The Moonlapse [ABANDONED]

XI

Dawn settled gently upon the land. The first sunlight of the morning rode gracefully on rosy wings, rising up into the pale skies to paint the horizon in a golden light. Dew dripped slowly from the wavering strands of grass, brunette leaves lured into their viridian shade. The debuting winds of this day were slow, they drifted cold upon the air and overlooked the woodland's sight of heaven. 

And yet, at this time, "Heaven" was not a way to describe the lake. The sorrow of Ivypool and Fernsong's deaths ruled them like a diabolical king, even the beauty of this dawn was swallowed whole by grief's shadow. It was as if their sudden murder had killed all of ThunderClan with it, all their souls dead in unthinkable sorrow. Their forest was nothing but a graveyard now. 

Their deputy was the most forlorn of all. She had been lost from them, she'd fallen away into a sea of grief unimaginable to the rest. Cinderheart had taken her place as deputy, just temporarily, until she had the mirth to rule again. But there was a reason she was so much more sorrowful than the rest of her family. She had killed them. 

Rains showered down upon the trees, thunder crashing like a monster trying to break its cage of clouds. Squirrelstar and Bristlefrost carried Ivypool's corpse like a coffin. The day had passed them by, and dawn had faded into dusk. Crowds were gathered in the gloomy clearing, veiled in a cloth of shadow from the dark, bitter sky. Ivypool was laid down in a deep grave. The fallen one's pelt was covered in cerulean flowers which shone bright against the gloomy evening. They blossomed blue with the enchantment of memories.

Fernsong was lowered into a grave beside his love. Flowers of vibrant pink were strewn upon his fur, pure colour strewn together to make the soulless object he'd become into something more beautiful than a rotting corpse. Bristlefrost stared in indescribable sorrow as she watched her parents be buried next to each other, it still didn't fully make sense what had happened. She couldn't believe the souls who'd been by her ever since she'd awoken to see the world for the first time were just gone...and at her claws.

My, how sad. I wonder who killed them, Mapleshade's voice echoed in her mind. 

What do you want, Mapleshade? Bristlefrost thought, her mind so suffocated by this storm at sea that she could barely even think. 

What's wrong with me thinking? Mapleshade hissed through the walls of her mind. This body isn't yours. We're two souls in the same being, remember?

Bristlefrost just sighed, trying to ignore Mapleshade's rambling as it echoed infinitely through her mind. She just watched with a wounded heart as her Clanmates wilted at the sight of their buried companion, who would now sleep forevermore. The thought that she would never see Fernsong's happy eyes glow, or hear Ivypool's motherly laugh ever again was agonizing. It made the torture of being possessed look like a happy frolic through sunny meadows.

She sat, swallowed by her torturous grief that lost her. Bristlefrost felt as though she was drifting alone through an endless sea of sorrow. Despair laid all around her, it was an aloof companion to the sky and it swallowed every horizon.

It was all her sight would ever lay on.

Bristlefrost sat silently by the entrance of the den. The vast band of stars had chased away the rain and clouds of the evening, leaving the midnight atmosphere in clear, vacant silence. The woods slept tranquil and undisturbed as a constellations blared overhead, freckling the gradient of black and cerulean with the light of a million stars. The nature of the weather had not fully inverted yet, a few blotches of ebony clouds still dreaded their feet through the infinite kingdom of the galaxies. 

The husky she-cat stared down into the ever-still surface of a puddle. Her heart was still hollow with her curse. It haunted her like a vile spirit, as if their ghosts still stood behind her. Bristlefrost could almost see their reflections painted in the waveless pool. Even though all was quiet, all was hushed and slumbering beneath the crescent moon, her mind criss-crossed with painful thoughts.