Hi all, there was another more recent thread on dreams, but I wasn't able to find it.
This was a two part dream on two different nights that I thought you might be interested in.
It began two nights ago, I was invited to a ballet at this ancient medieval castle. Nicely groomed courtyard complete with bushes containing blooms of many different types and colors. There was a thick forest all around. The only other building I could see was what appeared to be an old disused mill of sorts, built of stones and mortar. I was wearing a long gown, the style of the medieval days, and I was being escorted by this lovely prince charming-type gentleman.
We entered the main ballroom and all about there milled every type of person you would expect for the day, mainly merchants, entertainers, princes and princesses and other gentleman along with their lady escorts. All were making their way toward the dining area.
The dining area consisted of several large tables with ornate wooden chairs. At both ends of the table sat two huge golden candlelabra containing large, burning wax candles. Servants were abuzz going back and forth setting up the china and silverware while others ushered in the aromatic platters of steaming food to be set on the tables.
My escort pulled a chair back for me to sit. I sat, then he nodded politely and pulled a chair back next to me to sit, then he sat. A clanging sound rang out and the crowd that now sat at the table fell quiet while the bell-ringer set the bell on the table, then sat.
An elderly gentleman got up and made a speech about one of the ladies and her escort who sat across the table from me. When the elder gentleman sat, the lady got up and recited a short speech, then she sat down. She was the princess of some neighboring kingdom and was to be wedded to the gentleman sitting beside her at some time later in the evening.
No sooner had supper begun than a disturbance broke out at another table behind me. I heard two men shouting at each other, then musket fire, after which all hell broke loose and the whole place was bedlam.
My escort took my hand and told me to follow, and to not dawdle, for it could cost us our lives. We ran across the terrrace and the courtyard. Still holding my hand my escort pointed to the old mill I had spotted upon arrival. By then I could hear many voices behind us, women screaming, swords clattering, and men bellowing out in pain. I did not dare stop to look back. I gathered my skirts about me and kept running toward the vacant mill.
Once in the mill my escort stopped abruptly, still holding onto my hand. I nearly lost my balance with the sudden stop. He was desperately looking around the jumbled room we stood in. He spotted a set of stone stairs among the shambles across the room and resumed moving forward, stepping around the rubble left from years of disuse. We began climbing the stairs two at a time where possible then stopping momentarily to move some debris that had fallen across the stairs through the years, then continuing to climb until we were on the second level. We momentarily stopped to listen. Below us we could hear the muffled sound of many voices.
My escort again looked wildly around the room then darted forward again toward another set of stone stairs to the third level. We went up and then up once more on another set of stairs to the roof of the ancient mill.
He walked over to the edge of the roof where he looked down. When I looked down I felt like my heart had skipped a beat and my face must have blanched in fear. Then he ordered me to take off all the clothes I could as he proceeded to take his own clothes off. He stopped momentarily in mid-stride of taking his trousers off and said, "Just take the gown off. I need it to make some type of rope to climb down. I beleive once we get down to the forest below we will be safe. The king's men will not enter the Black Forest."
Tying the make shift rope to one of the parapets on the roof of the ancient mill he let it fall towards the forest floor. It came about 15 feet short of the ground. "With some luck we may make the jump the rest of the way without breaking anything," he informed me. I remember thinking, "How did I ever get into this? How did I get here to begin with?"
So we beagn to climb down the rope and everything was fine until about half-way down. I heard what I thought was a ripping sound then a snapping and I am finding myself free-falling towards the forest floor! I closed my eyes and spread my arms out then I felt the wind against my face and my hair fluttering behind me.
When I opened my eyes I saw the long sleeves of my silk undershirt fluttering behind my arms. They had the appearance of white wings. I looked below and I saw the tops of the trees of the Black Forest moving below me like I was flying. "I am flying!" I thought to myself aloud.
I came to the edge of a cliff then I began to lose altitude but gradually and slowly descended until I landed on top of a tree that had fallen against the cliff. It lay at about a forty-five degree angle. I remember the rough bark under me after I landed. I sat upon the tree trunk then shinnied down the rest of the way to the ground. I could hear a river not far away.
I walked toward the sound and came out to a clearing. There was a wide gravelly shoreline on both sides of the blue river that rippled and gurgled its way around some stones and waterlogged sunken logs and other debris. The sky was a deep blue and dotted with a few white clouds and all was silent outside of a few birds and the gurgling of the river and the whispering of the breeze at the top of the giant trees that lined both sides to the river banks.
I stood knee deep in the cool clean river water with the breeze fluttering the long sleeves of my undershirt as I raised my arms then closed my eyes once more as though in preparation to take flight once more.
Cindy
End of part One
