{$title} TW: mentions of violence, offscreen character death
TRIGGER WARNING
Mention of violence/injury and character death. No planned onscreen character death.
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The caterwauls of the fight echo in Gray's ears as the tom races away from the battle. His paws thunder across the pocosin, the image of his siblings tearing at each other burned into his eyes. As his paws stumble into the soft ground of the land, he rolls tail over head, coming to a rough stop by a tree. He heaves a breath, the musky scent of marsh and asphalt clearing the tang of blood from his senses.
Coward.
Fern, his mother, had fallen beneath the claws of cats he had trusted. Cats he called family. He should have stayed and fought for her, avenged her death, dirtied his claws with the blood of former denmates. But he couldn't.
Gray knew he was a coward. If he hadn't been a coward, maybe Fern would still be alive. But if he hadn't been a coward, perhaps he would have fallen to someone's vicious onslaught.
Guilt roared in his veins at the thought. How dare he even have the passing thought that it was better for Fern to perish than him? What kind of son was he? Useless and cowardly, unworthy of the love she had shown him all his life. As he hung his head and dug his claws into muddy ground, his ear twitched at the sound of an approaching cat. His fur fluffed, and he whirled around, trembling as he took a defensive stance.
"Who-" he meowed, his voice breaking. "Who's out there?"
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OOC
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BIO
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ShadowClan Thief
59 moons || he/him
SPEECH || THOUGHTS