Recurring Dream #2: Flying to a pirate ship (Backlog, pt. 7)

Another recurring dream I have had since childhood is that I can fly - I know, that's a pretty common recurring dream for lots of people - but I am specifically flying for a purpose.  There is a massive pirate ship docked next to a massive, gorgeous, lush park with thick green grass and ancient oak trees.  The park gently slopes upward from the shore to a broad hill, and on the other side of the hill is a cloud city  that is for some reason on the ground instead of in the sky, where one would expect a cloud city to be.  It's a bright, white city, so bright that I can't really make out the details, but my job is not to actually go into the city, so I never get to explore it and find out what it's like on the inside.

My purpose in this dream is to fly onto the pirate ship, invisible, and free the citizens of the cloud city that the pirates have captured.  For some reason, though, I can't just open all the doors and let them all out at once.  I have to go into each cell and carry one citizen out at a time, and take them back to the cloud city.  The part of the pirate boat where they keep their prisoners looks exactly like a modern day prison: gray concrete floors, steel cage bars, etc.  No problem, though!  When I am flying and invisible, I can move through solid objects.  So I fly through the cage bars, pick up the prisoner inside, and when I do, they become invisible, too.  So I fly back through the cage doors, out of the boat, across the park, and deposit them at the border of the cloud city, then go back to get the next prisoner.

The whole dream is just me going back and forth, rescuing the prisoners.  I always rescue exactly half of the prisoners - all the ones along the left wall - and then the pirates are waiting for me at the top of the hill when I'm coming back from delivering the last freed prisoner.  I realize that the pirates can see me because I'm losing my invisibility, and THEN I realize that I'm dreaming, and the reason I'm losing my invisibility is because I'm starting to wake up.  "No!"  I think, "I still have to save the rest of the prisoners!"  But it's no use,  The pirates are chasing me down the hill, I'm becoming increasingly visible and I'm getting heavier and heavier.  It's harder for me to fly so I'm slowing down, getting closer to the ground, and the pirates are closing in on me.  Finally I'm just inches from the ground and I can hear the pirates' boots crushing the grass right behind me.  By that point, I'm aware of sounds from my room and the real world, and right as my chin hits the ground in my dream, I wake up.