Vulture

Vulture was born in a litter of three: himself, Howl, and Shear. His father, Trill, occasionally visited but was split between multiple partners. That left Melody, the mother, to take care of the kits. They lived under a "cabin" near what his mother called "train tracks." Often, the kits would go out to play by those tracks until the sun went down.

Vulture and his siblings got along, but there was always something missing. They knew the world was big, yet they had only seen what Melody allowed them to see. They decided once they got old enough, they'd venture out on their own.

Vulture spent the first part of his adolesence learning the basics of survival from his parents. He naturally took more to hunting than fighting, being wary of combat in the first place. Eventually, once he and his siblings were experienced enough, they went their separate ways. Howl, the brother, wandered off deeper into the plains, while Vulture and his sister Shear followed the train tracks.

They eventually came to a place where the "train" had stopped instead of barreling onwards. They decided to nap in one of its segments, but when they woke up, it was roaring and moving! All they could do was wait until it stopped again. They managed to run away, but didn't recognize their surroundings. They weren't far from a "city" but they would never go to the actual city. Instead, they'd run into cats wandering the wilds.

Vulture and Shear hit it off with many of the cats, quickly becoming one of the group. They had a bit of a rebellious phase: playing pranks, running around, just having some good stupid teenage fun. They could stay here forever if they wanted... but all of this young group knew they'd have to grow up eventually.

Vulture and Shear bid their friends farewell and started journeying northwest. Although it was a rough journey at times, they had each other, and that was enough.

Eventually, they ran into another group of cats. This group was three in total: an old molly, a scarred tom, and a little kit. They had apparently been fleeing some hardship. The molly spoke of abandonment by "nofurs." The tom spoke of turf wars. The kit spoke of nothing, not even her parents. However, they all were in this journey together now.

More groups of cats crossed their path, and Vulture's group decided to settle far away from (but still a day's trip to) another city. Here, things were rougher. There were different groups, sure, but not all of them got along. Even angering the wrong group could land you in trouble.

Everything went downhill after a moon. The old molly, Mel, passed away of an illness that none of them could treat. The scarred tom, Asher, ended up with his throat sliced open on the edge of the beach many cats had been playing at days prior. The kit, Thorn, left for another group and Vulture was scratched attempting to meet them again. Yet, there were friends in all of it. He made bonds, yes... but it wasn't young cats playing pretend anymore. It was alliances that went over his head, jeers for reasons he couldn't understand.

In the midst of it all, Shear fell pregnant. She didn't know who the father was, but Vulture vowed to help her in the would-be father's place. Yet, it was never meant to be. Her kits were stillborn, and she was inconsolable for a long time after. Even after gaining the strength to leave her bed, she was never the same. Vulture suspected she had been promised a fairytale romance. He couldn't give that nor the kits back to her.

The spark returned to Shear's eyes when she heard about a young kit without a mother. However, neither she nor Vulture were certain it would survive. At another cat's suggestion, Shear decided to turn herself over to the nofurs (or "housefolk" as some cats called them) with the kit. She wanted a stable life, and Vulture saw her off. That was the last time he would see her before moving on.

Vulture went back to the life of a wanderer. He would sometimes stop by other cats for a short time, but his luck always brought an incident with these meetings. It got to the point where he felt he was cursed. However, he eventually found peace in this existence. Whatever fate would bring him, he would help those affected by it however he could.

Eventually, Vulture found his way to a valley where cats lived in massive Clans. Something about this place compelled him to stay for now... but what dangers lurked within?

He befriended a Clan cat, Shadedrop, who he had an odd kinship with. He told her all about his travels, and she thought about leaving to have similar adventures. He also became friends with some rogues (although he preferred the term "loner"), including Ashflower, a former Herbalist of RavenClan. When fires ravaged the valley, he helped evacuate his fellow rogues. Thankfully, strange metal birds put out the fires, so he wasn't forced out of the valley entirely.

One day, he came across an odd mushroom, and, deeming it normal, tried to eat it because hey, hey was hungry. It was not a normal mushroom. His claws and teeth fell out, his body contorted as a strange monster approached...

Vulture awoke where he had fallen asleep, but not WHERE. The scars of the fire were gone. A friendly rogue named Cotton seemed confused about this stranger's predicament, but led him to a group of Clan cats that he quickly learned were the original founders of the Clans. He stayed with the Clan cats for a few days before deciding to wander the valley.

Just a moon later, the original Clans - LynxClan and RavenClan - were founded. Cotton became Cottonstar of LynxClan, and the former RiverClan cat Hawkfeather became Hawkstar of RavenClan. Though these were Clans, they felt different than the Clans of the present. Vulture found himself interacting more and more with the former rogues of LynxClan. He befriended quite a few, including a warrior named Jaycall. This friendship with Jaycall blossomed into full-on romance, and he eventually decided to join LynxClan (though not changing his name), at least for a little test run.

In the Clan, Vulture learned many things, from more advanced self-defence to the various herbs of the territory. For the first time, he felt like he was among family, not just a hotheaded group of cats. He and Jaycall had children that made that feeling of family into a tangible reality. Shadekit, later Shadeflame, was named after her black fur and his dear friend from the future. Bluekit, later Bluewing, was named after a blue feather that drifted into the nursery. Finally there was Songkit, later Songflight a homage to his mother and father's song-themed names. These kits would go on to have kits of their own, although not all would be in the valley - Bluewing eventually decided to leave LynxClan to be with a traveling rogue.

Fire had not claimed Vulture in the future, but it nearly claimed him in the past. A nasty flood hit the camps of both Clans, taking Jaycall's life. Vulture was devastated, barely leaving his nest for several days. His recovery was slow. He'd opened himself up, only to forget that he was calamity itself. It was only thanks to his friends and family that he managed to come to terms with the event. While he'd feel the grief forever, now he could move on in a new way.

He lived a long life and had many adventures, including one where he found a strange glowing rock, but those stories would be lost to time when he passed away peacefully in the elders' den one night.

It was surreal to watch the Clans move on from the sky. There were events he heard about, events he'd seen anew. He saw SnakeClan form, cats fight, monsters overcome by determination. And through it all, following his family, he realized: he was still connected to the future.

His bloodline carved a path through the moons and to what used to be the present. The last descendant of his in LynxClan, Ashclaw, had offspring with a rogue named Haze. Their kit was Shadekit, who would become Shadedrop.

From there, he watched her grow, watched himself arrive, and - he would have watched his own demise, but his mind couldn't comprehend it.

Here, at the end of the long, long journey, Vulture turned his back on his present self and resolved to see the new journey to the end.