Chapter the fourth – A strange journey

A/N: I just finished the deadly exam of doomy doom and I was feeling inspired, so I decided to get this next chapter out. I'm not sure how good it is, it's pretty much a filler (please don't hate me) but it does set some things up for later chapters. If you do like it why don't you drop me a review and let me know, it would make my day.

Disclaimer: What do you know, I don't own sandman. I am making a grand total of R0,00 from this story. My only remuneration is the joy I get from writing it.


Sarah's POV

I was standing in a large room with a high ceiling, a grand hall of sorts. There were several doors leading off it in different directions and a large staircase in front of me. It was so big that any desire I might have had to explore was overwhelmed entirely, and instead I just stood there like an idiot, staring.

I heard the singing before I saw the person to whom the high pitched voice belonged. A small girl in a pink shift with wild blond hair came wondering in through a door that I hadn't noticed before. She was carrying a bucket in one hand and a cloth in the other.

Her singing stopped suddenly when she saw me and she uttered a soft "oh!" we stared at one another for a few moments before she came forward and stood in front of me. "Good evening, I'm Nuala. Who are you?" She stuck out a tiny hand for me to shake. I'd never thought of myself as having large hands, but hers practically disappeared into my grip.

"I… I'm Sarah, pleased to meet you. Um, do you know where I am?" She let out a tinkling sort of laugh. "Don't you? This is my Master's realm; we're right near the centre of it too." She spoke all of this as if it was completely matter of fact, Master's realm? The centre of what? And who was her Master anyway? For some reason these questions were not nearly as important as they ought to have been.

"If you don't mind me asking ma'am, why are you here? This isn't an easy place to find on your own." I paused for a moment to think, "I honestly have no clue. One minute I was in my room, and then the next thing I remember I was just… here."

The girl, Nuala, smiled. "Well, then you are obviously meant to be here for some reason. Just keep going straight and you'll get to where you need to be." She turned away and began to scrub one of the banisters.

I looked up and realised that I was no longer facing the stairs, but I door off to the side. Without thinking, I took the advice and walked towards the door. "Hey!" I turned around to see Nuala looking at me again, "Whatever you do, just keep walking forwards, don't stray from the path. That would be very bad." Strange thing for someone to say.

I nodded once, to show that I had heard her, but she had gone back to scrubbing and didn't see me. I turned back and walked towards the door, only there was no door, just an archway leading into a long wide corridor. I entered and began to walk down it, even though the floor was stone, my feet made absolutely no sound. In fact, the whole place was eerily silent.

All of a sudden I came up short. There seemed to be another me standing further along in the corridor, facing me. I moved forward and the figure copied the movement, it was my reflection… idiot. The corridor ended about ten meters ahead of me in a large floor to ceiling mirror. I turned around once, watching my reflection do the same, and then walked towards it. I toughed the glass, it wasn't as cool as it might have been and the image looked to clear to be a reflection, and it must have been my imagination that there was a slight lag between my movement and the reflection following.

I don't know how long I stood there, playing with the strange mirror, but I wasn't meant to stay here, I just knew it somehow. I turned my back on the mirror and walked back the way I had come. After only a few paces I came to a side path I had not noticed before. I blinked and suddenly I was facing the side path, although I did not remember turning. Nuala had said to 'just keep walking forwards,' and so I did.


Surprise Morpheus POV

Like many humans before her, Sarah had found her way into the centre of the dreaming. I watched her as she began wandering around, that was significantly less common. The trait of curiosity had become increasingly uncommon after its peak, over a century ago.

I felt it happen, the shift in the dreamstuff of which the castle was made, the girl had summoned something. She had wondered off the path and created her nemesis. She had already turned around when the figure stepped out of the mirror.

She would need to deal with this; I could not do it for her.


Back to Sarah's POV

I felt like I had been walking for ages, but when I turned to look I was still not very far from the doorway I had come through. The trouble was that the walls had nothing to distinguish them, only marble pillars at even distances; so I just kept on walking.

After a while I rounded a curve in the hall and saw a man in loose overalls at the far end; painting what looked like a door onto the wall. At closer look, what I had first taken to be an orange afro, seemed to actually be a pumpkin, he had a pumpkin where his head was supposed to go. He was all but finished and when he had, he hitched up his ladder over his shoulder, opened the door, and walked through. "Wait! Stop!" I called out to him, but he had already shut the door.

I ran forward, the door was much larger than it had seemed at first. I pushed it open with a little effort and found myself in the most amazing library I had ever seen. The shelves, rows and rows of them, were at least twice as tall as me and absolutely full; there were even piles of books on the floor. I could have spent my life in this place and never read the same thing twice.

I began walking down the closest row, and one of the first things I noticed was that I didn't recognise any of the titles. Normally, in a library, I would recognise most things, but nothing here was familiar. Maybe this was where I needed to be. It was certainly where I wanted to be.

I was just about to start reading Alice's Journey to the Far Side of the Moon by Lewis Carroll – let me guess, it was all just a dream – when I heard a voice behind me. "I would appreciate it if you did not take the books without permission."

I jumped slightly and let out a small "eep." I turned around slowly, still clutching the book, and came to face the tallest, thinnest man I had ever seen. He had pointed ears and teeny tiny little glasses balanced on the end of his nose. He was wearing quite an old fashioned suit. Without saying another thing he held out his hand; I kept my eyes on his face as I handed over my treasure. He didn't betray any emotion as he walked past me and slotted the book back into place.

"I'm really sorry Sir, I found my way here and it's just… Where did all these books come from?" he had turned back to face me by now and he answered with the patient manner of a teacher. "It's every book that was never written, all the books that were written in dreams."

I nodded slowly, even though I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. He didn't seem inclined to speak further as he moved down the shelves dusting and rearranging books. "Sir!" I called on an impulse, "if this isn't where I'm meant to be… can you tell me where that is?" This time he didn't turn around to answer. "Just keep walking straight, and you'll get here." Gees, the people in this place where about as much use for advice as a bunch of parrots, all repeating the same thing. The man rounded a corner and was gone, without so much as stopping to explain, or point out which way straight was as it seemed to keep changing in this fucking place.

I stood still for a moment. I pinched my nose, squished my eyes shut and took ten deep slow breaths. This place was like Dali's nightmares. It was so confusing, had I been younger I almost certainly would have started crying ages ago. When I opened my eyes I was still facing the same direction I had been in, I had half expected everything to swivel again. I walked between the shelves and out till I was facing another enormous set of doors. I cast one more look at the beautiful library before pressing on into another large hall. Seriously, how big was this place?

At the far end, on a raised throne, sat Morpheus.

A/N: I hope you liked that and that you can take the time to review. Or if you didn't like it, that you can take the time to let me know what I did wrong. In case you haven't guessed yet, Sarah is dreaming, hence why she is in the castle and taking all of the weird so very calmly. You can totally review more than one chapter if you want. The hug deal still stands.