I was at the seashore with Daniel, Ben, Cara and the kids. Sam and Rowan were frolicking on the edge of the water. There were some large rocks sticking up half in and half out of the lapping waves.

Rowan asked me to help her climb on a medium sized one near a larger overhang. I complied, holding her hand and steadying her around the waist as she scrambled up. "Ooh, look!" she said, pointing beneath the overhang. I glanced over, then stared. Curling and curving out from under the jagged edge of rock came a slim head, followed by a long eel-wiggly body. It slid, slithered, glided through the water. We were dumbstruck, staring, trying to discern what it was, which was rather difficult as its gyrations and the water made it hard to make out the shape of the whole creature. It was all snakey, with fins flaring out and it seemed to have two tails. "A watersnake?" I postulated, Rowan said: "No, no, it's a dragon!" Everyone had gathered around now. I saw she was right, the creature had legs, even clawed hands... It was indeed a DRAGON! A sleek, silvery-white, scaley, beautiful dragon. I held onto Rowan tightly as the dragon approached. Daniel was holding Sam nearby. The dragon had huge eyes, brown and like a horses eyes, at once wild, sweet, shy and bold. "It's eating flowers." Sam said wonderingly. Sure enough, it reached under the edge of the boulder and was pulling these pretty little plants out, they resembled seaweed, but were shimmering sage green and silver with budding flowers on them of a magnificent, deep, velvety purple-red.

The little seadragon plucked a bud with its dextrous fingers, slipping so close we could feel its coils sliding past our legs, it reached up and offered me the flower. Looking into those gorgeous, wise eyes, I took the tiny bud in my hand. Filled with strange emotion, I examined the offering, taking in its minute details, the tender folds of its so soft petals, the deep burgandy hue so in contrast to its pale sepals and foliage. It was exquisite and yet... I knew I couldn't keep it. I pulled off a petal and put it to my tongue. It was wet, silky, a little salty. I set it on the water and watched it float away. Then petal by petal, I gently pulled the little flower apart, giving each piece to the rippling waters, watching as they drifted farther and farther out.

Suddenly, as if coming awake, I realized Rowan was clinging to me, wet and shivering, whimpering slightly. I asked Ben: "Did you bring extra clothes?" He said no and something to the effect of how foolish it had been for her to get wet.
I lifted her out of the water and found the beach gone(the dragon and flowers were also gone as if they had never been there). Instead, there was a window. The only place to go was onto the sill. I clung to the window, hanging onto Rowan whom I had bundled under my sweater to keep warm. Everybody else had already found a way through and they were on the other side, on the dock, waiting for me. The window opened horizontally, and swung out and up, so it was extremely challenging to find a way to crawl through with Rowan still clinging to me like a little marsupial. As I wrangled with the stubborn window, The other folks were trying to get us a boat to escape on.

A group of tough kids, teenage country ruffians, came sauntering along. Uhoh, trouble! I thought. But Martha(My childhood friend and leader of the bratpack)was with us and she talked so tough and cool that she soon had them helping us. They wirecut a fence and soon we had an awesome seaworthy big boat.

I guess we were stealing it, but it definately seemed the righteous thing to do at the moment. Funny how dreams go...