BLOOM RONA, DISTRICT 11 FEMALE TRIBUTE (littlechurchboy22)

This room has a bad aura. I can feel it deep within my bones. Nothing so far in the games has given me this bad of a feeling, and that's saying something. It reminds me of the feeling the peacekeepers around my district give off. Except for Seth, of course.

Seth is my prince. In my daydreams, he's a rich peacekeeper who's from a secret royal family. At night, when I dream, a typical occurrence is for him to carry me away... away from Panem. Away from my mother's suffering. Away from my father's emptiness.

Anyway, back to the training room: It's bad. I can just feel the hundreds of now-dead tributes's absurd hopes and dreams. A wish that maybe, just maybe they could get out alive.

I'm the only one sitting on the floor. The careers, the three districts that are here, anyways, look down on me with glints in their eyes. They think I'll be easy. I probably will be, I agree. But in no way am I going down without a fight.

When the last tributes arrive, the pair from two, the head-trainer steps into our circle.

"Welcome to the Hunger Games Honorary Training Area." Her voice is flat. A tag pinned to her chest proclaims her as "Ella Paylor."

"Here, for three days, you will train for the seventy-sixth annual hunger games. Please welcome Alma Coin with statistics."

"Hello, tributes!" This woman is more animated, albeit the nervous glances she tosses at the game makers. "This statistics were compiled from the previous seventy-five... seventy-four, Hunger Games. Please adjust your thoughts for 26 tributes. These are purely for educational use by the tributes." She clears her throat with another glance at the people in the stands.

"On average, forty-one percent of tributes die within the blood b-" she blanched, stumbling to fix her mistake, "first twelve hours of the games. Including those, approximately eighty percent of tributes will die from combat. Four percent from dehydration. Twelve percent will die from ailments or lack of supplies, including malnourishment or unknown reasons." Paylor gives her a nod, and steps forward again.

"The list of the stations are-"


ANGELINA SPARROW, DISTRICT 6 FEMALE TRIBUTE (charliesunshine)

"Knives throwing. Spear throwing/combat. General Combat. Electrical Workings. Swords"

I tune out as soon as I hear my best weapon called. I'm not very good at working with long swords, but short ones, I can handle. I think. Truthfully, I've never really tried. I didn't get many opportunities at home, so I have to guess.

As soon as the whistle blows though, I'm on the move. I make a beeline for the knife station, elbowing a runt from twelve as I go. I can't feel bad for anyone if I'm to win the games.

At the knife station, I find someone has beat me there. Artemis, the frighteningly gorgeous monster of a girl from two has beaten me there. Even from fifteen yards away, I can see her wave the trainer off and eagerly pick up a long dagger. It's sword like, sure, but the curved end and the twisted blade identifies it as a Slicer, with convenient twists of metal to inflict as much damage as possible. It's a great sword for combat.

As I creep closer, she vaults over the training gate and immediately tears into a dummy. I can feel the hot glare of eyes on my back, and as I turn, I notice almost every game maker focused completely on her. I sulk as I creep up to the desk and get simple instructions from the trainer, as I half-watch Artemis skewer the dummy in ways I never thought possible.

Before I know what I'm doing, I'm walking away. I can't do this. Not here, not right now.


CLARE BROOKS, DISTRICT 13 FEMALE TRIBUTE (mkraemz)

We travel in a pack. Me, Jared, District 1, 2 & 4. It's going to be a big career pack this year. Eight vs eighteen regular people. Clean sweep. It's automatic that we've made a pact for final eight. Then, we have to fill in the blanks ourself.

The problem is, most of these kids I can't imagine killing myself. The arrogant girl from two? Sure. The innocent, smiley girl from four? Not so much. Maybe she'll be easier to kill in the games. Right now, as I easily parry her weak strikes with a spear, I know she'll be easy to kill physically. If I could just push my thoughts away.

"Hey, hey hey!" The trainer comes running over. We instinctively drop our weapons. "No fighting between tributes!"

"Sorry sir." We both say in unison, trying not to crack up behind our solemn pouty-lips.

"Just don't let it happen again."


CHAYENE KAYNE, DISTRICT 8 FEMALE TRIBUTE (thegirlfromtheseam12)

Lunch is awkward as hell. I sit by myself, barely touching my salad. A chicken caesar, they call it. It's good. Much better than the spinach doused with low-grade butter and water we get at home.

It's such a long and torturous thirty minutes, I don't really know what to do with myself after it's over. I covered the main stations so far. Only the outside rim, with mainly district-specific (not that I couldn't say, go to a district twelve station) remains. As soon as I see the career pack in my peripheral vision, I take off and land at a random station. My mind stretches to make sense of the short bladed instruments before me. A word floats into my mind. Axe.

I see the tributes from District seven slowly jog up beside me. Oh, right. Seven, lumber. Lumber, axes. I'm reluctant to stay, yet worried if I leave, this could be the one thing I'm good at. So I pick up an axe casually, tell the trainer I want to just try, and take the heavy weapon by the handle. I breathe deeply, trying to get over my social anxiety.

I try and throw directly towards the surprisingly human-like dummy's chest. With a sickening crack of pseudo-bone, I look up, astounded. Instead of landing in the chest, as I planned, the axe is buried hull-deep in it's cranium.

"Nice job, Chayene." The girl from district seven says casually. "Not bad at all."

"Yeah, was that your first time?" The boy says, uncertainly.

"Uh, yea." I blush. For the first time, I look at their faces. They can't be much younger than me, eighteen.

The girl whispers something in the boy's ear. He nods.

"Would you like to join our alliance?" My jaw drops. The boy just said, quite possibly, the seven most important words of the games. They want me. As an ally.


Ahhhh! Sorry for that. Needed to get it over with.

Do you want another training chapter? Or just the scores?

What was your favorite POV?

radieux