Shadow Slave

Eventually, Sunny reached the far side of the island. Diving out of the shadows, he staggered a little and sighed.

His reserves of essence were mostly empty. Luckily, the speed with which he was losing essence was not that great, by now... which meant that many of the risen corpses had already been destroyed by the prisoners of Aletheia's Island.

His journey across the misty forest had been much more swift and uneventful than it would have been otherwise, though, so it was well worth it. Come dusk, his essence would be replenished...

That said, he was going to have to be very careful after reaching the blood lake.

Sunny shook his head and headed forward, with Nightmare following him in the shadows. His steps were fast and silent. He crested a tall hill and jumped over a rock outcropping, then raised a hand without ever slowing down.

Catching a lightning-fast spear, Sunny grunted and slid back a few steps. Then, he walked over to Effie and nonchalantly put the spear into her hand.

"Here. You dropped this."

The huntress stared at him in bewilderment.

"...Doofus?"

He let out a mental sigh.

'Here we go again...'

Sunny patted her on the shoulder and smiled.

"Who else would it be? Yes, it's me. Before you ask... this is not the first time we're having this conversation. Actually, time moves in a circle on this island..."

He gave her a short explanation, going over the strange nature of Aletheia's Island and their plan.

conclusion, don't feel too disappointed. I promise, I was utterly flabbergasted and thoroughly teased by you the first ten times around.

a moment, and then

give him a proper beating at first. But then I remembered that I already gave him

Sleeper during the young soldier's First Nightmare, and welcomed him

He sighed dejectedly.

think about it, maybe I slapped the poor guy too hard. Something has to have broken in his head for him to get with a gluttonous brute like you... so, the next time we meet, I'll probably only

her

talking, Uncle Sunny. If you want something to

Sunny chuckled.

with the nameless father of Effie's child. He just said those things to distract

then again... the guy had devil's luck. If anyone could pull through the winter

a mental command, Nightmare rose from the shadows.

already be approaching the shrine I

the dark destrier

I can

was pretty sure he had never seen

'A... a pony?!'

retort and forced out a

you're going to ride my big, proud,

side, he pointed to the big alloy chest standing on the ground between

your

Covetous Coffer for a few moments, then awkwardly climbed on its lid. She flashed

about riding your

large chest,

Sunny grinned.

The smoothest

into a medium trot. The alloy chest scurried to follow them, its countless legs