The noise of twoleg monsters constantly moving along the nearby thunderpath sounding loudly through the narrow alley, down near the southern outskirts of his territory, Talon slowly creeps onwards. Keeping so low that his belly fur brushes against the pavement and his collar's trophies just barely hang above it, he moves through the shadow of a series of tall dumpsters, towards the among the noise barely audible sound of rusting and crunching. His breath kept shallow and quiet, the dark pelted leader moves right up to the corner of the last dumpster, around which the noise is heard. Claws sliding forth under the reinforcing dogteeth, legs bend to project him forward once the moment comes, he takes himself a moment, remaining perfectly still and silent, banishing any and all thoughts from his mind, before he proceeds. The second his whiskers move past the corner, the rustling sounds up and a small brown pelt darts forth, away from the feline, whom's red eyes focus in on it with predatory intent, his body leaping forward as planned. His claws hook into one of the hind legs of the fleeing rodent as his brief yet rapid soar through the air comes to an end, a loud squeek sounding from the smaller animal, cut short in an instant as Talon closes his jaws around it's skull with a grim crunch.

The tom huffs and rises up, shaking out his pelt as the rat dangles from his maw. It took longer to track than it should have, but at least there is a little weight to this one. It will feed a cat, two perhaps, for a day. Anything helps and everyone must contribute, leadership can not exempt him, not if leafbare will be hard and his choices might make it harder still. Slowly turning and padding through the alleys, skilfully manoeuvring thunderpaths and avoiding twolegs and their monsters, the tom makes his way back. Today was lucky, tomorrow might not be. At least he'll be able to take his mind off it a bit tonight. Kestrel's words still ring with Talon's ears with some worry, but his impotence to prevent his clanmates from tearing into each other between Wrath and the twins already causes him a deeply uncomfortable knot in his stomach. What choice does he have but to take Kestrel's proposed gamble? He can't just let Bloodclan warriors die of wounds and hunger if he can prevent it. Grim thoughts circling his mind, it takes him a moment to notice in the slightly snow whitened environment a white shape moving in the corner of his vision. Talon stops, claws unsheathing and hackles rising as he turns to face what moves so close by, his alert slowly fading as he sees a familiar figure. Frost gives a small chuckle as he approaches, Talon's claws sheathed once more.

„Looking to kill me yet, Talon?"

The dark grey leader rolls his eyes, setting the rat down

„Not unless you keep sneaking up on me. How are you faring, Frost?"

The green eyes warrior sighs and looks up into a sky laden with heavy clouds. More snow will soon be on the way. More cold, more difficulty, and all of Bloodclan knows it.

„Not easy to answer. Things are a bit bleak. I thought the dog meat and what we captured from the forest clan would last us longer. Most of us did. As for me…"

He sighs once more, his gaze returning to Talon. His expression is difficult to ready, his eyes neutral, but his voice shows hints of regret

„I feel I need to apologise. My behaviour in your den was unworthy of a veteran warrior. I encouraged you to walk your own path with more confidence and so you do, it seems. I know you mean well for the clan and I should trust your decisions more. I guess I just expected other things to come of it. Things have gone so far from how they were under Scourge… "

Talon hums quietly, nodding slowly at the veteran warrior's apology.

„I know. Things have not exactly gone as they would have under Scourge. I hold no grudge against you for it, Frost. I get what you mean. You never made it much of a secret that you hoped for a second coming of our unifier. But I fear Scourge was one of a kind."

Thinking of the smaller, black tom, he reminisces about his words in the Dark Forest. Frost's face distorts in a discontent scowl for a few heartbeats, presumably thinking of their former leader and his demise, having been there on that fateful day, the battle of the forest.

„Perhaps. I just want things to be as they were. Maybe Scourge still has lessons and words of wisdom to impart, maybe more things still can change back to how they used to be. Perhaps you won't quite be Scourge, but you might still become more like him as time passes. As you say, the leader of Bloodclan was unique, but I still hope."

„Perhaps… I probably will have to become more like him in time, wether I want to or not. But for now, we have cats to get through leafbare."

Stretching his lean body, muscles moving under the white pelt, Frost ends up nodding to his leader's reply. Talon's answer calms the green eyes tom both in his gaze an posture, as if part of an invisible weight was lifted from him or an unasked question answered by Talon's reply. Frost's voice bears audibly more enthusiasm.

„Yes, you might and yes, we must. Good catch on that, by the way."

Frost motions towards the rat with his tail. Talon scoffs

„One rat won't feed the clan. We'll need more, a lot more. We need to hunt and scavenge all we can if we are to make it through."

Frost hums, flicking his tail, looking past Talon at nothing in particular, lost in contemplation for a moment before returning of his own to the conversation

„I'll see to it that the veteran warriors are keeping busy getting food then. Though I'm sure they already are doing their best on that. Moon has been on three hunts today alone and that's just the ones I was around to notice."

Talon nods, a small grin forming on him

„Active as always. Did you hear she might have kits if we get through leafbare well enough? Rover is the image of happiness already"

Frost chuckles, smirking calmly as warm amusement sparkles in his eyes

„No way… never thought I'd see the day. Though I am happy for them. Rover's been wishing for a family for almost as long as he's been with Bloodclan. One more reason to make sure we get through this"

„Indeed. Indeed, Frost"

Talon nods before flexing his digits, causing his claws to briefly slide out before he flicks his ear

„Better get back to it then. Not the time to idle around long. Good hunting still, Frost. Scourge guide your claws"

Frost nods his head to the dark grey leader, as Talon picks up his rat and resumes his way back towards his alley

„Scourge guide your claws, Talon."

Putting the captured rodent down to the rest of the food pile, Talon sighs at it's sight. For not it will suffice, provided they can keep bringing in more. But in two moons, maybe not even that long, it will get dire. This should not have occurred like this, there should have been more food before first snow. Has Talon made a mistake, misjudged what they have and what they need day to day? With an entire faction more to feed, it could be. A growl rises in the dark pelted tom, it's his duty to ensure no one suffers hunger here and currently it looks as though he has set himself up to fail this most important of tasks. Anger surges through the red eyed leader, guilt and worry. Taking several deep breaths, he forces himself into a neutral expression. Showing too much worry will inspire worry in others. Until the pile is empty, there is only an issue if the leader says there is. As for what happens when that line is crossed, he'll have to cross that bridge when he gets to it. Nothing's decided yet. Talon turns and leaves the pile, electing to for now eat nothing himself. As he approaches his wall, he is halted from climbing it by the approach of Soot. The calm, black tom greets Talon with a dip of his head. Turning to face him and sitting down with his tail as usual pulled over his front paws, Talon nods back

„Greetings, Soot. What brings you here?"

Inspired by Talon, the golden eyed warrior sits down, his gaze and overall demeanour calm, almost tiredly so.

„Kestrel asked me to report you that the rogues around the outer border in direction of the horse place are apparently getting restless. They might try to cross it soon, hoping to find better food sources to get them through leafbare"

Talon hums, his expression sombering a little

„Is that so? One keeps wondering how Kestrel knows such things. But if it's true, we should increase our patrols between the grassland and the steel snake place. Let's hope Wraith won't see that as a provocation…"

Soot hums calmly, his gaze moving to the rest of the alley, a slightly pensive upon his face

„Everyone is so afraid of her… she hasn't really ever done anything to any clanmate of ours. Though, maybe that's just her strategy. Maybe seeming scary enough to make even Wrath reconsider messing with her is what keeps her cats safer than their claws."

Talon blinks at the warrior's words, pondering them for a moment

„Well, that's not impossible. But she's always had this quiet lethal demeanour, even before there were factions. And we've seen how deadly she can be more than once"

Unconvinced, Soot flicks his ear, pulling a slight grimace for a moment. He exhales audibly as he pulls his head to the side, causing several small popping noises from his neck before sitting mostly straight again

„So we have with Edge, but we don't fear him. Anyway, Kestrel just wanted you to know, so you can give orders and such"

The dark grey leader tilts his head

„Where is Kestrel anyway? He ran off to solve some possible future problem of ours, I have no idea where he went"

Soot chuckles and shakes his head

„Good question, I don't know. He came by my den to tell me and was right on his way again afterwards. Kestrel moves around a lot more than cats think. I think he was headed roughly in the direction of Scourge's alleys, but he came out of the direction of the steel snake place, so I couldn't say for sure where he went or came from exactly. He's always been moving around much. Castle's been in charge almost as much as him when he was leader with how much time he spend running around outside his alley."

Talon flicks his tail, a cold wind blowing through the alley causing the two toms to turn their faces away from the frosty gust for a moment. Kestrel seems very active then. Gathering as much information as he always seems to have must be a lot more work than Talon had initially guessed. But where to does he run all over the place? Does he have informants in each of the factions? That would be as impressive as it would be worrying. But no, that couldn't be. Maybe he could find a talkative cat among Granite's followers, if he doesn't mind risk even among Wraith's, but this newest information is about happenings outside the clan. His previous information too could not have been obtained that easily, not only would he be hard pressed to find cats among Wrath and the twins factions willing to risk giving up informations, there is too much distance to make such exchanges without it being noticeable that some cats regularly go missing for a while. The clan knows of Talon's escapades and speaks of it sometimes, venturing guesses as to where he goes, what he does. If others disappeared like he does, there would be talk of them too.

„I see. Well, thank you for the report. Rover will patrol Granite's border soon. If you're not off to go hunting, join him. We'll deal with the rogues in due time."

Soot's eyes show little enthusiasm for the assigned patrol, but he nods all the same and pads off, meeting up with Rover. The tabby's patrol is already gathering around him as he receives Soot as further reinforcements, Lantern, Quail and Rat all standing by already to be on their way soon. Talon leaps up against the wall, claws hooking into the uneven surface of the bricks under the larger dogteeth, letting him climb up with relative ease. Once up top, he sits back down, tail curled around him. Kestrel's activities are curious, but so far he hasn't failed Talon. It could be interesting to learn how he does it, staying so informed about everything. It might be a good idea to ask him directly, a chance for Talon to uncover the secret and ensure his loyalty. If he accepts and shows Talon how he amasses his knowledge, he'll have willingly given up the secret to his greatest advantage. It'd be irrefutable proof that he's not holding out on Talon, that he can truly be trusted after all. It would offer Talon some much needed peace of mind, finally being able to trust his second-in-command for good. He will need to be able to rely on the sly tom if their plan to save some of their clanmates from the conflict is to succeed. Under the leader's gaze, Rover's patrol gets up and moves out, on their way to secure their border. If Talon can even afford to try and save his clanmates. Grim and cold the wind slowly picks up, the first few snowflakes of the next snowfall upon it already. If not more food is found very soon, Talon might have no choice but to stand by. He can't feed warriors that of their own free will aligned themselves against him if his own go hungry because of it, he couldn't justify it. Even if they are clanmates, despite the blood of Bloodclan in their veins. Talon's stomach cramps up at the thought. Not despite being a leader, but rather especially as leader, he may have no choice to make in the end… His thoughts torn between Kestrel's hopeful belief that it might be doable and Scourge's somber warning and advice, he looks on over the alley. The night cannot arrive fast enough today. The river and the calm companionship of a cat with no stakes in this colossal mess are calling to Talon impatiently, as duty drags on through the freezing day.