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

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

that he had forgotten, he didn't notice anything amiss and went about

might not have been the first time he had forgotten something important since they arrived at the

at the blood-red leaves of the great tree.

by his quiet movements, Nephis opened her eyes and looked at him, her body tensing up. There

Sunny shook his head.

know yet. Stay with Cassie while I

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 its

this, where

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

the vast grey sky, a small black dot was

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

watch on the black dot, he returned

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

Changing Star frowned.

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

her own

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 took a few scavengers with it as well before leaving. So it'll be too

for a while, then gave him

would be to stay away from the Carapace Demon for now

up,

make sure that it's the same creature and

Sunny led the 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

left them disturbed and unsure of what to

a few times, allowing them to discern that it was indeed the same terrible monstrosity that they had encountered a few weeks before, or at

worse, as hours passed by, it was joined by two other abominations of the same breed, each as horrifying and repulsive as the first one was. Now, three black dots

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 terrifying talons,

fresh in his mind. He suspected that these abominations were at least

now there were three of

he thought, cold

seemed to be reluctant to approach the Ashen Barrow for some reason. They just circled around it, sometimes hesitantly approaching, but then gaining height again. Their

time, Cassie

"Maybe they're not hungry?"

world where a Nightmare Creature might not

the other

these albino chickens, but I'm hungry

was afraid that if the abominations did decide to land on the island, the loud growls

glanced and

to eat some

his eyes wide and

even think about

him, then turned away with a