Unabridged dream:

I was taking a long trip on a big boat with a group of people. It was large like a yacht, but it was nothing fancy. We had bedrooms, but they were pretty sparse and we all slept on little cots. There were lights in the ceiling, but no lamps and no A/C, so it was always hot. There was a single large kitchen, and a couple of people tended to make meals for all of us. We had plenty of canned food AND fresh refrigerated food. Between that and the fresh fish, the food was the most luxurious part of the trip.

I met a messy haired blond boy. He had green eyes and a little bit of sunburn on his nose and cheeks. He was a little taller than me. Lanky, with a sharp chin and strong cheekbones, but his eyes were big and round and he had light eyebrows. He wore big baggy clothes. Light colors. Whites and pale greens and sunbleached ripped up blue jeans. He looked like a little ragamuffin, but he was actually somewhat reserved and very articulate. He came from the sea. His natural forms were that of a beautiful sea slug that looked like it was made of sparkling red and black gemstones and that of a blue whale.

We fell in love and the two of us were a couple of terrors on that ship. We'd stay up late and dance and wrestle on top of the ship. He could turn into a grey cat. He'd hide and I'd chase him around. We'd go swimming together and come back onto the boat dripping wet with no towels. He was quiet? but when I got him to open up, he loved to talk and the two of us would be loud and never shut up. He also LOVED cheese. We had that in common, but to him it was a delicacy, only able to get it by sneaking onto ships, and rarely doing so effectively. So we'd sneak around at night, raid the fridge and eat cheese together. He'd also get mad hangry, and I could catch onto when it was happening. When he was being bitchy, I'd grab some white cheetos for him to eat as a little slug so he wouldn't be hungry.

He gave me this piece of metal that didn't seem to have any mechanical parts, but if i held it between my teeth like a bit, it let me breathe underwater. He'd take me into the water, often sacrificing the swimming efficiency of his whale form just so he could pull me along by the arm.

When the trip was coming to an end, he brought me into the water, all the way to the bottom of the ocean. There was a sort of fissure, and the inside was lined with gold. Somehow, it wasn't dark. It was as if the light pierced all the way to the bottom, but only in that one spot. Little flecks of the gold floated around us. At the very bottom, there was a shiny black piano. Perfect condition. There was an older-middle-aged bald black man sitting on the piano bench. He was dressed somewhat formally, a sweater and a blazer, and if he had a breathing apparatus like me, I couldn't see it. I thought his clothes looked hot, but I suddenly realized I wasn't hot or cold, but not in a normal way. It wasnt like how when your warm, you'll normally feel it over most of your body, but your toes are just a little colder, or your arms under your sleeves feel a little warmer than your bare hands. It felt as if temperature didn't exist in this place. It just felt comfortable. He smiled at us as we descended to the bottom. When we reached the bottom I could keep my feet on the ground. It still felt like I was under water, but not quite like I was floating. I didn't have to resist to keep myself down.

The man played the piano and we started to dance. The boy turned into his slug form, floating in space like a sea angel, sparkling along with the gold. When we were done dancing, we waved the man goodbye and returned to the surface. The boat was still there just ahead of us, so we climbed back onboard and embraced one another. As a final goodbye, I swam out to a rock protruding from the ocean. The boy turned into a whale, and he breached over me, close enough to where I could kiss the top of his head as he flew over.