Chapter 3
Meet the Family
The first cat Shell noticed was her father, Bear. He was hard to miss so that's probably why Shell noticed him first. Bear is a big calico tom with piercing golden eyes. Anyone could see why he was basically the 'leader' of the rogues, or at least they seemed to look up to him a lot. He has large muscled legs and broad shoulders, giving him that kind of look that told others they shouldn't mess with him. Also, his pelt was thick so it seemed to make him even bigger than he really was. Everyone seemed to know how he got his name.
Shell then turned her gaze to the cat that Bear was talking to. It was Tails, a long-haired light gray tom. His name was Tails because his fur was the thickest around his tail so sometimes it looked like he had two of them. He was almost as big as her father and also the first one to come across her father, her and her two brothers. But that was many moons ago.
Her green eyes flickered to the area around the puddle where two she-cats were grooming each other. One of the she-cats was tortoiseshell, like Shell. That was Sprint. Out of all the cats that lived in the alleyway, Sprint was the fastest. The other she-cat was smaller and pure white with bright blue eyes. That was Sky. She was probably the most gentle of all the rogues.
In the middle of the alleyway two toms were wrestling. To some it wouldn't look like they were 'play' fighting because of the fierce looks on their faces, but Shell knew better. There was a dark ginger tom and a black tom. The dark ginger one was known as Claw. Out of all the cats Shell had ever seen, she hasn't seen any with claws as long as that tom had. The black cat was Shadow. He was a bit more mysterious and hasn't shared much about himself. He's the most recent to join the small group of rogues.
Shell's eyes then wandered over to the multiple boxes that were overturned. There was a small white tom with many black patches of fur on his pelt sitting in one of the boxes, his blue eyes staring at Claw and Shadow as he watched them wrestle. It was Patch, her other brother. Unlike herself and Scar, he didn't show his emotions much. Sometimes it seemed like he didn't even have any. He was pretty quiet and rarely talked to anyone except Shell. When they were all really tiny, Bear had thought something was wrong with the kit but Patch has proved to be an excellent fighter and hunter.
The young she-cat's eyes turned back to the fence to see Yowler and Scar jumping down from it, landing close by. Scar glared at her then padded towards Bear to show how well he had done, for he was also carrying a rat along with the bird he had earlier. Yowler totally ignored Shell and wandered over to sit with the other she-cats. Shell sighed and her ears flattened slightly. Sometimes she thought she wasn't good enough to be with the rest of them because she was clumsy most of the time and wasn't the best hunter. The young rogue slowly walked toward Patch, her tail drooping slightly.