The bell rang again, marking the end of lunch. Rowena Wayland was eager to get back into training, so she wasted no time returning her tray and rushing to the knife station. Living on a ranch meant that Rowena had some experience with knives already, as slaughtering animals was their primary source of meat. Consequently, she naturally gravitated towards that station, hoping that she'd be able to translate what she knew from home to what would help her most in the Arena. But she'd been waiting to go to the knife station all day, hoping that the other tributes would clear out of it. She had no interest in revealing to anyone else how good she was with knives, and so hoped that, if she waited until the station was empty, people wouldn't pay as much attention to her.

Plus, it was better to wait until the Careers had moved on from knives. Rowena had no interest in training next to the Careers, those stuck-up lapdogs; she was much happier being at the station with a few other Outer District kids at most, and ideally with just Victor.

The fact that the Careers were probably better than her at knives had nothing to do with it.

When Rowena arrived at the station, she found herself a little flummoxed by the number of knives that were there. They came in a wide variety of sizes and blade shapes, most of which Rowena had never seen. She first went to grab a knife that looked like a traditional butcher's knife, but then another caught her eye: a knife with a blade on each end. She picked it up and turned it over in her hand, finding that one side of the knife was collapsible, released through the simple push of a button. A smile crossed Rowena's face; this would be a perfect knife to use in combat to catch another tribute by surprise.

Rowena felt the hair on her neck prickle up, as if a cold wind suddenly blew through the training room. She subtly put the knife down and turned around, finding the Quell girl from Six standing above her, that creepy boy by her side. She'd seen the girl going around and talking to other people for most of the morning, but she seemed to be having no luck at finding allies.

Serves her right.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Maxi said, sweetness dripping off her voice like molasses.

"What do you want?" Rowena replied gruffly, crossing her hands over her chest.

"I just wanted to check in. After all, training all by yourself can get a little lonely. It's much safer and nicer to train with other people."

"I'm fine, thank you very much."

"But such a small, helpless girl like you could really use some support."

"I do not need support," Rowena replied through gritted teeth. "I am perfectly capable of training on my own."

"Well," Maxi changed tactics, "wouldn't you like to train with someone your equal then? Someone with whom you can spar to work on improving your skills?"

"Not if that person is you."

"Why not? Don't think you can trust me?" Maxi said mockingly.

Before Rowena could open her mouth, she felt a hand on her back. "She's with me," Viktor proclaimed. "And we're fine on our own, thank you very much."

Rowena watched the gears turn in Maxi's head, as though she was deciding whether or not it was worth her time to keep pushing. Fortunately, Maxi chose to back off. "Well, I should hope we do not run into each other in the Arena. It would be a shame if you're not as protected as you think." And with that, she turned and strode off.

"I could have handled that myself, thank you."

"I know you could have, but it is against the rules for tributes to physically fight. We do not need you breaking a rule on the first day of training."

"Oh, come on. I know that."

"I know you know it now, but in the heat of the moment, I'm not so sure."

"Viktor. I'm sixteen. I'll be fine."

Viktor took a step closer. "I know. I just don't want you to be hurt – or to hurt someone when it would be bad to do so."

Rowena looked into her brother's wide green eyes. "I'll be OK. I promise."

Khada Oromonio didn't feel like he needed much training. He was already the best in One at the crossbow, and likely the best in the district to boot. But he was also not particularly interested in burning bridges with his district partners, neither now during training nor during the Games. Not to mention that burning bridges with his partners would only result in him losing even more favor with the district that viewed him as a "cold-blooded murderer" and "a meat shield for the worthy Careers." So as much as he felt it was useless, he figured he'd go along with Jaesa's training scheme. And it brought him here, to the crossbow station, where he was dramatically outperforming his training partner for the afternoon.

With a satisfying thwack, the fourth of Khada's crossbow bolts landed square in the center of the target. He slung the crossbow over his shoulder and grinned as a helmeted trainer rushed to collect the bolts. "Your turn."

Tyranny positioned herself just behind the safety line and fired off her four bolts, all of which missed the target. "Damn it!"

"You seem to be having trouble there. I'm happy to provide some feedback."

"No, I'm good, thank you," Tyranny replied. "I just want to try on my own a few times."

"Suit yourself," Khada said, turning around to observe the rest of the room. This momentary lull in active training was the perfect time to scout out his Arena targets. As much as Khada hated to admit it, there was no way he'd be able to create perfectly artistic murders in the Arena. The artistry had to come from elsewhere, and Khada had a feeling he knew how to satisfy his hunger for it.

Given that the tributes were wearing the same colors as the night before, and that the colors corresponded to the Reaping slots, Khada was sure that the Gamemakers were trying to call attention to those slots, though he wasn't quite sure why. Regardless of the Gamemakers' reason, Khada's interest was piqued by the fact that the tributes were divided into four groups.

It would be oh so satisfying if Khada's four kills – he didn't want more than four, lest he not reach eight – were made up of one person from each Reaping slot. The question then became who from each slot to target.

Carefully scanning the room, Khada took note of who was already moving around to the various stations with other people. He figured it would prove harder to pick off tributes in more stable – which was to say earlier established – alliances and was more concerned about getting his four kills in than about killing the four strongest people. Nothing would make him more annoyed than winning the Games with only three kills to his name; he would win, sure, but it would be an incomplete Victory.

Suddenly, Khada saw something fall across his vision. Khada looked down and saw an Avox sprawled out on the floor in front of him. He stood up and cordially helped the Avox to his feet, giving the poor man a cordial smile as he sheepishly walked away.

It was only then that Khada noticed the piece of paper labeled with his name directly under where the Avox's body had been just a few seconds before.

Carefully, Khada picked up the paper and flipped it over, reading it carefully and then more carefully as soon as he realized whom it was from.

It seemed as though one decision had already been made for him.

Most of the tributes, as they entered the training center, went straight to one station or another, eager to begin the day by learning skills for the Arena. But Cain Mohen wasn't in much of a rush, choosing instead to meander, seemingly aimlessly, around the room. He had no interest in wasting time that he could be using in training, but learning skills wasn't the only part of training. This was the only time where all of the tributes would be in the same room before the Arena after all, and therefore it was the best chance he had at making contact with Brandi Hahn.

It was only natural to Cain that the two would form an alliance. Cain had done more behind-the-scenes work than most other rebels would ever do, and as the daughter of one of the most well-known rebel figures apart from their leaders, Brandi had undoubtedly been involved with rebel work in Nine. Sure, they were both probably going to die in the Games – why else would they be there? – but at least they could work together to spread the rebels' message to the world up until their dying breaths.

At the same time, Cain knew that he couldn't be outright with his courting, so to speak, of his potential ally. While he was pretty sure he was going to die, he still wanted a chance to live, and outwardly allying with another rebel was a surefire way to double the already massive target on his back. If he wanted to have any shot at his alliance with Brandi actually working – or happening for that matter – he needed to act covertly and carefully.

Slinking along the walls of the training center, Cain scanned the room, surprised at how difficult it was to find the person he was looking for. With just how big and spacious the training room was, he thought it would be easy enough to find any tribute he was looking for. In reality, the sheer size of the training room made it harder to spot Brandi. At first, this didn't bother Cain, but as precious minutes passed, he realized he would need to take more active steps to find her.

Then, Cain's eyes landed on the climbing wall, on top of which the Quell male from Five was standing, towering over the rest of the tributes.

Perhaps getting a better view of the room would help.

Moments later, Cain was buckled into a harness, beginning his ascent up the wall. As he climbed, methodically placing one hand over the other, his mind began to wander. In fact, it wandered so much that, when the rocks on the wall became more spaced out, Cain didn't even notice. He tried to grab onto a handhold and totally missed, falling down a few meters before he could grab onto the wall again. This time, Cain paid a little more attention, and with a small shift in his strategy was comfortably able to make it up to the top. His idea of going to the top of the wall was a good one; Cain was quickly able to spot Brandi, working at the edible plants station.

Before he climbed back down, Cain took a moment to survey the rest of the training room. He found himself thinking about how climbing the wall was not much different from his life as a rebel. In both situations, the task at hand was the clear course of action as far as Cain was concerned. While completing the task seemed easy at first, obstacles appeared in his path unexpectedly that made his life much harder. But just as Cain eventually got himself up to the top of the wall, he knew that the rebels would finally achieve their goal of making Panem a better place for everyone.

Cain could only hope that he'd be alive to see it.

As far as Vidja Zavala was concerned, her morning had been very productive. She'd found her first ally in Arlie, and the two of them had spent the morning flitting around the various survival stations, which had given Vidja two crucial pieces of information. First of all, Arlie was absolutely the right choice for an ally. He was just as sharp as Vidja; the two of them had very similar skill sets, and each one's strengths complimented the other's weaknesses. Arlie was the perfect person to help Vidja with her master plan for the Arena – he just didn't know it yet.

Second of all, Vidja and Arlie absolutely needed at least one more person in their alliance. It was abundantly clear from the time they spent at the fire-making and water purification stations that neither of them had any previous experience with anything remotely outdoorsy. They needed someone from a more rural or wooded district to balance out their mostly urban knowledge. It was just a matter of figuring out who would be a good fit.

The problem was that most of the kids from the rural districts seemed to already have latched on to other allies. Three of the Sevens were working together, while the fourth was lingering near two of the Fours and the older boy from Twelve. The Tens had broken up into pairs, as had two of the Nines, and the Elevens were traveling around as one unit. So really, their options boiled down to two kids from Nine and the kids from Twelve. And Vidja had her eye on one kid in particular.

After lunch, Vidja and Arlie went back in the direction of the survival skill stations. "I'd like to stop off at that station later on," Vidja said, pointing to a small station in the corner of the room, "but for now, let's do plant identification. I want to talk to the kid over there." Vidja pointed to the Standard boy from Twelve, who was quickly sorting through a pile of berries in such a way that made it clear that he was more than familiar with them.

Arlie raised his eyebrows. "Sounds good to me."

The two walked over and sat next to the boy, who had grabbed a stack of index cards and a corresponding bin from one of the trainers. "Whatcha got there?" Vidja asked.

"I finished all the plants native to Twelve and did well enough on those native to Seven that I'm starting to work on those native to Ten now."

"That's impressive. How do you know all of that?"

"I've just learned over time," shrugged the boy. "I'm Clemency, but my friends call me Clem."

"I'm Vidja, and this is Arlie." Arlie waved. "Hey, are you looking for any allies? The two of us are working together and we're looking for a third."

Clem looked over towards another tribute, who was standing along the wall with a notepad and pencil, carefully writing down information. "Well, I'm not sure what my district partner is doing…"

"Has she said she wanted to work with you?" Vidja cut Clem off.

"She hasn't said anything yet. She's been very secretive with her plans."

"Look, in a Games like these, there's only so much time that you can spend waiting for someone else to say they want to ally with you. If you wait for her and then she decides not to work with you, you might not be able to get into other alliances."

"That's true," Clem wavered.

"You don't have to answer right now. But Arlie and I are just going to go over there for a bit," Vidja motioned to a station to her left, "so we can start on our Arena plan. You're more than welcome to come if you'd like."

"I'd like to come with you," Clem exclaimed, scrambling to his feet. "I think it would be a good fit."

"Come along!" Vidja said, confidently walking over to the next station. Everything was going perfectly so far, but that didn't mean much in the grand scheme of the Games.

After all, this was just the first phase of her plan. Vidja Zavala was just getting started.

When Amber Elmore was younger, she used to wait every night until her father came home so he could light the candles that dotted their house. He would arrive right at nightfall to their cottage, emerging from the trees like a specter. After greeting Amber and her sister, he would walk around the house, going candle by candle, making sure it was safely away from the windows or anything that could knock them over before striking a match and lighting it.

With a small flick of her wrist, a spark leaped from the flint and floated down to the kindling below.

A part of Amber was always fascinated by the flames. She was so curious about the way they flickered, grew, and shrunk, at the shadows they cast that shifted with the fire. But every time, she gravitated closer to the candles, her parents pulled her away. "We have to be careful with fire," her mother explained. "It blesses us with warmth, but if we are not careful, it could burn down everything we have. Somethings the things that are the most beautiful can cause the most destruction." So Amber was never allowed to light the candles on her own; only recently was she even allowed to help her parents bring light into the house under the cover of darkness.

As Amber sat at the fire-making station, she couldn't help but hear her mother's words echo in her mind as the kindling caught fire. a small flame appearing underneath the tent of twigs she'd constructed. Amber picked up a piece of cardboard and began to fan it, helping the flame to grow until it caught the twigs, becoming a full-blown fire. Sparks began to fly off the top of the fire, dancing all the way up to the rafters before disappearing, like stars fading from the night sky.

Amber knew fire was dangerous. But it was so, so beautiful.

"Tributes!" a voice called. "Your time in training has concluded for the day. Please exit the training hall and return to your quarters."

Amber picked up a glass dome and put it over her fire, watching as the flame shrunk and went out. Even the remnants of the fire were pretty to Amber; she was entranced by the soft glow of the embers reflecting off of the dome. Once the embers were totally out, she walked over to the mass of tributes gathering near the elevators. Soon, the river of bodies began to flow into the elevator; Amber had no choice but to follow along, shoved into the back corner by the taller figures.

It was only when the doors closed that she realized that Moss was nowhere to be found.

Amber felt a knot form in her stomach. The two of them had started together at the fire-making station a few moments ago. He had helped her gather twigs and sticks to build the fire from the makeshift woods, helped her set up the skeleton of the fire, given her the flint and the rock, and showed her how to light it. Had he left while she was watching the fire? Had he slid away beforehand to check on Toby over at water purification? Or had they gotten separated on the way to the elevators?

Whatever happened, there was no sign of Moss in the elevator. Where could he possibly have gone?

As the elevator doors closed, Quiinn took his hands off of Cyei's shoulders. The two just barely fit into the elevator, leaving Camden and Orchid to take another one after them. It seemed as though most of the tributes were just ready to be done; the elevator was packed with tributes from a variety of districts. It took all that Quiinn had to keep Cyei, who was small even for his age, from getting stepped on as tributes left the elevator. The boy had not been able to do anything other than be helpless since he was Reaped; it was all Quiinn could do to guide him through the training days and hope that he didn't get hurt or trampled.

Fortunately, once the Elevator passed the floor for Four, it was only Cyei, Quiinn, and the Tens left. Or at least, that's what Quiinn thought. When he turned around, however, he saw the smaller girl from Seven sitting in the corner, curled up in a little ball.

"Wait here," Quiinn instructed. He knelt down next to the girl and said gently, "Are you OK, sweetie?"

The girl looked up at him, eyes rimmed with tears. "I can't find Moss."

"Who's Moss?"

"From my district. He was with me and then I don't know where he went."

"Well, let's take you back to your floor and see if you can find him there."

"Okay."

When the elevator arrived at the Elevens' floor, Quiinn ushered Cyei off, then directed the elevator back down to the Sevens' floor. The doors opened on Moss, who was about to step into the elevator. "Oh! Amber!"

"Moss!" Amber exclaimed, darting out of the elevator and giving him a hug.

"There you are! I was getting worried."

"I got nervous too."

"Well, it's OK now because we all made it back. Now go get something to eat."

"Oh good, I'm hungry!"

As Amber ran off, Moss looked up at Quiinn. "Thank you for finding her."

Quiinn leaned against the side of the elevator, to keep the doors from closing. "Of course! It's hard for me to see these younger kids left alone."

"Especially with all the older kids this year."

"Yeah, exactly."

Moss hesitated for a moment, then leaned in towards Quiinn. "You know, I noticed that the two little kids from Eight didn't seem to have anybody today."

"Really?"

"Yeah. They had each other but no older kids to watch out for them."

Quiinn's brow furrowed. "That's not good. Is there anything we can do?"

Moss looked back into the apartment. I don't know. I want to protect those kids if I can. But I have to prioritize my district first, you know? Keeping Toby and Amber safe is important to me. If I take the Eights on, I run the risk of either having to sacrifice the Eights for my district partners, or one of my district partners for the Eights. And both of those things would suck."

"Yeah." Quiinn paused. He wasn't quite sure what Moss's motivation was for telling him that. Another tribute might have been trying to manipulate the protective instinct that Quiinn exuded. But Moss seemed to be speaking from a place of genuine concern. Quiinn felt comfortable leaning into moss here, even if only a little. "Thank you for letting me know. I'll see if I can think of anything to do to help."

"I appreciate that. And if there's anything I can do, please let me know."

"I will."

As Quiinn went back to his floor, he turned Moss's words over in his mind. He knew objectively that he should leave the Eights alone; as Moss said, he had to protect his district partners first. But the two kids from Eight would be completely helpless on their own in the Arena without protection from the elements – or from the other tributes.

He knew it was probably a bad choice. He knew Orchid wouldn't like it. But Quiinn had to help them.

"All right, let's debrief training," instructed Augustus Braun, One's lead mentor for the Quell. "What happened? What did we see? What did we learn? Who are we worried about? Jaesa, talk to me."

Jaesa Briton took a deep breath. "We do have a bit of a situation that I want to talk to you about."

"What's up?"

"Well, Lydia and I were training this afternoon when Shine Scott from Twelve came up to us. She explained that she had grown up in Two but had moved to Twelve with her family last year for government reasons. While she wasn't selected to volunteer in Two, she of course had trained in the Academies there and kept up some of her training with her father as she waited to be able to apply for placement back in Two. When the Quell twist was announced, she chose to stay in Twelve a bit longer because she was now eligible to volunteer."

"Placement?" Tyranny asked.

"It's a system they have where one of the Victors evaluates the graduating class of trainees and offers some a spot in the Peacekeeper Academy and some a spot as trainers in Two's Academy," Augustus explained. "Two pushed it off last year to see what would happen with the Quell twist." He motioned for Jaesa to continue.

"Anyway, Shine came up to me and asked if she could join our alliance. She pointed out that both other packs – the Twos as well as the one Empra formed of her, her district partner, the older boy from Twelve, and I think the girl from Seven – have four members just like us. If she joined us, we would get a numbers advantage which would serve us well in combat because, according to her, both of the other groups are planning to target the other Packs first. Plus, we would get the advantage of her `exceptional skillset` and `Peacekeeper connections` - her father is apparently some sort of important Peacekeeper."

Augustus nodded. "So what's the question?"

"Should we accept her into our alliance?"

"Well, what do you think, Jaesa?" Augustus volleyed. "You're leading the Pack."

"My instinct is to say yes."

Lydia forcibly put her mug down on the table. "Jaesa, are you sure?"

"Look, in these Games, we need anything we can to give us an advantage. And there is a distinct advantage that comes with numbers. At five, we'd be the biggest alliance in the Arena, I think, and with all of us being trained, we could do make quick work of other alliances."

"But do you trust her?" Lydia pushed. "There's something about her that makes me nervous. Like, really nervous."

"Is there any way we can just train with her for a day?" Khada suggested. "Get a sense of what she does and all that without committing."

"The problem is that, in order for us to really be able to work as a group, we need to be able to fight together. So we have to have some time in training with Shine to get a group dynamic together. And that means revealing some of what we can do to her," Tyranny volunteered.

"Exactly," Jaesa said. She looked to Lydia, whose olive eyes were filled with worry. "I know, Lydia. It is a risk, but I think it will pay off."

"I just don't want anything to happen because of her."

"Don't worry. We'll be fine. We've got each other, and there's nothing she could do to break that apart."

Well howdy, everyone! A slightly later in the day update than last week but I hope you enjoyed nonetheless! These training chapters have been some of my favorites to write, and I hope you've had as much fun reading it as I had writing it! I do wonder what caught your eye: what was interesting? Did anything strike you as unusual or off? What did you find to be sweet or fun?

I don't have that much to say this week other than if you want, non-POV slots are still open for LHFNP. But otherwise, just I hope you enjoyed and I'll see y'all next time! And if you have better chapter title ideas please do let me know.

xoxo, xxxi