered to me.

"I see you've made your choice," Asuka said, practically hissing the words, "You ASSHOLE! Well, that's it, then. I'm leaving. Don't try to find me, I don't ever want to see you again!" She looked furious, and she also looked like she was about to cry. "How could you possibly choose a couple complete losers like them over me? I bet it won't be long before they get you killed!"

I focused on the song Touch My Heart, directing the energy on Asuka. MoSh was also using a healing spell on Asuka. Golden energy flowed through her. Something was forced out… a strange shadow form that looked solid. It had glowing red eyes and a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. It hissed loudly at MoSh. MoSh changed into a snake and hissed right back at it. After a brief hiss-off the two of them got into a fight. I couldn't see much of what was going on, they were moving around in the air too fast to keep track of. I did see a couple blasts of green flame which I figured had come from MoSh and one blast of black yuck that I figured came from the enemy.

Soon they had both landed again. MoSh was in his human form again, the shadow creature was in a corner. It looked like the thing didn't know where to go. MoSh was clearly pissed off at it. The thing suddenly shrank to a small animal form and disappeared through a hole in the floor. Nomad shrank to the same size and followed it through the hole. MoSh shrank to a small snake and was about to follow them.

"MoSh…" Asuka said, sounding very disoriented. She had been looking like she was in a trance since the black thing had been forced out. Now she looked like she was about to collapse. MoSh changed back to a human form. He got to Asuka just in time. She collapsed into his arms. Both MoSh and I did another healing spell on Asuka. After it ended, she seemed better. Then she looked at MoSh and started crying. She was saying a lot to MoSh. What I could understand of it indicated she was thinking about the things she had said to him earlier, and she didn't mean any of it, and she didn't really want to leave him but if he wanted her to go now she would understand and… And MoSh silenced her with a kiss and then a hug. She was crying in his arms.

After a short time Asuka looked over at me. She asked where Nomad was. I said he had chased an asshole away. She said she hadn't meant the things she had said about us, either She said she didn't know why she'd said those things… she was crying again. MoSh said she was probably tired, and she should rest. The two of them disappeared upstairs. I sat down on the couch. What now? Play a video game? I looked at the television. It was off. I picked up the controller. I was going to turn the system on, but everything faded to black and I woke.

I was in my bedroom. I heard my mother calling from the living room. She was saying she was going to start the movie without me if I didn't come soon. I was looking for my computer. Shit! I must have left it at school. I wasn't worried, though. I knew my instructor, Mr. Lizarraga, would have been the first one to find it. And it had some distinctive stickers so it couldn't be passed off as someone else's. Since I was sure of where my computer was, I was just annoyed that I didn't have it with me to use.

I went to the living room and plopped down on the couch. I looked at the screen. I couldn't remember what movie we had to watch. I didn't ask because I thought I should know and I would look stupid if I didn't know. The movie started. It was a Nightmare on Elm Street movie. I didn't remember a new one coming out lately… so I figured I'd seen it before. But I didn't recognize the title. Nightmare on Elm Street: Lost Lucidity. I tried to think of all the different Nightmare on Elm Street movies… nope. That wasn't one of them. Well, maybe it was something new. Cool. I sat back to watch the movie.

The movie started with Freddy Krueger on the screen in all his ugliness. Apparently the movie was going to start right off with a nightmare. Freddy was walking through a creepy looking setting that looked like a grave yard with a strangely colored fog over it. The fog was red and looked evil. Freddy had an evil look on his face, and nasty smirk.

"Come out and play, my little flower," Freddy snarled, "It's time to do some pruning!"

I rolled my eyes at the typical bad pun Freddy made, and at the same time it was a bit silly coming out of a serial killer.

"I can see you!" Freddy said, "You can't hide from me!"

Freddy reached into a thick bit of foliage and pulled out a screaming woman by the arm. He put his finger knives right through her right shoulder and used that to pull her along, she was still screaming for help. He threw the woman down into a freshly dug grave. Now free of Freddy's grip, the woman immediately got up and was trying to climb out of the far side of the grave. That was before hands reached out of the dirt on the bottom of the grave. They grabbed her ankles and made her fall onto her back. More hands immediately grabbed her arms and one pair of hands latched over her mouth to muffle her ear splitting screams.

"You thought you were something special?" Freddy snarled, "Well now you're just worm food!" At that he transformed from his normal form into a whole bunch of writhing worms, each of which had a small Freddy Krueger head and sharp teeth. The worms slithered down into the grave with the woman and began to slowly eat her alive. The Freddy worms had barely begun their meal when my mom turned off the TV. She said there was no way she was going to watch that… it was sick even by horror standards. I thought it was strange that she would get put off by the scene of violent torture considering some of the movies we have watched together. I had found myself thinking like a graphic designer… I figured those worms must be computer generated… and I was thinking of the different ways that scene could look so real. I turned the TV back on just in time to see a worm eat its way into the woman's eye, and she was still trying to scream… still alive. The scene was very realistic. It looked almost like I was standing right beside the woman as she died. My mom turned the TV back off and said I shouldn't watch it, either. Lame. I wondered when she had become such a prude about TV violence.

I got up from the couch and went into my room again. I turned on the radio and found a commercial on it. That was annoying. Where was my iPod? The commercial ended and then the news came on. The news reported a man who had been found tied out in the desert, left there to die, and the worst part was that all of the skin had been peeled off of his chest and abdomen areas. Two hikers had been walking on a near by path when they had heard the man screaming. They had followed the screams and found the man, immediately chasing off the vultures which were feeding on the man's intestines (It seemed they were getting quite graphic for the news…) and then they had called 911. The man had died en route to the hospital. I turned the radio off.

I figured I would play some Assassin's Creed II on my PS3. I opened went to my bedroom door and found myself face to face with Freddy Krueger. Wtf? How could that be? I jumped out of the way as he took a swipe at me with his finger knives. I climbed over my waterbed and grabbed a cheap decorative sword that I used for my Assassin costume last Halloween. It wasn't great, but it was pointy. I pulled it from its sheath. It was sharper than I remembered. I held the sword at ready, prepared to do whatever I could against Freddy. He came right over my waterbed. I don't think he realized it was a waterbed, because when he hit the waves it threw him off balance. He put out his knife hand to catch his balance. I sliced it off with my sword. He roared and snarled at me in rage and pain. This sword was better than I had thought! I didn't let up. I went after Freddy with my sword, making some quick moves that put Freddy off balance again. This time he fell off of the other side of the bed and landed awkwardly in a small space between my bed and my dresser. I ran my sword right through his head. This was no crappy sword! It was doing great! Even with a sword through his head Freddy was laughing. I pulled the sword free and cut off his head. He turned into a dark cloud and disappeared.

I looked around the room. The place had been trashed when Freddy had been blundering around. How would I explain this? No one would ever believe me. I quick checked for the hand with the knife glove on it… the one I had cut off. I didn't see anything there. This didn't surprise me. Since the rest of Freddy had vanished, I had assumed the gloved hand had also vanished. I picked up a couple of things, I figured I had better straighten up before my mother came in and asked what had happened. I didn't get much cleaning done before everything faded to black and I woke.

You know just yesterday I was looking at some freddy videos on youtube. Creepy. At least you didn't run into the Gay freddy like I had run into.

Note: I didn't have any major plans tonight. Nomad had mentioned checking around on the moon in the astral plane to see if there are any life forms there. My guide said there are some of the Arilou there… that would be a group of aliens most people refer to as the grays. With this plan in mind I used my light / sound machine and slipped into a WILD…

I looked around. I wasn't where I had intended to be. I was in MoSh's inner world. What was I doing there? I hadn't been focusing on MoSh… I'd been focusing on Nomad… if anywhere, I should have found myself in Nomad's inner world. I was standing there looking around, trying to think why I had ended up in MoSh's inner world. I was just about to decide it was a random mistake when…

"Hey, Raven!" came a voice behind me. I turned and saw MoSh.

"Uh…" I was still wondering why I was there, "Hi, MoSh. Am I forgetting something? Did we plan on meeting here for some reason? Because if we did, it went clean out of my mind.

"I don't think we planned anything…" MoSh said.

"Hmmm…" I said to myself, thinking about what I might have come there to do, "A spell maybe? There's fire, lightning, gravity, ice… Ice! You don't have an ice spell! I can transfer an ice spell to you! That way you could freeze enemies… do you want the ice spell?"

"Sure," MoSh said. So that was what I did. I use the song Trapped Under Ice by Metallica to create an ice effect, so I transferred that to MoSh. That didn't take long and MoSh was freezing things on the street. Ok. What now? Well, I was supposed to meet up with Nomad. So I would find Nomad. I told MoSh I was going to go find Nomad. I asked if he wanted to come. He said no, he wanted to try to remember Asuka. He went back into his house. I opened a portal focused on finding Nomad and went through it…

On the other side of the portal I was on the moon. I felt a bit disoriented. I looked around and spotted Nomad. I focused on stabilizing the dream… and it worked some. I went over to Nomad. He had mentioned going to meet the Arilou, which is the race of aliens most people refer to as the grays. I asked if he still wanted to do that. He said he did.

I telepathically contacted Roy, who is a member of the Alkazaran race who lives in my inner world now. The Alkazaran are a race of people from a planet out beyond Orion, they are about four feet tall, have purple skin, and their eyes glow blue. They are telepathic, telekinetic, and the can teleport… which is what Roy did right now. He appeared in front of me. He seemed surprised to see me.

"Wow…" he said, "You DO remember I exist…" he said. He laughed a bit, then, "So… was there something you needed? Or did you just call to say hello?"

"Well," I said, "Nomad wanted to meet some Arilou."

"Why would he want to do that?" Roy asked as if he had never heard such a weird request.

"Why not?" Nomad asked.

Roy hesitated. "I guess it just depends on which of them you speak with," he said, "Some of them are peaceful… they're just here to observe the Earth and the various life forms on it. Others among them have agendas that aren't so benign. There are actually several different factions. The ones who observe without interfering, there are ones who will abduct various life forms and examine it before returning it to the planet, and there are still others who think they should forget about all this observation and just make the planet their own. Those are the ones working with the Quarks. There may also be a few Quarks here. There is absolutely no benefit to talking to a Quark… except Moe. He's good. Since it's impossible to tell who we might meet if we go to their base, I'll try to contact a couple of the friendly ones…"

After a brief pause, a couple of Arilou appeared in front of us. They looked around and then looked at the three of us. They were speaking, but they weren't moving their lips. It must be telepathic. Nomad wanted to know what they did up there. One of them said they were here to observe the developing life forms on Earth and, when the people there are ready, to make peaceful contact. He said he and his group would like nothing better than to have Earth and his world interacting in a peaceful, mutually beneficial way. He said they have technology that could solve a lot of Earth's problems, and there are some rare elements on Earth that they need… so it would be a win for everyone. But others just want to take the elements by force. He said fortunately they are the minority, so they haven't dared any direct action yet.

The other Arilou seemed to take a special interest in Nomad. He was looking directly at Nomad. He said he had been keeping track of Nomad, watching over him. Nomad asked why. He said sometimes one of the observers will choose an Earthling to watch throughout the duration of their life there, and he had felt drawn to Nomad. He said he had a feeling like Nomad might have been his son in another life. He said it is important for Nomad to become telepathic. Nomad said he was willing to learn it. The Arilou said he doesn't appear to be a natural, but he can still learn it as long as he is willing to work at it. I commented that I wish I could learn to be telepathic or telekinetic.

"Nomad?" Roy said.

"Yeah?" Nomad responded.

"I'm too short…" he said, "Pull a nice Gibbs on her for me, will you?"

Nomad pulled a Gibbs on me. He then turned back to Roy, "Why did I do that?"

"Because if she would actually listen to me and practice she would already be telepathic and telekinetic by now, and if she proved gifted she might even learn teleportation," Roy said impatiently, "She keeps saying she wants to learn but she never keeps up with it."

The Arilou told Nomad that he would have to be patient with himself, it takes time to train a part of the brain that has never had to work much or maybe not at all before. He then turned to Roy. He said they had to get back before they were noticed missing. Roy said ok, thanked them, and then they disappeared. Roy turned to me and said if I had decided to take it seriously, his offer for training was still open, even after all this time. He then disappeared.

"So…" I said after Nomad and I were alone on the moon, "Want to do the tasks of the month? I had thought I might do those tonight. Just for shites and giggles."

"Shites?" Nomad asked.

"Yeah," I said, "Shites and giggles."

"Let's do it," Nomad said.

I opened a portal to the surface of a planet. I wasn't even sure what planet it was, or it might have been Earth. We were in a lush green meadow. I saw a rainbow in the sky. It arched from over a thick green forest and appeared to end at the far side of the meadow. Nomad and I flew towards it. Surprisingly enough, it didn't move away as we approached it like a normal rainbow does. We reached it. The rainbow was made up of constantly moving particles… and it was flowing into a pot. Looking closer I saw the small fragments were m&m's. The pot was also full of m&m's. Somehow it wasn't overflowing… but then nothing about this situation made sense. We were definitely in a dream world rather than a parallel dimension. I reached out and grabbed some m&m's from the rainbow. I ate them. Yum! Dark chocolate m&m's! Nomad also ate some m&m's. He said there was fruit in there. I hadn't noticed any fruit… Oh, well. I grabbed a few more m&m's. Dream chocolate! Delicious dream chocolate!

"The other one involved flying through truffula trees," Nomad said. I wondered where to find those except in a Dr. Suess book… and then I had one. A Dr. Suess book. I opened it and saw a picture of a bunch of the truffula trees. So many colors… trees that looked more like big fluff balls on tree trunks. The book grew in my hands until I dropped it… and then Nomad and I fell through into the forest shown on its pages.

So now Nomad and I were flying through the truffula trees. I could see some strange people flying in the trees a short distance off, but they didn't pay any attention to us. Nomad flew over to one of the trees and pulled some of it off. He ate it. I asked him what he was doing. He said it was good… fruity. He ate some more. I looked at a tree and pulled a small bit of fluff off of a red one. I tried it, and it was like raspberry flavored cotton candy. I wondered about finding something that strange and just eating it… oh, well. My dream body wouldn't get poisoned… and this was definitely a dream world. No danger here. So I ate a bit more of it. I looked over and Nomad was stuffing his face. He suddenly stopped. He made some strange faces and then spat seeds out. Where the seeds landed saplings sprouted immediately. Nomad laughed and said he had accidently gotten a seed pod. He spat out a couple more seeds. I tried a bit from a purple tree… and as I had expected, it was grape. A yellow one was pineapple. I had been in this dream a long time… and soon everything around me faded to black and I woke.

Note: My goal for this night was to meet up with Nomad and go to a place he frequents in Hawaii called the Ong King. He said the last time he was at the Ong King there had seemed to be a lot of negative energy, which is not normal. He wanted to clean that up. I focused on this as I used my light / sound machine to enter a WILD…

I was in the biodome. I looked around at the trees and flowers. I always like being in the biodome. It is always so peaceful there. I went over to the koi pond and watched the colorful fish for a bit. I heard someone behind me and I looked. Nomad was there with me. He asked if I was ready to go. I said yes. He opened a portal, and we both went through it…

On the other side of the portal we were at the Ong King. I looked around, having never seen it before. It was an art gallery. For some reason I hadn't been picturing it as an art gallery… I tried to think if Nomad had ever told me it was an art gallery, or if I might just have forgotten. I didn't remember if he had told me or not. I looked around at some of the paintings on the wall. What I was looking at was abstract. Some of it was very interesting, some of it was pretty… but a few of them looked to me like someone had scribbled on the canvas and called it art. I looked at some more of the paintings on the wall.

I was looking at a particularly nice one with different shades of blue that seemed to draw me into the canvas when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I turned and looked. One of the shadows in the corner of the room seemed to be moving. It was night time there, so there were many shadows gathered in the corner. But they shouldn't be moving… I went over to the corner and looked closer. I saw a darker area of shadow within the regular shadow. That darker area of shadow jumped at me! I reflexively raised my arm to block, it was aiming for my face. I threw it down on the ground and hit it with a bolt of lightning. It was destroyed.

"It looks like we found the problem," Nomad said, "Those things are all over the place! They're what is spreading negative energy here. Let's clear them out."

I focused on the song Full Moonlight from the Devil Hunter Yohko soundtrack. The song played. Golden energy formed and started flowing through the rooms. I kept moving through the place as I focused on the song. I found myself outside when the song ended. A car passed by on the street. I was on a sidewalk beside a number of shops. There were signs hanging from the awning. The one in front of the place I had come form had kanji on it. I wondered why the name was written in Japanese or Chinese… There were other signs, too. I went to the shop to the left of Ong King and looked at their sign. It was blurry… I wanted to see it clearly, but all I could see was some vague colors. Yellow, red… I wasn't even sure.

"It's clean," Nomad said from the doorway, "What are you looking at?"

"I'm trying to see things," I said, "Here I am in Hawaii, and I can't fucking see anything!" I was feeling a bit frustrated. I'm able to go anywhere in the world, but I can't see any of it! I looked back at Nomad. He was clear. I looked back up at the Ong King sign which displayed kanji.

"I'm going to try to look around," I said. I headed right from the Ong King. I walked down the street. I came to a cross street. I tried to look at the street sign… a blur. I wondered why I was walking. This is a dream, after all. I jumped into the air and flew. I just glided over the cross street and then over a small river or canal… now there was a park to my right and a parking lot to the left… or at least that's what I thought I saw. It was still a bit blurry. A park seemed good. I flew out over the park. I didn't see anything remarkable. A large green grassy area, a few buildings, a couple of tennis or basketball courts, green trees… Things were getting even more disorienting. I landed in the grassy area. I focused on stabilizing the dream. I wanted to look around more. Nomad landed beside me. I told him I wanted to look around, but I was losing the dream. He said I could always come back.

"And you'll be able to see anything you want when you come visit IWL!" Nomad said. He was smiling.

"Yeah," I said, "Sure." Not that I would be able to get to Hawaii any time soon, maybe not any time at all. I went over to one of the trees and put my hands on the trunk. I was focusing on feeling the trunk, on making it real, anything to hold onto the dream… but no good. Everything around me faded to black and I woke.

I was in my mother's office. She was sitting in her recliner stroking the head of a small deer. I looked at the deer and asked my mother where she had found the deer. She said the deer is our new guest. She asked how I could forget something like that. She said she didn't have the time to keep reminding me of these things… time is money.

I looked at the deer and then I went over and petted the deer. I liked petting the deer. My mother told me not to spend too much time petting the deer because time is money. I wondered what she thought she could be doing right now to earn money… She said I was in her way and she needed to get to the computer. She told me to move and be quick about it; time is money. I was starting to get annoyed at her for continually saying, 'Time is money,' over and over again. My mom said I should get busy and do my job. After all, time is money. That was all I cared to hear. I left the office and went into the living room. I couldn't think of what I was supposed to do… I thought for a bit and then I was thinking I needed to get a gift for my mother… Christmas was coming up, and I didn't have a present yet.

I don't know how it happened, but the next instant I was at the mall. I was in a gift shop of some kind. I needed a gift for my mom. They didn't have much to choose from. I found a deer figurine that made strange sounds. It didn't really sound like a deer, or I didn't think it sounded like a deer… It was lame. I continued and found a few more crappy gifts that I don't remember. I found a miniature fountain that sits on a desk. I thought that was also pretty lame, but it was the only thing I thought my mother would even vaguely like. I thought maybe she would like the relaxing sound. It was even cheap… so I bought it.

I was leaving the mall. I was feeling quite guilty due to not having found my mother a better gift. I saw that there were several game stores along my route to leaving the mall. All of them had big sales going on. I thought about stopping and looking, but I decided not to. I glanced in and saw their shelves were mostly bare. This was Christmas Eve after all, so most of their stock had been bought by last minute shoppers. I just continued to the mall exit.

When I got outside the main entrance to the mall I saw there was a long stairway down from the mall. I was walking down the stairs when I met a man who looked like a Native American shaman. He met me using an unusual ritual greeting of some kind. I don't remember the details of the ritual greeting. When I didn't know how to properly respond, the man showed me. Now the man and I were walking down the stairs of the mall together. A couple more people met us and gave the same greeting. This time I knew right away how to respond. I commented to the shaman that it was ironic that I had needed the greeting he had just shown me. He said no, it was not ironic. It was planned.

Apparently I had intentions of walking home. The shaman and I headed for an area that looked like a large park. We arrived at a nice little road that started at the edge of the park. I started to just walk onto the road, but the shaman stopped me. He said that I must always be sure to thank the road I am on or I may become lost. I did as he instructed, and then we walked onto the small road. It went on a lot of curves and hills through the park. It seemed like it was going around in circles. Maybe I could thank the road and still get lost… but I didn't mind. It was a beautiful park and I was enjoying the walk. I was enjoying the walk with the shaman as everything faded to black and I woke.

For some reason, I started crying when I read, "thank the road you are on or you may become lost." Beautiful.

You are awesome in the astral plane, Raven. Ong King is on River and King Street, next to a canal, with a park on the other side. The name Ong King is written in psuedo-kanji.

He said no, it was not ironic. It was planned.

Wow. You're an awesome writer, Raven. I can follow along the dreams you've written out like they're stories (which they are, really). And this sounds like it was a very satisfying dream to wake up from.

Raven, after you wrote about that dream in the art gallery I had a dream about a dark looking creature that sort of looked like a spider but shot some sort of green acid or plasma at me. So I don't think it was the same creature but I think your dream triggered it.
-RAM

I had a dream of shamans in the Land of Nod. You were cooking a steak over a fire.

Note: I met a shaman in my dream last night. I have reason to think this shaman is the same one I used to know when I was going out with my ex bf. My goal was to get in touch with him and find out if the two are the same person. Q said there is currently a gathering of dimension traveling shamans going on in a different dimension. He said the shaman I am looking for is very likely there. Q said that the shamans in these gathering usually don't look too kindly on outsider visitors. Q also said in case that is the case, he had gone there and I had permission to visit the gathering… the shaman I knew while with my ex is currently at that gathering, so I can see if he is the one who visited me. Q handed me a pendant with a cool engraving on it… he said to show it to the other shamans in case they don't remember me, which they probably won't. With this goal in mind I fell asleep with my light / sound machine and slipped into a WILD…

I was on the moon, in the biodome. I wasn't sure why I was on the moon. I thought maybe I just couldn't go directly to the shaman gathering. This also was a confirmation that the shaman I was looking for was at the gathering. I was about to open the portal when another portal opened and Nomad came through.

"Raven!" he said, "Where are you off to so fast?"

"A gathering of shamans, perhaps," I said, "I'm looking for the shaman I met in a dream a couple nights ago. He might be someone I've known from back when I was going out with my ex."

"Awesome!" Nomad said, "I want to come, too!"

"Uh…" I said, remembering that the shamans don't like outside visitors. I figured it would be ok if he was with me since I know one of the shamans there. "Sure. You can come. Just stick with me, they don't like strangers there, but I know someone there. There is a particular shaman I am looking to see." I opened the portal and we both went through…

On the other side of the portal we were in a temporary town made up of a large number of tents and such. The tent city was located at the edge of a beautiful forest next to a lush green meadow. There were a lot of people around, talking to each other, some meditating, some of those meditating are floating in the air. A lot of them were human (or at least they looked human) but there were also many of different races I couldn't identify. One near us looked like a namek from Dragonball Z.

Shortly after we appeared, everyone started staring at us. They were gathering around us. I took the pendant out of my robes (I was dressed as an Assassin) and I showed it to them. I was holding onto Nomad's arm. They saw the pendent and immediately seemed friendlier. One of them came over to me and greeted us. He said that a friend of one of their people is a friend of his. He said we could feel free to explore their camp as long as we respect their beliefs. He headed into one of the tents.

I looked at Nomad. He smiled at me. I wondered where the shaman I was looking for might be. I wondered where to start to look. I figured I would have to follow my instinct. I did that and wandered through the camp. It was a large place. Many people, different people all seemed to be doing different things. I saw a woman with a gathering of strange herbs and such. Another was doing something with some strange stones. My attention was not drawn to any of the shamans we were passing. It was drawn to a large tent straight ahead of us. It was easily one of the most fancy elaborate tents there. I felt drawn to it. I went inside the tent and spotted a familiar shaman meditating in the middle of the room. I was trying to remember if that was the shaman I knew when I was with my ex, the shaman who visited me a couple nights ago, or both. I didn't want to disturb his meditation. Nomad looked at the shaman and then at me. Fortunately we didn't have to disturb him…

"Raven Knight," the shaman said as he opened his eyes. He had been floating and now he settled gently to the ground and got up, "The spirits foretold your coming. The spirits being Q, of course." He smiled. "So tell me, who is your friend? I see he is also a dream traveler, like yourself. He has the energy of a shaman."

"This is Nomad," I said, "I have been dreaming with him these past few months. After breaking up with James I thought I'd lost my ability to share dreams, but he proved me wrong. I haven't lost it."

"Excellent news, my friend," the shaman said, "It is so good to see you! It has been so long since I have had a chance to really speak with you! And it's nice to meet you, Nomad."

"I have a question," I said, "Though you may have already answered it. I met a shaman in a non-lucid dream a couple nights ago, and I was wondering if that was you. But you say it has been long since we have spoken, so I guess it couldn't have been you."

"It most certainly was," the shaman said, "But it is hard to have a meaningful conversation with one who is not lucid."

"True," I said, "I'm really glad you came. Maybe we will see more of each other now."

"I am moving into your inner world," the shaman said, "so I'm sure we will. James' inner world isn't serving my purposes any longer. This meeting goes on for the rest of the week, but then Hetfield is setting up an area in your inner world for me. We will see each other soon."

"Shaman," Nomad said, "Can I ask you a couple of questions?"

"Of course!" the shaman said with a smile, "Go right ahead!"

"I wanted to look around a bit more," I said, "I'll be back soon."

The shaman gave me a hug, "Just in case you wake up before returning," he said, "We will meet in another dream."

I left the tent and looked around. There was a bit of a commotion. I headed in that direction. Behind the tents, near the meadow, there was a young man who didn't look like one of the shamans. Partially because all of the shamans were pointing and talking. They didn't sound happy. I looked closer at the visitor. He was familiar… Loaf?! But how in the world could Loaf have gotten here? The shamans were saying something about the visitor could not be allowed to leave now that he had found the sacred ground. This was easily enough solved. I went into the group of shamans.

"It's ok!" I said to everyone as I displayed my pendant again, "He's with me!"

They didn't get as friendly as I had hoped. One of them came over to me and spoke angrily. "He didn't arrive with you," he said, "And he is being openly disrespectful to our people."

"Nah," I said, "I'm sure no offense is meant. I was just about to leave. I'll take him with me."

"He has been to the sacred ground," one of them protested.

"I have no idea how, I doubt he can deliberately initiate a repeat visit, and I doubt he'll even remember this one," I said, "He's a dreamer… who never remembers shared dreams. And since I'm here, it is now a shared dream, which means he will forget."

The shamans around me started arguing amongst themselves. Nomad came out of the tent. "Loaf?" Nomad asked, "Hey, Loaf! This is a dream!"

While the shamans were arguing I went over to Loaf. "Ok… you can't be here, not without prior permission. Let's go."

"I'm not leaving just because these guys tell me to," Loaf said.

Nomad was now over with Loaf and me. "We have to get Loaf out of here," I said to Nomad, "I think he pissed someone here off…"

"Alright," Nomad said, "We kidnap Loaf and take him to our dream!" He grabbed hold of Loaf, who responded by trying to get away. A couple angry shamans were yelling something at Loaf, I don't remember what, but I knew it was insulting.

Loaf responded with, "Fuck you, you…" then Nomad had covered his mouth. The shamans were looking pissed.

"Hey, everyone," I said as I opened a portal, focusing on Loaf's inner world, "I'm sure no offense was meant. So we'll just be going now, ok?" A portal opened. Nomad and I took Loaf through the portal…

On the other side we were in a house. I didn't recognize it. Loaf turned on the television. The news was on. I went into the next room with Nomad. I was hoping the shamans weren't too angry.

"Hey!" I heard Loaf from the other room, "They think I've been kidnapped!"

"What?" I asked as I looked into the other room. There was a picture of Loaf on the screen and the reporter was saying if anyone had any information as to his whereabouts or the whereabouts of the people who had taken him, the picture switched to a picture of two unidentifiable Assassins, to call some phone number I don't remember or shoot to kill. Shoot to kill?! That seemed a bit drastic… and what if someone went and shot Loaf? Didn't they care about that?

"I'm sure everything's fine," Nomad said behind me.

"Yeah, right…" I said, "I think the fuck-up fairy moved in with me for the night. I hope it doesn't reflect bad on the shaman we were visiting… I hope they're not mad at him… everything went to shit."

We left to take Loaf back to his house. I'm not sure why since it was a dream. I wasn't really thinking about that. We pulled a car, which I have no clue where we got the car, up in front of Loaf's house and he got out. There were people around. They looked like government agents. Loaf went in the house. I asked Nomad if those looked like Templars to him… He said maybe I should kill them just in case. I hit them with bolts of lightning and they were gone. This was where I woke up.

I wasn't convinced, until I read the finer details. I'm hysterical with laughter, mostly because of shock.

Note: I fell asleep with the goal of doing some healing tonight. My first healing goal was to heal Nomad's injured right ankle and foot, then I would be able to take him with me to heal a couple of other people. With my light / sound machine on and this goal in mind I slipped into a WILD…

I was in the biodome. I looked around. I wondered where Nomad might be. I figured I would look for him. I walked around in the biodome for a bit. I was finally able to find Nomad. He was sitting in the grass near the moon's version of the healing glen. I went over to him.

"Ok," I said, "I'm going to do a healing massage on your right leg and foot, and use a healing song.

Nomad said that sounded like a plan to him. He thanked me for doing the healing and then lied down in the grass. I was able to get to his right foot and ankle. I gently massaged the areas he had told me hurt IWL, and I focused on the song Voices from the Macross Plus soundtrack. Golden energy flowed around and through Nomad, and it seemed to be centered on his ankle and foot. I continued doing that until I had a very brief wake up period…

Note: I woke up briefly from the previous dream and then slipped back into sleep, maintaining my lucidity…

I was in the biodome with Nomad. I wondered if he had even noticed that I left. He was up and testing his right leg. He said it felt a lot better.

"Now just to see if that translated to waking life," I said.

"I'm sure it will," Nomad said, clearly having more confidence in me than I have in myself.

"Now for MoSh's mother?" I asked Nomad.

He said definitely, but first to gather all the healers we could. People started arriving from portals. I recognized some of them. Pablo, Basara, Angel… a few of them appeared to be actual angels… I opened a portal focusing on getting to MoSh's mother. A portal opened and we all went through it…

Into a place that looked rather backwards and upside down. It was a very disorienting thing to see. But we all did the same thing we had done the last time we were in there. Everyone got together and formed a link that was the shape of a figure 8, and then we all did healing spells. I focused on Full Moonlight. It felt right. The golden energy resulting from the healings was almost blinding. I wondered if MoSh would notice a difference the next time he saw his mom… of course he would. How could that much healing energy not be noticeable? We continued the healing spells for a while longer. Finally we broke the formation apart. I looked around to see if I could tell any difference. I didn't really. One of the angels seemed to see what I was doing.

The angel was speaking to me now. He said if I was looking for visible effects here, I shouldn't. He said we are not seeking to restructure the woman's inner world, rather to heal the connections between her subconscious mind and her conscious mind, to re-forge connections that had been broken so her mind could be whole again. He said the difference in her inner world certainly wouldn't be noticeable until this healing was done, and it would do no good to restructure the inner world without doing the healing first. That would be correcting a symptom while ignoring the cause. He said I should rest assured the healing had done what it needed to, and this was all that could be done for now… later, if necessary, we could do it more.

I was thinking I needed to go get Nomad. MoSh has a friend that he said was suffering from a lot of depression, and I wanted to take Nomad to see and heal that friend. But I didn't even get a chance to look for Nomad before I woke.

So, nomad...how is your leg?