Shadow Slave

Standing on the edge of the bottomless well, Sunny sighed and summoned the Prowling Thorn. Then, he commanded the Dark Wing to come to life and took a step into the emptiness.

The dragonfly wings of his enchanted cloak were too fragile to rely on them alone in a situation that posed unknown risks. It was better to have a backup at hand.

Softly gliding down, he descended in a straight line for a few moments, then made a turn and glanced at the other members of the party.

The golden rope had been thrown into the darkness. Nephis, Effie and Caster were already climbing down, while Kai hovered near them, ready to draw his bow should anything attack the cohort. Cassie was by his side, holding the Quiet Dancer in her hand.

The elegant rapier served as her guide as well as support, allowing the blind girl to make better use of the transparent wings. With it, she was able to zip around with considerable speed or stay in one place without any surface beneath her feet.

'Handy.'

Just like that, the cohort descended to the bottom of the ancient mine. Sunny was gliding down in a wide spiral, sometimes close enough to the wall of the well to touch it with his hand. He was slightly ahead of the rest of the group.

When the distance between them grew too much, he would insert the dagger into a crack in the stone and wait for others, attached to the vertical wall like a strange insect.

His shadow moved further and further down, exploring the darkness below.

Despite the tension that permeated the air, in the end, nothing had attacked the group of descending humans. They discovered the reason for this unexpected respite at the bottom of the mine.

Sunny was the first one to land on solid ground. With other members of the cohort still a few dozen meters away, for some time, he was left in complete darkness.

As soon as he took a step, something crunched under his foot. Looking down, Sunny saw a piece of pale bone.

of tiny claws growing from its belly

thinking, the other members of the cohort approached the ground. The light of their lantern Memories fell on him,

by this light, a nimble shadow glided on the stone and attached itself to

at the repulsive Nightmare Creature, she outstretched one hand

"Sunny?"

He shook his head.

dead. Nothing is moving out

of them were on the ground. Gathering around the

of the well would

to them. He would not have wanted to test the durability of the Dark Wing if that

was a disturbing question now in his

the stone abomination that used to guard the quarry and the worm that lived in the well

a horror had killed them all in the

turned away from the dead

from the corpse of the abominable worm, they stumbled upon an

to sit on. A bit further, a low barricade was constructed out of the rubble, protecting the

had definitely

of the day, the cohort decided to settle for the night and

orange glow of a bonfire chased away the

to relax and cook food in the same place where the First Lord and his companions had rested and prepared theirs all those years ago.

Or, rather, making it.

didn't have too much