Chapter 10

Dinner goes by in a blur. Skader, Fry, Rassa, and I eat in silence, gazing at our plates warily as if they were holding knives to our faces. Beatilce, Frari, Taris and the clones, however, still haven't come down from their high of the chariot rides and are squealing to one another about the costume designs for the rest of the week, training included. Apparently the've agreed on a way to make it known Fry and I are together...but not together, every costume I will be wearing from here to the arena will have the main focus of black where as Fry's will be white, "like a yin and yang thing" Taris informs us in between bites.

After dinner I begin heading back to my room but am stopped short by Skader's voice pulling Fry and I back to the balcony where him and Rassa stand waiting, their heads bowed together as they talk in hushed voices.

"What can we do for yuh?" Fry chirps, and swings himself up onto the rail of the balcony fence. I shudder just looking at him there...so close to the edge, which is nearly 3 stories down, though with the heightened ceilings of each floor I'm guessing it is equal to about 5 stories of a regular building. You'd be dead in a split second upon impact.

I guess my expression portrays my thoughts because Rassa chuckles "Don't worry Dicen, he can't fall. There is an invisible wall there, he'd just bounce right back." I stare at her blankly.

"An...invisible wall?" Another raw chuckle escapes her lips.

"Here, watch." She moves forward swiftly, reaches to her belt...and draws out a large glistening butchers knife...no, to sharp and angled. It's a hunters knife.

She tosses it over the rail, where it free falls only a foot before something...the air seemingly, flashes, like a disruption to a hologram and flings the knife back at us. Fry ducks out of its path with a curse. It clatters to the ground and Rassa scoops it up and shoves it back into the hidden holster on her belt. "See, cool right?" She grins at me.

"Was that wall thingy designed in District Three? I think my dads mentioned something like that before..." Fry asks, though his eyes are on the leather holder laced into her belt.

"You carry a knife with you..." It wasn't a question, more of a shaky kind of statement, she meets my gaze steadily.

"Hey, yea didn't you win with that kind of knife? I think its up on the 'wall of fame' in my dads office."

"Yes, yes...I've carried it with me ever since...well it's late, we should get to discussing training" She motions to Skader whose strained gaze is fixed on the floor.

He looks up, startled "Hmm? Oh, right right...we should, okay few things. They'll go over some rules with you guys in the introduction tomorrow, you can't fight with the other tributes...you know the usual" Fry shoots me a sideways glance, that I attempt to ignore "But I don't want you to interact with any of them at all, okay? I don't want them having any kind of pre-exposure to you."

"Meaning" Fry cuts in with a smirk "You don't want them to be pissed at us before we get in the arena, so what? We're not the first ones they go after?"

"Well with you...yes" Rassa says with a frown. "But for normal reasons, we don't want them sizing you up...if you look too good, they'll mark you as a threat then yes, go after you first but if you look weak they'll see you as a bug, easy to crush. Its best to stay off the radar."

"But, we're from District Three" I point out " not exactly known for our fighting skills, won't they kind of see us as easy targets either way?"

Skader grins "We're counting on the District stereotyping... you guys remember Beetee?" Both of us nod. Of course we remember Beetee, having such a limited amount of victors to worship every year at the Reapings, its hard to forget even one of them and Beetee I remember specifically being that he used to be one of my dad's best friends when they were younger, though they don't get to see each other much anymore, what with my dad's double shifts at the factory and Beetee's obligations to the Capitol, I'd only met him once or twice. He'd been a major surprise to just about everyone apparently, though I wasn't alive to see his games, according to my dad he'd put his extensive knowledge of wiring to use and rigged up a trap that electrocuted all the remaining tributes.

"Well, theres proof right there that you don't need to be a strong fighter to win, expertise in any area will get you far, and thats a definite advantage to you. The careers will assume you don't have any fighting or hunting knowledge, and they'll think thats all they need to know about you, so they won't bother going after you until its convenient, but if you can outsmart them..."

"Then you won't need any fighting knowledge" Rassa finishes for him with a lethal looking grin.

Fry clears his throat "Gee, so now you're saying Dicen is pretty much the only one out of us two with any chance...great."

"Fry no" Rassa begins but her gaze suddenly shifts to my side, looking past me.

"Ahem, you two should really be in bed...big things happening tomorrow" Beatilce says in a disapproving tone, reminding me of Mayla whenever she found out Dekus, Ara, and I were slipping over the boarder again, which was often.

"We're discussing training tomorrow Beatilce, and how they should conduct themselves, we're almost finished" Rassa sounds polite but theirs a spark of annoyance in her eyes towards Beatilce, who is clearly oblivious.

"Oh, thats fine, just make sure they get enough sleep, we wouldn't want them to have bags under their eyes in their first contact with the other tributes."

"Right! I can't think of anything worse..." Fry says

Beatilce purses her now silver lips and turns to leave. Rassa's gaze lands back on Fry "So as I was were saying, tomorrow I want you both to focus only on survival. You know, building fires, animal traps, finding food etc...alright? You can work on fighting later if we feel it will be" She presses her thin lips together "Favorable. And stay out of the other tributes path, don't even make eye contact."

Fry doesn't say anything so I nod in agreement "Sounds good" my voice is weary.

"Cool, cool. Now go get some sleep so you look good tomorrow" Skader says with a wink, apparently attempting to lighten the now weighted mood.

I turn to leave and see that Fry is already halfway through the door.