A group of men and women is gathered in and around the open bed of a truck. They are not military but of that type. I think of them as “adventurers.” A woman comforts someone hunched over in the truck. Someone approaches with an armful of weapons. These appear to be short swords of an Asian style. The hilts and scabbards are glossy black enamel with hints of embossing or inlay. I think they might be slippery in a bloody battle and wonder if that is the reason for the slight twist in each handle. One of the men takes a sword and unsheathes it to reveal two parallel blades a couple of inches apart. Others are of a similar style until he unsheathes the last one. This one has one blade like all the others but the left blade ends in a gathering of spikes, like the stainless-steel offspring of a pangolin and a porcupine. “What the hell is the point of that?,” he wonders aloud. Another man jumps from the truck and brandishes the weapon, saying, “I’ll tell you the point. When you see a big, hairy arm swinging that at your head, your first thought is to run like hell.”

I awake thinking the words, “The Lanoliers.” I don’t know if that is the name of the weapons, their wielders or this group of adventurers. The collective unconscious of the Web answers with this:

“Members of the Lanoliers must undergo training in both army and naval tactics and given with the [ Kingdom of Ewecadmia’s] recent emergence from isolation, they will be trained in air force specialties….

“Lanolier members who have taken extra classes in Kingdom and World protocol and etiquette, and volunteer may become part of the Royal Rams, that is the King’s Royal Guard. The Rams are responsible for patrolling the grounds of the Royal castle and escorting members of the Royal Family when traveling at home or abroad.” — http://courtbard.tripod.com/id46.html

I have no recollection of ever encountering this info before. However, the longer I think about this, I start to ‘recall’ (imagine?) I’ve read a poem by Robert Burns called The Lanoliers. I wonder if they use short swords. mjh

PS: I have a recollection of “pangolin” in the context of dinosaurs. I see something rather turtle-like with a spiked tail ala stegosaurus. Here, the Web lets me down (or sets me straight, perhaps) by only showing modern pangolins (pangolina?). Two words (pangolin and lanolier) come out of my head, one with rich context and one with none (except for the dream). One verified, one not.