Graythorn

Graythorn is a powerfully-built solid blue tom, his fur dusted with reddish-brown sun fading and splashed with white on his belly, paws and chest. His eyes are angled and of and a warm green colour, touched at the edges with yellow. He is the current deputy of MossClan and his sibling Stonesong is one of the senior warriors. The two joined the Clan in mid-kithood when their mother requested the Clan care for them, as she no longer could.
==Description ==
===Appearance=== 
:Graythorn is a tall, solidly-muscled tom with broad shoulders and powerful hindquarters. His fur is a deep slate gray with rusty shading from the sun in a handful of places, and marked with white on his paws and chest. His eyes are a bright verdant green and his head is finer than that of most toms, and he has a thick, solid tail that grants him excellent balance when climbing and stalking through trees. Graythorn's coat is thick, short and sleek, providing protection from wind, chill and rain alike, but as a result he struggles with heat and doesn't do very well in the warm season. The pads of his paws are strong and hard, a bonus when navigating rocky terrain, though they rasp a little over soft ground and can make moving stealthily a little harder than most. In build and coat alike he would be easily mistaken for a SplashClan cat, but his tough pads are just as much a benefit to hunting in trees as they would be for navigating rocks and his powerful muscles just as suited to climbing as they would be for swimming.
:The way of a warrior leaves many marks upon a cat's body, and Graythorn is no exception. Both his ears are ragged from many battles, with the top of the left one missing altogether. There is a single scar across the bridge of his nose and a trio of claw-stripes across his left shoulder that ache and itch in cold weather.
===Character===
:Graythorn is a proud, intelligent and ambitious tom. He has a strong sense of duty for his Clan, who cared for him from an early age, and sees his warrior duties as a way of giving back for that kindness. He owes his Clan and the warrior code his life, and is deeply devoted to them as a result.
:He originally thought that being a medicine cat would be the best way to serve his Clan, but quickly discovered that he was better suited to the way of a warrior and was given a new mentor. He flourished as a warrior apprentice and was given his name alongside his sibling Stonesong despite having started warrior training later.
:Graythorn's pride can make him prickly and occasionally difficult, a trait for which his mother first named him and which is reflected in his full warrior name. He is determined to serve his Clan to the best of his ability and has little patience for any cat who puts in less effort, making him a demanding mentor. He is sparing with praise, but that makes it all the more meaningful when he does offer any.
:Graythorn's ambition is unmistakeable, but it would be foolish to assume that that ambition could ever make him disloyal. His ambition is deeply tied to his honour and debt to the Clan, and he only wishes to serve them in the highest capacity possible as a way of giving back for all they and the Warrior Code have done for him. He would never consider murder or deceit to further this ambition, because in him it is a drive to serve not just a drive to rule.
:As prickly as Graythorn is, it's easy to overlook his emotions and in truth he is quite shy with intimacy and affection of any kind, especially when others are watching. It takes a long time for him to become comfortable with any cat. He is also demisexual and demiromantic - it takes a long time for him to develop attraction if it happens at all, so it would take a patient cat who's willing to set aside their own romantic intentions and become friends if he were to ever take a mate.
===Abilities===
:A large and powerful cat, Graythorn is a strong fighter, though not as fast as smaller cats can be. His size and weight keep him from the lightest branches of any tree, but he has excellent balance and can stalk and leap among the thick lower branches better than most. He is an excellent climber of trees and cliffs alike, and his powerful hindquarters grant him the ability to leap high into the air, up into trees or from rock to rock with ease.
:Being large and heavily built, however, Graythorn does not do well among the high branches of trees or in tight enclosed spaces, he despises being underground and is distinctly claustrophobic.
:Unlike most GladeClan cats, Graythorn is also an excellent swimmer and his heavy build allows for greater steadiness among strong currents and deep water. He enjoys the water, and it brings him a lot of relief in the warm moons when his thick coat makes the heat almost unbearable. As with most water-loving cats, he is competent at fishing.
:With such a thick sleek coat, Graythorn finds any sort of heat debilitating, but he is better off than most in the cold moons with the protection from wind, rain and any sort of harsh weather. He is too heavy to hunt well in deep snow, but that same weight keeps him steady and balanced in the terrain and offers an advantage when fighting in such conditions.
:Graythorn is highly intelligent and spends time before any battle puzzling out strategies. He is excellent at constructing plans that utilise the unique abilities of any cat under his command to best effect, and while his grumpiness makes him intimidating especially to younger cats of the Clan, this intelligence makes him a fantastic mentor.
==Biography==
===Childhood===
:Named Thorn at birth by his mother Mist, a long-legged grey tabby and white queen, he and his sibling Pebble were raised as loners for about three moons before leafbare arrived in full and their mother could not hunt enough to feed them both along with herself. Desperate to make sure her kits survived, Mist gave them to nearby GladeClan, where they were adopted by a Clan queen and given new names, Graykit and Stonekit, to be raised as Clan kits until they came of apprenticing age. 
:At six moons old Graykit became Graypaw and was apprenticed to Roseleaf, an energetic and dedicated young warrior who recognised the stocky young tom's determination and drive and helped him direct it into serving his Clan. His apprenticeship was a short but difficult one as the Clan suffered a terrible drought that greenleaf which took not one but two of their leader Icestar's lives as well as that of the deputy Dewspider and many others. Graypaw's mentor Roseleaf was named the next deputy, and suddenly Graypaw found a whole lot of new pressure at his paws - as the deputy's apprentice, Graypaw was held to a higher standard than all the others and he grew more determined than ever to achieve highly and serve his Clan as the best possible warrior. 
===Adulthood===
:Graypaw's apprenticeship ended when that awful dry greenleaf finally broke and the rains of leaf-fall arrived. After such a dry season, the rains were overwhelming and the camp was quickly swept away in a terrible flood. GladeClan took shelter on the high ridge that marks the border with the Sundown Colony, and Graypaw was given his warrior name, Graythorn, for his heroics in saving kits from the floodwaters - something he was uniquely suited for, being one of the few GladeClan cats with any skill at swimming. 
:Now a warrior, Graythorn has remained close with his former mentor and though the whole Clan mourned when Icestar finally died, none were prouder than he when Roseleaf was given nine lives and became Rosestar. 
==Lineage==
:Graythorn was born to a loner queen named Mist along with his sibling Stonesong who was named Pebble at the time. The litter was sired by another loner, a tom named Night, and it is thought that perhaps one of his parents may have been related to Mercurystar of SplashClan. 
==Relationships==
===Family===
:Mist - Biological mother. Graythorn loved her as a kit, of course, but he was given to GladeClan at around three moons old and doesn't remember her very well. 
:Night - Biological father. Graythorn has met him a few times as he crossed into GladeClan territory by mistake, but they have never been particularly close and Graythorn didn't know the black tom being chased out of the territory was his father at all until his Clanmates pointed out that the tom's name was Night and his mother Mist had told them that was his father's name when she left him and Stonesong with the Clan. 
:Stonesong - Biological sibling. As they were both outsiders in a strange Clan, Graythorn and Stonesong were always very close right from kithood and remain so even now.
===Friends===
:Rosestar - Former mentor and close friend. Graythorn deeply respects her and her approval is important to him.
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Category:Cats with WPOSC Arts