CLOSED Gorseclaw of DarkClan

[Longstorm]

Gorseclaw was on a mission.
He had slipped unnoticed out of the Moonfall while the cats of the other Clans were busy getting their morale up. He'd volunteer to head back into DarkClan territory when he and the scouts from DarkClan had heard the news that Mudblood cats had been spotted coming from the direction of the DarkClan border. Gorseclaw didn't know how many Mudbloods were near the border, or how close they were, only that they had come as far as the Bloodstones, apparently trapping the Clans at the Moonfall.
I can do stealth, he thought.
Gorseclaw was doing recon. Recon he could also do. He hoped that the Clans got it into their heads to do some recon of their own, since knowing the enemy was an important part of any battle.
So here he was, hunched atop a rock jutting out of the ground somewhere, keeping out of sight of whomever may have been watching. To his eyes, in the light of morning with the fading rain, he could make out moving shapes out in the grass that surrounded the Bloodstones outcropping. There seemed to be plenty of cats - maybe a hundred, if Gorseclaw was looking correctly (OOC: The number can be altered accordingly). The warrior wasn't certain if he would be able to sneak past them unnoticed, but he knew that he had to try. If he could get far enough up the base of the mountain he'd be able to find familiar paths and vanish into the mountain labyrinthine hills. First things first, however.
The objective of this mission was to reach his Clanmates back in DarkClan territory and report to Redstar, the leader of DarkClan, who had sent them to the Bloodstones in the first place.

Later.

Gorseclaw had decided on giving the cats as wide a berth as he could, using the direction of the wind and the wet from the rain to his advantage. He kept an eye out for possible scouts looking for cats who might be traveling downwind, like he was. He couldn't be too careful. But, so far, fortune appeared to be on his side.
Gorseclaw kept low to the ground as he crept carefully through the damp tallgrass. The presence of so many cats had scared off the wildlife living in the grass so he didn't have to worry about disturbing anything that would give him away, which was a relief.
At many points he crouched down at the sound of nearby pawsteps, but they usually drew further away instead of closer. Once, however, a cat walked almost right past him, and Gorseclaw had held his breath and didn't move a muscle. He praised StarClan profusely after the cat had paused a long moment only to walk away. Though he was sure he hadn't been scented, he waited a minute before moving again. He ended up taking a roundabout route to get up the slopes of the Dark Mountains, but it was all to avoid being spotted or scented as he expertly wound through the tallgrass, barely leaving a trail in the grass that wouldn't be gone in an hour or so.
It was a harrowing but exhilarating experience overall, Gorseclaw reflected when he was able to stop and look back out over the tallgrass when he was well on his way up the slopes of the Dark Mountain. He could see the Mudbloods better now. And oh, did the situation look disheartening. With the force that was gathering all around the Bloodstones - and he knew that there had to be more that he couldn't see, on the other side of Bloodstones, beyond his vision - there wasn't much time.
Gorseclaw loped up the mountainside, anxious to find Redstar to tell the news.