i'm in a small boat, on a canal, in some kind of park.
there's a guy with me, he knows where we're going.
the boat seems to propel itself. i wonder about this fact.
we approach a series of locks, each one takes the water level a step higher.
each one has a gate which can swing across the canal, closing the way, or opening to let us thru.
they are white, the gates, and lock structures.

the gates begin to swing open, seemingly of their own accord. no-one (visible) is manning them.
i wonder about this. the bot continues along the canal, thru each lock, moving slowly onwards and upwards, as each lock opens into the next, a few feet higher than the last. the canal goes round a bend, i can see the locks and gates, opening, swinging, moving by themselves.
the boat turns the bend, up another step...
soon i see the end of the canal.
the boat stops, and the guy guides me off, where we walk thru some very shallow flowing water. it is only a few millimetres deep, flowing across the ground, into the canal...
we walk up this waterway, to a wall, which is basically a waterfall, but the water flowing down the wall is only enough to cover the wall surface.
the surface of the wall, beneath the flowing water, is uneven.
it looks like stalactites growing down the wall from above.
we stand next to the wall.
he tells me, "these are faery crystals".
i look closer, and see that each stalactite, is actually a crystal, growing downwards from above. at the terminal end of each, a tiny face can be seen. like miniature gargoyles, each crystal has an individual face which looks like it has been carved into it.

he tells me that from time to time, if the faeries allow, a crystal will come free at a person's touch, and they may take it home with them.
usually it is only a very small fragment.
i run my hands down one of them, and upon reaching the end, where the little face is, the end of it detached from the main shaft.
i found myself with a crystal the size of the palm of my hand.

my guide is amazed. he tells me he has never seen one so large.
something moves me to put it to my mouth.
i lick the end of the crystal.
it leaves a taste in my mouth, unlike anything i've ever encountered. almost impossible to describe.
neither sweet, nor sour. the only way i can describe it is to say that it seemed to me that it might be very "mineral-ey" in flavour. it was overpowering, the taste. so unusual.
so strange in fact, that i woke at that moment.
as i lay in my bed, that taste lingered in my mouth, and i had to take a drink of water, to try to wash it away.
very unusual experience indeed!