Chapter IV: Turtle Soup
A/N: Here's chapter 4. I'm really liking how this story is being received. I wasn't expecting it to go over this well. Thanks go out to TheReaper94 for his sounding board work. Enjoy the update! SSD
Isabel woke up early on her own the morning after the Tribute Parade. She had barely been able to shuck off her costume to the floor before falling onto her bed, naked as a jaybird.
"I must have been really tired. I haven't slept naked in over five months," she thought to herself as she lolled out of bed.
There was a mirror in the room. Isabel ignored it, knowing what it would show.
"A bulging belly, engorged breasts, and swollen feet. I don't need to be reminded about that!"
There was a good reason Isabel was up early. Her thoughts wouldn't let her sleep any longer. There'd been a checkup on her, after the Parade, which had been full of statements at how good the baby looked, and that despite a little high blood pressure, she was in good health as well. Even though all had supposedly been well, Isabel was still uneasy.
Isabel heard the door open and rushed back into the bed to cover herself up. A grey eyed young man dressed in white came in and hung up a garment bag silently.
"Likely, these are my training clothes," Isabel thought before saying aloud, "Thank you."
The dark haired young man nodded and gave her a slight bow. He had not said a word the entire time.
After he left, Isabel realized that she had just encountered an Avox for the first time. Avoxes were traitors to the state whose tongues had been cut out.
"A fair few were probably made after the failed Rebellion," Isabel mused as she made her way to the bathroom.
"I wonder who he is," was one of her thoughts as she was in the shower.
After she left the shower and dried off, Isabel opened the garment bag and took her first look at her exercise clothes.
Everything seemed to be designed to be as loose-fitting as possible, so as to not restrict movement in any way.
The shirt was a deep purple, and the pants were black. The shoes were black and purple as well.
Isabel was thankful that the shoes were a size too big, to accommodate possible swelling. There was one problem though: There were laces on them, and Isabel had not been able to put on shoes like that without help in months.
She would likely have to ask Damon or Tylara to help her with them.
Isabel began to walk to the living area barefoot, with her shoes and socks in her hands.
Once she got to the living room, the grey-eyed Avox was still there.
Isabel took in the buffet of food in front of her. Like everything else in the Capitol, the selection of food was spectacular.
Knowing that she needed protein and other things for energy when the training started, Isabel looked it over more closely.
Isabel decided to make an omelet, and fill it up with cheese and sausage. With it, she'd have lightly browned toast, and when she spied some green grapes, she took those too.
"If I can't eat all of this, and I likely won't, I'll just give it to Damon to finish. He's an eating machine," Isabel thought to herself.
She flipped the omelet as she waited for the toast to be ready. The grapes were already in a bowl next to her plate.
Shortly after Isabel slid her omelet onto her plate, her toast popped up, browned exactly the way she liked it. After spreading butter on the toast, Isabel noticed a familiar looking (and smelling) brown liquid.
It was hot chocolate. She did not get to have it very often, and Isabel loved it even more every time she had it.
After taking her plates to a table, Isabel went back to the buffet, poured herself a cup of hot chocolate, and took a long sip from the cup. And as the taste flowed over her tongue, made Isabel feel better.
Isabel waddled back to the table with a smile on her face. Without further ado, she tore into her omelet.
Gale Hawthorne watched in silence as the girl from 10 ate her breakfast.
He had always thought that the Hunger Games were a crime against humanity. That was among the many reasons that he had helped in trying to put a stop to them.
Once upon a time, Gale had thought that there could be nothing worse than a 12 year old competing in the Games.
Looking at Isabel Storm's hugely rounded belly, he realized that there were worse things.
Gale noticed her shoes and socks on the floor next to her chair. Since she had not come down in them, Isabel likely needed help in that area.
Isabel looked up as the Avox coughed.
"What is it," she asked.
He pointed at the shoes and socks, then mimed tying the shoes.
"Are you offering to help me with my shoes and socks," Isabel asked again.
The Avox nodded.
"Good thing I was already good at charades," she thought before saying, "Go ahead."
In a prompt fashion, the grey eyed Avox got her socks and shoes on. He proceeded to double knot the laces.
"Thank you," Isabel murmured. The Avox bowed and left.
A few more minutes of eating, Isabel looked at her plate. She'd eaten most of the grapes, half of the omelet, and both pieces of toast. She felt full.
"I should have made a smaller meal. But everything looked so good," Isabel thought to herself.
A few minutes later Damon arrived. The color scheme for his exercise clothes was blue and black.
"You made too much didn't you," he commented as he looked at her plates.
"Everything looked so good, I couldn't resist," Isabel said as she popped a grape into her mouth.
Rolling his eyes Damon said with a smile, "I'll finish your food, along with what I make for myself."
"Thank you," Isabel replied.
As Damon was making his food, he remarked, "You'll want to bring some food with you when we go down to training."
"I am not sure bringing food to training is allowed, Damon," she said even though she was planning on doing just that.
"They better," Damon muttered darkly.
They were eating in silence for a while, when Isabel finally noticed that her exercise pants had large pockets in them. She got up, and proceeded to put some granola bars into them.
About an hour before training started, Tylara finally came into the living room area. Isabel was having another cup of hot chocolate, and Damon was finishing up Isabel's omelet.
"Training starts in less than an hour. Damon, I want you to stick to Isabel like glue. From what I've been able to gather, the Careers are going to be circling her like sharks," Tylara warned.
Damon nodded. He was going to be sticking close to Isabel anyway.
"I though that tributes were not supposed to fight each other during training," Isabel remarked.
"That is true," Tylara conceded before saying, "But that does not mean that they won't try to bait you and Damon into a fight. You both need to remain as calm as possible."
Until about a quarter to 9, they all sat in silence.
"Isabel, do you have a little something with you to eat if you want it," Tylara asked.
"I have some granola bars in my pockets," Isabel assured.
"Good. And I know I've said this before to you Isabel, but I'll say it again: Take it easy."
"I have a feeling that I'm going to be hearing that quite a bit today," Isabel thought as she waddled towards the elevator after Damon and Tylara.
Even though the arrived five minutes before the start time, Isabel and Damon were not the last ones to arrive.
She and Damon had just been told to stand still as a piece of paper with their district number on their backs.
"Like anyone is going to forget which district I'm from. All they have to do is look at my belly and know exactly who I am," Isabel thought to herself.
She saw that with her and Damon's arrival 20 of the tributes were already there, except those from Districts 3 and 8.
Isabel did her best to ignore the wolfish looks on the faces of the six Careers. But she could not help but feel a frisson of fear course through her veins.
When the last two districts arrived, and athletic woman called Atala started pointing out where the stations were, and what each of them taught.
After she finished talking, and set them to the stations, Isabel heard a very loud and carrying "MOOOO!"
Turning around, Isabel saw the boy from 1, Auric, had been the one who'd made the noise. The other five were sniggering.
Before she could stop him, Damon snarled, "Pick on someone your own size!"
The Careers weren't able to say anything in reply as the Peacekeepers, sensing danger got in between Damon and Auric.
Isabel settled for giving the six a filthy look. She and Damon moved away after the Careers went to the weapons station.
"Which station shall we go to first," Isabel wondered aloud, trying to forget the unnerving encounter.
"Let's go over to the camouflage station. We're all going to need to hide at some point," her district partner replied.
They both knew that each of them had figurative targets on the backs of their heads.
The Careers wanted their blood. And the blood of Isabel's unborn child.
The rest of the first half of the training day was fairly uneventful. Damon was keeping his eyes peeled for potential allies. He had begun that the night before during the Tribute Parade. One person he was already interested in allying with was Thomas Harker of District 12. He'd apparently been studying to become a healer, and had been nearly done with his training before he was reaped.
Damon knew that a healer, even a trainee one, would be of immense use to Isabel in the arena. He wanted someone who had even limited experience with human births. He did not want Isabel to have to deliver the baby on her own.
"Foals are one thing, human babies are another," Damon thought.
He knew that they would need more than a healer to get Isabel out of the bloodbath. For that he'd need a fighter or two. He would settle for a fast runner though.
Damon watched the girl from 11 wield a scythe with ease.
However, he wanted one more on the team. Damon would have to look more closely at other tributes.
Damon was planning on approaching the boy from 12 after lunch.
As it would turn out, Thomas Harker from 12 came to them first.
Isabel and Damon paused as the food carts were brought in.
"That smells divine," Isabel murmured as her mouth began to water at the aromas.
Whether by luck or by design, the cart with their favorite dumplings was far from where the Careers were located.
The Careers had not been satisfied with Auric's early moo. Over the course of the day, Isabel had been treated to several more moos, along with a couple of times apiece being called "whore","slut", and the less offensive "cow" from the six. Even though she'd been hearing that from most of her family for months (save Tristan) it still cut a lot deeper than she would like.
"Will it never stop," Isabel had thought after the latest harassment before lunch.
"I know what I look like. I know I'm not as sleekly beautiful as Serena, Freya, and Mirena. I don't need or want to be reminded," Isabel was fighting back tears at that thought. The baby wriggled inside her.
"Come on Izzy, let's eat." Damon touched her elbow and they went towards a table that was as far from the Career table as possible.
They had just started cutting into their dumplings when an unexpected voice asked, "Is this seat taken?"
Isabel looked up first. It was the boy from 12, Thomas.
After exchanging a look and a nod to the other, Isabel replied, "You can sit here if you like."
"Hmm... Perhaps we have found our first ally. A healer would be a lot of use for me in the arena," Isabel mused to herself.
She was so deep in thought, Isabel missed Thomas's question.
"I'm sorry, what was your question?" Isabel felt embarrassed that she'd missed the question.
"I asked, how far along are you," the hazel-eyed boy asked, kindness clear in his voice.
"37 weeks, and now 3 days," Isabel replied before returning to eating her meat and cheese dumplings.
"If you need any help, I would be glad to be of service," Thomas said.
The newly allied trio were putting their dishes up for the Avoxes to clear away when Trident Hook from 4, said in a carrying voice, "I've always liked turtle soup. What I like so much about turtles, is that once they're stuck on their backs, the soft underbelly is so easy to slice through and kill them. They can't get up off their backs without help."
All six careers laughed loudly.
Isabel, Damon, and Thomas were not. In fact, Isabel's face was completely ashen.
All three of them had the feeling that Isabel was the turtle in that scenario.
And they didn't like it one bit!
They weren't the only ones who were not amused by the antics of the Careers. But Rose Drake figured she was one of the few that was willing and able to face the Careers over it.
Rose Drake of District 11 was very much willing to ally with both of the tributes from District 10, especially the girl Isabel.
Rose hated the Hunger Games. She always had, but it had become more pronounced since her best friend had died in the 74th Games.
She had volunteered for the sake of her sister, who wasn't quite right in the head.
Rose had heard something from her mentor Aras McCoy, who'd won the first Games after the failed rebellion. District 11 was very much displeased that a pregnant girl was competing, much less one so far along.
Aras had said that the Capitol seemed to be going for drama this year.
She watched as the girl from 10 and her district partner, struggled at the weapon making station. They were trying to make a spearhead stay in place.
"Now is as good a time as ever to make my intentions clear in becoming allies with those two," Rose thought as she strode over to them.
"Here give me that, I'll show you two how to do that," Rose said.
After Isabel had given her the spear she'd been working on, with a few quick motions of her hands, Rose had secured the spearhead to the shaft.
When she handed the spear back to Isabel, Rose held out her hand with a smile on her face and asked,
"So, shall we begin?"
The rest of the first day of training was quiet for Isabel. There was still some verbal abuse from the Careers, but it was easier to ignore them, with her and Damon newfound allies.
When Tylara had asked how their day went at dinner, she was not surprised at all by the verbal abuse from the Careers (she had been expecting worse), but she had been really happy that two allies had been made.
Now that it was time for bed, Isabel was more than glad to strip her sweaty clothes off her body, and take a nice, long, hot shower.
Like her previous hot baths, the baby moved around to where the hot water was hitting her belly. Isabel rubbed her belly, relishing in the little kick her hand got.
"You're liking these showers almost as much as I am aren't you," Isabel said in a happy voice before murmuring, "I do hope you won't get too upset when we don't have any during the Games!"
Isabel was dog tired from training, even though she couldn't do anything too physical, it was still exhausting. It took everything she had to crawl under the covers and grab a pillow to cushion her belly. She fell asleep almost instantly, with her hand over her belly.
A/N 2: So.. what do you all think of our Avoxed Gale? What do you think of Thomas and Rose? There will be one more ally acquired in the second day of training. The behavior of the Careers will also get worse, am open to suggestions as to what they'll do. Can't wait to hear what you all say! SSD