There was me, and two others guarding me. One was a man, the other was a woman, both were slightly taller than me but of equal builds. Both were called Olmec; I've never known anyone called Olmec, nor read or seen anything of the sort. The three of us were all dressed in very strange garb, the kind of stuff you might wear if you lived in the jungles of Borneo 3,500 years ago. The heat was sweltering, the air humid, the plants and sun definitely all corroborated my fashion.
I knew those two were guarding me because I was just aware and simply knew that I was in danger and this was confirmed by the arrival of some government bureaucrats chasing me down with suitcases and guns in hand. It was a very bizarre comparison between them and us. They were not handling the heat well in suit and tie. The Olmecs and I also looked all the same, whereas the bureaucrats were drawn from such a wide array of peoples that I could not tell what organisation sent them or what origin they were from. Their purpose was alien to me too; they said nothing besides a constant menacing advance.
Just as I instinctively knew Olmec and Olmec were my allies and the men in black and blue were not to be trusted, I also knew my purpose. My purpose in this dream was to be an aspiring soothsayer in service to a god I myself do not know, but in this dream I did. This god was the epitome of meekness and humility, and expected their soothsayers to be so too. Hence I could not resist the bureaucrats, but was reliant on the Olmecs for what I presume was technically permissable pacifism? I did not concern myself with the philosophical concundrums of what this meant, but instead steeled myself to make it to the temple with my conviction steeled, meekness unroused by action and my humility unsullied by pride. This god was not something I could see, but was something omnipresent - as if I had a distinct awareness that everything was a great blind amphibian thing constructed by tiny amphibian things. That a blind amphibian could see the future when it could not see the present made perfect sense to me in the dream; now that I am awake, I wonder why.
The Olmecs were stalwart guardians and helped me evade helicopter, car and receipt issuer. Our journey became easier as we ascended a mountainous slope which had many paths, through which we severed our trail from our pursuers. We descended rapidly down a strange spiral staircase deep in the mountain - no one seemed surprised that the spiral staircase opened into the skies above, defying all normal logic that to descend should not mean to descend above. At the bottom of the sky we found the temple. It was a large temple, though smaller than a cathedral, constructed from a grey ashlar I could not recognise. Rings of squares with many stairs led to the top of the temple; once more descending somehow brought me higher.
At the temple entrance the guards recognised us and bid us in; we had to be the ones they were looking for, because if we were not, we could not have found this place. Within, priests and attendants fed and gave water to Olmec and Olmec, whilst they watched me leave them in silence to an inner atrium. There one priest judged me as I chanted in my head "meek and timid", the priest echoing my thoughts as I realised with certainty that to be anything but meek and timid would be to guarantee certain death from our god's judgement. The priest was dire but understanding, reminding me that I did not have to do this, and that it was unusual for one so young to attempt this trial at all. I dared not look them in the eye and say no, because to respond at all directly to even the meekest of polite cautions would be anything but the meekest timidness.
Seemingly understanding my resolve, they gave way to allow me passage to the place where the ceremony would begin, and god would divine the future. There I sat and meditated whilst all around me many venomous snakes, centipedes, scorpions and beetles collected. Writhing, squirming and slithering, with my eyes shut I could visualise them everywhere. Yet only the one possessed by god would meekly allow me to kill it and divine the future. All others would at the first touch retaliate and kill me. My eyes never opened in the blindness could see as they did; and one shining snake, red, black and white stuck out to me. I reached for it and with the dagger beheaded it with one swoop.
Praying, I opened my eyes, shocked to discover that I had decapitated no mere snake. Instead what greeted me was a severed head, human but for many snakes on her head and a snakelike body. At once many questions fired through me piled one above the other. Had this been a person? Why were they part man and part snake? Why did they offer their head blindly and why did my hand cut so blindly? My doubts were not yet felt by the dangerous creatures still watching me but if I allowed my composure to deteriorate I would surely perish, and the temple watching on motioned me to continue. Prepared to divine from sacrificing a snake, I was not prepare to divine from sacrificing a snake-man. With hesitance overcome and self-disgust bypassed I opened up the upperbody from the back, removing the lungs, spine and other organs in that order. Bloody rivulets ran through channels carved into the temple floor, from which the creatures drank and feasted. This cleared a path for the old priest to check if my augury was correct. Then, checking I was correct, checking I was ok. These two things confirmed we left, the body left to the many servants of god.
The priest said how the augury revealed many people, telling Olmec and Olmec that they were the first two found, and it was no accident then that they were assigned to guard me, and in doing so bring them to the place of their revealing. They also chided them for not looking after their health better, as the augury revealed they were needed in the times to come, and their loss would be devastating. Rather sadly, the temple soothsayers all concurred that the augury said nothing about them, and this meant in all likelihood that their service would come to an end. I suggested that just because nothing was said about them does not mean they were doomed; but they said it wasn't at all bad news, it was just inevitable. They suggested I be grateful and look after Olmec and Olmec, who now seemed very confused that they were now to be protected by the one they thought they were to protect. We set out to ascend down from the temple to the mountain top when I woke up.
In the afternoon of that day from when I awoke, I called my mother who spoke to my sister over the phone. We spoke of many inconsequential developments in life, but one of the things that struck me was she said that night my sister had a terrible dream which disturbed her sleep greatly. In this dream she sat in a beautiful garden covered in white flowers, but a dark and large spider emerged, devouring each flower one by one. The spider then attacked her, taking off her head and removing her spine.
The other dream I had that night was one of the recurring dreams I've had a few times over the years, where I'm standing around my old haunts in the city centre when everything gets overrun by zombies/demons/whatever horrible horde. This time it was a horrible horde of ratmen, which immediately broke my immersion and caused me to realise I was dreaming. So instead of running from all the mortal threats I just *poofed* away from danger, consciously retconned danger and messed around, trying to summon super mega ultra chicken or jumping from fifth-floor stairwells just for funsies. Then jumping back up from the ground floor.
Three other dreams about searching for water but there was nothing else to those dreams.
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Topic: The Dream Thread (Read 510985 times)