[Nehetsrev]

*Written in a slightly sloppy, but obviously feminine hand, but in the Common tongue*

Foreword: What Dreams May Come?

Being Elven, I do not dream in the same way Humans do. Normally during my reverie my mind shows me detailed memories of past events of my own life. Prior to the writing of this journal I do not recall ever seeing visions of my future, nor having the sort of abstract dreams as described by many Humans or members of other dreaming races. Though it took me some time, I discovered I could stimulate my mind into having those more abstract, creative types of dreams by ingesting citrus fruits, grapefruits being the most potent. This revelation came to me from a reverie in which I recalled an herbalist and an apothecary having a discussion regarding this aspect of citrus fruits while I was living in Shadowdale.

In this journal I will record what dreams or visions I might experience as I explore this interesting frontier of my own mind. I may also try to interpret what meanings these things might have, or what feelings or insights they provoke in me.

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Dream #1 - A Vision In Four Parts

Part One:
A vision of a red-haired Human child appeared to me. I would estimate that he was perhaps 4 or 5 years of age. He was bravely resisting to cry, though his eyes were watery and on the verge of tears. The cause for his distress was a turtle which clung to his lower lip, biting him and not letting go while it hung suspended there. Above his head there appeared a tiny flame, such as a candle might produce.

Part Two:
The vision shifted and changed around me. Again the person in the vision had red hair, and I assumed it was the same youth, only older now. He appeared aged to perhaps 11 to 13 years. The flame over his head had grown a little brighter and larger, now almost like that of a small torch. He stood in a pine forest at the base of one which looked to be dead. The pine's needles were rusty-red, and dull, and the top of the tree appeared rotted. The young man shook the tree until suddenly there was a loud cracking, and the uppermost six feet of the tree began to fall. He tried to avoid being hit by it, but as he turned to run it impacted on the back of his head and knocked him unconscious to fall prone onto his back.

Part Three:
Again the vision blurred around me. The young man with red hair remained on his back, but now he was laying in a bed in a dark room with an open window. Moonlight from outside illumined the room enough for me to see fairly clearly as it shown through the window. Suddenly, the young man awoke and his eyes grew wide with the utmost terror. When I looked to see what had caused his fear, I saw perched at the foot of his bed a dark form, completely and utterly black as though light could not escape it. Yet still I had some impressions of the features of this creature. It hand long, sharp teeth, the canines at least four inches in length and protruding downward out of its mouth, the other teeth ranging between an inch and a half to two inches in length. The shape and form of its body reminded me of a monkey or baboon with extra long arms and legs. It was ghastly thin, perhaps emaciated, and sat in a crouching position until it began to jump up and down on the foot of the bed. The young man was so terrified that it appeared he was paralyzed, even to the point he could not scream. After a short period which seemed about a minute in length, the flame over the young man's head flared brilliantly and the creature sprung off the bed and vanished. The young man slowly began to relax until he finally fell to sleep again what seemed hours later, near dawn.

Part Four:
Again the red haired Human remained while the dream-scape blurred and shifted around us. Now he appeared a man in his early twenties, heavily muscled, fit, but laying in the peaceful repose of death. He lay now in a coffin, not a bed. He was clad in full plate-mail armor and a shield and a hand-and-a-half sword were laid upon his chest. The flame remained over his head, but was growing dim.

Then a new man appeared in the vision. He was bald, with red tattoos on his head. His back was turned to me as he stood at the head of the coffin, and when I walked around to look at his face his features were blurred and indistinguishable. The red-haired man in the coffin seemed to nod his head twice. Slowly the flame lifted from the red-haired man in the coffin and lit upon the head of the other man, once again flaring brightly as it settled there.

Analysis:
I have no clue what any of it means. This being my first experience with such dreams, I am finding it difficult to process and deal with. I will continue to reflect on what I have seen, and perhaps include additional insights at a later time.

[Nehetsrev]

Dream #2 - A Dream of Twisted Arvandor

I was frozen, stiff as a statue. The light shining down through the thick canopy above was tinted an eerie green by the time it reached the forest floor due to the layers of foliage. The forest floor itself was covered in a thick, soft layer of moss, and a silence that clung like heavy webs. I could hear not a single sound. Before me stood Green Oak, but something was wrong. I watched horrified as his leaves wilted, withered, and eventually rotted off and dropped to the ground around himself. Then his bark began to fall away in hand-sized flakes, and sap oozed in rivulets to puddle at his feet. A raven flew from his upper branches and vanished from the edges of my vision just before what was left of Green Oak disintegrated in a heap of decay. Behind where he had stood I could now see a Black Stag, head lowered as if about to charge and gore with its wicked rack of antlers. The Raven returned to view at the opposite edge of my vision, as though it had flown a circle around me. It landed upon the head of the Black Stag and bent as though whispering in its ear. The stag raised up its head then, and raven took flight once more. As the Raven alighted upon the top brick of a vine-covered ruin, nearby the Black Stag turned about before springing off into the dense growth of the forest and disappearing. Looking to where the Raven perched, I could see runes carved into the stone of the ruin, but I could not quite make them out. They were blurred to my sight as if the air before them were shimmering from the heat of a blazing fire. The sun must have been setting, because everything turned dark, and then my dream ended and I awoke covered in a sheen of sweat.