they lurk just beyond the border [semi-open]

Patrolling the borders was something that Swandive both loved and hated. Riverclan would be kept safe if it was the last thing she did, but her frustration with every outsider that was spotted on their territory only grew with time. They never had good intentions, they were a stain on this forest - far more than any of the other clans were, in truth.

She was however, glad for the chance to patrol with Poppyshine. She had always looked up to her deputy and former mentor, and it was good to see that she had mostly recovered from her wounds from the not-so-distant battle.

"I hope you're right... But they do like to be defensive about sticking their nose where it doesn't belong." The warrior sighed, scanning the territory with sharp blue eyes. "If it's that filthy tortoiseshell tom again, we can use his pelt for the dirtplace." She muttered darkly.

Seeing the Clans back like they'd never left, taking up their borders and settling in as if they'd just run off for one of those strange twoleg customs named "holidays", was something. A little strange; a little disgruntling; somewhat reassuring in a weird kind of nostalgic way. He'd ghosted at the borders, watching but not interacting, talking with other loners who had run into them and complained about the territories becoming locked away behind patrols again.

RiverClan territory was next to WindClan, near the barn with its ready supply of mice and occasional company. More importantly, it wasn't WindClan, and he'd never really known anyone there, just seen their former leader from seasons ago argue with some other leader and heard the gossip. He'd never really liked water, never cared to try swimming, and fish was... weird, but he'd poked around a bit before they came back, just out of curiosity.

This time, he wandered near enough the border that he spotted a pair of cats out patrolling, the scent of them drifting over with the musky smell of the river and hints of green growing plants. Just two, and not a whole gang. Not one of the regularly-scheduled dawn/dusk patrols, either. His Clanmates used to do that sometimes — just go out for a walk and check the territory while they were at it, maybe a little romantic stroll, like Timbersun and Swiftspirit used to do.

Timbersun.

Slivered moon-claw, he'd been such a brat as a kit.

Maybe still was, depending on who you talked to. Slipping out of the undergrowth, he kept outside the scent markers, padding parallel to their path, pebbles and weeds under his paw-pads. What would it hurt to maybe start up a little conversation? He was bored, and there were only two of them. That they were pretty mollies didn't have anything to do with it.
Alright, maybe it had a little to do with it. One could never be too nice to a she-cat, and it was only polite to say hello. Or at least, Jump had always gone on about that. He still missed the weirdly-formal screwball sometimes.

"Hey there, she-fishers, how runs the river?" He called.

It seemed today wasn't the day they wouldn't encounter a stranger approaching their land. Swandive's nose wrinkled at the unfamiliar tom, but at least he hadn't crossed the border. Yet. That it wasn't the foul tom she was expecting brought her some faint, anemic hope that this could even end peacefully... But Swandive would not hold her breath. Outsiders simply weren't to be trusted or treated lightly, it didn't matter who they were.

She-fishies? Swandive let out a soft snort, though she refused to let her amusement show to this stranger. It wasn't funny. Rogues weren't funny. Poppyshine at least warned the tom about the border, though she was more pleasant about it than Swandive would have been. Still, she supposed the deputy could afford that - there were two of them, after all, and only one outsider.

"Who wants to know?" She called, on the heels of Poppyshine's far too cheery response.

Well that was a better reception than he'd thought he would get. He smiled, flourishing his tail and staying conspicuously away from the scent line. "Oh, don't worry, I—"

Well, one of them was friendly. The other she-cat was as prickly as every Clan cat tended to be, cutting him short in the wake of her friend's nicer greeting. Has such a pretty face though. He took it as an opening to introduce himself, tilting his head in a half-dip to the two of them with a wink. "Me? I'm Flamethrower, just a regular lone cat passing by. Don't worry, I'm not here for the fish, just the company. And speaking of the company... who do I have the pleasure of greeting this dawn?"

Flamethrower? Outsiders truly were a strange bunch, but it almost sounded like an odd mimicry of a clan name. Almost. Still, Swandive supposed, it wasn't any of her business to judge... Just like it wasn't this tom's business to be sniffing so close to Riverclan's border. But she would follow Poppyshine's lead in this, and perhaps the stranger would understand what the title of deputy meant. That they were not to be trifled with.

"I'm Swandive," She introduced herself as well, it was only polite, after all. If he was here for good company, Swandive seemed determined to not provide much in the way of a decent conversation. Though perhaps Poppyshine would be able to drag her into one.

Why did everyone always give him funny looks at his name? Even Clan cats, and it sounded closer to theirs than anything. Mentally, he shrugged, filing those names away. Pretty names, really. Seemed he'd even managed to run into the deputy of the Clan.
He smiled, tilting his head. "Ohh, deputy," he said blithely. "Sounds like a serious job. What do you do, Swan? Do all you Clan cats have special jobs?"