As the crowd began to dispatch, Fievel helped to escort the two tributes into the mayor's house, which was just behind them. It wasn't a castle, merely a large manor comfortable enough for someone of wealth. Each tribute was led to a separate room for their final good-byes. Sitting down in a gold threaded chair, Merlin simply stared at his feet. No one would come to say good-bye. He suddenly felt a pang of regret, as he wished he could have spoken with his mother. Who would tell her he was gone?
As he thought, he wondered if Deirdre had anyone with her now. Most likely. He thought he had seen someone crying as she walked to the stage. He sat there almost an hour, fiddling with his thumbs, silence biting his ears. Finally, an armed guard brought him outside, where he was greeted by the sound of loud horse neighing. A short distance away from the door, Merlin saw a stallion trying to be reined in by a few stable boys.
"This one tried to follow you in. Is he yours?" Turning sharply Merlin was once again greeted by Fievel. Nodding, his escort put two fingers in his mouth a whistled hard. "Let him go!" Each boy gladly let go and stepped back as the horse nonchalantly made its way back to Merlin.
"Can he come with me?" Merlin asked, wondering how they would be getting to The Capital. Fievel looked at the horse, then Merlin a few times before shrugging his shoulders.
"We will be riding in carriages, and you'll have to have a guard next to you, and if you try to run, you will be shot on sight, but I don't see why not. Give one of our horses a break." He said calmly looking over at the carriage that Deirdre was climbing into, and then signaled a guard to look after Merlin. "I'll be riding in a separate carriage from you and Miss Daill. Were you riding in a carriage, you would be seated with one of the previous winners, but as you're not-"
"I can ride next to him. So it's fair." Both men turned to see Elodie with her horse. "I don't like carriages anyways." She really was very small. Her black hair covered most of her pale face, which was normally faced down to the floor, as her small horse towered over her tiny height. Merlin knew she was chosen as tribute when she was twelve, and was now just barely seventeen, though her size made her appear much younger. He couldn't help feeling bad for her the young girl.
Looking to Fievel, the escort gave a curt bow to Elodie, and then walked off to his own carriage. As he helped Elodie onto her horse, Merlin noticed Silas climbing into the carriage that Deirdre was in. He was suddenly glad he had Elodie with him. While Deirdre would be getting moderately useful information on how to crush your opponents, he might learn something useful about surviving.
At last the party started to move. It would take a while to get there, but Merlin wished it would take longer. Elodie had some difficulty keeping up with him, but they eventually found the right pace.
Merlin and Elodie remained quiet a few moments before they actually began to talk. For the beginning of the trip they discussed everything except The Games. The weather, where they were from, family members, friends, anything that could be discussed was. Until finally they got to a point where they had nothing else left to say. After much silence, they did get around to discussing the games.
They stuck to the topic of survival mainly. What to eat, what not to eat, where to find food, how to keep warm if it's a cold environment, how to keep cool if its hot, where to sleep, when to sleep, and the like. Merlin was glad to know that his mentor was well versed for any setting he might be put in. It didn't make him feel better, but he did feel a bit safer. She steered away from talking about anything of a lethal nature, though Merlin knew enough about killing to make anything she would have said simply irrelevant.
The group took camp every night for three days. Merlin and Deirdre were made to sleep as far from each other as possible, least one of them decided to lessen the competition, so to speak.
On the dawn of the fourth morning, just as they had set off, the grand Capital came into view. It would be only a few hours before their trip would end. Merlin grew paler as they approached, yet Deirdre remained poised, and flush, preparing herself to fit in in a place of grandeur. She looked fairly confident, and Merlin prayed he hadn't missed any truly important information given by Silas.
After getting off their horses and walking the rest of the distance with armed guard on either side of them, Fievel leading the way, Merlin and Deirdre arrived a large stone building, shaped like a giant chess rook. Both tributes were lead in separate directions by their own very excited Prep Team. Merlin was then stripped of his clothes and forced to suffer through the grooming team. They did what they could, though not much was to be done. A lengthy shave, and a fine haircut, along with a scented bath was all they really had to do. It would have been bearable has they not talked the entire time about the last team they had groomed from this District, and how painful it was to watch them die, though apparently their deaths were incredibly fascinating as they went into great detail describing them to him. His stomach left upside-down, the team finally left, allowing a tall woman to enter. Her eyelashes were enormous and sparkling blue, to matcher her long silver hair, that touched her ankles.
"You must be Merlin. I'm Ilona, your personal stylist." Nodding his head, the woman looked him up and down. "We have only about twelve hours before you are presented to the world in the opening ceremony. Your costume represents you, and your District. It has to catch the eye of every sponsor watching. A few ideas bounded around our head while Beaux and I were deciding on what you should wear, but after seeing you, I think we have decided."
Merlin followed her words, nodding his head appropriately, though he could never understand how a costume made the difference between sponsors, or otherwise. Still, he knew it was important that he made an impression. But what could one do with lumber? In a previous year, they had dressed up both tributes as logs, making them look rather ridiculous, and scoring a record low of sponsors.
"We really want to stress the tree factor, as that is what Lumber comes from. That means a lot of brown, and green. Alright, are you ready to start?" He must have nodded because off she set, pulling out different dyes and such.
After many hours, Merlin was finally allowed to look in a mirror. He was actually quite shocked with the result. From his lower neck up, the theme was green. Green colouring was added above his eyes, swirling and twisting all the way to his temples. Drops had been put in his eyes to chemically turn them to a dark green. His lips were not completely painted green but merely each line in his lips was filled with green ink. His hair was still brown, but green dye had been put in many locations, giving it a tree top feel of green with brown, rather than the other way round. A green shimmer of sorts had been added to his face and neck, giving it a green tint, without actually turning him green.
Yet bellow his neck, the theme changed slowly to brown. Wooden thorns worked their way up from his left leg to his right shoulder, the down to his wrist, curving around his body. From his right leg to his left shoulder, leather painted like bark had been cut so it too swirled up his body, little bits of it curling off, covering the parts of him that need be covered. One fourth of his left side, from his left shoulder to his left leg was covered in brown and tan paint, making it look almost like a tree trunk.
For accessories he had a necklace made out of a small branch, with delicate leaves painted on it, and for shoes he wore bash sandals, the left one ornate with thorns, the other with twigs and bark.
Merlin couldn't believe how strangely beautiful he looked. There was no other way to describe him. Pulling him away from the mirror, Ilona lead him outside to where the chariots were waiting. The two stood there only a few moments before they were joined by who Merlin assumed was Beaux, and Deirdre.
The female tribute looked almost the same as him, save a few changes. Her neck up the make-up was a mirror image to Merlin's, her long blond hair now dusty brown with green, and her upper torso was almost identical, but from her waist down, the leather and thorns formed into a tight dress, rather than the pant-like design that Merlin wore.
Following the two was Fievel, Silas, Alfred, and Elodie.
"You have 20 minutes left before you go out." Fievel explained. Silas took this chance to walk over to Merlin.
"Now listen Boy, all you want to do is get sponsors. So be anything but yourself for this crowd. People won't like who you are now, so you have to stop bein' you. See, me, I was lucky, and got sponsors just for bein' me. I'm a genuine artifact, I am. The sponsors were jumpin' to help me. Not that I needed it, as you can see. I was tellin' Deirdre, I says, if I had gotten any more sponsors, I would have won the game twice!" At this point he clapped his hand to Merlin's back, causing Merlin to jolt forward, allowing the thorns he was wearing to catch on his skin. Soft trickles of blood began to run down Merlin's chest and back. Silas shrugged his shoulders and walked off as Beaux and Ilona rushed over.
"Oh, what a mess…" Beaux complained, as he pulled a few thorns from Merlin's skin. It wasn't very painful, just a few nicks, but it was making a terrible mess. Blood leaked into the leather, causing the paint to stain a bright red.
The two stylists hurried to try and clean the outfit, and treat his wounds, but were cut off by an announcer yelling loudly that
"All Tributes must be in the chariots, and in line, ready to be called out. The Opening Ceremony will be beginning in 5 minutes!" Blood still coming in small rivulets down his chest, back and now arms, he was set in his spot on his chariot and told to simply "Grin and Bear it." Along with an unconvincing "Nobody will notice."
As the music started and the tributes for District One rolled out, Merlin debated back and forth using Magic to stop the blood, but with Deirdre so close, and so many people around, he knew he couldn't risk it.
"Idiot…" He whispered looking over at Silas, who was currently checking out the girl from District Five. Coming from the other end of the tunnel the tributes had to go through, he could hear the two announcers shouting over the crowds of people he knew were there, discussing District One, now Two, then Three's outfits.
Finally the District Sevens chariot was moving through the large tunnel. Heart racing he stared at the blood that had dripped onto the floor, and was now flying off the chariot as the rode faster. Finally, Merlin could see the light of hundreds of torches lighting up the Ceremony area so the thousands of people in the audience could see the Tributes.
Usually the crowd cheered when a District entered, and they did the same for Seven, for a few moments. Then the audience went quiet and looked. It was at this moment that Merlin realized that they were all staring at him. Blood covered, with thorns all over him, leaving a trail of red behind him. With nothing else to do, Merlin raised his hand and waved, smiling to the crowd.
And the whole audience burst into cheers. Listening hard, Merlin heard the announcers.
"I have never seen anything like this. After last years terror of an outfit, District Seven has really pushed the limit! The outfit itself is stunning, but Thorns there is really strutting his stuff. Blood and all, this boy is winning the audience."
"I think it really shows what these games are about. Working through the pain, and finding something to smile for. Simply spectacular. I think Thorns down there is really proving his worth."
Merlin wondered how exactly these people became as stupid as they are, but still he smiled and waved. The more he waved, and the more blood flew off his arm, the more the crowd cheered. Pain equals applause, no wonder all these people liked to watch these games.
As the chariot slowed down, Merlin and Deirdre arrived in from of the Kings castle. King Snow quieted the audience and began his speech. Sighing, Merlin knew he had done well. The crowd had loved him, and that was always positive. Sponsors went for the ones the audience would like to see die the least.
But not everyone was so pleased. Looking to his right he could see Deirdre was fuming. He had once more stolen her glory. Not that it was his fault, if anything Silas was the one to blame. But that's obviously not how she saw things.
As the King finished his speech, the chariot took one last parade around before heading back through the tunnel. The crowd cheered louder when District Seven rolled by, Merlin still waving to the crowd.
Finally, the chariot arrived back through the tunnel, greeted by District Sevens fairly large party of people. Stumbling and dizzy, Merlin climbed out of the chariot before passing out on the floor, his entourage rushing to clean up the blood that he was still losing.
Okay, so a couple things. Yes, Merlin's horse is relevent, it is symbolic, so it's important.
If you notice, Merlin has never looked in a mirror in any season, and I can't imagine that he has ever "gotten pretty" for any reason. So, yes, Merlin admires himself for a moment. A bit OOC, but it was with reason.
I didn't like it either, but I have to make Merlin popular. He has to be vaugly interesting to the audience, so I had to do it. It felt very odd, and off, so I apologize for that.
I had to stress that Silas is an idiot, so that whole tyraid he gave was just to set the stage for him. It may never come up again.
President Snow's a King. I didn't feel compelled to change his name, as he will be mentioned very few times, and I changed it to King because they didn't have Presidents in Merlins time.
A lot of people have asked me to write a chapter about how Arthur reacts after Merlin leaves. I will have this chapter, but it will be a bit later in the story, as I need the story to be at a certain point before I re-introduce Arthur, and anyone else. But it will happen, I promise.
Thanks For Reading, and Please Review.
