Lone Patrol | Tag: Blush, open

[Lo]

DUSKFIRE

She hadn't been sent out on a patrol, but she was going on one anyway. A lone patrol. The weather was typical leafbare weather – unpleasant. And undoubtedly, if she ran into any cats from another clan, they would be the same – unpleasant. Why the other clans were so ill-natured, she didn't know. Perhaps it was because they weren't in Riverclan. Surely a cat could not be happy in one of the other clans. Shadowclan was a clan of greedy dung-breaths. Thunderclan were weaker than a pack of kittypets – was there anything they actually could protect? Evidently not, but that was fine. Riverclan was benefiting from their weakness. And Windclanners were just mousebrains. Riverclan was by far the best clan.

She didn't trust the other clans one bit. They were the reason that she was on a lone patrol. Sure, she couldn't drive those vile Shadowclanners out of Riverclan's territory, but she could make sure that Thunderclan and Windclan stayed on their side of the scent markers. Yeah, she trusted her clanmates to do sufficient border patrols, but in nasty leafbare weather like this, one could never be too careful. Leafbare was the hardest season – surely the other clans would be hungry, maybe even hungry enough to breach the borders. She wouldn't allow that though.

She wouldn't normally take it upon herself to patrol the borders alone, but she was bored. Leafbare was the most boring season. There was only so much one could hunt. And she had too much energy to sleep, so she'd decided to go on a lone patrol.

Notes: Hope this is okay, Blush.

[Blush]

As Ashfoot walked through the tall, brittle grass of the moors at a slow, determined pace, she wondered perhaps if she was becoming just a bit too paranoid. The WindClan-RiverClan border was determined almost entirely by the wide breadth of the river and a steep, dangerous gorge which no cat could cross, so the area was usually safe. It would have made more sense for her to patrol along the ShadowClan border, where those mangy night rats were sneaking onto WindClan territory through the tunnel, but something told her that RiverClan should be watched. Rumors were being whispered around camp that RiverClan was unhappy with their parasitic allies, and that, Ashfoot believed, made them dangerous. They had already started encroaching on ThunderClan. How long before they made a move on WindClan, as well?

It was that fear that drove her to the RiverClan-WindClan border that day as she hunted on the far side of the territory. And though her ears were pricked and her nose was sniffing in search of the scent of prey, she would settle for the scent of a RiverClan invader if she found one. It would be best if WindClan taught them to stay on their own territory sooner rather than later, she thought with a hiss. But her thoughts were soon distracted by the scent of prey. Was that a vole? Could she be so lucky in the dead of leafbare to to encounter such prey? She slipped into her hunter's crouch and stalked it closer and closer to the edge of the river before taking the leap. As her fangs sunk into the skinny prey, she thanked StarClan for the small blessing, but as she dug her teeth out of its skin, she realized what her distracted senses had missed: fresh scent blowing over the border.

"Who's there?" she hissed. Forgetting the prey, Ashfoot turned to face the RiverClan-WindClan border, her clear eyes glaring at the horizon, her mouth drawn back in a vicious snarl.