Warriors: The Deadliest Challenge

Chapter Three

Ambertail sat in the clearing of the camp, her heart thumping in her chest. Nerves gripped her from head to tail-tip.

"Why can't I compete?" Puddlepaw asked her, tilting his head to the side.

"Because you're an apprentice," Ambertail chuckled. "You can't be leader."

Puddlepaw looked down, crestfallen. "Well, I hope you win!" he meowed, looking back up at his mentor. "You'd make a great leader!"

Ambertail was touched that her own apprentice wanted her to be his leader. She opened her mouth, ready to thank him, but was cut off by a snort beside her.

"Oh, please," Lizardwing huffed. "I'd be a much better leader."

Ambertail's tail lashed from side to side in frustration, but she didn't argue. There was no use starting a fight with him, then both of them might be eliminated.

Ambertail looked around, trying to calm her nerves; Ripplecloud and Palestride sat outside the elders' den, gossiping with each other. Swallowflight and Wolfwhisper padded out of the warriors' den, the latter looking particularly nervous. Swallowflight seemed to be trying to calm her down. Other warriors were pacing around, mumbling to themselves.

Ambertail looked up at the sky; grey clouds covered the sun, but she could tell that it was indeed sunhigh. She whipped her head around as she heard movement from the medicine cats' den, but sighed when she realised it was just Driftwater. The dark tabby padded towards the group of cats gathered, and stood at the front of the crowd, not saying anything.

Moments later, Ambertail saw Streamswirl emerge from her den and jump up onto the Great Stump.

"Every cat that wishes to compete, step forward," she called to the crowd.

Ambertail sat back for a moment, observing every cat that stood up; Lizardwing was the first to push himself to his feet, quickly followed by Sprucejump and Fishpatch. Waterheart eagerly stood up, his tail lashing, then Toadleap, Orangelake and Frogskip jumped up. Appleblossom stood up hesitantly, looking around at the other warriors. The last to stand up were Pinewhisker and Swallowflight.

Ambertail nearly forgot to stand up, but quickly sprang to her paws when she felt Puddlepaw jab her in the side.

Streamswirl looked out at the warriors that were standing, until her gaze rested on Wolfwhisper, who was still sitting down. The medicine cat gave her a confused look.

"Don't you wish to compete, Wolfwhisper?" the medicine cat asked.

Wolfwhisper looked down at her paws, then back up at Streamswirl. Ambertail could see her tail quivering.

"I would love to," the dark grey she-cat meowed, "but I'm expecting kits." Her eyes lit up at the end of her sentence.

"Congratulations!" Streamswirl exclaimed. Everyone else gave the she-cat a quick congratulations, then looked back up at Streamswirl.

"You may move to the nursery as soon as you wish," Streamswirl told her. "The rest of you that are competing, come to the front."

Ambertail followed the stream of cats padding to the front, and stood between Pinewhisker and Appleblossom.

Streamswirl looked out at her Clanmates. "Your first challenge is this."

Ambertail held her breath, hoping it wasn't something too hard.

"Hunting," Streamswirl announced.

That's so easy! Ambertail thought. Looking around, she figured that most other warriors agreed that it was easy by the confident expressions on their faces.