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.

right. There's a threat

of this strange memory of his with Nephis and Cassie. In fact, he had forgotten

unnatural, but since Sunny couldn't remember things that he had forgotten, he didn't notice anything amiss and went about his business as

he could have realized that this might not have been the first time he had forgotten something

up, Sunny summoned the Midnight Shard and glanced darkly at the blood-red leaves of the great tree. Feeling the

at him, her body tensing

Sunny shook his head.

Stay with Cassie while I check things

the island, where the branches of the colossal tree were not as thick and the sky could be seen through the

could have sent his shadow to do this instead of going himself. But in situations like this, where the danger was unknown, Sunny usually preferred to keep the shadow close by in

the eastern slope of the Ashen Barrow, he carefully looked up, still hidden in the shadow of the

vast grey sky, a small black dot was

terrible winged beast had first

shadow behind to keep watch on the black dot, he returned and briefly

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

Changing Star frowned.

prey. Perhaps it's mostly a carrion eater,

her own

After all, it never came for the corpses of the scavengers we had slain. As if

Sunny shook his head.

meat. But it took a few scavengers with it as well before leaving. So it'll be too optimistic

while, then gave

to stay away from

looking up, she

to make sure that it's the same

Sunny led the girls to the spot where he had left his shadow. There, they sat

flying creature left them disturbed and

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

by two other abominations of the same breed, each as horrifying and repulsive as the

body and raven-black feathers, with an unnatural mess of powerful limbs protruding

still fresh in his mind. He suspected that these

now there were

better hide well.' he thought, cold sweat running down

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

time,

"Maybe they're not hungry?"

blinked, trying to imagine a world where a Nightmare Creature might

the other

know about these albino chickens,

yesterday. Sunny was afraid that if the abominations

glanced and

eat some grilled

eyes wide and

even think

stared at him, then turned away with