Dream Daybed

Dreams are the mother of all invention, and man I have some strange ones.  I guess it could be considered a writing tool, or even research, its just not something I can control.  Every month or so I have a spurt of 4-5 days where my dreams are just so whacked out that I have to write outlines and stack them atop the pile of short story ideas. 

 The thing that gets me is trying to figure out what some of them mean.  Some are a bit disturbing, and I wouldn’t want to share outright.  Take for example, the other morning I work up with a clear memory of my dream. 

A friend and I walk down a dirt road.  We see a long stretch of exposed rock running parallel to the road.  Something green draws our attention.  Little pieces of Jade lay scattered across the foot tall seam.  I pick one up and instantly get ill.  I sweat, feel lightheaded and drop the rock.  I feel better.  I try again and I get the same thing, the second I hold the rock, my stomach churns and a wave of sickness washes over me.

I drop the rock and we head down the path, finding a kind of flea-market.  Every shop is an old-fashioned wagon with tables covered in junk.  We spend hours looking though every bobble and wasting the sunlight.  We don’t buy anything because we only have enough money for one purchase.  At the back corner an old man is putting away his stuff and about to go inside of his wagon and sleep.  We see the same rock wall running right by his stall, a big rock has stuff carved in the flat face. Tracking a death count, something says the last activity was two quick pickups.

I inquire about the small cardboard piece on the ground.  It looks to have a drawing of tiny sized shoe-prints–miniature scale.  He says he can shrink us down so we can get the jade pieces from the rock wall.  We give him our only white coin and step on the piece of cardboard.  In a flash were staning on the board at about 1/10 normal size.  The curse only affects large beings, se were safe to remove the jade.

We jog to the wall; the manicured grass is like a corn thicket.  At the wall, we roll one piece of jade out and look around.  A nearby section is covered in pieces up the face.  The sun is going down, we need to hurry and get back before things get dark.  I climb the Cliffside and push a couple of the jade boulders over and down to my buddy.  He yells for me to hurry, I go to the top level and push a couple more then climb down. 

We have a dozen of the rocks laid out, barely able to make them roll over the rough ground.  We push one a few feet and everything falls dark, the sun went down.  We huddle together, the distant torch lights waft in the air, leaving swirled glowing trails. One of the jade rocks begins to rumble and then cracks apart, we look at the others and they all either turn to normal rock or splinter. 

 We head back to the cardboard and a plant jumps out, lashing with barbed branches.  Everything looks mutated and sinister.  An ant big enough to be a horse comes forward, covered in spikes and metal armor.  We pull out swords and fight through the mess, stuck in the shrunken, deformed world.

It all kind of gets hazy from there on.  I remember my yellow cat; I think I was holding him when we went through.  I don’t know about you, but some of this stuff is just a little wacky when you step back.  But as a fantasy story, oh yeah, I can see it working.