"And remember," said Atala. "You should try and learn as many new things as possible to give yourself a good chance of winning. It's better to be okay at a lot of different things then to be great at only one thing." And with that the group of tributes broke up, all going to different areas in the training center. Eve had told her the same thing earlier that morning, to try things that she hadn't tried before. So, Feral made her way over to the archery area and listened intently as the instructor told her how to hold the bow and how to aim. He let her try it out on a shooting range, which disturbingly had human-shaped targets at the end. At first she missed completely, only hitting the wall with an arrow. On the second attempt she hit the target, who she decided to call Kevin, in the arm, but just barely. On the third, however, she hit Kevin precisely in the heart. She spent two more hours in the archery area, perfecting her newly-found skills. It seemed she had a gift for hitting the targets, and the instructor said he was impressed. Other tributes came and left but Feral barely noticed, lost in her world of archery.

When she decided to finally leave, she made her way over the spear throwing. Zephyr was there, and she knew she needed to talk to him. She listened to the instructor telling her how important it was to balance the spear carefully before throwing it, otherwise she'd miss. He warned her that people who were good at archery often weren't the best at spear throwing, but she shrugged it off. She headed over to the lane beside were Zephyr was and gave it a shot. She missed the Spear Station version of Kevin by several feet, leaving a hole in the wall instead. She sighed and bounced over to it to pull it out so she could have another go. As she went to go get hers, a spear lodged itself exactly in the heart of the dummy to her right. Zephyr appeared next to her to retrieve it.

"You're good at that!" She smiled, pulling her own loose from the wall. He smiled at her.

"You were amazing at archery," He commented. "I've never seen anyone hit that many bull's eyes in a row like that before." He took a step closer. "It was really spectacular." Feral blushed and glanced up into his dark blue eyes. For some reason, she got the feeling that he wasn't kidding. Feral tore her eyes away and padded back. She waited until Zephyr was out of the danger zone before having another go, landing even farther away from Kevin then the first time.

That was how it went until the last time when she actually had to jump to get it loose from the wall. She finally gave up on spear throwing and went over to Camouflage where Jenn and Tinn were. Tinn, of course, couldn't see, so his attempts at it were pointless. Feral wasn't much better, getting her arm to look more like mud then tree bark. Jenn, however, got her arm to practically disappear, making Feral's mouth drop open. She went over to weight lifting, although she wasn't sure why considering she knew from the start that she'd be horrible at it.

She ended up in Snares, trying to master a complicated trap that would leave a human enemy hanging upside-down by one foot. She was getting frustrated and was about to give up to go somewhere else, when she felt someone's presence behind her and two arms that weren't her own started working on the knot for her. She looked over her shoulder to see Rowan behind her. He smiled and boldly kissed her on the cheek, making her blush.

"Let me give it a try," He smiled. She didn't argue, letting him take over. In several minutes he had completed it. Feral wasn't surprised when he finished it so quickly. He was from District Four, after all, and had probably been making nets to catch fish his whole life.

"So what's it like in District Four?" she asked, trying the knot on her our again.

"Well," he said thoughtfully. "The sun is always bright and shining. The only trees we really have there are palm trees and there isn't much dirt, just sand. There's always a breeze and the air constantly smells like salt water. It's so… calm… there. Not like here in the Capitol where everything is always fast-paced and exciting."

"It sounds beautiful," she said, finally completing the knot on her own. She gave a small wave to Rowan before trotting over to swords. She was a little disturbed while in the swords center by Hera's sword skills as she sliced and stabbed everything that she was instructed to with excellent speed and accuracy. Feral, meanwhile, was told she was unsatisfactory, having issues balancing the long blade and staying balanced herself while wielding it.

She glanced over nervously at the Gauntlet. The Gauntlet was a terrifying obstacle course in which the tributes had to leap from platform to platform while dodging padded clubs that the trainers were swinging at them. The goal was to make it to the end in the fastest time possible. In the Training Center, it was the ultimate test of speed and agility. Feral didn't feel that she was quite ready for it.

Rivera, however, was taking on the Gauntlet like a pro. She jumped from platform to platform like she had been doing it her whole life, and dodged the padded clubs like they were cotton balls. At one point she flipped over one and landed unscathed in a neat crouch and kept on going. Feral overheard a trainer telling her that she had just beaten the all-time high score.

She decided to make her way over to Plants which, of course, she found extremely easy. She did, however, find a few plants that she hadn't known, like several poisonous plants and a few eatable ones as well. There was a certain one she hadn't heard of from a marsh that was said to be very rare called Black Hemm that had two kinds of berries, one being very nutritious the other being fatally poisonous. There was also a type of desert plant known as Crawling Gypsy that could very efficiently kill bacteria and fight off infections if the vines were broken and the juice was rubbed on a wound.

When it was finally time to leave, Feral made sure to say goodbye to both Rowan and Zephyr before going with Merchan to meet Eve and Becken. Merchan was coated in sweat but didn't look nearly as tired as Feral felt.

"How'd it go?" Becken asked, smiling slightly.

"It went great!" Feral beamed before Merchan could reply. "Well, I really sucked up spear throwing and sword fighting but you should have seen me with a bow and arrows! And it was my first time, too! I hit Kevin—the creepy human-shaped target—almost every time!" Eve laughed at how childish Feral must have looked, being so excited and all.

"Pretty good," Merchan replied, not saying anything else. Feral wondered if she had said too much, revealing to Merchan her best weapon plus the ones she couldn't use very well. They headed back to the District Seven floor and Feral took an hour long shower, spending most of the time sitting on the floor and wondering who would win the poll, Rowan or Zephyr. She was so much more compatible with Rowan, and secretly hoped he was the one who won. She began to think that she might actually like him that way, but she told herself that she couldn't because he was going to be playing against her in the Hunger Games. Once they began, all bonds would be forgotten. Remember what Eve said, she reminded herself. 'You don't fall in love with people who are going to try to kill you. It's just not natural.'

When she got out of the shower she was heading down to the living room when a hand reached out from behind one of the doors and pulled her into the room. It was Eve, who held a laptop.

"Um, was pulling me in here like that really necessary?" Feral asked, annoyed.

"It got your attention," she shrugged. "I wanted to talk to you because I forgot to tell you something. You haven't gone on the ropes course yet, right?" Feral shook her head. "Good. Save that for the private session."

"What about the Gauntlet?" Feral asked.

"You should probably try that out with everyone else," she said after a minute of thought. "And if you're really good at it then give it a whirl during the private session, too. Oh! Right now Zephyr's winning the polls again, but while you were in training today it was Rowan."

"Why won't it just stay one person?" Feral asked, frustrated.

"The Capitol is full of stupid, fickle people," Eve said plainly. "And they are allowed to vote as many times as they want to. There are probably some of them who spent hours just sitting at the computer and voting over and over again on who they like better."

"That's stupid," Feral grumbled. Eve laughed and agreed with her before the two of them headed into the dinning room to eat dinner. Everyone was there, even Kiena who was absent so frequently. Feral, wasn't to happy about that though, since all she did was complain about her allergies to feathers and nagged them about sitting up straight and how important it was to keep their hair out of their eyes. No one said much, except for Kiena of course. Feral dove into an extra-rare stake with a perfect baked potato on the side. By the time she was finished she felt like she was about to explode and Eve congratulated her on actually eating as much food as a human being would. She didn't have any room for desert, so she just went straight to bed and feel into a deep, dreamless sleep.