My first lucid experience in years! Well, it becomes lucid only near the end, anyway. This dream starts off about a block from my house. All of the roads in the dream are deep waterways and traffic consist of a variety of boats and other watercraft; there are no ashphalt roadways or land faring automobiles.
My parents and I are standing at a bus stop waiting for the "bus" boat to pick us up. There are other people waiting there as well but they did not have any significance as far as I can tell; just random people waiting for the "bus." Apparently we are going to take a boat tour for somewhere but at this point in the dream, I had no idea where.
When the boat tour arrived, it consisted of three small, old-looking, wooden boats rather one medium or large sized modern boat, which is what my parents and I had been expecting. The three craft were tired together with ropes and I could not see what drove the boats forward, as there were no sails on the masts or engines on the stern. The first of the three boats was full so my parents and the group of people got on the middle boat. Since the middle boat was filled to capacity I had to get on the last of the boats by myself. I was kind of resentful at first, because I felt insecure and I wanted to sit near my parents.
The boat tour/bus boat (whatever) started down the um, street... er, waterway... and at first the scenery around the boats looked like how the neighbourhood actually appears in waking life, but the farther we went the more the scenery changed from an urban landscape to a natural one. Soon there were no human-made buildings or other boats and it seemed that we were in some thick temperate forest. No one on the boats was upset because this all seemed to be a part of the tour.
Not long after the scenery changed into the forest there came a bend in the river. There was an old, dilapitated wooden mill at the bend and the three boats pulled up to a small dock and stopped. Most of the people disembarked and dissapeared into the forest. My parents stayed on the middle boat and I stayed on the last boat. I could have gone up and sat with my parents at this point and I do not know why I did not do so. As we waited for the boat tour to get moving again the water began rushing like rapids and tore the boats away from the dock. It was not scary at first, just unexpected, and no one panicked or anyway.
The rushing water pulled the boat a long for a while and soon we came to a fork in the river. The left waterway was clamer and seemed to lead to an opening in the forest. The right waterway was very eeirie and seemed to lead deeper into the forest. There was also strange blue-grey mist above the water that lead down the river on the right side of the fork.
The boat tour turned towards the left river but just before it went past the actual fork, the rope holding the middle boat and last boat snapped. The first two boats drifted down the left waterway, but the last of the little wooden boats, the one that I was on by myself, got pulled down the river on the right side of the fork. I yelled to get my parents attention, but they did not seem to hear me. A few of the other passengers on the middle boat glanced at me, but then looked away and ignored me.
My little boat was pulled into the deep dark forest and I remember feeling really scared for a moment but the fear soon passed. I became more curious then anything because the forest seemed to thin out a little and it did not seem so threatening. I do not know how far I travelled but it seemed like I was on that little boat for a long time. Eventually it became standed on some rocks in shallow water and I was able to step out and walk to the shore. Right off the shore there was a path that led into the forest and to a small Oriental looking building.
It was as I was walking along the path that I began to question my reality (mostly because there was an Oriental style building deep in a northern Canadian-looking forest), so I did a Reality Check by plugging up my nostrils and I could still breath! I realized that I was in a dream and became excited! I did not seem to have control over anything except move my own body so I ran into the building, which was very much like an ornate Zen garden on the inside. In the middle of the room there was some sort of small, stone statue that some Oriental looking men (I do not know if they were Chinese or Japanese) were sitting around smoking pipes. They all sort of looked at me and laughed and I tried to say something to them but the dream ended and I woke up.
I think my excitement over having my first lucid dream kind of ruined everything and made it end quickly - but I will try to be more disciplined next time!
LEGEND:
BLUE indicates side notes and personal thoughts written after the fact
BLACK indicates a normal dream
RED indicates a lucid dream