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

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

his judgment was sudden 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

this might not have been the first time he had

darkly at the blood-red leaves of the great

and looked at him, her body

Sunny shook his head.

with

planning to reach the edge of the island, where the branches of the colossal tree were not as thick

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

looked up, still hidden in the

vast grey sky, a small black dot was circling around

Back when the terrible winged beast had first appeared, it looked exactly like this from the

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

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

Changing Star frowned.

it wasn't very interested in searching for live prey. Perhaps it's mostly a carrion eater,

offered her

we're too weak and little to satiate it? 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 as well before leaving. So it'll be too optimistic to think that this abomination will not try to devour us too if given a

thought for a while, then gave

be to stay away from the Carapace Demon for now and hide

up,

we must observe it to make sure that

had left his shadow. There, they sat

left them disturbed and unsure of what

before, or at least a creature of the

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

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

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

there were

he thought, cold

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

some time, Cassie quietly

"Maybe they're not hungry?"

blinked, trying to imagine a world where a Nightmare Creature might not be

on the

know about these albino chickens, but I'm

yesterday. Sunny was afraid that if the abominations did

and him and

to eat some

eyes

think about

then