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

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

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

the first time he had forgotten something important

of the great tree. Feeling the coolness of the black

looked at him, her body tensing up. There was a silent question in

Sunny shook his head.

don't know yet. Stay with

of the island, where the branches of the colossal tree were

like this, where the danger was

looked up, still hidden

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

with wariness. Back when the terrible winged beast had first appeared, it

on the black dot, he returned and briefly told Nephis and Cassie about

I don't know if it's the same creature or not, and when

Changing Star frowned.

mostly a carrion eater,

offered her own

it never came for the corpses of the scavengers we had slain.

Sunny shook his head.

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

thought for a while, then

best course of action would be to stay away from the Carapace Demon for now and hide

up,

to make sure that

argument against this logic, Sunny led the girls to the spot where he had left his shadow. There, they sat on

creature left them disturbed

or at least a

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

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,

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

now there were three

well.' he thought, cold sweat running down

the Ashen Barrow for some reason. They just circled around it, sometimes hesitantly approaching, but then gaining height again. Their behavior was strange

time,

"Maybe they're not hungry?"

Nightmare Creature might not

the

about these albino chickens,

had not eaten anything since yesterday. Sunny was afraid that if the abominations did decide to land on the island, the loud growls of his

glanced and him

to eat some

opened his eyes wide

even think about

him, then