Okay--you know, usually, when I have dreams, I am powerless in them. I try to call 911, and I can't even get a dial tone. Or disembodied voices are distantly exchanging recipes or gossiping and not surrendering the line so I can call the police or whomever I need to contact. If someone or someTHING is about to attack me, I pick up a stick or something to defend myself and it turns into a carrot or something equally useless. If I try to run away, my feet sink into the ground. Or I fall down, and I am so tired and weak that I can barely crawl. If i am trying to escape from a tornado, no matter how far down the stairs I go, there are huge windows with a full view of the approaching twister. i hate the powerlessness i feel in dreams.
Well, last night's dream must have been the result of some stupendous breakthrough, psychologically speaking.
At first, the dream was about me and a bunch of people in some sort of big underground lair. It was sort of like the underground burrows of the human survivors in Terminator I, only with more 'stuff.' I was packing and organizing things--sorting out books--cleaning out desk drawers. My father was in this dream also. He's been making a lot of guest appearances in my dreams lately. He was some sort of military officer in this dream. He was impatient and snappy.
In one of the desk drawers i was cleaning out, I found a small oval case--it was very old and it was gold. it looked like an old fashioned pocket watch, but it didn't have a clock inside. what was inside were two dusty mirrors. i held it out to my father and asked him if he wanted it. He gestured impatiently that he didn't. I decided I would keep it. i was thinking it might have been my great-grandfather's at one time.
There was an anxiety in the air--a sense that something unpleasant was impending. Someone announced, "The battle is starting! They are dropping in troops now."
The setting of the scene changed abruptly. I could see the open air, and in the sky there were a bunch of low flying ships that were shaped similar to manta rays. Each of the dark gray ships dropped two alien soldiers onto the ground. As soon as they hit the ground, the leaped into the nearest group of innocent by-standers and began shredding them with their teeth and claws. I was still standing by the desk I had been cleaning out--but now it was out in the open. i dug through the top drawer looking for something--anything--that I could use as a weapon. i found the small paring knife i keep at school for cutting up my apples. I thought, "This sucks. I'll have to be awfully close to the monsters to fight them off with this."
Usually by this point in my dreams, i have gathered a bunch of terrified and clueless people whom I feel compelled to protect and save, and I am looking for a place to hide.
Not last night. Last night, I held that knife by the hilt with the blade pointing downward. I saw this alien, a really REALLY UGLY alien, that looked sort of like a giant frog, only it walked upright and hand very long and skinny arms and legs with knobby joints. It had big white eyes--they were the size of dinner plates, at least--and it had some sort of tentacles sticking out of the top of its head that wiggled around as it attacked people. As i was deciding what i should do, I saw it leap into a crowd of screaming people and begin dismembering them. Arms, legs, and blood were flying outwards from the fray.
Other creatures were loping around, attacking other people. When the frog-like creature began to attack a group of my students, who were running and screaming for their lives, I got just freaking FURIOUS. I held that knife up above my head and ran at the frog-creature, screaming at the top of my lungs--a sort of "rebel yell" or a "berserker rage bellow"--in the dream, I could run, which was a good feeling. In real life, i would have to limp over with my cane to attack the monster and would probably be so out of breath by the time that I got to it that I wouldn't be able to do much damage.
The creature stopped and stared at me in amazement. i was the only one running TOWARDS him instead of AWAY from him. (I assume it was male. There was really no way to tell. I didn't see any alien 'boy parts' dangling anywhere--and who knows what giant frog alien boy parts look like any way. (The creatures did not wear clothing, by the way.)
i hurled myself at the creature, bringing the knife down as I did. i stabbed it just below the 'throat' or what would be the throat if the creature was a human. The momentum of my stab carried downwards past its belly. Up close, the thing was sort of furry--a short, gray-green bristly fur. I sliced through its bulging gut, through the fur layer and through the fat layer. It seemed uncomprehending, even as I jammed the knife deeper into its body and the organs and gunk started to ooze out. It took a couple steps toward me then, but somehow it ended up on its back on the ground. i don't know where it came from, but suddenly I was holding a long black metal post of some kind. It was somewhat pointed on the end, and I put the point against the creature's eye and leaned forward on it until it pierced the eye, went on through the back of the skull, and embedded itself into the ground. i must have been really really strong in that dream. As i leaned down on it, jamming it deeper, my intent was to pin it to the ground so that it couldn't get up and wreck more havoc even though it was injured.
Once the thing was sincerely pinned to the ground (by a stake through its eye), I stood over it and howled like a crazy person. I felt an animal-like emotion of victory and defiance, and I just roared it out.
Then I turned to look for the next closest alien. This one looked like a combination of a shaggy wolf and a wild boar with big curved tusks. The only thing "wolfy" about it was the shaggy fur. While it was content to ravage other people running from it, it ran away from me. Cowardly bastard.
There were trailer houses with no skirting on them, and the creature was running under them as I chased it. I didn't go under the trailer houses after it because I was afraid it would have too much of an advantage under there, but i kept stabbing at it with my paring knife.
JB was in the dream then. He, for some reason, didn't want me to attack the beast. He had a long sword that he kept swatting at me with. He wasn't really trying to hurt me, just to keep me from the alien. He'd do this little swish-swish-swish move that would cut three thin slices in my arms or on my back or legs. It stung but didn't really do any damage.
I got really irritated with him because these aliens were killing people. And he was standing between me and one i wanted to kill. I think maybe he was afraid that resisting the aliens would cause them to be worse--but they were already tearing people to pieces! How much worse could it get?
Anyway, I was fighting him off with my little pairing knife. I bent his sword so that it folded up on the end. At some point, he stumbled, and he fell down to his knees. I happened to be behind him at the moment, and I slipped a loop of cord around his neck and tightened it up. I did not strangle him. I love JB, so why would I strangle him?
Instead, i made him swear that he would not interfere with my alien slaughtering and that he would defend the Constitution with me. (where the EFF that came from, I do not know) and join in my quest to save humanity from the invaders.
There was more to the dream, but it sort of deteriorated into randomness after that point. I never did get to kill the other creature.
I'm really not sure what the significance of this dream was--but I am certain it WAS significant as I was not helpless in the dream, and I am ALWAYS helpless in these types of dreams. I figured (in the dream) that the aliens would defeat and kill me--but at least I wasn't defenseless prey. i was going down fighting.
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