Mythkit waited patiently for her mother to come back from the meeting Graystar called. She rolled a pile of moss around with her paws, waiting quietly.

Eventually Shimmersky padded in, her blue eyes narrowed and troubled. Mythkit's nose twitched. "What's wrong?" She inquired curiously.

    "Ah- it's nothing, dear." Shimmersky wrapped her tail around Mythkit and pulled her close. "Some cats from other clans have gone missing, and there's a mean rogue who snuck into the gathering."

    Mythkit blinked at her mother. "Why is that bad?" She whispered. "We don't like other clans, do we?"

    Her mother hesitated, then said, "well, that's why I said it's nothing." But Mythkit could still tell her mother was nervous.

    It eventually became sunhigh. Everyone went about like it was any normal day, except for Graystar of course. Mythkit spotted her anxiously speaking to Mythkit's father, Flamefeather, which was unusual for her. Most of the time she swaggered around, acting all calm and smart.

Mythkit watched the leader sigh and slip into the HighRock, leaving Flamefeather looking perplexed. She blinked twice, then trotted off to the medicine den. "Hello?" She called, spotting the medicine cat, Snaketooth, sorting herbs in the large stone cave. "Oh, hi! Can I help...?" She trailed off slightly as Needlepaw trotted in from a back cave, a leaf wrap in her jaws. The silver tabby purred.

"Hey, Mythkit!" She meowed, setting the wrap down. "How's it going?"

"Uh- good," Mythkit responded, not quite sure how to act. Needlepaw was nice and all, yet... She always made Mythkit uncomfortable talking to her. Perhaps it was the fact she had the role Mythkit longed for. "Can I help at all?"

"Of course," Snaketooth told her. "You can help by putting juniper berries in one pile and elder root in another."

Mythkit's heart swelled, and she pranced forward towards the pile of herbs...

Not realizing this was her last time to do it.

<><><>

    It's sunhigh now... Where are they?

    Renegade squinted and looked back down at the grass, which looked lighter when the sun was shining down on it. There was a slight breeze, cooling for Greenleaf, but he was starting to get irritated.

    "I guess they are just fox-hearts," he muttered to himself. "I wouldn't expect Lightclan to come, they all hate me... Sunclan might, they don't get as suspicious as Moonclan does... Oh no, I hope the elder doesn't come, he'll completely slow us down..."

    He shut his mouth as a figure came scampering out of the Lightclan trees. A bit smaller than a warrior, he noticed, as the figure turned to thank a Lightclan escort, perhaps an apprentice?

    Renegade stepped back a little and sat down, wrapping his tail neatly around his paws. He lifted his chin as a tan-white apprentice smelling strongly of Sunclan climbed over the hill in front of him. The apprentice wrinkled his nose and glanced around in case this was an ambush, Renegade knew right away, and immediately took a disliking to him.

    "Are you Renegade?" The apprentice asked quietly after a moment. Renegade disliked him even more when he noticed the apprentice wasn't going to sit down with his company, taking back what he said about Sunclan not being suspicious.

    "Who else would I be?" Renegade retorted.

    "I thought so, you smell like a rogue." The apprentice wrinkled his nose again.

    Renegade forced his fur to lie flat. "And you smell like Sunclan. Will you tell me your name, or do you despise me so much you can't even do that?"

    The apprentice sneered. "If I despised you that much I wouldn't be here. You're one of those cats that always jump to conclusions, aren't you?" He sat down, but Renegade didn't feel much better. In fact, right now, he was hating this cat. "Anyways, I'm Thornpaw."

    Renegade inhaled, then exhaled, staring this cat down. He didn't like being called 'one of those cats', and he definitely didn't like being talked to like that. Cats have told him they hated him before, and he was used to it, but Thornpaw told him in a way that made Renegade want to claw his face off.

    "You know, you're a bad representative for Sunclan," Renegade remarked. "I heard they were understanding and loyal. Who's idea was it to send you?"

    Thornpaw raised his chin. "I'm understanding and loyal to my clan, not to filthy rogues, thank you very much. And it was my idea."

    Renegade opened his mouth again to give a hasty remark, but he was cut short at the sound of pawsteps. He and Thornpaw both turned to see the elder from the gathering clambering up the hill, eventually slipping and falling back to the ground. Renegade narrowed his eyes, and Thornpaw frowned in disgust. At least that was one thing they agreed on...

    Finally the orange tabby elder made his way up the hill and studied Renegade with interested yellow eyes. "Hello," he purred after a second. "I'm Cliffwalker. You recognize me? I was at the gathering last night."

    "Yeah, I recognize you," Renegade grumbled. "I'm-"

    "-Renegade," Cliffwalker finished. "Yup, everyone knows you. You really know where the missing cats have gone?"

    "Yes, I do. If I didn't we wouldn't be sitting here."

Thornpaw narrowed his eyes. "I bet this is a trick. Why would a murderer want to help us?"

Renegade finally snapped with this cat. He whirled around, strode forward, and shoved Thornpaw to the ground with one paw in less than five seconds. The apprentice didn't struggle, but Renegade knew he was scared by his trembling whiskers.

"Let me get this straight," Renegade flared. "First of all, I did not try to murder Littlewhisker, for Starclan's sake. I was protecting her and that coward for a leader exiled me. Second of all, I am trying to help you, because I'm not going to do all this walking and climbing just to kill you in your sleep. SO SHUT YOUR TRAP AND RESPECT AUTHORITY."

He pulled away and sat back, pleasantly ignoring Thornpaw's stammering. "Now. Is there-"

"What from?"

Renegade twitched his ears and glared at Cliffwalker. "What do you want?"

"What were you protecting Littlewhisker from?" The elder inquired.

For a split second Renegade seemed to panic, but they must have imagined it, for right away he smiled. "From a rogue, of course," he purred. He flashed Thornpaw a dirty look. "A filthy one."

<><><>

Thornpaw finally managed to stop shivering from Renegade's sudden attack and studied the rogue. Renegade had just shot him a look, which he didn't like, but he ignored it.

Something about this rogue just didn't seem right. The way he met their gaze with cold eyes, or the way he sat and talked ever so calmly. Something about this rogue wasn't good... Thornpaw feared that this was all a trick and he was simply going to kill them before they had to do 'all that walking and climbing'. You could never trust a rogue.

He wasn't planning on it, anyways.

"So I think that's all of us," Renegade said, shooting a quick look at the angle of the sun. "If everybody's ready... Actually, I don't care if you're ready. Let's just go."