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

XXI

Warning: Blood! No injury, at least not really, but still, blood.

The absolute blackness veiling Shadowsight's eyes would not allow him to see how deep they were, but the giving dirt beneath his paws and the crumbling walls told him that they had dug deep into the earth. They plied at the ground, too deep to throw the dirt out onto the cavern, and so they could simply allow their paws to sink into the clay as they broke it. The walls tightened around them, crushing Shadowsight against the others and bunching his body parts together. It squashed his lungs, and they cried out for a slice of breath

"Okay, we're pretty deep. Do you think we should keep digging down or will we try the sides?" Hollyleaf spoke through the darkness.

"Yeah! I feel like I'm gonna crush all my bones, it's so narrow down here," Rootspring replied. Shadowsight nodded, thinking the others were probably doing the same, and they began clawing at the walls. Just then, he felt the ground dip and crack beneath his paws. Before Shadowsight could fully realize what was happening, the ground shattered beneath him. His paws were quickly snatched off safe soil and his soul plunged down, and down, into the abyss beneath.

Air rushed up past him, and the sinking feeling of falling so quickly stabbed into his stomach from below. His heart burst, the fear spiking it spreading out to his shoulders. For a moment's glimpse, he saw the silhouettes of the others flailing as they fell down with him, before with a deafening splash he plummeted right onto what felt like ice and it shattered.

He continued falling past it, his whole body plunging into cold water. Foam fizzed around from the breaking of the surface, with the waves engulfing his entire body, constricting his breath and movement. He desperately flailed, throwing himself up towards the surface until his head finally shattered it and he felt a fresh wave of air wash over him. Shadowsight splashed out with his paws and kicked at the heavy sea to try to fight it from dragging him down into it's freezing depths again.

"Water!? Why the hell is there water in the Dark Forest? Hollyleaf, you're a StarClan cat, explain this to me!" Rootspring hissed. Shadowsight felt his weight sinking into the part of him that was engulfed by the liquid, and the warmth in his soul was draining to leave only a torturous frost, but he still splashed desperately so that he would not succumb to the cold lagoon.

Then he felt a rushing current strike him, and his head fell back with a splash from the force. He fought the current, but it overpowered him, shoving him, Rootspring and Hollyleaf into a whirlpool of death. The gushing water overpowered him. Finally his strength vanished completely and his head fell beneath the surface.

He felt the waters swallowing him as he was shoved under, too weak to fight. He gasped for air, but the dark fluid holding him was dragging them all away from the surface. His lungs were bloated with fire and woe, burning away with the suffocation around him. He simply floated. He couldn't see anything but blackness, he couldn't even tell which way was up. All he could perceive was the muffled bubbling sound of the waters around him. Death was beginning to blur his mind, and the tranquility started to bring him peace.

They sank down together. The surface didn't exist. He gave into the quietness of this abyss, and shut his eyes. Even the sound faded eventually, and all that was left was silence. He forgot everything. Why were they in the water? That was beyond him now. Who was he? He simply could not remember. His mind went blank, and he simply stopped thinking.

-

Shadowsight's eyes opened, his mind hazy. A thunderclap struck his head, blinding pain paralyzing him. A nausea filled him and neck felt stiff. His face felt nearly paralyzed. He felt drowsy, still tired, his bones brittle and weak. How did he get here? He could barely remember. Just a few vague, muffled words crying in the stem of his brain.