Walk in the Shadows [Patrol - Closed]

Smokestripe held back a wince as he stretched out his limbs, his body still sore from the owl attack that had happened during the hunting patrol with Sootpaw. But his recovery was going smoothly and it was time for a true patrol. Hunting and fighting was important and he had already touched the basics of both with his apprentice, it was time to show the territory proper. A border patrol, nothing complex but a simple walk around the territories. And so he waited, sitting near the entrance of the camp as he allowed the cool breeze of the night brush past his fur.

Sootpaw walked out of the apprentice den, looking over towards the fresh-kill pile to see if he could find something to eat, but all thoughts of hunger were chased from his mind as he saw Smokestripe by the camp entrance. He knew his mentor probably wouldn't want to start battle train, and they already went hunting so... Sootpaw lit up as he realized they would get to see the territory. Before, he would've grumbled about how he wanted to battle, but recent events had changed his mind. A lot could happen from a hunting battle. Running over to his mentor, he panted as he reached Smokestripe. "Is it patrolling today? Where are we going? I'm sure I'll no it all." He shook his head, then sheepishly added, "Not."

Smokestripe chuckled shortly at how eager Sootpaw seemed for this patrolling, far different from their first patrol when he made it clear that he cared only for fighting. It was a bit amazing to see how fast Sootpaw had turned around in his views and it filled the ShadowClan warrior with pride. "We are going patrolling today," he stated with a swish of his tail. "The plan is to see the borders we share with the other Clans. I'll teach you what I know about the other Clans and you can get to learn their scents so that you can pick them out when you go to your first Gathering," he explained as he turned, already moving to lead Sootpaw into the territory.

He already had a path planned out - to head for the WindClan border and then travel that down to where it turned into the ThunderClan border and then finally end at Highpine. They were lucky that they shared such a different...Active cycle of the other Clans. The chances of meeting a patrol was slim as very few of the other Clans ventured out during the night and ended their patrols at dusk - when ShadowClan was just waking up.

Sootpaw followed Smokestripe deep into the territory. For a bit, all he smelled was prey, but after a while, a foul stench hit his mouth, causing him to jump back a bit. "Yuck!" He meowed, "What is that?" He knew it was probably his first scent of another clan, and he wondered which one it was. Which clans did they border, anyway? Was it Thunderclan? Riverclan? Windclan? Skyclan? He didn't know much, but he was determined to find out!

Smokestripe didn't recoil at the dreadful scent, already being well aware of its presence and had gotten used to it, simply spared a glance over his shoulder at his apprentice. "That would be the Thunderpath," he explained as he allowed his pace to slow down, flickering his tail over his back in a simple motion for Sootpaw to stick close to him as he continued forward. "The Thunderpath is a strange path of hard black ground that separates us from WindClan and ThunderClan - severing as our border. Its a dangerous place as Monsters roam it, big enough to kill even the strongest of warriors with one swipe of their paws if the cat dares get in their way." His ears twitched at the slightly sound of a roaring in the distance as they drew closer and closer to the path - the sounds of a Monster approaching on the path. The warrior took a small sidestep to make sure he was firmly between the path and Sootpaw as they came into view of it, pausing as he held his apprentice back so that he could get his first sight of the true dangers that lingered outside of their territory.

Sootpaw reeled back as the monster zoomed past him, the stink seemed to last forever. The monster shined in the light, and sounded like thunder. Breathing heavy, he turned to Smokestripe and meowed shakily, "How do we survive those creatures?"

"Stay out of their way," was Smokestripe's simple response as he turned, strolling down the length of the Thunderpath as he motioned for Sootpaw to follow. "The Monsters they...They aren't very smart. They never stray from the Thunderpath so as long as you are mindful of where you put your paws, you should be fine..." He blinked, giving a small shiver as a memory came flooding back- finding the father of his mate dead on the path..."But many great warriors have been lost to them - they kill any cat that unlucky ends up before their black paws. A single moment of distraction is all that it takes..."

Sootpaw saw the shiver and the look on his mentors face and knew that there was some story behind the dark road for him, but decided not to press. Shaking his head, he thought of the countless cats the must've died at the paws of the monsters. Good noble warriors... He vowed to himself he would try to protect all who came in to contact y with it, no cat deserved to die at the paws of an unbeatable enemy. Then Sootpaw so realized, he could be the cat who learned how to beat them. Following the dark path, he carefully examined the forest behind the occasionally passing monsters. Over there, he knew, was another clan. A clan full of cats, just like his, with a leader and deputy and medicine cat and kits and apprentices... There could be another cat on patrol, another apprentice, like him, examining his border. Learning from their mentor. He shook his head. It was crazy, the world was much bigger than he thought. Looking back to Smokestripe, he asked, "So is this our Windclan border? Where's the Thunderclan border? And..." Suddenly, another stench hit his nose strong, this one seemed to be of another cat. Was another patrol about to meet them? Was it old? Fresh? He got on his haunches, claws unsheathed. "What is that?" He hissed.

Smokestripe came to a halt, spinning to look at his apprentice as Sootpaw hissed in surprise. He opened his mouth, his eyes narrowing with confusion only to realize what had alerted his apprentice. The warrior glanced over his shoulder to see four looming trees in the distance. Fourtrees. They were getting rather close to it and Smokestripe could already smell the scent of the five Clans drifting from it - the last Gathering not having been all that long ago. "That would be Fourtrees," he explained as he turned to look at his apprentice.

"Every full moon there is a Gathering there between each of the Clans...So it reeks of the scent of every Clan and is strong from even this far away," he said as he turned, motioning for Sootpaw to follow him once more. "As for your other questions...Yes, this is the border we share with WindClan. As for the ThunderClan border..." he drifted off as he dipped his head down the path they were going, already seeing where the Thunderpath split down the middle, a path going to the right and left. "If we follow that path past where it goes by Fourtrees, it becomes our border with ThunderClan."

Sootpaw looked in awe at the four trees rising in the distance. The scents coming from them were so strong, he almost thought cats were there! It was so confusing, different clans, individual cats, and forest scents on top of it all! "How do you distinguish the smells?" He asked his mentor. "Like, between clans, and then different cats in the clan?"

"It takes time to learn them all," Smokestripe explained as they walked forward, swishing his tail as he kept his eyes on the looming trees before them. The warrior couldn't deny how much he was enjoying this - getting to answer questions like this. It was a calmness that was needed after what had happened in their short-lived hunting lesson. Just walking around and seeing the borders. "Each of the Clans have a very different scent - it isn't hard to tell them apart but... As for learning the scent of each cat...That can be difficult to learn. Each cat does have their own scent but its masked mostly by the scent of the territory that clings to them. Learning the scent of your Clanmates can be easy - we get to know our territory by scent easy enough to simply ignore it when we want but its near impossible to learn the cats of the other Clans by their own personal scent." As he finished that, they had reached the part of the Thunderpath which marked the start of their border with ThunderClan, the forest of trees looming on the other side - far different from the swampy landscape that they called home or the open moor that WindClan had.

Sootpaw shook his head. How was he supposed to learn? But suddenly, he realized something Smokestripe said was right. Smelling from Fourtrees, he recognized many different cat scents, all laid beneath his Shadowclan scent, which was faint, but he could smell it. As for everything else, he caught whiffs of prey, and then four different scents. Underneath each, there was a a whirlwind of smells, he assumed these were the four other clans, and the cats in each. Breathing deep, he refocused on the cats scents he could single out. These cats scents seemed to be fresher, not buried underneath the strong of a territory. He also noticed that his clans scents seemed to be so comforting and welcoming and warm, while the others, even though he had never met any of their other cats, seemed so unfamiliar. What would it be like when he did meet his first other clan cat. Would they battle? Would they walk by, barely acknowledging each other? Would he be out numbered, about to take fight in a fearsome battle? Thoughts and possibilities swam through his mind, multiplying as he considered what could happen. Looking around him, he was shocked to see the landscape had changed, he was really stuck in his thoughts. The flat plains and moors had changed into a deep forest with tall trees. Breathing in, he scented something, it seemed to be one of the four territory scents from Fourtrees. From what Smokestripe said, he realized this must be the Thunderclan border. Recognizing the scent as Thunderclan, he stored it away in his memory. "So," he asked Smokestripe, "have you ever run into a patrol from another clan before?"

Smokestripe blinked as his apprentice spoke up, glancing over his shoulder as he flickered his tail. "Its rare for patrols to run into each other due to our different sleeping cycles...But if we do run into patrols, normally we just pass by each other with little problem but sometimes skirmishes happen. Lucky ShadowClan is on natural ground with the other Clans so there isn't really any bad blood other then the rumors that spread about us." There was a slight grimace at that, always hating the nasty rumors that the other Clans whispered around them - how they were crowfood-eaters, monsters that lurked in the shadows, cold and ruthless...All because of a few bad cats in their past. Every Clan had them yet ShadowClan suffered the worst of the rumors it seemed.

Sootpaw growled. "If anyone spreads rumors about our clan I'll claw their face!" He mimed a swipe in the air, then another. Opening his mouth, he then scented pre-certified, he wasn't sure which, but it was something. "Should we hunt too?" He meowed to his mentor, "Or do we keep going?

Smokestripe let out a small laugh at Sootpaw's threat to the other Clans, glancing over his shoulder with a warmth flickering in his eyes. "I'm sure you will but I don't know if that would help the rumors...Its something we have bared for moons and it can't be helped, only ignored," he said with a smile, his tone light as he did his best to keep his chipper mood going. "As for what we are doing...We still have to see the SkyClan border. We could hunt but I don't want to spend all the night out of camp."