Shadow Slave

This time, Nephis was the first to notice the anomaly. Sunny and she were resting after an exhausting spar - he was meditating with his eyes closed, while she was leaning her back on him, still catching her breath.

He sensed a sudden tensing of her muscles, and then the warm pressure was gone. Opening his eyes, Sunny glanced at Nephis and noticed that she was looking intently into the distance, where the endlessly flowing waters of the Great River were sparkling under the light of the seven suns.

The Azure Serpent was nowhere in sight, and the island was not trembling, which meant that it was circling the stone shell of the Black Turtle. The monstrous butterfly was a small black dot in the sky. What had caught her attention, then?

"What is it?"

Nephis lingered for a few moments, then pointed at a distant patch of water downstream of them.

"There. Can you see it?"

Following her gaze, Sunny studied the currents. After a while, a scowl appeared on his face, too.

"I can. But what are we looking at?"

There, still far away from the dark island, a span of the Great River seemed different from the rest of its vast expanse. From their position, it was no larger than a coin, which meant that the strange anomaly was thousands of meters wide.

It did not seem too threatening. The water surface was simply a bit rough there, as if rippling under a strong gale. The problem was that such a gale would probably affect a larger area, not just a relatively small and strangely distinct patch of water.

A much bigger problem was that this patch seemed to be moving purposefully in their direction. Sunny wasn't sure at first, but after observing the river for a dozen seconds, he grew certain that it was no mere coincidence.

In these dozen seconds, the rough patch had already drawn visibly closer.

His face darkened.

has to

Nephis slowly nodded.

"I think so too."

Creature would appear sooner or later - they had already met three, each of them harrowing in its own way. The arrival of the dark butterfly had also proven that the scent of Black

they could do was wait and see if the approaching horror was of the kind that could climb

reason why Sunny felt somber, though. Rather, the appearance of the fourth threat had forced him to face

safely reach civilization, after all, no matter how much they

in the coffin of Sunny's hope. If there were three, there would be four, five, and more...

corner of his mouth

what can we

was populated by unthinkable horrors. They couldn't escape by air, either, since it was just as dangerous. Even though the carcass of the Black Turtle was slowly starting to seem more and more like a

He sighed.

know anything about the old snake... it won't let the newcomer get close

it, the crimson water foamed, and a gargantuan head of the great river serpent rose above its surface. This time, the creature's long snout was turned

do you think it will

Nephis lingered for

a whale? A cachalot? A giant

Sunny shook his head.

eerie, like that crawling mass of seaweed, bones, and rotten flesh that Cassie

a moment,

"Also... what's a cachalot?"

let out a quiet

whale, but