Written for Decorate the Palace at Caesar's Palace. For Tribs for being a mad Clato fan.
Clove sits at the edge of the bench, her toes twitching. Training goes like this: trainees are separated into two, sometimes three, groups, and as each trainee moves to the edge of the bench, he or she is up for battle. It's Clove's turn next, and she eyes the two trainees she's up against. She's one of the younger ones here, but that doesn't mean they'll go easy on her.
The fight she's watching ends with a boy with a knife in his throat. Sometimes the instructor makes mistakes and doesn't call time soon enough. As a medic drags him away, the instructor doesn't need to call out the names of the next three trainees. They bounce into the ring as soon as it's clear.
Clove has her knives and her wit, hoping it's a match for Cato's brawn, and Amber's height. The weapon of choice for the day is throwing knives, her favorite, and she thinks she might have a chance at escaping this fight unscathed, and with a victory under her belt.
"Scared?" Cato taunts. "Itty bitty new girl."
Clove draws her knives and begins to fight him, always keeping Amber close in her watch. Amber has a tendency to wait for the two others to tire themselves out, and then to swoop in and defeat both of them.
The clang of metal against metal and the sound of heavy breathing is the only sound echoing in the room. Clove tries to stifle her breaths (her trainer might take it as a sign of being out of shape and make her run a few miles), but it's difficult when Cato is pushing her so hard.
Suddenly, Amber rushes into the fray and deflects a knife coming from Cato at Clove. Clove realizes what she's doing; she'd rather fight Clove than Cato in the end. Well, Clove would show her wrong.
Together, four knives against two is no match for even Cato, and he's incapacitated. Clove flicks away one of his knives, and then Amber twists his other arm back. The instructor declares him out.
Then it's just Clove and Amber. Usually, no fatalities come in these play fight sessions, but Clove couldn't care less about Amber. As Amber's back is turned to let go of Cato, Clove hurls a knife into her back.
She crumples to the ground.
"Clove!" a trainer rushes to her and pushes her to the ground.
Amber was going to be this year's volunteer, and now she probably wouldn't be able to be.
The headmaster waves the trainer down. "I think we've found our new tribute."
Clove is trembling, now. She's received her death sentence.