Theme: Sinking

Words: 1,616

Note: In DarkClan Comes to Light, you very briefly meet an apprentice named Splashpaw. The only thing I say about him that he is quietly sitting next to Breezepaw and not saying a word. I feel like he needed a story because he was denied one. Why didn't he say a word to Rainpaw?


The skyline tonight was a truly stunning sight to behold. The sun was setting into the crystal blue expanse of water. It cast an unearthly red and orange glow of the waves of the ocean and dunes of the beach. I wanted to stare at the beauty forever and never leave.

"Splash," called me mother from inside to cave behind me. "Get inside right now; I'll have no dawdling from you." Her voice sounded nervous and on edge.

"Please," I called back to her. "Just a couple more minutes. You should see it for your self." The sky was turning from a lovely orange to a deep blood red. "It is really gorgeous."

My father seemed to have a different view on the subject. "We have a sunset every single night. You'd better get in now if you don't want a beating," he threatened with his voice rising. "I heard those wild dogs barking all last night. They must be getting closer."

I hung my head and tail and walked into the dark cave. I might love my father, but I didn't love his rules. Just before I was enveloped in darkness, I took a last sad look at the setting sun.

When the light of the sun was reduced to nothing, the eerie green glow of the luminous moss replaced it. It bathed the pelt's of my parents in a strange light.

"It is just a beautiful in here as out there." cooed my mother. She silently padded over to me and put her fluffy tail on my shoulder.

I knew she was just trying to make me feel better, but I didn't care that she was lying to me. It felt right with her tail around me and my father on my other side.

My father gave me that smile he reserves for special moments like this. "You really are a good kit, Splash." He said solemnly to me. "Don't ever forget that."

He walked over to my mother and me and lay down. He wrapped his cool black tail around us. "Me an your mother are going to sleep outside tonight. We'll stay until you fall asleep."

I nodded as a wall of sleep came over me. I had never felt safer in my whole life. Both my parents were beside me, and I could breath in their sweet scent. Their fluffy fur keep the damp air of the cave away from me.

My eyes drifted shut, and the last thing I saw was my mother's smiling face. With that wonderful image in my head, I felt my self sinking into a dream filled sleep.

I was running across the great ocean. The water rippled like sand under my creeping paws. For a moment, I imagined I was a bird flying across the sky.

A crimson trail of blood blazed in front of me. As I passed the blood red prints, they faded slowly into the water before dissolving in the crashing waves.

One print didn't dissolve. It faded beneath the surface and turned the surrounding water a vile red and purple color. The color spread all around me, and I found myself standing on a sea of blood.

It was still beautiful, nothing could prevent that; I saw myself not walking on a sea of blood, but the rays of the sun set. I was still in bliss for several more minutes as I danced and spun of the waves as the raced towards the beach.

Than, a horrible scarred face slowly rose from the water. I broke through the surface and stared me right in the eyes with its own. Yellow puss was coming out of them and oozing down the mangled face.

"Splash," howled the face. When it spoke, I could see the teeth were chipping and some were completely gone. "Wake up." It said more, but it broke off and disappeared back under the water.

When my eyes flashed open, I realized I recognized the voice. My body broke into a cold sweat when I realized it was my mother's. The horribly disfigured face was the same on that had smiled to be before I feel asleep.

I turned on my side to nuzzle closer to my mother's warm fur. Instead, I scarped my nose and muzzle on the jagged cave bottom.

"Mother, Father," I called into the still air. My words echoed throughout the cave until they seemed to fade into the darkness. The shadows seemed to leap out at me.

I ran outside into the peachy light of the rising sun. The light created dapple one my pelt, but I had no time to marvel at the beauty. I had to find where my parents had gone.

I was about to call out again, when I saw my father laying in a sand dune. He must of left with my mother to sleep outside. I vaguely remembered them telling me the night before.

"Father," I cried as I ran across the beach with the sand flying in my wake. "Is mother with you because I haven't seen her anywhere?"

He didn't respond; he didn't even pick up his head to look at me. "Father, Father," I shouted as loud as I could. Tears were streaming down my face, washing out any sand that had flown into them.

As I got closer to him, I could smell the rancid scent of dog. They had been on the beach recently; probably last night the scent was so fresh.

I was about to lay down my father and cry but from my view at the top of the dune, I laying with face first in the sand. "Mother," I shouted. "Are you all right?"

I sprinted straight past father and scrambled to sit beside Mother. With my tears running freely down my face, I brushed the sand grains off her glossy silver fur. Flakes of dried blood fell from the folds of her skin.

I rasped my tongue along her fur in an effort to clean her up, but my tongue soon began to burn and bleed as I scrapped over shards of blood and grains of sand. My tail traced the familiar form of her body that I had known since birth.

She was no longer with me. As much as it pained me to admit, she was dead. I would never her her voice of see her eyes sparkle again.

The sky above me was changing from a pink to a light blue, the same color as her eyes. I wanted to see her eyes once more. They might hold the same gleam as they did in life.

I braced my back paws in the sand and my front paws on her flank. With a shove, I quickly flipped her, so she was laying on her back.

Instead of her beautiful face, I was confronted with the horror from my dreaded nightmare. I reeled back in shock. I fell back so far, my back paw collided with my father's body. I lost my placing, and I sprawled on the beach with sand flying everywhere.

That is when the truth really hit me hard. My parents were laying on the beach as dead as the prey I ate last night. I would never hear them speak to me or anything.

I buried my head in my mother's soft fur. I lay there crying until my eyes dried up, and I couldn't shed another tear. Sobs still racked through my body.

The sun was getting higher in the cloud free sky, and the waves were lapping against my side, chilling me straight to the bone. I didn't have the strength to enjoy the beauty of the day; I was sinking into a bit of despair.

Only the bitting of the flies and the growling of my stomach drove me to my paws again. My fur was damp with salt water, and my eyes were sore my crying.

I rose shakily. My legs threatened to collapse beneath me at any moment, but I fought the urge to sink to the ground and die. There was something I needed to do.

At the bottom of the dune, I scoped a paw into the damp sand. The waves had recently struck, and the hole filled with more water as I dug deeper into the beach.

It was a grueling and thankless task, but I had finally dug the hole deep enough for both my parents. They would be buried they way they wanted to - on the waterfront.

I dragged my exhausted self up the dune to where my father lay. I prepared to drag him down, but he tumbled down without the tiniest push. My legs filled with my reserves of energy, and I ran down the hill after him.

The sand slipped under my paws, and I stumbled and tumbled down right beside him. My unsheathed claws did nothing to stop my descent. If anything, my efforts made me slam into my father.

It broke my heart to see him laying there like a discarded piece of seaweed that had been caught int the wind. I gave him a final push, and he fell into his grave.

My mother was the next to go down. She landed on my father with her limbs skewed at awkward angles. At least she was with her mate even in death.

As I pilled sand on top of them, I felt like I was the one being buried. There was nothing I wanted to do more than sink beneath the ocean waves and cease to exist.


Afterwords: I might write more about Splash on either Servitude or Because. I hurts my feeling when I see people are reading and not reviewing. It is alright if you don't like it, but please tell me why. Hope you stick around for the next 98.