No shaming me, or I'll make DawnPaw 'accidentally' use FoxGlove instead of normal herbs.
2,369-word count, cause I have no life \(•~•)/
------------
It was a night that was especially noisy for the season, the wind never seemed to stop as it roared and neither did the cries of his mother's pain. She was giving birth alone, not allowing anyone else in the small place she decided to birth the kits, which was in a cardboard box behind a dumpster.
During his birth, Dawn came out as a small kit, most thought he wouldn't survive, he was a kit who seemed to fit in your paw pad, and all he could do was shiver and open his mouth, but usually, no meows came out. His mother gave birth to two other kits who both sadly turned up stillborn, DawnPaw coming out as the third. This wouldn't have been much of a problem, but he was the only kit they had and that left him to be alone most of the time and learn to entertain himself. He didn't even have the company of his own mother as she shortly died due to blood loss or giving birth.
After a bit of struggling to find someone, that could let the small kit feed and a day and a half of no milk for them kit, the kit fed from another she-cat who had just had some kits, though she was a kitty-pet so the feedings were short and left him to be meowing for food most of the time, they just couldn't risk getting too close to the Two-leg, so in the garden in the back of the Two-leg's den, she would take the lone kit to eat, then as her two-leg called her due to her own meowing kits, she'd return the kit and bid goodbye for the day.
From then on, from then on as he could eat normal prey, Dawn was only raised by his Mother's brother, an Alley Cat named Baby(That's my real cat's name, no judging, you'd understand if ya met him). Despite his name he was a rough and harsh cat, scarred, with half an ear missing and a split in his lip that showed his teeth, to outsiders he was to be feared, he fought alone, attacked on sight to any cat, tom, she-cat, full-grown, kit, and even the injured and sickly. But to his brother and friends, he was the kindest cat you'd ever meet. Baby's brother Buddy(... _-_ that's right) was a lazy and sickly cat, he never seemed to have much weight and vomited often, yet that didn't hold him back from living his life. He was a grumpy cat, always meowing and yelling at Dawn who'd play with his tail and swipe his ears but never once hit anyone, he was secretly a huge softy and Baby had a huge soft spot for him, and would often groom his brother, who would protest and hiss.
Dawn grew up spoiled by his relatives and their friends, yet, when he hit three moons old, and the others would find cats who wondered on their territory, it was common for Dawn to be allowed to 'Practice' his fighting on the cat, while the others held them down, using it as a source of entertainment, and Dawn being encouraged, began to get joy from it after the days passed, the hiss of pain from the cat and the cackling laugh from the other cats. Soon he began to grow more harsh and rough following in Baby's paw steps, the one he looked up to most of all, the one who trained him in fighting most of the time. After a bit, it was common to see cats with a blind eye or small cuts all over their ears and faces. Dawn had done it for two moons until finally in leaf-bare as the food slowly ran out and the group was forced into the trash, spending too much energy on the cat was too tiring, to usually a hiss, or a cat chasing them away worked.
Yet one day something happened. Another group of cats calling themselves a gang came into their territory. One day he played with Buddy as Baby discussed an attack with the others, but it didn't involve him and it was quick a normal thing so he didn't mind if, so the next day when it was only him and Buddy, he knew what they were doing. But when they came back, bloody and beaten, he knew what was happening, what it meant to be beaten in this world, they were being kicked out. That night while Dawn tried to sleep, the older cats meowed loudly and argued nonstop until Baby being the loudest, suddenly raised his own voice like he was letting the whole city know "I won't let them kick us out!", but to everyone's surprise Buddy who hadn't said a word since they came back, turned his head up looked to his brother in the eyes, with that never changing expression and said "We don't have a choice" After that no one spoke and Dawn finally slipped into sleep without the cats making noise.
