Khiry and Petal are standing below me on my platform. I can't make out their hushed chatter, and I sway slightly in the darkness that confronts my eyes. They don't want me to see the dress until it's on, so I get the blindfold. I stand, raise my arms and turn on their command. Soon, I feel a sheet of silk slip over my bowing head, slinking over my skin and settling smoothly on my hips. Petal adjusts the dress round my upper body, pulling tight at my waist, and I can hear laces scraping through the holes as the does the dress up. I feel a soft skirt brush my ankles, and Khiry rearranges my flowing skirts. Petal ties off the laces, or whatever she's tying me up with, and moves straight to my arms. Her breath is soft on my upright arms as she moves the seam of the dress around and my side. She's there for a good five or ten minutes, and I feel her stare burning holes through my rather thin body.
"Khiry…" she murmurs. Instantly her tone has me worrying.
"Yes, Petal." He replies, flatly, obviously busy.
"The dress… It's a bit loose." She says hesitantly.
"You're meant to be the stylist, Petal, you designed the dress, how are you going to fix the problem?" Khiry says. Petal sighs in frustration, and I hear a door slam.
"Ignore her." He says softly. "She's just a bit agitated. It's not a good time for her, with this new job, because she's a perfectionist."
"No way." I say sarcastically.
"She'll be back soon. The dress looks gorgeous, breath taking even. You're just fairly thin, and it doesn't cling very well to your upper body. The skirt falls fine though, and you'll love it when you see yourself!" Khiry sounds like he's jumping off walls. The image pops into my head. I laugh.
"What?" he asks. "Can you see through the blindfold?"
"Why, what are you doing that I would laugh at if I could see you?" I grin widely. He laughs. "You know, that's something my best friend would've said. I don't want to know what's going on in your brain right now."
"Would've said?" I ask.
"Yeah, would've. He died in the hunger games." Silence follows the remark. My heart sinks. "So, do you have a token or anything from home?" he asks, switching the subject. "No, I don't," I say. Regret fills me. It may've been the last time I'll ever see home and I hadn't even thought to take anything with me. My mind casts back to my goodbyes…
…I open my mouth to talk, but Tyth instead wraps me in his arms with a sudden, warm hug. "You be careful out there." He says, and wipes a single tear off my cheek I don't even know is there. He then slips something into my hand and disappears through the door held open by a peacekeeper, which is promptly slammed shut...
Once I have finished the tour of the train, I settle in my room, and remember Tyth. I rummage in my pocket, searching for the object I thoughtlessly shoved into my pocket. Drawing the small, oddly shapen thing from my pocket, it glints gold in the light, and a tinkling sound emits. A smile takes over my face and I hug the bell on a blue ribbon chain close to my face. Tyth gave me the bell when I got Francis, to tie around her neck. I took it gleefully, but never gave it to Francis, but gave it back to Tyth the next Christmas.
"It's for you, Tyth, it's so pretty and delicate Francis may break it. I want you to have it because I love you so much, and you're the best big brother I can ever have." I hug him close; not knowing it would once again be given to be a few years later down the line.
"But I have this," I say, gesturing to where I believe my pile of clothes to be. "it's in my trouser pocket, have a look." My ears prick up as I hear the door reopen and shut again, whilst Khiry works his way through my clothes.
"Hi, back again, Sienna." Petal says more calmly. "I'm just going to tighten your dress up, please lift up your arms." I work on command. A familiar light ringing sound greet my ears. "You are talking about this bell? It's very dainty, we could tie it round your wrist in a matching ribbon if you'd like?" He asks carefully, holding my hand as he ties it. He knows how much it means to me, even if he doesn't know the story. His gentle, talented hands caress mine, and loop the bell over my wrist. It chimes faintly and I smile the smallest smile and my closed eyes relax in relief and comfort.
"It's attractive," Petal says, and I sense a frown as she tugs at the dress, knocking my feet and sending me wobbling off the platform. I feel a pair of strong arms close around me before I hit the floor. My blindfold loosens and drops to round my neck, and I resist the temptation to look down.
"Don't look at the dress!" Khiry shrieks. "Petal! You need to be more careful!" I turn to see her glaring at him, before she is forcing herself to soften her expression. Her pink hair is ruffling in the slight breeze, all flyaway, probably from getting caught as I fell. "Yes, Khiry." She says, suddenly unruffled. "Come on," she helps me from his welcoming arms and helps me back onto the platform. I look down, and watch my bare, pale feet step up before arms from behind me retie the blindfold over my eyes. Khiry. I mentally roll my eyes, and lift my arms back up to Petal's sigh. This is going to be a long wait.
After a while later, and a little nap whilst standing up trying to ignore the deafening silence cloaking the room, I feel Khiry's hands untying the blindfold. I bubble with excitement. "Now?" I ask, my voice feeling terribly loud.
"Now." Khiry says, lifting off the blindfold. My eyes greet a mirror, and staring straight back is me in the most wonderful, unique dress I've ever seen on the hunger games chariot rides. We district nine-ers are usually dressed up as bread or wheat, the laughing stock of Panem, bar the normal district twelve idiots. Hanging to my thin frame, is a golden amber dress made up of a single sheet of silk, which seems to be made up of thousands of strands of artificial wheat all entwining, in ambers, oranges, golds, bronzes and yellows. In the current light it look the memorable hue of amber of the grain fields back at home. As I eye myself in the mirror, I find it matches my eyes almost exactly, and I can not notice the makeshift stitches up the side of the dress Petal had to put in. The bodice of the dress glimmers and shines amber in the light too, and as I turn to admire it, I catch sight of the lace up back, with three ribbons looping through each hole, tightening and fastening the back of the dress and pulling in my waist.
"How?" I ask, otherwise speechless.
"Thread, it changes colour depending on the light, and it's sewn on with thread not visible to the human eye." Khiry informs me, checking out Petal's work.
"Did you invent that too?" I ask, grinning.
"No. That I did not."
"It looks so much for gorgeous than I thought it would." Petal smiles, the frown gone from her face, and her wild pink hair has now been slicked back with a hair band. She smooths down the skirt and then they both step me in to three inch gold sandals. I totter around uncontrollably, no say on where my feet go, only hoping in finding balance before I fall and do something stupid like tear the beautiful dress they've designed for me. I hear a gong and Khiry and Petal leave the room to change, and the prep team stride back into the room for my make-up. They cover my face in thin foundation, hiding any minor blemishes, and outline my eyes in the same hues as my dress, with thick, black mascara, brining them out against my fair skin. Blush is lightly applied to my cheeks by cat woman, and the other woman, Amberly, slicks on pale pink lipstick and some gloss over the top. Then they do my hair in thick, tumbling waves, pinned underneath They finish my face in less than ten minutes, and Petal and Khiry emerge in new clothes; him wearing a half unbuttoned gold shirt, perfectly matching the gold highlights in his dark brown hair and his currently gold eyes. It's tucked in to black pants, with a brown belt and gold buckle. She wears a super short, also gold, dress, stopping above mid thigh, and her feet are concealed in amazingly high silver heel boots, coming up to her knees. They look stylish, where as I look stunningly beautiful. The guide me out the door, the golden glinting team of three, and we leave the other two behind, calling their good-lucks as we close the door.
A/N- late again, sorry! Hope you like this chapter, the next one will be the chariot rides :)
