Magical Warlock Ninja Dream

Last night I had another crazy awesome dream. Here's how it went down...

I was walking along a dirt trail in the middle of the woods. My leather boots shuffled along the ground. I wore a faded red robe that had an emblem of a shield with a lion inside of it on my chest.

Eventually I came upon a clearing in the woods. The trail led to a small log cabin, smoke rising from its chimney. Outside there was a very large man, easily over eight feet tall, with shaggy black hair and a full beard. He was standing above a girl who lied on the ground. She had bushy brown hair which obscured a cut along her hairline. Blood trickled down her forehead and down the side of her cheek. The large man wore a grim face.

“He attacked her.” He said in a gruff voice. “Came outta nowhere, he did. Hit her fast and was gone before ya knew it. Poor thing never had a chance. You gotta find him. He went thataway.” The large man said pointing toward another trail in the woods. The girl was still alive, just injured. The large man would look after her so I took off through the woods. Along the way I passed by a small puddle and caught a glimpse of my reflection. I looked like myself but there was a strange lightning bolt shaped scar on my forehead. Something told me I knew how to do magic.

I followed the dirt path for what felt like minutes. Hey, in a dream that could be a long time. Eventually the dirt path turned into a stone walkway flanked by a wide stream on both sides. The water was more black than it was blue and I sensed it would be dangerous to touch the water. Beyond the streams the woods expanded in all directions.

Something was near. I was close to whatever or whoever it was I was chasing. I reached for my hip where I thought my magic wand would be and when I drew it out instead of a wand I was holding a sword. Perfectly balanced and razor sharp. The edge glistened in the low sunlight. The steel blade rested in a brilliant silver cross-guard, the hilt was wrapped in soft black leather allowing for a comfortable grip, and the pommel was a sparkling red jewel. I could feel energy coursing through the weapon. Maybe instead of a magic wand I had a magic sword. Why not?

I made a few practice swings and twirled the blade a few times. It was effortless, as though the blade was an extension of my own arm. Oh yeah, I knew how to use a sword!

Suddenly everything went pitch black. The only light came from the blade of my sword. It radiated white but only enough for me to see a few feet in front of me. I had found whatever I was chasing after, or perhaps it found me.

There was a soft rustling from behind and I turned just in time to deflect a blade that was coming for my head. A dark figure wielded a short, straight edged sword. It lunged at me with three quick attacks. I was able to parry each attack but when I countered I only hit air. The figure had disappeared back into the darkness.

It took a moment for me to realize what I had just seen. A dark hooded figure, it's face was masked. It attacked from behind with lightning speed and disappeared just as quickly. But in the brief exchange I caught a glimpse of my attacker. It was freakin' ninja! Looked like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, but without the yellow. Everything on this guy was black.

Then there was a loud swoosh sound and I turned to see a purple fireball flying my way. I dove, rolled and recovered to my feet and the ninja was in my face again. He attacked with a flurry but again I managed to block all his attacks. But, again, he disappeared into the dark before I could counter.

Ok, so not only am I fighting a ninja, I'm fighting a crazy wizard warlock ninja! Great...

If I could only see I could pursue and mount an attack. I realized that with the ease I was defending myself I could take on the ninja in a toe-to-toe fight. But the ninja was using stealth and eventually one of his attacks would get through my defense. I had to light the place up somehow.

Wait...don't I know magic? I shouted lumos, but nothing happened. I tried again and sensed that the ninja's spell to cast everything in darkness was more powerful than my spell – besides, my sword was already glowing so I guess lumos wasn't the right spell to use. Oh well, I only realized that after I woke up. The Harry Potter fans will get it. You picked up on the Harry Potter thing by now, right? Anyway...

I heard the ninja laugh from somewhere to my left. I took a few steps and glimpsed his figure. The ninja threw a blade at my face, I just managed to dodge it. When I turned back he was gone.

Fed up with the darkness I had an idea. I was on a stone pathway but there were woods all around me. I shouted Fira and sent a fireball into the woods. Yeah, yeah, I know the fire spell in Harry Potter is Incendio but I guess my brain was thinking Final Fantasy at this point. In case you don't know, fira is the fire spell from the Final Fantasy video games. Anyway, I sent several fireballs into the woods and set the trees ablaze. Now I could see.

The ninja stood a mere ten feet in front of me. Dumbfounded at the surrounding fire, he looked at me with a start, turned, and ran away. He might have even swore to himself. This time I chased after him.

I launched a stun spell at the black-clad ninja. He dove and avoided it. All good though, it let me close the distance on him. The ninja turned to face me. Expelliarmus! Guess I was back to Harry Potter spells again. A bolt of white light shot out of my sword and slammed into the ninja's chest. He dropped his sword and stumbled backward a few steps. I lunged in and drove my blade into his gut. The ninja slumped over and fell to the ground.

I turned and began walking away but ninjas never go down that easily. I heard the sound of metal sliding on metal and turned to see the ninja back on his feet with a long dagger in his hand. He lunged in and struck at me. I parried the attack and countered with an arcing slash across his body. A large cut opened up from his shoulder down to the opposite hip. I followed up with a lateral slash which caught the ninja across the neck. He fell, and this time there would be no getting up.

I sheathed my sword and began making my way back to the dirt path in the woods. But not after casting a spell to put out the fires. Wouldn't want to burn down the entire forest even if it is just a dream.

One More Year

Yesterday was my 29^th birthday. My day started at 5am and lasted well into the night. It was a pretty full day with a few interesting things. I spent some time reflecting on the past year, a little more time thinking about the year to come, but mostly I just enjoyed the day.

It's cloudy but the light still shines

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about how I wanted to watch a sunrise from the top of Koko Head but missed it by about 20 minutes. I figured I'd try again, which is why my day started at 5am. I got up early, managed not to fall back asleep, and made my way to Koko Head. I just made it to the top when the sun was supposed to peek over the horizon and when I looked to the east it was cloudy. I couldn't actually see the sun rise but the view was spectacular nonetheless. Rays of light broke through the clouds to form curtains of orange and yellow that draped over the neighbor island of Moloka'i.

The interesting thing about my trek up Koko Head was how a random encounter coincided with something that's been on my mind lately: Jiu-jitsu. In the past couple of weeks I've been thinking about where I want to go with jiu-jitsu. Do I want to keep it up to stay fit or do something more serious with it? I've decided that this next year I want to compete. But I don't want to enter a tournament just for the sake of it, I want to be competitive. And in order to do that I'll need to get a lot better and I'll need to step up my training. As made my way up Koko Head I contemplated how I might do this and then I ran into Professor Caveirinha, my jiu-jitsu instructor from Gracie Barra. I guess there's my answer.

After Koko Head I went out to Ala Moana Beach for a swim, something I've been doing in the morning the past few weeks. On this day something different happened. The water was a bit more murky than usual and as I swam along, a large dark figure approached and passed in front of me. Freaked me out at first. It was sort of round and had fins. As it got closer I could make out what it was. A turtle! It came out of nowhere and swam with me, staying about 5 feet ahead. How often does a turtle come up to you at the beach? How often is a turtle ever seen at Ala Moana?? It was really cool.

After the swim I made my way to the UFC gym to roll. I had a jiu-jitsu class that morning and a friend of mine whose just starting out – it was his second class - was there. We took the class then hung back a while so I could show him some fundamental techniques and submissions. It was a good roll. Hiking, swimming, rolling, and it wasn't even noon yet.

When I got home from the gym I logged onto Facebook and saw my page flooded with birthday wishes. New friends, old friends, family, and people I haven't seen since high school had posted. It was nice to see. Not to mention all the text messages I had received. It was easy to smile that morning, and for the rest of the day for that matter.

One text I got said to enjoy the last year of my 20's. Thinking about it, I'm surprised my reaction wasn't along the lines of dammit I'm getting old! Instead I simply thought, yes...yes I will!

So what do I want to do with the last year of my third decade? First thing that came to mind was to keep writing. For a while now my ambition has been to become a published writer. I've completed a first draft of a novel, which I'm currently doing revisions on, and I'm almost at a point of needing to search for publishers. So without a doubt, keep writing. Next thought that came to mind was jiu-jitsu. Keep rolling! Another thought that keeps recurring in my mind is to remember that people matter. More than things, more than titles, people matter. Don't want to forget that one.

Simply put, I want to keep writing, keep rolling, keep caring, and keep smiling. A big thanks to all the well wishers and blog readers.

More Randomness

Last week I wrote a blog about randomly running into a friend. A similar thing happened again about an hour ago. As I was leaving Walmart I heard somebody call out “chocolatier!” Something about that rung a bell. Then I heard it again, “chocolatier!” This time I turned and recognized the guy calling it out.

Here's the back story. About a year ago when I was real heavy into training jiu-jitsu with Gracie Barra and Professor Caveirinha, I was given the nickname of chocolatier. The reason for that is simple. I would bring chocolates from my family's shop to Gracie Barra to share with everybody. Hence the nickname, it was even printed onto my membership card.

I took a break from training at Gracie Barra and haven't had any chocolates sent my way in a while so I haven't been called chocolatier for quite some time...almost a year, I think. A week ago or so I asked my family to send me some chocolate and I had just picked it up today. So there I was, first time I've had my family's chocolates and the same day I run into Zach, a friend from Gracie Barra, who's calling me chocolatier. Awesomely random!

 

Kauai Chocolate Company - the best stuff ever, seriously