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Ealasaide slept much later than she had intended and awoke to the sounds of music and shouted poetry from across the room. Yes, she discovered rather quickly, the party was still in full swing. She sat up slowly and blinked around the dimly lit room which had changed at some point from being illuminated by the warm glow of yellow-orange fire-light to the cool glow of green firelight, which lent the place a far more ghostly atmosphere than before.
"Fitting..." she muttered to herself and looked around for the dog. When she had fallen asleep the night before, Codijune had been nestled snugly into the nook behind Ealasaide's knees. Upon Ealasaide's waking, she was nowhere to be seen. "Probably over by the food table, begging for handouts... which sounds like the right place to be to me."
Ealasaide smoothed her sleep-tousled hair into a slightly less messy mess and walked over to the still heavily-laden food table, where she piled a plate with tasty morsels. She poured herself a mug of strong black coffee and looked around again for the dog. Still not finding her, Ealasaide went back to the spot where she had been sleeping and sat down on the floor to eat. Seconds later, she felt the gentle touch of a paw on her knee as Codi crawled out from under an armchair nearby and joined her for breakfast. The chair was set rather high on old-fashioned wooden clawfeet and had long skirts that had hitherto concealed the dog from view. Ealasaide handed Codijune a bite of cheese off of her plate and, having solved the mystery of what had become of the dog, began to look around for Hilde. She had seen her the night before, but, by the time Ealasaide had made her way over to speak to Hilde, Hilde was already asleep. Ever on different schedules, Hilde had apparently awakened early and taken off again to another part of the room.
"Ah, well," sighed Ealasaide. "I imagine we'll catch up to one another eventually."
She was just raising the last bite of a sandwich to her mouth when a bloodcurdling yowl tore through the air. Codijune, who had been sitting placidly at Ealasaide's side, instantly leaped up and with a mighty "WOWF! charged away across the room, trailing her six-foot leather lead behind her. Startled, Ealasaide made a lunge for the end of the leash, sending her plate and her mug of coffee flying. She missed her grip on the leash and the dog disappeared into the crowd of partying wights.
"CODI!" shouted Ealasaide. "Codi!" Not noticing that her green blouse was now stained with cold salmon and coffee, she pushed herself to her feet and tore after the dog.
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