Chapter 13- Dexsia Greentree
"I can do better than that!" I laugh, hoisting the sword up again.
"I'd like to see you try!" Velvet says, pointing his own sword at me. We've been at the same station for more than an hour now, and I have no interest in leaving. Treasure and Cossus headed off a while ago to practice some archery, leaving me and the other two of our alliance here.
"Let's go, Dex!" Calypso says, leaning on her own sword that's pointing down to the ground.
"Alright then, watch me," I say, stepping into the darker room in front of me and pressing the button that activates the training sequence. A bunch of hologram people start running at me with swords; I parry them off and stab the first in the stomach, the second in the arm. Ducking and rolling, I come up and stab the third figure in the leg, then again through the head.
Four come at once; I decapitate two and take off the arms of the others; I slash and stab and by the time the minute is up, all of the pretend assailants are dead.
Calypso claps her hands slowly and says, "You're right, Dex, you can do it better."
"I'll go in then, and I'll show you how you should really do it!" Velvet says, pushing past me. He's arrogant, but he's strong. He's also a valuable ally. In the alliance that we've created it's Velvet and Treasure from 1, Cossus and I, and Calypso from 4. Calypso's district partner, Mica, is too much of a weakling for us to bother with him. We tried to recruit the two strong eighteen-year olds from 5, but they've banded together and keep looking over at us with scowls.
No matter; we'll have strength in numbers. It's almost amusing to see how many of the others are incompetent; like the boy from 3. He tried to come over earlier and try the swords, but he couldn't even pick one up he's so weak. We almost died laughing and he scuttled away to the slingshot area. Like a slingshot is going to save him! Not likely!
"I'm bored," Calypso says once Velvet comes back out of the training session. "Let's go throw some axes; it looks like fun."
"I'll catch up with you," Velvet says, turning back to the sword simulation again. I follow along after Calypso, leaving my sword on the rack. District 7 is already there at the axe station, and they move over slightly to let us through. Calypso gives them a dirty look.
I'm not as good throwing axes as I am with a sword; Aulus and I mainly worked on swordsmanship, but sometimes he would get me throwing knives at a target. I can get a solid stick with the axe, but it's far from being my best weapon.
A bell goes off, signalling the beginning of lunch. My alliance all meets up as we walk over, and we pull tables together in the lunch hall so we can eat together. Our group is definitely the biggest, but there's a couple other alliances that I see coming together. The two twelve-year olds are sitting together at one table, and of course the siblings from 6 are sitting together; Kouza and Alyss, the two eighteen- year olds who rejected us are grouped, too. Everyone else is sitting alone.
"What should we do after lunch?" I ask, picking up a piece of bread from the basket in the middle of the table.
"I'm going to go to the spears," Cossus says; Velvet immediately says that he'll join him.
"I'm going to head over to learn some stuff about edible plants," Calypso says. Treasure laughs.
"We're going to have so much supplies in the arena that we're not going to have to eat plants!"
"What if I want a salad?" Calypso says, and we all laugh.
"Go get your salad," I say. "I'm headed for fire making. I want to be warm and not have to depend on you guys for a bonfire."
"What, don't you trust us?" Velvet asks.
"For fire making? No way!"
"We're going to have matches; you don't need to learn that!" Treasure says.
"I want to hit all the stations, just to say I did," I say.
"Have fun with that; you can be the indispensable one," Cossus says, and we laugh again, even though it's not very funny.
Once lunch is over I go over to the fire starting station. The lady there is very friendly and helps me learn to start a fire using flint. It takes about a half hour, but I finally succeed. "Thank you!" I say. "I'll practice that again tomorrow." Then I wander off looking for the rest of my group. I have no interest in seeing what plants I can eat, so I make my way over to spears.
I arrive just as Velvet sends a spear through the heart of two dummies in a row. "Well done," I say, clapping.
"Can you do better?" he says, smirking.
"Let's see, shall we?"
I get one of the assistants to show me how to hold the spear properly, then I take a practice throw. The spear clatters on the ground, nowhere near a target. Velvet laughs.
"Having trouble, Dex?"
"Shut up, I'm just learning this," I say, picking up another spear. I'm irritated at his words, so I send the second spear flying without really looking at the target; by some miracle I manage to hit one of the dummies in the back, making me look better than the luck that it was.
"See? I can do it," I say smugly, and I head off to find Treasure.
I finally spot her doing the obstacle course; for a ditzy airhead like she is, she's pretty good at jumping. I have no interest in the obstacle course, though, not today, so I head back to the swords and spar with an assistant until the final bell rings, signaling for us to go back to our floors.
We all get into the same elevator to go up, not letting any of the other tributes in, except for Calypso' district partner. He looks at us with a frightened look on his face.
"Bye!" Treasure says as the doors open on the first floor and let her and Velvet out. The second floor is, of course, mine and Cossus'.
"See you tomorrow," I say to Calypso, ignoring Mica completely.
"See you!" she says as the doors close behind us.
Aulus and Victoria are waiting in the living room; Aulus has a small glass of something he's sipping from. "Well?" Victoria asks. "Did you get in an alliance?"
"We've got District 1 and the girl from 4," Cossus says, taking a seat beside his mentor.
"How're you compared with the others with your sword?" Aulus asks as I take a seat on a wide white chair.
"Nobody's better," I tell him, and he smiles.
"That's my girl."
"Alright, you have one and a half more days of training before your private sessions. Make them count," Victoria says.
"We went to the swords station, the spear station, and archery station," Cossus says, suddenly very serious.
"Well, he went to archery. I did axes and built a fire," I say.
"Good! It's not all flashy stuff, you know," Aulus says. "Build a fire, do the edible plants, knots, all those things. You don't know what you'll find in the arena."
"Plants, knots, got it," I say.
Titia clacks in then in some very sharp high heels. Once she gets past the stone by the front door she sinks into the deep carpet and has to do a sort of strange tugging dance to get her shoes out of the rug.
"Supper is ready!" she says cheerfully, backing up out of the rug and nearly falling over backward. Luckily for her, the dining room is hardwood.
"Excellent, I'm hungry," I say and follow Titia into the dining room after she gets her footing again.
Served tonight is a round and juicy piece of meat, topped with herbs, with mashed potatoes and carrots in a sweet, sugary sauce on the side. I've never been hungry at home, and our food is likely better than almost everywhere else in Panem, but I've never had food as good as what they serve here in the Capitol.
Joining us tonight are the stylists; Cossus' stylist, Julia, and my stylist, Catullus. Catullus is very quiet, very calm; he hasn't altered himself as much as some other people I've seen here in the Capitol. He's only inlaid blue jewels in his cheeks, and outlined his brown eyes in electric blue.
On the other hand, Julia has been dyed bright pink, has three-inch long talons decorated with gold and sparkles, and her lips are twice the size they should be. Frankly, she scares me. She and Titia get along well, talking about really nothing at all, which they're both interested in.
Aulus sets his glass down heavily and my head whips towards him. "Let's talk strategy," he says, leaning back in his chair.
"So you have allies, that's excellent. At least for a while you won't have to worry about the other tributes; you'll have strength in numbers. Just don't get stabbed in the back while you're in the alliance."
"So, in the arena?" Cossus says, folding his hands under his chin and leaning in on his elbows.
"You get in there, you head for the Cornucopia. Other tributes are going to scatter; some are going to head for the hills, some will go for the Cornucopia too. You're going to kill the ones who go for the Cornucopia, the ones not in the alliance. Then, you get the supplies and you hang onto it. There's a reason it's called the Hunger Games."
"After that, listen to your alliance and kill them before they kill you," Victoria adds. I shoot a sideways glance at Cossus. I don't fancy killing him myself, so I hope that someone else will take him out for me. It'll just be easier.
I put the last mouthful of meat and potatoes into my mouth and almost automatically one of the red clothed girls takes it away and replaces it with a cake that's made of ice cream, decorated in ice cream flowers and swirls. It's beautiful.
"Thank you," I say, and she moves off silently.
"Why don't they talk?" I ask. "I don't think I've ever heard one of them speak. And why are they all dressed alike?"
Aulus and Victoria exchange a look. The rest of the table goes quiet. "What?" I ask.
"They're Avoxes. They had their tongues cut out because they were traitors to the Capitol," Catullus says finally.
"That's awful! I couldn't stand it if someone did that to me!" I say, taken aback.
"Don't be a traitor then," Aulus says and swiftly changes the subject.
I'm still horrified, though. Imagine going through life without your tongue! Suddenly I'm not hungry anymore, but I force myself to swallow down the ice cream anyway. I can't be seen to be weak, not here in front of Aulus and Cossus.
As soon as I can, I excuse myself to my room. I sit on a soft chair by the window and pull my knees up, wrapping my hands around them. I'm disturbed by the Avoxes and their lack of tongues, and by the fact that they have to serve me. If I did something the Capitol didn't like, would they cut out my tongue too?
I wave off the suggestion. They must have done something truly terrible to deserve becoming Avoxes. They probably deserved it.
Reassured, I get up and climb into bed after changing into a pair of white pajamas. The lights go out and I settle in for a restful night. The sheets are smooth and soft and the cover is warm.
The Avoxes with their missing tongues still haunt my thoughts, well into the haze that comes before sleep.