From the vault of memories...

So, sometimes people talk about how dreams are symbolic of something that our subconscious mind wants to tell us. I don't know about you, but I think that may be true in certain cases, though I don't think that all the supposedly "universal" symbols are accurate for every person. One dream may mean one thing to one person, while the same dream means something different to someone else. That's what I think, anyway.

Also, random thought, if dreams are symbolic, what are my dreams telling me? o.O

I will say that I did have one dream that seemed extremely symbolic. If I could figure out how to write a ballad, this might be the perfect base for one.

Anyway, this dream started out in a sort of fantasy type of world, but it had an almost Victorian feel to it. Gentlemen and ladies and courts and counts and things like that. I was part of the ruling house in this city, and I was betrothed to the love of my life (who in the dream was Nil, my current boyfriend at the time). Everyone in the city was gathering at the town square for a sort of festival. It seemed to be some sort of joyous event, and for such special occasions we had a special amphitheater dug into the ground. (I suppose that the city held many festivals and plays in order to justify having a permanent amphitheater.)

Nil and I were having a wonderful time enjoying the festivities, and it seemed like nothing could go wrong. (Famous last words) Suddenly arose a great wind and dark smoke began rising from the amphitheater stage. Maniacal laughter rang throughout the town square as a black portal opened up from the stage and giant demons began pouring out into the theater and terrorized the crowd! The man on the stage apparently had a grudge against my family and had made a pact with the demons in order to use them to destroy us completely from the face of the earth. The beasts were just barreling down on me and my family when Nil somehow found a loophole in the evil man's pact and sacrificed himself to save us. To save me.

That's right. The love of my life, my beloved, was dead.

I blamed myself for his death, but my family and I had to leave our city home in haste. While the evil man had not succeeded in his venture to destroy my family, he did provide enough chaos for other rebels to stage a coup and run us out of our home. We fled to our country home (which again, looked like my old house in Indiana), where Nil and I had spent many of our days while we were courting.

I was walking through the house, sort of lost in grief. Several guards were outside, searching for traps that might have been placed there in preparation for the coup. One man came up to me, saying that he didn't find anything unusual in the front garden, except for something that had apparently been left for me. I remembered that my beloved was very good at making little contraptions and often left little surprises for me, and I had a small memory of him doing something out in the front garden, though he had not let me see what exactly it was at the time. Sometimes he even left scavenger hunts. It was possible that he had left one for me and that I had not found it yet.

I went out to the front garden and sat on the bench that the guard had told me about. Suddenly a gorgeous rose popped out from underneath the seat, with words written on the petals. The words were an excerpt from my favorite poem, as well as a small note telling that he had a gift for me, but I must find it. I was overjoyed because I missed him so much. It was like having one last message from him. Suddenly the rain began to fall, washing the words on the rose away. I scrambled to find a pen and somewhere to write down the words before they were gone forever, but I was only able to copy down a small portion of the words on the rose petals before the words had disappeared forever.

I was heartbroken, and sat clutching the paper with the last bits I was able to copy down sobbing.

The dream shifted to the city. The place was in ruin, and fires still smoldered all throughout the town. The only place still completely intact was my family's house, now overtaken by the traitors who ran us out. I sat in the shadows of an alleyway, watching the house closely. There were a few other people with me, there with the intent of somehow spying on our enemies and taking them out, but I was there for another reason. The words on the rose seemed to indicate that I needed to find the book with my favorite poem in it in order to find the next clue in his scavenger hunt. In my grief I was desperate to finish the last scavenger hunt he had left for me, and I was not about to let a military coup stop me from doing so.

I knew that the book I needed was in the library, so carefully, so as to not draw suspicion to myself, I sneaked into the house and made my way there. When I arrived there, the library was in disarray, and deep shadows made it difficult to tell if I was alone in the place or not. The books were mostly untouched, so in time I was able to find the book I was looking for. Unfortunately I was not able to sit and read it there, because people were coming, and I knew that I would be recognized and captured if I was caught.

Also, most regrettably, the dream ended there, so I don't know where the next clue would have taken me, or if I even made it out unscathed from the house or not. The thought had crossed my mind that my beloved might not have even had the chance to finish the scavenger hunt, and my hunting would have been for naught. I really hope that isn't the case, though, because finding that scavenger hunt gave me so much hope. I mean...I felt as though my soul was being crushed and twisted until it would shatter because I was in so much despair, and finding the little things left behind by Nil made it feel like he wasn't completely gone.