Shadow Slave

Sunny felt that he was at the end of his rope. He had put himself through too much abuse during these last few days. Now, it was hard to even remember when was the last time he had slept.

A day before climbing the Soul Devouring Tree in search of a special fruit, perhaps.

Since then, he had lived through the harrowing torture of the Blood Weave transformation, spent countless hours on the verge of mental collapse to resist the effects of the enthrallment, mangled his hands to stay lucid, guided the boat through the terrors of the dark sea in absolute darkness, saw it being destroyed by the horrid dweller of the deep, and gave battle to that monster in the cold black depths, almost drowning as the result.

His body and mind were on the brink of shutting off.

Despite that, Sunny stubbornly continued to swim, bringing himself and Cassie closer and closer to the giant stone hand that was rising from the water, as though trying to embrace the skies.

The dark sea was surging around him, still reeling from the effects of the light explosion that had rocked it sometime earlier. Tall waves were threatening to drown the two Sleepers, throwing them around like toys. Struggling against them was a hard task.

And still, he persisted.

The dawn was drawing close, but for now, there was still nothing but cold, darkness and danger all around them. Any second, something could rise from the depths of the abyss and put an end to their desperate attempt to save themselves.

At least the tentacles were gone, perhaps scared away by the pain of being exposed to the searing light.

By some miracle, Sunny eventually managed to reach the stone hand.

Hoisting Cassie up, he helped her climb on the dark rocks and followed closely behind. Soon, they reached the open palm of the hand and crawled to its center, then fell down, utterly spent and exhausted.

For a long time, neither of them was able to talk. All Sunny could do was lay motionless, draw in raspy breaths, and try to stay awake.

His mind was empty of thoughts. That was fine, because he didn't want to think. If he did, he would be forced to remember… remember what had happened to…

'Shut up!'

What was the point of remembering? He couldn't change anything.

The sound of the black water crashing against the base of the giant hand reminded him that the night was still not over.

Opening his eyes, Sunny tried to understand their current circumstances.

Their shelter was slightly raised above the waves, the base of the giant thumb almost touching the surface of the dark sea. The palm was not very spacious, roughly half the size of the circular platform that had saved his life on his first day on the Forgotten Shore. It was angled upward, creating a slight slope.

The fingers were higher above waves and wide enough to accommodate a person, but they were bent upward toward the sky, making them less suitable to serve as a refuge.

'We need to get further away from the water.'

With that thought, Sunny tiredly stood up and bent down to touch Cassie's shoulder.

"Cassie. Stand up. We have to move higher."

His voice sounded hollow and brittle.

The blind girl flinched and raised her head, her skin deathly pale.

"...Sunny?"

He nodded.

"Yeah. It's me."

that Cassie's mind was not all there yet,

go. It's just

She lingered.

sound…

teeth and tried to

were attacked by a sea monster. The boat was destroyed. I dove down and managed to

Cassie wavered.

"Where's… where's…"

hurried to interrupt her, unwilling to

follow me. We can rest when we're

finger, which was the highest point they could reach without climbing the fingers themselves. Sitting down on the cold stone,

eyes were cold and

Her pale face was contorted, as though she simultaneously wanted

the blind girl whispered, her trembling voice

"Sunny. Where is Neph?"

to speak the words

felt that if he spoke them, they would become the truth. But if

'I'm not answering.'

in his mind. The pressure grew and grew,

'I'm not!'

longer than he had ever done before, keeping his mouth shut until hot tears rolled

eventually, he was still forced

"She's… she's g…"

finish, a subtle sound attracted his attention. It came from below,

heart skipped

at the base of the giant thumb, where the cursed sea was almost touching its stone surface, a pale white hand appeared from the black water and grabbed onto the

slowly pulled itself onto the opened palm of the

His eyes widened.

that something was wrong, Cassie turned her head

"Sunny? What is it?"

whispered, gripped with

"It's Nephis."

uncertain smile appeared on the

"Neph?! She is alright?!"

himself unable to

was

know

looking as though almost half of her right side was missing. Sunny could see the sharp shards of broken ribs, the rivers of blood streaming down her legs, and the mangled mess of viscera spilling

wanted to

together. Her right arm was severely damaged, too. In fact, it was almost torn off, hanging

was not spared. One of Neph's eyes was gone, its socket crushed and shattered, the skin of her cheek was shaved off as though by sandpaper, leaving behind a mangled mess of bleeding flesh and broken

her

apparent that Changing Star

Why are you not

again to suppress the answer that was

cold surface of the stone. A terrible moan escaped from her lips as her cracked femur