The Arrival of the Dreamers to Dream's Wake

McCaviety walked down a long winding staircase into darkness. She was entering the Dreaming in the usual way normal dreamers enter. She'd never entered that way before. She was getting a kick out of it.

She saw a reflection of a young girl with an eye patch and a crimson eye in a mirrored surface in front of her.

"What a strange way of seeing things she must have." McCaviety thought. She turned around and spoke to the girl. "Hello, Dove."

She didn't know why she said Dove. It just seemed to come into her mind. "Did you know the deceased personally?"

The young girl seemed startled at first. The figure had been wearing a suit so black she hadn't noticed the woman in front of her because of surrounding shadows. The girl declined to answer.

McCaviety shrugged and spoke anyway, "I've known Dream for a few centuries now. He wasn't a bad bloke. And I don't think he was as stuck up or uptight as people say. He had a sense of humor."

"We'll all miss him." Loralie answered.

"Yes we will." McCaviety noticed a cloaked figure beckoning her. "Opps, got to go, old girl. Destiny calls." She jumped off the staircase into what seemed like a great black maw and disappeared from Loralie's sight.

"They let anyone into the Dreaming these days." Loralie thought as she continued down the stairs.

McCaviety landed with a soft thump on the floor in front of Destiny. She straightened up. "Nice to make your aquaitenceship. You called?"

"I wish to know if you brought your violin with you."

"I don't have one." She answered, surprised.

"Then acquire one." Destiny told her. "You will need it shortly." He faded from view.

"Well, you don't ignore the words of Destiny." She thought for a moment and then opened a portal in the Time Pool. "It's been a long time since I've seen Sherlock Holmes but he doesn't have to see me and he's got the most glorious Stradivarius."

The portal closed on McCaviety and her thoughts as she went hunting for the violin that Destiny said she would need.

Night at the Wake Around the Campfires

She watched them silently as she sat on top of the cave opening. She knew why she was summoned. She was sad Dream was gone, he was fun to tease. She'd miss him. Now she wouldn't be able to visit him when on vacation.

"I can hear you breathing." The Corinthian said out loud, surprising the others in the Grotto. "You can come out now."

"Okay, Love, you win." McCaviety spoke with her soft English accent. She picked up something next to her. "Can you do me a favor, boyo? Catch this and hold it 'till I get down. It's very fragile."

"Sure." The Corinthian caught it. "A violin case?"

A lithe black suited woman landed directly in front of him and stood up looking him directly in the eyes...er...teeth without fear. "I've always thought that the Lord Shaper was responsible for my musical talent, I guess to make up for all my bad dreams as a child. I was summoned here to play at the funeral tomorrow." She took her instrament back.

"You're the first cat burglar aren't you?" The Corinthian asked. "Lucien told me about you."

"I don't know about first but I am a cat burglar. My name is McCaviety."

"I'm The Corinthian." He held a glass and a wine skin to her. "Care for a drink?"

"Um, no love, I'll pass." McCaviety answered. "I only get stupidly drunk once a year and today isn't it. Dream was a friend, I think, but he's not worth getting shit-faced over. I'll see him again when it's my turn to enter Death's realm."

"Oh." This woman kept surprising him.

"'Cides, if I start drinking I won't be able to stop until someone tears the bottle out of my hand or I get the Mother of All Hangovers."

The Corinthian grinned, all three of his mouths. "I would have thought that you'd make the exception for tonight like everyone else here."

"No, this is not my day to get so rip-roaringly drunk that I start spouting information about the future to people who aren't supposed to know."

"You do what?" He looked at her with disbelief.

"Ask Lucien. I've probably got a whole shelf in the Library."

"So what's the only day you get drunk?"

"The day my father murdered my mother and I in turn, murdered him." She answered her voice flat and emotionless.

"Oh."

They stood together, watching the fire in an awkward silence for a few minutes.

She suddenly turned to him. "I have to know. Were you created with perfect teeth or did you have to get braces on all three sets?"

The Corinthian just stared at her, shocked.

Early Morning, before the Funeral

McCaviety had spent the most interesting night talking with the most interesting young man who called himself The Corinthian. But with all that great conversation she'd almost forgotten why she was really there.

She walked and tuned the violin, playing snatches of her favorite songs: "Afterthought" by Peter Bardens, "Why can't it wait till morning?" by Phil Colins, and (just because it was annoying) "Flight of the Bumblebee."

She started down the stairs to where Destiny said she should stand and play as people came walking in. Destiny hadn't told her which song she was to destined to play there though, and that was troubling her.

"I want to make sure whatever it is that it's appropriate." McCaviety furrowed her eyebrows together.

"Hello!"

"Who said that?" She asked looking down and to the left, where the noise had come from.

"I did." A very large, vocal dog walking next to her. "Hello, I'm Barnabas, I belong to Delirium. That was a very nice song you were playing."

"Thank-you. But it wasn't very much of a song." She answered politely, mentally kicking herself for letting something in the Dreaming startle her. "I was really just warming up."

"Warming up for what?" A voice above and to her right asked.

She swung in the direction of the voice and gave herself another mental boot in the ass for being caught off guard.

"I am to play a stolen violin at the doorway to the funeral service so that people are in the proper mood." She answered, regaining her composure. "Destiny told me so. But I don't know what to play."

"That could be a problem." Said the Raven Mathew, owner of the second mysterious voice.

"Yes, it could. I was thinking of Beethoven's Recquim or maybe something from Mozart." She told them while playing with a tuning key. "What do you think I should play?"

"I like Beethoven, myself." Barnabas stated. "I think he showed allot more maturity in his later work."

"What a load of cra..."

"Matthew! This is neither the time nor place for that kind of language." McCaviety admonished him in a stern voice. "Besides, it won't help me find a song to play."

"You're right." Matthew hung his head sadly.

She removed the violin from her shoulder and invited Matthew to perch there. He did as she knelt down to scratch Barnabas' ears. "So what SHOULD I play?"

The raven and the dog were silent for a few moments. Suddenly, they both looked up at each other and said in unison...

"Dream a little dream of me!"

McCaviety burst out laughing so hard that Matthew was almost unseated.

"I think that is more than just appropriate, my friends." She laughed. "I think that it's down right suitable for everything!"

Matthew flew off her shoulder as she put her violin back and began to practice. "Thank-you my friends, for your excellent idea. I must rush to take my position now. Perhaps I'll see you later. Good-bye!"

"Bye!" The two called after her as she went down the rest of the stairs trailing the occasional chorus for "Dream a little dream of me."

"Strange human." Matthew grunted.

"She lived in Delirium's realm for quite some time." Barnabas told the raven.

"Hummpphh. That explains sooo much."

"We must get going. I really shouldn't have let poor Delirium out of my sight." The dog said. "She can get into such trouble without me."

"That's for sure." Matthew flew towards the growing line of mourners as Barnabas went looking for his friend.

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