Dreams
A Winds of Change story

by: Lance Holloway


	The 6:00 alarm woke me up from a deep sleep.  I hated the 8:00
class I had today.  I felt like skipping it, but I wasn't taking the
class.  I was teaching it.  I hit the snooze button and rolled back over
in bed.  I didn't like getting up at 6:00 in the morning, but I had to
get everything ready for class.  Last night was busy.  I had stayed up
doing homework and working on my master's project.  (Someday I'm actually
going to get somewhere with it.)  One o'clock in the morning had rolled
before I knew it.

	The alarm woke me up again.  I sat up in bed this time,
determined to get up.  I hopped out of bed and got my bathroom supplies
from my cabinet.  With sleep in my eyes, I then proceeded down the
dormitory hall to the bathroom to take a shower.  I sat my toothbrush and
toothpaste down at a sink and started brushing my teeth.  I looked in the
mirror.  The kangaroo face looking back at me was surprising, but
familiar.  I didn't pay any attention to it.

	I woke up to the sound of the alarm.  I was dreaming.  I hated
dreaming of waking up and living out a day.  But, this one was different.
I had been a kangaroo!  I examined my arms.  They were still human.  Then
I felt of my face.  It felt human.  I crawled out of bed.  But, this time
I didn't get to the bathroom before I noticed the difference.  My legs
were NOT human.  They were the hind legs of some hoofed animal.  Then my
whole body felt strange.  My head felt heavier and like I was balancing
something.  I reached up to feel and realized that I had antlers.  Moose
antlers!  I proceeded to feel of my face, but I couldn't.  My hands had
become hooves and my arms forelegs.  I was forced to all fours as the
rest of my body completed the change.  I was a moose!  I felt weird.
"Where were the trees?  Where's the grass?  I'm trapped!  How did I get
here?  MUSTGETOUT"  I rammed the walls with my antlers.  "MUSTGETOUT"
Finally one part of the wall collapsed.  It smelled like trees, but it
didn't look like a tree.  I was in another trap.  "MUSTGETOUT"  I ran
down the long strip between the walls.  At the end I saw trees.  I ran to
them and crashed through a hard invisible barrier.  "FREEFREE"  I ran to
the trees.

	I woke up to the sound of the alarm.  I was human again.  I
wasn't a moose trapped.  That dream was so real.  I thought I was really
a moose.  These dreams of dreaming are going to have to stop.  I sat up
in bed.  This time I check my whole body to see any signs of changes.  I
found none.  I crawled out of bed and got my bathroom supplies.  The hall
was empty as I walked down it.  Not many people take classes this early.
No one was in the bathroom either.  I brushed my teeth and got in the
shower.

	My mom told me about a new dandruff shampoo.  So, I decided to try
it.  I had just bought it yesterday.  I wanted to see how well it really
works.  I squeezed a small amount of the shampoo into my palm and
lathered up my hair.  I thought I could feel it working.  It felt tingly.
Then I noticed my hands.  In the foam was bunches of hair.  I rinsed the
foam and hair off of my hands and felt of my head.  I was able to take
more hair out this time.  I didn't even feel it pull.  "That shampoo made
my hair fall out!" I yelled.  I quickly finished showering and dried off.
As I was drying I saw that the rest of my body hair was falling out, too.
I ran to a mirror above a sink and saw that all of my hair was gone.  I
had just gotten a hair cut, too.  I grabbed the shampoo bottle and read
the label.  It didn't say anything different from other shampoos.  I
looked at myself in the mirror again.  I was bald!  I also noticed a
grayish-greenish tint to my skin.  There must have been something in it I
was allergic to.  So, I decided to get dressed and call the company.

	When I got back to my room, I had a sudden realization.  This must
be another dream.  I had a series of strange dreams before.  This one
went right along with them.  Since it was a dream, I decided to not call
the company.  Why worry about being bald in a dream.  Might as well go
along with it.

	I opened the closet door and looked for something to wear.  Or
rather to see what was clean.  There was a strange feeling.  Like muscles
were stretching.  Thinking that I was just sleeping wrong I continued to
pick out clean clothes.  But, when I started to put on my pants I saw a
problem.  My legs were now much thicker than they use to be.  And longer.
My arms were the same way.  But they seemed to be the same length as they
had been.  Then the strange feeling spread through my body again.  This
time I saw it.  My arms and legs grew in thickness.  My feet showed signs
of becoming claws.  My pinkie finger shrank into my hand leaving me with
only four fingers.  My skin was now tough and gray with a few hints of
green.  My stomach was a lighter color.  But, the biggest change was what
I was sitting on.  A thick tail about two feet long was now sticking out
from the base of my spine.  I got a rush of new sensations from the tail.
It felt strange but enjoyable to move it around by thinking about it.
This dream was becoming more realistic by the minute.

	I ran to the mirror to see the whole me.  In the mirror a deformed
monster was looking back at me.  My head had shrunk a little, or my body
had gotten bigger.  But, my face had lost almost all traces of humanity.
My nose was now just nostrils at the end of a short muzzle.  My forehead
seemed flatter.  My eyes had moved more to the side, and my ears were
gone.  I couldn't recognize what I was becoming.  The other two dreams I
knew that I was a kangaroo and a moose.  But, this one I had no idea.  I
looked to be some sort of reptile.  As I was pondering what this dream
was changing me into, my head changed again.  My muzzle was longer and my
forehead flatter.  This time the biggest change was my back.  It was now
a large arch with a row of plates.  My tail had grown longer and thicker.
Plates had sprouted from it also.  Along with four spikes.  I then
realized what I was becoming.  I was a stegosaurus.  I tried to feel of
my plates with my clawed hands, but I couldn't move my arms far enough to
reach them.  My back was so far away from my front now.  Another wave of
changes happened.  My legs were that of a stegosaurus now.  But I could
still stand up on two legs.  My arms looked like that of a stegosaurus,
however they retained much of their human movement.  My hands were still
as dexterous as before, just less one finger.  My back was arched more
and the plates were larger.  My tail had grown a lot.  It was about two
thirds long as I was tall.  My head looked exactly like a stegosaurus
head.  No human traits were left.  I had grown in height.  I think I was
up to seven feet.  I hoped this was as far as I was going to change.  The
last dream of becoming a moose was pretty disturbing.

	This dream was so vivid though.  I had to keep convincing myself
that it was a dream.  I must have been reading too many stories on the
TSA mailing list.  "If I remember this when I wake up, I'm going to write
a story," I said to myself out loud.  I was relieved that I could still
talk.  I looked at my new body.  It was so strange, but natural.  I
looked like a stegosaurus standing on it hind legs.

	Then I heard screams down the hall.  I must have been so caught up
in my transformation that I didn't hear them before.  I wanted to see how
real this dream was.  I tried to get some clothes on, but nothing fit
anymore.  I didn't have much to cover up, since I was now a dinosaur.
But, I wanted to out of habit.  I grabbed a sheet and through it around
me like a toga, my pointed plates trying to punch their way through the
sheet.  My tail, of course, was sticking out.  I went down the hall to
see what the screaming was about.  It was a co-ed dorm.  So, I was at the
female end of the hall in a few seconds.  One of the doors flew open and
a rat woman ran out.  She screamed when she saw me and scurried back into
her room.  This dream was getting stranger by the minute.  Other people
must have be awakened by the girl screaming, because more screams echoed
through the hall.  "Everybody must be changing."

	I decided to see what David was now.  David had been my best
friend since I came to college six years ago.  We both are in the masters
program now.  I'm in Computer Science, and David is in Electrical
Engineering.  His room was just a few doors down from mine.  I walked up
to it and listened.  My new hearing was sensitive.  I could hear him
moving around in his room clearly.  I knocked.  I heard him mumbling and
he finally opened the door.  He had thrown on a shirt and shorts.  But it
didn't hide that he was now a humanoid donkey.  His girlfriend had always
called him Eeyore.  The name suited him, now.

	He was surprised at what he saw standing at his door.  I could see
the white of his eyes.  "Lance?" he asked.

	"Yes."

	"You're a dinosaur."

	"And, you're a donkey.  This dream of mine is very realistic," I
said.  I tried to smile, but I don't know how my saurian mouth handled
it.

	He looked at his hoof-like hands.  "Dream?  I don't think this is
a dream."

	He would say that if it was a dream or not.  "Well, we should try
out our new bodies.  I mean it isn't every day that you are a donkey,
even if it is a dream.  Have you heard from Meghan?"

	"No."

	"Call her.  Let's see what she is."  This dream was getting fun.
David called Meghan on the phone.  It was hilarious watching him try to
put the receiver at his ear and mouth at the same time.

	After talking a while, David hung up the phone.  "She said she is
a walrus."

	I started laughing.  Meghan being a walrus was hilarious.  She was
always self conscience about her teeth.  The sight of two long tusks
sticking out of her mouth was too much.

	David didn't join me.  "You're taking this pretty well," he said.

	"Why not?  It's my dream."

	David rolled his eyes and shut the door.  I guess he needed more
time to adjust.  I went back to my room.  It was almost 8:00.  I was
going to be late teaching.  But, since I was dreaming, I figured I could
be late.  However, I decided to go ahead and go to teach the programming
lab.

	The trip through campus was entertaining.  There were a few people
who were half animal were running around in panic.  Most of them were
mammals.  There were a few bird morphs trying to fly.  There were also a
few reptiles, but no dinosaurs.  I guess since it was my dream I could
get to be the unique one.  I arrived at the Computer Science building and
saw that not many people were there.  I stopped by the main office.  The
secretary was there.  She hadn't changed too much, but she resembled a
rabbit.  She looked up from her work.  "May I help you?"

	"Stacey, it's me.  Lance."

	"Lance?  I should have known you would have shown up even on a
day like this.  You're a stegosaurus, right?"

	"Yep.  I had to show up.  It's my dream."

	"Lance, I hate to tell you this, but you are NOT dreaming."  She
grabbed her long ears.  "This is as real as this building."

	I considered that for a few seconds.  "Who else is here?" I asked.

	"Well, Brian and Ross are here.  I have seen other people walk by,
but I don't know who they are."

	"Thanks," I said leaving the office.  She seemed to be taking her
new shape better than others I've seen.  But, then she hadn't changed too
much.

	I entered my office.  Well, I is actually a large room with six
desks.  Five other grad-students and I have this as our office.  Two
people were in there having a conversation.  Not surprisingly, it was
about the changes.  I couldn't tell which was Brian or Ross.  They were
two other grad-students which share this office.  One of them was now a
bear; the other was a razorback.  (That was almost funny.  The razorback
is our mascot at the University of Arkansas.)  Both had changed a
considerable amount.  I guess it was the same amount that I had changed.

	"Hi, It's me.  Lance," I said setting my backpack down on my desk.

	"Lance, don't you have a class now?" the bear asked jokingly.

	"Hey, I had a rough morning," I responded.

	"It looks like it," the razorback said with a tusky grin.

	"Ok, before I run off to the computer lab to see if any students
came, who is who?" I asked.

	"I'm Ross," replied the bear.

	"Brian," said the razorback.

	"Now that we have introduced ourselves again, I'm going to run off
to teach," I said grabbing my notes.  "Isn't this an exciting dream?"  I
hurriedly walked down the hall to the computer lab.  I was only a few
minutes late.  Teaching a programming lab isn't too hard.  I give them an
assignment, and I answer questions while they work on it.  So, I wasn't
under too much stress even that I was now a dinosaur.

	The lab was empty.  Not one student had shown up.  Not that I
would have recognized them to begin with, but nobody was there.  I wrote
a note on the dry erase board that said, "Lance is in room 207."  And I
went back to the office.  Ross and Brian were still there talking.

	"Funny, I didn't have one student show up," I said when I entered.

	"Maybe you did.  They might have turned into computers," Ross
laughed showing his sharp teeth.  Brian and I joined him.

	"So, what do you think happened?" Brian asked me.

	"Well, beside the fact that I am having one realistic dream, I
don't know what happened," I replied sitting down at my desk.  It was
harder than I thought with that long thick tail of mine.  The plates on
my arched back made it difficult as well.  "I had several dreams in a row
of waking up as an animal.  This last one is still going on."  I motioned
with my arms at my body.

	"You aren't dreaming, Lance," Ross said.  He walked over to my
chair, grabbed my tail, and bit it.  I yelled in pain.  Instinctively I
jerked my tail from his grip and prepared to swing it.  The spikes aimed
at the bear.

	"Sorry, Lance.  I was just making a point," Ross said backing away
from my tail.

	"I don't know what came over me," I said lowering my tail to a
somewhat comfortable position.  It was a comfortable as I could get it
sitting down.  I needed to get a chair without a solid back.  But then I
had a sudden realization.  Not only was I uncomfortable sitting down with
my tail and plates, but I had felt pain.  Ross's teeth were sharp.

	"Oh, man," I gasped.  "I'm not dreaming!"