[ KITHOOD ]
Crowpaw and Nettlepaw were born into Marshclan during a particularly hard and cold leafbare. Greencough was running rampant in the nursery and their mother, Lilynose, was sick when they were born and didn't have the strength to survive after having kits. This was the siblings first, but not last, brush with death. Nettlekit almost didn't make it, contracting greencough soon after birth. She was kept in the medicine cat den while Crowkit remained in the nursery, separate from her. Their father, Adderleap, went to check on her daily, leaving Crowkit with a queen and only returning at night to sleep. Crowkit would often cry, from worry and fear, but would have no one to comfort him.
Thankfully, Nettlekit survived, and joined her brother and father back in the nursery. After that the two of them steadily grew close, playing together every day. However, while their father Adderleap was always nearby watching and interacting with them, Crowkit began to realize a difference in the way he looked at them. While he looked at Nettlekit with love and warmth, he only looked at Crowkit with grief because of his resemblence to their mother. When Nettlekit would cry he would rush to comfort her, while whenever Crowkit cried he was ignored or told to be quiet so it wouldn't bother his sister. Eventually, he learned not to cry.
[ APPRENTICESHIP ]
At six moons old the siblings became apprentices, Nettlepaw taking an interest in herbs while Crowpaw went with the path of a warrior. At their ceremony Adderleap fussed over Nettlepaw, brimming with pride, while Crowpaw sat and watched indifferently.
Soon after, tragedy struck. A moon into their apprenticeship Adderleap was trampled by a moose. He was brought back to camp, where Nettlepaw and her mentor did everything they could to save him. Crowpaw sat outside the medicine cat's den, listening to his sister's frantic shouts and waiting to hear what had become of their father. In the end, they were unable to save him, and Crowpaw watched as Nettlepaw cried into their father's fur, covered in his blood. When he too cried, it wasn't for the father he felt so distant from, but for the sister who had lost someone she dearly loved.
It was a little over a moon later, while sitting together by their father's burial site surrounded by the warm hues of leaffall, that he quietly requested she see him as her brother and she at once agreed.
