Arthur stood from his seat at the large, circular table and the room fell silent. Looking around, Merlin spotted several other tributes, including Elyan, Gwen, and the boys from Two and Four. "I want to build a kingdom that is fair and just," Arthur stated, and his words resonated throughout the hall. "One where everyone is respected, regardless of who they are and where they come from. A kingdom where no one has to live in fear of the government and children are not sacrificed in retribution for the actions of their ancestors. A place where everyone can live free and where justice reigns."
Merlin awoke, the sounds of cheering still ringing in his ears. Puzzled by his recurring dreams involving the male tribute from District one as a prominent figure, he sat up and glanced at the clock. Training started in half an hour! Obviously Celeste had given up trying to get him and Gwen up on time after yesterday's incident. Pushing his dream to the back of his mind, he hurriedly pulled on the same outfit as the night before and splashed water on his face before rushing to the dining room.
Gaius and Gwen were already sitting at the table, but Celeste was nowhere to be found. Shrugging, Merlin grabbed a bowl and began helping himself to porridge and pouring copious amounts of honey on top. Gwen wrinkled her nose in disgust and Gaius raised his eyebrows, but Merlin continued obliviously, now dumping unfamiliar purple berries on top. He sat down and began to devour it. Only when he had neared the bottom of his bowl did he glance up at Gwen and Gaius, who were still gazing at him with expressions of slight disbelief and disgust.
"What?" he asked, confused.
Gaius shook his head. "Never mind. We were just about to discuss your strategy for training the next couple of days. Now, I want the two of you to stick together and visit as many stations as possible because you never know what the arena might throw at you. Don't ignore the survival stations. Those are just as important if not more so than learning to fight. Make some allies- it never hurts to have a little extra protection. But stay away from the career districts in general unless there is a clear outlier. Most importantly, try not to make any enemies, and if you have an idea of what you're going to do for the gamemakers in your private sessions, don't show off too much at that station. Got it?"
Gwen and Merlin looked slightly dazed, but nodded slowly.
"Alright then. If the two of you are ready, we should head down to the Training Center now so that we're a couple minutes early."
They stepped into the elevator and Gaius turned to them again. "What are you two thinking about ally-wise? Do you want to go as a solo district pair, or do you have anyone else already in mind?"
"Actually, we've already made an alliance with my brother Elyan from District ten," announced Gwen.
Gaius blinked in surprise. "Oh. Okay then…"
They were interrupted by a ding from the elevator, signaling the immanent opening of the doors, and they were joined by the pair from District seven. They looked eachother over silently. The girl was young, maybe twelve or thirteen, and the boy was a couple years older, but he looked extremely strong and well-built in contrast to the girl's slight frame. Soon they had arrived at the ground floor, and the two districts stepped silently out of the elevator without another glance in each other's direction.
Merlin leaned over toward Gaius. "Who were they?"
"I believe that was Lancelot and Helen from District seven. Poor girl. She's the youngest to be reaped this year." He didn't voice it out loud, but both Gwen and Merlin knew that he was wishing her a quick and painless death. Young tributes rarely made it past the bloodbath at the beginning of the Games, and the youngest victor to date had been fourteen. Gaius gave Helen one last sad look, wished Gwen and Merlin good luck, and headed back to the elevator.
Arthur and Morgana were the last to arrive, and a dark-skinned woman with silver tattoos named Atala began giving them instructions.
"You have two days to train both in weapon and survival skills using the stations in this room. On the third day, you will each have a private session with the gamemakers, where you will receive a score that will be displayed for the benefit of your potential sponsors. No fighting between tributes will be permitted. If you would like to stage a one on one battle, trainers will be available for you to do so. Any questions?"
The vaulted room echoed her question but the tributes remained quiet.
"Alright then, let's begin!"
The Career Districts headed immediately to the weapon stations, laughing loudly and chatting amongst themselves. Merlin watched uneasily as several of then picked up enormous broadswords and began hacking dummies to pieces as if it were as easy as cutting through butter. He gulped.
Elyan headed towards Merlin and Gwen and nodded in greeting. "So what's the plan? Do we want to split up?"
"Gaius told Merlin and I to stick together, but we could certainly cover more ground if we spent the morning at different stations and then met up at lunch to share what we learned," Said Gwen thoughtfully.
"Sounds good," replied Merlin. "I'll start over at the knot-tying station."
He watched as Elyan headed over to the obstacle course and Gwen went to try camouflage, then turned toward his own station. The trainer looked bored out of their mind, and greeted him enthusiastically, obviously not used to anyone visiting such an unpopular station. He quickly showed Merlin how to tie several types of knots, which Merlin found to his surprise that he was fairly good at. They quickly moved on to nooses, traps, and nets that could be used to trap anything from small animals to not-so-small tributes. Feeling confident in his knot tying skills, Merlin decided to move on, and the trainer gave him a small length of rope to practice with and looked disappointed as he left.
Next, although he already knew quite a bit about edible plants, Merlin meandered over to that station to review. He glanced at the samples on display and could recognize most of them immediately without assistance, so the trainer put him at a computer with some kind of automated test, which he did extremely well on, only missing two out of fifty.
Glancing at the clock, Merlin realized he only had half an hour before lunch break, so he decided to try his hand at the climbing wall, which he was already pretty sure he would be terrible at.
Twenty minutes later, a very sweaty and slightly shaky Merlin was gratefully back on solid ground, and decided to go join Gwen where she was practicing at the spear station. She was doing alright, hitting the target most of the time, and Merlin decided to give it a go. The spear hit the ground several yards in front of the target with a heavy thunk. Gwen stifled a giggle, and he looked at her indignantly. He could hit the bull's eye every time if he were to throw it with magic.
The buzzer went off for lunch, and the tributes streamed into the cafeteria eagerly. Merlin helped himself to chicken soup and rice and sat down at a table in the corner. Soon Elyan joined him, then Gwen.
"So what did you guys learn?" he asked curiously.
Elyan started off. "I did the obstacle course a couple of times, then I visited the sword-fighting station, but I think that's what I'm going to do for the gamemakers, so I didn't stay there long. Before lunch, I spent a long time at the fishing station. So now I know how to make a fishhook out of pretty much everything. I can show you guys how later."
"Well I went to the camouflage station first, and the trainer tried to show me how to paint myself to blend in with the trees and mud, but I was pretty horrible at that, so I went to the archery station for a bit, then the spear station. The spears were okay, but bottom line is I think I'll stick to knives and swords. What about you, Merlin?"
"Umm… I went to the knot-tying station and learned lots of stuff about traps and nooses. I have some rope I can teach you with from the trainer. Then I went to the edible plants station to review, and then to the climbing wall." Merlin blushed. "I think I'll try to avoid climbing cliff faces in the Games if at all possible."
"Then he joined me at the spear station for a bit," finished Gwen.
They finished their respective lunches in silence, and Merlin pulled out his bit of rope to teach Elyan and Gwen basic knots until the buzzer rang again, signaling that lunch was over.
Reentering the training area, Merlin walked over to try his luck at the fire-starting and cooking station. The trainer handed him a flint and a couple of rocks and instructed him to try using each to create a spark to start a fire, then moved off to help the pair from District three, who had lit half of the station on fire.
Merlin struggled for several minutes, striking the rocks together until his fingers were numb to no avail. He snorted to himself. This was stupid. Why was he wasting his time with a flint and stones if he could light a fire with a simple spell? He glanced around, but the other tributes were busy at their respective activities and the trainer and the others at his station were still busy frantically dumping buckets of water on the flames on the other side of the area.
Turning his back on the rest of the room and bending over the pieces of wood he was to set alight, he muttered, "Hlisa." The logs were immediately set aflame, and the instructor, now covered in soot and ashes, moved back over to where Merlin sat. She nodded in approval and handed him a pot and a knife as well as some vegetables so that Merlin could begin to prepare a simple meal.
However terrible he was at lighting a fire naturally, Merlin found that he really enjoyed cooking. He had successfully made a delicious-smelling vegetable soup that was steaming gently, and he had gone over to the trainer to ask for a bowl to try it in when he was interrupted by raucous laughter and the thud of knives hitting a target.
Merlin turned, his eyes widening in surprise and disgust. Arthur, surrounded by a group of several other boys who looked on with a mixture of amusement and dislike, had obviously grown bored by training and had started throwing knives at a target. But the target was being held by none other than young Helen, and he was demanding that she run back and forth, saying that he wanted a moving target. Lancelot looked on in helpless rage, and it was in that moment that Merlin decided that he had to do something.
"Hang on!" Helen yelped as a knife slammed into the edge of the target by her hand.
"Don't stop!" ordered Arthur, grinning. Helen took several steps back in fear. "Come on! Run!"
Helen's arms finally gave out, and the heavy target rolled across the floor to land by Merlin's feet. He put a foot on it and turned to Arthur, who was staring at him with thinly-veiled contempt.
"Hey, come on, that's enough," Merlin stated calmly, ignoring Arthur's murderous gaze. Morgana gave Merlin a small smile and smirked at Arthur.
"What!?" exclaimed Arthur, outraged.
"You've had your fun, my friend."
"Do I know you?" Arthur asked in confusion.
"Err, I'm Merlin," Merlin replied, holding out his hand.
Arthur ignored Merlin's outstretched hand and stared at him in disbelief. "So I don't know you."
"No," said Merlin quietly, withdrawing his hand.
"Yet you called me friend," Arthur spat in distaste.
"That was my mistake."
"Yes, I think so."
"Yeah. I'd never have a friend who could be such an ass," Merlin retorted, smiling. He turned to walk away.
"Or I one who could be so stupid," Arthur snorted, and Merlin stopped walking. "Tell me, Merlin. Do you know how to walk on your knees?"
"No."
"Would you like me to help you?" asked Arthur with fake cheer.
"I wouldn't if I were you," answered Merlin, his voice dangerously quiet.
Arthur laughed loudly. "Why? What could a shrimp like you do to me? I saw you at the spear station earlier, you know."
"You have no idea."
Grinning even wider, Arthur motioned for Merlin to go ahead. "Be my guest! Come on! Come on!"
Merlin grimaced, stealing a quick glance at the window behind which the gamemakers were looking down at the scene in interest. He couldn't use magic. Not here in front of everyone. Steeling himself for the embarrassment he knew was to come, he took a wild swing at Arthur, who twisted his arm behind his back as easily as swatting a fly. The surrounding tributes groaned, and Merlin saw Gwen wince through a haze of pain. He gritted his teeth, but resolved not to show Arthur how much it hurt.
Arthur leaned over and muttered in Merlin's ear. "You know, in District one I could have you arrested for that."
Merlin blinked away tears of pain. "Who do you think you are, the king?"
"No, I'm his son. My father is the mayor and victor Uther Pendragon of District one, vanquisher of magic and idiots like you. He forced Merlin to his knees with a simple swipe at the back of his legs and strode away laughing.
His face burning with suppressed anger and embarrassment, Merlin walked quickly, head down, back over to his soup. He scowled. It was cold now, and completely unappetizing. Besides, he wasn't hungry anymore anyway. Discarding the lump of vegetables, he stormed from the station and back to the elevator, ignoring the protests of the trainers as he pressed the button to go to the roof. The Arthur from his dreams was definitely not the same one that he had the misfortune of meeting today at training. He seethed silently. Why the hell would he want to share a destiny with or be the other side of a coin with such a stupid, arrogant prat?"
The doors swung open, and Merlin breathed the fresh, cool air in deeply. He let out a frustrated yell and an empty pot in the garden shattered. He sank to the ground, drained. What seemed like hours later, he heard footsteps behind him as someone sat down next to him. It was Gaius.
"You never cease to amaze me! The one thing that someone like you should do is keep your head down, and what do you do? You behave like an idiot!"
Merlin hung his head dejectedly. "I'm sorry."
"It's not me you should be apologizing to. You just put yourself in more danger than you ever needed to be in. Now you'll be first on Arthur's kill list, and guess who'll be next? Your allies!"
Merlin sat in silence and the old man sighed. "Dinner is in an hour. Please be there."
As the elevator doors shut behind Gaius, new thoughts rushed through Merlin's head. What had he done? He was only trying to stand up for someone who was being harried by someone stronger than her, and now he'd probably made automatic enemies for not only himself, but also for Helen and his friends.
The elevator doors slid open again and Merlin whirled around, a sharp dismissal on the tip of his tongue, when he saw it was Gwen. He blinked in surprise as she helped him to his feet.
"For all it's worth, I thought it was really brave of you to stand up to him."
Merlin shook his head. "It was stupid. All I did is make sure that you, Elyan, and I are on the top of Arthur's kill list along with that poor girl."
"Nonsense," replied Gwen. "All it means is that we'll have to face him sooner rather than later. And we would have had to eventually anyway. Besides, you should have seen how the other tributes watched you. You may have earned yourself one enemy, but I think you earned more than a few friends in that encounter- including Morgana and Lancelot. I'm glad you decided to walk away though. You weren't going to beat him alone."
Merlin snorted. "Oh, I can beat him."
Gwen looked sideways at him doubtfully, but not wanting to hurt his feelings. "Umm… You think? Because you don't look like one of those big muscle-y kind of fellows."
"Thanks," Merlin answered sarcastically, slightly wounded.
Gwen blushed. "No! No, I'm sure you're stronger than you look. It's just, erm… Arthur seems like one of those real rough, tough, brute force kind of guys, and well…"
"What?"
"You don't look like that."
A slight smile crossed Merlin's lips, and he whispered, "I'm in disguise."
Gwen laughed. "Come on, Merlin. Let's go to dinner."
A/N: I have about seven more chapters written, but I should be getting to sleep, so I will post them tomorrow. :)
