Panem wasn't exactly my idea of a nice place to live.

Jeb took me to a part of the country that was known as District 6. He told me that it represented medicine and other scientific research.

There seemed to be a large excitement among many people. A crowd of teenagers seemed to be in barriers and Jeb sent me to join a group of them that he explained to me were my age group.

"Remember," he told me, "There will be a time for people to volunteer after a name is drawn, that is when you step forward."

A woman stepped onto the stage and started to make a rather large speech about the games. How they begun and how exciting this year's quater-quell would be. I didn't understand how anyone could look forward to these horrid games. When the woman said that all of the contestants of this year would be genetically modified beings, I nearly choked. That was just a nice way to say, "This year all the mutants of Panem are going to try and kill each other, isn't that great?"

Just then the reaping began. The boy that was drawn was a fourteen year old called Roy Landon. He claimed that he was part man, part cat, which apparently gave him amazing agility. He looked rather pleased to have been chosen.

The girl that was chosen was younger, just twelve, though being part tree, she aged a lot slower, so we had no idea what her real age was. She was rather upset when she got chosen, after all, what powers does a tree-woman have? You couldn't wipe the smile off of her face when I volunteered.

"Thank you," she whispered as she passed me while I was walking up to the stage. I smiled in response.

I put on a huge fake smile as I clambered up onto the stage.

"What's your name, dear?" the woman asked me, putting a thin arm around my shoulders.

"Max Ride," I responded.

"And how have you been modified," she asked with great interest.

Smiling, I told her, "I'm part bird."

"Oh!" she squeaked, 'How interesting!

"Well folks," she continued, "There are your champions! Now, we'd better be off, a lot to do you know."

On our way out, Jeb managed to get close enough to whisper into my ear, "Don't fail me," before I was ushered onto a train.

The woman introduced herself to us as Sheri. She had bright sky-blue hair, and funny patters of the same colour drawn onto her face. She explained to me in her squeaky voice that we were now off to the Capitol, in order to prepare for the games. She left us in the train cabin to eat our lunch, which had just been served to us. I couldn't believe the amount of food that these people were going to feed us. There was enough there to feed the whole flock, which was saying something.

Helping myself to food, I introduced myself to Roy. Now that I was closer, I saw that he did, in fact, have yellow coloured eyes just like that of a cats. He also showed me that he could lengthen his fingernails at will, as a cat would extend it's claws.

"So," he asked, "What can you do?"

"Oh, not a lot," I lied. No need to tell him about the super quick healing rate or my light bones. He was going to be my enemy once we stepped into the arena, but I did feel that I needed to show him something. "Just got some super-cool accessories," I told him, stretching out my wings.

"Awesome," he gasped, then put his hand up, "Can I?"

I nodded and he reached out to touch my wings.

"That is cool," he said.

We continued talking, but eventually I decided it was time for some alone time, and moved to the carriage that had been designated to me.