Dragonesse
31th Ymiden 719
I dream in a maddening kaleidoscope of intertwined impressions merging with each other and bouncing associations off of each other, forming patterns which are already changing even as they emerge and in front of the infinite ramifications spread out like an ever-growing weave of routes. Otherwordly oceans rise and fall and from the darkness, in the outer space between the stars a strange and foregin wind comes blowing, telling me of uncomprehensible pictures, structures, textures, music, noise and other things that come to me, like in a dream where I’m floating in the air as the wind carries me away...
-like in a dream ...
Like in a dream Yrmelllyn found herself floating in the air, flying even, the ground below her looking so odd from up here. She saw grass and gravel, trees and streams, huge wild forests, mountains, fields, big cities near harbors full of ships with colored sails, and small humble villages in the countryside, where cattle grazed on peaceful meadows and the silent folks who secretly were those who kept the world alive went about their endless toil. I all streamed into her awareness and expanded it beyond all limits of reality, the reality she knew.
-this wasn’t the reality she knew...
What reality is this, she asked herself as she kept flying over the world that wasn’t the world she knew. If this isn’t the reality I know, what is it then?
-I’m flying, but I’m not a bird, not even an insect, I am ...
Her wingspan was immense and the shadow she cast on the ground was such that it sent cattle running and made people hide in their houses, not to mention the armies she saw stop in their tracks, generals and supreme commanders acting like senseless ants when they saw her. She was a dragonesse! The insight came to her instantly, momentaneously. Giddy with happiness she flew faster and faster and faster and faster and the ground below began to look like a grey blur were everything floated together.
-so weird...
Woosh! A tempest created by her high-speed flight through the air followed in her wake. Trees fell where she flew past over land. Enormous waves arosed on the oceans and tossed ships and sea creatures around. To the dragonesse, all this was as it should be, as she the world below had nothing to do with her. It belonged to her, this world but she belonged to no one, except ...
-the heavy sound of drums...
Drummer, drummer of two worlds, oh the sound of drums! She knew this sound, she knew this tale, she knew this dream she knew the deafening sound of the gong at the end of the tune and the crackling feeling of rising up and out and waking up to ...
-it was a dream. She was dreaming. Even as she continued to fly, the dragonesse who was Yrmellyn Cole inside knew that she was dreaming. Inside the dream she was awake. A jubilant feeling went through her. She wanted to fly this way forever and so, she focused on staying awake with all the mental power she could muster. As Yrmellyn was a mage her mental power was considerable and this was the reason for why she managed to keep up the state of lucid dreaming she had entered despite how it was the first time it had happened to her. She had no name for it, yet. Yrmellyn didn’t think of explanations or what to call her experience. At the moment it was enough for her to relish in the discovery of a kind of dream that was new, intriguing and exciting. Her curiosity and artist mentality made it easy for her to accept that she was in another kind of reality now. The weird and quirky was the staples of her life art and now she’d found one more dimension of it. She loved every moment.
-until a mountain suddenly rose right in front of her. She had been so absorbed in the wonder she experienced that she hadn’t thought of where she was headed or why. Carried away on her emotions she had forgotten to stay in touch of with world around her. The mountain was still far away and the danger wasn’t immediate. But, she realized that she would crash into it if she didn’t take control of the flight and change the route to avoid a disaster. Not even in a dream did she want to crash. She knew that she must take control of the dragonesse (who was herself) and bend it from its blind flight toward death. But how? As this was Yrmellyn she resorted to what was important to her, art and endless curiosity. She couldn’t steer herself gone dragonesse by other means, but she knew very well what could tempt her to jump from one track to another and turn her to new goals in the blink of an eye. Another dream, another story, another trail of thought! Oh, look at the water down there how it glitters and gleams in the sun, a lovely motif for a painting ...
-swap!
In a weird and artsy manner, Yrmellyn had avoided getting closer to the mountain at the cost of turning into a dragonfly instead of being a dragonesse. She was now inside a small light being, but inside it, she was the dragonesse and inside the dragoness, Yrmellyn. She was adding layers. It was getting too complex. The dragonfly was not her’s to borrow. She felt like she ought to apologize for intruding. It hadn’t been her intention, she explained, it had just happened when she had wanted to save herself from trouble. A light and unreal laughter answered her, a buzzing sound she would ordinarily have found unnerving, but not now. Oddly, she was under the impression that the dragonfly was a companion who had been waiting for her.
She felt an impulse to let go of it all, fall asleep in the dream and wake up the real reality. The impulse turned into an urge, a feeling of high time to end what was happening. All the words she had ever heard about how only fools would play with powers they didn’t know much about arose from her memory and flooded her. She was dealing with a new and unknown power right now. It had already turned out to be dangerous to frolic around like a thoughtless child with a new toy. She had succeeded to take control for a moment and it had made a difference. But, she found it best to not over-estimate her ability to cope with the experience. There was a big difference between being a dragonesse and being a dragonfly. She was actually not looking to be either, not anymore. All she wanted was to be herself, Yrmellyn Cole, a quirky painter in her early thirties.
-swap!
She stood on the ground and was only Yrmellyn Cole again. Oddly, this made her feel more powerful than she had felt when she had been the flying dragonesse. She knew who she was. No doubt. It felt like this put her in control and made her safer. There would be no more senseless frolicking around in the dream just because of being awake. The landscape around her was foreign. She realized that she was standing at a crossroad. Paths were leading away from it in all directions, none of them marked with a sign telling her their destination. Yrmellyn felt like she ought to think really well now and pick the right path. But, she also suspected that all of them would lead to the same place. In that case, it wouldn’t matter which one she would pick.
A dragonfly buzzed in the shrubbery near a pond. The water gleamed and glittered through the foliage and the low buzzing sound of the insect made Yrmellyn feel like someone spoke to her and told her things, although she wasn’t able to understand them. Despite this, she paid heed to the insect. It seemed like the one she had already met and bonded with. Sort of. She walked nearer and the buzzing sound grew louder. Yrmellyn stepped through the shrubbery and out on the shore of the pond. On the other side, several tall beings began to sing. A choir. Their song vibrated in the dream and Yrmellyn felt that it was calling her to them. She began to walk out into the water, feeling dizzy and on the verge to fall asleep where she walked. The beings sang to her. Vaguely, she understood that it was not a good thing. Still, she continued forward, but she didn’t fall asleep and she didn’t go down under the water, because of the dragonfly began to buzz at a volume so loud and compelling that shook Yrmellyn out of the thrall. The insect pulled her with it and it felt like they passed through a membrane...
-out of the dream and into reality.
She experienced a feeling of falling out of the dream and down into her body, and then she woke up in the world she called real. It was late in the night or early in the morning, four breaks into the new trial of 31st Ymiden 719.
Yrmellyn couldn’t know it, but her lucid dream had begun at midnight when Emea had risen again and the flow of ether had suddenly been turned on and hit her like a flash of lightning. This was the reason for why Yrmellyn Cole had happened to discover dream walking, the art of being lucid in her dreams and wander around in the separate reality they offered. She had gone from no dreams to lucid dreams due to the shock of the returning ether. To Yrmellyn it was only a mystery. She knew no explanations. She had just woken up in her dream, flown over the world as a dragonesse, swapped out of danger in the nick of time just to meet new threats, but been saved by a dragonfly.
For a moment she felt amused by the dream and began to laugh. How absurd it had been! Except for her vivid memories, she felt it had luckily only been a dream. And then she stopped laughing. She was soaking wet like she had gone swimming! with her nightclothes on.
Like the dream had been real.
She didn’t feel so sure of the benefits of being awake in dreams anymore. Bogs. This seemed tricky. While she changed into a new nightgown and replaced the soaked linens with new and dry ones she wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t turned away from the route that would have taken her to that distant mountain, or if she hadn’t - sort of - bonded with the dragonfly who had woken her up and saved her. Because saved her it had, that felt very true, even if Yrmellyn had no idea why. It had never felt truer that it was best to not play with unknown powers like a carefree fool.
She heard a buzzing sound from a dark corner of the room.
Yrmellyn abstained from investigating it.
-like in a dream ...
Like in a dream Yrmelllyn found herself floating in the air, flying even, the ground below her looking so odd from up here. She saw grass and gravel, trees and streams, huge wild forests, mountains, fields, big cities near harbors full of ships with colored sails, and small humble villages in the countryside, where cattle grazed on peaceful meadows and the silent folks who secretly were those who kept the world alive went about their endless toil. I all streamed into her awareness and expanded it beyond all limits of reality, the reality she knew.
-this wasn’t the reality she knew...
What reality is this, she asked herself as she kept flying over the world that wasn’t the world she knew. If this isn’t the reality I know, what is it then?
-I’m flying, but I’m not a bird, not even an insect, I am ...
Her wingspan was immense and the shadow she cast on the ground was such that it sent cattle running and made people hide in their houses, not to mention the armies she saw stop in their tracks, generals and supreme commanders acting like senseless ants when they saw her. She was a dragonesse! The insight came to her instantly, momentaneously. Giddy with happiness she flew faster and faster and faster and faster and the ground below began to look like a grey blur were everything floated together.
-so weird...
Woosh! A tempest created by her high-speed flight through the air followed in her wake. Trees fell where she flew past over land. Enormous waves arosed on the oceans and tossed ships and sea creatures around. To the dragonesse, all this was as it should be, as she the world below had nothing to do with her. It belonged to her, this world but she belonged to no one, except ...
-the heavy sound of drums...
Drummer, drummer of two worlds, oh the sound of drums! She knew this sound, she knew this tale, she knew this dream she knew the deafening sound of the gong at the end of the tune and the crackling feeling of rising up and out and waking up to ...
-it was a dream. She was dreaming. Even as she continued to fly, the dragonesse who was Yrmellyn Cole inside knew that she was dreaming. Inside the dream she was awake. A jubilant feeling went through her. She wanted to fly this way forever and so, she focused on staying awake with all the mental power she could muster. As Yrmellyn was a mage her mental power was considerable and this was the reason for why she managed to keep up the state of lucid dreaming she had entered despite how it was the first time it had happened to her. She had no name for it, yet. Yrmellyn didn’t think of explanations or what to call her experience. At the moment it was enough for her to relish in the discovery of a kind of dream that was new, intriguing and exciting. Her curiosity and artist mentality made it easy for her to accept that she was in another kind of reality now. The weird and quirky was the staples of her life art and now she’d found one more dimension of it. She loved every moment.
-until a mountain suddenly rose right in front of her. She had been so absorbed in the wonder she experienced that she hadn’t thought of where she was headed or why. Carried away on her emotions she had forgotten to stay in touch of with world around her. The mountain was still far away and the danger wasn’t immediate. But, she realized that she would crash into it if she didn’t take control of the flight and change the route to avoid a disaster. Not even in a dream did she want to crash. She knew that she must take control of the dragonesse (who was herself) and bend it from its blind flight toward death. But how? As this was Yrmellyn she resorted to what was important to her, art and endless curiosity. She couldn’t steer herself gone dragonesse by other means, but she knew very well what could tempt her to jump from one track to another and turn her to new goals in the blink of an eye. Another dream, another story, another trail of thought! Oh, look at the water down there how it glitters and gleams in the sun, a lovely motif for a painting ...
-swap!
In a weird and artsy manner, Yrmellyn had avoided getting closer to the mountain at the cost of turning into a dragonfly instead of being a dragonesse. She was now inside a small light being, but inside it, she was the dragonesse and inside the dragoness, Yrmellyn. She was adding layers. It was getting too complex. The dragonfly was not her’s to borrow. She felt like she ought to apologize for intruding. It hadn’t been her intention, she explained, it had just happened when she had wanted to save herself from trouble. A light and unreal laughter answered her, a buzzing sound she would ordinarily have found unnerving, but not now. Oddly, she was under the impression that the dragonfly was a companion who had been waiting for her.
She felt an impulse to let go of it all, fall asleep in the dream and wake up the real reality. The impulse turned into an urge, a feeling of high time to end what was happening. All the words she had ever heard about how only fools would play with powers they didn’t know much about arose from her memory and flooded her. She was dealing with a new and unknown power right now. It had already turned out to be dangerous to frolic around like a thoughtless child with a new toy. She had succeeded to take control for a moment and it had made a difference. But, she found it best to not over-estimate her ability to cope with the experience. There was a big difference between being a dragonesse and being a dragonfly. She was actually not looking to be either, not anymore. All she wanted was to be herself, Yrmellyn Cole, a quirky painter in her early thirties.
-swap!
She stood on the ground and was only Yrmellyn Cole again. Oddly, this made her feel more powerful than she had felt when she had been the flying dragonesse. She knew who she was. No doubt. It felt like this put her in control and made her safer. There would be no more senseless frolicking around in the dream just because of being awake. The landscape around her was foreign. She realized that she was standing at a crossroad. Paths were leading away from it in all directions, none of them marked with a sign telling her their destination. Yrmellyn felt like she ought to think really well now and pick the right path. But, she also suspected that all of them would lead to the same place. In that case, it wouldn’t matter which one she would pick.
A dragonfly buzzed in the shrubbery near a pond. The water gleamed and glittered through the foliage and the low buzzing sound of the insect made Yrmellyn feel like someone spoke to her and told her things, although she wasn’t able to understand them. Despite this, she paid heed to the insect. It seemed like the one she had already met and bonded with. Sort of. She walked nearer and the buzzing sound grew louder. Yrmellyn stepped through the shrubbery and out on the shore of the pond. On the other side, several tall beings began to sing. A choir. Their song vibrated in the dream and Yrmellyn felt that it was calling her to them. She began to walk out into the water, feeling dizzy and on the verge to fall asleep where she walked. The beings sang to her. Vaguely, she understood that it was not a good thing. Still, she continued forward, but she didn’t fall asleep and she didn’t go down under the water, because of the dragonfly began to buzz at a volume so loud and compelling that shook Yrmellyn out of the thrall. The insect pulled her with it and it felt like they passed through a membrane...
-out of the dream and into reality.
~~ * ~~
She experienced a feeling of falling out of the dream and down into her body, and then she woke up in the world she called real. It was late in the night or early in the morning, four breaks into the new trial of 31st Ymiden 719.
Yrmellyn couldn’t know it, but her lucid dream had begun at midnight when Emea had risen again and the flow of ether had suddenly been turned on and hit her like a flash of lightning. This was the reason for why Yrmellyn Cole had happened to discover dream walking, the art of being lucid in her dreams and wander around in the separate reality they offered. She had gone from no dreams to lucid dreams due to the shock of the returning ether. To Yrmellyn it was only a mystery. She knew no explanations. She had just woken up in her dream, flown over the world as a dragonesse, swapped out of danger in the nick of time just to meet new threats, but been saved by a dragonfly.
For a moment she felt amused by the dream and began to laugh. How absurd it had been! Except for her vivid memories, she felt it had luckily only been a dream. And then she stopped laughing. She was soaking wet like she had gone swimming! with her nightclothes on.
Like the dream had been real.
She didn’t feel so sure of the benefits of being awake in dreams anymore. Bogs. This seemed tricky. While she changed into a new nightgown and replaced the soaked linens with new and dry ones she wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t turned away from the route that would have taken her to that distant mountain, or if she hadn’t - sort of - bonded with the dragonfly who had woken her up and saved her. Because saved her it had, that felt very true, even if Yrmellyn had no idea why. It had never felt truer that it was best to not play with unknown powers like a carefree fool.
She heard a buzzing sound from a dark corner of the room.
Yrmellyn abstained from investigating it.
