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

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

that he had forgotten, he didn't notice anything amiss and went about his business as if

realized that this might not have been the first

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

movements, Nephis opened her eyes and looked at him, her body

Sunny shook his head.

with Cassie while I check

behind, Sunny walked forward. He was planning to reach the edge of the island, where the branches of the colossal tree were not as thick and the sky could be

he could have sent his shadow to do this instead of going himself. But in situations like this, where the danger was

slope of the Ashen Barrow, he carefully looked

grey sky, a small black dot was circling around

wariness. Back when the terrible winged beast had first

watch on the black dot, he returned and

if it's the same creature or not,

Changing Star frowned.

it's mostly a carrion eater, and

her

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

Sunny shook his head.

leaving. So it'll be

while, then gave him a

would be to stay away from the Carapace

looking up, she

it to make sure that it's the same creature and confirm

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

flying creature left them disturbed and unsure of what

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 to the crown of the

as hours passed by, it was joined by two other abominations of the same breed, each as horrifying and repulsive as

with an unnatural mess of powerful limbs protruding from its wide chest, each ending

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

were

better hide well.' he thought, cold sweat

seemed to be reluctant to approach the Ashen Barrow for some reason. They just circled

time, Cassie quietly

"Maybe they're not hungry?"

a Nightmare Creature might

on the

know about these albino chickens, but

anything since yesterday. Sunny was afraid that if the abominations did decide to land on the island, the loud growls

glanced and him and

eat some grilled

opened his eyes wide and

even think

him, then turned away with