Shadow Slave

Eventually, Sunny climbed out of the sleeping niche and went about the business of managing the caravan. They had made it far into the mountains and were already moving north, toward their true goal.

The blizzard was still raging, reducing visibility to almost zero. The landscape was as grim and foreboding as ever.

Surrounding areas needed to be scouted, maps needed to be updated, reports needed to be received, and a hundred other things demanded his attention.

Before getting down to it, Sunny spared a few moments to stare at the grey fabric and lusterless black leather of the Puppeteer's Shroud.

Who could have thought that he would be reduced to seriously using it again, after all that time?

'It sure is much more comfortable than walking around in a full plate of steel armor. Ah, the old me had it good...'

Actually, not really.

Sunny was ready to climb to the roof of the Rhino when he noticed Beth staring at him with a strange expression. He lingered for a moment.

"What?"

She blinked a couple of times, then pulled her gaze away.

"No, no... nothing..."

Sunny frowned.

"Just say it, will you?"

Beth remained silent for a second, then asked hesitantly:

"Are you... uh... are you wearing makeup?"

time, it was his

would you think

gave him a dubious look

look a little

Sunny grinned.

complexion of a marble statue, no

a sigh and mumbled

Awakened... how

shadows and appeared on top of the

he was not that cold. His passive resistance to the elements was already making itself

Ice, and wrapped the shadow he kept with himself around

of seconds later, he felt even more comfortable. Sunny still sensed a slight chill, but it was in no way bothersome. Additionally, the winds were powerless against him. It was as if Sunny had

Huh.

he sat down on the

get used to

the abomination-infested expanse of the Antarctic Center was still hard and dangerous, but with

vehicles. Sunny was stationed at the head

only met face-to-face during the rare stops and when an especially dire threat demanded both of them to fight side by side to vanquish it. Going into battle with the Nightwalker

'Ah. Finally, a professional...'

an extremely skilled warrior, using a long bone harpoon and a net woven out of unnaturally

under severe restriction, though, so the scion of the House of Night mostly supported Sunny and

more

the two of them. It was understandable... after all, the Nightwalker had a family to come back to. He

perspective was a bit new to Sunny, and made him think about things that he had never

than that, things were going... as expected. The caravan continued to grow, several more groups of Erebus Field survivors joining it. By then, Sunny was secretly starting to thank the gods that Naeve's

enough to feed everyone and arm

anyone else would notice his subtle change, but in the end, the only other person other than Beth who showed any reaction was Kim.