Knocking

Tonight was my first chained lucid dream (achieved via <PERSON>.) The first lucid segment was induced via SSILD. I chained from this one into my second with <PERSON>. This was a very cool experience but it came with a price: I lost almost all memory of how I became lucid in the first dream! Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid Lucid #11: Lucid Chains, Lions, and Evasive Olympic Dreams I am standing in the vast courtyard of a Shinto-style shrine. There are signs to guide me but they are all written in Japanese. It is early morning and the sun is just beginning to rise. Dream characters mill about peacefully in the courtyard. I walk by a dream character that I recognize as DK, a very old friend that I grew apart from in childhood. I had not thought of him in a long while. We shake hands and exchange pleasantries, reminiscing about the past (especially the "Quest for Glory" game series.) However, when I ask <PERSON> what he is doing with his life and what sort of career path he took, he will no longer answer me. He looks guarded and embarrassed. We walk to the edge of the courtyard and find a waterfall. Next to this is an enormous rollercoaster here that goes along a track which is somehow made entirely of water. I leave DK behind and grab on to the roller coaster. It immediately starts rocketing along the track, spraying water on me and rushing alongside the temple wall. I realize that the roller coaster car has no seat but only tiny handholds that I must cling to for dear life. Feeling completely exposed and unsafe, I jump off, falling about 30 feet to the ground. A nearby sign is in Japanese but has a tiny bit of English text warning me (in big red letters) that this is a "Nature Preserve". A few feet away from the sign, a dangerous-looking lion has his eyes locked on me. I try to remember what you are supposed to do when you are close to a lion. I have no idea, so decide to try backing slowly away. This is not good enough and the lion charges at me, knocking me to the ground. The jolt is enormous but I am seemingly unhurt. I choose "flight" over "fight" and run back toward the temple wall, the lion charging after me. He bashes me again just as I am running through a door into a poorly-lit room with a single table in the middle of it. I wake up but do not open my eyes. I decide to try to chain back into another lucid dream via <PERSON>. I think about that little room for a while and seconds later, I am lucid again. The room's better lit now but otherwise the same. I decide that I am going to try for the Olympics again. There are four exits from the room and I command the dream to show me the one that will lead me to the Olympics. Obediently, one of the exits is illuminated and I step through it into an auditorium full of howling spectators. There is a table tennis table in the middle of the auditorium -- so table tennis it is, then! After approaching the table, I find that rather than a proper paddle, I have an old, deflated latex balloon in my hand. I put it out of sight and will it to turn into an excellent paddle with top-notch rubber. This works. My opponent comes bounding down the stairs and the crowd goes wild for him. They are all cheering for him rather than me in my own dream! Ah well, does not matter. This is my dream, so it will be his butt receiving the shellacking. The crowd starts performing this ridiculous, choreographed rump-shaking dance in celebration of my opponent. I command them that "You will stop doing that stupid dance!" They obey but my opponent runs up into the stands, whoops once, and starts doing laps, refusing to come down to face me. I am exasperated by his obnoxious behavior and soon wake up.