The Sunlapse (A Light in the Mist AU/rewrite)

XIII

WARNING: Some gore and violence. I don't want to scare kids on Wattpad so keep reading if you want to see the spooky chapter.

Bristlefrost could barely see what was happening around her, the world was a blur of gray and brown as she spun. She twisted, surprised by Lila's strength as she felt her body barrel into her own, like a boulder. Immediately, all the quick movement of the world around her stopped and she stumbled away from the pounding hit.

Bristlefrost fell, feeling as though she'd never breathe or think again. Her eyes opened, the world a tilting, blurry, sickening mess of motion. A metallic taste filled her mouth, a splash of crimson falling from her tongue onto the floor. A cacophony of distorted hisses and spitting beat her down again, but the blood pounding in her head couldn't let her rest.

Lila stepped towards her again, and still reeling, Bristlefrost jumped to her paws. She threw herself towards her, flying as fast as she could across the ground, and she crashed right into her. Lila fell back from the force of her attack, and Bristlefrost could feel her falling beneath her grip. They both crashed into the ground. Bristlefrost was overflowing with adrenaline, the most vibrant red coursing through her veins. It was like her very soul was on fire.

She and Lila rolled through the ground, and now it spun around her. The ground met her side, then it her back as she was crushed again, then her other side, until she was above Lila, and then she fell to her side again. The cacophony became louder, with cries so distressed and high they were deafening.

"I'll teach you that you aren't always the strong one here! You have the fighting of a blind cat!" Lila hissed, but it didn't terrify her one bit. Then, without warning, Lila bolted forward and the movement of the battle ceased so suddenly it was nauseating. A darkness veiled her world as her jaws snapped on one side of her face, and searing teeth as though it were burning razors stabbed into her eye. She felt the blazing agony tear at that eye, so hot it spread all over her face, before she felt the grip loosen and heard a sickening pop.

Bristlefrost couldn't see.

A thunderclap of pain filled her head, and all she felt and noticed was the hot, wet, nearly sticky sensation of blood and meat spilling down her face to the rocky ground, and the agonizing pain where both her eyes once were. Bristlefrost couldn't remember a time she'd felt more pain. She wanted to scream, but all that came out was a weak whimper, paralyzed by the shocking agony. Until soon, the agony faded, and she drowned in a cold abyss as all became silent and she lost connection with the world around her.

Next thing Bristlefrost knew, she wasn't in that den anymore. The pain had subsided, and now all that greeted her was the darkness. But somehow, she found rest in this void. It was a moonless night that had stolen eternity, not a single flicker of light to break the pitch black, until a wavering glimmer caught her eye.

She turned to see a shimmering trance walking through the black towards her, before the lands around her changed. A warmth spread over her fur, the beautiful colours of the sun spreading in a painting of divinity that watched from the heavens above. In the distance, water lapped over the sand. The cool, soft, cream-coloured sand beneath her paws. And at the shimmering shores, sitting upon seas cradled by sunrise winds, was him.

"Rootspring!" Bristlefrost gasped. He smiled, the golden rays lighting his sea-coloured eyes. She ran for the warm horizon of dawn, she flew as fast as she could towards him. All this, the lustrous gold that painted these shores, the divine colours of the heavens, the song of the sea as it laid upon celestial shores, felt too real to be false. Of course it was real. This was the life they shared.

She crashed into Rootspring, and they giggled with joy as they rolled in the sand. Love bloomed in her heart, a warm, humming light comforting her spirit as they played in the sand. They were safe here in their haven of love and joy. She felt so much lighter, free of all the threats and bane of their world. They shared a life of no hate, nor fear, nor sorrow. A life of only warmth. Only love.

She and Rootspring now laid on the sand, with the fragrance of the ocean making the air itself soft and comforting. They shut their eyes, only for a voice to snap Bristlefrost out of her warm trance. "Wake up."

Wake up? But I'm not- 

The clatter of rain, and feeling of cold, grasping winds clutching her like icy claws abruptly dragged her out from that heavenly light, and Bristlefrost awoke to find herself in a den. Walls of bramble and leaves wrapped into an entangled cage around her, all dark with the bleak azure of dusk. Then Bristlefrost remembered again. All the darkness, all the gloomy plight, all the death, all the grim pain.

She could see again, but the burning pain still stabbed at her left eye, and something soft was pressed against one side of her face. Everything looked strange and distorted. It was all flat, and blurry, everything looked far away but also up close. It was hard to explain, but it wasn't exactly something pleasant.

"Oh, Briss is alive," Squirrelflight meowed. As her mind sharpened, She noticed more and more strange things. Her face felt frozen, one half of it made of immobile stone, and Mothwing was standing with a bundle of so many cobwebs it looked like she was about to heal an entire Clan.

"What...happened?" Bristlefrost asked.

"Look, I'll take her to the pond," Spotfur meowed, her voice dark and solemn. All the others, especially Flipclaw, seemed horrified, eyes frozen and mouths agog.

Bristlefrost managed to push to her paws, and Spotfur pressed against her as they padded out into the woods again toward a pond. Bristlefrost stepped over the shore, peering in. What she saw brought her reeling with disbelief.

Through a thin, white veil of cobwebs upon her face, she caught a gaping hole of hanging nerves, red meat and dripping clots. Her stomach twisted with disgust, bringing a sickness rushing up her body until she nearly vomited.

She'd lost an eye.