The Twilight Guard ; Night Patrol || VIP ONLY 🙄

The teasing went unhumored, Turtlefang not even deigning to look in the direction of the voice until it had shifted to a legitimate line of thought. When the actual question came to fruition, blue locked with violet in silent consideration, but not deterred from immediate response. When it came to leadership, after all, confidence was key, even if only leading a patrol. "Rabbitstar enstated a clear parameter of three warriors at minimum. As of right now, the attacks have only been launched on isolated pairs. I assure you, it will be enough. If we move in such a large group at all times, I would consider it more of a hindrance to progress." Gaze sliding off the warrior, he shifted to address the group in its entirety, now. "I'm sure we all have concerns about the dangers at our borders recently. But we cannot allow ourselves to cower in herds just to scare off an enemy who can't even show its face to our clan at large. Our territory is large enough as is, and it won't be possible to cover the landscape without dividing up the labor. It wouldn't be fair of me to ask you all to walk every step of the environment as an alternative, either, when we're adjusted to taking specific regions on our patrols and no further."

It wasn't as if he was stupid. He knew that breaking up the group built in more vulnerability, but the clans didn't build bulk patrols for a reason. It made travelling noisier, it was harder to keep every cat together, it extended their points of weakness across a broader span unless they clustered into an awkward bundle. Moreover, it just wasn't needed. They were trained warriors, the most of them, and in spite of what had been happening, the deaths were still freak occurrences. There was no need to change everything up even more drastically than they had by organizing a night patrol in the first place. Kitten steps were needed. Tail flicking strategically, he added, "We will only be dividing up at a specific checkpoint, and will be reuniting before moving forward. Consider it a fusion of tactics- that way, even in the time we're apart, our patrols will be within range of each other should we need to reach the other for any reason. We won't be on opposite sides of the territory by any means, and we will only be separated for a limited window of time. I can explain this more in detail in a moment, unless anyone has any further questions."

Crowflame's strange formality earned xem a confused angle from the leader's ears, otherwise forward facing in their orientation to capture the sounds of the sparse woodland as they passed among the brush Sir? That had to be a first. Turtlefang resigned himself to saying nothing, knowing that humoring even the most well intentioned phrasing could garner him a disdainful snort or two from certain outspoken flame points. Instead, he observed the swaying of the field grasses waiting ahead of them, seemingly drained of color in the pale illumination of the nighttime. Cast in whites and pale greys, cut deeply with the striping of pitch black shadows between every accentuated blade, the flow of the meadow in the slight breeze could start to make you dizzy. As they approached open field, he picked back up on his discussion, although his tone grew more hushed in the stillness of the dark, as if joining the atmosphere in its anticipation.

"I've made several key revisions to the initial plan. I believe they'll suit our group in our inexperience, for the time being, especially since we have apprentices with us today. Caution is beneficial." Turtlefang hopped over a fallen log, already half eaten away by fungi into jagged, uneven splinters. The jump was a little higher, more cartoonishly emphasized, than needed- It served as a visual warning to the cats behind him, a silent indicator of the obstacle ahead. "Rather than separating once to fan out across territory sectors, we'll peruse the whole landscape after all. But I still intend to save your paws the work; We'll be using interlocking paths at key intervals." To emphasize the point, the tip of his tail twirled in a small circle, tracing an invisible route. "Every checkpoint on our patrol across the land, we'll divide up for a short period of time and take opposite directions to cover each half of a given area. We'll meet up immediately after breaching the edge of the given location, and proceed as a team until the next split. That way, we'll minimize our time spent apart but still avoid having us all cover the entire territory. Each team will be walking half the territory instead of the full thing, and our close proximity will mean it'll be easy to reconnect if anything goes wrong. I took the courtesy of mapping out some critical spots ahead of time, albeit not for this particular purpose... But using that knowledge, I'll direct you on when and where we will be together or separated. Does that make sense?"