No way. Sunstream's green eyes warily took in her new surroundings.
"Get on with it!" Whitefur snapped. He led them all into a clearing filled with cats. A massive black tom stood on top of a tree stump coated with blood.
"Ah, I see ThunderClan is here," he snarled, his voice like ice. "Now, to wait for ShadowClan." He sighed.
Almost immediately, a group of cats emerged. "ShadowClan are here!" a gray tom announced.
"Thank you, Grayfoot. Now we can begin." The black tom nodded. "Welcome to the Star Games. My name is Shadestar, the Dark Forest leader." Automatically, Sunstream dipped her head to him. "Let me introduce all of our tributes to one another."
A chorus of murmured spread until Shadestar waved his tail for silence. "From WindClan, Breezefur, Whispertail, Whitewind, Petalwing, and Grayfur." The five WindClan cats' heads rose as their names were called. "From RiverClan, we have Rivertail, Splashtail, Blackstream, Ripplewater, and Duskfall." Sunstream looked around to locate the RiverClan cats. "From ThunderClan-" Sunstream perked up "-Songheart, Ashclaw, Sunstream, Fernshadow, Dappleshade!"
Sunstream puffed out her chest as her name was called.
"And ShadowClan," Shadestar continued. "Tigerflame, Shadowblaze, Nightstreak, Patchfur, and Spottedtail!" Sunstream caught the eye of a striped, amber-eyed tom, probably Tigerflame. They shared a look of worry.
"Now," Shadestar said, "we will be testing you on your abilities tonight. Be ready. We will call you one by one." He waved his tail. "Each of you, find a different place to practice yourselves." His tail rose. "You may go now."
Sunstream's heart thumped wildly at the thought of a test, an assessment to show her worth to the other candidates.
Tail flicking, she padded away into an empty clearing. Using her tail for balance, she lashed out at an invisible enemy, ducking an imaginary blow and rolling over. She sprang back to her paws almost instantly, braced for another imaginary attack.
"Whoa!" a voice exclaimed, as Sunstream's paw reached up, and another down, as though scooping an enemy's legs out from under them. "You're good."
Sunstream whirled around to see the familiar face of Tigerflame staring at her. "Uh... thanks."
"I don't really think I'll win too easily..."
"There are tons of cats I don't want to fight," Sunstream admitted.
"I know. This will be hard," Tigerflame mewed. "You're Sunstream, aren't you?"
Sunstream nodded. "All right, but I think you should go. They said to practice alone." Tigerflame nodded to her and padded away, leaving Sunstream to continue training.
After quite some time, in the late evening, Sunstream paused, exhausted, and wearily stalked over to a stream. She gratefully lapped up a few drops of water, her energy renewing.
Then, the bushes rustled, and Sunstream jumped in shock. It was Blackheart, a smirk playing across his face as usual. "Shadestar says you have five minutes until we meet," he mewed. "You may want to start heading back."
Sunstream nodded respectfully. "I will."
"Good." And the black tom padded away. Sunstream watched him leave and followed after a few heartbeats. The clearing where the Dark Forest had assembled earlier was not too far.
"I'm nervous," a voice murmured anxiously. Sunstream turned to see Fernshadow blinking at her.
"So am I," she confessed. "But-" She didn't get to finish, for Shadestar was calling the Dark Forest together.
"We'll split you up into groups of four. One cat from each clan. The first group is Tigerflame, Blackstream, Whispertail, and Sunstream." Sunstream looked over at Tigerflame, for he was the only one she had seen. None of them really knew each other. "Gather over there with Grayfoot and Skyclaw."