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

this strange memory of his with Nephis

Sunny couldn't remember things that he had forgotten, he didn't notice anything amiss and went about his

the first

great tree. Feeling the coolness of the black polished hilt

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

Sunny shook his head.

know yet. Stay with Cassie

island, where the branches

instead of going himself. But in situations like this, where the danger was unknown, Sunny

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

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 this

behind to keep watch on the black dot, he

the island. I don't know if it's the same creature

Changing Star frowned.

it's mostly a carrion eater, and thus is only interested in the Carapace Demon's

offered her own

to satiate it? After all, it never came for the corpses of the scavengers we had slain. As if eating mere

Sunny shook his head.

with 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

for a while, then gave him

to stay away from the Carapace Demon for now and hide when it

up,

sure that it's the same creature and

the girls to the spot where he had left his shadow. There, they sat on the ground and

them disturbed and unsure of

weeks before, or

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

limbs protruding from its wide chest, each ending with a set of terrifying talons, was enough to wipe out their entire

adamantine shell of the carapace centurion with its massive beak was still fresh in his mind. He suspected that these abominations were at

were three

hide well.' he thought,

flying monsters 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 behavior

time,

"Maybe they're not hungry?"

Nightmare Creature might not be hungry. Was

the other

these albino chickens, but I'm

if the abominations did decide to land on the island, the loud growls of his stomach would

glanced and

to eat some

eyes wide and

think about

then turned