Erm. Sorry for disappearing. Here's a new chapter! Read and Review! Erm.. If you like SYOT, please join mine This is a rather boring chapter… A filler, without much drama in it. Some characters appeared! Hope you like them Hanfu is a type of ancient chinese clothes. Thank you Kai Bin for editing and doing your awesome magic!

Chapter 4

"Hi, little concubine," Cato said with a smile.

"What do you want?" her voice shrewd, defensive.

"You don't need to be so nasty. It ain't gonna get you anywhere"

"It got me here"

"Don't you like it here?"

"What do you think?"

"Oh right, you tried to run away... twice."

Well, at least he remembered that, Clove thought, how much did he remember exactly?

"How's that working out for you?" Cato's expression had turned serious. And Clove felt like she may have started out on the wrong foot. She's seen this guy kill.

She forced a smile, "Good. Good. So you're the first prince?"

"Yeah, that ain't gonna fool anybody."

The smile wiped off Clove's face.

"You know, you're a pretty skilled fighter." Cato mused, the smile reappearing on his face. Well, of course, Clove knew that.

"Thank you. You're not so bad yourself."

"I expected you to be more... elegant while speaking to a prince"

"Don't get your hopes up."

Cato grabbed Clove's hand. She tried to pull away but his grip was too strong.

"Let go!" She screamed.

"Hey, calm down. Just taking you to Denise and Beiste. They've called for your presence.."

"Who the hell is that?

"Imperial Consorts"

"Imperial Consorts? The high ranking concubines of the emperor?"

Cato silently dragged Clove over to a pavilion in the Garden. There sat two beautiful women dressed in hanfu. She could also make out Katniss and Rue.

"Have fun," Cato whispered into Clove's ears before making a hasty exit.

Clove stared at the furthering figure for a while before she joined the others.

Once of the women immediately wailed out when Clove sat down. "Oh, finally, we've been waiting for ages! Where were you? Taking a dump before you came here right? You do realise there's about two hundred toilets in this castle, why couldn't you just..."

"Oh shut it, let the girl have some fancy, Beiste," Denise offered a cup of tea to Clove and introduced herself. She was fair, with long cascading blonde hair. Her eyes were the colour of the sky and she had a stern aura around her, which reminded Clove of her etiquette teacher. Peeta's mother...

Beiste however was dark skinned, her eyes shining. She had a carefree, wild aura around her, that draw people towards her, making them at ease. Thresh's mother...

Both women then started talking about their sons. Nothing rather interesting. Katniss and Rue seemed to be rather interested, listening about their "owners". Nothing about Prince Cato came out. So, Clove started looking around the garden.

The maid walking around the small fountain caught her eye. There was something different... something wrong. Then she saw it, a knife, slidded into the maid's left stocking. What's that doing there?

"Is that right, Clove?" Denise's voice rang into her ears.

"I'm sorry, what?" Clove suddenly felt that she was in trouble. It was to her relief when Rue mouthed the question back to her.

"Oh yeah, we did. Briefly." Clove said back.

"That's good. Cato's quite a gentleman."

That wouldn't be the exact way I'd put it, Clove thought. But in the end, she ended up asking,

"Does Cato fight a lot?"

Denise looked appalled, "What kind of question is that? Of course not. No prince would ever commit something so ruthless and disgusting!"

She's hiding something... but why would she?

"Well... it was nice meeting you ladies, but we should be getting back," Beiste got up, and left. Denise followed behind.

The three concubines sat in silence for a while.

"Well, that, was freaking awkward," Katniss said.

"Very." Rue agreed.

Clove looked towards the fountain again, the strange maid was gone. Just then, Prince Cato arrived. Two guards following behind. "Clove"

His voice was more serious then Clove remembered it to be. "Coming," she muttered. "Well, hurry up, we don't have all day!" Clove was suddenly hit with confusion. Why was Prince Cato suddenly so... Was it because she treated him horribly just now? No. That's when she saw her. Glimmer.

Glimmer shot her a look, detest. Obviously... Clove made her way to Cato's side, Katniss and Rue staring on. She pretended to look weak, playing on Cato's ploy. Obviously, Cato wouldn't want to get caught being nice to the person his wife hates right? Or did that horrid bitch told Prince Cato what Clove said to her?

"Good afternoon, Mistress Glim-mer"

Glimmer stared at Clove, hatred in her eyes. But she meant to savour the moment. "I believe a curtsey would be appropriate."

Clove slowly curtseyed and looked up at Glimmer. Bitch...

"Come on, we don't have the whole day," Cato's voice full of impatience.

Clove stood along the aisle, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did, nothing has. Ever since she got here, everything had been in a complete hustle. She was brought in to be a concubine, yet she seemed more of a slave in the hands of Glimmer, and more of an acquaintance with Cato (well, when Glimmer isn't around that is). Not that she's complaining. But still, something isn't right. There was something common between all the concubines. They could fight. Clove could throw knives, Katniss could use a bow, and Rue... what could Rue do again?

Something snapped, and Clove turned around. It was that maid. That maid she saw earlier! The one with the dagger in her stockings. The one with sneaky eyes which did not match with her innocent smile. Something's not right. Something isn't right with this whole set-up. There must be more reason to this than being concubines. But if the maids were trained... why did they bring in more concubines?

Unless, the maids weren't trained...

You don't belong here... Who are you?

Clove took a step back, readied a knife in a her right hand. As soon as the maid had her back towards her, Clove let it fly. It soared, the glistening in the sun.

Time to find out.

A girl with long fire red hair and amber eyes smiled at the distance. Interesting. Concubine Clove. What exactly are you? She laughed, twirling her paper parasol. Tiana is interested now~