Dawnpaw and her siblings were born right at the start of the war, her being the first born and the smallest. She wasn't always the only girl though. During the first moon or so of their kithood they had a sister name Snowkit, She was born deaf but they loved her dearly anyways. It wasn't even a whole moon later when a horrible coughing started between the four kits, their mother Cederleap panicked and cried for their medicine cat to fix her babies. Three of them made it through but Snowkit didn't make it, her body too weak to fight off greencough. This made their mother more protective of her surviving kits. This was only worsened when their father, Viperclaw, died in the war

During the journey there was a rock slide that nearly killed Dawnpaw, Her mother ended up saving her, pushing her out of the way at the last second. The death of her parents and her sister really inspired her to become a medicine cat, after being touched with some much death in her life she wanted to make a difference and help others. When she was ready to become an apprentice she begged and pleaded with Sparrowheart to take her under his wing, and to her surprise he agreed, seeing a spark in the chipper apprentice.