The Fox's Game
Chapter 4-Tactics and Training
I'm sorry there hasn't been an update in a while. I am at the beach this week and my internet connection doesn't always work here. Thanks to Funky Chick Next Door, cashia702, Montague Disciple, and Ryah117 who all reviewed the last chapter! Your reviews have truly inspired me to keep going. You all are the best. I hope more people will review this one. I know a lot of people are reading and just don't review. I have allowed anonymous reviews so everyone should be able to. Thanks for all your support! This is the longest one yet so enjoy!
Dinner passed by rather uneventfully last night. I did realize that today is my first day of training though which startled me. The games are approaching way too fast. During training I will learn different survival and weaponry skills that will help during the games. The other tributes will be there as well. I don't like being around them because they intimidate them. One of them will probably be my killer.
On a lighter note, I have been given a fabulous room. It is similar to the chamber I had on the train yet it is much larger. It has a bigger bed and much larger variety of clothes. This room even has precious gems and jewels on different pieces of furniture. I almost decide to revert back to my old habit of stealing but I decide I wouldn't be able to use them for anything. I didn't realize everything in the capitol was so fancy. I guess I thought everywhere was like District 5. I never really considered what other places might be like.
I stare up at the canopy above my bed for a minute. I'm very tired but I can't fall back asleep. Sleeping has become much more difficult during the last couple of nights. I eventually decide to get up and see who else is awake. I sluggishly get out of the luxurious king sized bed and head for a shower.
I put on the crimson colored tunic which has been laid out for me and head down the hall. The only person I find awake is Vilga who appears to be wide awake unlike me. I wonder if she ever sleeps. "Good morning." she says rather expressionless. I try to smile at her. Smiling has become rather difficult because I don't really feel happy about the Hunger Games. Vilga has been my favorite person I've met here so far though. I believe that she wants to help me.
I take a seat at the table with Vilga and sit quietly for a few minutes. Vilga eventually breaks the silence. "We need to work on your strategy Argent. We need to figure out what will keep you alive in that arena." she says in a serious tone. I really have not put much thought into my strategy yet but I know it is something I should definitely work on. "I don't really know what my strategy will be Vilga." I say embarassed. "I haven't got any sort of skills that will help me. I tried to win sponsors over by acting cunning and clever but that failed thanks to District 12." I say. "It does not matter if you you succeed or fail." Vilga says in a serious voice. "I don't think that anyone could have brought down District 12's act."
We sit there quietly for a minute reflecting on last night's opening ceremony. "I have training today." I say in a monotonous voice stating the obvious. "Yes" Vilga says "Training is a very important time for you to learn the many vital skills you need for the Hunger Games" I stare at her for a second thinking about my approach to training. "Vilga," I say slowly. "What if I didn't just train during the training session? What if I did something else that might help me even more?" "Like what?" she asks. I smile at her slyly rather impressed by my new plan. "I could spy on all of the other tributes. I could learn their strengths and weaknesses so I could almost manipulate them in the arena!"
Vilga seems impressed and skeptical and the same time. "That does seem like a good plan."she says slowly "but you need to focus more on learning new helpful skills." "I can do both! I can handle doing two things at once." I say as confidently as I've been since the reaping. "Alright" says Vilga "but if this tribute spying idea distracts you from learning skills then stop at once." I nod doubting that this could possibly distract me from learning stupid things like rope tying.
An Avox suddenly walks into the room carrying several trays which breaks Vilga and I's conversation. He lays our breakfast down on the table and gives a fancy little bow before darting out the door. I stare down at the food in front of me. It looks so delicious! Right now I have every type of food I could ever want at my finger tips but in one week I will have to find my own food. I might even be dead. I shiver at the thought. I guess I really shouldn't get too used to gorging myself at mealtimes or I will pay a major price in the arena. If I get used to feeling hungry it won't be so bad for me. I know I can't completely stop eating but I should at least try to cut down on the amount of food I consume.
Celvis must have arrived during my odd thought about food. I notice that he is wolfing down food like an animal. I sigh. He just doesn't understand how important food is.
After we have all finished breakfast it is about 9:00. Training starts at ten but Vilga says we should try to arrive early. The actual training center is below the ground floor. Celvis and I are are sent down by ourselves about which he is very nervous about. "What if we get lost?" he asks like a small child. "How could we get lost going down six floors in an elevator?" I ask him rather sarcastically. I press the button and the elevator drops down 6 floors. I feel bad for being so mean to Celvis so I try to comfort him by patting his back. He reminds me so much of a small child. He is older than me yet acts much less mature. The elevator door opens to a very large gymnasium which has several stations lined up everywhere around the room. Each station focuses on a specific skill such as shelter building or camouflage.
There is only one other pair of tributes in the room. I recognize them as District 10 as soon as I see the crippled boy. The older girl with dark hair from his District glares at me from across the room. What did I ever do to her? I can't remember either of their names. In fact the only tributes I know by name are the ones from Districts 1, 12 and the girl from 2- Sprint, Glimmer, Clove, Peeta, and Katniss.
Other tributes begin to arrive shortly after us. I notice that almost all of the tributes are taller than me excluding the twelve year old from District 11. A trainer is pinning District numbers on all of the tributes. He pins a large black "5" of the back of my tunic. The tributes from District 12 tributes arrive last. I notice that they are the only ones dressed alike in the entire gymnasium. A woman named Atala begins to speak to us about training. She looks very similar to Vilga and I wouldn't be surprised if they were related somehow. I find it very difficult to concentrate on what she is saying. My attention is wandering to all the tributes gathered around me. I recognize them all from the reapings.
She finally releases us to the stations. I have no idea what to start with. I head over to knife throwing because it appears to be empty at the time. I realize this was a huge mistake when the tributes from District 4 suddenly pounce on me. They are two of the careers! I begin to panic but I don't give them the satisfaction of showing it. "Oh, would you like to join us in knife throwing" the boy asks with an evil smile. "Yes we have plenty of room!" the girl says says with a sharp laugh. She hurls a knife at the dummy that has been placed in front of us as a target. The knife shoots right through the dummy's head. I glare at her. She holds a particularly sharp knife up to my chest. "I'll kill you District 5." she says with a deranged look on her face. The boy laughs. "Don't worry" he says "We'll make sure we give the capitol a show."
I dart away from them as fast as I can. Great! I've already made myself a target to some of the most powerful tributes in the game. I decide to head over to the climbing wall. It looks fairly safe. I join in with the boy from District 8. A short, wiry man is explaining climbing to us and appears to be thrilled at having two tributes at a time at the wall. I have never climbed anything but the large tree that was outside of the academy. I was actually fairly good at it. I climbed higher than most of the girls could. The trainer finally releases us onto the wall as he pulls out a a timer. "Ready, Set....Go!" I race up the wall past the boy from District 8. I easily maneuver myself around the many obstacles that have been placed on the wall. I reach the top before the boy can make it half way. The trainer seems impressed. My small build probably helped me some. Being small is actually an advantage in climbing.
"32.8 seconds" the trainer says. "Great Job!". I smile at him and make my way to the next station.
The rest of the day goes by with me trying different types of survival skills. I wouldn't dare touch the weapons until the careers have decided they can stop showing off their skills. I do learn many important skills though such as starting fires, purifying water, and identifying edible plants. Whenever I have a chance I watch other tributes. I pay close attention to the careers. I learn their names, memorize their skills, and determine their weaknesses. I have learned much. The boys from Districts 2 and 4, Cato and Courto, and both good with spears. Sprint from District 1 is alright with a mace and Clove is excellent at throwing knives. Glimmer's strength appears to be her beauty. She is decent with the weapons but what really is giving her a leg up is her undeniably gorgeous appearance. Sponsors always seem to be bias to the most attractive tributes. All of this information will be very important to me in the near future.
Lunch finally arrives at around one or two o'clock. The trainers lead us out of the training center and into a large cafeteria. A large buffet of food is lined against the wall containing any food you could possibly imagine. I try to follow my new rule about food. I only get a small sandwich and a salad. I look around for a seat. The careers seem to have assembled around one table yet everyone else appears to be alone. I find a table by myself as far away from the careers as I can get. Just when I am about to take a bite from my sandwich I hear laughter from behind me. I turn around slowly to see the tributes from District 12. I realize that they are the only ones sitting together in the whole cafeteria other than the careers. I turn back to my lunch yet I listen intensely to what they are saying. "Alright I'll keep smiling pleasantly and you talk." says the boy whom I have memorized as Peeta by now. So they are trying to trick everyone! They want everyone to think they are close friends for some reason. This might be an effective strategy in pulling off sponsors but I could never do it. The thought of talking to Celvis like I am his friend just wouldn't fit in this situation.
We return back to training at about 2:30. I have tried a fair number of stations but I really want to try the weapons. I glance over cautiously at their location. I find that they are all career free. Excellent! I can finally try them out. I slink over carefully to the station where I was attacked by District 4 this morning, knife throwing. I pick up an evil looking blade with a black handle. I grip the handle tightly and aim carefully for the dummy's vital areas. I send the knife spinning at the dummy. It pins the dummy in the leg. Not bad for my first try! I continue this for a few minutes until I consider myself to be an adequate knife thrower. It would be great to get my hands on one of these in the arena yet I know it would be way too difficult. I have no intention of fighting off the careers at the bloodbath!
So I continue this routine for the next two days until I have sampled every station available. I continue to watch the other tributes. Learning their names skills, and weaknesses. One tribute that has surprised me is the girl from District 11. Even though she is smaller than me she has some pretty impressive skills. She never misses with a slingshot, and she can climb better than any tribute here. Her name is Rue.
Each day when I return from training I am bombarded with questions from Vilga and Stantov yet I am too tired to answer them. I sleep like a baby at night after training. Training takes a major toll on me. I am exhausted every day when I return home. At least it shows that I am working hard to accomplish these important skills.
The third day of training is the most important. After lunch each tribute gets to have their own private training session. I still am clueless as to what I will show them during my session. I know that I am probably not the best at any of the stations but I am at least average at most. I guess I will show them my climbing skills first. That seemed to stand out as one of my best stations. I was also alright at fire starting and setting traps. I guess I'll start out with those three. If there was some kind of intelligence or strategizing station that would be my best station but unfortunately those would be rather hard to make into stations.
The morning of the third day goes like all the others. We still stay in the normal routine of alternating stations. I can tell that everyone is focused on their best skills though. They are trying to practice before their private training session. I do the exact opposite and practice stations that I still have not tried. I believe that I am okay at all of the stations then excluding strength stations like wrestling and hand to hand combat. I begin to feel rather nervous as I finish up rope tying and we are called for lunch. I don't like performing in front of people but I know this will be different. My life may depend on this performance so I must make a good impression.
Lunch passes by way too fast. Even though I try to slow down time by eating as little as possible. Before I know it they are calling "Sprint Trevada" from District 1. One by one the tributes disappear from the cafeteria. They don't return afterwards so I assume that they are being sent back to their home floor. As each tributes leaves I become more and more nervous. By the time they are calling "Celvis Vanfleet" my legs are shaking violently. I try to calm myself down by taking deep breaths and thinking logically that everything will be alright.
After about five minutes of dreading what is to come by name is called. "Argent Vulpes" a short woman calls in her capitol accent. I automatically stand up and walk shakily towards the Training Center. I look up at the Gamemakers when I enter the gymnasium. They are all talking quietly to each other obviously trying to decide on a score for Celvis. I hope I can at least outscore Celvis. I think it would be rather embarrassing after his childish episode the other night.
I immediately make my way for the climbing wall knowing that it has the best chance of impressing the Gamemakers. I shoot up the wall just like I did on the the first day of training. I look to see that only a few of the Gamemakers are timing me. Most just sit there and watch me like the stupid lazy toads they are. They don't seem to be impressed. I jump off the wall. I decide to go with my plan and do fire starting and setting traps. My fire sparks up rather nicely and I make a very lethal looking trap out of the materials provided yet this seems to bore them even more. I break into a light sweat. Don't panic! I tell myself. I suddenly get an idea. Impulsively I glance over at the knife throwing station. This will be extremely risky but it might just get the Gamemakers attention. I decide it's worth the risk. I bite my lip and walk over to it slowly. I pick up a knife and aim it just like I did two days ago. It misses! I begin to sweat heavier as I pick up a second knife. This one hits the dummy in the shoulder. I give a sigh of relief. At least I was able to hit the dummy. I throw three more knives which all stick the dummy somewhere before I am satisfied with my performance. An elderly gamemaker nods at the door signaling my dismissal. I walk out of the room steadily, hoping with all my heart that I didn't just guarantee my death.