Shadow Slave

With an empty stomach and a head full of thoughts, Sunny returned to the center of the platform and sat down. After a while, he beckoned to his shadow and said:

"Wake me up if anything happens."

Then, he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep. His consciousness quickly slid into the sweet embrace of darkness, giving Sunny some well-needed rest.

In the middle of the night, however, a sudden impulse stirred him awake. Sunny jumped to his feet, his groggy mind full of tense apprehension. He was afraid that the owner of the giant tentacle had come back to finish the job.

Or maybe some other horror from the depths had sensed him and decided to snack on human meat.

However, the sea was quiet and calm. He didn't hear any abnormalities around the knight's statue.

"What is it?" Sunny whispered, addressing the shadow.

The shadow silently pointed him in a particular direction.

Turning his head, Sunny squinted. He quickly understood why it was a good idea to wake up. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to see…

Out there in the distance, a few kilometers away, a small orange light was shimmering in the darkness. Its reflections were rising and falling with the movement of waves.

It was too far away to make out any details, so Sunny just stared at it for a while. Pretty soon, the light disappeared.

"Other Sleepers? Natural phenomenon? Or some monster laying a trap?"

Memories of nightmarish deepwater creatures immediately came to his mind.

Shaking his head, Sunny lay back down and attempted to return to his slumber. However, this time sleep was escaping him. Pangs of hunger were still not unbearable, but slowly becoming more and more intense. The thirst, however, was worse.

end, he remained awake up until the

***

as the morning came, the pincer monsters crawled back from their hiding spots and rushed

them for some time and then walked to the opposite side of the platform to take a

away, the ground rose naturally and formed something akin

of it, its upper branches were just high enough to stay above water in the

Sunny's head, but at the end of it, only

— would he be able to find the way through the labyrinth and cover that distance during the day? And more importantly, should he even attempt to do it? After all, there was no indication that the source of the mysterious light was something beneficial, as

information to make a choice, Sunny settled back to study the monsters. He did, however, send the shadow to investigate as far into the labyrinth as the range of Shadow Control allowed, hoping to chart at least the beginning of

probably could be in this strange place. The only problem was, he was going to die soon because

were present pretty much everywhere in the Dream Realm. He could also prepare traps and hunt a pincer monster to eat. With their massive

easily see such a routine: hunting by day, returning to the statue at the approach of the night.

him hope. If he was destined to spend the rest of his life in

jump

left for him was to try and reach the source of the orange light. And if Sunny was really trying to attempt

segment of the labyrinth was going

statue the next morning. He would spend

that, he closed his eyes and concentrated his

***

by the shadow in time to prepare himself for the crushing winds and the

not be blown over the edge of the platform, Sunny cupped his hands and waited until they became filled with rainwater. Then he raised them to his mouth and

illuminated everything above the churning sea. If anyone were to see Sunny now, they would have noticed a

tall wave would crash into the headless knight's neck, threatening to wash him away.

when the storm finally dissipated,

was no time to

soon as the monsters came back to the carcass, with a few stragglers quickly following behind, he

he had been taught the basics of rock climbing as well. Teacher Julius was adamant about giving his student a crash course in all possible forms of traversal. Additionally, Sunny had already scouted the optimal way down and memorized the best holds and indentions to