Warrior cats - Unextinguished

Prologue

Splitgaze's pelt was no longer pristine. It was heavily stained with the sickly red blood of the spirits she had torn apart earlier.

She ran blindly through the overwhelming darkness of the place of no stars, her paws pounding against the ground. She was merely 17 moons old, an early warrior barely past apprentice age, the weight of this war, of the responsibility being put on someone who was still learning. She knew she shouldn't be here, that she should've stayed behind.

She can hear the sounds of the distant battle piercing through the unnerving silence of the forest, cries of pain from both sides, taunting insults, the sounds of claws against fur.

Merely moments ago, she had killed a dark forest spirit; she wasn't aware of its name or what it had done, but she did not care about it. She had been overtaken by instinct, lunging for its throat with her claws clamping shut around its neck; she remembered the sick taste of its blood in her mouth, and she remembered not letting go until it stopped struggling.

Everything else was blurry; she was trying to group up with her clan. She knew isolation meant death in this place; she needed to make it out.

But she hadn't watched where she was going, and before she could notice, something had struck her. The impact was strong enough to knock her off her paws, her ears ringing, and her sight blurry.

She failed to notice the looming figure ahead as she frantically looked around for signs of her clanmates. She felt a brutal impact against her side, and she was sent flying against a dead tree, the air knocked out of her lungs. Her vision was blurry, and she could see tiny colorful lights; her ears rang with a deafening noise akin to a mosquito flying close to her ear.

She had attempted to get up; she swore she had tried, but a strong paw slammed onto her spine, keeping her down as she struggled and clawed blindly. She could see shapes, a small group of cats. They were speaking with each other in deep, almost silent murmurs, deciding her fate.

"Let's send her to StarClan for once." One spoke with a growl as he flicked her right ear with his claw.

"No." Another replied with a malicious purr. "I have a better idea." He continued, gesturing with his head towards what was behind him.

And then, she felt a strong bite in her scruff. Splitgaze yelped in agony, thrashing and clawing blindly at the air with desperation. And then, through her blind panic, she heard it.

Water. The faint Washing of water against a shore.

"N-NO, WAIT..! PLEASE!!" She cried out, her voice cracking with terror as she felt her small body being dragged through dirt, mud, and stones towards the source of that terrifying sound.

"ANYTHING BUT THAT!! PLEASE!!"

She had heard the horror stories. The elder cats used to whisper about many things, but one story had haunted her. When a StarClan or Dark Forest spirit dies, they are simply deleted from existence, their memories, their feelings, their dreams- everything was wiped out as if it meant nothing to the creators. She had never truly believed it; she didn't want to; it sounded too... cruel.

But during the battle, she had heard senior warriors and StarClan spirits yell desperate warnings:

"Avoid the lake at all costs!"

"Watch your step. Watch where you're being lured. Do not fall in. Something has corrupted it; whoever falls into it will be lucky to come out."

She felt herself being raised, a momentary feeling of weightlessness. For a fraction of a second, her heart sank; she stopped struggling; she hung in the stale air.

And then, she felt herself being dropped.

SPLASH!!!

An overwhelming cold washed over her body, feeling like a physical blow; her blue eyes widened in pure, unadulterated terror, and she began kicking her legs, desperately trying to swim, to pull herself up, her movements clumsy and frantic. The cold seeped into her bones, despite the fur, an unnatural cold that only made her feel more desperate as her movements grew more reckless each second, as the terror grew beyond anything she knew.

As her soaked pelt pulled her down like a lead weight, life flashed before her eyes. She remembered the noisy twolegplace she was born in, warm, comfortable, and safe. Then came the anguish as she remembered her Twoleg fading away, making her flee into the forest, into the unknown. She remembered the way ThunderClan had taken her in as if she were one of their own when she had nothing to offer in return.

Faint green pillars of light surrounded her, illuminating the small, desperate thrashing frame of a cat that refused to give up; they grew dimmer as she continued being pulled down, as the darkness of the lake absorbed the little light leaking from the dark forest's sky.

Her lungs burned, demanding oxygen; she felt an overwhelming urge to open her mouth and fill her lungs with air, and she couldn't hold on anymore. Splitgaze desperately gripped her muzzle shut with her front paws, squeezing her eyes shut as unshed tears appeared in them, using all of her strength to fight the primal instinct to draw in air.

But it was of no use, she couldn't fight her biology. Her body demanded air, and it would get it, whether she liked it or not.

The silence was overwhelming as her body forced her to draw in air. Her jaws snapped open, and the sickly black, viscous water of the lake forced its way into her throat, and then her lungs. A burning agony erupted in her chest, so intense, she felt like she was being cooked from the inside out. She cried out one last time, barely audible, a sound of agony that didn't make it to the surface. And her limbs grew heavy as her strength faded.

And then.

Nothing.