Author's Note: Hey, hope you'll all like it. Well if there is anybody going to read this... :) Anyway - Please, please review if you like it or hate it or whatever. I would really love to get some feedback 3
I knew it from the moment on that I saw the reaping.
She, the small girl from 12, would be my greatest opponent in the arena.
Me and Clove were sitting on the couch, Enobaria in a leather chair, watching the TV.
I sat motionless, feeling the adrenalin slowly leave my body now that we had a second to sit down and relax for the first time in hours.
Well relax wouldn't be the right word. I hardly ever relaxed. My life had been a mix of training, school and falling into bed late at night after I drove my body to its absolute limits for what felt like ever.
I still couldn't quite believe it.
I was finally here, in a train on my way to the capitol, only a few days away from the arena. The place I had trained for since I had been eight years old, the place I could finally fulfill what had always been my purpose in life.
A small bitter smile appeared on my face before I could suppress it. I internally scolded myself. I had trained my body for years, but I had also trained my mind, which had been even harder than the physical aspect. I could handle extreme heat and cold without flinching, I could go days without eating anything and still be in top shape, think clearly. I could handle pain to an extreme extent, and still fight like no ones business when heavily injured.
But most important, I could train my expression into a mask of boredom and cold indifference, I never showed any signs of weakness or real emotions. I don't even know when the last time was that I genuinely smiled or laughed.
Maybe all that seemed sad or tragic or some sentimental bullshit like that, but I didn't need nor did I want to be pitied. I was proud of what I had achieved, it was the product of years of hard work and it didn't come without sacrifices, but you have to be willing to pay a certain price if you want something bad enough. And I had paid it without a second thought.
I was pulled out of my thoughts when Clove said "Hmm... seems a little too confident but he would probably do as an alliance for the first few days, depending on how he can handle his weapons... Although I wouldn't mind cutting that smirk of his face, slowly and painfully..."
She chuckled and Enobaria sported a small smirk herself, even though she said "be careful not to get overconfident yourself"
I tuned their conversation out and focused on the television.
There was a blonde guy standing in front of a roaring crowd with a confident smile on his face, like Clove had said. I ruled him out as real competition. Although he may be helpful in an alliance at first until only the stronger tributes remained.
Next was a girl apparently called Glimmer. I inwardly snorted. Well she definitely looked like a Glimmer. She had a voluptuous body, long blonde hair and blue eyes. One could definitely describe her as a bomb shell, but I wasn't distracted by her body.
Being tall, practically a wall of muscles, and apparently having a pretty face too, if one believed the girls, I never had to worry about the attention of females. Of course planning on volunteering for the Hunger Games didn't exactly hurt my image. The most beautiful girls of our district wanted to be with me - and I often enough let them - but only for one or two nights.
I didn't need the distraction for one but I also didn't want to string somebody along. I would lead a completely different life once I won the games and there would be no room for them. Besides there was never a girl I wanted to stay with for a longer period of time. They were all the same to me. Even though every one of them seemed to be under the illusion that they were something special and that I would change my ways for them.
The girl – Glimmer – looked like she could be a decent fighter and was obviously trained for the arena, but her bubbly smile didn't suggest a sharp mind behind the body.
Next came my own reaping. I watched myself volunteer and make my way towards the stage. I noted contentedly that my expression and the trained smirk I sported gave nothing away.
Next was Clove who had a crazed smile on her face.
I knew her from training, she had only started a year after me with it and was absolutely deadly with her knives.
We weren't friends exactly but we had somewhat of a mutual understanding. We were both determined to win the Game at any cost. I wasn't sure about her motivation but I was sure that she had another one other than bringing glory to our district. If someone was as determined as the two of us, there was always a personal reason behind it other than survival.
The difference between the two of us was that she reveled in killing, enjoyed it, while I did it out of necessity with a cold efficiency.
It was also her weakness. She lost herself in killing, got absorbed in it and was thus an easy target while doing it. Moreover she didn't always think strategically when she saw a chance of killing.
The next districts weren't really interesting, until district 11 was shown. The little girl looked barely twelve. I hoped I wouldn't have to be the one to kill her, although it wasn't likely. She wouldn't be able to hold herself in combat and would either be killed at the cornucopia during the first fight or would die of hunger, thirst or freeze to death.
The male tribute was another story. He was huge and muscled, wearing a grim expression. He seemed like the only other opponent worth my effort until now, and probably would remain the only one because it had been years or maybe decades since somebody likely to win was chosen in 12.
He would be a great ally but somehow I didn't think that he would join the didn't have the best reputation in the other districts, and it was seen as bad form to join the Careers.
When I saw the little girl in 12 walking towards the front I mentally groaned. Really? Another twelve year old?
But then I saw her.
She ran forward shoving the little girl aside and shouting that she would volunteer. The little girl protested and tried to stop her from mounting the stage, but a tall dark haired guy came and held the twelve year old back.
She told them her name – Katniss – and exchanged a glance with the guy. Hmm, maybe her boyfriend.
I noticed that she shared her last name with the little girl. Sisters. I had to give it to her, most people didn't have a strong sense of family on the day of the reaping.
My eyes were glued to the TV, fascinated.
She wasn't beautiful in the classical meaning of the word. She wasn't curvy, but her sinewy form spoke of strength and agility. She had silky brown hair and held her head high with a defiant tilt to it. Her face was pretty but her eyes were what drew my attention. There was something wild and untamable in them. They reminded me of him.
The male tribute was drawn, but I concentrated on the girl – Katniss – again, when I saw the softness in his eyes. Her expression remained stoic and not one tear escaped her stormy gray eyes, in contrast to other tributes who can't stop bawling throughout the whole ceremony.
She didn't seem resigned and broken with the prospect of going into the games, but rather determined and resolved – she looked like a survivor.
And exactly these people were the most dangerous. She had something or rather someone to fight for, someone she loved so much that she went into the Games for them, in other words into almost certain death. And she had someone to come back to.
I knew then and there that she would be my true opponent, that it would be between me and her in the end. And I wasn't sure anymore that it would be me coming out as the winner.