10 Jul 2024
Dream
I'm in a single room house that is covered in blueish, glowing crystalized ice, a single door behind me, and a man sitting in the middle of the room. He has long brown hair, is wearing a long dark trenchcoat, and I can hear him whittling away at something in his hands. I grow curious and approach him to look over his shoulder.
He's carving a lion figurine that's lying down with it's head turned. I'm impressed by the detail and craftsmanship of the carving. It looks realistic to the point of being lifelike. When all of a sudden, I get a sense of dread come over me. Almost as if I'm not supposed to be there in that place, let alone behind this man.
I take a single step back and the ice below my foot melts under me, causing me to slip and fall on my back with a hard thud. This causes the man to lift his head, but he doesn't look at me. It seems like he's aware of me at this point, if he wasn't aware of me the entire time. In a panic, I scramble to get to my feet and run for the door, which evaporates in front of me the moment I get close. Frustrated, I pound a closed fist on the wall left behind where the door used to be.
At this point, I turn around and the man is standing five feet away from me, knife in his right hand, aimed at the floor. He's staring at me curiously with soft blue eyes, but makes no movement towards me. He has a long beard to match his long brown hair, and is wearing a white robe while being completely barefoot. As I stare back, I feel an overwhelming sense of fear as I look at him. However, I can't rationally explain why I am afraid of him. I only know that I am afraid of him enough to cause my lip to quiver as I press my body against the wall.
At that moment, the man begins to approach me, gripping the knife tighter. The sense of fear is too much for me to handle and I drop to my hands and knees in front of the man.
"Please, have mercy!" I cry out, causing the man to stop. I'm near fully genuflecting to this stranger crying my eyes out in front of him. "I didn't mean to be nosy! I'm so sorry! Please... please, have mercy on me! I am begging you!"
At this point, I'm questioning why I should be afraid of this man. He had thus far presented no threat towards me. It like I'm ashamed of my behavior even though I feel justified for feeling afraid.
As I try to compose myself, I feel the flat side of the blade rest on the bottom of my chin. My body lightly trembles at the touch of the cold steel, as my mind races. "This is it," I say to myself. "This is how I'm going to die. This stranger is going to kill me."
To my surprise... he doesn't. He simply uses the knife to raise my head until it levels out. The edge of the blade rests and presses gently on my throat once my head comes to rest. My eyes are closed due to my fears and I'm still trembling. After a few seconds of the man not doing anything else, I somehow summon up my courage and open my eyes. The stranger is staring back at me, bending his right knee with his left land resting on his left knee. Something about his face seems kind as my breathing hastens at first. However, after some time, my breathing stabilizes and the sense of fear goes away.
Finally, the man does something after what feels like a solid minute of us staring each other down. He glides the blade from right to left across my throat. My lip quivers once more and my brow furrows as I reach for my throat the moment the knife is removed. He calmly sets the blade down immediately after I clutch my neck.
To my continued surprise, there's no cut. No blood coming out. I remove my hand and there's no blood there either. After realizing this, I look back at the stranger and he gracefully smiles at me.
He stands up, reaches out with his left hand towards me, and says, "Rise, my child." Without much thought, I feel compelled to reach out to him and he helps me back on my feet. It's at this point I notice a hole in his hand as I grasp it. He leads me by the hand like a parent guiding a child, bends down to pick up the lion carving, then gives it to me.
"The Leo will show you the way." He says as I admire the figurine. I look up to tell him thank you, but he is nowhere in sight. As I'm looking for him, I turn to see the door that had evaporated before has now returned. As I faze upon it, it opens, a bright white light shines through, and I can hear a lion's roar.
