Asher Havenrock's POV (D8M, 17)

I take my seat at the table in the apartment with Silk and our mentor. Nova clears her throat as our breakfast arrives. I nod to the Avoxes in a silent thanks.

"Have you two thought of allies yet? This is your last chance to get some." She raises a brow.

"The pair from Ten, right, Asher?" Silk looks at me expectantly.

I nod in response. "I've seen them training, they'll be valuable allies."

"I think a lotta the other people are taken," Silk pipes in. "The Ten tributes seem like they're allying with each other, but nobody else so far."

Nova gives a satisfied nod before saying, "then eat your breakfast quickly. Training starts soon."

As me and Silk take the elevator down to the basement for training, we hold each other's hands, as we usually do. The doors open with a ding and we step out. It seems we're some of the first ones here.

Unfortunately, there's no sign of the tributes from Ten yet, so we head over to the obstacle course.

"Do you want to go first?" I ask, and Silk gives an appreciative nod. She takes a deep breath and prepares to run through the course, darting off when I press a button for her and her time is recorded.

Admittedly, Silk isn't very fast, but she's been getting better and that's what matters. She's nimble, however, and can jump over some short objects and duck under others with ease. She's in a gray area with climbing, just fast enough to make a hasty escape into the trees— if there are any in the Arena, that is.

When she's about halfway through the obstacle course, all the other tributes start pouring in. I try to find our potential allies, but they're lost in the commotion as everyone scrambles to take a station.

I give Silk a high five as she comes back.

"What's my time?" She asks. I glance at the timer.

"Hmm, about two and a half minutes. You did well!"

Silk beams at the praise, and I get ready to give the obstacle course a try myself. As soon as I hear Silk press the timer and it let's out a bleep, I begin.

I weave around, over, under and in different obstacles, grappling at the climbing sections. I'm out of breath by the time I'm done, but I'm proud of my own speed.

"Only a minute and fifty seconds! You're super duper fast, Asher!" Silk beams when she reveals my time.

I let out a light chuckle. "Thank you."

I look around and finally spot the Ten tributes. The boy glances our way briefly, but nothing on his face reveals his thoughts.

"Hey Asher, it's the tributes from District Ten! Should we go over and say hi?" I glance back at Silk, who had followed my line of sight.

I open my mouth to reply, when some loud, sudden yelling begins out of nowhere.

I look back, startled, and see the girl from Ten is having a heated argument with the tributes from Two. I take a sharp inhale, pursing my lips.

"Maybe we should leave them be for now," I suggest, frowning.

Silk nods wordlessly, blinking and slowly turning away from the scene.

We decide it's time to give up our station to someone else, so we head over to the knives station.

"Two days... two days and we haven't picked up a weapon the entire time," I point out, eyeing the knives with a frown. "We need to know how to defend ourselves."

"You're right." Silk is the one to take the first steps right up to the station, picking up a knife and examining it in her hands.

I'm honestly surprised she picked up a weapon first, but I don't say anything, picking up a different, larger kind of knife.

"We can do this," Silk breathes. "We can win the games."

I smile at her.

"What ever made you doubt that?"

Van McGuire's POV (D6F, 16)

I position the knife, though only for a moment, before throwing it at the dummy I'm practicing on. It goes deep into its chest, and I wonder if it pierced through the entire body.

I've made a habit of coming to this station to train for a while every morning when training opens. After some knife throwing and sparring, I go to other stations.

Now, I go to the archery station and recall the information I've learned from the past two days as I walk. The first day, I spent it on just a few minutes of knives, then plants, fire starting and hammock-making, A.K.A I just wasted my time. The second day, I broadened my horizons with a few short minutes at the camouflage station, the fishhook station, the ropes and snares station, the spear station, as I organized with Kai and Cinder, and the slingshot station. I spent some more time at the plants station, as well. My allies have been helping me at most of the survival stations, but we usually split up whenever we do weapons.

I pick up a bow, turning it over in my hands. I've never used one before, and I barely ever see it used in the Games. I decide to swallow my pride and immediately ask the trainer for help.

They show me how to hold the bow, how to wear a quiver and how to shoot. It's extremely straightforward, but requires precision.

I bring an arrow up from the quiver nearby and pull back the drawstring, before letting the arrow fly. It bounces harmlessly off the dummy. Too light.

I try again, it sticks for a second before falling to the ground. Gah, too light again!

I try again, getting frustrated. It manages to stick this time, but only lands on the left shoulder, whereas I was aiming for the chest.

I try once more, and it hits the same place on another dummy. Shaking my head, I decide that's enough archery for the day. I crane my neck to look for Kai and Cinder, and it takes me a second before I spot them at the knives station and the slingshot station.

I'm about to go over to the slingshot station, where I see Cinder, but I'm interrupted by yelling. I put my hands up to my ears with a scowl as I glare at the two arguing tributes, but they pay no attention to me or anyone around them.

Shaking my head, I continue, and wave to Cinder when I approach. She waves back.

"I was thinking of heading back over to the survival stations, or maybe do an obstacle course? Should we get Kai?"
Cinder nods, "yeah, sure. Do you know where he went?"

"He's at the knives station," I reply, pointing in his direction. Cinder puts down the slingshot and follows me to the knives station, where we both greet Kai.
"Hey, girls!" Kai says, turning to us with a smile. "Need something?"

"We were wondering if you wanted to train at one of the other stations with us," Cinder says. "You coming or not?"

I cringe at the bluntness in Cinder's voice, but if Kai noticed it, he doesn't show it. He nods.

"Alright, lead the way! Where to?"

"How about the ropes course?" I suggest. "The gauntlet and obstacle courses are taken, the survival stations are crowded."

Kai and Cinder both nod, and we veer off in the direction of the ropes course.

When we reach it, Kai is already cracking his knuckles, looking eager to get started.

I raise a brow," do you want to go first? You look like a giddy toddler waiting for icecream," I tease.

Kai huffs, "sure. And do not call me a giddy toddler!" He says with a slight whine to his tone, sounding offended as he leaps up and grabs the ropes.

Cinder and I watch in awe as Kai swings from section to section, switching between swinging like a monkey along the bottom of the ropes and throwing himself up to crawl across the top— well, I watch in awe. Cinder doesn't really have much of an expression on her face, so I can't tell if she's impressed or not.

Kai decides to climb all the way back, leaping off where he started originally. He flashes us a charming smile.

"So, who's going next?"

Briar Reckingstar's POV (D10T, 15)

The girl from Two and I storm off to go our separate ways, and I'm still hissing curses at her under my breath as Robin walks me away from the argument. The tall boy looks me in the eye.

"Do you want to make enemies, Briar? That could kill us in the Arena! She could target us now!"

I cross my arms, pushing him away. "She called me an incompetent little girl! What the hell do you think I was supposed to do?!"

Robin shakes his head, "you should have more self control. Try not to cause such a ruckus in the future. Don't let yourself have another outburst."

"Whatever. She started it, wasn't my fault."

Just as our conversation comes to an end and we sit down so I can cool off (I told Robin to ditch me and go train, but he wouldn't listen), two tributes approach us. I recognize them as the tributes who were running the obstacle course earlier.

"Hey!" The older one says in a friendly tone, "you're the tributes from District Ten, right? We'd like to—"

As I cut them off, Robin stiffens, giving me a look as I begin talking.

"Oh, are you here to make fun of me as well?" I hiss.

"Uh—" the younger one seems to tighten her grip on the older one's hand, who tries to speak, but Robin is the one who cuts him off this time.
"Please excuse them, they're... a bit upset right now. Let's start over, then, shall we? What are your names? My name is Robin and this is Briar, and yes, we are the tributes from District Ten."

I glare at Robin— he didn't have to speak for me. The older tribute seems to relax at his words.

"My name is Asher," he introduces, "this is Silk. We're from District Eight."

"It's nice to meet you, Asher, Silk. What did you need to talk to us about?" Robin continues the conversation, and I lean back with no intention of offering input.

"We were wondering if you wanted to ally with us," Silk explains, a polite smile on her face.

I raise myself into a proper position again and eye the two tributes.

"What can you guys do?"

"We're fast," Asher says.

"And we know a bunch of survival skills like different kinds of knots and snares, as well as what plants are edible!" Silk adds.

"I think it's a good idea. Remember what we discussed on the train, Briar," Robin says, cocking his head at me.

I think for a moment. They could be useful.

"Fine," I say at last. "Sure, we can be allies, I guess."

"Thank you!" Silk beams up at Asher and he returns the smile.

"Come on, Robin, we should go. Our break has been long enough." I stand up, and Robin rises shortly after.

"You guys should do some training too, it's our last day," Robin tells Asher and Silk.

"Okay. We'll see you soon," Asher says, walking off with Silk with a wave.

Hop Lostar's POV (D6M, 17)

I drown out the rest of the world and position my knife just right. I twist my feet ever so slightly and take a deep breath as I hear my shoes drag across the rough ground.

After counting to three, I rear up my arm and bring it down as quick as it went up to stab repeatedly at the dummy I'm facing. I show no mercy, quickly whipping around to work at another one.

I notice that my work is sloppy and I missed more than I hit. I purse my lips— it'll have to do.

I do a few more rounds of hacking at some dummies, until I get bored of it. I walk over to the knot-tying station, since my nimble hands will probably be able to make quick work of a rope with a bit of a refresher on how to tie it.

The trainer gives me a few pointers but I ignore most of them, only listening when they tell me about the different kinds of knots.

I don't have much trouble, but I do find that knot-tying is harder than it looks. I wonder for a fleeting moment if I should feel pity for the more inexperienced tributes who were or will be working at this station. The thought leaves as soon as it comes.

I finally find it in me to stop blocking everyone put and look around the training centre. Some allies are mingling, though most tributes are just training alone. Shouts start to fill the room at some point, and I take it as my cue to look away and move on.

The fish hook station is next. I find it a little strange that it has it's own station, but I can dwell on that later. Making the hooks comes easily to me, and I breathe a sigh of relief as I finish my first one without any huge issues.

I spare a glance at the rest of the stations. Maybe I'll do a rotation for the last day.