The Moonlapse [ABANDONED]

X

Bristlefrost sat silently in her nest as night untuned the sky, its ominous blackness swallowing heaven and only leaving the faint shimmer of the galaxies to glow. The walls of the den confined her, letting her rest silent in a tomb of shadows. Bristlefrost buried her head in the fluff of her cozy nest, only for her blur of sleep to be broken when she heard footsteps.

Squirrelstar walked out of the timid starlight and entered the darkness of their den, her fiery pelt painted a deep crimson by the night. "What do you want, Squirrelstar?" Bristlefrost growled, her tail lashing back and forth.

"Nothing, I'm just here to comfort ya because I know yer going through a tough time at the moment," Squirrelstar meowed, her amber eyes as gentle as a soft dawn. 

"I don't exactly need that right now," Bristlefrost sighed, her voice hoarse. "Would it be alright if you could just leave?"

"Okay, fine," Squirrelstar replied, wandering over to the side and laying down upon a darkened clump of moss. Bristlefrost gritted her teeth, ready to hiss out that she was asking her to leave the den and not just move away from her, but she decided it wasn't worth the fight. With a sigh she rested her head again, allowing the blackness behind her eyelids to become the only thing she knew and sinking into her own abyss. 

Bristlefrost's eye snapped open and she found herself drifting through her own dreamscape. Around her, dawn burned in its delicate colours. The winds gently kissed the meadows, fluttering through viridian leaves, erratic patterns of rose billowing through the lilac and gold of the heavens. In the distance, quiet waves crashed upon sandy shores, the seaside painted angelic in the art of a dream.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" a voice beside her meowed. She turned to see Squirrelstar standing at her side, her bushy ginger tail slowly swaying along with the wind. The smaller she-cat's eyes were dewy under the light of the rising sun. Even in Bristlefrost's dreams, Squirrelstar could not leave her alone. 

"What are you doing here?" Bristlefrost hissed.

"Well, this is a dream, ain't it? I can do what I want," Squirrelstar laughed as they relaxed upon the wide hillside, watching the reflective ocean of colours swallow the horizon. Bristlefrost sighed as she shut her eyes, only to be abducted abruptly from their soft lounging and forced through a suffocating abyss. The splash of fresh crimson, of deafening shrieks through the night tore her apart until finally she was tormented by a pair of flaming amber eyes. She shattered the coffin of torturous visions, breaking away from the lashing nightmares and escaping back to her hillside. 

"What's wrong?" Needleclaw's voice created a tainted lullaby for the sunrise. She turned to see the she-cat staring with the dead eyes of a corpse, sharp crimson dripping from the deep claw marks in her neck and fur slowly shedding away from her pale flesh.

Bristlefrost growled as she stepped away from the walking carcass, and Squirrelstar stared in deep concern as Needleclaw stomped towards the hostile she-cat. Blackness poured out with each wobbling step she took, infecting the beauty and breaking the majesty of dawn with the threat of an eternal night.

The sun was suffocated beneath the curse of darkness, everything was plunged and drowned into a tarblack shadow. Squirrelstar bounded out from behind Needleclaw, scurrying quickly and skidding to stand beside Bristlefrost with her back arched.

Needleclaw's body morphed, her flesh fusing together, her skeleton contorting, her fur fluffing out into a wretched main around her and dyeing itself red and black. Soon Mapleshade was the one staring at her, her soulless eyes of fire sparking in mockery. A Hellish rage poured through Bristlefrost, its aura of fire burning so fiercely through her thoughts she didn't even realize the truth of their deal until she was just about to leap in and butcher her.