Dream Journal #1 (Wendigo)
This was an idea I had earlier last week... Jot down my dreams. I usually have very cinematic dreams, so it would be more akin to storytelling. Unfortunately, no sooner do I get the idea; my vivid and interesting dreams dry up, and are replaced with vague snippets and images I can barely recall. But, last night it was movie night again, so I have something to contribute. In sharing my dreams, I’m, potentially, revealing the deepest parts of my soul; but, I’m an open book of riddles... So, I don’t mind. I only ask that any of you out there good at interpreting dreams not deliberately try to embarrass me if I inadvertently share something juicy.
Anyway, no further ado; to the dream! It does get a little abstract at the end, and will be a little hard to describe, but I’ll do my best to explain everything.
It starts in a small cabin in a snow-filled clearing of a wooded area. The group consists of myself, along with a man and a woman whom I’m unfamiliar with. The man comes across as a bit of a clean cut “jock” type. Not a jerk, or anything, just a generic good looking guy. And the girl is a generic good looking girl. There is a fourth member of the group returning from being away for some time. He’s a more scruffy individual, who bears a slight resemblance to someone I know; but I don’t think it’s the same person. I get a couple of flashes of unsettling imagery that I can’t really convey... The best way I can describe it is, the man; but his face is ragged and violent. And there is an unseen carnage that surrounds him. It’s really just more of a “knowing” shat something is amiss. The returning party member asks to be let in, but I tell them they can’t let him in; because I knew, somehow, that he had become a wendigo. The clean-cut man asks him where he’d been, and he replies “up north”. The he then asks the scruffy man if he’d been through a certain area; I don’t remember where... I think it began with a “D”. This was meant as a test of some sort; he assured us he HAD been to visit that region which amounted to him failing the test. The man assures his friends that everything is alright, and that they need to let him in. So, despite being warned by me, in addition to the fact that the man answered there questions incorrectly, they let him in. He walks through the door, looks at us all, and the screen fades to black... Apparently we died; Game Over.
The scenario resets itself. (This is a common occurrence in dreams for me.) This time there is a different cast of characters; one not so easily definable. I know there are other people there; I’m talking and interacting with them, but I honestly couldn’t tell you who they were. The house is also different. The setting is no longer a cabin set deep in the woods. The snow was still present, so some degree, but a house was now in a rural/suburban location very similar, but not exact to the place I’m living now. I think it’s a conglomeration of the various places I’ve lived throughout my life (another frequent aspect of my dreams). The wendigo now appeared in the form of a shiba-inu with the ability to speak. I don’t remember anything in particular he had to say, only that he could talk. The strange thing is that a talking dog didn’t strike anyone as odd; least of all, me. I just maintained a general understanding that this creature was, in fact, a wendigo, and it intended harm to me and the rest of the group. At this point, the house was open for the dog to enter freely, and the focus was less on keeping him out, and more on us getting away. Outside I could see the carcasses of large animals, possibly dear or cattle burning in the snow. I understood that the wendigo used these bodies a means by which to consume his victims. This is where things start to get a little surreal, and “dream logic” starts to kick in. At some point, we get the dog into the house and close the door behind it. I, then, pile everyone into my vehicle (which I swear at some point is, somehow, a bicycle) and drive away... The scene loops back again. But this time, it’s not a hard CUT; more of a soft reset. We find ourselves back in the house at the dinner table, enjoying a meal of various meats, presumably from the bodies of the game burning outside. John Goodman, of all people, sits at the table with us describing to the dog (who is no longer a shiba-inu, but now, a pail brown bulldog) how delicious and tender the meat is. The animal is visibly anxious, because it knows it’s been found out. Goodman offers some of the meat to the wendigo in the “dream logic” fashion of dangling it over a clear glass vase. I don't know if he dropped it into the vase; but somehow, this would defeat the monster. After that, the “plot” of the dream fades into obscurity.
There are a few elements in the dream that I recognize from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which I got to binge-watching over the weekend after I made a post about the guy one of the main characters is based off of. You can read that hear:
https://steemit.com/science/@bombasticadept/who-is-this-man
Even though there were a lot of unsettling elements in the dream, I wouldn’t consider it a nightmare. I actually don’t have “nightmares”. I consider true nightmares to be dreams where you are overtaken by fear. But, in my dreams, no matter how scary the themes may be, I’m always fighting back, or otherwise, opposing the treat in some way. I’m never fully dis-empowered.
Well, that was my dream... I hope you enjoyed reading about it.