Chapter Five, What Comes Ahead

The next morning, Silyah woke up from a surprisingly peaceful dream. She yawned for a good fifteen minutes before finally deciding to get out of bed.

She then opened the drawer at the front of her room and looked at the clothing inside of it. She picked a black shirt with three-quarter sleeves and threw on some simple black pants make of denim. Around her wrist, she tied a charm bracelet, her token from home.

She left her room in a good mood, which seemed strange to her considering her possible, imminent fate. She crossed Artemis' room, which was right beside hers. She stopped, staring at his door, wondering if he was still asleep.

She knocked lightly on his door… No answer. Slowly, she twisted the handle. If Artemis was still sleeping, someone would eventually have to wake him up, after all. "Artemis?" She said softly. "Time to wake up."

The raven-haired boy was still asleep. His hair was not as stiff as the day before, falling into his forehead and making him look younger than his age. Silyah almost felt bad about waking him up, but she really doubted that he would enjoy Effie Trinket as an alarm clock.

Artemis moved a little bit, revealing something hanging around his neck… Some sort of jewelry… The brown-haired girl stepped closer to Artemis, intrigued by the chain around his neck. The boy moved again, causing the item to slid out from between the sheets. It was some sort of coin with one single and clean hole at its center.

Silyah took another step. Why would a District boy carry a golden coin on a chain? Her fingers were tempted the brush the surface of the pendant.

The boy's mismatching eyes shot opened. "Silyah," he gasped in surprise, making the girl jump. "Are you trying to give me a stroke?"

Silyah jerked back her hand, just as surprised as the raven-haired boy. "I'm sorry. I just came by to wake you up," she said, feeling the blush rising on her cheeks.

Artemis sat up slowly, running a hand through his messy black hair. He probably looked like a troll, right now.

"Well, hum… Good morning, I guess," quickly said Silyah as she got back to the door. She barely had the time to reach the door handle when it flew open.

"Time to wake up, we have a big, big, big day today!" Though the early hour, Effie was already sporting her bright blue wig and lipstick. Artemis was so taken aback he barely noticed her attire. "Oh, you are both already up! Good! You can join us for breakfast when you will be ready," she smiled at the two tributes and left the room, only leaving behind the sound of her heels on the floor.

Artemis blinked the sleep from his eyes. "Would you mind letting me get dressed alone?" He asked Silyah, lifting an eyebrow.

"Grumpy in the morning, aren't you?" Silyah gave a quiet laugh and followed Effie. Artemis shook his head. This girl was nothing like those he knew.

He got out of bed, took a quick shower and got dressed. He opted for a pastel blue shirt and buttoned it up, leaving the top three buttons opened. Why not? He thought.

Artemis combed his hair, not bothering to smooth it back. It was a travel day, after all. Effie might have tried to object, but he was not overly concerned by what the "fashionistic" woman thought about his hair.

The Irish boy then walked to the kitchen wagon to find the rest of his fellow travelers already seated.

Beetee greeted the boy and pointed to the empty seat at his side. "I spent all nigh making a plan for your debut in the Games. I would need your opinions."

Artemis nodded and sat down in the empty chair.

"First off, the Training Center. Once you will get there, I suggest that you start with the survival stations. When you'll feel ready to do so, move on to the fighting technique stations. In between your trainings, I want you two to make some allies."

"Allies? I thought that everyone would be against everyone…" Artemis raised an eyebrow at Beetee.

"Oh, but, you won't get too friendly with them… You just use them to keep you alive," replied Beetee with a sombre smile.

Artemis nodded slowly. This made perfect sense. If you teamed up with someone whom you most likely would have to kill at some point in the Games, it was better not to befriend them too much. It would be hard enough for Artemis to take the life of someone he didn't knew; he could not dare to think about killing someone he might have built a trust in. It would be as good as impossible… Plus, he was not too keen on making Holly's words from the Spiro case come true. She had compared him to Spiro, a cold-blooded killer, and he had every intention to prove her that he was not like him. Would that point of view change during the next weeks? Artemis hoped with all his heart that it would not.

"You watched the Reapings yesterday, so do you have any preferences for possible allies?" Beetee asked the two tributes. "They must be complementary to your personalities. Perhaps people with good fighting skills… Maybe Silver from 6, Kalheb from 9 or the ones from 12?"

Effie suddenly turned her attention to Beetee. "Kalheb? Wasn't he the handsome one with the dark curls?"

Artemis rolled his eyes, lifting his eyebrow, partly to Effie's question, partly to add on to the look he was sending Silyah. They both really wondered what was going on inside of that woman's head.

Silyah looked back at Artemis with a similar, but much more amused look. Her gaze then went to Beetee, becoming very serious in the blink of an eye. "Silver looked like a fierce competitor, I don't know if she would need and ally… The ones from 12 seem like plausible choices, but Kalheb… I don't know."

Effie gave her a stare that seemed to mean, "Excuse me?" and quickly gained back her composure. It was their choice after all. The beauty of the District 9 tribute probably intimidated them. Or they did not want Kalheb to take all of the viewers' attention.

"I am not sure either," said Artemis. "I might agree on the District 12 tributes… Silver seems to be strong on her own and Kalheb looks like too much of an attention seeker to me."

Effie sighed, giving up her lost cause. So much for beauty in the Hunger Games…

Beetee cleared his throat. "Anyway… You will have plenty of time to get to know your fellow tributes in training." He looked in his notebook. "Now, on to your public personas… What are your main character traits?"

Well, thought Artemis. His best friend – whom he had met when he had kidnapped her – was a fairy police officer. He schemed his way through life, he had saved his father from the Russian mafia, traveled in time and battled demons, which meant that he was determined… Or completely out of it. But that was certainly not what Beetee wanted to know about him.

Meanwhile, Silyah had also been thinking of how to describe herself. "I am a scientist and an artist," she had replied. "Knowledge and art are very dear to me, that's what I grew up with."

"During your Reaping, you looked quite shy, but now that we are talking face to face, you seem like a very sweet and deep person… If you feel comfortable with that description, try to exploit it as much as possible during all of the public events," Beetee scribbled what he just said in his notebook as Silyah nodded at him. "What about you, Artemis?"

Taking the time to choose his words, Artemis began. "One could say that I am a prodigy and that I have… a rather dark sense of humor," the boy thought about it and realized that most of the things he knew about himself were related to the People.

"You don't like attention seekers, right?" Silyah mumbled under her breath, smiling.

Artemis gave her a rather intense look, raising both of his eyebrows at the same, as to say, "I heard that one." Burying her face in her waist-long hair, Silyah laughed some more.

"Alright," Beetee brought them back to the strategies. "Artemis, I see your persona as the very clever and almost mysterious guy."

Mysterious, indeed… Artemis could not help but the smile his infamous vampire smile.

Clever, mysterious and slightly scary… Thought Effie, looking at the boy's smirk.

"Good," Beetee nodded. "Now, for the arena… You must know that there is a very strong force field around it. If you touch it, you might die of a cardiac arrest, however, force fields are a great way to cook food if you don't mind your meat to be well cooked."

Artemis's face turned into an expression resembling a grimace when he heard this. He was not too found of the idea of cooking food on a force field, especially since Beetee seemed to alluding to the fact that they could also try to cook their enemies…

"Now, if you don't want to bump into the force field, here is a little District 3 secret; you would have to scan the horizon and search for a shimmering spot. That will be the force field." Beetee scratched "force field" from his "to-mention-during-a-meeting" list. "Also, the arena, as you are well aware of, will be filled with dangers. From the very beginning, when your platform will lift you in the arena, you will have to quickly take in the surroundings and get away as soon as you can."

Artemis was listening, taking in every word Beetee said. For some reason, this briefing reminded him of Foaly. Somehow, it felt reassuring to find people he could relate too in this crazy world, even if the resemblance was only a small one.

"Do you think that we should grab anything at the Cornucopia?" Wondered Silyah at one point.

Cornucopia? Artemis had yet to be aware of that thing.

Beetee scratched his chin. "If the survival material is scattered around the Cornucopia, then you might want to get a few things. If you can, find a backpack, a knife or a water bottle, but don't risk your life for anything fancy… And remember to stay on your platforms until the 60 seconds countdown is over… You would not want to blow up, right?"

Blowing up… Artemis thought about it… If it was anything like the sonic fairy bombs he had used back in the restaurant in Knightsbridge, he'd better stay in place for those 60 seconds.

Some train employees brought the group their breakfast and they ate, talking about the risks of the arena. Speaking about it strangely made the situation more real, yet easier to deal with.

"Oh, and before I forget," Beetee said between two mouthfuls of a strange fruit. "If you two were to meet in the arena, feel free to help one another. I have a feeling that you both get along quite well… But you better separate before you are the two last tributes standing…"

Artemis nodded. He knew perfectly well that it would be the best thing to do. If Silyah and he were to end up as the two last ones, as unlikely as it might be, they would have to fight each other and Artemis was pretty sure that Silyah could be able to take him down with ease… But still, it might be better to get killed by someone you might have trusted than by some brutal guy who only killed for amusement.

The breakfast now over, Effie has sent the two tributes to their rooms in order to dress in a way that would be more suited for their arrival to the Capitol. The rest of the train ride would be all theirs.

Artemis had changed to a white shirt, now buttoning it all the way up. The trousers he had chosen had on their sides, a line that seemed to faintly glow.

After smoothing back his hair, he went to the living room wagon and sat by the window, watching the landscape as it flashed by.

Silyah joined him a few minutes later, wearing a pair of slim-fitted pants and a long-sleeved shirt made of black lace over a purple tank top. The girl looked at him, from the tip of his shoes to his slicked back raven hair. "Very elegant but, you should… Button down a bit." She said firmly.

"Button down a bit?" Artemis gave her a strange look.

"Why not?" She smiled, shrugging.

"Perhaps because I don't want to," he replied.

"Okay, I have to admit that this is a fair reason, but we are going to the Capitol! The city of luxury and excess and… Well, you should loosen up a bit, mustache boy," She smiled once again, nearly wanting to wink at him, though that would be pushing it.

Artemis gave her a look, which was not amused. He was rather grumpy, really, but it amazed him how cheerful Silyah was considering what was coming ahead of them. "How can you be this happy?" He asked her as she sat in front of him.

"That would be because I live in the past and in the present rather than in the future… If I am to die soon, I want to enjoy every peaceful and happy moments life can give me."

Artemis was slightly surprised by the answer. For someone like himself, who literally was stuck in the future, thinking like that could not do much to him. Still, he could understand Silyah. She could be dying very soon… Though she could have the possibility of dying in her own time, with the people she knew still alive to mourn her passing. He would most likely die too, only he had not even thought about the consequences of his death. For all he knew, a time paradox might decide to backfire and destroy the planet, and that, Artemis told him, Holly would not have appreciated.

"No comment?" Asked Silyah, eyeing the boy who seemed lost in his thoughts. "You know, you have a really intense thinking face."

Artemis blinked, "I beg you pardon?"

"You have a very intense thinking face," she repeated. "Your eyes look centuries away…"

Centuries. The word made Artemis's mismatching eyes darken. He let out a weak sigh. He briefly wondered how many centuries had passed since he left. How long had he been gone? Was there even any Fowls left in this world apart from him? What of the People? Was Holly still alive? The more he thought about it, the worst it got. His facial expression never changed, but a deep pain flashed in his blue and hazel eyes.

"Hey, what's the matter?" She felt like reaching for his hand to try to comfort him, unaware that she was not supposed to see through his emotional façade.

Artemis's eyes snapped once again back to "the present." "Nothing… I am just feeling a little homesick," it wasn't even a lie, but he was certainly not talking about the home Silyah would associate with the sentence.

"So do I… But I like to keep in mind that home is where the heart is…"

If only is was not so far away, thought Artemis, bringing one hand up to the golden coin around his neck, the reminder of the spark of decency in him. He highly doubted that decency had the power to save his life in the arena.

Silyah curiously eyed the strange symbols on Artemis's coin. "I've been thinking," she began. "If we were to meet in the arena, we could find a secret way to communicate. Just in case."

Artemis nodded, both glad to change the subject and thinking that it was a rather clever idea. "I think that I might know a way," he said with a secretive, mysterious smirk.