Sirius and Kass walked along the beach for what felt like hours, chatting about the all the places they had been and the things they had seen.

Kass barely noticed the sand beneath her feet or salty smell of the sea. They were there though, at the edges of her thoughts, so real. She trusted Sirius, and what he said about this place being a dream. And she had known dreams, felt them used during the northern vampire wars. When she’d been captured, by both sides at one point or another, they’d all tried to get information out of her, tried to figure out whose side she was on. But no dream had ever scared Kass like the ones she conjured for herself.

“What do you dream about?” she asked Sirius, “When you dream, if you dream, do you ever dream of the past?”

“Sometimes,” he admitted, “But I wouldn’t call those dreams.”

“What about good dreams?”

He glanced toward the sea. “Sometimes I dream I’m sailing. Standing at the bow of my ship. Nothing but me and the sea, and good weather.”

Kass smiled at the thought.

“What about you?”

Her smile faded. “I don’t know.”

“What would you dream about then? If you could pick, anything, any place, anywhere.”

Kass shook her head again but in it she imagined a pretty garden, filled with roses, soft to the touch and sweet-smelling, and a pond with ducks and swans. On the breeze, gentle and calm, the sound of a thousand crickets singing. In the background, two children playing. Her children. “I don’t know, maybe a garden with a comfy swing and a good book.” But as she said the words her mind filled in it’s own details. Snakes beneath the rose bushes, waiting to strike. Instead of only two children there was now a third, a boy with a mean look. He pushed his brothers into the pond, shattering the quiet scene with a loud splash. Kass closed her eyes until the thought was pushed from her mind.

“Are you alright?” Sirius asked.

Kass nodded far too quickly. “Yeah,” she whispered.

“What would you read, in this perfect garden?” Sirius asked.

That did the trick. Kass’s attention was now grabbed by thoughts of her bookcase, one of the few personal items in her otherwise sparse apartment. It wasn’t a big bookcase, only two small shelves. Kass had left things behind too many times to want to collect an abundance of items, it just made it harder to leave when you had to. But what was in those shelves was precious to Kass. More than once in her life she’d had floor to ceiling bookshelves and even today she would have been able to tell you, if anyone had asked, exactly which shelf any particular book had been on. “I don't know,” she answered softly again, “Something romantic, maybe with a bit of mystery, and a happy ending. Something I haven’t read before. What would you read?”

Sirius smiled at the question, a wide smile for him, like he’d been waiting for someone to ask that exact question. “Yaggy’s Guide to the Sea,” he declared with confidence. “It’s got a lot of chapters on biological sea life, some on navigation, a section on knots, and even one chapter with recipes suited for sailing with ingredients that store well on a ship or can be caught in the ocean. They’re not all the same style of food either. The best bit about that book though, is the artwork. It has, on every page, an intricately drawn picture. The marine life one’s are very accurate, and he labels all the details so you learn a lot. I swear there’s something new I notice every time I open it. But it’s not just a guide either. It has stories interwoven throughout, relating to the section, like how a recipe was discovered or an incident during which the paticular navigation technique was used, even the politics around the uses of different knots for prisoners. And maps of where to find creatures, with tiny drawings of them sketched in. It’s also a really heavy book.” He turned to her with a satisfied smile, “It stops my other books from falling over.”

Kass laughed. “I suppose a big book would be a good choice if you only had one book. By the time you finished the start would seem new again.”

“This book feels new every time I look at it, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually read it in order.”

Kass laughed again.

He looked at her with a smile. “What if you only had one book, and it had to be one you’ve already read. What would you pick then?”

“That’s too hard. There’s too many books. Maybe..., I read this train mystery once, with different perspectives, of all different ages. A girl on her way to stay with her aunt and uncle for the holidays, a young woman looking for love, a thief, whose name you never got to know. The train goes through a long dark tunnel and sometime during that time a body shows up. The whole book is a mystery but the body’s not even the important part, it’s all the other little plots. The problem was it was an old book and the last few chapters were missing so I have no idea how the main plot ended. But for that one it didn’t really matter. What I loved about it were the descriptions, and the slight differences in how each character’s story was told. And right where I read up to, it all seemed like they were all about to get just what they wanted so you’re left with this feeling of hope. I think I liked that more than if it had ended. It left like a promise of something.” She glanced at Sirius then, realising how caught up she’d got in explaining it. He was looking at her intently with a curious expression on his face. Feeling a bit like she’d bared her soul she blushed and ducked her eyes.

“What about music?” he asked.

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She risked a glance back at him. His expression was kind and gentle.

“If you had one song, no, one genre of music that you had to listen to forever which would you pick?”

She laughed. “You can’t ask questions like that. Variety is the spice of the human soul.”

“That’s why I said said genre and not song.”

“Hmm, so which genre has the most variety then? I suppose that depends on how you define a genre, there’s a lot of crossover, and... can I just pick music as my genre?”

“Mmm,” Sirius waved his hands, “I mean like...” he struggled to explain.

“Well, there are a lot of classical songs and reinterpretations of classical songs which if you’re counting those add up to a lot of songs, but I don’t think I’d want to listen to classical forever. It’s nice but I think I’d want something with lyrics.

“Can’t you imagine lyrics? You know, the music tells a story?” He grinned cheekily.

“It’s not quite the same. Pop’s a bit too repetitive and similar. Rock, not really my thing, not for a last genre anyway. There are some lovely folk music songs though. I could listen to those all day. And you can extend the word ‘folk’ to cover quite a range of songs.”

“What about country?”

“There’s definitely a bit of crossover there. I’m quite fond of the harp or the lyre though, just minimal instruments and a good vocalist. You could probably say country is subset of folk.”

“Ah, so you’re cheating.”

“Well I was thinking more of a older celtic sort of style anyway. Like the songs sung in the old languages by common folk travelling between towns, back before the world was split.”

“What about sea shanties?”

“Is that what you’d pick?”

“Nothing beats a good sea shanty,” Sirius replied. “I do like a song you can sing along to, and something with a good beat. I didn’t used to like country songs so much but Amanda plays them all the time, I think I’ve acquired a taste for them. They’re not quite what I’d pick for an only one genre song but there are some good ones. I like some slower rock songs. If it’s got a solid beat that you can bang out in a bar or on the deck of a ship with a whole group of people or nothing but a mop and your boots then it’s a good song.”

Kass smiled, and imagined Sirius singing into the end of mop.

“Okay, what about food?” Sirius asked.

Kass laughed. “No, no more ‘you’re only allowed one’ questions. I’ve got a better one. What if you could have as much of anything you wanted in the world what wouldn’t you want?”

“Mosquitos!” Sirius answered firmly.

Kass giggled. But it had been the wrong question to ask, because thinking about things she didn’t want brought her mind back to that garden, back to that boy with the mean smile. She tugged her thoughts away but they landed instead on the rose bushes, snakes sliding over the roots, twisting around her ankles. It was so vivid she could actually feel them.

She glanced down. Black and white and brown snakes slithered over her feet. Several of them, covering her toes. She gasped, and jumped sideways, kicking them off as she did.

Sirius grabbed her arm gently. “It’s not real.”

As they backed away from the snakes Kass replied, “I thought dreams could be made real in the dreamworld? That things could actually hurt you.”

Sirius nodded seriously. “Yes, they can, but the more you believe it, the more risk they pose.”

Kass gave a nervous laugh. “How can I both be wary of something and not believe it at the same time?”

“You have to hold two ideas in your head,” Sirius replied in a completely serious tone.

It was so serious Kass had to check his expression because she really didn’t believe that was something that was possible to do. “How?”

He reached for her chin and gently turned her face towards him. “Just think of something else.”

Kass glanced back at the pile of snakes. “Well at least they’re not rats. I don’t actually mind snakes as long as they aren’t poisonous.”

“But the tails are similar though?” Sirius asked frowning.

“It’s not the tails, it’s the teeth. They can bite through anything. Chew through human skin like it’s butter.”

“Melted butter or frozen butter?” Sirius asked with grin.

Kass couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“Don’t think about things you don’t like. Think about things you do like. We can go back to that other game. Or what’s your favorite ice cream flavor?”

Kass glanced once more at the snakes and tried not to think about them turning into rats. Sirius's question worked though. It provided the distraction she needed, as silly and simple as it was. She appreciated the effort. “Vanilla.”

“Vanilla?” He frowned.

“It’s a classic,” Kass explained. “What about you?”

“Mango.”

Kass tried not to notice the world changing around them. She had liked the beach scene. It was peaceful. But as they walked the sand changed to soil. Trees sprouted from the earth. She wasn’t sure when they appeared. They didn’t grow or anything like that. One moment there were none and then next there was another, then another, and they came in so subtly that she couldn’t be sure they hadn’t always been there. That the beach hadn’t been all a dream. Well, she supposed, technically all of it was a dream.

One moment Sirius was beside her and then he was gone. She stopped walking, suddenly very afraid.

“Kass?” Sirius suddenly appeared beside her again. He held out a hand. “Stay nearby.”

“What’s happening?” she asked.

Before Sirius could reply she watched at the scene changed once more. The forest was still there but they were in a large clearing and at the other end it seemed almost as if the world just faded away. The large section of the air had a slight sparkle and a purple tinge. Kass couldn’t tell if it was due to the absence of something in that space or if there was a giant cloud there. Except as the hole came closer it took on more of a jelly like appearance. She could see through whatever it was to the other side, but it was like looking through glass.

Sirius started to back up and pull her along with him.

“What is it?” she whispered, least the thing hear them.

“A nightmare,” Sirius replied.

When she gave him a puzzled look he added, “Dreamweaver, but most people just call them nightmares. They feed off fear. Try not to be afraid.”

Kass couldn’t help but give a laugh at that but her own intrusive thoughts cut it short and came out almost more like a gasp. The sound of fear.

The gelatinous blob slid towards them. Kass wasn’t sure how it moved. She wasn’t even sure how distance worked in the dream world, all she knew was that it wasn’t like the world she knew.

Kass didn’t know when Sirius disappeared. All she knew was that he was gone again. Then she was falling. She landed in a raging river and was sucked under. Instinctively she held her breath. The river brought her to the surface again. Rapids hit her in the face as she struggled to keep her head up. Then there was a hand reaching. She grasped it and it pulled her up. She looked up to find Sirius’s face, only to have him fade to black a moment later.

“Kass!” she heard him call.

She was floating somehow in cold darkness. She wasn’t sure if it was water or air. She closed her eyes and dreamed of somewhere else. Somewhere nicer. She focused on the image in her head, tried to imagine it.

She felt grass between her fingers. Soil beneath her knees and feet. And on the air the smell of roses.

She opened her eyes to a garden. Birds tweeted overhead. Gravity felt right for once. She nervously got to her feet.

“Sirius?” she spoke louder than a whisper but still softly in case the nightmare heard her. Behind her somewhere she heard the sound of children’s laughter.