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

about his intention to share the contents of this strange memory of his with Nephis and Cassie. In fact, he had forgotten that it was strange and possibly

since Sunny couldn't remember things that he had forgotten, he

been the first time he

the Midnight Shard and glanced darkly at the blood-red leaves of the great tree. Feeling the coolness of the black polished hilt in his hand, he

opened her eyes and looked at him, her body tensing up. There

Sunny shook his head.

with Cassie

edge of the island, where the branches of the colossal tree were not as thick and

situations like this, where the danger

carefully looked up, still hidden in the

a small black dot was circling around the

winged beast had first appeared, it looked exactly like this from

the black dot, he returned and briefly told Nephis and Cassie

flying above the island. I don't know if it's the same creature

Changing Star frowned.

searching for live prey. Perhaps it's mostly a carrion eater, and thus is only interested in the Carapace

offered her

we're too weak and little to satiate it? After all, it never came for the corpses of

Sunny shook his head.

then, it did come for the 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

while, then gave him

best course of action would be to stay away from the

up,

we must observe it to make sure that it's the same

where he had left his shadow. There, they sat on the ground and watched the black dot as it circled

disturbed and unsure

monstrosity that they had encountered a few weeks before, or at least a creature of the same type. However,

horrifying and repulsive as the first one was.

with its corpselike white body and raven-black feathers, with an unnatural mess of powerful limbs protruding from its wide chest, each ending with a set

of the carapace centurion with its massive beak was still fresh in his mind. He suspected that these abominations were at least as powerful

now there were

he thought,

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?"

where a Nightmare Creature might not be hungry. Was it even

the

don't know about these albino chickens,

if the abominations did decide to

and him

to eat some grilled

opened his eyes wide

even think about

then turned away with a