The Golden Oldies {open}

Cougar flicked his ears doubtfully. He didn't doubt her words... what he doubted was that anyone was going to take his word seriously. "I'll help, of course Lilac. But I'm not a Sunclan cat. Are your leaders really going to care what some stray apprentice-aged cat thinks?"

"If their words and actions are a sign that Thunderclan might be preparing an offencive of some kind, then yes," said Lilac. "They had the audacity to not only step onto our lands but mark them, and then refuse to go."

"Oh. Oh." He didn't have the best sense of smell, but it was hard to miss the nearby smell. "Is that what that is? Thunderclan scent?"

"Yes," said Lilac. "That was them; there were three of them, two toms and a she-cat. When we asked them to leave, or I guess I asked them to leave and Silentpaw told them very forcefully to leave or else, they pretty much laughed at us and cracked jokes, as well as hinted that the whole affair is not over yet."

"That doesn't sound good." He replied with his usual flair for understatement. "But i can understand why Thunderclan cats might be angry. Maybe they didn't ask their leader... they just came. did they say if they'd been sent, exactly?"

"They didn't say, and that's why I don't think they were sent," said Lilac. "They just seemed to be out to cause trouble because by the time I'd gotten there they had sprayed several trees in the area by the smell of things. They were elders, all three, although not really infirm ones. One or two of them looked to still be in senior-warrior range although I don't know."

Cougar nodded. He wasn't a very good judge of age, perhaps because at six moons and growing every day, or so it seemed, the big maine coon was already the size of most average adults. "Hopefully they were just acting alone. I can't hep but think they would send far more than three catsif they really wanted to challenge Sunclan."

"They weren't with any others I don't think, and they weren't part of a serious attack," said Lilac. "They were just a casual patrol probably, or maybe not even that...three is too small for a real patrol."

"How many usually make up a patrol?" He asked curiously, yet another question marking his nonClan upbringing. Silentpaw probably thought he was still a kittypet by now.

"I know that in the more stringent by-the-books clans it's usually six to eight, although don't quote me there," said Lilac. "It's a bad idea to patrol with fewer because you could wind up encountering a bunch of aggressive rogues and then you might not make it back to camp alive."

"Wow. Guess I'm lucky I never ran into rogues in Twolegplace. There were some solitary cats who were rude, but mostly they thought I was older than I was and left me alone." He remembered a few narrow escapes as a youngster, but the idea of rogues ganging up on clan cats was a new one for him.

Silentpaw was a bit surprised by how little Cougar knew, but she reminded herself that he wasn't a clan cat. Still padding steadily along, she started wondering what would happen if more ThunderClan cats started trying to take over their territory. "What if there are more cats who share the elders point of view?" She asked after a while.

"Yes--that's exactly what I'm getting at,' said Lilac. "This could be a symptom of something larger."

Silentpaw looked ahead of her, trying to picture it in her head. "But a leader wouldn't support it, right?" She said, looking at Lilac again and hoping it was true.

"I have no idea," said Lilac. "I'm not a leader, and as for what Thunderclan would or wouldn't do, I know even less."

"Hopefully the Thunderclan leader has some sense. I think if they shared the same view as those elders, you would have seen something more official then." Cougar offered.

"Let's hope, but I really do want to avert another battle if we possibly can...They don't do either side any good in cases like this." Lilac picked up her walking speed.

He broke into a trot to stay at her side, glancing over his shoulder to check where Silentpaw was.

((Are they going to report back?))

ooc: Yup, new thread in Ellen's den.

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