a way back home [open - finchstar needed]

Finchstar winced as Grousefrost spat and padded away, pawsteps vibrating through the sand. The leader stared into Raventail's eyes as the silver tabby left, a silent apology found in those yellow orbs. Dappleshine's voice broke their trance as she responded quietly to Cloverpaw, voice shaky. Finchstar took a few steps back and stared at the she-cat, noticing the way her tail curled with Raventail's. Had it not been for Grousefrost's anger, perhaps Finchstar would have even been amused at the sight.

The she-cat began to explain her first meeting with the black tom, throwing fish, splashing in the river. Finchstar had heard Raventail tell that story as well, a small grin meant his maw at the thought. And then the she-cat spoke that she loved Raventail, hiding the fact for the sake of her clan. Finchstar admired her dedication, but knew if he was in her paws, he wouldn't be able to do the same. She spoke of Dacepaw and of speaking our for her daughter's sake at the gathering. Finchstar remembered all too well that night.

Dappleshine's mood changed as her topic fell to Torrentstar, her eyes darkened and her paws scuffed the ground. Her eyes welled up and tugged at Finchstar's heart. Suddenly he forgot the turmoils of Grousefrost, he forgot about the foxes and the terror of the moors. All he wanted was to listen, he wished to tune out the rest of the world. Dappleshine spoke of being unable to hide her feelings for Raventail, and Finchstar knew all to well the feeling. Had Brookclover been in another clan, he would have torn through the code itself to be with her. Love transcended all. And yet Dappleshine sobbed and spoke quietly that Torrentstar had hated her decision, and wished death upon her for it.

Finchstar's claws dug deep into the dirt and he forced his fur to lay flat, striding to Dappleshine's side and laying a long tail across her and Raventail. "This world does not deserve you, cat. Your love is ever steadfast and yet you sit here broken. How is it that in your sorrow you pulled our lost deputy from the depths as well? Your soul is truly amazing, both of you." Finchstar took a step back and bowed his head, humbled in the presence of these two wonderful cats. "Welcome to WindClan, Dappleshine. A place of hope, and love. If it is your desire to remain here, then let me honor it. We will feast tonight, sleep under the dying sun. As we sit here, I name you a warrior of WindClan. You no longer need to wander, or doubt. You will be loved, Dappleshine." Finchstar smiled, eyes glazed, and turned to Raventail. "And you, cat. What would you like to be?"

Grousefrost had sent him his fair share of scathing looks before (for equally good reasons, at that), but the way he was glaring now burned in a way Raventail never could have braced himself for. At the next round of snarling, a protest—it’s not my barn, as if the ownership of the thing was what mattered—lived and died on the small tom’s tongue. Then Grousefrost was gone. Raventail watched him stalk across the camp, feeling as cold as the tunnels.

Amicable though her greeting had been, he’d half-expected Mistystripe to respond as fiercely to his return as Grousefrost had in defense of her sister—yet she defended him with that same ferocity. He didn’t anticipate the rush of gratitude that warmed his fur. ”Oh, I know. We…we actually trained together for a while.” He gave Mistystripe a bare smile. After getting to know prickly, loyal Murkpaw, it wasn’t so hard to imagine being around someone like Grousefrost, training beside him after their shared apprenticeship had ended, and so Raventail had considered them friends. Had considered. No doubt that was over now. His smile went a shade hollower. ”Honestly, I’m just a little sore. Thank you, though.”

Dappleshine’s story started slowly, almost tentatively. Immediately, though he knew the smart thing was probably to see what Finchstar thought, Raventail turned his attention to her. This part, he knew. He’d related it to Finchstar bit by bit over many rabbits and many more sunsets; the fish bit, especially, he’d come to laugh about as the moons wore on. Then came the fact that she loved him and had somehow kept quiet about it for so long, and what had happened in the aftermath of Dacepaw’s choice— That was where the tale continued into the unknown. Each hitch in Dappleshine’s voice drove thorns into Raventail’s chest, down to the worst of it.

He had a thought he wasn’t sure he’d ever had about a cat before: I’ll shred him into mousedust. It was a brief flash at best, soon reconsidered—for the sake of the many decent RiverClanners he’d met over the moons, Ivybrook being the most recent, and for the sake of the cat beside him, who was more important than some high-and-mighty leader’s word could ever be. Besides, when it came to the Clans, Raventail was a peaceful cat by nature. Still, the core of that thought simmered in the pit of his stomach, no doubt to resurface the next time he saw Torrentstar on the Great Rock. Fighting was never the only way to settle things.

It seemed impossible that Torrentstar had found fault in one of the things Raventail loved about Dappleshine most, worse yet that he could say something so pointlessly cruel. As if enough good cats hadn’t died on the shore already. As if following one’s heart was a fatal flaw… Stars, no wonder she’d needed Raventail to be sure. When her eyes drifted to his, he was there. Shaken deep, deep down and angry beneath that, but there. Once more, he looped his tail around hers, and Finchstar’s settled across them both.

Just as he’d thought. If Finchstar could forgive a deserter, he would accept Dappleshine in an instant. Raventail looked at her with something that, had he been less exhausted, might have been wonder. It wouldn’t fix everything, and it certainly wouldn’t do so instantly—but before he’d decided to run off, Raventail had been loved here. It was all but certain that Dappleshine would be, too. Finchstar addressed him, and he turned his head. ”What would you like to be?”

It was true he’d never felt at home on top of the Tallrock; he’d also never given himself a chance to. Beneath the stifling formality of it all, there was something nice about mingling with Beartooth and Ivybrook. About seeing the grins of kits-turned-apprentices as they spun to meet their mentors’ noses. Grousefrost had driven him into the tunnels because he was deputy—but he’d kept coming back, never as hesitant as the first time, because he had wanted to. Though he wasn’t the ambitious type, there had been many times when the divide between deputy and Raventail had dwindled to nothing at all, as if the two could somehow coexist. Knowing what he knew now…maybe they could again.

Something hit him, suddenly. With a former RiverClan she-cat at his side and barn-scent fresh as the breeze on his fur, it was a ridiculous thought to have. The ridiculousness of a thought rarely stopped him having it, however; and so, unhesitating, he echoed the words that had stuck with him since the day he’d become Finchstar’s right paw. ”A cat who makes Brookclover proud.” Softer, lowering his eyes just a bit: ”And you. Is that an answer?” Raventail was quiet for a moment. ”…All right, I’ll admit I don’t really want to be an apprentice again,” he said, half-laughing as if Grousefrost wasn’t painfully correct the way he tended to be, ”but if that's what it takes, I’ll do that, too.”

Dappleshine look up to Mistystripe gratefully, acknowledging her offer for help. But first... First she had to know Finchstar, and his clan's, response. She could feel Raventail and the leader's gaze upon her, and as her story concluded she felt completely bare, her heart, feelings, and intentions having been carefully placed in front of these cats, most of whom were strangers, to develop their thoughts. When her eyes sought out those of her beloved, she found them staring back, shaken and angry and sad but there. His tail found hers again, and she pressed her nose to his shoulder as Finchstar moved closer, laying his tail across the pair of them. His words were soothing, full of humble admiration, and as he stepped back she lifted her teary face to meet his again.

And just like that, Finchstar welcomed her into the folds of his clan. No more questions, no more pressing, just love and acceptance and... Pride. The words sounded so foreign and strange, her a warrior of WindClan? Yet as she tightened the winding of her tail with Raventail's ever so slightly she knew that it was right. Speechless with gratitude, she merely lowered her head in silent respect, her throat choked with tears. Hearing more than seeing the exchange between her mate and her new leader, she waited for the answer to come. Should Raventail not accept, or be turned away, she would follow... But she had a feeling that would not be the case.

The momentary silence that came raised her head to gaze at the tom she had fallen for, but as she watched his eyes she didn't see fear, or second thoughts, she found memories, memories she could never hope to decipher, but ones that were there. She might have had the same look before, maybe that's why it was so familiar. He finally spoke, and once he had, the new WindClan warrior simply licked his shoulder in quiet solidarity and reassurance. Brookclover.... What would the she-cat think of all this? The thought was bittersweet as she remembered the stories she had heard about the she-cat from Raventail. His mentor, his maternal figure, his idol. Gone far too soon, in her opinion, one she was sure many around her shared. Pressing close to the black tom's side, she waited, and hoped.

Barleytuft gazed with his intense, imploring hazel eyes for a long time, it seemed, before Raventail finally answered. The tom didn't meet his gaze, instead looking at the wounds the warrior had received in the fox attack. Barleytuft didn't care; he felt that he was practically leaning in waiting for the answer to turn into something reasonable or respectable. The first bit was neither. The second, which followed a deep sigh, was at least reasonable. Accurate. Raventail panicked. He ran. He left us. Raventail's eyes twitched up to meet the senior warrior's for only a second before they fled to watch Cloverpaw and Dappleshine interact. Barleytuft simply stared ahead at him, feeling his relief at Raventail's return fizzle to uncertainty.

That was when the warrior noticed Raventail's thick tail seek Dappleshine's and twine together. Barleytuft blinked. The she-cat looked at him and seemed a little more at peace. They wanted everyone to know. They were together. That fact infuriated Grousefrost even more. He spat a few last words before wheeling around and stalking across the camp to avoid the commotion. Barleytuft glanced over his shoulder after him for an instant before staring back to Dappleshine. A silence fell as all the Clan seemed to look to the newcomer, including Cloverpaw who was awkwardly shuffling and broke eye-contact with her. An unspoken question hung over them all: What was this RiverClan cat doing here?

Barleytuft was too overwhelmed to offer his friend from the lake any sympathy as she looked uncomfortably at the ground and began to explain how she had come to be there. Ordinarily he would have attempted to provide some reassurance, but he simply stared as she described what he already knew: they met on the lake, they grew up together there for several moons, they parted ways... and then Dappleshine fell in love. She stated that Raventail didn't know at that point, and she intended to keep it that way. Barleytuft listened with an unchanging expression as she mentioned the losses and trials she'd faced in the last few moons and how they had begun to impact her relationship with RiverClan and her father-figure, Torrentstar. Consequently, her faith in her Clan was shaken.

Dappleshine chose to confess to Raventail; she found him when he was running away, it seemed. She shared her feelings, and he promised he would return to deliver his. A warning light flickered on in Barleytuft's head, an inferred confession from those words: Raventail returned for Dappleshine. A short distance away, Cloverpaw's head cocked, and he looked to Finchstar and then a little harder at Dappleshine. He and the WindClan leader had found Dappleshine near the Gorge looking bitterly sad, and she knew where Raventail had gone. Had she just confessed - and Finchstar and Cloverpaw had just missed it? It made his head dizzy.

Barleytuft's tail lashed once while the former-RiverClan cat declared that she had been exiled after declaring her feelings to Torrenstar. While the WindClan tom was somewhat shocked and felt a tug of sorrow on his friend's behalf to hear how cruelly the RiverClan cat had spoken to his former warrior, he also understood why the tom had reacted the way he did. The pale tabby tom shook his head slightly at Dappleshine's final words: RiverClan was no longer her home, and it would no longer accept her. She had happened to run into Raventail on her way to try to find the camp.

There was a moment of silence as the former RiverClan cat's words sunk in to the surrounding crowd. Cloverpaw's heart ached for her. To him, it wasn't a question: the moors weren't safe, Raventail had made the choice to leave and then again to return of his own free will, and Dappleshine had been thrown from her home simply for feeling love and compassion. It seemed to the young tom that things had aligned almost too well, like StarClan had gently nudged it along. He could see the way that his father, Barleytuft, was staring at them darkly, though, and so Cloverpaw said nothing, simply giving both Raventail and Dappleshine a brief nod.

Barleytuft's dark hazel gaze stared hard at Dappleshine, and the soft-voiced, kind-hearted RiverClan cat's soft blue gaze met his imploringly, hoping he understood. He instead looked to Finchstar, his ears perked curiously.