Shadow Slave

It was already dark when Sunny returned to the great tree. Cassie was asleep, snuggled comfortably under her cloak. There was a peaceful smile on her face.

'Sweet dreams.'

She wasn't bothered by her terrible visions in a long time. Everything became better since they decided to stay on the tranquil island.

…Everything except for Neph's mood. She didn't even bother to return to camp today, staying at the western edge of the barrow. Sunny didn't like that she was so close to the black water.

He sighed.

'I need to get some tasty fruits for her as soon as possible.'

She definitely would not be able to stay sad after eating the magical fruits. They were so sweet and delicious! Sunny began salivating just from thinking about them.

'...Maybe I'll find one for myself, too.'

In the beginning, they took turns climbing to the lower branches of the Soul Tree to gather fruits. Lately, though, Nephis seemed to be distracted by her strange melancholy. As the result, the group relied on him to bring down fruits for everyone.

He had already picked the lowest branches clean, choosing the ripest fruits first. Later ones were smaller and not as heavenly, although they still tasted amazing. Since each fruit was big enough to satiate a person for a long time, they rarely ate more than one in a day. The ripest fruits provided Sunny with one or two shadow fragments, while the smaller ones gave one or even none at all.

'I wonder how many shadow fragments I accumulated. Should be more than a hundred, right? Maybe even one hundred and ten… no, no way. We've been here just for a few days, a week at most.'

He could just summon the runes and check, but somehow that thought didn't even occur to him.

he

in the morning and explore higher than he had previously gone, looking for the best, most delicious fruit possible to give to Neph. But after thinking about it, he decided to not wait until the night was

in the dark, after all. And this way, he

to the trunk of the miraculous tree, Sunny began climbing. The first stretch was the most difficult since he had nothing to grab except for small cracks and bumps on the

Moving his hands and feet almost on instinct, Sunny got higher

were as wide as roads. He sat down and rested for some time, enjoying

had never climbed the Soul Tree in the dark before. Without the bright sunbeams falling through the leaves, it looked strangely different. The vibrant magnificence was gone, replaced with eerie

leaves did not seem calming and tranquil anymore. In fact, it made Sunny shudder. It sounded like... thousands and thousands of trapped souls, all screaming in

things? What a fool! Good thing that the great tree can't hear me — otherwise, I'd be so

very disappointed in himself. After all the good things that the tree had given them, he had stupidly doubted its benevolence… its greatness… its

How ungrateful.

he even begin to think about…

frowned, failing to recall his train

tasty fruit for Neph, not

enough to form a maze of its own. The large branches grew chaotically in all directions, twisting and crossing each other, with thick foliage blocking lines of sight and making any attempt of

that if he went really high, where sunlight was denser, the fruits would be

really amazing one, Nephis would have to change her mind and abandon her strange thoughts of leaving

Encouraged, Sunny continued climbing.

After a long while, Sunny finally decided that he had climbed high enough. He wasn't sure how many hours ago he had started the ascent, but judging by the soreness of his muscles and the visibly diminished width of the

slowly walked forward and looked from side to side. Searching for the

would not be a great experience. In fact,

tree. The branches were softly swaying under his feet. A few times, he jumped from one to another, causing a change in the melody of rustling