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

XVI

"I think I have an idea," Mothwing called, but Squirrelflight just couldn't listen. When he was alive, she and Bramblestar hadn't been in mad love. In Bramblestar's eyes, she was a delinquent. And in Squirrelflight's eyes, he was just a hateful cat who wore the name of a lover. It was like being held hostage, with death as the only way to stop it. So now that it had stopped, why wasn't she happy? Why did she feel so...numb?

"So, how about Spotfur and I go up the mountain and do that quest, and Bristlefrost and Squirrelflight stay in this forest and try to find out what happened," Mothwing suggested.

"Okay, we'll fly over to ye when we have been murdered and turned into ghosts," Squirrelflight meowed, but inside, she didn't feel like joking. Bristlefrost and Spotfur smiled, despite Mothwing's clear anger. At least she'd brought some sort of light to the dark. 

"Alright," Bristlefrost meowed. "I'll be fine with helping find out. So, have we agreed?"

Spotfur nodded. "Yeah. We can go with that."

-

"Be careful!" Spotfur called to Bristlefrost as she and Mothwing disappeared into the white-covered pines. The skies were darkening, slowly fading into a purple hue. Squirelflight stared ahead. She dug claws into the white painting the ground as flecks of frost drifted on the light, freezing wings of the air. The pain wouldn't leave. It stopped her from doing anything, forever grasping her soul in frozen shackles. What did they do now?

"We've both lost our mates now," Bristlefrost spoke quietly. Squirrelflight turned her head. She could see the shimmering sympathy sparkling in her single blue eye, it was written like the words in a story. Squirrelflight could read it perfectly as she pressed herself beside the huge she-cat. 

"I'm sorry you had to lose Rootspring," she meowed. "But you're so much younger than I am, and yet you were so much stronger. You watched Ashfur kill your mate, and yet you still fought. You were still willing to save the Clans and defeat him."

Then Bristlefrost's sympathy turned to anger.

"Willing?" she hissed. Bristlefrost stood up, turning from the scarred angel of the north to the mad, one-eyed wolf. She lunged forward, claws outstretched like talons ready to catch prey, and she swiped at her muzzle. Squrrelflight stumbled back, kicking up snow before she found steady footing again. "I was scared of Ashfur! I couldn't visit the Dark Forest again because I was so afraid he'd take something from me again. He was like a shadow, forever looming over me, eventually I just started to lose my mind. I'm not okay! I haven't pulled through!"

Squirrelflight stared at her in shock. "Bristlefrost!"

Bristlefrost sighed, before turning around. The aura of madness had vanished in just one moment, now she looked at her with a guilt that shimmered like crystal. "I'm sorry. I think we should just...get on with the mystery." Squirrelflight usually would've objected, but right now all she wanted to do was forget. 

She and Bristlefrost grabbed whatever prey they could and made a pile in the middle of the barn. Darkness was possessing the frozen sky, with black blanketting the painted purple until finally the last of the sun died. All was black, all was cold. The stars came to bring tiny drops of light, and the moon hung over the dark pines. The snow contrasting with the dark needles became a dull blue, illuminated only by the lunar lantern and the cosmic gardens that drifted hopeless among a black void.

"Did ya see anything yet?" Squirrelflight asked as they sat and watched night fall. 

"Nope, we might have to stay up all night looking," Bristlefrost sighed, then she caught her ears pricking up. "Did you hear that?"

Squirrelflight tilted her head. "Hear what?"

"I heard a cat calling me," she replied. Squirrelflight wondered if it was something supernatural, or if she really was going insane, until she heard footsteps and every hair on her body pricked. 

"I hear footsteps," she told her.

Bristlefrost turned her head. "Me too."

They turned to follow where they heard the footsteps, before a shadow broke out. It didn't look like it was invisible due to the shade of the atmosphere, it was simply a sillhouette. Squirrelflight's heart felt as though it would grow wings and fly out of her chest, but the shadow seemed more scared of them. It turned and began running away, before it blurred and vanished like it never existed at all. It seemed like it was gone, until two tiny eyes appeared in the shadows.

"Ashfur?" Squirrelflight whispered. She stepped forward, and her fear merged into fury at the thought. She felt a wildfire within her heart, a monstrous rage spread through her to her claws. They slid from their sheathes, and she was ready to become the wildfire. Squirrelflight stepped toward the eyes, but at a closer look, they weren't a murky blue like Ashfur's eyes. They were moreso yellow, or amber. Then the eyes vanished too, and the whole forest suddenly set ablaze. Literally.

Squirrelflight screeched, blinded by the explosion of orange hue that shattered the black.  She stared up, and a million arms of gold and red like the storms of a scralet sun reached for the sky. It was like hell itself had came and claimed the forest, and yet the blinding light of a crowd of angels flooded it, with flames ready to detsroy all and smolder the stars. Bristlefrost was gone. She was alone here, and her eyes were burning away from the blaze.

Then, at the corner of Squirrelflight's eye, there was something huge standing behind her. She whipped her head around to see that it was a cliff. A blue-eyed shadow was standing there and watching her, before another sillhouette flew over and leaped right onto it. The two fell into the flames. Waves of heat swept over her, both from the fear and the flames. Her eyes began to cloud, and her head spun in vertigo. She swayed from side to side, hot, sick, and dizzy, and finally collapsed on the ground before everything faded.

"Squirrelflight," a worried mew shook her from the void. When her eyes adjusted, she was in the forest again, but images of chaos still swarmed her mind. Just a second ago, this whole forest was burning. Seas were crimson, the skies orange, the sun scarlet. Now she saw what any cat saw when they went out into the pine forest, at night, during leaf-bare. All was dark, cold and quiet in this wilderness, and snow drifted silently upon the frosty air.

Squirrelflight turned to see Bristlefrost staring at her, pure shock in her eye, and she knew she could say it with certainty. "Ashfur is coming."