Shadow Slave

The nest was spherical in shape, with a round hole at the center of it. Usually, such a nest would be made out of grass and twigs, but this one was constructed from the branches of the great tree, each at least as thick as a man's arm. These branches were twisted and interwoven together in a chaotic pattern, creating gapless, onyx-black walls.

Sunny had never seen anything like it. Birds were a rare sight in the real world, let alone giant ones. The size of the entrance into the nest was large enough for a small truck to pass through. The nest itself was several times bigger.

'Wow.'

For a second, he felt a sense of fear, afraid that the giant bird was somewhere near. But then his fears disappeared.

The nest looked… abandoned. It was ancient and empty, some of its parts already on the verge of collapse. It was as though thousands of years had passed since anyone had been in this hidden, secretive place. The air was filled with the feeling of lonesomeness and desolation.

'Makes sense. If I barely managed to pass through the leaves, how would a giant monster do it without leaving a giant hole in the barrier?'

Sunny hesitated, caution and curiosity wrestling against each other inside his heart. On one hand, exploring ancient nests was not the best of ideas anywhere, let alone inside the Dream Realm. It posed great risks.

On the other hand, it also could lead to a great reward. Plus… wasn't it just too damn interesting?

In the end, Sunny decided to climb inside the nest to satiate his curiosity. He had convinced himself that it was safe following an unexpected train of thought. In his warped state of mind, Sunny was convinced that the Soul Tree was a great and benevolent being, one that protected them from the terrible threats hiding in the outside world.

If so, how could anything having to do with the great tree be unsafe?

Moving closer to the entrance of the nest, he balanced on the edge of the branch and tried to look inside. However, he wasn't tall enough to see anything except for the inner side of the nest's roof. Since his position was pretty precarious, Sunny decided not to delay the inevitable and jumped, throwing himself up and over the lip of the entrance.

A moment later, he landed on a soft surface. The lower part of the nest was covered in a thick cushion of white, silky spiderwebs. Time had made them brittle and pliable like sand. There was so much spiderweb around that, for a moment, Sunny thought that he had fallen into a giant white cocoon.

was just a

there, in the center of it,

Sunny blinked.

the nest, there was an egg. A giant, ancient egg that was as tall as he was, grey and seemingly

around. But no,

'How… fascinating.'

that no one except for him had ever seen, filled him with a deep sense of wonder and satisfaction. He had never known that there was such

this thing

and studied it. At a first glance, it seemed to be made of stone. The surface of the egg was colored in various

closer and put his hand on the

egg was warm to the

'Is it… still alive?'

felt a strange pull affecting his core. It was as though the egg was… was trying to steal his life

and looked at the egg with dark apprehension. The damned thing was not only alive, but also capable of sucking the life out of anything that touched it. It only failed to eat his soul because of one

actual soul core. He had

'Phew. That was close.'

egg, Sunny thought about how

powerful Nightmare Creature. Therefore, its spawn was also a being of considerable strength. However, due to some unknown

to feed it with soul essence and

not a fool. Wait… uh… maybe I

of them, including this latest one. It was as though

I'm still smarter than a damn

one had gone before and made an incredible discovery. He found an unbelievably mysterious, rare being, one that not a