I'm in the Games, surrounded by nothing but open land and tributes. I hear the gong sound and bolt for the Cornucopia. I see a backpack, a sword, and a collection of knives. I grab them all and run in the opposite direction.
Everyone is running after me. I try screaming for Talon, but I can't make any noise. Densper reaches me first. He tackles me to the ground and he's trying to kill me. Right as he's about to shove a knife through me, I can scream. And I do, as loud as can.
Densper's shouting something at me. I can't make it out right away. I concentrate on trying to read his lips as I'm screaming.
"Wake up Althaea! Althaea, stop screaming! You're fine," he's shaking me.
Wake up? What is he talking about? I keep screaming. "Althaea, you're dreaming, it's okay. Wake up please."
I do. I wake up screaming and crying. Densper's looking at me with concern.
"I'm sorry." I manage to mutter. "What time is it?"
"It's about 4 in the morning. Althaea, what did you dream about?" I can't tell him that I had a dream that he was killing me. Plus, I don't really want to re-experience the dream. It felt so real.
"I'd rather not talk about it. Thank you for waking me up."
"You're welcome. Try to sleep well. Alright?" He says.
"I won't make any promises. Night," with that Densper leaves and I fall back asleep.
When Candlet wakes me up today, it's really hard to get out of bed. Between staying up and talking to Kenmet and sleeping poorly from my dream, I'm tired; very tired. Once I finally will myself to get out of my bed, I put my training clothes on and pull my hair into a simple a ponytail.
During breakfast, Densper and I resolve that it's okay if we discuss strategy together with our mentor. Breakfast for us is strategy time. Kenmet tells us how he won his Games. Of course, for me, this isn't much help because he was a Career tribute and they kept each other alive until the very end. I can only hope that my alliance will do the same thing. Kenmet says that he didn't do any of the killings, up until the very end of the Games. With that, Densper and I head down to the Training Center.
Today, we're permitted to start as soon as all the tributes arrive. I walk over to Talon and Saffra. "I think we should split up today so we can cover more stations." My thinking is that we can't hit each station by the time today is over, if we split up, we can each have knowledge from the stations we tried out, and then share them.
"Sounds like a plan. Althaea, since you seem to be good at weaponry, you should take those stations, and Saffra; I want you to try to learn some weaponry skills as well. I'll work on strength." Sounds like a pretty good plan to me, but that could be because it was Talon who said it.
"Should I work on identifying too? Just in case we split up," Talon and I look at each other. We haven't even thought about what would happen if we got split up. We tell Saffra that it's a good idea to learn some identification.
I immediately head over to the archery station. I saw some people shooting yesterday, and I thought it looked like it could be fun. Plus, you could easily kill from a distance if you're a good shot. Since I'm the first person at the station, I ask the trainer some pointers on how to shoot accurately. He first explained to me the two types of bows I could use: recurve and compound.
"The compound bow has something like a pulley system to make it easier to shoot. It holds the weight more than a recurve bow does. A recurve bow is much harder to shoot. It's not as accurate as a compound bow is. I suggest that you start with a recurve bow first, so you can get the harder one out of the way." The trainer then tells me to load my bow. He tells me to pull my fingers back to the corner of my mouth, look down the shaft of the arrow to aim, and shoot.
My first few shots miss the target by a lot. I either over shoot or under shoot. By my fourth shot I am able to judge how off the aim actually is and when I aim, I aim just a little bit above the center of the target. I hit beside the target by about an inch or two. I frown, and shoot again—the arrow hits the middle! I try a few more times, with slightly different techniques, and I get the middle every time. The trainer suggests I try the compound bow next. I pick it up and use the same technique, only this time I aim at the center of the target. It hits the center like the rest of them.
"You're amazing at this. What's your name?"
"My name's Althaea. I'm District 1." He looks slightly less impressed now the he knows I'm from a Career District.
"I've never trained before though. I refused it." For some reason, I want him to be impressed with me.
"That's better then. So you've never shot a bow before?"
"Never."
"You're a natural at it. I think you should move on to spear throwing. I bet you'll be good at that as well."
More weaponry. For some reason though, I'm eager to try. "Thanks for the help."
I move on to spear throwing. There's a line I have to wait in so I talk to the female tribute in front of me. "Hi, I'm Althaea."
"Hi, my name's Cassia Aldjoy." If I'm not mistaken, she's named after a plant that can be used in medicines. I'm pretty sure it's one of plants Zander and I studied.
"You're from District 12, right?"
"Yes, and you're from 1. Have you ever done this before? Spear throwing, I mean." I'm sure she anticipates that I'll say yes.
"No, I've never even handled a weapon until yesterday. How 'bout you?"
"Wait, you've never handled a weapon? You're from District 1!" Here we go again.
"I refused to train when I was given the option."
"Oh. Do you wanna go before me?" I can't help but wonder why she's offering, but I'll just take it for what it is.
"Sure. Thanks, Cassia."
I step forward and pick up a spear. The instructor shows me how to hold it and what form to keep. Here goes nothing. I follow my instructors lead, and I throw the spear.
My previous instructor was definitely wrong. When I throw the spear, I do horrible every time. The spear's too awkward for me to hold and throw. After a couple more tries I quickly give up. I'm really starting to feel the effects of last night's sleep full force now. I need to take a break and do something that I know I'll be good at: camouflage.
I'm virtually the only person at the camouflage station. I mess around with the paints. First I try covering my arm to make it look like a rock. It involves mostly greys and browns. After I'm satisfied with my rock arm, I try to make it so I could blend in with water. This poses to be more of challenge. Water can have so many different colors and currents. The instructor came over and helped me. She told me that I needed to add a little bit more of the white to my blue. Unsatisfied with my water camouflage, I take it off.
I decide to do something a little less productive with the paints that are surrounding me. I ask the instructor for a piece of paper. When she hands it to me, I walk over to all of the paints.
I can't wait to start painting. I try to add as much detail as I possibly can. I want to give this picture to Talon before the Games. Sometimes I look over to see Talon, making sure that I'm painting him correctly. It feels nice to do something that reminds me of home.
It takes me about thirty minutes to paint this picture of Talon and I. I have us standing together in an arena, as the victors. The two of us. It's foolish to even think that something like that could ever happen, but as for the painting itself, I feel fairly good about it. It looks pretty real. I ask my instructor what she thinks.
"What do you think of this?" I ask her.
"Wow! Is that you and the boy over there?" She asks while pointing to the heavy metal balls.
"Yes, it is. His name's Talon." I say with a hint of pride.
"It's really, quite amazing."
"Thank you."
With one of my arms I painted and the picture of Talon and I in my pocket, I move on to the obstacle courses. Kenmet said that if I want to run into that Cornucopia to get supplies I'll need to be fast. The obstacle course is a lot harder than it looks. There are these pedestals that are all different sizes that you have to run across, and the trainer had me ducking and rolling to avoid things being thrown at me. It's actually kind of fun, but I have to move on. I can fit one more station in before the end of training.
Shelter making seems like the best option for me at this point, since Kenmet couldn't really help me. The trainer shows a group of us how to build shelters out grass, rocks, twigs, leaves, and mud. It's not as hard as I thought it'd be.
"Make sure that you build your shelters in a place where they will be camouflaged. Don't build a rock shelter in the middle of the forest. It would stand out too much." After we make a few shelters, it's time for lunch.
Unsurprisingly, I sit with Saffra and Talon. "If we do get split up throughout the Games what are we gonna do?" I know we need a plan so in asking this question, I'm hoping Talon will have an answer.
"We should wait to figure that out. We will need to what the arena will be like before we can find a meeting place." I have no doubts about Talon. I know I can trust him.
"We need a way to meet up after the initial bloodbath. I can guarantee we won't be near each other. "Saffra points out.
" Saffra has a good point. I think we should meet at the tail of the Cornucopia. Wherever it points is the direction we run to meet up." I know this is a good plan. I've been thinking a lot about it in the past few hours, and this is the best solution I could come up with.
"Sounds good. Althaea, promise me that you're not going to run for the Cornucopia. It's too much of a risk. I can run for supplies while you and Saffra run."
"Talon, you can't run for the Cornucopia. I know that you want to be able to protect Saffra, if-"
"And you" He interjects.
"Right, well if you run for supplies you could get killed and I think it would be better for you to worry about protecting, and I'll run for supplies. If there are any supplies in front of your platform, grab them as you run. Please, don't run for the Cornucopia, just get to Saffra and I can meet you both with supplies. Deal?" I really hope he'll agree to this. At least if I die, I don't have to worry about the rest of the Games, if Talon dies though, I will be so crushed and I know that I'll be useless to Saffra.
"Deal." The way he says this, I know he feels defeated, that he's afraid I'll die. At this moment, I realize that I love him and that he loves me.
"Oh, Talon, I almost forgot about this." He looks at with bewilderment as I reach into my pocket. I hand the picture to him.
"What's this?"
"You said that you wanted to see my paintings sometime. Let's just say that I was a little distracted once I started camouflage."
I'm getting nervous as he slowly unfolds the paper. I hope that he likes it. I think that it's one of my best paintings, but Talon might think otherwise.
"It's… amazing. Thank you."
" I don't what you're going to do with it, but I realized that it didn't matter. It only matters that you like it."
" I'm going to see if I can take it as my token."
After lunch, Talon, Saffra, and I ride the elevator together. It's a quiet ride and I'm the first one to get off. Dinner is the same way, quiet. We don't really talk. I can feel that it's getting closer to the Games. Everyone is getting tenser. As soon as I finish eating, I head straight to my room and get a shower. I'm exhausted form today's activities, and after my shower I go to bed and fall asleep instantly.