The Flying Mermaid, the Face of Petrified Wood, The Valley of Destiny

[Jobediah Timberman]

A story as strange and baffling as this almost requires background music. And not only is this strange song very fitting, a line from this unusual and seemingly ancient song ties directly into the whole story itself. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_WCDAtPsQ0

It's the only song like it that this band has ever made, so even if you love their new music, you have no idea what you're about to hear. It's only two minutes long but I've spent hours in this place. 

I can't tell what style of music it even is, perhaps influences from India, but the words seem to be in Spanish. Which is probably the case, as the album is titled, "El Cielo", or "The Heavens", which is also just as appropriate for this thread. 

Background music for a story isn't just my pretentious idea, the band themselves recommend you listen to the album while looking at a particular Salvador Dali painting, "Dream Caused By The Flight of A Bumblebee":

Spoiler

 

And there you can see the Elephant in the Delta Waves, which the song's strange title is referring to. 

I still can't exactly decipher what this song means, but my potential translation reveals lyrics that might be as hauntingly beautiful as the voice itself.

I don't want to distort anyone's attempt, so I will only translate the very last line, since it's the one I know for certain.

"Un Vega Destina" - The Destiny of A Beautiful Valley

Which is precisely the place I crafted my first Home, the Nexus of my Vintage Story. 

Within an instant of seeing it, I knew this was to be my Haven, my Sanctuary. A clearing surrounded by two circular rock walls that weeped with waterfalls. Yet I had no idea this was connected to anything else.

And digging straight down under where I slept, I learned that I was building directly above massive arteries of Iron. 

I eventually crowned one of it's mountains with a giant Green Diamond, using the Peridotite which was found plentiful everywhere. 

And now, I've found that a Name I received in a Dream from 15 years ago finally makes sense, in more ways than one. 

And it shouldn't even make sense at all. Yet it gets weirder.

In the first Dream I spoke of months ago, I pursued a short-haired woman, and her only response was to show me her name.

"Ancienette".

Within 2 weeks of this Dream, I was asked to prove I'm not a robot, and the random magic word was "Ancienne".

This wasn't the only Dream involving a short-haired woman. Nor was it the only coincidence that tied a Dream to Real Life.

About 2008-09, I Dreamed I was in a large Forest, and became surrounded by Grasshopper People. They were feminine and beautiful, and golden in color.

Then I met the Giant Flying Mermaid Mother and she hugged me to her three-breasted chest. 

We flew up into the air, and looked down upon a giant "mountain". A massive Tree had been felled long ago, and it's stump hollowed out for a fence around it.

We landed upon this Tree by the Sea, and the Grasshoppers ascended and gathered around us.

The Mermaid held out her hand, and I reached into her imagination. Out of her palm, and her soul, I helped her manifest a gorgeous necklace.

I held it before my forehead, and it grew into ten times it's size and beauty. I turned around and cast it out into the middle of the Sea. The Sea shimmered and sparkled as the Mermaids received my instructions.

Then, walking out of the crowd of Grasshoppers, was a young woman with short hair. I knew it was time for us to go, and we flew off into the sky.

We swam through the cosmos like Angelic Dolphins, out to the darkest Void, and emanated countless Galaxies in an act of body-less Cosmic Love.

Next I remember flying and descending over beaches covered in bright white sands, followed by pile after pile of bleached Animal bones.

Then I landed into the city of an ancient culture, whose massive stone architecture was crumbling.

I waved my hand over a group of their people, and they knew me, as if we were one mind, and they protected me from the wrath of the others.

Then I placed my left hand upon a massive Obelisk, and toppled it with ease.

I stood up tall before the people and said to them,

"Your Civilization is crumbling and dying, because you are _____ _____ as a _____ of _____."

If I told you what I said, you might not listen.

I did not listen either, and now part of the Dream came true: my left arm is slightly crippled. And if I had followed my own advice I gave in the Dream, that part wouldn't have happened. Not that this means it will happen to anyone else.

More details would only cause it to make even less sense. The important part is that if Dreams are as meaningless as they say, this cannot happen. 

It's not the first time, and apparently not the last. Because recently, my oldest most inexplicable Dream contains information as well. And it ties directly to the first location I chose to build in Vintage Story.

If I could make this stuff up, I would be a novelist. Maybe not a successful one, but the point is, I don't have this kind of imagination.

Back in 2004, I dreamed I was in the most beautiful backyard one could dream of.

I saw shapes of constellations appearing in the starry sky, starting with a triangle of triangles, morphing into kaleidoscopic fractals.

I felt my body lifting up towards it, and then shot off into Outer Space.

I was surrounded by Stars and Nebulas, and I met a giant Face.

This Face was like a mis-shapen skull made of living, petrified wood.

I don't remember it speaking, but I knew it's name was "Petrous".

The rest of the dream involved an alien mating ritual, and then wandering around an alien arcade, wondering how to get back to Earth. Just after Petrous, I also saw Optimus Prime, and the logo on his trailer said "Christ", but I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean anything. 

But "Petrous" has turned out to contain tremendous significance. If it's really true that "Dreams cannot give you information.", why am I becoming a heretic to this Scientific Fact?

When dozens of strange coincidences point to the same location with pinpoint accuracy, do you ignore it as Lunacy?

But now I'm not so mad Petrous's word was cut silent: few people have ears that can see, and eyes that can hear. 

Everyone wants to go Home, but it's not where we were told. 

Words may burn to ash, but the Truth lies encoded in Stone. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jg5d3w4ROQ

And somehow in another coincidence, this YouTube URL ends with "ROQ".

You cannot make this stuff up. 

I'm finally recalling an even older dream now, where an old man was telling me and some kid named Brian about a "Constellation shape of cities in Africa". Then it turns out the Three Pyramids of Gizah are in the size and shape of Orion's Belt. I had never heard of such a thing at the time of the Dream.

And then in my search for what this meant, between 2002-2004 I had 2 or 3 dreams about seeing Orion in the sky, which I eventually assumed couldn't be that important or mean anything. In one instance I was too busy flying around my old neighborhood, and didn't know how to get back if I left. And I didn't know what I would find if I flew out to Orion anyway. Probably another weird Arcade. 

I guess I stopped looking because in the end, to search is to run away. See and you shall find. Believe and the door will be opened. Freedom sets you on the path to Truth. 

It only gets weirder from here.

Edited August 9, 2021 by Jobediah Timberman