DISCLAIMER: You know the drill, Hunger Games are not mine!
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Its starting to come to a head only a few chapters to the launch of our brave little / big pair. Anyone excited? No? Too bad!
ALSO: I realized if I decide to put up the sequels to this that the year of her games was all wrong! So I had to make her games the 69th not the 68th...I realized this at work while working and it has plagued me ever since...so! Sorry for the mix up people I hope it won't happen again
Chapter the Seventh
Training, and Standing out
Farrow and I are one of the firsts to arrive we are wearing matching uniforms with our district number on the arm. Tracker tells us to absorb as much as we can, this is a time to learn not just what the instructors are teaching us but also to size up our competition. Farrow tells me to let him deal with learning about the tributes, he has size on his side, he can intimidate them while I ….well…can't. Of course he says that to me jokingly, but I know it's true. How can someone my size talk to an eighteen year old and stare them down?
The main instructor explains the chances of dying aren't just by the hands of other tributes; I can't help but think she thinks we are idiots. Eating poisonous plants, infections, exposure, she goes on about it. If I didn't know any better it would sound like they expect us all to die from scratches we know to clean and dress. Then she lets us go to practice.
I am not all that proficient with weapons, unless they have spear launchers. Which of course they don't. I bet they wouldn't know one if it was used against them anyway.
I do try a crossbow, and I find it an easy substitute although much heavier and clumsier than my atlatl.
I excel on plant life the theme seems to be reminiscent of my district situated in dry desert like settings. Mostly cacti and succulents, that is plants with thick fleshy insides, I know many and learn a lot. Some things throw me though and I make a point to remember what they are so I can look them up later.
I get a feel for the other tributes in this time too, and although a lot of them seem to be keeping to their districts the two from twelve search me out. Their names are Celena Harrow and Archie Niveen, and they teach me a bit about the cross bow. Apparently according to Archie some brave teenagers from the seam (what they call their poor part of town) will go hunting outside in the wooded areas.
They don't have crossbows but he read about them and shows me how to load it better. The instructor had said I was too small to do this on my own but pointing it down and pulling with both hands as one foot braces the nose actually is manageable. As long as I don't have to load quickly I could manage this weapon in the arena, if they have it in the arena.
In return I teach them the flora and fauna part of the training, as much as I know, what to eat how to eat it and what not to touch at all. That's most of the cactuses. The barrel cactus fruit can be used for a food source but only in desperate situations I warn them quietly, you can live off if but it will make you really sick if you go overboard, the spines are dangerous if they get a deep puncture it gets infected really fast, we all agree if we see them in the games to just steer clear, there are much easier cacti we see and know by the end.
Celena volunteers at a preschool when she isn't in class, and she does a lot with paint, she shows me how to use the pigments to camouflage myself with the plants, I end up looking like a piece of living desert in the end and I know when I get back upstairs to the level five rooms Perusse is going to flip and order me to shower. I can't help but allow myself to smile. She also explained that during the parade she was telling Archie how I remind her of one of the girls that just started school.
Ha ha I know I am short but that short? When I look a puzzled and bit annoyed she shakes her head, it was my attitude, and the look I had at wearing a dress, and my slightly lost expression. Okay now she makes sense.
I always feel like we are being watched, and for good reason. Just above us is the viewing area is the game maker and his crew. I feel their eyes especially when I am practicing with weapons, and when I was showing my knowledge to Archie and Celena. I don't like them, funny thing is I don't hate any of my fellow tributes, even the careers have their endearing qualities, however few. They are all eighteen the teens from district one to four, the fourteen year old from district ten doesn't even say hi when I give a small wave of acknowledgement, maybe he has already given up.
Between training and eating and sleeping and working on the dress for my interview with Darwin I lock myself in my room and read. Survival books, weapon books, books on how to safely prepare different animals that I don't know about, and books on first aid I devour.
First aid seems to get my attention the most, I don't know why but I absorb it like a sponge and manage to get advanced books on the subject by week two.
Week two brings on the individual training. Tracker takes Farrow and I downstairs early before even the careers have breakfast. We run lapse of the gym, push-ups, sit-ups, Farrow lifts weights and I am on the climbing walls for three hours a day. Then we are trained in how to present ourselves for interviews, and then Farrow and I study the books again.
The final day prior to interviews is just individual assessment; Farrow gets called before me as I wait with the other tributes. Celena and Archie give me nods of encouragement; we have thirty minutes to show them what we can do, it can go longer but that's depends on what you are doing.
When I get in I grab a hunting knife from its spot and go to one of the prop trees I had seen. I cut a blanch to carve a rough atlatl out of , it takes me the better part of my thirty minutes but it's worth it because I see them starting to pay attention, them paying attention means I have a bit more time. I go over to where the javelins are and pick the lightest one from its spot. It's light…very light which is perfect for what I need to do. The dummies are pretty far, about the distance a desert hare is when I usually peg it in the head. I line my shot and send the javelin soaring thru the air, I turn knowing I hit my mark when I hear the *thunk* as the dummy tips over with the javelin in it head target.
I no longer feel like a glow worm, Darwin has me spin in the crushed black velvet dress we designed together, it has invisible embroidery that will show up under a black light he has gotten installed for this sole purpose, and the fabric has been treated to do the same. When that light hits me I will be the literal glow worm Farrow calls me.
"You definitely have a talent for drawing" he says, "but what do the symbols mean?"
"It's a message to my brother" I tell him, "don't worry Darwin its nothing bad, just a family saying, and you'll learn it along with Caesar." I look in the mirror, I dunno what to feel right now, Darwin comes over and has me look at him.
"You'll do fine, just be yourself okay?" he says, "you wowed them in training getting that ten, the interview is a cake walk now"
"I hope so, and I hope Seneca is watching" I say to Darwin, as he hugs me he chuckles. "Darlin' the whole of Panem is watching"
AUTHOR'S NOTE 2: And all my readers are as well little Ari!
