Paradise: The 72nd Hunger Games

Chapter Twenty-Three

Training Part One

A/N: This year, I'll be splitting the training into two parts for… reasons that you will find out. I also want to say that although some of these characters are cameos, they have become characters in their own rights and the things that befall them in the story in no way reflect the way I feel about the real people, for they are just characters who happen to be already established now. Without using those characters, I'd be forced to create carbon copies of them just so that they don't share the same name (and in this case, they would have to), which isn't the right thing to do as an author. The right thing to do is to stop including cameos of people I care for. Next story, doing that. As an example of another time this happened, I once wrote a book where a certain person was introduced as a cameo and eventually turned into a recurring character with a completely different personality from the real person. Just FYI for those of you that know me. :) Now, I do not own the rights to the idea of murdering 24 children and teens every year. Those all belong to Suzanne Collins.

On the morning of the first day of training, all of our brave Tributes got out of bed and ate breakfast with their mentors and District partners. None of these conversations contained anything of value to the story of these Hunger Games, and we will, therefore, proceed to the start of the training session…

Eric Torres –17- -D2- POV

Arriving at training, I decided to assemble the other careers to tell them about my decision to include Sabine and that we should probably include Ariadna as well. To my surprise, when I waved Aphelios over, Ariadna also came over.

"So, what's all this about?" Aislie asks.

"I just wanted us to get to know each other a bit," I say. "Seeing as I'm assuming we'll all be allies. Any arguments?" Heads shake in the circle that's formed around me. My allies are Aislie, Blaze, Ariadna, Aphelios, and Sabine. "Okay then. So, seeing as Three doesn't have any careers this year," nods from the circle, "even though Sabine here has no training, I see no reason for her not to be included in our group. Any objections?" Heads shake again. "Good. And, Aphelios, I see that you've decided to include Ariadna. I agree with that decision," I say.

"Who put you in charge, pretty boy?" Ariadna asks with her arms crossed. Great. Arguing already. I can already feel control slipping away.

"I'm just making sure everyone in the group agrees with the decisions that have been made," I say.

"Umm-hum," she says. "We'll see about that. Continue, pretty boy."

"That was actually all I had," I say. "I'm assuming that we all know what the usual strategy is from here on out." Heads nod again. "Good. Then let's go and intimidate." The small circle breaks up, with everyone heading to a different location. I decide to head to the wrestling station, and after I beat a few of the Capitol supplied partners, Ariadna comes over.

"Can I have this fight?" She asks.

"Sure," I say, wiping some sweat off my brow. She steps into the ring and I wave away the Avox who had come forward. Although she looks short compared to me, I remember Katy and how powerful she could be. Looking at the girl in front of me, I see that she has muscles underneath her lean arms and legs. Good information to store away for later. I raise my fists and she does the same. Then she rushes at me.

Ariadna Starsgaard POV

I rush at Eric, sweeping my leg and knocking him off his feet to fall with a thud on the mat. Always sweep the leg. Then I move to his side, ready to kick him in the ribs before –

Eric Torres POV

I wrap my arm around Ariadna's legs as she stands next to me, pulling her down onto me and using the momentum as leverage to push myself up so that I'm standing over her with my foot over her neck. "Surrender?" I ask, out of breath.

"Nope," she says, and –

Ariadna Starsgaard POV

I roll out from under Eric's foot, rolling to my knees and then feet. Now we're in the same position that we were before. Both of us on our feet, both of us equally ready. I rush in and attack him, my first punch landing in his stomach. I extend my left for the follow-up and –

Eric Torres POV

She made the same mistake Katy did. Funny. I grab her left fist in mid-air and flip the smaller girl over me, to land on her back on the mat. I drop to my knees over her, legs together to avoid any possible incidents involving her knee (Katy can fight dirty) and put my hands on her throat, illustrating a chokehold.

"Yield?" I ask her.

"Yes," she pants. "I yield."

"Good," I say, getting up and offering her a hand up. "Thanks for the training. That was fun."

"You too," she says, before walking off. Oh well. I continue wrestling for a while, then go and demolish some dummies with a sword.

Ariadna Starsgaard –16- -D4- POV

After wrestling with Eric, I walk over to where a few tridents are and demolish a few dummies with them. They're not that much harder to kill than fish.

Aislie Dellarouse –18- -D1- POV

I throw some spears into dummies for a while (fun fact: if you aim well enough, you can put a spear through a dummy's neck, proving an effective method of killing and scaring a certain twelve-year-old Tribute who happened to be around). After that, I do the same thing, but with knives.

Blaze Herrscher –18- -D1- POV

I whack at some dummies with a sword for a while, eventually switching over to an ax, and taking a break early on to watch the 'fight' between Eric and Ariadna. Although Ariadna is clever, there are a couple of times where Eric could have won the fight if it was real. Of course, there are plenty of times where if she had a weapon and he didn't, she could have easily won.

Sabine Allaire –18- -D2- POV

Following Iron's advice, after Eric's impromptu meeting, I find one of the 'advanced' dummies, the ones that hit back, and tear it to shreds with a dagger. I repeat the process a few more times before I'm done, then I eventually switch over to throwing knives, doing the same thing as Aislie did earlier.

Aphelios Asturias –18- -D4- POV

I demolish some dummies with a sword and then an ax over the training period. After that, I also engage in a spot of wrestling before I'm done.

Valencia Bisset –16- -D3- POV

I enter the training area, looking to find the instructor that Jack had told me about. In a minute, I find her. A woman, in her late thirties, with almost the most beautiful blonde hair I'd ever seen, apart from Eris'. In fact, this woman reminds me a lot of Eris. If Jack didn't tell me how old she was, I would have thought she wasn't older than twenty-five. Her blonde hair is fine and frizzy, interspersed with streaks of light brown. She has dimples around her mouth and eyes, brown eyebrows for some odd reason, and pretty blue-gray eyes that seem to shine in the light. All in all, she looks very beautiful. Of course, I already have a girlfriend, but who says a girl can't look?

"Hey," I say, walking up to her. "Are you Katelynn O'Neill?"

"Yeah," she says. "Valencia, right?"

"Yes," I say. She extends her hand and I shake it.

"So, are you here to learn how to use the longbow?" She asks.

"Yes, indeed I am," I reply.

"Outstanding," she says. "Most years, I don't get many takers. Okay, so, let's try a shot first, and then I'll tell you how you can improve." She gestures to the bows laid on a table.

"Okay," I say, picking up a bow and nocking an arrow. I take careful aim at my chosen target, a simple bullseye, and release the arrow a second later. It lands only slightly above the center of the target.

"Woo," Katelynn whistles. "Good aim. There are a few things you can improve though. First of all, your posture…"

Over the course of the next few hours, Katelynn shows me how to improve my longbow use – apparently, I was standing with the wrong foot forward for my dominant hand –, my aim – breathe out when you release the arrow –, and more practical tricks, like how to quickly draw arrows from a quiver. As I shoot another target right in the head, a voice comes from behind me. I turn around to see another girl, about my age, but clearly not a Tribute. She was wearing a mid-length, green dress, that despite being perfectly modest still made her look very attractive, along with matching heels and a smidgen of makeup. Escorted by two Peacekeepers dressed in suits instead of the normal Peacekeeper attire (but evidently Peacekeepers from their earpieces and the not-so-discreet bulge of their sidearms, this girl was clearly someone important in the Capitol. Although who could be so important at such a young age?

"Good aim," the girl says. "I see that you've learned from the best, Tribute."

"Uh… yeah, I guess so," I say. "Katelynn is pretty knowledgeable about this stuff."

"Yes, she is," the girl says. "That's why she's here, after all. How are you doing, Katelynn?"

Katelynn stiffens before answering. "Just fine, Lucy. How are you?"

"Oh, I'm just wonderful," she says. "Looking forward to another exciting Hunger Games. I'm off to go have a chat with the Head Gamemaker about a few ideas I have, but I thought I'd check on you first."

"Well, thanks for checking," Katelynn says, her voice icy cold. "Have a good day, Miss Snow."

"You too, Katelynn," Lucy Snow (wait, what?) says, before flouncing off.

"Okay," I say, turning to Katelynn. "Who was that? Snow? Is she related to the President?"

Katelynn looks furtively around. "Come with me," she says finally, her voice barely more than a whisper. "I can tell you. Leave the bow."

"Okay," I say, putting the bow back on the side table and following Katelynn off to a corner of the room, then through a tiny door into a small room that, from the buckets and mops laying around, evidently used to be used for storage, but from the cobwebs and spiders hanging around, hasn't been in a while. "What's going on, Katelynn? You're freaking me out a bit. And who were those special Peacekeepers?"

Katelynn gives a laugh without mirth. "Those were her creation. She didn't want the usual Peacekeepers following her around when she was out with her friends, said they made it too hard to have fun. So she asked her father to create a department that didn't wear all the normal gear, and he did."

"She… she's Snow's daughter, isn't she? But how can Snow have a teenage daughter? He's like as old as the Hunger Games." I ask. Katelynn gives a small laugh.

"Yes," Katelynn says and sighs. "And more than that. And in fact, our dear President is older than the Hunger Games, but no one knows how old. I'll tell you about Lucy Snow, but it's a bit of a long story."

"I'm all ears," I say.

"Well then," Katelynn says. "It all started when I came back to the Capitol…"

The Story of the 72nd Hunger Games is now on hold…

The Story of Lucy Snow can now begin…