Shadow Slave novel Chapter 75

Chapter 75 Broken Dreams

Sunny woke up from the insistent sense of alarm coming from his shadow. Groggy and disoriented, he opened his eyes and sat up.

'Wh—what's wrong?'

He looked down at the shadow and saw it repeatedly pointing up with a tense expression on its… well, it didn't have a face. He could just tell that it was nervous.

'Trouble?'

Sunny looked up and saw nothing but the scarlet leaves of the great tree. The sky was hidden, but he could easily tell that the sun was still up. It seemed that he was asleep for just a few hours.

There was no threat anywhere in sight. He frowned.

'What got you so spooked?'

The shadow just pointed up again, seemingly irritated by his stupidity. Sunny blinked a couple of times and addressed it again:

'High in the tree? Higher? In the sky?'

Finally satisfied, the shadow crossed its arms.

'Something dangerous is above the island… that creepy raven thing again?'

He had to check… but why did he feel as though he was forgetting something?

Sunny scowled, trying to understand where this feeling of missing something important had come from. What was there to miss? He was asleep, then woke up and conversed with the shadow.

Asleep…

Suddenly, he remembered bits and pieces of a strange dream. At least it seemed like a dream… was it? People weren't supposed to dream in the Dream Realm. It was just how things worked… from what he knew, only Cassie seemed to be an exception from this rule.

He didn't remember much about this supposed dream of his, with even the remaining fragments already fading from his memory. There was a… a woman grabbing him by the shoulders, an expression of horror and panic on her face. She was saying something, but he couldn't hear what.

No, not a woman. It was… Cassie? Yes, it was her. And the thing she was saying…

Sunny strained his memory, trying to catch the pieces of the dream before they completely disappeared.

'Yeah, I think she was saying… uh…'

Suddenly, he could clearly hear Cassie's frightened, tense voice as she was hurriedly telling him to remember something, repeating the same sentence over and over again in a begging tone:

"...you have to remember, Sunny! Five! It's five! Remember! You have to remember! It's five!"

'What a strange dream.'

Sunny cast a glance at Cassie, who was sleeping peacefully near Neph, and shook his head in bewilderment. He wasn't sure if this memory of his was really a dream or some strange scene he had imagined right before falling asleep. With how the Dream Realm worked, he was leaning toward the latter possibility.

'Still. I better tell the girls when…'

He was distracted from this thought by the shadow, which waved its hands impatiently.

'Oh, right. There's a threat in the sky…'

Instantly, Sunny had forgotten all about his intention to share the contents of this strange memory of his with Nephis and Cassie. In fact, he had forgotten that it was strange and possibly important altogether.

This lapse in his judgment was sudden and unnatural, but since Sunny couldn't remember things that he had forgotten, he didn't notice anything amiss and went about his business as if nothing had happened.

…If he did, he could have realized that this might not have been the first time he had forgotten something important since they arrived at the Ashen Barrow.

Standing up, Sunny summoned the Midnight Shard and glanced darkly at the blood-red leaves of the great tree. Feeling the coolness of the black polished hilt in his hand, he felt a little calmer.

Woken up by his quiet movements, Nephis opened her eyes and looked at him, her body tensing up. There was a silent question in her eyes.

Sunny shook his head.

"I don't know yet. Stay with Cassie while I check things out."

Leaving the girls behind, Sunny walked forward. He was planning to reach the edge of the island, where the branches of the colossal tree were not as thick and the sky could be seen through the openings in its crown.

Technically, he could have sent his shadow to do this instead of going himself. But in situations like this, where the danger was unknown, Sunny usually preferred to keep the shadow close by in case he needed to use it.

Reaching the eastern slope of the Ashen Barrow, he carefully looked up, still hidden in the shadow of the great tree.

Up above in the vast grey sky, a small black dot was circling around the island.

Sunny's chest became heavy with wariness. Back when the terrible winged beast had first appeared, it looked exactly like this from the distance.

Leaving the shadow behind to keep watch on the black dot, he returned and briefly told Nephis and Cassie about his discovery.

"Right now, it's just flying above the island. I don't know if it's the same creature or not, and when it is going to land."

Changing Star frowned.

"Last time, it wasn't very interested in searching for live prey. Perhaps it's mostly a carrion eater, and thus is only interested in the Carapace Demon's carcass."

Cassie offered her own opinion:

"Maybe we're too weak and little to satiate it? After all, it never came for the corpses of the scavengers we had slain. As if eating mere beasts is beneath it."

Sunny shook his head.

"Back then, it did come for the carapace centurion's meat. But it took a few scavengers with it as well before leaving. So it'll be too optimistic to think that this abomination will not try to devour us too if given a chance."

Nephis thought for a while, then gave him a nod.

"You're right. The best course of action would be to stay away from the Carapace Demon for now and hide when it decides to land."