Open Event Border SkC ONE MAN'S TRASH ✧ skc border patrol ✧ ANOTHER MAN'S TREASURE

[brightnose!'s icon brightnose! brightnose!]

{$title} slight tw for roadkill

BRIGHTNOSE | SUN GUARD
"ALWAYS CONFUSING THE THOUGHTS IN MY HEAD"

.

Eugh, ShadowClan again… Brightnose doesn't actually have anything against ShadowClan at the moment, and she's gotten used to leading more patrols than she used to at this point. It's just, well… the last border patrol to ShadowClan that she'd lead had made her look very silly, constantly jumping and flinching at foreign sounds and tricks of the light. Perhaps that ShadowClan warrior had been right about the time of spirits, and Brightnose hopes enough time has passed for the supposed connection between living and dead to have significantly weakened. She just wants to do her job with no funny business!

Leading her patrol toward the other Clan's border, Brightnose's nose scrunches at the pungent scent of the thunderpath that lingers in the air. "Alright, let's make this quick," she urges her Clanmates, not wanting to stay here long. Let's just check the border and get outta here. It's only upon padding closer to the thunderpath that Brightnose notices the familiar form of a felled squirrel, lying limp in the grass at the edge of the obsidian path. She frowns, approaching it to examine whether it's worth salvaging or not; the squirrel is mostly intact - it was clearly hit by a monster, but it could still be eaten if one were to get past the thunderpath stench that sticks to its fur. It's a welcome surprise in the midst of leaf-bare.
"Twolegs… so wasteful." Her tail lashes as she says it, though she's speaking mostly to herself. How could they kill perfectly good prey and just leave it like this? "We should bring this with us, yeah? It looks perfectly salvageable to me." Brightnose glances to her patrol in search of agreement.

---

//open to skyclanners and shadowclanners :3 don't forget skyclan cats get one point toward their event score for participating in this patrol!

"SO I CAN'T TRUST MYSELF ANYMORE"

BRIGHTNOSE
SKYCLAN SUN GUARD
21 MOONS
SHE/HER
"SPEECH" | THOUGHTS | ACTION | #61BD6D

 

[Teaselfeather Teaselfeather]

Let me die, let me drown, lay my bones in the ground
I will still come around when the time for sleep is through
Over hill, over dale, through the valley and vale
Do not weep, do not wail, I am coming home to you

.

Teaselfeather padded after Brightnose with steps that were quieter than usual, mismatched eyes flicking sharply along the shadows. Every time they neared this stretch of territory, the air seemed colder... Heavier. As if the veil between the living and the dead thinned like old cobwebs. And sure enough, those shapes lingered at the edge of their sight. Darker than most ghosts they saw. Wrong somehow. Their pelt prickled, fur lifting ever so slightly as they drew in closer to the rest of the patrol, keeping to the living like a moth to lamplight. They resisted the urge to bound up the nearest tree, where the wind was clean and ghosts could not cling to the bark like frost, but kept their paws on the ground. Duty was duty. Even if their heart thudded like a frightened bird.

Brightnose's words snapped them back to the present, their gaze following her gesture toward the squirrel. Poor thing, its neck bent at the wrong angle, body unmangled save for the ugly bruise of the monster's strike. It must have leapt just a heartbeat too slow. What a needless end. A life extinguished without purpose. Still... It would be worse to waste it. Teaselfeather stepped a little closer, nose twitching, though their gaze drifted toward the invisible line of the ShadowClan border. The ghosts there pulsed like bruises in the air. Watching. Always... Or perhaps today he was just being paranoid.... And the ghosts would not appear.

" Is it on our side of the border...? " they asked softly, tail curling in unease. " I... Wouldn't want to provoke Shadow. " Their voice, though gentle as ever, held a small tremor, not fear of ShadowClan, but fear of what lurked around them unseen. They angled closer to the nearest patrolmate, as though the warmth of another living body helped keep the ghosts at bay, mismatched hues scanning the tree trunks as if expecting something to step out.

Speech, thoughts/emphasis

17 MOONS

𖧧

SKYCLANNER

𖧧

SONG

𖧧

bio

 

[ECHOSTEP]

x

Once again, a familiar SkyClan face shows up at the border whilst Echostep is skulking about. For a moment the sight of anxious eyes darting about and flinching at every shadow flickers through the thief's memory, and they have to clench their jaw to suppress a chuckle at the thought. They hunker down in the brush, tail drawn close to their body in an effort to minimize any uncontrolled noise that could give away their position. The SkyClan fringes approaches something that lies at the side of the road, the crumpled form of a squirrel that surely lost its life to the crushing force of a monster. The first suggests they take it with them, and Echostep's eyes narrow.

"Is it on our side of the border...?" asks the second SkyClan warrior, and Echostep doesn't bother greeting the patrol before creeping their way out from their shadowed hiding space. The patrol opposite the border seems on edge—something they can exploit. "There's only one way to find out whose side of the border it's on," they say, a challenge clear in bright green eyes. The squirrel is clearly not within reach unless the thief were to make a mad dash across the thunderpath to wrestle it from the grasp of one of the other cats, but still her tone threatens: Take it, I dare you. Shadowclan is hungry, and if she could manage to intimidate a SkyClan patrol out of perfectly-good prey, she would count it as a win. If the other clan takes the prey and leaves, then that's one less risk of crossing the thunderpath that she needs to take. It's a gamble, but one that Echostep is willing to take.

OOC —

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽♰☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

ECHOSTEP

THEY/SHE, SHADOWCLAN THIEF
✧ sleek-furred blue lynx point with a long tail & green eyes
✧ quiet and cunning, values authority over empathy
✧ npc x npc ; no known kin
✧ peaceful powerplay allowed ; hates being touched
✧ played by foxlore

 

[brightnose!'s icon brightnose! brightnose!]

BRIGHTNOSE | SUN GUARD
"ALWAYS CONFUSING THE THOUGHTS IN MY HEAD"

.

Echostep appears from the shadows just as suddenly as she'd appeared the last time Brightnose had met her - but this time, there is no casual conversation, no back and forth about menial things. The ShadowClanner's frame is certainly different from before, and the hunger in their eyes certainly matches that of their hollowed belly. Brightnose had seen that the cats of the other Clan seemed scrawnier at the Gathering… perhaps they really are facing a prey shortage, and an awful one at that if Echostep is willing to cross the Thunderpath and take on the patrol over a single squirrel.

Brightnose steps forward, her tail sweeping protectively in front of her Clanmates. There's a glint of nervousness in her eyes, but she still holds her head high as she speaks.
"You. We've… met before, haven't we? Though last time was certainly not as… tense." Her gaze flicks to the squirrel, then back to Echostep. "Are you really so desperate for prey that you would be willing to fight for it?" She tilts her head, meeting the other green-eyed warrior's firey gaze with one of pity. How awful it must be to struggle so greatly when leaf-bare's cruelty has only just barely begun.
"One piece of prey is hardly worth an injured warrior. I… I don't want to hurt you. But I'm not going to just give this to you, either." Carefully, she moves to the side, her gaze never leaving the cat across the border.
"If you want it that badly, then you can come and get it. But if you try anything, we won't hesitate to defend ourselves."

Perhaps her patrol will frown upon her offer to let the other Clan have it, arguing that they need the food too. But Brightnose doesn't want to cause any strife between them, not when they're already at odds with ThunderClan, and Swallowbreeze has had her paws full with injured cats for moons now. This is the best solution she can think of, one that does not necessarily cater to ShadowClan, but doesn't provoke them into violence either. She sees no reason to needlessly risk the well-being of her patrolmates over this.

---

"SO I CAN'T TRUST MYSELF ANYMORE"

BRIGHTNOSE
SKYCLAN SUN GUARD
22 MOONS
SHE/HER
"SPEECH" | THOUGHTS | ACTION | #61BD6D

 

[MARROWPAW MARROWPAW]

x

Marrowpaw can't take its eyes off the squirrel. It's just lying there, fresh and waiting. Anywhere else, it might be a gift from StarClan - but fate is not so kind. No, this is some kind of cruel joke. Monster-prey, abandoned carelessly with its body strewn across the Thunderpath. And of course, it's closer to the other side. No way of getting it without stepping right into the monsters' path... And dangerously close to ShadowClan soil.

Their claws itch, ready to make a mad dash should the opportunity arise. But for now, they are at a standstill. Tension hangs thick in the air, and Marrowpaw bares its teeth. "

'Give this to us?'

" It repeats in a cool lilting tone. "

You seem awful confident that prey is yours, Skyclanner.

" Dark paws draw close to the edge of the Thunderpath, flirting with the thought of daring to cross. It shoots a narrow-eyed glance back to the rest of the patrol. It doesn't trust her invitation to take it; things like that don't come without a catch. But if its clanmates give it the chance, the backup, it'll go running.

OOC //

˚₊ 𓆩 ♰ 𓆪 ₊˚

MARROWPAW

SHADOWCLAN APPRENTICE
it / they / she, genderfluid
7 moons old, ages on the last day of the month
littermate to viscerapaw
mentored by tickfrost

SPEECH

& INTERACTION

penned by saturnid.