I had this dream
First I was in this canyon. There was a statue of a gorilla who was me. My brother was also a gorilla and he was there, telling me that my gorilla self was a scientist who had contributed many great things to their society, but then she went off to look for the last of the banana trees (because bananas had gone extinct years ago). It was a dangerous expedition to what used to be Mexico city, now a crater. The city had been destroyed and a rain forest had grown in the crater where it once was. My ape-self was the first person to lead an expedition there. She never returned and they put up this statue in her memory.
John-ape was hopeful that I was a scientist too, but I told him that I more had the brain of the artist. I tried fixing up some weathered spots on the statue with paint, but because I'm not
a real artist, it was sloppy. I think I was close to discovering some secret hidden on the statue. You see, there was foul play involved in my ape self's disappearance. John-ape explained that the ruling apes didn't like some I'd what my ape self was mucking around in. I wanted to help, so he said he would get me into the city. It was on top of a cliff we had to climb. After the first thirty feet or so, we were on the first level of the city. The first few levels were mostly empty, but there were lots of doors leading to homes that had been carved
into the rock. The streets-also carved out of the rock-wound upwards to the main part of the city. The rock was a subdued orange color, like how I think the Grand Canyon looks, only smooth. On the first level was a guard, a huge ape dressed vaguely like a mongolian warrior, if it was an action-adventure movie portraying what a mongolian warrior looked like. John-ape told me to keep walking as he distracted the guard. I don't know what he said, but the guard let us go. John-ape explained that we would have to get past guards on every level. Most wouldn't care about me, but two were particularly ruthless and intelligent. They might recognize me as Corynn, though the Corynn they knew was a gorilla. Fortunately the first of the scary guards was not at his post. I don't remember what happened with the second. Because the dream jumped then.
I was now living in the city. The people in the city were more like orcs or trolls than apes and I don't know where John-ape went. I was kept there as an oddity. I lived in the dorms with young female orcs who were sent to the city to get their education. Because of my small stature and pudginess, they thought I was much younger than I am and I was enrolled in their school system. The orcs made fun of me because I was different and strange. Being that I was actually an adult, I didn't mind too much. I was looking for a way to escape. I had to participate in a school play. I was the frog princess and wore a green and yellow princess dress. I had socks with frogs on them and green shoes. I tied a yellow ribbon to keep my hair out of my face. It had grown long in my time there, but still poofy and curly. I had trouble dressing, my bra wouldn't go on right.
Something happened and then I was in a castle. The king was an orc and I was betrothed to his daughter (who was rather small for an orc). There was some business about how I was supposed to go meet someone at the door or get ready for the wedding, I don't recall which. I believe I got distracted by playing with plastic dinosaurs or picking out a vest. There was something in here about a black dragon that had no wings and spat venom at knights trying to scale the wall. Things got a little meta and it seemed I was playing AD&D or MtG. But then my fiance found me in my room and had the person I was supposed to meet at the door. I apologized for forgetting but she didn't mind. I think she expected me to be absent minded. She wanted me to take the guest (who must have been an orc-she was very tall but wrapped up in dark clothes and a nun-like habit) on a tour. I really didn't know the castle that well, so my fiance led the way through the huge stone halls and doorways decorated with stone monsters. She said something about people in the castle being very open and accepting and I muttered something about how they weren't accepting of me. She scolded me for being negative. I should point out that I was aware that I didn't want to get married though I hadn't thought on it during the dream. I liked my fiance just fine,but marriage wasn't my idea. The king had picked me because he feared his
daughter would be injured by a normal orc male, which are so much larger. He wouldn't risk any harm to his daughter. So I was dressed up as a man and passed off as some foreign lord, to keep any orc dukes and such from trying to woo the princess.
Well on with the tour. We left the castle to visit the swamp surrounding it. Did I mention that
the castle was gray stone and not carved out of a cliff anymore? In the swamp were large lumpy rocks that looked like toads to me. I thought they were toads, mostly submerged in the slimy water. That was foreshadowing I guess. We moved deeper into the swamp to an area that was apparently very important. Here was a huge gray pool and there were very large brown rocks poking out of the water like the backs of frogs. My fiance was saying something about the importance of the rocks and we started to climb a steep slope to the top of a hill that
overhung the pool. The ground started to shake and I knew the rocks were giant toads, about to rise up out of the water and address us. We had to be on top of the hill so we would be at eye level. I hurried but the shaking dislodged rocks and I slipped on then and the dead, wet grass so that I fell behind my fiance. She was at the top, spreading her arms and calling out to the toad-gods as their blinking eyes raised to meet hers, water and weeds cascading off their rough
brown skin. I finally made it to the top as one was opening it's wide pink mouth. I was going to learn the origins of the people (the orcs) how the frogs gave them their land and magic and culture. I was going to learn how the ancient amphibians raised the stones of the castle out
of the ground without anyone having to lift a hand. I was going to learn about the world of the people I was marrying into and maybe find a hint of what roll I was going to play in its future. I woke up.
Drawings inspired by the first part of the dream:
