Snovid's diary

Chapter 12. Family Holiday

It was a warm, pleasant day, and my family decided to set a festive table on the dacha street. It was a genuine smorgasboard of dishes, and all my relatives were gathered: uncles, aunts and their children. Next to me sat my cousin Vanya, eating something delicious. The feast, I must say, was formidable. At one point, I felt how the part of my brain at the top of my head began laboring. This feeling marked the beginning of the lucid dream. I realized that I was dreaming, but had not even taken note of this fact visually. I could feel it by my brain's exertion. Lately, it had been this feeling of a strain at the top of my head that had told me about the nature of my surroundings.

Breaking away from the ongoing conversations, I grew silent and looked around. I was anxious to not give myself away in front of such a large crowd of snovids. However, Vanya, who was sitting next to me, seemed to already understand the situation just from the look in my eyes.

- I'm dreaming. Help me get away from this table.

I asked quietly. He nodded and motioned for me to follow him. The next moment, Vanya had slid under the table, and I followed along without hesitation. Crawling under the table, it became evident to me that we were six year old boys in this dream, and it was quite common for us to leave the table in this fashion. You might say, our small stature facilitated this tactic. As we were getting close to the end of the table, however, a childhood nightmare caught up to me. Uncle Sitnik adored us and was very kind, but he also took great joy in torturing us by tickling or scaring us. In this dream, his head suddenly appeared under the tablecloth in front of us and he shouted "Boo!" I was scared out of my wits. As fear washed over me, I knew that it would be impossible to get away unnoticed. Fear attracts the snovids with a terrible urgency, as they seem to feed on it, craving it like some kind of drug. I dashed out from under the table, and they gave chase.

After running for a long time, I found myself in the streets of a city similar to St. Petersburg. Large canals divided the streets and the buildings were classicist in style. At some point, I managed to get control of my fear, and stopped. I allowed the snovids to catch up to me. Within seconds they had surrounded me in a tight circle, but they did nothing. I examined their abstract figures, which so closely resembled the people I knew.

- Hey! I know that I am dreaming, and I know who you are. Can you show me the border of the dream, or teach me something?

The snovids began to gesticulate to one another, as if they were silently discussing the matter and trying to decide what to do. After their quiet council, the smallest of them stepped forward. Most likely, he had been Vanya earlier. He took my hand and led me away.

We walked through the streets, crossed canals via bridges, and, in the end, came to a large building with columns and stone spheres at the entrance. The decorum was tasteful, keeping in the style of classicism. The building reminded me of the Academy of Arts. Its interior was spacious and the floor was made of marble. Marble sculptures also lined the corridors. I have already mentioned that dreams can be incredibly realistic. Not only could I see every vein in the marble, lamps cast a light on the statues, which in turn produced incredibly detailed shadows on the walls behind them.

The snovid opened one of the doors and led me into a large room that looked like a sculpture workshop. At the other end of the workshop there were, tall windows, going nearly from floor to ceiling, overlooked some kind of river or a large canal. The room was vast, brightly lit, and almost completely empty. Only in the corners were some unfinished sculptures.

The snovid stood two meters away from me, and asked me mentally to repeat after him.

He began making movements that were quite similar to the energy ball training from qigong. However, unlike in real life, I could literally see the ball of energy forming between his hands.

I easily mirrored his movements. The ball of energy in my hands was incredibly dense, and quickly grew to a meter in diameter. The Snovid demonstrated that it was now necessary to squeeze this ball of energy, and compact it down to a small orb, slightly smaller than a human head.

This was more of a challenge, but I was able to do it. The energy was now incredibly volatile, and I had to strain my arms and my stomach to keep it in place. Finally, he indicated that we had to merge our energies, he handed me his orb, and explained how to squeeze them into one. At first, everything worked out fine. The balls of energy flattened into one and took on a shape reminiscent of the yin and yang symbol, albeit consisting of only one color. Try as I might, however, the dividing line remained. It was impossible to merge them fully.

I felt exhausted from the strain in the crown of my head. All my focus left me. Finally, the force of the energy became too much to hold, and the spheres expanded. In something like an explosion, they took on their original size again. The dream was over.