Figured that I'd post this one before it escapes.
Last night I was running on empty. Had a few bad nights in a row, and felt ill as a result (no kidding!). Fell asleep on the couch with no kids in sight.
First dream: I was out in the woods. It was night, yet I could see reasonably well where the moon poked through the branches (ever see a moonbeam?). It was some kind of bike trail; level, crushed limestone, chalky in its whiteness. This trail sort of glowed/shimmered in the said light. The foliage was as it is now - green, full and thick. Something was hunting me. I continued down the trail as quickly as I could go without running, as I still wanted to be able to hear the pursuit. I stayed to the side of the trail, close to the bushes, leaves and trees as I wanted to take advantage of any cover it may give. Whatever it was that was behind was big and moving fast. I could not smell anything.
It closed the distance. A quick look back showed that it was a wolf, but more the size of a large bear. I immediately started to run. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that I'd just reached a crossroad in the trail - where two trails intersected.
Something moved to my right. I was momentarily in the air then face down on the ground. My forearm burned. I raised my head. Two of these wolf creatures lay ahead of me looking stunned. I saw ahead of them a building. I ran towards it, hoping that it offered some hope.
I looked at my left arm, the one that was stinging. A gash, two inches from my elbow, cut across my inner forearm. It was deep, and I saw some of that stuff you see when they're operating on a person. I pushed the tissue back in as best I could and kept moving with my hand across the wound.
There wasn't any bleeding.
I continued to move. As far as I could reconstruct, at the crossroads the wolf behind and a new one to my right both had lunged at me. One nicked my arm before the two collided. I smiled when I realized that, for just a brief moment, I was atop the one attacking from behind as I got knocked around then to the ground. "Warg-riders, heyoh!"
It was 2:15 AM. I was still on the couch. Didn't hear anyone calling out, so I laid back down.
Dreamt, as I sometimes do, of working in the lab. Place still looked at it always did when I practically lived there. New people, same old boss. For kicks I thought I'd help out and run a simple protein concentration assay
(Bradford method). Looked down at my left arm and noted that my forearm was bandaged.
Some long hallways, some people I knew, and now the mixing in of some Downers. Stood up on some lookout like the mushroom ones that jut out of the hills of our local city's hills. Think of a large circular concrete platform that has a railing to keep you from falling sticking far out from the side of a steep hill. Anyway, these had a rusty appearance, and there were few people about. Of particular note were these two Downers that were hanging out with these two twin women - I'd call the twins by name but that'd mean nothing to you. These two person have wolflike features - it's the hair and eyes - and surely my dream memory fudged some of the details.
So the four are acting like teenagers, climbing over the railing and hanging by their hands. You see this behaviour (been there, done stupid) in young males when females are about. So this is going on and I'm watching, now (as I am now) out of that hormonal silliness. And I'm shaking my head. The four, or at least the two non-twins seem to notice my presence, but, like teenagers, give me no more attention than they would a tree. They continue with their dangerous thrill-seeking. My arm twinges; it's the left one. I look down, and the bandage has a number written on it. The font colour is red. It's the number
1.
I know (somehow) now that one of them is going to lose his grip and fall. And it's not one of the twins. A pair walks by, and now it's one of the twins that sees me, and she glances sideways-like and smiles, and I know that she knows.
I have to warn them. My arm twinges again.
...
Upon waking, I actually checked my arm.