I had a dream....

So, I think we're discovering that the whole post-several-times-a-week thing isn't working out so well. I had thought this would be a good way to motivate me to write more, but unfortunately all I'm doing is feeling guilty for not posting more often. But, I have to be fair to myself, too. I'm not using this blog to promote a business or a product. I'm not a single mom who can stay home and spend the day watching a child and doing crafts or spend hours cooking fantastic foods. I'm a young woman in her twenties working overtime at a job that involves staring at a computer all day, struggling to make ends meet and get all the chores done and cook enough food so we don't starve and then using what little time I have left to relax a little. So I'm going to give me a break and make a new promise; I will write when I think I have something worth writing. I'm pretty sure no one's listening anyway, but if I'm wrong - hey, good on you! Thanks for coming. :)

Anyway, the main subject of today's post will be the dream I had last night. It was one of those fantastical awesome dreams that, if I had the ability and motivation, could make an awesome comic or full-on story or fantasy movie, but since I don't...well, I'll put the stuff I remember down here for now. The first half will have more details than the end since I had to wake up my guy in the middle, but I'll try to make it run as smooth as I can. And I may or may not add some details that weren't actually there, just for storytelling entertainment. Anyway, here it goes.

My friend and I stood in a forest, staring up at a tree. We had been wandering through the woods for hours now, sort of lost but not really willing to admit it while it was still daylight and we were having fun. This particular tree had caught our attention; it had purple leaves like certain cherry trees, but it was HUGE. Like, we tried to touch hands around the base of the trunk and we couldn't. So we decided to just chill for a moment and bask in its glory. "That's an awesome tree." I said, my voice a little strained from having my head cranked back so far. "Yeah," my friend agreed. "I would have loved to climb that tree when I was younger." I added wistfully. My friend lowered her head to look at me. "So why don't you?" I looked at her, puzzled. "What, now?" She shook her head. "No, I meant in forty years when you really can't move. Yes, now. Why not?" I looked back at the tree, desire warring with the caution born of adulthood. There were sturdy branches within grabbing distance, and they studded the tree at three-foot intervals almost like a natural ladder. It should be remarkably easy. "I don't know...what about you? I don't want you to get bored while I'm up in a tree and wander off." "I'll climb it too. I'll even go first. Let's go!" Without leaving time for any more argument, my friend grabbed the lowest branch and swung herself up, quickly starting to scale branches the width of most medium-sized birch trees. I finally gave in and followed. There was a brief struggle as my office-softened muscles struggled to get my legs over the first branch, but from there it was all smooth sailing. The bark was strangely smooth, and it wasn't long before I was wishing that I'd left my shoes on the ground. "Hey....wait up." I gasped to my friend, who was already about ten feet above me. I put on a burst of speed -  and then my shoe slipped. I only had time for a gasp before my weight yanked my hands from the slippery bark and I plummeted toward the ground, branches whipping me but doing little to slow my descent. I heard my friend scream my name and screwed my eyes shut, trying to relax so that maybe every bone in my body wouldn't be broken when I hit the ground--

With a fwump and a crackling noise, I hit a huge pile of leaves. The impact still knocked the breath out of me, but it hurt less than expected. Sucking in a forced breath, I carefully rolled over and out of the pile to test my limbs. "I'm okay," I yelled shakily, then listened for my friend's frantic reply. Except nothing came. Gently rolling my neck to test it, I then carefully looked up at the branches. I couldn't see her up there! Where the hell did she go? Did I pass out and she left for help? Taking a moment to slow my breath, I took a look around. My confusion grew. Was there a stream there before? I didn't remember the ground being this grassy. And the grass was strange, paler than grass was supposed to be and short, almost like a shaggy carpet. And I was hot. Like, way too hot for November. I looked up at the sky and realized it was a hot shade of electric blue, with only a few wisps of cloud, though I distinctly remembered the sky being overcast when we left the house. That's why I wore jeans and a hoodie and a down jacket when we left the house. I quickly decided that needed to change and stripped off my jacket, unzipping my hoodie and lowering my hood as I got to my feet. I turned in a circle, then gravitated toward the stream as I heard a plop. Coming closer, I saw a frog the size of an orange hop from one rock to another. Moving quickly I caught it gently in my hands, then peered closer. It had looked like a frog, but it hardly had any legs. It was slippery and brown, and had almost what looked like....short, rounded rabbit ears on the top of its head. As I stared, the bunny-toad hiccuped, then puked all over my hands. And it reeked worse than anything I'd ever smelled coming from a living creature. I carefully placed the revolting animal back in the stream, where it slid under the water and away, and started frantically scrubbing the foul slime from my hands in the stream. I froze as I heard a giggle. "You must be new," Came a playful female voice. I looked up and stared. Crouching across the stream was a girl; but she had to be wearing some sort of costume. For one thing, her hair was long, wavy and a rich shade of royal blue. For another, her skin was shiny and iridescent black, as though every inch of her, including her eyelids and the inside of her lips, were covered in latex. Only her eyes looked halfway normal, the irises a light, clear blue that reminded me of a washed-out sapphire. She smiled and I realized I was still staring. I blushed, averting my eyes. "Sorry....um, where exactly is this?" The girl stood, lightly hopping across the stream to stand next to me. "Well human, since we've seen your kind here before, I already know exactly what your questions are. Care to walk with me while I explain?" Since I didn't really foresee my friend coming back any time soon, I agreed and we set off through the strange forest. "What you did, my dear, is stumble across a doorway from your world to ours. There are only a handful, so you must be very lucky." She chuckled lightheartedly. "But then again, unless you have a key the only way to get through the doorway is to fall through it, which means you must have fallen out of the tree and that makes you rather unlucky, I think." I couldn't remain silent any longer and blurted out "But what about my friend? Have you seen another girl like me come through here?" The girl shook her head. "I'm afraid it was only you that came through. Your friend is still in your own world. Don't worry, you'll be able to go home before it gets dark! But while you're here, why don't I show you around?"

((The dream gets a little fuzzy at this point since this is where I woke up and fell back asleep, but here's the gist; sorry it gets a little vague.))

I agreed to go around with her, she brought me to her village next to an ocean and introduced me to her people; all with shiny black skin and various rainbow-hues of hair, and all very friendly and kind, offering to let me stay at their own huts if I wished. I did see a few people that were definitely human; she explained that those ones decided they liked this world and wanted to stay. Once away from the village, my new friend gave me a necklace with a stone; a key to her world. She told me that I could visit whenever I wished, but that if I stayed in her world past a certain time of the day or ate any of their food, I would be stuck there forever. With that warning in mind, I went back to the tree. With the stone around my neck, I merely had to touch the trunk and I was immediately brought back to my own world. My friend was still nowhere in sight, the sky was getting dark and threatening rain and I had forgotten my jacket in the other place, so I followed the sounds of the highway and quickly made my way back home. Once there I called my friend, who was absolutely frantic. She said I was falling and had simply disappeared, but when she went for help the cops wouldn't believe her and refused to send a search party for twenty-four hours. I reassured her that I was all right and went to bed.

((Again with even more vagueness, and a little bit of time-skipping))

Time went by and I went back to visit every week or so, gradually being accepted as a friend to the village and shown their secrets as they learned I wouldn't betray their location to outsiders. I learned that they had a forest of eternal day, where the trees bloomed with flowers year-round that would fall off, then catch the breeze and float all over the land, burning a golden yellow with some inside luminescence. The villagers made use of these natural lamps often while exploring, for they could last for two weeks before their light died. I also discovered their water-bikes. Basically they took a long, flat piece of plastic-like material, the front tip pointed and curved like a ski. The plank ran flat for a couple feet, then curved up and forward toward the tip to make a rounded seat, then curved up again and split into two for handles. I couldn't figure out how the thin craft stayed afloat, but watched as my new friend ran along a dock, then leapt off and straddled the contraption in mid-air. As it hit the water, it bounced slightly and then shooshed across the water's surface, flying across the waves like a skier cutting through fresh snow. To turn, the rider simply leaned their body and the craft would curve in that direction. Once she returned, she explained that one made the craft go with willpower, but that if I was afraid it would sink like a stone. After a few tries in shallower water I finally got the hang of it. After a few years of visits and waterbiking in this land of eternal summer, I was flying across the waves with the best of them. They had even given me a dress to wear when I visited so I could leave my cold-weather clothes behind, and there was no need for shoes so everyone walked barefoot on the soft, pale grass. The sensation of gliding across the water, trailing my bare toes in the cool ocean, was almost like flying. I began to miss my own planet less and less, but returned dutifully each time for the sake of my loved ones, who still didn't know about my visits.

That's just about where I woke up....like I said, I would like to turn it into a story of some kind but I have a major flaw; I have no villain and no dilemma. You can't have a good story without a villain or, at the very least, a dilemma of some sort. Maybe someday I'll come up with something. Any ideas?