border I'D TELL THEM PUT ME BACK IN IT / return

[SEDGEPOUNCE]

Spoiler: some important info!

[following these threads (here and here), sedge has retuned after over two moons of disappearance!! also takes place after the first sunstar meeting :^)

EDIT: for added context, the disappearance thread happened AFTER the rebels were chased out of camp, and as far as anyone knows, sedgepounce attacked snakehiss but fell into the river as they fought < /3]

He's dragged up from the water like a spirit of vengeance.

He follows the river from the Twolegplace, through the borderlands, and then to WindClan—perches now at its unoccupied border, the distant current a cruel scraping in the depths of his ears.

It's starting to get dark. Sedgepounce has spent one night alone, sleepless and roving, and now the second begins to grow. Hazy shadows are drawn out from beneath the trees stacked along the Horseplace border; the sky festers with dusty clouds of pink and periwinkle. The moor is bathed in a soft, dusk blue as the sun begins to set.

Sedgepounce stares out at the tranquil calm of it and wonders for the first time: What am I going to do?

He's like an ugly wound pierced into the moorland's wintry hide. His eye won't open, and his leg aches something fierce. It's a facsimile of how Sedgepounce once was, moons ago, and it begets a cruel satisfaction through his chest. Good. He's going to find Snakehiss and he's going to be horrifying. An angry corpse risen from the water, disgusting and terrible. There will be no denying his suffering, how plainly it's destroyed him, and he'll haunt Snakehiss with it. He'll have to look right at his ugly face and pay for what he's done.

But...how? His good eye sweeps over the moor, nothing but his own rattling, thin breath to keep him company. He's dragged himself all the way back to WindClan, yet there's no Snakehiss miraculously spawned at the border. He'll have to find him...sneak through the territory, or something.

Fine. Fine. A rough tongue darks from his teeth. He takes a trying step forward—then his leg crumples beneath his weight. The heather around him sighs as he retreats back into its frost cocoon, stretching out the appendage with a pained, begrudged grimace. He can't sneak like this. The awful stiffness in his forelimb restricts everything but cringing, tentative limping, but his choices have dwindled to nothing else, so. He'll just have to be careful.

He'll be careful, and limp through the territory, and find Snakehiss somewhere in the moor, and then...and then. What?

This isn't home like he remembers it. Sedge stills at its threshold, toeing the border with a deep sense of...something in his chest. Longing, maybe, and an encroaching feeling of dread. This is Sootstar's warzone. Somewhere through the meadow, her WindClan is picking apart the bones of cats like him; weak and left-behind. They've been crushed beneath her iron paw and Snakehiss' cruel demeaning. Where does that leave him, when he's done?

Back to the river?

Sedge casts a guilty glance over his shoulder, to where the Horseplace distantly lay, thinking of the cats that hide there. What would they even think of him like this? Beaten, caught by Twolegs and trapped in their cages for however long. It's shameful. Mortifying.

He becomes aware of himself, suddenly. Ttries to straighten his slumped posture with as much success as smoothing out a crumpled ball of paper, casting a nervous look at his tattered, knotted fur. His nose brushes a gnarled piece of fur on his shoulder, and his ears flatten to his head; the stench of the Twolegplace wafts from his pelt.

Maybe...maybe he could find some herbs to roll in. Maybe if he fixes his fur, covers some of the scarring. Maybe—

Rustling. In all his useless pondering, Sedgepounce failed to notice the shifting moorgrass until someone is already stepping into view. His attention snaps to their emerging frame and everything else falls away. He's caught.
​

 

[Periwinklebreeze.]

OH, WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SOMEONE ━
THAT EVERYBODY HAS TO TALK TO━​

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periwinklebreeze ❀ 19 moons ❀ demi-boy ❀ windclan lead warrior ​

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For a moment, periwinklebreeze nearly fears he has stumbled across one of sootstars cats. He is half-expecting a fight, claws unsheathed and pelt twitching, when he finally takes in who he's stumbled across. " S-sedg-epounce? " The sedgepounce who lies before him is not the same one he'd known, but neither is Periwinklebreeze the same tom he'd been either. It's not the lack of windclan scent that renders sedgepounce unrecognizable - no, that's something he'd grown used to upon their mountain voyage. But... the scars that litter his pelt certainly tell another story. For a moment, frozen in his hock as he is, he almost turns to see if someone else is witnessing this- nearly looks for the nearest lead warrior or patrol lead. But no- thats him now, isn't it? Shoulders draw back and eyes turn serious, and white the boy isn't outright hostile he doesn't let himself relax. " Wh-why are y-you here, " Sedge had not fled with the rebellion... btu neither had the boy seen him in the final battle. Tail flicks anxiously, but he will wait - will hear him out. He owes them that much at least.

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[RATTLEHEART]

AS HE RAISED HIS FIST BEFORE HE SPOKE — There is a zombie on their border. The ghoulish and battered form of a cat that Rattleheart had once cared for, a young moor runner whose absence at the barn had caused his heart to sink moons ago. Even if the pair of them had never been close, the now lead warrior had never expected Sedgepounce to be the type to stay by Sootstar's side. To support her through all of her fury and bloodshed, a harsh contrast to the kind and idealistic cat that he had believed Sedgepounce to be.

It had been both a blessing and a curse when he hadn't noticed the moor runner's presence during or after the final battle against Sootstar and her loyalists. A blessing because it meant they would not have to clash in the field of battle, and a curse because it had likely meant that Sedgepounce was dead. He had never shown up at the Horseplace, and Rattleheart had known there was little to no chance of Sootstar keeping around a warrior that refused to fight alongside her in such a massive battle. He had figured Sedgepounce had been put down like the rest of the non-diehard supporters that had remained, an answer so obvious that he had never thought to question it.

Never thought to ask Bluefrost, or Cottonfang, or Snakehiss if any of them knew where he had ended up.

He certainly felt like a fool now, practically giving himself whiplash when he abruptly turned towards the sound of Periwinklebreeze's stammering voice ahead of him. For a moment he thought he had imagined the name that had left his fellow lead warrior, dirtied paws bringing him frantically forward until he could see Sedgepounce as well. His state was enough to make Rattleheart recoil, his own now usually firm words devolving into a similar stammer. "Sedgepounce? S... Starclan, what happened to you? Did Sootstar do this? When we left, you were..." He floundered somewhat, finding that he couldn't exactly say fine with confidence. No one left under Sootstar's rule had been fine, but he at least hadn't been falling to pieces. His leg hadn't been dragging stiffly alongside him, and one of his eyes hadn't been sealed off from the rest of them. "...Healthy." That seemed more accurate, at least to the stunned tunneler that stood before him.

The uneasy voice of Periwinklebreeze alongside him caused him to pause, caught off guard by the first question to leave their muzzle. He couldn't entirely blame them, considering Sedgepounce hadn't come along with all of them from the start, but it came off as harsh when the other was standing in front of them - practically torn to shreds. "We never... saw you at the barn. Or the battle. Where have you been?" No matter how he answered, he'd have to be brought before Sunstar for their new leader's final judgement. Hopefully it would be a situation like Snakehiss and Bluefrost's temporary probation, rather than anything that needed himself and Periwinklebreeze to run the bloodied warrior off.

THE RIGHTEOUS HAND OF GOD 𓆩♡𓆪 THE DEVIL THAT YOU FORGOT

• 

• 
  ❥ longhaired black and white tom with pale green eyes
  ❥ 48 moons old; ages the 1st every month
  ❥ afab; uses he/she/they pronouns
  ❥ homosexual homoromantic; mated to venomstrike
  ❥ sibling to scorchstreak, lizardbounce, and rabbitclaw
  ❥ currently mentoring downypaw
  ❥ somewhat difficult to befriend; wary but kind
  ❥ "speech", thoughts, attacking
  ❥ peaceful powerplay allowed
  ❥ all opinions are ic

​

 

[FOXGLARE]

⁀➷ Foxglare had never been able to think of the future. Not really, anyway. It was something of a blind spot.

He trained his eyes onto what he needed to do now, body moving out of muscle memory to do what was necessary, and it had served him well amidst the seemingly-neverending parade of battle and hardship. Now, though, as Windclan turned together to face a redemptive future, he wondered if he would ever wake up able to see the light-touched dawn of possibility instead of swimming eyes-closed through the ocean of todays as tendrils of regret tangled and pulled him to a snails-pace.

Perhaps he had been able to imagine a future, a while ago, and only for a moment. When there was someone other than himself to look for, to share it alongside. But his impulses won out once more, and that dream had been snuffed out as quickly as it was lit.

When he parted heather and frosted grass to follow his patrol-mates, he thought for a moment that he was staring at an illusion sculpted by his imagination. There before him stood a ghastly-thin and battered representation of a tom he'd thoughtlessly left behind, wearing upon him the sharp and unmistakable scent of a cold, smog-filled home he never wanted to return to. Foxglare blinked, trying to make sense of the sight before him alongside the dark pit of shame that sat beneath his diaphragm, and realized with a start that Periwinklebreeze and Rattleheart were talking to the cat standing before him. That he wasn't simply a figment of Foxglare's imagination.

"Sedge-, you're..."

Words escaped him, as they often did. But with a few more blinks and with a quickening heartbeat, he wanted to explain himself, to the others and to Sedgepounce himself, "Cotton- she-... told me you fell into the gorge after Snakehiss..." The mention of his name still burned a coal of injustice in his gut, but he was washed all over again with that feeling (Shame? Amazement? Something else?), and he was left repeating himself, if only to assure to himself that it was true,

"You're alive."

HOW COULD YOU THINK, DARLIN, ⁀➷☾⁺₊ ID SCARE SO EASILY?

• OOC:
• 
• 
  — sun . fox . foxpaw . foxglare
  — he/him. 15mo moor-runner of windclan
  — a large, scarred white and golden tabby tom with grey eyes
  — smells like dewy oak and sedge
  — sounds like leon kennedy, with a vague texan drawl.
  — the straight-faced and taciturn adopted son of houndthistle, lived as a twolegplace loner until 7 moons old, now a moor-runner of windclan. resilient, but not invincible. the continued stresses of war and a significant loss have led him to hold fast to his strict internal moral compass for fear of faltering.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — fullbody and chibi by antiigone
  — penned by eezy

​

 

[Irispath]

Irispath. He runs the name through his head repeatedly, hoping to wear it in. He's not Yewberry, he's Irispath. It really does feel like he's someone different now with his new name. Hopefully he can ride this feeling for as long as he can and make something of it. He patrols the tunnels, doing his best to clear them of dust and debris and fix them up so they don't collapse. His head emerges from the tunnel when he hears voices and decides to join his clanmates to see what was going on.

He's not expecting the situation he walks into. Did he hear right? This cat at the border survived the gorge? He looks back and forth between his clanmates and Sedgepounce. Foxglare mentions Snakehiss, and he's pretty sure he knows the right face to the name.... But he doesn't know this cat. It seems they're a clanmate though.

"It's good to see you alive." He says. "A fall into the gorge is usually....Fatal." He's not sure he should speak, but if Sedgepounce is a friend, then he's glad he made it.​

 

[SEDGEPOUNCE]

"Peri," Sedgepounce blurts. Periwinklebreeze's smoggy face parts through the heather and Sedge boggles at him like he's seen a ghost, heart leaping. There's a long list of cats that he'd expect to see here first—even Hollowmoon or Rumblerain would've been more likely—but it's truly Periwinkle's ruffled visage which pins him a tense, distrusting look through the sage-grass.

He starts floundering, maw pinched shut and eyes—eye—blinking widely. Why are you here? The question, thrown from a fox-length of wary distance, stings far more than any wasp bite or scrape of nettle, especially from Peri of all cats. They were never close, but amiable, surely. Shock numbs over his body in a cold wave, and he finds himself too stunned to speak.

Why is he here? To find Snakehiss? He can't tell Periwinklebreeze that. It'd sound...childish, and stupid. It's not, but perhaps to anyone else it would seem that way, so this is an admission he keeps close to his chest, locked behind the wall of his teeth. He falters instead, the cold rage that carried him all the way to WindClan smothering to ash.

It's been moons since he's seen him. Seen anyone at all.

Before he can hobble in shocked silence for too long, another figure emerges from the moorgrass. "Rattleheart!" Any lingering doubt that Peri might just be vengeful spirit dredged up from the moor fades away; Rattleheart is very real, and very loud.

In the few times Sedgepounce imagined what it would be like to find his way back home, he'd be unchanged. He'd emerge from the heather beneath a warm, golden sun, and there's be no tyranny and no war. Just WindClan as he knows it, with cats that greet him just as warmly as if he'd been gone on a long hunt.

The way Rattleheart looks at him is...horrified.

Sedge curls away from their prying eyes. His battered limbs and scarred, swollen face tilt away, to spare him the shock, but the damage is already done. Rattleheart's stare sear into him. He feels cold all over; his face burns all the way to his tattered ear tips. He doesn't have a good answer. "I...I don't, um...," Sedge croaks.

It's a small mercy that he's hiding some of his worst parts when Foxglare arrives, but only just. His warbling voice draws Sedge's gaze from where it's stuck to the heather, shock palpable and...strange. He's never known a Foxglare that isn't simply gruff and decisive, but it isn't just his tone that garners Sedge's surprise.

The Gorge? Is that what Snakehiss told everyone? He feels...he doesn't know. Was he trying to make himself look better? Snakehiss, deputy galore, took a filthy traitor and threw him cliffside to show his own piety. Even Yewberry comes up to echo his surprise.

You're alive. Foxglare stares at him, like he's seen a ghost.

"I...what happened?" Sedgepounce stammers, hunching unevenly on his crumpled, aching leg. His mouth is dry and the words stick to his teeth, a rasp that itches his throat. An eye drifts over the small patrol of cats. How are they alive? How are they even here? He never thought he'd see any of them again. "I thought...I mean, Sootstar...," he trails off, unsure of what he's even trying to say.​

 

[RATTLEHEART]

AS HE RAISED HIS FIST BEFORE HE SPOKE — "Is dead."

He didn't mean for his words to come out so harshly, so sharp when Sedgepounce was still clearly struggling to process all that was going on around him. That severity wasn't even directed towards the moor runner, instead reserved exclusively for the now rotting Windclan queen that he had spoken of. It was a relief to be free of her, though he wasn't sure whether or not the scarred warrior before him would feel the same way. "After we were all driven to the Horseplace... eventually she and her goons came after us. Came after Cottonfang after she escaped. Only they were weakened from Leafbare and struggling with their numbers, so Sootstar ended up calling a retreat." That battle in particular felt eons away, even if it hadn't actually been all that long ago. Not even a proper moon yet, he was fairly sure - though it was becoming harder and harder to keep track of time with all that had happened.

The repeated mentions of Snakehiss and the gorge were enough to make the lead warrior's pelt bristle, mind running a million miles a minute as he tried to make sense of Foxglare's statement. Had the former deputy tried to kill Sedgepounce by shoving him into the gorge? Were his crimes even more extensive than they had thought? Did Sunstar know? "With that momentum, we launched an attack on camp, and came out victorious in the end. Sootstar proclaimed that filthy former Shadowclanner her new deputy, and he led those that were left alive in fleeing. We've been rebuilding since then... and Soot is gone." He conveniently left out the part about Snakehiss betraying Sootstar, at least for the moment. It didn't seem like that particular information would go over well with the tom that was standing before him. Especially considering that was what had led to Snakehiss' current probation - a mercy that it seemed Sedgepounce wouldn't be glad to hear about.

Rattleheart's head then cocked over to one side, looking Sedgepounce over to try and figure out just how bad the extent of his wounds truly was. "I'm sure Sunstar will want to see you, and speak to you about everything that has happened. Wolfsong too, depending on how you're feeling. I... can't promise anything, but I know Sunstar would likely want to know you were alive either way." He then glanced over towards Periwinklebreeze, trying to gauge whether his fellow new lead warrior was in agreement. It seemed obvious to him that the next order of business would be bringing their battered friend before Sunstar to make a decision, but perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps he was thinking too wishfully, and others would want Sedgepounce driven out right before their eyes. Though he doubted Foxglare would be one of the voices in favor of such a vicious route, considering the shock glimmering in his eyes.

THE RIGHTEOUS HAND OF GOD 𓆩♡𓆪 THE DEVIL THAT YOU FORGOT

• 

• 
  ❥ longhaired black and white tom with pale green eyes
  ❥ 48 moons old; ages the 1st every month
  ❥ afab; uses he/she/they pronouns
  ❥ homosexual homoromantic; mated to venomstrike
  ❥ sibling to scorchstreak, lizardbounce, and rabbitclaw
  ❥ currently mentoring downypaw
  ❥ somewhat difficult to befriend; wary but kind
  ❥ "speech", thoughts, attacking
  ❥ peaceful powerplay allowed
  ❥ all opinions are ic

​

 

[Periwinklebreeze.]

OH, WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SOMEONE ━
THAT EVERYBODY HAS TO TALK TO━​

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periwinklebreeze ❀ 19 moons ❀ demi-boy ❀ windclan lead warrior ​

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Despite Sedgepounces warm greeting, the boy is still anxious - at least until his question is answered. Of course, the explanation comes not from the missing feline themselves but from foxglare of all cats - wide blue eyes flicking between the two. It's answer enough, shoulders relax and the smile that crosses his features is warm " I'm g-g-glad you s-survived, " he says, ehcoing irispath's words. Starclan must have been watching out for him, he thinks. Rattleheart explains everything they've missed - much to the boys relive, really, he doesn't think he could've made it through such conversation without a long and frustrating wait and a lot of pain. " Th-that's probably f-for the best... I c-can run ahead, let th-them know, " he offers - he's always been light on his paws after all... and really, someone should probably make sure there's eyes on Snakehiss, if what Foxglare said was true. Both for sedgepounces saftey, and the former deputys (though, did such a title even really count?) - starclan only knows how the two would react being in the same camp as one another again.

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[SNAKEHISS]

Murmurings carry on nearby winds as Snakehiss and his out-of-camp chaperone return from the riverside — "alive", "survived", "Sedgepounce"—

Sedgepounce?!

The tom could hardly believe his ears. He strides forth as quickly as his paws can carry him, making his way toward the voices until he reaches the cluster of cats who had found the black-and-white tom standing upon the border like a corpse risen from the grave. He is disheveled and bruised, clearly having gone through hell for the past couple of moons, but by StarClan's good graces he had made it back to WindClan.

He comes to a halt, staring slack-jawed at the returning moor runner as the others addressed him. Never has Snakehiss been so thrilled to see his old denmate standing before him in the flesh. First he had nearly sacrificed his life for Sparkspirit and now he was genuinely excited to see Sedgepounce? His mind had truly cracked. "You.... You're alive!" Snakehiss finally blurts aloud, his lungs beginning to quiver as his heart kicks into overtime.

The world around him disappears, his composure begins to crumble. He wheezes a couple of times, at a loss for words but relieved. He hadn't murdered an innocent cat in cold blood. The guilt lifts almost instantaneously off of his conscious; he is freed.

Snakehiss' emotions overtake him, bringing him onto his haunches, his arms slowly beginning to slide out from underneath him as if wanting to collapse onto the ground. "Oh... Oh, StarClan..." He breathes, his eyelids shutting closed as he offers a silent prayer. Thank you. After all that was said and done, the stars haven't forsaken him. Sedgepounce's existence was proof of that. That was all that mattered.

₊ ⋆ * ⊹ ₊ ☾ —— 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙟𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨

• anyone could be his chaperone!

• 

• 
  ₊ ⋆ * ⊹ ₊ ☾
  snakehiss
  

  — he/him; moor runner of windclan
  — long-limbed black tom with green eyes, a small white chest patch, and multiple scars
  — "speech", thoughts, attack
  — link to full tags; @ on discord or dm @beaaats for plots!​

​

 

[SEDGEPOUNCE]

The explanation Rattleheart gives is succinct and easy to follow, but Sedgepounce can do no more than take his words at face value; any deeper contemplation sends his mind reeling, like Rattleheart's taken some impossible, incredible event and packed it into a tiny little box for him to try and digest. He nods along numbly, at least giving the appearance of understanding, as his brain sticks to one crucial detail. Soot...gone. He never thought he'd see the day. And he didn't, technically, but whatever fondness he had for WindClan's leader was a distant, unfamiliar thing. He won't miss her.

A cold breeze kicks through the border, rustling the moorgrass in such a sweetly familiar way. Sedgepounce feels himself grow more weary by the minute. His nest probably won't be where he left it, but Stormcloud might share hers, even if she complains about it later. He daydreams about resting in a camp that's no longer swarmed by loyalists, warmed in a territory reclaimed—just a few minutes ago, the idea felt impossible. But now he can finally go lay down and put this nightmare to rest.

Rattleheart's words draw him back to reality. He's kind about it—despite his initial shock, Rattleheart's always been the motherly type—yet this does little to quell the pit which Sedgepounce's heart has sunk into.

Of course, they're not just going to let him come back. Of course.

It's a tough pill to swallow. A cold, cowering dread darkens him; makes him feel terribly small and too-big for his own body all at once, and his heart tremors. He never thought—well. He did think, he just...

"...Okay," Sedge says quietly. Periwinklebreeze smiles at him in a way that feels numb, running off to alert the others, and soon Sedgepounce will have to stand in front of Sunstride—Sunstar—and admit to him and anyone else in the crowd all his failures, as if his twoleg stench and sheared fur and strange, neatly-lined scars don't incriminate him enough already.

He watches Peri go, and from behind the tom's retreating frame, watches Snakehiss' swamp-colored eyes widen at his face.

Snakehiss flops against the ground like an idiot, breathless laughter squeezed from his lungs as he rejoices and Sedgepounce—stares. He's cold all over. His heart punches so loudly in his chest that he feels it might burst. Snakehiss, thanking StarClan. Snakehiss, feeling blessed. Snakehiss, who ruined his life and is happy to see him.

Sedgepounce's whole body has locked up, like it did back in the cage. He couldn't move if he wanted to. His addled mind seeks no restitution; he doesn't crave Snakehiss' blood against his teeth, or fear in his eyes. Anger surges through him, but it's...cold.

His eyes are wet. His head curls toward the ground as he turns away, shaking, and whispers: "I just want to go home."​