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 in the

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

things that he had forgotten, he didn't

been the first time he had

of the great tree. Feeling the

and looked at him, her body

Sunny shook his head.

with Cassie while I check things

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

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 case

Ashen Barrow, he carefully looked up,

above in the vast grey sky, a small black dot was circling around the

with wariness. Back when the terrible winged beast had

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

know if it's the same

Changing Star frowned.

time, it wasn't very interested in searching for live prey. Perhaps it's mostly a carrion eater, and thus is only interested

her

After all, it never came for the corpses of the scavengers we had slain. As if eating mere beasts is beneath

Sunny shook his head.

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

while, then gave him

best course of action would be to stay away from the Carapace Demon for now and hide when it

up, she

must observe it to make sure that

against this logic, Sunny led the girls to the spot where he had left his shadow. There, they sat on the ground

the flying creature left them disturbed and unsure of

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

other abominations of the same breed, each as horrifying and repulsive as the first one was. Now, three black dots were circling in

limbs protruding from its wide chest, each ending with a set of terrifying talons, was

easily the creature had broken through the adamantine shell of the carapace centurion with its massive beak was still fresh in his mind. He suspected that these abominations were at least as

now there were three of

thought, cold sweat running down

Ashen Barrow for some reason. They just circled around it, sometimes hesitantly

time, Cassie quietly

"Maybe they're not hungry?"

a world where a Nightmare Creature might not be hungry.

the other

these albino chickens, but I'm hungry

true. The three of them had not eaten anything since yesterday. Sunny was afraid that if the abominations did

and

to eat some

opened his eyes wide

even think about

then turned away with a