Dream with a plot

OK I expect this to get a bit long and I don't really expect anyone to read it, but I had an interesting dream last night and I wanted to write it down somewhere, so you lucky people get to read it if you want. :-)

the dream starts with me as an apprentice learning my first lesson of magic. I am standing in a grassland with my master, A middle aged man dressed all in loose-fitting earth-tone clothing he wouldn't stand out in a crowd at all yet somehow it seems like he would be able to blend into both upper and lower class both. A medium sized friendly brown dog is always at his side. He is explaining to me how to gather mana to create a spell to be used later, the most common way of casting spells. We approach a large heard of buffalo, I get the impression they are either his secret stock or perhaps they belong to royalty of some sort placed here for just this purpose. Mana, he explains, is the essence of life and the best place to get it is from living beings. As he prepares to gather the mana to himself to place a spell upon the card he holds an invisible wave goes out from him in a wide cone shape toward the animals, whipping the grass about, as the wave hits them the large animals fall over like dominos, instantly dead, scattering the heard but not before enough are felled for his purpose. the wave returns to him swirling about as he focuses the energy at the card to form the Rune he was apparently hired to create by some noble.

We are apparently traveling to present the king with this spell. Stopping along the way at a storehouse of the ancients, where massive sticks of pure mana are stored like planks of wood. Its a dark and dingy place with large nasty looking rats scurrying about and nameless forms shifting in the shadows. Fascinated with the place I start wandering around paying less and less attention to my master, he is explaining that few people know of this place and it is only to be used when necessary... I reach out to touch one of the boards, the room goes still. A few rats close by look up, eyes watch me out of the darkness. The only movement in the room is my master rushing toward me, he seems to be yelling something but I barely notice him, all my attention is on the manaboard. I pull it out from underneath the other boards it is under, noticing as I do the number 15 marked on it. All hell breaks loose, half a dozen rats from close by launch themselves at me, darker forms move in but I'm having a hard time with the rats that don't seem so small anymore, I realize they are larger and unnatural from exposure to all the raw power around them. close by I'm dimly aware of a more dire battle as my master protects me buy forcing back more demonic dark forms flitting all about. as quickly as it started, it is over. Apparently once we prove our strength our assailants reluctantly back off to the shadows to watch once again. my master explains that all life is drawn to mana, its what connects everything together, when it's in this form it has a pull that cant be ignored. While in storage here the attraction is dulled to some degree, removing a lower powered stick has little affect unless the person removing it is obviously weak or hurt but a higher powered one the likes of which I took compels all, large and small, to attain it and draws out the creatures who exist here feeding of the emanating power waiting for just such an opportunity.

We travel on, stopping at a tavern. We are waited on by the owner, a large dirty disgusting woman dressed in little more than rags. The place is dank, dimly lit and as dirty as its large owner. several patrons are scattered about completing the dismal setting. surprisingly my master seems comfortable and fits right in, how this is possible I'm not sure. We get stew served in a wooden bowl with a lump of stale bread seemingly ripped from a larger loaf days before. my master talks with the waitress/owner, but I pay little attention, thinking of nothing but getting out of this place, not being used to being this close to commoners. I'm no noble but I grew up away from such things, outside normal society. Unbeknownst to me my wallet slips from my pocket, unnoticed until we are away from the place. I return furious, ready to demand the thieving lady return my property and preparing for a fight. Before I can say anything she returns it explaining she found it and wouldn't have gone through any trouble returning it, figuring it her good and my ill fortune, but it was mine and she's no thief.

My master is now explaining that we will soon be before the queen. He laughs without much humor as he warns me not to be drawn in by her incredible beauty for she is someone not to be crossed.

we are now down in the cellar of the castle talking with the queen who seems radiant in the darkness, golden hair flowing about her shoulders, white flowing gown, she is truly a vision. while talking with us, she casually gives commands directing a couple of nearby servants. My masters dog is frolicking a bit more than normal sensing the tension and excitement in my master. Despite attempts to calm it by both of us, it jumps up once upon the queen who's heavenly beauty distorts in anger for a moment as she calls for a servant to have the beast taken away to be made into mana. I scream NO... as the faithful hound is taken away up the wooden stairs, calling out to him with the force of all my will. After a few tense moments he comes bounding back down the stairs leaping into me, knocking me over licking my face, wriggling, yipping and jumping all over.

next we are with the king. Despite his age he still has a presence of power and nobility about him dressed regally with long silvery hair and beard. Awed by his presence and my surroundings I pay little attention to the private conversation started up by my master with the king as they move a short distance away. My master who just hours before blended in perfectly with peasants now seemed equally at home and to fit in with royalty though dressed the same as he was before. He hands the spell card created at the expense of a score or so buffalo to the king. A short time passes, the conversation gets a bit heated. All of a sudden I hear my master actually demand some respect from the king. After a brief pause that seemed to last an eternity my master backs a few steps away uttering some words under his breath, the room shimmers and pulsates momentarily with power as my master's true appearance and Identity is reveled. he is at least as old as the king and every bit as noble, and should be, he is an old traveling companion of the king. Long thought dead, a legend from the past. they embrace as brothers.

The next is later in my apprenticeship I've been given some sort of guard duty now that I've learned a small amount of my masters art. Though just guard duty it is a position of some respect and responsibility, probably due mostly to the new status of my master. I feel ill at ease with it though since its not due to my knowledge or ability. Local noble boys sense this uneasiness and taunt me, especially the leader of the small group of brats who obviously spends more time in the kitchens than he does hunting like most young nobles his age. I forget most of this I just know I end up choking the little brat with a simple little spell, not killing him but scaring the piss out of him (literally) there is also a picnic table looking thing beside a pillar on the relatively narrow balcony I watch from. why? I don't know.

that is all. a nifty little dream. I had to take some liberties to correctly convey from dream to written words but I dreamed all of it. It was neat though, throughout the whole thing I got the feeling that a lot more was going on that I didn't know about, Like the barmaid was a contact for my master of some sort or a source of information. there was also something funky going on in the palace the queen wasn't to be trusted or had schemes separate from the king's. plots within plots.

not a normal dream.

odd sieb