Glowpaw

**Glowpaw** is a scrawny, purpleish gray she-cat with lavender eyes.

## Life

### Kithood

Glowkit was born to Frosttuft, alongside her two brothers Bloodkit and Dimkit. She and her littermates were born prematurely, causing her and Bloodpaw being very small and scrawny, and they weren't given much chance of surviving very long like Dimkit. Luckily they pulled through, and Frosttuft was a very doting mother around this time. This wouldn't last long.

As kits, their mother was very focused on making them 'the best warriors they could be'. However, her idea of 'being the best' was isolating them from other kits, refusing to let them make friends, and focusing on warriors training rather than enjoying their kithood. It was pretty obvious that her mother's favorite was her brothers. Glowkit got some attention as a kit, but once she found her own hobbies that she liked- bug collecting and studying- her mother started to ignore her.

Glowkit didn't mind that arrangement- she didn't chase the validation of her mother as much as her other brother Bloodkit, and just did her own thing. But she started taking notice that Dimkit was showing some concerning signs whenever he went out with Frosttuft. Injuries, becoming withdrawn and secretive, and refusing to speak to her about anything they did. It worried Glowkit, but she didn't push it until later.

Their family got a little larger when Frosttuft was asked to care for Wetkit, the recently orphaned kit. She didn't bond to Wetkit as quickly as her brothers, but she still kept an eye out for her, especially when Frosttuft was being rude to the little kit. She wouldn't go as calling her sister, but she was the closest thing she had to a friend.

Glowkit's concern for Dimkit boiled over when they were almost ready to be apprentices, so she followed him and Frosttuft one evening to see what was going on. When she found her brother soaking wet, sporting a bloody nose and crying, she confronted him. She didn't want to leave him alone- she wanted to know the truth. Her brother, hyped up on emotions and running on instinct, struck his sister in the belly. The strike was deep and Glowkit would have bled out rather quickly if Frosttuft hadn't returned to the cave they were in.

Glowkit was given medical care, but when asked how she got the injury, she simply said it was just an accident. She knew her brother didn't want to hurt her, and she didn't want him to get in trouble for attacking her. It wasn't a lie. She recovered and went back to the den, but her relationship with her mother became more strained and distant.

### Apprenticeship

Glowpaw received Shadowpools as an mentor, though she didn't really listen to him much. He was a new warrior and very wishy washy, in her opinion, so she usually just ran off and did her own thing while still showing up to training sessions and going on patrols. She also started her hobby of collecting and experimenting with bugs and plants that weren't for healing practices.

Glowpaw was always kind of an observer- she was always very aware of her surroundings and what was going on in the lives of others- though she didn't care much unless it involved her siblings, or she could get a good laugh out of it. However, while this meant she was hyper aware of things like Bloodpaw having a crush on the black tabby Simon that they had found in the tunnels before even he did, she had her own problems.

Early in her apprenticeship, Glowpaw started suffering with being unable to sleep, plagued by night terrors and being unable to move when trying to sleep. She started pushing off sleeping more and more, to the point where she could go a whole week without sleeping and then randomly pass out while doing something. She has almost drowned on at least one occasion from passing out over a pool during training. The lack of sleep causes her to either be numb to most things, or just have no mouth filter.

She caught the eye of a younger warrior named Beaverpounce, someone who bullied her brother constantly when they were kits for being scrawny and weak. He also bullied Glowpaw as a kit, but started to develop a crush on her as they got older. Glowpaw picked up on that instantly and used it to ridicule him, before shutting that potential relationship down as soon as possible.

Glowpaw started feeling a lot of strain- he brothers had friends and crushes, but she had no idea how. She had no idea how to form healthy relationships, so she hid her pain behind humor and her interests. However, one day got to be too much. She stopped grooming herself, her sleep problems were becoming worse, she was starting to have less of a handle on her emotions.

Another warrior, Fadinglight, had noticed her struggling and invited her to hang out with her. Glowpaw agreed, but was so uncomfortable the whole time. She couldn't tell what the warrior's angle was- was she trying to be friends? Trying to flirt? Trying to be a new mother figure. Any signs of friendly affection weirded her out and she shrugged off, feeling more agitated. She genuinely couldn't tell what was healthy boundaries or friendly gestures due to the way she was raised- the closest thing she felt as affection was the irritated but caring behaviors her brothers did. She slipped up in her façade, talking about how no one would care if she just disappeared...

The two of them hung out and just when Glowpaw was starting to calm down- they run into Frosttuft. Frosttuft acts extremely rude to Fadinglight, riling up Glowpaw even more. She and her mother break into an argument, where Glowpaw starts comparing herself to shit because that's how Frosttuft seems to treat her. She let loose the floodgates- saying how she couldn't handle seeing her brothers tear themselves apart, how she couldn't even handle basic kindness without being automatically suspicious, and how her mother lied to the medicine cat when her own brother nearly killed her. Frosttuft, however, didn't have much of a better handle of her emotions than her daughter, and shrugged off the whole thing, trying to justify her actions.

The argument devolves into Frosttuft walking away from the argument rather than talking about it, and Glowpaw runs away sobbing. She runs into a side tunnel and screams, causing the weak cave foundation above the opening to collapse and trapping her away from help.

Glowpaw is now missing.