I rarely remember my dreams, and in those times that I do, they are forgotten usually before breakfast.
Not so this morning, since even now (midday) I can vividly remember a most disturbing dream I had last night.
I was on some sort of expedition with two others (an older woman and one whose gender/age I forget). We were visiting the Mediterranean looking for a beach. It transpired (as it does, in dreams) that we were then at the edge of a large natural rock pool, hundreds of metres across. To one side (away from the ocean) was a heavily eroded series of buildings, that looked like they were carved out of the rocky cliff face. To the other side was the ocean. Only a few metres of rock separated the pool from the ocean, but it was high enough that the pool seemed isolated (for instance, the waves did not crash over the rock into the pool).
The older woman (who seemed like a marine biologist) and I went into the pool. I was hesitant about taking off my glasses, and fiddled incessantly with the goggles designed to go over them. The third person stayed outside taking notes. We communicated with them via some sort of wireless system.
The water in the pool was dark and murky due to the shadow cast by the cliff overlooking one side. But just below the surface we beheld a beautiful abundance of coral, all white and spiky and shining. We also noticed that the pool was very, very deep, and seemed to curve down, away and into the cliff (like a cornucopia). The coral started a few metres down the steep sides of the pool, and the woman went to swim down to investigate.
At that point a strange disc shaped thing approached our position. It was about a foot across, very flat and very round. It swum with it’s axis perpendicular to its direction, not at all streamlined. And it made a weird buzzing sound. We were both alarmed, and moved away. It homed in on the nearest piece of coral and enveloped it, closing around it into a sphere.
At this moment all the coral started moving, and we noticed the water was full of these weird disc/sphere things. It turns out the coral wasn’t coral at all, but a multitude of starfish linked together and motionless. Now they were frantically seeming to escape the embrace of the discs. Furthermore, the discs themselves were seen to have tiny mouths at their centre, surrounded by eight tiny tentacles. What I originally interpreted as an embrace was not that at all, but an expansion of the mouths to consume many starfish whole. The entire disc bloated like a giant spherical stomach.
I was confused and scared, since this scenario seemed to continue as deep as I looked. Furthermore, while the starfish were the same as far as I could see, the octopi creatures were not. They got bigger the further they were from the surface, and at the edge of my vision I could just make out some that were truly massive. I knew, in the way we do in dreams, that they would continue to grow as they consumed, and that the food supply in this evil pool was infinite. I knew these creatures would grow in size with no limit.
The woman was incoherent in her terror, and was creaming ‘Arachnashells‘ over and over. Even now as I recall them as being like octopi, I wonder if her name (My name? It was my dream after all?) was more appropriate. Perhaps the tentacles were legs, and they were instead some form of spider crab? Some great push caused the mass of creatures to surge upwards and I hastily exited the pool. I do not remember what happened to the woman, and when I got out the third of our group had gone.
I had exited on the cliffside face, and stood adjacent to one of the mysterious buildings. This close I could see the scale was well beyond human, and what I thought was carved rock was cemented shells. And not small, seashells, but ancient things like trilobites and giant nautilus shells. A great buzzing was coming from the pool in front of me, and I had a primal urge to flee. But I could not, since at the same time I wanted to see what had pushed the smaller creatures aside. I wanted to see what was rising to the surface.
And that’s that. Whether it ended there or I don’t remember any more I can’t say. I painted my front steps this morning and kept thinking about it, intrigued by the fact that tiny details remained so clear in my mind. The questions beg to be asked though. Did I dream of a risen R’lyeh? Was the being rising from the depths of the pool Cthulhu? And was the buzzing his call?
This is obviously dream communication from the Great Old Ones. I fear for your sanity…
No more cheese toasties before bed!