A burly, gray and white tabby tom with long fur and amber eyes.

-

At first glance, Stonefur could easily pass for a RidgeClan cat. He's taller than most of his PrairieClan peers, with long, thick fur perfectly designed to protect from leaf-bare in the mountains. Except, Stonefur has never once set foot in the mountains. Instead, his fur keeps him safe against the meadow's chill, and gives him some cover when walking through tall prairie grass, especially during leaf-bare.

Stonefur sports a mix of grays along his back, from warm smoke gray to cool river blue. His dark tabby stripes are thin and distinct around his face, then blur out along his back, sides, and tail. His mane, chest, and stomach are white, with a few patch of gray breaking up the pattern. In RidgeClan, Stonefur would be considered an average, almost plain looking tom. But in PrairieClan, his unique features make him stand out handsomely. 

Under all his fur, Stonefur is muscular and broad in addition to his height. It makes him a fierce and competitive fighter, though worked against him during his tunneler training. It's not often PrairieClan encounters large predators in their territory, but when they do, Stonefur is among the first to volunteer to fight them off, knowing his size gives him an advantage. 

"I - what?" Though she tries to stop it, disappointment drips off Riverstripe's words like tree sap: slow, aching, and without the sweetness of honey. "I can't use the tunnels?" She stares at her sister as if she's just been told the world was ending. In her mind, it might as well have.

"Just until after the birth," her sister says, sounding tired. "A few moons after. Once we're sure there's no complications." Riverstripe, nearly two moons pregnant and more than ready to be done with it, deflates. She has no leg to stand on, listening to her sister. Brooksong, a tunneler like herself, went through her own pregnancy many seasons ago - she knew best.

"Okay," Riverstripe says with a heavy, world-weary sigh. "If you say so."

-

To Riverstripe's great relief, she gives birth not long after. The relief stops there. She brings three less than healthy kits into the world, one small enough to be considered a runt, and two even smaller than him. Within minutes of her labor ending, the smallest of the three stops breathing. Riverstripe doesn't have the energy to grieve as the medicine cat proclaims the kit dead. It's her mate, Antstep, that names the survivors: Stonekit, after his mate, like river stones, and Midgekit, after himself, a shared insect prefix.

Days later, when the nursery has recovered from the lost kit, Riverstripe names her Claykit, for the soft ground she was buried in.

-

Born to senior tunnelers, Stonekit and Midgekit's futures seem predetermined, especially given their sizes. The friends that come to visit Riverstripe and Antstep in the nursery all say the same thing as they admire the two squirming kits. "They're perfect for the tunnels." Glowing with praise, Riverstripe spends all her time admiring her two sons. She's attentive and loving. She has to be. Her lost kit will always linger in the back of her mind, and she knows she can't take more heartbreak.

So, when Stonekit's growth spurt comes, she chokes back all the disappointment that rears ugly in bitter in her throat, like bile. 

-

Stonekit is nearly four moons old when he's suddenly much larger than any other kit in the nursery, even the ones just days away from their apprenticeship. His fur grows longer with each passing day, giving him the appearance of his mother - gray and white, with pretty tabby stripes - but the bulk of his great-grandfather, Craneflight. Riverstripe tries to ignore what her fellow tunnelers say about Stonekit  ("it's a shame he grew, he had such promise, at least you still have Midgekit") but at night, when she tries to sleep with her boys at her side, she can't help but agree.

At least she still has Midgekit.

-

"Aren't you getting named?"

Stonekit, still waking up from his sleep, blinks at the blurry kit in front of him until he makes out the shape of Rainkit, a kit from an earlier litter. "No?"

Rainkit doesn't like his answer. He can tell from her scrunched up face. "But your siblings are."

"No...?" Stonekit doesn't understand. He just has the one brother - Midgekit, still curled up with their sleeping mother as dawn's light has barely broken into the nursery. "Silverkit and Featherkit and Fernkit are getting named."

"Oh." Rainkit's ears twitch. "Aren't they your siblings?" Stonekit shakes his head no in response. "You look like them." Maybe he can understand why Rainkit was confused - he sort of looked like Silverkit's litter, in that he was gray. But Rainkit was gray, too. Just because you were gray didn't mean you were related. "You're big like them!"

"I'm younger than you," Stonekit says. His words are a grumble. "Midgekit is my brother."

"What? Midgekit is a baby."

"He's my brother." Rainkit doesn't believe him, he can tell from the way she rolls her eyes and shrugs her shoulders, but at least she leaves him alone after that.

-

Riverstripe returns to her tunneling work after the boys' fourth moon. They're well weaned at this point, and the rest of the queens are willing to watch over Midgekit, in case he gets sick again. None of them are worried about Stonekit. He can keep up with the apprentices, despite being moons away from joining them. There's a persistent rumor that he'll be named early, just to get him out of the nursery. Some of the other kits seem to think he's cool because of it, but Stonekit thinks it's mean. Why does everyone want him to leave his brother behind so bad?

"Midgekit is gonna get held back," one of the other kits says one sunny day, when they're all lounging with the elders. Stonekit lashes his tail in annoyance.

"He's not," he snaps.

"What? He totally is. He's so small!"

"He's not."

The kit rolls their eyes. Stonekit wants the elders to interfere, but he know they won't. He overheard them spreading the same rumors the other day. "Why do you care so much?"

"He's my brother."

"Oh." The kit laughs, as does all the other kits hanging out with them. "I forgot."

-

Moons go by. Stonekit hardly sees his parents - they only visit during the rainy days, bringing news and gossip from the tunnels that Stonekit eats up eagerly. He never understands why Midgekit seems less excited. "I'll be a tunneler," Stonekit says one day, not long before his apprentice ceremony. "Then, I can help."

His parents share a look Stonekit can't read. "Sure," his father eventually says. "If the leader approves your training."

-

Despite all the rumors, Stonepaw and Midgepaw are named at the same time, right at six moons, no different than any other apprentice. Stonepaw is assigned to Heatherclaw - they're cousins, but Heatherclaw inherited their great-grandfather's size, too, and the leader and deputy agree Stonepaw should be trained by a warrior with similar skills. Right away, Stonepaw proves himself a capable apprentice. His size alone means he can keep up with the older apprentices, especially in spars. He turns out to be a decent tracker, too, though his mentor is never sure if the skill comes from stubbornness or patience or some lucky mix of both things.

Though on the surface he seems a great apprentice, Heatherclaw quickly learns Stonepaw's weakness: socializing. He's quieter than most apprentices, preferring to stay on the outside and listen in. Stonepaw is always listening. Despite his apparent lack of friends (besides Midgepaw), he seems to know everything about everyone in the apprentice den. Even warriors aren't free from Stonepaw's knowledge. "No," Stonepaw says one day, when Heatherclaw's taken him to the river to adjust to swimming. "Cindersong and Nettlefang don't speak. They got into a fight as apprentices."

Heatherclaw blinks. They'd been talking about which warriors might announce as mates next.  "You're right. I meant Minkfrost, not Nettlefang. How'd you know that?" Stonepaw shrugs. Heatherclaw doesn't press any further, knowing he won't get an answer. "You ever try swimming before?" By the end of the day, Stonepaw proves he's good at that, too.

-

"Really, the kid's more like a RidgeClan apprentice," Heatherclaw says to Riverstripe over a meal, neither of them aware Stonepaw is there, listening. "You should see him swim."

"And the tunnels?" Riverstripe sounds anxious. It's nothing new for Stonepaw to hear - he's learned his mother always sounds anxious outside of the tunnels. 

"Maybe. He seems interested in trying, at least." His mother's shoulders relax in relief, and Stonepaw resolves to never lose his interest in the tunnels. It's the only thing that seems to make his mother happy, these days.

-

Stonepaw lifts his head when his name is called, curious as to who spoke. Midgepaw is sleeping beside him in the apprentice den. No one else - aside from Heatherclaw, who's voice is much deeper - ever comes looking for him. Through the dim moonlight creeping into the den, he can see Poppypaw's silhouette. The other apprentice is a moon older than him yet half his size. "Stonepaw," Poppypaw says again, his voice an excited whisper. "Come here!"

Slowly, Stonepaw does as he's told. He follows Poppypaw out of the den and into the center of camp, where one of the trees is casting dramatic shadows under the light of the near-full moon. "Isn't it cool?" Poppypaw squeaks. "I heard you shifting and I knew you were awake. I wanted to show someone."

"It's cool," Stonepaw agrees, feeling static lifting his fur as Poppypaw sits next to him. "Thanks for showing me."

Poppypaw includes him in more things after that. Stonepaw likes it. He likes being invited places, something that rarely happened before. He knows Poppypaw's just being friendly - after all, Poppypaw invites everyone places, even the annoying apprentices who talk loudly about being better than kittypets - but he tells himself it's different. That Poppypaw wants to be his friend specifically. It makes him feel better, on the days where the only cats he speaks to are his brother and mentor.

-

"We're going on a patrol with Sheepstrike and Ravenpaw," Heatherclaw tells Stonepaw one morning.

"We're already on a patrol," Stonepaw points out. His mentor snorts.

"Another patrol."

"If we have to."

-

Ravenpaw is not his friend. He's hopeful, admittedly, when Heatherclaw tells him they'll be paired together more often. Some lonely part of him daydreams about a best friend, and it'd be easier if he was just assigned one. But from the moment they first meet, all he and Ravenpaw can do is bicker. Sometimes, they fight, coming to blows in addition to harsh words.

He simply can't fathom why Heatherclaw keeps pairing them off. "Can't I work with Crowpaw?" He asks, knowing Ravenpaw's brother to be friendlier. Less of a grump. Heatherclaw shakes his head.

"Ravenpaw isn't so bad."

"He is."

"You know, you're more alike than you think."

Stonepaw makes a face, too insulted to come up with anything to say in response.

-

"Maybe if you stopped grumbling," Stonepaw says, trying to offer what he thinks is a helpful suggestion. "Then we wouldn't scare off half the prey from these woods before either of us gets a chance to catch anything."

It works. Ravenpaw scowls at him, an expression that Stonepaw matches, before scouting ahead and focusing on the hunt. Later that day, the two return to camp with a bounty of freshkill for the pile - mostly Ravenpaw's catch, but Stonepaw was happy to help.

-

When Stonepaw first learns that Poppypaw's mentor is his father, he doesn't think it's weird. His own mentor is his cousin, after all. It's when he realizes most cats aren't mentored by family that he starts paying attention. Poppypaw's father circles him like a hawk, at least whenever Poppypaw isn't busy training with other apprentices. Even then, Stonepaw often catches Lynxheart watching from a distance.

It's easy to see, because Stonepaw is usually at a distance, too, no matter how hard Poppypaw tries to include him in things. As much as he wishes he could admit it was Poppypaw's sunny disposition that made him finally accept his friendship, Stonepaw knows it was really concern over Lynxheart that did it. Someone had to be a barrier between Poppypaw and his father, before it was too late.

-

Ravenpaw notices, too. And while they don't talk about it, the two of them start spending more and more time with Poppypaw, till the apprentice is rarely ever alone. Stonepaw wonders if that makes Ravenpaw his friend, too. Finally.

-

"Sometimes," Ravenpaw admits, after the two took a long patrol together, Poppypaw prancing ahead, leading the way. "I think Crowpaw is drifting away from me." The look Poppypaw gives Ravenpaw tells Stonepaw they've talked about this before. He doesn't know what to say right away, but he presses his shoulder to Ravenpaw's and lets the other apprentice lean on him for a bit.

"I think he's not," Stonepaw eventually says, when they've returned to their nest in the apprentice den. Ravenpaw looks at him with narrow eyes. Stonepaw nods toward Crowpaw's nest - empty, while he's on patrol, but still next to Ravenpaw's. "I think it's okay to have different friends than your brother."

Midgepaw has different friends. It had to be okay, otherwise, Stonepaw realizes, his own brother is drifting away from him, too.

-

"Do you think Ravenpaw likes anyone?" 

Poppypaw is looking down at his reflection in the river. Stonepaw is splashing around in the shallows, unwilling to leave the cool water just left. "Ravenpaw is a grump," he agrees. Poppypaw laughs.

"No, like... like-likes anyone."

Oh. Stonepaw's ears flatten in thought. He's not sure - he knows who Rainpaw has a crush on, and he's pretty sure Silverpaw has a crush on some barn cat, and Swanpaw has a crush on Silverpaw, and Sparrowpaw's been seeing a kittypet, and Jaypaw has a crush on a warrior that isn't going anywhere, but Ravenpaw? "No. Why?"

It's a stupid question. There's only one reason why Poppypaw would ask about Ravenpaw's crush. "No reason!"

-

To make himself feel better, Stonepaw tells himself it's not a crush on Poppypaw. It's just an addiction to the way he makes him feel less lonely. He could feel the same about Ravenpaw, if he wanted to.

-

Goldenpaw is what Heatherclaw calls a piece of shit. He's the oldest apprentice in the den, finishing up his last moon of tunneler training before getting his name. He makes Stonepaw ashamed to want to join the tunnelers, just because of how much he runs his mouth. He has something bad to say about everyone.

Despite that, Goldenpaw is popular. Stonepaw doesn't get it.

"Silverpaw's a kittypet," Goldenpaw drones, just one of his many awful opinions. "So are his sisters. I'll be surprised if they get warrior names." The group of apprentices around him laugh in agreement. Stonepaw isn't sitting with them because he agrees. He's sitting here because he was sitting here before the apprentices gathered, and now he's stuck in their circle. "Right, Stonepaw?"

Great. Now he's dragged into it. "Silverpaw is a good hunter," is all he says. Goldenpaw makes a face much like one would when they've cornered their prey. It makes Stonepaw want to shiver in discomfort.

"Ohh, I forgot," Goldenpaw says. "You RidgeClanners don't know what real hunters are like." Stonepaw's fur doesn't bristle at the attempted insult. It's not a good one. There's nothing wrong with being a RidgeClan cat.

"Are you so stupid you forgot what clan we're in?" He asks, and Goldenpaw laughs like he won something.

"The mouth on you! I like it."

-

They're not friends. Stonepaw doesn't like a single thing about Goldenpaw. But the things Goldenpaw says never bothers him personally, and so long as he keeps up the verbal sparring, Goldenpaw rarely bullies anyone else. More importantly: Stonepaw never hears Goldenpaw say a bad thing about Midgepaw, or Poppypaw, or Ravenpaw, so long as Stonepaw is there to keep him entertained. 

Less than a moon later, Goldenpaw is named Goldenbreeze and whisked off to the warrior den to sleep amongst the tunnelers. Stonepaw rarely has to deal with him after that.

He kind of misses him, sometimes. 

-

At 12 moons old, Stonepaw enrolls as a tunneler apprentice. He refuses to acknowledge the hesitation he sees in Heatherclaw and Littlestar. Instead, he throws himself into tunneler training with everything he has. His mentor is Appleflame, who reminds him of Heatherclaw, though she's older and gruffer than his cousin. It doesn't take long for Stonepaw to decide they'll get along just fine.

-

"I can't fit."

The entrance to this tunnel is not particularly narrow. It's smaller than the main tunnels but Stonepaw has seen much smaller tunnels since his training really began. This was just the first time he'd been asked to go in one. Appleflame makes a noise of consideration, while the other tunnelers they're training with hesitate. "Just try?" One says.

So he does. Sure enough, the moment he slips into the opening, he hears the sound of crumbling dirt. "That won't work," one of the other tunnelers says. "He can't go into tunnels if he's going to mess up the entrances every time." Stonepaw feels hot with embarrassment. Worse, he knows he can't get far enough into this tunnel to reach a wider space to turn around. Instead, he has to wiggle his way out, suffering the embarrassment of being watched.

"Head back to camp," Appleflame tells him. "We'll have to think about this."

Disappointed in himself, Stonepaw watches the rest of his patrol disappear into the tunnel.

-

He doesn't go back to camp - at least, not right away. He stays by the entrance, carefully repairing the bits of earth he dislodged until the entrance looks pristine. In the morning, he's woken up by Appleflame nudging him. Sleep still thick in his eyes, Stonepaw follows her out on their early patrol. "Did you fix the tunnel?" She asks. He nods. "You did a good job."

That's something, at least.

-

The rest of his training goes... strangely. He's a tunneler, but he's only allowed in the largest tunnels - five of them. He knows those five better than he knows himself by the end of his training, cherishing every moment he spends underground. The other tunnelers don't consider him one of them. At least, Goldenbreeze reminds him of that every time he tries to hang out. The only tunneler who seems to accept him, besides his mentor, is Rainstrike, his old friend from their nursery days. "You fix the tunnels better than anyone," she says, watching him repair a collapsed entrance. "So that makes you a pretty good tunneler, I think."

He'll take it.

At 13 moons, he's named Stonefur, with Midgecloud - early in his herbalism training - standing at his side.

-

Goldenbreeze is whining about something. Stonefur is listening, trying to convince himself he's not fond of how often the other warrior likes to complain. "I hate repairing things anyway," he says, as if he's not one of the best tunnelers the clan has. "'Sides, Stonefur will do it for me, right, sweetie?"

He wasn't expecting his name, nor the pet name that followed it. He kind of likes it. "It rained last night," he tells Goldenbreeze. There, nearly imperceptible, he sees a flicker of nervousness in Goldenbreeze's eyes - like he hadn't realized his mistake until now. 

"Better get to the tunnel quick, then!" Stonefur rises to his feet slowly. "I think Ravenpaw's supposed to be out there today."

He's gone before Goldenbreeze finishes speaking.

-

The tunnel has collapsed by the time he gets there, he knows it from the plume of dirt that fills the air. But as the tunnel itself appears in his vision he sees it's still standing, at least part of it. Ravenpaw is shaking from the effort of holding up rock and dirt as the last of the younger apprentices escape the collapsing tunnel. Stonefur launches himself at Ravenpaw as his friend collapses, dragging the apprentice away before the earth buries him.

Any fondness for Goldenbreeze he might've felt vanishes, watching Ravenpaw's chest fall still.

-

It's a miracle Ravenpaw survives.

-

"Is he gonna be okay?" Stonefur looks up from his place resting at Ravenpaw's side in the medicine cat den. Goldenbreeze is standing near the entrance. He looks small. Smaller than Stonefur remembers.

"Go away," he tells the older warrior. Goldenbreeze flinches - there's something dark in his eyes, dark and unrecognizable. Stonefur hopes it's guilt. "He'll be fine. Go away."

Surprisingly, Goldenbreeze listens.

-

Poppypaw becomes Poppylight, Ravenpaw becomes Raventhorn. Soon, they're all reunited in the warrior's den, though Stonefur is torn between sleeping with his friends and sleeping with the tunnelers. He goes back and forth, sometimes sharing a nest with Rainstrike, sometimes with Midgecloud, sometimes with Raventhorn. He worries for the day he'll have to pick a permanent place to rest his head, instead of living this odd life between tunneler and warrior. 

-

RidgeClan moves on MistClan swiftly. Stonefur leads one of the later patrols - full of PrairieClan cats who want to fight, but can't move through the tunnels for whatever reason. The fight is nearly done by the time he gets to MistClan's camp. His stomach shrinks in shame, knowing how little he did to help MistClan, knowing PrairieClan cats died because he couldn't get there fast enough. "We did what we could," Heatherclaw tries to reassure him when Stonefur expresses his guilt after letting it build up in him for days following the fight. "We ended the fight. That's all that matters."

At Heatherclaw's insistence, Stonefur goes to talk to his friends about how he's feeling. The words aren't even halfway out of his mouth before Raventhorn interrupts. "Yeah, it's not fair you can't use the tunnels," he says. "I think it's a ridiculous practice. What's the point of being prideful in something half the clan can't use? None of the other clans risk their lives digging under the dirt."

That's... true. Raventhorn's allowed to think that way, he reasons. He nearly died in the tunnels. "I agree," Poppylight says, and the rest of their friends soon echo their own agreements.

"The tunnels got us to MistClan in time," Stonefur points out. No one seems to care.

"You got there without the tunnels," Raventhorn says.

Not in time, Stonefur wants to say. I wasn't fast enough. Cats died, because I couldn't get there sooner. He can't find the words. Instead, he just hums in what Raventhorn takes as agreement, and the conversation moves on.

-

Moons go by. Stonefur settles into his life as half a tunneler, half a warrior. He patrols and hunts with the other topsiders, but spends most of his time repairing external areas of tunnels, and maintaining the main tunnels he's allowed in. Grimly, he takes pride in how those tunnels never collapse.

Other tunnels do. Half a dozen PrairieClan cats die in the moons that follow Wolfstar's war, and Stonefur can't help but agree with some of the sentiment he hears from his clanmates. The tunnels are dangerous. They're risky. But he doesn't agree with Raventhorn - he doesn't think the practice should end. It just needs someone to fix it.

He's pretty good at fixing tunnels, he thinks.

-

"We could like... talk to Littlestar?" Rainstrike says, pausing her work in the tunnel to turn back toward the entrance and speak to Stonefur. He pauses, too, considering her words. They've been talking about it for what feels like moons now - their ideas, their plans. What they want to see. So far, they haven't agreed on everything, but they have agreed on a few things. They could start there, if only...

"Littlestar seems distracted lately," he says. "We should talk to Cindersong." 

When she speaks, Rainstrike's voice is tight. "I don't know about Cindersong."

"We can think about it. They won't do anything, with leaf-bare coming."

The next time he and Rainstrike come out to brainstorm in the tunnels, the ground is wet with the first snow, but the air warm enough to thaw. It's precarious weather for some of the more fragile tunnels, so Rainstrike drags him out to one in particular that needs help. Together, the two slowly repair the damage from the recent precipitation. Stonefur is lost in his work when the rumbling starts.

The tunnel collapses, Rainstrike still inside.

Panic sets in. Stonefur swallows it down.

He digs. And digs. And digs.

Dragging Rainstrike from the collapsed tunnel reminds him far too much of dragging Raventhorn, all those moons ago.

He hasn't spoken to Raventhorn much lately.

-

Despite it all, Rainstrike survives. Her leg is broken in a way she may never recover from, but he's grateful to see her old humor still present in her bright eyes every time he visits her in Maplefrost's den. "You taking breaks?" She asks, half a moon after the collapse. The answer is no. Stonefur just shrugs. "Don't look so glum. I'll be back on my paws in no time, I swear it."

He doesn't believe it, but he wants to. StarClan above, he wants to.

-

Laurelfern's reasoning behind the Kingdom doesn't make sense to him. Leaving something behind doesn't fix the problem - it just leaves it to hurt other people. He feels the same way when Cinderstar becomes leader and later announces the ban on the tunnels. It doesn't fix the problem. It just leaves more vulnerability, more opportunity for tunnelers or reckless apprentices to get hurt, now without the support of the tunnels being maintained.

This isn't the best way to fix things. Tearing clans apart just makes things worse. He doesn't understand why other cats can't see that, but more than that, he doesn't understand why he can't express it. So he ducks his head and returns to the tunnels, fixing what he can, one thing at a time.

Pre-Plotting: Stonefur is featured in Raventhorn's bio as Stonefrost. He and Midgecloud are brothers. He sits somewhere between Peony and Sage in the PrairieClan plot beliefs, leaning more and more toward Peony as time goes on.

Family: Stonefur views family, namely his parents, as cats he has to make proud, rather than cats meant to take care of him. The idea of family being a source of love is foreign to him (but not unpleasant). The closest he comes to understanding it is the careful mentoring his cousin, Heatherclaw, showed him, but he also believes Heatherclaw would've treated him the same without them being related. Sometimes, when he thinks about the love he has for Midgecloud - something that persists even as they drift apart - he thinks he comes close to understanding what it means to be family and love someone unconditionally. 

Friends: "Found family," or close friends, is a lot easier for Stonefur to understand. He put in work to get close to his friends and could see the work they did in turn. It's rewarding, being so close after taking the time to get to know other cats. However, Stonefur struggles with the idea of casual friendship. It's all or nothing to him.

Romance: Stonefur hasn't experienced any real romance beyond a childhood crush on Poppylight and a weird thing for Goldenbreeze he doesn't want to acknowledge. Romance isn't that important to him, though he acknowledges the right cat could come along and change his mind. He thinks he might want a family one day, to learn from his parents' mistakes, and thus taking a mate is on his mind. He also thinks that desire could be satisfied with an apprentice. 

Rivals: As he has a little bit of a black and white mentality, Stonefur tends to consider anyone who disagrees with him as a rival. For him, rivals are cats to prove wrong, rather than cats he has to be hostile toward. Goldenbreeze is the exception to that. Stonefur has decided he doesn't want to forgive the tunneler for his recklessness, mostly because it's easier to pretend he didn't have feelings if he stays angry.