Patrol for All [Open]

Sunpaw's tail gave a small flick of excitement. He hadn't heard much about Shadowclan, but he was a little worried about running into one of their patrols.
"What if we run into ShadowClan cats?" he asked.

The border? That was so cool!!! She was about to ask something, but Sunpaw beat her to it, and since her question was going to be almost the same she decided to close her mouth and wait for her mentor’s answer instead. She knew that they were supposed to chase any cat that wasn’t from SkyClan out of the territory, but she wasn’t sure of what exactly to do right at the borders.

Hawkpaw followed the patrol, deciding to walk only a mouse-length away from Tinypaw as he didn't know many apprentices or warriors. The tom felt a rush of excitement as he wanted to experience the border with ShadowClan for the first time. He heard about their dark and mysterious reputation, but was that really true? Hawkpaw felt a little nervous yet excited at the thought of encountering ShadowClan cats; a story worth telling the kits if a fight broke out!

"Not much. As long as they stay to their side of their territory we should be fine. We might discuss what is going on in our clans if they are in a chatty mood, but other than that.. We shouldn't run into any trouble. And I hope that you guys won't cause any trouble either." The leader explained as he moved through the territory soon arriving at the border. "Alright we are here, what do you apprentices smell?" He asked, then looked up at the warriors who were with him. "Check the border, make sure nothing was moved." He commanded.

Jayflight nodded, he scented around the borders of SkyClan. He sure didn't smell much, he slowly rubbed his fur against the trees and other objects as he moved his way along the border, making sure no ShadowClan patrols were on there way near SkyClan territory. Just in case he unsheathed his claws, quickly to turn over to the apprentices and hear how they were doing on scents, especially his apprentice, Sunpaw. Then he continued with his job on checking the borders, he began to report. He looked over to Crowstar "I don't scent anything so far" he reported, then to scent again, waiting for the leaders response.

Sunpaw copied what his mentor was doing, a bit unsure. "I don't smell anything either, this all smells like SkyClan."

Moonpaw closed her eyes and allowed her nose to catch as many scents as possible, to try to identify them separately right after “Pine needles…and mud…I think I can smell other cats too” Those scents were the strongest, to the point of clouding most other scents to her untrained nose and making the few that made it through almost impossible to identify. She had to admit that she felt a bit upset though, she thought that she would be able to identify a ton of different scents instead of struggling to identify anything past those three. She would need to practice more, she was sure of that.

After some time of trying she finally grew impatient and decided to open her eyes and walk closer to the border, stopping at a couple of tail-lengths from the scent line that both clans had been careful to place right where the territories met. No need to step over it and cause unnecessary trouble for Crowstar after all, she would feel awful if she became the responsible of a border fight between the two clans. She focused on her nose again, trying her best to identify another scent “Hum…crowfood?” The scent was a bit hard for her to identify, it was so faint…like if it came for a really far place, fighting for dominance over the other smells that predominated in the area. Then again, part of her felt that she had all that trouble because she needed more training.

Vixenpaw didn't respond, but she lifted her nose to catch any scents. There was obviously SkyClan scent...and the scent of prey. As she strayed closer to the border, she could smell the faintest scent of ShadowClan coming from the other side of the border. Her expression was blank, and she lifted her nose once again. There was nothing too severe or threatening to cause some sort of strife, and there was certainly no rival Clan, badger, or fox scent. Vixenpaw looked around. She guessed that she was the oldest apprentice there. She hadn't really been keeping up with the other apprentices at all, she considered herself to be her own source of company. The SkyClan apprentice wouldn't be surprised if she had more rival Clan enemies rather than SkyClan friends. Vixenpaw glanced quizzically at Moonpaw when she mentioned crowfood. She knew that Carrionplace was on ShadowClan territory, but she didn't think it would be this close as to smell it from all the way over here. Shutting her eyes, she drowned out any other sounds or scents and tried to catch even the smallest whiff of crowfood. When she couldn't pick up any scent, she blinked, glancing at Moonpaw.
She has quite the nose... The ginger and white apprentice thought. She felt no jealousy, she just felt pride knowing that she was apart of a Clan with such amazing cats.

"Those are some scents around here." The leader paused for a moment to try and figure out some scents himself. He had gone out enough to know what scent was what. "Let's see... I smell... some Shadowclan cats went by on a patrol a while ago. The scent is very faint. Probably on a sunrise patrol." He said, he did detect a hint of crowfood, but it was hard to keep track of. Did they resort to eating crowfood again? That wasn't good. "That smell of pine and mud is Shadowclan. It's a scent you will get familiar with as you continue on in your training." The leader mentioned. "Try again to find the scent, and try to familiarize yourself with it. Then we will head home." They already checked the border so they were done.

Antdrop watched and listened as Crowstar talked to the apprentices. They all seemed to have pretty strong noses, and he decided to stay quiet, letting them do the learning. Besides, he'd already done all of his training, he was only here if his father needed any help. I wonder why the smell of crowfood is near... he wondered tilting his head, curious as to why ShadowClan would smell of crowfood, especially during greenleaf.

~~~

Tinypaw sniffed around, scenting around the border. Before he was able to say anything, Moonpaw started speaking, but he was honestly glad that he didn't need to say anything. His father had already taken him on this patrol, so there wasn't really anything new to see, except some unfamiliar smells. I guess there will always be new smells, cats probably pass through here all the time, the small tom shrugged the thought away, looking back to the patrol.

Moonpaw nodded as she heard her mentor’s words…so pine and mud were the scents of ShadowClan, she would need to memorize that, she was sure that in the future it was going to be a useful thing to remember. She still couldn’t help but wonder why she also caught the scent of crowfood, probably it was just a coincidence? She would need to ask Crowstar or the other warriors later. She tried to catch other scents as well, but she didn’t had that much of a success, well, next time she would, she was sure of that!

Pine and mud? Alright, that little tidbit of information would come in handy later - Sunpaw guessed it would be important to know the smells of other clans. He sniffed again. Was that.....
"Can you smell crowfoot, or is it just me?"

Jayflight turned towards his apprentice and scented again "I can smell it too" he mewed "Do you guys?" he mewed turning over to the others.

Crowstar shrugged slightly. "I smell it too, it's very faint though. I could only guess that Shadowclan has resorted to crowfood again, or we have a strong enough wind to carry the scent all the way from carrion place. Well whatever it is, it doesn't matter." It left the leader kind of curious but he didn't want to stress some apprentices out right now. He would probably take some warriors out later and investigate. "Alright, let's head home."

Jayflight started to walk from behind the SkyClan leader, he turned back at his apprentice and nodded.