I had a peculiar dream. I was flying in it, which isn't exactly new. I've had flying dreams before, but this is probably the first one where I haven't had limitations...I could fly as high as I wanted, and as far as I wanted. And that was a wonderful feeling.
While flying I was also thinking about my name. About how I'm going by Raine now, and what my name(s) was (were) before. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it on this blog before, but Sarita never has been my legal name. So it wound up with two sets of people: those who knew my legal name, and those who knew my preferred name.
Those who knew my legal name were people like my health care providers, or people at my credit union. Or, anyone who only knew me through paperwork. Of course I had the option of requesting that they use my preferred name, but would it really get noted down? Would they remember it the next time they went in? They haven't always, and I often didn't bother correcting them simply because I didn't want to be always saying "No it's SARITA." So, my health care providers and others have always called me by a name that I didn't want.
I particularly found it odd when it was my mental health care people calling me by my legal name. Shouldn't they be making me as comfortable as possible, and calling me Sarita? But my psychiatrist was calling me by my legal name the second time I saw him, despite me saying that I prefer Sarita the first time we met, so I just let it go. Because, what was the point?
The confusion between names has even led me to make my signature is illegible. This was the result of an experience I had when I was about eighteen, when a cashier observed that my signature didn't match the name of my debit card but said that he didn't want an explanation. Confused, I explained the reason, and he was pretty relieved. I quickly found out that he'd thought I was using my mom's card, and if I confirmed that for him he would have to refuse that form of payment. Not wanting the same thing to happen with another cashier who wouldn't be so laid back and trusting about it, I decided to change my signature. It now resembles scribbles, which embarrasses me, but it's better than potentially confusing cashiers and being unable to pay for something.
But when my legal name becomes Raine, all that will be past. I'll know what name to give people. My signature can be decipherable without someone thinking I've borrowed my mom's card. And I won't have to be resigned to my doctors and others calling me a name that I don't want. And I was thinking about all this as I flew as high and as far as I wanted in that dream.
In other news, I'm experimenting with vlogging. My first video is as follows.
Showing posts with label dreams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dreams. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Lucid Dreaming
It's strange how I can have a dream one night that's stressful and follows me through the day in a bad way, and the next night have a dream that's actually really good.
The first was a dream that I labeled an unsettling dream immediately after waking up from it. It was unpleasant, but I definitely wouldn't have called it a bad dream, let alone a nightmare. Yet it managed to set off my anxieties, leaving me afraid of the dark (sorry, of what might be in the dark) again, and then I spent yesterday exhausted. It was so strange.
Then, there was last night's dream.
Sometimes in my dreams I decide to go walking, and last night I found myself in a part of town that I've visited before but which doesn't exist in the waking world. I was sad to see that it was run down, apparently having been neglected for many years, but I still enjoyed exploring this new side of that place. Exploration brought me to an old building that was bustling with life and people creating new things. It was a place I'd never been before, and I enjoyed looking around.
Soon enough my exploring brought me to a room where I think some women were sewing, but my attention was caught by a tank in the middle of the room full of tadpoles. They were fascinating. I spent a couple minutes watching them, thinking about how it would be nice to raise some tadpoles myself, before I realized that there was already a large frog in the tank. No, there were two. And after waking, I cannot remember if there were in fact three frogs.
It was while looking at this tank, marveling, that I became aware I was dreaming.
This isn't the first time I've lucid dreamed, but when consciously trying to take advantage of this fact I've had a tendency to wake myself up. I have lucid dreamed a tad bit recently, during which I typically just made minor changes to my dream space, but this time I decided to go exploring the building further.
I didn't try to create a place or dictate what the dream would do. I just went looking around.
Soon I found stairs that I went down, and that somehow turned into someone's private residence. I thought that was weird, but decided not to question it. Dream logic...you can't expect it to make sense. I found a woman who was very hospitable and who made me feel at home, and I remember she played a recording of The Lion Sleeps Tonight that I wanted to recreate while awake. Unfortunately, I don't remember what made that recording so unique.
Also unfortunately, I "woke up" while I was with this woman who seemed to know me. I wasn't actually awake, and was still in that woman's home, but I thought someone had woken me up and didn't question why I was still in a place I'd been dreaming about. It was strange.
Thus are my latest forays into the realm of lucid dreaming. This time, with more success than I've had before.
The first was a dream that I labeled an unsettling dream immediately after waking up from it. It was unpleasant, but I definitely wouldn't have called it a bad dream, let alone a nightmare. Yet it managed to set off my anxieties, leaving me afraid of the dark (sorry, of what might be in the dark) again, and then I spent yesterday exhausted. It was so strange.
Then, there was last night's dream.
Sometimes in my dreams I decide to go walking, and last night I found myself in a part of town that I've visited before but which doesn't exist in the waking world. I was sad to see that it was run down, apparently having been neglected for many years, but I still enjoyed exploring this new side of that place. Exploration brought me to an old building that was bustling with life and people creating new things. It was a place I'd never been before, and I enjoyed looking around.
Soon enough my exploring brought me to a room where I think some women were sewing, but my attention was caught by a tank in the middle of the room full of tadpoles. They were fascinating. I spent a couple minutes watching them, thinking about how it would be nice to raise some tadpoles myself, before I realized that there was already a large frog in the tank. No, there were two. And after waking, I cannot remember if there were in fact three frogs.
It was while looking at this tank, marveling, that I became aware I was dreaming.
This isn't the first time I've lucid dreamed, but when consciously trying to take advantage of this fact I've had a tendency to wake myself up. I have lucid dreamed a tad bit recently, during which I typically just made minor changes to my dream space, but this time I decided to go exploring the building further.
I didn't try to create a place or dictate what the dream would do. I just went looking around.
Soon I found stairs that I went down, and that somehow turned into someone's private residence. I thought that was weird, but decided not to question it. Dream logic...you can't expect it to make sense. I found a woman who was very hospitable and who made me feel at home, and I remember she played a recording of The Lion Sleeps Tonight that I wanted to recreate while awake. Unfortunately, I don't remember what made that recording so unique.
Also unfortunately, I "woke up" while I was with this woman who seemed to know me. I wasn't actually awake, and was still in that woman's home, but I thought someone had woken me up and didn't question why I was still in a place I'd been dreaming about. It was strange.
Thus are my latest forays into the realm of lucid dreaming. This time, with more success than I've had before.
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| frogs |
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Wildfire Smoke in Portland
There are wildfires burning in Oregon and Washington right now. I've been watching the news about them, sad to see them destroying homes and much worse, that some firefighters have lost their lives. I was surprised to see that Washington is even accepting volunteers to help fire fight. I also hadn't thought about how the smoke from these fires would spread far beyond the flames, though that should have occurred to me. After all, I can vividly recall traveling through desert in eastern Oregon and seeing a ceiling of smoke due to wildfires (that's another story).
The smoke moved into Portland Friday night. I guess I recognized it in my sleep, because I dreamed about fire. I dreamed that someone was either burning a field or their trash, I'm not sure which, before the dream moved on to auto accidents that resulted in fires. This probably wasn't helped by the fact that I had both my windows cracked so that I could enjoy fresh air in my bedroom. Or, I was supposed to enjoy fresh air. Instead I woke up to smoky air, which was a bit alarming.
If you want to know what it's like for the fire fighters you might want to check the news. All I can tell you is what it's like in the Portland area, and that would be officially unhealthy, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
(Update added a bit after the rest of this post was written: I grabbed the above image late Saturday afternoon, about seven hours before I scheduled this post to go up. Doing a bit of double checking before letting this post go live I found that it's the same around Portland, with the differences being that there are now more red dots south of us plus one "very unhealthy" dot way on the other side of Mount Hood. That green dot is still there though.)
I guess it's not as bad as it could be, since the air quality is merely unhealthy and not hazardous where I am. Plus I suspect that the smoke overhead is helping to break the heatwave we've been experiencing. You know, keeping the sun off of us, like clouds would.
One of the strangest things about looking at the above map is seeing a little green dot of good air quality in between the red dots of unhealthy air. The wind's got to be doing interesting things for that to happen. And, as it happens, here's a video I found giving a visual of what the smoke has been and supposedly will be doing. It's fascinating, though it's in Washington whereas my map above is for Oregon.
It seems that many of the fires aren't well contained, but I hope that changes soon. I also hope and pray that no more lives are lost in fighting the fires.
The smoke moved into Portland Friday night. I guess I recognized it in my sleep, because I dreamed about fire. I dreamed that someone was either burning a field or their trash, I'm not sure which, before the dream moved on to auto accidents that resulted in fires. This probably wasn't helped by the fact that I had both my windows cracked so that I could enjoy fresh air in my bedroom. Or, I was supposed to enjoy fresh air. Instead I woke up to smoky air, which was a bit alarming.
If you want to know what it's like for the fire fighters you might want to check the news. All I can tell you is what it's like in the Portland area, and that would be officially unhealthy, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
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| map of air quality index |
(Update added a bit after the rest of this post was written: I grabbed the above image late Saturday afternoon, about seven hours before I scheduled this post to go up. Doing a bit of double checking before letting this post go live I found that it's the same around Portland, with the differences being that there are now more red dots south of us plus one "very unhealthy" dot way on the other side of Mount Hood. That green dot is still there though.)
I guess it's not as bad as it could be, since the air quality is merely unhealthy and not hazardous where I am. Plus I suspect that the smoke overhead is helping to break the heatwave we've been experiencing. You know, keeping the sun off of us, like clouds would.
One of the strangest things about looking at the above map is seeing a little green dot of good air quality in between the red dots of unhealthy air. The wind's got to be doing interesting things for that to happen. And, as it happens, here's a video I found giving a visual of what the smoke has been and supposedly will be doing. It's fascinating, though it's in Washington whereas my map above is for Oregon.
Smell some smoke? Here's why.....I recorded the U.S. Forest Service's Blue Sky computer smoke forecast for the Northwest through Sunday night....made this "public" so share if you'd like.....here's where the smoke is coming from:
Posted by Bob Heye on Saturday, August 22, 2015
It seems that many of the fires aren't well contained, but I hope that changes soon. I also hope and pray that no more lives are lost in fighting the fires.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Sleep paraylsis
Long tentacles reaching indoors. I somehow knew that it was Cthulhu come to destroy humanity, and responded accordingly: fighting back. It didn't occur to me how useless that would be.
Then somehow the dream shifted to me in my own bed. You know how dreams usually mess up places you know? Your furniture is arranged wrong, or else it isn't really your house at all. Or anyways, that's how it is for me. But not this time. This time, the dream got everything correct.
Some of Cthulhu's monsters were outside, and I could hear a stranger inside. I tried to move, to call out, to scare the intruder away. Then I realized that everything below my neck felt strange -- somewhere between numb and the pins and needles you feel when your foot is asleep.
I couldn't move. I couldn't make a sound. And that terrified me.
Thankfully, I woke up fairly quickly after that. And surprisingly, I was calm after the horror of being unable to move.
If I'm having a nightmare I can usually wake myself up by calling out. It might come out as a moan, but I'll sit up and make some noise. And, most importantly, wake myself up. I don't even have to realize I'm asleep to do this, and this is what should have happened last night.
Once I woke up I didn't bother to move at first. I didn't feel the need anymore. After another minute I started speculating that I'd just experienced my first night terror (no I hadn't, I was remembering the wrong name for something I'd read about before), and a minute after that I finally moved to check the time.
It was just after 1am, and I'd gone to bed at about 11:30pm. So I hadn't been asleep for very long.
This morning I did a little research (ok, I read a bit on Wikipedia), and realized that night terror was the wrong term. What I experienced was my first bout with sleep paralysis. It also turns out that dreaming about intruders during sleep paralysis is common.
I really hope this doesn't happen again. I prefer vanilla nightmares, even if they do leave me terrified.
I'm still surprised at how calm I felt once I woke up.
Maybe this was brought on by stress with what's going on with grandma. She just went into hospice yesterday.
Then somehow the dream shifted to me in my own bed. You know how dreams usually mess up places you know? Your furniture is arranged wrong, or else it isn't really your house at all. Or anyways, that's how it is for me. But not this time. This time, the dream got everything correct.
Some of Cthulhu's monsters were outside, and I could hear a stranger inside. I tried to move, to call out, to scare the intruder away. Then I realized that everything below my neck felt strange -- somewhere between numb and the pins and needles you feel when your foot is asleep.
I couldn't move. I couldn't make a sound. And that terrified me.
... ... ...
Thankfully, I woke up fairly quickly after that. And surprisingly, I was calm after the horror of being unable to move.
If I'm having a nightmare I can usually wake myself up by calling out. It might come out as a moan, but I'll sit up and make some noise. And, most importantly, wake myself up. I don't even have to realize I'm asleep to do this, and this is what should have happened last night.
Once I woke up I didn't bother to move at first. I didn't feel the need anymore. After another minute I started speculating that I'd just experienced my first night terror (no I hadn't, I was remembering the wrong name for something I'd read about before), and a minute after that I finally moved to check the time.
It was just after 1am, and I'd gone to bed at about 11:30pm. So I hadn't been asleep for very long.
This morning I did a little research (ok, I read a bit on Wikipedia), and realized that night terror was the wrong term. What I experienced was my first bout with sleep paralysis. It also turns out that dreaming about intruders during sleep paralysis is common.
I really hope this doesn't happen again. I prefer vanilla nightmares, even if they do leave me terrified.
I'm still surprised at how calm I felt once I woke up.
Maybe this was brought on by stress with what's going on with grandma. She just went into hospice yesterday.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Project Lucid Dreaming
I am revisiting my old plan of learning to lucid dream. As part of this project I reviewed my old dream journal, which I kept from September 9th, 2010 to January 17th, 2011. I noticed a few trends, and it'll be interesting to see if my dreams (now that I'm starting the journal back up again) keep the same trends.
Also, although it wasn't exactly a theme, there were two dreams that...well, not to analyze them too much (ok, so I may be slightly) should have maybe suggested to me that I am bisexual.
As the journal progressed I was able to write down more details about my dreams. Entries went from being more bullet points to being written more fluidly. If that makes sense. Well, I've obviously lost some of that, since my newest entry for today basically consists of two brief bullet points.
...a strange thing I just noticed. I know I had a little bit of success with lucid dreaming. Not much, but some. Yet there's only one dream in the journal where I was apparently aware that I was dreaming. Huh. I guess the other dreams happened after I'd abandoned the journal.
- There's usually at least one person who I can put a name to, even if it's a fictional person (like Darth Vader or Gandalf)
- I often know the place where the dream takes place, even if it doesn't translate accurately into dream land
- In particular, I tended to dream about school...or at least, my dreams often took place on campus
- Spirituality?
- I may have been slightly horny in some of my dreams...
Also, although it wasn't exactly a theme, there were two dreams that...well, not to analyze them too much (ok, so I may be slightly) should have maybe suggested to me that I am bisexual.
As the journal progressed I was able to write down more details about my dreams. Entries went from being more bullet points to being written more fluidly. If that makes sense. Well, I've obviously lost some of that, since my newest entry for today basically consists of two brief bullet points.
...a strange thing I just noticed. I know I had a little bit of success with lucid dreaming. Not much, but some. Yet there's only one dream in the journal where I was apparently aware that I was dreaming. Huh. I guess the other dreams happened after I'd abandoned the journal.
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| Moon by Petr Kratochvil |
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Weird dreams
There is a mystery in my family. But first, I need to point out that I play Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), whereas my brother plays Minecraft.
The mystery? I'm the one who dreams about Minecraft.
Why can't I be dreaming about dragons or orcs or some random strange creature from D&D? Why am I having dull dreams about making things in Minecraft? Actually, the possibly sad thing is that the dreams aren't dull at all.
(No offense to anyone who plays Minecraft. It just isn't my thing. I'd rather fight orcs and bugbears. Though I do enjoy hearing about Minecraft from Tall One, and sometimes like to watch over his shoulder.)
In the latest dream I wanted to recreate New York out of stone blocks. Why? I have no idea. But that was my plan. I tried making a small house first, and unfortunately ran out of stone for even that small project. So I had to mine more stone, but then had to eat because my energy was running low. Luckily I had food in my inventory, then unluckily then ran out of stone to mine...when I told Tall One that he laughed and said that stone is the most common thing in Minecraft.
He also said that I can mine for him in his game, since I'm apparently so good at it.
Please, I'd rather have dreams about dragons. Please.
The mystery? I'm the one who dreams about Minecraft.
Why can't I be dreaming about dragons or orcs or some random strange creature from D&D? Why am I having dull dreams about making things in Minecraft? Actually, the possibly sad thing is that the dreams aren't dull at all.
(No offense to anyone who plays Minecraft. It just isn't my thing. I'd rather fight orcs and bugbears. Though I do enjoy hearing about Minecraft from Tall One, and sometimes like to watch over his shoulder.)
In the latest dream I wanted to recreate New York out of stone blocks. Why? I have no idea. But that was my plan. I tried making a small house first, and unfortunately ran out of stone for even that small project. So I had to mine more stone, but then had to eat because my energy was running low. Luckily I had food in my inventory, then unluckily then ran out of stone to mine...when I told Tall One that he laughed and said that stone is the most common thing in Minecraft.
He also said that I can mine for him in his game, since I'm apparently so good at it.
Please, I'd rather have dreams about dragons. Please.
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| The dragon I encountered, but (luckily) didn't have to fight |
Friday, November 9, 2012
Gaming dreams?
I play Dungeons and Dragons. Tall One plays Minecraft.
I did experiment with Minecraft, and on a free trial I played it for about an hour and a half. I even got Tall One to tell me how to make things, so it wasn't 100% me puzzling out how to stay alive and not get eaten by a zombie or whatever.
Obviously, I have spent considerably more time playing D&D.
Yet guess which one I've dreamed about? Yeah, Minecraft. Go figure.
I can't remember the first dream, but in the second one I was remodeling my family's previous house Minecraft style. And whatever I alteration I made to the house was in the form of blocks. I was adding on an outdoor play area for the cats, which is something I had happy daydreams about when we lived there.
And now, because I have no idea where my Minecraft screen shots disappeared to, here is one from D&D.
I did experiment with Minecraft, and on a free trial I played it for about an hour and a half. I even got Tall One to tell me how to make things, so it wasn't 100% me puzzling out how to stay alive and not get eaten by a zombie or whatever.
Obviously, I have spent considerably more time playing D&D.
Yet guess which one I've dreamed about? Yeah, Minecraft. Go figure.
I can't remember the first dream, but in the second one I was remodeling my family's previous house Minecraft style. And whatever I alteration I made to the house was in the form of blocks. I was adding on an outdoor play area for the cats, which is something I had happy daydreams about when we lived there.
And now, because I have no idea where my Minecraft screen shots disappeared to, here is one from D&D.
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| D&D graveyard with jack-a-lanterns |
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
ADHD dreams
Is there such a thing as ADHD flare ups? I seem to have been annoying people (at the very least) lately, since I don't seem to know when to keep my mouth shut anymore...yeah, that would be the impulsiveness. Which I thought I had under control. :(
Also, I think I've also had two unfortunate dreams about ADHD. I don't remember the first one, but I had another one this morning.
I dreamed I was in school, and the professor gave us this unbelievably long test. I mean really, no professor would give a test that long unless it was take home and you had a week to do it in. And some of the questions on it were really stupid. (Such as "Who is running against the president this election season?") And no good place was provided for me to put my answers, so that was also confusing.
And of course, after an hour had passed virtually everyone else was done with their tests and had left, while I wasn't even half way through the first page.
And of course, I was well aware in the dream that it was my ADHD that made me unable to focus well enough to proceed at a reasonable pace. I was actually jumping around the back of the classroom since I couldn't stay on task.
(It should be noted that I do not have a history of test anxiety, which makes this dream even more bizarre. Although ADHD has made it extremely difficult to focus on tests once or twice.)
But I guess my subconscious could only take so much of that torture, and finally decided it ought to be nice to me, because the dream eventually changed so that I was kissing a really hot fictional guy that I used to have a crush on...
And THAT'S when my alarm clock went off.
Also, I think I've also had two unfortunate dreams about ADHD. I don't remember the first one, but I had another one this morning.
I dreamed I was in school, and the professor gave us this unbelievably long test. I mean really, no professor would give a test that long unless it was take home and you had a week to do it in. And some of the questions on it were really stupid. (Such as "Who is running against the president this election season?") And no good place was provided for me to put my answers, so that was also confusing.
And of course, after an hour had passed virtually everyone else was done with their tests and had left, while I wasn't even half way through the first page.
And of course, I was well aware in the dream that it was my ADHD that made me unable to focus well enough to proceed at a reasonable pace. I was actually jumping around the back of the classroom since I couldn't stay on task.
(It should be noted that I do not have a history of test anxiety, which makes this dream even more bizarre. Although ADHD has made it extremely difficult to focus on tests once or twice.)
But I guess my subconscious could only take so much of that torture, and finally decided it ought to be nice to me, because the dream eventually changed so that I was kissing a really hot fictional guy that I used to have a crush on...
And THAT'S when my alarm clock went off.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Dragon dream
I happened accross a dream that I shared on Facebook last year. When I wrote it down then it took on a life of its own and looks like the beginning of a very interesting story. Maybe even a novel. I'm not sure if I'll ever do anything with it really, but felt like sharing it here.
With minor editing, here is what I wrote last October. I can see at least two good questions that aren't answered in this short piece that would be fun to explore.
Our heroine had no idea how she’d gotten to where she was. Or that is to say, she did know how she had gotten there...but she didn’t understand how things had gone so wrong.
Jasmine had met who she thought was a kindly old lady and had attended a party. Little did she know that the grandmotherly new neighbor was the ringleader of an underground movement to eradicate all supernatural creatures, let alone that she would witness the demise of a dragon whose powers would be transferred to Jasmine herself.
However, the dragon’s fate did give her an idea.
With a trembling voice Jasmine said “I swear to serve and obey her.”
Jasmine barely saw the faces of those who shook her hands, those who had thought that she had given her oath to the old lady. In truth, Jasmine had been looking at a picture of the queen dragon when she uttered those words, and it was the queen dragon who she spoke them for.
…
When was the last time a human had served the dragons? Though she racked her memory, Jasmine couldn’t recall ever hearing of a person who had done so. She wasn’t entirely certain that she would enjoy her life among dragons, but she figured it would be better than what the alternatives had been.
It had been a surprise to find that she could turn herself into a dragon now, but that made it easier for her to find the dragons. She had escaped her kidnappers by telling them that she wanted to stretch her wings and also to see what the stars looked like above the clouds. They had wanted someone to go with her, but she insisted that she needed time to herself to think. And why would they distrust her? They thought her oath had been given to their ringleader.
…
“Explain yourself, human.” The queen said this in a growl.
Jasmine’s eyes widened. “How...how do you know I’m a human?”
“Because we know your kind, and we know that when you take our powers you can assume the shape of the one who is sacrificed. And we knew the minute that Joudin was killed in this manner. Did you really think to come before us, into our midst, in his form, and that none of us would suspect anything?”
Oops. This wasn’t going quite as planned. Still, at least they were demanding explanations rather than just killing her outright.
“I am not part of that group. Well...” Jasmine cleared her throat as a chorus of growls began around her, “They did kill a dragon, Joudin, for me...” Her voice trembled again, which was unusual for her. Then again, it’s difficult to not be shaken by a cave full of angry dragons. She continued, “And they demanded an oath of fealty. I did swear an oath, but it was to you, queen dragon, not them. The wording I used was ambiguous enough that they thought the oath was sworn to them when in fact it was not.”
It is very difficult to surprise a dragon. Even when unexpected things happen they usually just take it in stride. Yet Jasmine had surprised them.
After a few minutes of thought, the queen dragon said “It is all very well for you to say that you have sworn to serve me. Let me hear you make the oath again, to me, and this time let there be no ambiguity.”
“I swear to serve you, queen dragon, and however your successor may be.”
Jasmine said this quietly, and yet her voice seemed to thunder in the quiet cavern. Where there had been growls just minutes before all the dragons were now quiet, shocked at what had just happened.
…
“And here is a chamber where you may sleep. Call it your bedroom, if you like. You should find clothes of some sort on the drawers. I think. Anyways, other humans have been here before you.” Turin, the dragon who had been assigned the task of showing her around, was grumpy. The first thing he had done in his role of guide was to order her to change back into a human. The second thing he did was be exceedingly surprised.
“They sacrificed a male dragon for a woman!?”
Jasmine had suspected that she had the body of a male dragon, but she had not been certain of it. Neither did she know whether it was usual or unusual. Turin had informed her quite emphatically that it was not usual, and then he laughed at her when she asked if there was any place that she could get clothes.
Now she asked, “May I have a little privacy? At least until I get dressed?” Jasmine had had no idea that dragons could roll their eyes, but Turin certainly seemed to do so.
“Very well. But what does it matter? I’ve already seen you naked, walking all the way from the queen’s cavern to here. And if it’s so important, why didn’t you bring your clothes with you?”
“Because bringing my clothes when I left them to come here might have made them suspicious about my intentions.” There were clothes in the drawers all right, but they were men’s clothes. All too big, and no bras.
First the body of a male dragon, and now the clothes. Was the universe trying to tell her something?
With minor editing, here is what I wrote last October. I can see at least two good questions that aren't answered in this short piece that would be fun to explore.
*******
 |
| A sort of dragon ying yang. Found at www.clker.com |
Our heroine had no idea how she’d gotten to where she was. Or that is to say, she did know how she had gotten there...but she didn’t understand how things had gone so wrong.
Jasmine had met who she thought was a kindly old lady and had attended a party. Little did she know that the grandmotherly new neighbor was the ringleader of an underground movement to eradicate all supernatural creatures, let alone that she would witness the demise of a dragon whose powers would be transferred to Jasmine herself.
However, the dragon’s fate did give her an idea.
With a trembling voice Jasmine said “I swear to serve and obey her.”
Jasmine barely saw the faces of those who shook her hands, those who had thought that she had given her oath to the old lady. In truth, Jasmine had been looking at a picture of the queen dragon when she uttered those words, and it was the queen dragon who she spoke them for.
…
When was the last time a human had served the dragons? Though she racked her memory, Jasmine couldn’t recall ever hearing of a person who had done so. She wasn’t entirely certain that she would enjoy her life among dragons, but she figured it would be better than what the alternatives had been.
It had been a surprise to find that she could turn herself into a dragon now, but that made it easier for her to find the dragons. She had escaped her kidnappers by telling them that she wanted to stretch her wings and also to see what the stars looked like above the clouds. They had wanted someone to go with her, but she insisted that she needed time to herself to think. And why would they distrust her? They thought her oath had been given to their ringleader.
…
“Explain yourself, human.” The queen said this in a growl.
Jasmine’s eyes widened. “How...how do you know I’m a human?”
“Because we know your kind, and we know that when you take our powers you can assume the shape of the one who is sacrificed. And we knew the minute that Joudin was killed in this manner. Did you really think to come before us, into our midst, in his form, and that none of us would suspect anything?”
Oops. This wasn’t going quite as planned. Still, at least they were demanding explanations rather than just killing her outright.
“I am not part of that group. Well...” Jasmine cleared her throat as a chorus of growls began around her, “They did kill a dragon, Joudin, for me...” Her voice trembled again, which was unusual for her. Then again, it’s difficult to not be shaken by a cave full of angry dragons. She continued, “And they demanded an oath of fealty. I did swear an oath, but it was to you, queen dragon, not them. The wording I used was ambiguous enough that they thought the oath was sworn to them when in fact it was not.”
It is very difficult to surprise a dragon. Even when unexpected things happen they usually just take it in stride. Yet Jasmine had surprised them.
After a few minutes of thought, the queen dragon said “It is all very well for you to say that you have sworn to serve me. Let me hear you make the oath again, to me, and this time let there be no ambiguity.”
“I swear to serve you, queen dragon, and however your successor may be.”
Jasmine said this quietly, and yet her voice seemed to thunder in the quiet cavern. Where there had been growls just minutes before all the dragons were now quiet, shocked at what had just happened.
…
“And here is a chamber where you may sleep. Call it your bedroom, if you like. You should find clothes of some sort on the drawers. I think. Anyways, other humans have been here before you.” Turin, the dragon who had been assigned the task of showing her around, was grumpy. The first thing he had done in his role of guide was to order her to change back into a human. The second thing he did was be exceedingly surprised.
“They sacrificed a male dragon for a woman!?”
Jasmine had suspected that she had the body of a male dragon, but she had not been certain of it. Neither did she know whether it was usual or unusual. Turin had informed her quite emphatically that it was not usual, and then he laughed at her when she asked if there was any place that she could get clothes.
Now she asked, “May I have a little privacy? At least until I get dressed?” Jasmine had had no idea that dragons could roll their eyes, but Turin certainly seemed to do so.
“Very well. But what does it matter? I’ve already seen you naked, walking all the way from the queen’s cavern to here. And if it’s so important, why didn’t you bring your clothes with you?”
“Because bringing my clothes when I left them to come here might have made them suspicious about my intentions.” There were clothes in the drawers all right, but they were men’s clothes. All too big, and no bras.
First the body of a male dragon, and now the clothes. Was the universe trying to tell her something?
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