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.

awake up until the sun rose again, sending the

***

crawled back from their hiding spots and

the opposite side of the platform to take a look in the direction where he had seen the mysterious

five or six kilometers away, the ground rose naturally and formed something akin to a hill. On top of that hill, an especially massive coral

looks of it, its upper branches were just high enough

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

should he even attempt to do it? After all, there was no indication that the source of the mysterious light was something beneficial,

to investigate as far into the labyrinth as the range of

speaking, he was as safe atop the headless statue as he probably could be in this strange place.

to venture down. He could desalinate the seawater in a number of ways taught to him by Teacher Julius, with materials that were present pretty much everywhere in the Dream Realm. He could also prepare traps and hunt a pincer monster to eat. With their massive size, just one of them

routine: hunting by day, returning to the statue at the approach of the night. It was probably his

of doing things lacked one vital element: the potential for improvement. It was well suited for keeping Sunny alive, but had no way of giving him hope. If he was destined to spend the rest of his life in the small area surrounding the headless statue,

just jump down and end it right

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

least, the surrounding segment of the labyrinth was going to be free

morning. He would spend the rest of today exploring paths through the labyrinth and

he closed his eyes and concentrated his perception on the moving

***

by the

be blown over the edge of the platform, Sunny cupped his hands and waited until they became filled

to see Sunny now, they would have noticed

crouched in the middle of the platform, enduring its rage. More than once, a tall wave would crash into the headless knight's neck, threatening to wash him

the storm finally dissipated, all of his muscles were

no time

quickly following behind, he slid over the edge of the platform and

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