(no subject)

Just woke up from a strange and exciting dream. It kind of jumped around, actually. (I'll tell you about it, but there's more to this than just the dream itself.)

First a girl wandering alone through a city (I held my breath as I watched her, as if in a movie) having to escape the three men who followed her around the subway station. She ran into a couple of other girls and they made it to safety together.

Then she was younger, in her early to mid teens, and I was her babysitter for the night. We were supposed to be walking home, but she ran ahead in a different direction. Breathlessly, I chased after her. Until we got to a breathtakingly beautiful landscape of rolling green hills. She promised we would just be there for a quick visit, and could still be home on time.

She ran ahead again. I watched as she got to a house on a hill. Below, in the valley, was a sprawling mansion, almost a castle. She told me she just wanted to see if the good witch or the bad witch appeared on porch first, as that would be an omen for the coming day.

It turned back into a movie as the good witch appeared and then fainted. Someone had sprinkled the landing site with coriander, she gasped! She had had some training as a witch herself (plot point: we'd surely find out more about that later, with the likely result of her becoming apprenticed to the good witch, if not taking over for her entirely).

She ducked into the house, and stumbled onto... Gasp! A jar of coriander! The house's owner walked in. I held my breath as the girl stumbled to explain, and then escaped from the room (as I stood there to back up her explanation).

Then it was two male friends in the road. I was sometimes an observer, sometimes in the head of one of the pair. We stood outside the house. The wicked witch walked out. We started to run. She got ready to throw a spell at my friend. There was only one thing I could do. I secretly had some magic of my own, but I had never used it. I prepared a shield, the one spell I could (maybe!) cast. I had to time it just right! I held my breath, waiting for the right moment.

She threw her spell. I cast the shield. She was aiming for my friend, not me! I shifted the shield. Would it work? My breath caught. But yes! The shield formed! It protected him. I even managed to push it back, knocking the witch momentarily off her feet! "Run!"

We ran. The witch got up, intrigued by this new and unexpected magic. She got ready to cast again. Running as fast as I could, I desperately threw a half-formed shield behind me. I didn't even turn to see if it had done any good.

My friend was ahead of me. He'd already gotten to the train station. It was on the second floor. The witch was right behind me. A breathless moment.

A sudden, desperate idea! I started throwing shield bubbles behind me with both hands, as fast as I could. Everyone watched, amazed, as I flew through the air, jetting bubbles. I managed to maneuver to the second floor and drop between the ceiling and the railing. It was a glorious, scary, breathless moment.

Behind me, the witch stopped to examine one of the bubbles, which remained intact on the ground for a short while. There would be a price to pay for my escape. She would learn about my magic, likely more than I knew myself.

With that realization, I woke up, gasping for air.

My CPAP reports zero breathing anomalies in the five hours I managed to sleep.

I have an appointment Thursday morning. It can't come soon enough.