Homestead

Date: 5/18/2021

The details of this dream started to fade fast once I woke up. The beginnings of it are... a mess. I remember an underground civilization. I'll start with what they were doing at the earliest point I can still recall. They were trying to expand, to build new homes to accommodate their growing population. They started to build over the lake of magma that marked the edge of their usual territory. They built a metal "dock" there -- sturdy diamonds of metal wire interweaving like farm fencing but horizontal instead of vertical. On that dock, houseboats could be docked while they weren't traveling around on the magma itself. There were all sorts of characters who lined on the houseboat, but I remember one family in particular. The dad was the mayor of... either the whole underground city, or just the town that was living citizens over to the new docks. His name was Lotor. Yes, like the guy from Voltron... even though I haven't watched it or read fanfic in literal years. This Lotor had a secretary/butler and a young daughter. He didn't have a partner or spouse of any kind, though the dream implied that it was because his secretary filled that role for him. His daughter was excited to live on their new houseboat, and she enjoyed watching the magma. At the same time, she knew that other children -- mostly teenagers, but some closer to her age, too -- thought it was stupid and didn't want to have anything to do with the new community. Some adults had more complicated misgivings. There were attacks. Sometimes, creatures they'd never seen would come and try to sabotage the docks. They were getting more and more aggressive, even after construction on the docks was finished. Most people brushed it off, but a few residents and officials made concerned complaints to Lotor, insisting that he should figure out the root of this issue and fix it -- for everyone's sakes. I'm no longer sure if he was heading out to do this or if he planned to just watch over things more carefully or if he was ignoring the requests entirely, but none of it mattered when his daughter was taken by the creatures. He managed to swap their positions, so that his daughter was on the boat and he was tied up and being dragged above the magma by the creatures. His secretary tried to save him at that point, flying over in the shape of a seagull (not sure if that was his permanent form or if he as a shapeshifter). The secretary even knew things that Lotor never spoke out loud, as if reading his mind. He assured his boss that there was no mind reading going on, it was simply that after knowing Lotor for a very long time it had become easy to predict what he would and would not do in a given situation. This was still hard to believe because of how exactly precise the secretary was being in his supposed guesses and how bizarrely specific "being kidnapped by unknown creatures for unknown reasons at the magma lake" was as a given situation. Still, Lotor was grateful to have someone so skilled by his side. What happened next is a little fuzzy in my memory. I'm not sure if Lotor escaped back to the houseboat, was taken to the home of the creatures, or was fought over by different groups of creatures before... finding a place to hide, maybe? Whatever happened with him, there was a specific creature who had some kind of altercation with the secretary and was very proud by the end. He was energetic and fast and a little wild. He was a creature with white, spiky fur and large bat-like ears and wide, almost face-covering black eyes with silver specks in them instead of pupils. He had numerous sharp, predatory teeth and a big, floppy tongue that lolled out like a dog's sometimes. He had six legs with large, clawed paws, and a short tail like a bear's. His name was Nathar. He was on a mission. It seemed like the mission went well, one way or another, since he was smiling when he returned to his home. Nathar's home was way, way deeper in the underground realm than anyone in Lotor's civilization would normally go. At the far edge of the massive magma lake, there was a wall. On that wall, there was a y-shaped cave entrance. On the left, you could see a little ways into the cave. You could tell that it stretched back a long ways, and if you walked into the cave itself you would find splitting paths after the huge open space that made up the cave entrance. Visibility would get difficult after that, requiring a light of some kind, but only in the way visibility would normally get bad in a normal cave. On the right, even looking from right at the entrance, you would only see an unnerving darkness. There would be the color black, like the world after you've just closed your eyes only deeper. The depth of that darkness would threaten to pull you right in, unsettling and even scaring anyone from Lotor's civilization. Shaking them to their cores. If they were from Lotor's civilization, of course. To Nathar, that darkness made him feel warm and fuzzy and happy. He was home. When he got close to the entrance, the black faded into a heavy blue-grey. Still too much for the eyes of a non-native creature, but it fit comfortably around Nathar like a soft blanket. He got down onto all six legs again (apparently he'd been walking on just his hind legs for a bit?) and bolted into the cavern. He took to the forking paths that mirrored the left cavern with ease, navigating through tunnels and rooms that played host to homes and businesses and towns and so on like an athlete running the same route they'd memorized a thousand times. He did get turned around at distractions from time to time. Taking a detour to visit a friend or playfully mess with a business during operating hours. Everyone greeted him warmly at best, sometimes stopping to chat for as long as he'd stay shifting from foot to foot (x6), or lightheartedly chastise him for running recklessly at worst. Most of his peers called him "puppy" as a term of endearment rather than Nathar, but older residents tended to use his actual name. He briefly explained where he was going, what he was doing, and why he was excited. He reminded everyone of a kid explaining how they were winning in their game. To him, everything was a game of some kind. As he went, it became apparent that he was some kind of royal. He was a king or prince or something, and he had actually been out on important Royal business. He had to go report that business to some kind of council or to the actual king (this is what made me think he was maybe a prince) or both. As he got closer to the people who needed his report, it also became more clear why the attacks had been happening at the magma docks. To build their magma-enduring houseboats, Lotor's people had been mining from the left-hand cavern and attempting to explore the right-hand cavern in case it had similar resources. This stole resources that the residents of the darkness needed from the left-hand caverns to keep their own supplies from running dry on the right-hand side, and their casual yet terrified attempt at invading the already inhabited darkness was seen as a very rude thing for them to do -- if not an outright threat to their way of life. None of them feared for their actual lives, of course. Even if it came to war, these creatures were durable and had the home-field advantage in the darkness. They wouldn't even be hurt by bumbling, small-bodied, two-legged light dwellers. Nathar was a few rooms away from the council, being told to slow down and affectionally called puppy once again. Lotor was slowly making his way back home with the help of his secretary, discussing whether the creatures seemed like they would respond to diplomacy if he personally went to try and clear things up with them. Lotor's daughter was writing little poems and drawing pictures for her father, waiting for the go-ahead to return to the docks -- apparently, residents had been made to evacuate back to their old homes after the kidnapping incident. I was very interested to see what happened with everyone after that, but sadly that's when I woke up. I only remember thinking "this would make a really interesting story if I refined it and wrote a proper draft, which is nice since it's been awhile since I've had a dream like that." Here's hoping I have more dreams like this, to add to my writing inspiration. Until next I wander.