Shadow Slave

Sunny woke up from the insistent sense of alarm coming from his shadow. Groggy and disoriented, he opened his eyes and sat up.

'Wh—what's wrong?'

He looked down at the shadow and saw it repeatedly pointing up with a tense expression on its… well, it didn't have a face. He could just tell that it was nervous.

'Trouble?'

Sunny looked up and saw nothing but the scarlet leaves of the great tree. The sky was hidden, but he could easily tell that the sun was still up. It seemed that he was asleep for just a few hours.

There was no threat anywhere in sight. He frowned.

'What got you so spooked?'

The shadow just pointed up again, seemingly irritated by his stupidity. Sunny blinked a couple of times and addressed it again:

'High in the tree? Higher? In the sky?'

Finally satisfied, the shadow crossed its arms.

'Something dangerous is above the island… that creepy raven thing again?'

He had to check… but why did he feel as though he was forgetting something?

Sunny scowled, trying to understand where this feeling of missing something important had come from. What was there to miss? He was asleep, then woke up and conversed with the shadow.

Asleep…

Suddenly, he remembered bits and pieces of a strange dream. At least it seemed like a dream… was it? People weren't supposed to dream in the Dream Realm. It was just how things worked… from what he knew, only Cassie seemed to be an exception from this rule.

He didn't remember much about this supposed dream of his, with even the remaining fragments already fading from his memory. There was a… a woman grabbing him by the shoulders, an expression of horror and panic on her face. She was saying something, but he couldn't hear what.

No, not a woman. It was… Cassie? Yes, it was her. And the thing she was saying…

Sunny strained his memory, trying to catch the pieces of the dream before they completely disappeared.

'Yeah, I think she was saying… uh…'

Suddenly, he could clearly hear Cassie's frightened, tense voice as she was hurriedly telling him to remember something, repeating the same sentence over and over again in a begging tone:

"...you have to remember, Sunny! Five! It's five! Remember! You have to remember! It's five!"

'What a strange dream.'

Sunny cast a glance at Cassie, who was sleeping peacefully near Neph, and shook his head in bewilderment. He wasn't sure if this memory of his was really a dream or some strange scene he had imagined right before falling asleep. With how the Dream Realm worked, he was leaning toward the latter possibility.

'Still. I better tell the girls when…'

He was distracted from this thought by the shadow, which waved its hands impatiently.

a threat in the

contents of this strange memory of his with Nephis and

was sudden and unnatural, but since Sunny couldn't remember things that he had forgotten, he didn't notice anything amiss

have been the first time he

leaves of the great tree. Feeling the coolness of the black polished hilt

at him, her body tensing up. There

Sunny shook his head.

Stay with

branches of the colossal tree were not as thick and the sky could be seen through the openings in

situations like this, where the danger was unknown, Sunny

eastern slope of the Ashen Barrow, he carefully looked up,

above in the vast grey sky, a small black

chest became heavy with wariness. Back when the terrible winged beast had first

keep watch on the black dot, he

now, it's just flying above the island. I don't know if it's the same creature or not, and when it is going

Changing Star frowned.

live prey. Perhaps it's mostly a carrion eater, and thus is only interested

her own

too weak and little to satiate it? After all, it never came for the corpses of the scavengers we had slain. As if eating mere beasts is

Sunny shook his head.

carapace centurion's meat. But it took a few scavengers with it as well before leaving. So it'll be too optimistic to think that this abomination will not try to devour us too if

for a while, then gave

would be to stay away from the Carapace Demon for now and hide

looking up, she

make sure that it's

having an argument against this logic, Sunny led the girls to the spot where he had left his shadow. There, they sat on the ground and watched the black dot

flying creature left them disturbed

allowing them to discern that it was indeed the same terrible monstrosity that they had encountered a few weeks before, or at least a creature of the same type. However, it never got too close

hours passed by, it was joined by two other abominations of the same breed, each as horrifying and repulsive as the first one was. Now, three black dots were circling in the skies

powerful limbs protruding from its wide chest, each ending with a set of terrifying talons, was enough to wipe out

with its massive beak was still fresh in his mind. He suspected that

were three

better hide well.' he thought,

flying monsters seemed to be reluctant to approach the Ashen Barrow for some reason. They just circled around it, sometimes hesitantly approaching, but then gaining height

some time,

"Maybe they're not hungry?"

where a Nightmare Creature might not

the

know about these albino chickens, but I'm hungry

three of them had not eaten anything since yesterday. Sunny was afraid that if the abominations did decide to land on the island, the loud growls of his

and him and

eat

opened his eyes

think about

at him, then turned away