✦ Hollowshine
"My name is Hollowpaw. Well, it was — do you know me? You sound like you're an adult — please, is Treepaw still with you?"
— Hollowpaw to Crowmuzzle, chapter 2
Hollowpaw (also known as Gourdy) is a severely disabled brown tom who was once a prisoner of the Roots. After a failed ritual left him with only three paws, no tail, and limited use of his left eye and ear, he was taken in by Twolegs and has lived as a kittypet ever since. But he has never stopped searching for Treepaw — older brother he was taken with, someone he refuses to abandon.
Chapter 1
Gourdy ventures into his yard at night, determined to dig under the fence and escape. He encounters two neighborhood cats — Fuzzball, an overly friendly ginger-and-white tom, and Daisy, a cream-colored she-cat who warns him about wild cats that steal kittens. Their pity and questions about his disabilities deeply humiliate him, and he resolves never to ask them for help again.
Later, while trying to dig, he's approached by a mysterious cat from the other side of the fence. The stranger mocks his digging attempts and reveals they were once part of the Roots. Gourdy desperately asks if they know Treepaw. The stranger tells him the group has moved to a barn beyond the lake, and that he should hurry if he wants to find them.
Gourdy manages to climb the fence for the first time with sheer determination. When he reaches the other side, the stranger is gone — but he now knows where to go.
As Gourdy heads toward the woods, he's confronted by Bob, another neighbor cat who seems guilty about something connected to him. Bob confirms the barn's location and pleads with him not to go, but Gourdy ignores him. He's spent too long waiting, too long wondering. He will find Treepaw, or he will die trying.
The Failed Ritual
Hollowpaw was chosen as the sacrifice when he was around 0.9 seasons old. The one who would feed the willow. Dewdrop was tasked with preparing the herbs, the slow poison that would send Hollowpaw into a peaceful death before the ritual began.
But Dewdrop miscalculated the dose. The herbs didn't work. Hollowpaw was just asleep when the cats gathered. He never woke up during it, but by the time he was half eaten, others notice his chest rising.
The Roots panicked. They deny violence, deny murder — this was not supposed to happen. Shatteredsky, present at the ceremony, ordered the others away and told Dewdrop to kill Hollowpaw. Quickly. Before anyone else saw.
Dewdrop couldn't do it. Instead, he dragged Hollowpaw's broken, mutilated body to the Thunderpath and left him there, hoping he would die, hoping the evidence would disappear. Then he ran — fled the Roots, terrified of punishment, haunted by what he'd done.
Personality
Hollowpaw is stubborn, proud, and deeply wounded — both physically and emotionally. He hates being pitied, hates being seen as weak, hates that other cats define him by what he's lost. Beneath the defensiveness, he carries immense guilt: he survived when others didn't, he escaped when Treepaw didn't, and he's spent seasons in comfort while Treepaw might still be suffering. His determination to find his older brother is the only thing that keeps him going.
Relationships
Treepaw
Hollowpaw and Treepaw were taken together. They were prisoners together. When Hollowpaw escaped — barely, broken — Treepaw was left behind. Every season since, Hollowpaw has wondered: is Treepaw still alive? Still a prisoner? Would he even recognize Hollowpaw now? Finding Treepaw is the only goal that matters.
Crowmuzzle
Hollowpaw doesn't know the stranger's name, only that he was once part of the Cloudchasers and that he gave him directions to the barn.
Bob
Bob tries to stop Hollowpaw from going to the barn, and Hollowpaw wants nothing to do with him. He doesn't know that Bob is Dewdrop — the one who failed him, the one who left him to die. Bob's guilt is real, but Hollowpaw can't see it. He only sees a stranger who gets in his way.
Fuzzball & Daisy
Hollowpaw hates them. Not because they're cruel — they're not — but because they look at him and see only his disabilities. They pity him, and pity is worse than hatred.
Facts
Trivia
- TBA
Gallery
Hollowkit
Hollowpaw ref