ShadowClan Territory

[Weekend-Wondering]

He had been more than a little paranoid, he’d been very paranoid. He had just been hiding it. He followed her to the stream and threw his paws in, splashing g the both of them.


@InsertCoolNameHere

[Pitou]

**Elmshadow & Sunsetpaw**

Elmshadow started at the entrance to the camp, paritng his lips to bring the scents around the well-worn pathway over his tongue. The multitude of scents of every Shadowclan member were strong and fresh, and indiscernible from one another. He thought back to where he'd last seen his daughter. It was the same place Goldenstep had said she'd last seen her: at the clan meeting. That didn't give him much to go on and didn't give him any hints as to where she may have gone outside of the camp. Though her mentor was missing too so maybe the two had gone out for some training. Though what would've kept them so long.

He decided to check towards the training cliffs first but as he drew closer he didn't get any scent of Sunsetpaw. So he tried another approach. It wasn't uncommon for mentors and apprentices to go on border patrols together. It was a good learning experience beyond just staying in the heart of their own territory. He padded towards the border that lined with the outskirts, the territory belonging to none of the clans. His straight line was interupted as he caught a faint, stale scent. He stopped abruptly and parted his lips to take in a deep breath. It was Sunsetpaw's scent, no doubt, but it seemed like she'd been alone. He changed his course and walked slowly, following the scent trail as best as he could. Every now and again he had to stop and back track to pick the trail back up again. The tedious work was soon paid off as the scent slowly grew stronger.

The air was crisp and the sun was already sinking down, dropping a chill into the cold leafbare evening. He knew he couldn't turn away now. He knew he had to be close. He was more concerned now that he'd found her scent and desperately wanted to bring home good news to his mate, but what good news would have kept their daughter away from camp while still on the outskirts of their own territory?

Elmshadow slowed to a stop as the shadows of the trees in the waning sunlight contorted his depth perception, making an illusion of a drop off up ahead. He squinted and ventured cautiously forward. It was a drop off. The pit was not wide but he couldn't see the bottom from the shadows cast over the ground.

The sound of falling debris startled Sunsetpaw awake. She'd spent so much time sleeping, she didn't know how long she'd been stranded or even what part of the day she was waking up to this time. Her hopes didn't spike like they had in the beginning at every sound echoing down into her prison. She looked up, ready to see the sky punctuated by the overhanging pine branches through the small window above her. She squinted her eyes, not ready to believe her eyes, but the figure didn't go away. She made out the distinct shadowed shape of a bulky head pointed by two ears. She shifted and moved herself onto weak and sore paws. Recognition slowly dawned on her as the shadows lifted and she made out her father's grey and black fur. "Elmshadow? Is that...is it real? H...help." Her voice came out wavering and foreign to her after days of not hearing it.

Elmshadow was about ready to turn away until he heard the rasping voice and his eyes noticed the flicker of movement from down below. Upon closer inspection he noticed the walls around the rim of the hole had gouges of claws marks that had dislodged the loose edges. She must've been trying to escape until she couldn't any longer. Elmshadow's emotions stayed level, he responded coolly, "Stay put, I'll get you out."

He turned from the hole and searched for a long tendril of anything. He found a long branch and returned to the hole dragging it in his jaws. He lowered one end slowly. Sunsetpaw saw the thick branch coming down and shifted her body so the end would touch down on the solid ground beside her and not on her. "Grab hold and I'll pull you out. Unless you can climb out."

Sunsetpaw, without responding right away, took hold of the branch between sore pads, stiff with dried blood from attempting to claw her way out of the hole, and tried to climb her way up the branch but her muscles shook with starved lack of energy. The roots jutting from the ground around her were gnawed down to the dirt wall. They'd served as her only source of food and moisture since she'd fallen in but they did nothing in lending her the strength she'd grown accustomed to. She shook her head, holding back tears at the frustration of her own inability. "I...I can't," she squeaked before taking as firm a bite into the wood as she could manage.

"That's okay. Hold on, I'll lift you out." Elmshadow took the branch in his jaw and leaned his weight down and back, digging his claws into the dirt for traction as he slowly made his way backwards, pulling the branch back out of the hole. He watched the branch emerge until a browned white paw, and then another, popped out grasping for the side of the hole. He dug his claws in harder and pulled the branch clear of the hole. Sunsetpaw collapsed, panting, on the ground. Her eyes were closed and she wasn't moving save for the deep rise and fall of her chest and the flare of her nostrils. She was skinny, skinnier even than the rest of the clan coming out of leafbare, and her paws were battered but otherwise she didn't have any obvious injuries.

Elmshadow stood over his daughter, looking down at her. "Let's get moving. We'll take you straight to Bounceberry. Are you okay to walk yourself?"

Sunsetpaw forced her eyes open and looked up at her father, "Thanks for the concern, father. Though truthfully if he'd been doting over her she'd be far more concerned about her own state of wellbeing. Maybe he'd still be indifferent if she was lying there dying, but he surely wouldn't show any sort of emotion for anything short of that. She sighed and nodded. Cringing against the pain, she put one paw down and then another as she tried to push herself up to her paws. Her muscles froze then quavered, before giving out and throwing her back down to the ground. She grunted her frustration and tried again. This time, as her muscles threatened to give way, she felt Elmshadow's broad shoulder press into her flank and suddenly her weight wasn't so much to bear anymore. Her legs straightened. She glanced at Elmsadow but he was staring forward, Right, he'd do the same for any clanmate... She nodded and the two made their laborious way over the cold and unforgiving ground back towards camp.

[Clock Dragonshifter]

~Prickle'Song~ {Open}
The lilac tom padded through the territory his ears perked and paw steps quiet as he scanned his surroundings. A walk that's all he was doing he'd needed to stretch his legs and get out of the confines of camp having decided a walk was what he needed he padded through the territory aimlessy.

~Lostfire~{Open}
The large she-cat walked through the territory paranoid as ever as she constantly checked behind her for 'threats' though she seemed calm on the outside other than the constant glancing behind her. Her face remained neutral as she walked her pawsteps were oddly quiet on the ground for such a large cat her dark amber eyes showing no emotion with every glance she spared to her surroundings.

[Apollo.]

~WhiteRose~


The white warrior irritably padded through the forest, muttering under their breath. "I can't believe those two would skip a hunting patrol, don't they know that DawnStar is goanna punish them for this? And then my own apprentice was no where to be found, I'll need to talk to him about that.." WhiteRose sighed, they loved the little apprentice, platonic of course, but Gekopaw had a tendency to disappear often.


The white cat opened their mouth, and almost immediately caught the musky scent of a rabbit.They began to follow the scent trail slowly, sliding their paws over the frozen ground to not alarm it as it came into sight. The brown rabbit was skinny but it was a rabbit non the less, it is still Leaf bare, after all.. the white warrior thought as they got ready to pounce on it. WhiteRose leapt and the rabbit let out a squeak of alarm, but it was cut short as the white warrior swiftly killed it.*


They lifted the limp hare gently so they wouldn't draw blood, its unlikely I'll catch another but I may as well bury it for later anyways. WhiteRose picked out a pine tree and scraped a little hole, placed the rabbit in it, and shuffled dead leaves over it, before padding off in search of another.*


After awhile and almost giving up the white warrior found another scent trail of a rabbit. finally! they thought and began to follow the trail, sure enough a little rabbit was at the end of it, a little plump for a leaf bare hare. The warrior glided their paws along the ground and got ready to pounce, but just as they were about to jump a loud gruff noise was heard, along with rustling and other chatter. The rabbit's ears lifted and its eyes darted around, No, No, No! Shut Up! It's going to run! the white warrior panicked and quickly pounced, the rabbit squeaked in alarm and began to run off. WhiteRose.. missed?*


They looked around to try and find what had scared the rabbit and caused them to miss their catch and four twolegs came into view, all stomping around and yowling at each other. One was holding a green twoleg item, often lifting it to its mouth. I hate twolegs. the warrior thought irritated that the four twolegs had screwed up their catch. I should follow them and report this.. WhiteRose quickly padded after the twolegs, the dumb things were so loud and could hardly scent anything so WhiteRose didn't try to hide at all. They wrinkled up their nose as they got close, normally the scent of twolegs is revolting to Clan cats but this time was worse, they had another stench that even kittypets wouldn't like. One of the twolegs then pointed at something outside of the trees and they all ran towards it, leaving the territory. The white warrior didn't want to leave the forest so they decided to wait and see it the twolegs came back, which after a while of waiting, they did not, so WhiteRose retrieved their rabbit and began back to camp.*


(Please do not reply to this post. Thank you :] )

[Shade.]

ShadowClan territory. What made it ShadowClan territory? Was it the scent markers? Or was it the cars that inhabited it? Was it really ShadowClan territory if only ShadowClan believed it to be? There was a whole world out there, that probably didn't know ShadowClan existed.

Why was Rookscreech here? Well, one would argue that she's here because she was a member of ShadowClan. If she were an outsider, she'd have been chased off. What did it mean, then? What made her part of this clan? She certainly didn't feel like she was.

Rookscreech realised long ago what it was like to be an outsider. She didn't remember her days as a rogue but that didn't matter. She was ShadowClan only because of some thin, vague requirement that Dawnstar had put out. It meant nothing. Rookscreech was always qn outsider, simply allowed to remain in ShadowClan. She had no one, always alone, always untethered. Any connection was fleeting and fragile. She didn't belong here. It didn't matter though.

Loyalty as an ideal was a lie. There was nothing idealistic about it. It was just a disgusting, animalistic method of survival. Very clever. Everyone protect Mine and take Yours. And you rarely got to choose what Mine was, qnd it absolutely didn't matter. What made it Mine was that it was Mine. And you protected it just because. If you didn't, then you wouldn't have anything, right? Loyalty was presented as a moral when really it was nothing but a worthless instinct to insure the species went on after the individual. It didn't matter to said individual if it did. What would they care, they'd be dead. It was just one if thise cruel games nature played with you.

But now and again someone like Rookscreech was born, someone who refused to play along. They could never beat the game so they just tried to avoid it. To avoid living. Not dying, just not living.

Rookscreech hated the hypocrisy of it all. Because so many cats advocated that Mine was good. It wasn't, it was just Mine. You're not hurting Yours because it's bad, you're doing it because you're a disgusting, savage creature that wants to destroy, but you can't do it with Mine do you direct it at Yours. Well, Rookscreech didn't have a Mine. Everything was Yours or Nobody's. Nobody's land, Nobody's problem. And just because Rookscreech dwelled there it didn't make it her Mine.

Some might judge her, say she thinks too much in black and white qbd she should see the world in gray. They're wrong. Rookscreech saw the world in all black.

[Fletcher]

Bounceberry was taking a stroll to clear his head, the cold was getting to him. He murmured to himself, back and forth, whining about how he wished it would just get warmer again. Soon, leafbare would end soon, but for now he had to bide his time. He jumped up and perched onto a rock, curling his tail around his legs and shivering.

Soon enough, he thought...

[SuspiciousMindz]

@QueenOtter
[will try to make this a fairly quick rp for the ShC patrols]

Pineclaw was in charge of this patrol. His chest was puffed out this whole time as he trotted with Echosky through the territory. They were headed towards the WindClan border with he and Gingercry had previously had luck with a hare. The prey was scarce everywhere else, even the scents were stale as he passed by them.

His tail tip twitched with anticipation. "We have to bring something back or Dawnstar will have our heads for dinner instead," Pineclaw spoke in a hushed tone, trying not to scare the prey away IF there was any to begin with.

[QueenOtter]

Originally Posted by SuspiciousMindz

@QueenOtter
[will try to make this a fairly quick rp for the ShC patrols]

Pineclaw was in charge of this patrol. His chest was puffed out this whole time as he trotted with Echosky through the territory. They were headed towards the WindClan border with he and Gingercry had previously had luck with a hare. The prey was scarce everywhere else, even the scents were stale as he passed by them.

His tail tip twitched with anticipation. "We have to bring something back or Dawnstar will have our heads for dinner instead," Pineclaw spoke in a hushed tone, trying not to scare the prey away IF there was any to begin with.

Echosky padded after Pineclaw. 'Right,' she mewed in a hushed voice. 'I think I smell a rabbit... but the prey is so scarce, how can it be there...?' Echosky trailed off. She glanced around. No rabbit... but the scent...! The scent had turned stale suddenly! 'The rabbit scent... it's turned stale! The rabbit MUST be fleeing...!' Echosky wasn't so sure anymore. Embarassed, she licked her chest and turned to Pineclaw.

[Clock Dragonshifter]

~Prickle'Song~
The lilac tom padded through the territory his ears perked as he glanced around. Closing his ears he scented the air before opening his eyes again and getting into a hunters crouch, quietly stalkinh closed to a mouse he'd just caught scent of.

@~Silver~

[~Silver~]

Originally Posted by Clock Dragonshifter

~Prickle'Song~
The lilac tom padded through the territory his ears perked as he glanced around. Closing his ears he scented the air before opening his eyes again and getting into a hunters crouch, quietly stalkinh closed to a mouse he'd just caught scent of.

@~Silver~

the small she smiled as she watched the tom get into the hunting position