The Moonlapse [ABANDONED]

II

A green haze filled the ThunderClan camp. Tender breezes gently kissed the bright woodlands, their warm air teasing the flurry of viridian and lime that flooded the forest. Bristlefrost stood in the grass staring at a group of warriors, golden light dappling the shaded patch from the canopy overhead. She towered over the others as she looked at them with her ears flattened against her head.

"Nightheart, I thought I told you to take Sandpaw with you for the hunting patrol," Bristlefrost hissed to the skinny black tom.

"Oh...uh, I forgot," he meowed.

"That was a clear order, and you just forgot?" she growled. "Get her. Now."

"Okay! I will!" he spat. Nightheart bounded off and disappeared behind a tangle of bright green, before he and Sandpaw stepped out into the patches of golden light again. Her gray and cream pelt spiked out until it looked like the frayed end of a ripped sheet when she saw her, her dainty green eyes widening. 

"Good. Now, go," Bristlefrost commanded. The group turned and streamed towards the circle of growth that made their concourse, before Twigbranch stepped past her with her curved into a smug look.

"Haven't you ever smiled or laughed before?" she meowed, smirking. "Would it kill you to show emotion?"

"I said go. That was an order, Twigbranch," the taller she-cat snarled as she curled her sharp talons into the earth. "Now, do as I told you, and go."

She let her pained muscles sink into the earth, sitting down and sighing as she watched Twigbranch storm off with a grumble and frolic off into the woods with the rest of the patrol. A single, brown leaf spiraled down softly to lay in the grass. Against the cerulean skies, the bright grasses and the mighty trees, it looked like something rotten and dead. The seasons of death were coming again.

Bristlefrost loved the autumn, and she used to love the winter. But winter just felt dangerous now. The freezing icicles, the floods of ice, the deadly chill of the air. She felt endangered. She felt alone. She could always feel the death. 

It would be the first leaf-bare without them.

The denial had never left. She could never stare at the edge of the camp without expecting them to burst from the shrubs and greet her in life again, even if she knew it was all a fantasy and it never would happen. The only cats who would return through the overgrown entrance were the members of that stupid hunting patrol.

A feeling of pain and dread settled in her chest. The agony of losing them dug it's searing claws into her heart all over again, and she felt as though she was being ripped apart from the inside. Great. Now that agonizing hollowness would rest within like a sleeping kit for days. 

Something warm and fluffy brushed beside her. Squirrelstar's strawberry scent filled the air as the flame-pelted she-cat circled her. "Hey!" she meowed. "A kit from SkyClan wants to see you."

"What?" Bristlefrost scoffed. "A kit? Why?"

"I don't know," the red-furred molly rolled her eyes. "But apparently, it's important. Not really sure why."

They circled around one of the golden oaks to see Needleclaw standing in the grass, a fluffy yellow and white kit hanging from her maw. He stared at her with innocent, sky-blue eyes, looking nervous and intimidated as she laid him down in the grass.

"What do you want?" Bristlefrost interrogated. The young tom-kit trembled with his bushy tail rising. She frowned, narrowing her eye. "I don't need some tiny SkyClan kit wasting my time."

"Uhh..." His little voice trembled. "I-I wanted to know who Rootspring is. Needleclaw...Needleclaw told me I was too young to hear about who he was. I went looking and I fell into the Moonpool...and-and then some cat saved me, but I don't know who it was."

Bristlefrost felt the pain stab even deeper, like a glinting dagger sinking to the pit of her stomach. The skin on her neck felt hot, the fur standing up. It was electrifying, it sent her floating away as she spaced out and everything suddenly felt way too real. 

"See, Rootkit? The ThunderClan deputy herself thinks you are too young to hear about him!" Needleclaw's voice was firm, but somehow, so distant. It was inches away but it had the sound of an echo that had travelled a thousand miles just for her to hear it.

"You don't have to hide it completely. Just don't be overly crude to the little guy, okay?" Squirrelstar meowed. "Rootspring was an apprentice when Bramblestar was possessed. He became a hero when he discovered he could see Bramblestar's ghost and exposed the cat possessing Bramblestar as an imposter. He was in love with Bristlefrost. However, when he was a warrior he was kidnapped and dragged to the Dark Forest. Bristlefrost and Shadowsight tried to save him, but Ashfur killed him."

She dug her claws into the earth again, her paralyzed eyes desperately trying to etch the world into her brain. I am in the camp. I am talking to Needleclaw and Rootkit. Squirrelstar is here with me. I'm okay, everything's okay. 

Bristlefrost still felt as though she wasn't real, like everything she was looking at was just an image so real it couldn't exist. The feeling of dread still laid in her chest. But she no longer felt completely immobilized and desperate.

"Oh," Rootkit suddenly stared at his paws in sorrow like the story had saddened him. "What about the cat who saved me? Who was it?"

"Wait-" Bristlefrost paused. She'd been so paralyzed by the electrifying panic that she hadn't even realized the last thing Rootkit had said. "You fell into the Moonpool and a cat appeared and saved you, but disappeared before you could see who it was?"

"Yes," he replied.

Bristlefrost stared at him for a moment in surprise, before hope began to blossom in her weary heart. The light felt like a lie, but it was there nonetheless. It felt like a blossom replacing the stabbing knife of lead that had made her heart bleed for so long. "Kit, you're coming with me. We need to talk together."