part of a childhood dream

In this dream, it is a bright, warm sunlit day. I am out to sea, standing on the deck of a large sailing ship. The wooden deck boards, hot in the midday sun, smell fresh and dry and fill my head with thoughts of adventure. All around us the sparkling sea rolls brilliant and calm in dazzling hues of azure blue.

I am not myself in this dream but someone much older. I look down at my hands but they are not my hands and these are not the cuffs of any clothing I have ever seen before.  Several of us have gathered on deck to take the air, and while i do not recognize any of my fellow travelers, we all seem to be content as the ship, despite there being no wind, glides quickly across the glassy green waves.

Staring up through the towering rigging upon which no sails are flown, I become aware suddenly that the ship has slowed and drifts gentle in the warm sun.   We gather at the starboard rail to watch the placid waves gently rocking, all the way to the distant horizon, nothing but sea and sky in all directions.

But as we consider that tranquil sea, there begins to be a disturbance in the smooth surface starting with just the slightest ripple and chop but eventually exploding into a massive turbulent fissure, a churning canyon of heaving water almost as big as the ship itself. 

And from this frothing trench emerges a megalith of serpentine sinew, a shining writhing creature of iridescent scales and fins like rainbow pennants flying from its massive sweeping tail.

Once the sea monster has fully emerged, swimming beside us like a sister ship, all is calm again and the sun shines and the sea sparkles and the monster stares down at us with bright, shining turquoise  eyes as it’s beautiful terrible body glitters in the sun. Suddenly as if by some secret appointed signal, she swings her massive tail and cleaves our sorry ship in two, sending all aboard down into the great ocean.

But I do not panic as the warm dry bright blue sky disappears before my eyes, sinking into the cool dark maw of the swallowing sea even as the scent of the sun drenched deck lingers in my nostrils as a last defense against the rushing water. I begin to sink, face to the sky, back to the dark deep, arms outstretched drifting like the dead into the fathomless black. 

As I slide down into the depths, serenity slips away as massive walls of blue green water surround me and I realize that I must breathe. My eyes search in desperation through the vast expanse until I  notice distant luminescent points drifting up towards me swaying and weaving through the currents, growing larger, coming closer, until I am surrounded by glowing orbs trailing phosphorescent spirals back behind them.

To be continued.