Muscular, handsome, and a little rugged, Grey is everything one could hope for in a dashing rogue. His good-natured air only just conceals the watchfulness behind his vibrant, yellow-gold eyes. His fur, the mix of grays and white from which he gets his name, suggests a preference for warm weather, but a dense undercoat actually means he much prefers cuddling up in the barest moons of leaf-bare than the overbearing heat of wandering around the woods during the hight of greenleaf.

Like many loners, Grey is covered in notable scars, the largest of which being a wound across his side that he got from squeezing through a chainlink fence while fleeing from some two-legs' dogs. Most other scars he has are marks from other cats, and not from predatory animals like foxes and badgers, which he seldom encountered in two-leg heavy populations and has sense enough to avoid now that he's on his own.

13 moons. Greenleaf.

"Careful. That direction leads to the clans' hunting grounds."

Grey ponders the brown and black tabby's statement as they idly wander the pasture grounds. The dry grass underfoot is nothing like the cement of the city, and likewise the smells coming from the distant forest are nothing like the pasture they've found themselves on. It smells vibrant. Like there's so much abundance, those cats must be living in luxury. Especially compared to the scarcity of a two-leg city. He's envious, he can admit that.

"I won't get too close," he responds after a moment.

Hawthorne snorts. "Suit yourself."

"You're not coming?"

"Nah, no way. You have fun though."

He can't help but wonder what sort of reputation the clans have, that a cat who's lived so very nearby for so long might have the impression that they're too dangerous to be troubled with. But anyway, he's just going to look. There's no harm in looking.

-

While greenleaf made the pasture tan and dry, it made the forest wild with greens and prey-scents and the call of birds overhead. Grey is dazzled by it - so dazzled that when he wanders into the pines, he doesn't notice any sign of a border.

He does notice the scent of another cat, but that's not so unusual to him. Where there's prey and shelter, there's always going to be a cat. This one, sleek and handsome and with narrowing yellow eyes, however, doesn't seem to think he should be running into any cats in this particular grove of trees at all.

"Identify yourself," the cat says.

Grey considers him. "Oh, hey. You one of those clan cats?"

"I said identify yourself."

"Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

Clearly not a phrase known to these parts. But it's enough to get a confession out of the other cat - StarClan must be one of theirs, after all.

-

His name is Shadowgaze. All clan cats have names like that, he learns. Two parts - a name given at birth, and a name earned. Grey's kinda halfway there, but that's more a failure of imagination on his mother's part. Got four grey kittens, gotta name them all something. And he got Grey.

Anyway, Shadowgaze is one of the clan cats. From RidgeClan. Now that he knows the smell, he'll know where the border is, but he's not sure that'll stop him from coming back. He likes Shadowgaze.

"So, is StarClan one of the clans too?"

Shadowgaze wears an expression that suggests he's just asked something embarrassing. But hey, he didn't grow up like this. In the city groups of cats merged and splintered with each new sunrise. It was all a matter of immediate convenience, not long standing traditions and code names. "Not exactly."

He learns StarClan is their ancestors. Grey doesn't quite get it - when a cat is dead, a cat is dead. But the clans see it different.

-

He doesn't promise that he won't cross the border again, because he thinks he would for a little company and a nice meal. The mice in the pasture are rail-thin, compared with the squirrel they shared.

-

Hawthorne is deeply unimpressed with his story when he returns, but only rolls his eyes at him. Grey thinks he's just jealous that he didn't get a bite of squirrel, too.

-

He returns to the border a few days later. Shadowgaze meets him there, carrying a weight Grey doesn't think he can begin to understand.

Slowly, as they speak, that weight seems to lift from him a little bit. And that's when Grey knows he's going to keep coming back. He wants to help him carry whatever load he's got on his mind, because clearly he's not getting that support anywhere else.

He doesn't remember the last time he wanted to help someone, like that. Maybe when he tried to convince his siblings it was worth it to leave the city.

Maybe this time, when helps Shadowgaze, it will go better than leaving the city did. He could still hear Rubble's yowl of fear when the dogs started gaining on them.

"Grey?" 

Shadowgaze's voice brings him back to the present. "Sorry," he replies with a smile. And then, as if just noticing it, he says, "Your eyes are real pretty in this light."

Shadowgaze doesn't respond, but Grey's pretty sure he saw his mouth twitch like he tried not to smile.

-

16 moons.

He's sort of expecting it when Hawthorne tells him he's moving on. Though born around these parts, Hawthorne admitted when they first met that he was itching to be elsewhere. Especially when leaf-bare came, he wanted to be somewhere a little warmer and a little safer. Grey wasn't sure such a place existed, but he knew when there was no talking someone out of something.

Still, it's hard to say goodbye to his only consistent company. "Oh, don't be soft. There's plenty of loners round here. Buddy up with them and leaf-bare won't seem so bad."

Grey, sentimental, still bumps his head gently against his shoulder. "Shut up. You really gonna be okay by yourself?"

"You wouldn't come with me if I asked," Hawthorne responds, and Grey can't really argue that point.

"Take care, Hawthorne."

"You too, Grey."

-

"Run away with me."

He means it. He doesn't know where they'd go yet - maybe, if they're quick, they can catch up to Hawthorne. Or maybe there's shelter with the other cats who live on the nearby farms. Or maybe there's somewhere else entirely. Somewhere where Shadowgaze can smile freely and the pair of them can sit side by side without any borders, at least.

This isn't that place. He doesn't think there's ever been a cat as desperate and stressed as Shadowgaze is.

"It's not just me," Shadowgaze responds. "My whole clan. My sisters. My friends. I can't leave. I got them into this."

Grey wants to tell him that he didn't force his leader to be violent and war-hungry, that Wolfstar was probably always like that and it isn't always easy to see how far another will go in the name of their cause. He wants to tell him it's not his fault. He wants to tell him to save himself, fuck whoever he's leaving behind.

He doesn't think Shadowgaze wants to hear it, though.

"You were trying to do something noble?" he tries, and that doesn't really land well either. "Please. Run away with me. If you died, I'd... I don't know what I'd do."

"My clan comes first, Grey."

He bites his tongue. There's nothing more he can say, except the most sincere "Be safe," that he can manage as they part.

-

The pasture is very empty without Hawthorne to greet him when he returns.

-

He really doesn't know what he'll do if Shadowgaze never returns to the border.

-

19 moons

He avoids the border for awhile, not because he doesn't want to see Shadowgaze (he does, he dreams of Shadowgaze), but because he's afraid of not finding him there when he goes. It's not like Shadowgaze was there every time he ventured along the border, but now, with the turmoil his clan was facing, any time he wasn't there Grey was going to think something terrible happened to him.

Still, he can't stay away for long.

And when he does, thank StarClan or whatever might be listening, Shadowgaze meets him.

-

"That's it? He's dead?"

It's a little bit of a relief. If he's dead... then the danger has been removed. The tumor. The poison. However you wanted to view it.

"Yes, I..." Shadowgaze hesitates. He looks small, like this. Tired. "I killed him."

He presses against his side and wishes that Shadowgaze didn't have to be so strong by himself.

-

Still, Shadowgaze won't run away with him. The border remains.

-

23 moons.

He's not the same young tom who arrived on the pasture moons ago, used to the city and seeking something different. But he feels like the same young tom when Hawthorne returns. He brushes against his side and repeats, "I missed you," so many times that the other tom ends up laughing as they tumble into the grass.

"It's too quiet without you," Grey says.

"Huh. Didn't realize I was such a chatterbox."

-

Hawthorne comes and goes, but it's still nice to have a little company when he isn't seeking out Shadowgaze or making smalltalk with the barn cats.

-

27 moons.

"I'll join, then."

Shadowgaze looks surprised. "What?"

"RidgeClan. I'll join. I can be... Greyfur?" 

He's thought about it before. Being a warrior. He knows what Hawthorne thinks of the idea, but Hawthorne isn't always around to talk him out of it. It wouldn't be easy from what he knows of RidgeClan, but he's pretty tough at this point. Comments about his ancestry and a few tussles won't scare him off from being wherever Shadowgaze wants to be.

But Shadowgaze laughs. "You don't choose your name." Well. Sure. Mushroomstar would. Maybe he'd be like. Greyspore or something, instead. Because of the mushrooms? He still wasn't clear how clan names worked exactly. "Besides, RidgeClan doesn't take in outsiders. You're better off joining PrairieClan." 

"Even if I did, we still couldn't be together. Either you run away with me, or I join your clan. Simple as that."

It is simple.

It is.

Pre-Plotting: This cat fills the role of Grey in Shadowgaze's backstory. He is also familiar with the barn cats of the Clanless plot, but chooses to keep to himself more than involve himself in their problems, which he largely views as petty and unnecessary drama.

Whether or not these problems will end up seeking him out anyway remains to be determined. But at least he can say he tried to stay out of it.

In the coming moons he will most likely join the Kingdom or at least consider it.

Plotter | Tracker

Family: Grey's family can be aptly described as scattered. With his parents succumbing to the same illness and Rubble dead, his only siblings, Dust and Blue, remain, to his knowledge, in the city. The last he heard of them they weren't even hanging out in the same parts of the city.
Friends: Charming by nature, Grey makes a lot of superficially fast friendships before traveling to his next destination. Because he rarely lingers, few of these friendships last. But he likes to leave behind a number of cats who will have positive things to say about him, should he return.
Romance: While Grey would be a devoted, supportive partner in a romantic relationship, he hasn't had any to speak of, unless you include the bromance he had with Hawthorne, or the fledgling relationship he has with the clan cat Shadowgaze.
Rivals: As much as he prefers to leave a positive impression, this isn't always the case, and Grey may have plenty of rivals (friendly and not so friendly) inside and outside of clans, depending on who he's been in contact with.