Petal
Before I begin, I want to say that while reading Good As Black will give you some more information about this story, you can read it without it's predecessor.
Okay, so this is for the people who wanted to know what happens when she leaves the Clans. I can't say I'll spend too much time on this as a) school wishes to destroy all happy writing time for its students and b) Personally, I kinda liked Nightstorm's story outside of the Clans being up to you. But I wasn't quite ready to leave this little black Warrior behind yet so! Welcome… Rogue!
Nightstorm didn't mean to look back.
She had promised herself that she wouldn't. Then again, she'd also promised herself that she would make her goodbyes to the Clans quick and unemotional, but look how that turned out. She guessed it meant she had zero self-control over herself now.
The Clans territories unravelled beneath her, like a jigsaw finally coming into view. The Lake in the centre was massive, strangely seeming even bigger from farther away. She could see the moor that must be WindClan's, and she banished Nettleskip from her mind for now. There was ThunderClan's forest, the same one that homed the Clan that forced her to hate herself and everyone around her. She felt her thoughts drifting, but didn't stop them. There was one cat there, just one, who was kind and who was Nightstorm's anchor to herself. That cat was dead. Nightstorm shoved her to the back of her head as well, turning it to the other Clans. RiverClan and ShadowClan had no strong bonds with her, other than that they hated her as well as almost every other cat had.
Finally she turned away, and looked a the world beyond her.
I can go there now. Nightstorm thought, a tingle of happiness replacing the moment of sorrow. The whole world is open to me.
One direction was a Thunderpath; a huge one, with monsters crawling along it. A different way looked sort of like the Clan territory, only she knew the prey there wasn't easy to catch there nor worth it. The final direction was twoleg homes.
She was not going near the Thunderpath. That was final and it wasn't changing.
As much as she felt unhappy about being so close to twolegs and kitty kittypets, the Territory-like area reminded her so much about what Sil- her mentor had taught her about hunting, and right now she was running from that memory. On top of that, she wasn't a Warrior anymore, so she didn't have to obey the Warrior Code. There were some values she held close, like no killing other cats or no killing prey that wasn't going to be eaten, but accepting some kittypet food wasn't one particularly important to her. But emergencies only.
She ran quickly towards the strange buildings. They loomed up over her, and smelt funny. Like… Twolegs.
She snorted. Of course they did. It wasn't like they were going to have a scent of food.
It was the moment she thought that that a whiff of milk drifted past her. Well, sort of like the milk she knew from the nursery. Slightly different.
Interested, she followed it, finally tracking down the source of it on the inside of a Twoleg wall. Sighing, she slipped away.
It was strange going wherever she pleased, without knowing where she was going. No borders or boundaries. She decided she liked the feeling, despite the little bit of fear it came with.
"Hey! You there!" The voice took Nightstorm by surprise. She swirled around, her claws unsheathing themselves.
"Woah, calm down!" The cat laughed. She was sitting on a brick wall, the sun warming her golden fur. "I'm Petal, but my housefolk call me Lucy." She jumped off the wall. "What's your name?"
Staring in surprise, it was an effort to talk. "Nightstorm." She finally managed.
"That's a funny name." Petal frowned. "I think I've heard something like it. Night… Paw or foot or claw or something."
"Why aren't you… y'know, scared?" Nightstorm fiddled with words.
Petal blinked. "Oh, I thought some cat would have told you. Don't worry, about it, I'll fill you in on the way."
She padded off, obviously expecting Nightstorm to follow her.
Great StarClan's kits, what has it come to! Kittypets unafraid of Clan cats! Rogues. She corrected herself. I'm a rogue now.
She followed she she-cat, and listened to her bright chatter.
"That's Billy's house, he's a grumpy cat but quite nice under it all, and over there's Isabella and Minty, Minty has a crush on Tim, over there, but he has kits with Snowy on the other side of this town, but back to Minty and Isabella, Isabella's nice, she wants to help me but is no good at it, but in that-"
"No good at what?" Nightstorm interrupted. "What do you do?"
"I help rogues and loners passing through." Petal waved her tail. "My garden has all these herbs in it, and I give them to the loners in return for peace. You see, the rules used to be that we stay in our garden and they'd leave us alone. But then they decided that they liked the herbs in my garden so I was allowed to go both in and out if they were allowed in. But then they realised I knew what to do with the herbs, so I heal their wounds and they let all the kittypets wander around was they please. That's how it's been for a few moons now."
Nightstorm stopped. "Thanks for the offer, but a friend has already put some stuff on my wounds."
"Oh, I know, I saw." Petal continued. "But I thought you'd at least want some cream."
"Cream?"
"Have you never had any?" Petal stared at Nightstorm in amazement. "You have to try it! Here!" She clawed her way up a tree, scampered along a branch, and pounced into the garden below.
"If she can do it…" Burning with curiosity, Nightstorm elegantly swung around the tree and into the place below.
It was filled with herbs, growing in lines in square patches of soil. The twoleg den towered above it, with a huge red rectangle near the bottom.
Petal was lapping from a silver bowl near the Rectangle, her fur around her lips white.
"Come on!" She purred. "Try it!"
Cautiously, Nightpaw licked a few drops. The cream was a bit like milk but… well, creamier! She swallowed it happily.
She glanced at the sky, surprised that the sun was leaning downwards now.
"I should be going." She had told herself that she would wander as she pleased, but a sudden desperation to leave the Clans hit her like a tidal wave, and she stepped back. "Thanks, Petal."
"No problem!" Petal began grooming herself.
Nightstorm clawed her way up the plats and bushes, onto the wall. Then she leaped down, and began running.
She had the whole world ahead of her.