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.

There's a threat

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

and unnatural, but since Sunny couldn't remember things that he had forgotten, he didn't notice anything amiss and went about his business as if nothing had

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

darkly at the blood-red leaves of the great tree. Feeling

Nephis opened her eyes and looked at him, her body tensing up. There was a silent

Sunny shook his head.

with Cassie while I check things

the girls 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 seen through the openings in

shadow to do this instead of going himself. But in situations like this, where the

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

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

heavy with wariness. Back when the terrible winged beast had first appeared, it looked exactly like

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

Changing Star frowned.

for live prey. Perhaps it's mostly a

her

never came for the corpses of the scavengers we had

Sunny shook his head.

well before leaving. So it'll be too optimistic to think that this abomination will not

a while, then gave

from the Carapace Demon for now

looking up,

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

spot where he had left his shadow.

flying creature left them disturbed and unsure

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 to the crown of

breed, each as horrifying and repulsive as

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

adamantine shell of the carapace centurion with its massive beak was still fresh in his mind. He suspected

now there were three of

well.' he thought, cold sweat

to approach the Ashen Barrow for some reason. They just circled around it, sometimes hesitantly approaching, but then

time,

"Maybe they're not hungry?"

Nightmare Creature might not

on the

albino

was afraid that if the abominations

and him and

to eat some grilled

eyes wide and

even think

at him, then turned