Shadow Slave

The three of them stood motionless, looking down in uneasy silence. What happened to Shifty didn't come as a shock, but it was still a hard thing to digest. An ominous feeling settled in their hearts — seeing the broken body of their companion, it was too easy to imagine one of them sharing the same fate.

No one knew what to say.

After a minute or so, Scholar finally sighed.

"It's a good thing that you took most of the supplies he had been carrying."

'A bit heartless, but not wrong,' Sunny thought, giving the older slave a careful look.

Scholar frowned, realizing that his mask of a kind-hearted gentleman had slipped for a second, and hurriedly added in a somber tone:

"May you rest in peace, my friend."

'Wow. What a performance.'

Actually, Sunny had not believed in his benevolent act for a second. Every kid from the outskirts knew that people who acted kind for no reason were the ones to be most wary of. They were either fools or monsters. Scholar didn't seem like a fool, so Sunny became cautious of him from the moment they met.

He got this far by being a mistrustful cynic, and there was no reason to change now.

"We have to go." Hero said, casting one last look down.

His voice was even, but Sunny could feel a well of emotion behind it. He just couldn't tell what that emotion was.

Scholar sighed and turned away, too. Sunny stared at the bloodied rocks for a few more seconds.

'Why do I feel so guilty?' he thought, bewildered by this unexpected reaction. 'He got what he deserved.'

A little unsettled, Sunny turned around and followed his two remaining companions.

Just like that, they left Shifty behind and continued to climb.

At this altitude, traversing the mountain was getting harder and harder. The wind was slamming into them with enough force to throw a person off-balance if they were not careful, making every step seem like a gamble. The air was becoming too thin to breathe. Due to the lack of oxygen, Sunny was starting to feel dizzy and nauseated.

It was as though they were all slowly suffocating.

Altitude sickness was not something one could overcome with effort. It was subtle and overbearing at the same time, affecting the strong and the weak with no regard to their fitness and endurance. If his luck was bad, an elite athlete could succumb to it faster than a random passerby.

It was just a question of your body's innate aptitude and adaptability. Lucky ones were able to get over it after experiencing mild symptoms. The others were sometimes crippled for days or weeks, suffering from all kinds of torturous side effects. Some even died.

clothes and fur weren't enough to keep the chill at bay anymore. Sunny felt simultaneously feverish and freezing,

mountain was not a place

had to go

three survivors continued to struggle forward, slowly moving higher and higher. Wherever that old path Scholar had talked about was, by now, it couldn't have been far. At

he started to doubt if the path even existed. Maybe the older slave lied. Maybe the path was long ago destroyed by ravages of time. Maybe they had already missed it

about to fall into despair,

winding its way up the mountain like a tail of a sleeping dragon. Here and there, it was hidden beneath the snow. But most importantly, it was flat. Sunny had

his rucksack and sat down. He was deathly pale, gasping for air like a fish out of water. Despite that, there was a

"Told you."

and looked around. A few seconds later, he turned back to

not

times, then glanced at

just give me

to retort, but Sunny suddenly put a hand on his

"What is it?"

"It's gone."

"What is gone?"

gestured down, back the

"Shifty's body. It's gone."

at him for a few moments, clearly failing to

know that Shifty's name is

both Scholar and Hero seemed to have grasped his meaning. Simultaneously, they moved to the edge of the stone path and looked down, trying to spot the place where Shifty had

still be seen on the jagged rocks, but the corpse

crawled as far away from the edge as he could. The young soldier also backed away, instinctively grabbing the handle of his sword. The three of them

Scholar said, even

Hero gritted his teeth.

is that close, we will

frightening as it was preposterous. He might as well have said that they will all be dead soon. The truth of

surprisingly, did not look panicked. Instead, he lowered his

"Not necessarily."

to him, all ears. The

"Explain?"

'Here it comes.'

Scholar sighed.

us this far in just a day. That means that there are two most probable possibilities. Either it is smart enough to realize where

Hero nodded, agreeing with this logic. The older

it is one or another, we can throw him off our trail and buy some

we do