Day 3- Training (Day 1)
I wake early the next morning, and head out for breakfast to find Woof sat alone. He attempts to make conversation, but I am still angry and sullen, and he quickly gives up. Tamla's arrival, about an hour later, lifts my spirits, as she has managed to somehow recover from her night to arrive with a smile, albeit a slightly weak one, on her face.
After everyone has eaten we run over strategy with Woof for the final time. He advises us to stay clear of the careers, and the weakest tributes, but leaves us free to interact how we like with anyone else, assuming the careers don't get to them first. He reminds us what stations to concentrate on, and for me to hide my fighting technique, before we change into our training jumpsuits and head down to the gym.
After a short introductory talk from the lead supervisor, a scarred, bearded man, we are free to start training.
We start off with some of the quieter stations; camouflage and knots, which takes us up to lunch. Each district eats alone, seizing each other up, except for the careers, who immediately make their intentions perfectly clear, the six of them sitting together, talking and laughing throughout the meal.
As we move onto the climbing area after lunch, something at which I am a bit better than I realised, I make sure to keep an eye on the careers. Woof said that generally stronger tributes show off their best skills, to try and intimidate others, while weaker ones hide them to stay mysterious.
It doesn't prove a move that does much for my morale however. Silver, the district one boy, seems to prefer to fight with a long knife rather than a sword, and it moves so fast in his hand that it's a blur. Varro on the other hand does use a sword, with incredible power, and is not as slow as his size makes him look. Perrin, the district four boy, is mainly using a spear, and can throw it with deadly accuracy, use it like a staff, or amazingly given its length, almost like a sword. Cleo, and especially Shayla, are peppering dummies full of arrows, and while both are a similar height to Tamla, I can now see they are considerably stronger, Cleo, especially. She is also handy with a knife and even a short sword. It's Jade, however, the district one girl, who strikes particular fear into me. She is easily the most powerful girl, tall and muscular, and seems to specialise in hand-to-hand fighting. She easily takes down male assistants much larger than her, with a stunning array of kicks, holds, punches and jumps. And just when I'm thinking how it won't help her much against a bow or thrown spear, she collects something from another station, quite near us. Her hand flicks five times in about two seconds, and five four-bladed stars bury themselves in a dummy; one in each hand, one in the chest, and two in the head. I am unable to stop my jaw dropping, and she sees. Smirking at me as she pulls them out of the dummy, she say in a patronising yet menacing voice, "They're called shuriken." She then proceeds to repeat the trick, sometimes even throwing without looking, or with both arms at once.
Looking away and trying to clear my head, I suggest to Tamla, perched agilely on top of the climbing apparatus, that we move on to traps and edible foods. Those are two stations that I'll have to really concentrate on, and hopefully that'll stop me imagining all the different ways Jade could kill me. We decide to start with traps, which is empty, but shortly after we start I sense someone approaching.
"Hi…it's Rory isn't it? And Tara?" comes a female voice from behind me. It sounds friendly, which surprises me, and I turn round to see Fern, the girl tribute from district 7.
"Tamla," comes the correction from my side.
"Oh sorry," says Fern. Her voice is chirpy but quiet, although she does seem a little nervous. "Grove's not talking to me," she says, gesturing to her enormous district partner, practicing swinging a huge two-handed axe. "Is it okay if I join you guys?"
She seems so genuine and friendly that I say 'yes' out of sheer surprise, before I even really think about it. She beams back at me and Tamla gives me a shrug, looking half-amused and half-confused, as I catch her eye.
We spend the rest of the afternoon with Fern, moving on to edible foods next, which it turns out she is already good at, and more than willing to help us, before ending the day with a little bit of weapon training. We each have a go with knives and spears, while I also try out a large sword, axe and mace, each of which are two heavy for the girls to have a chance of wielding properly. I find that whilst I'm far from fluid I can handle them well enough, and that, as well as the beaming smile Fern gives me as she leaves, means the day's training ends on a high.
Back in the district eight quarters we shower and change before discuss the day's events with Woof over dinner. Rogellus, Marcius and Iulia are also present, and seem keen to offer their advice too, though it's only Woof's that I'm really interested in hearing.
"I think we did a good job of coming across as average," I tell Woof. "We certainly didn't do anything that seemed to especially impress anyone, but we didn't really visibly struggling with anything, or fall or hurt ourselves or anything."
"Not like the poor district nine pair," offers Tamla. I nod in agreement. The girl, Clarissa, never strayed from the food section after lunch and still frequently started sobbing, while the boy, Jonathan, had injured himself trying to use a sword and then fallen off part of the obstacle course, to plenty of laughter from the careers.
"So did anyone else team up with the careers?" asks Rogellus.
I shake my head. "I think they wanted Grove, the giant boy from seven," I explain, "but he just sort of grunted and glared at them and they left him alone."
"The girl from seven wanted to hang out with us," Tamla tells Woof.
"She said he wasn't speaking to her," I embellish.
"Well that's interesting…" ponders Woof. "How did she come across?"
"Friendly," I say. "How do we know if it's genuine or an act?"
"You can only trust your own judgement," he replies somewhat unhelpfully. "Was she good at anything?"
"She's small, and not much good with a knife," I say, "but she knew the edible plants really well, and she's agile and good at climbing."
"And she's decent at trapping too," adds Tamla.
"Hmm," says Woof. "I just get some feeling from watching her that she's more dangerous than she looks. But that could mean she could be a useful ally. If you do manage to form a little group it could make you less vulnerable to the careers picking you off one by one."
"The problem with that is getting into a group though," says Marcius.
"Yes," agrees Woof. "Seeing as the careers will almost certainly secure the cornucopia you will all have to run off in different directions at the start. It will be hard to safely find each other."
After a brief pause to take a hungry bite of pork, Woof speaks again. "So you any good with any weapons?" he asks Tamla.
When she only shrugs in response I answer for her. "She's okay with a knife," I say. "Not amazing, but as good as most people could hope for in their first day."
"Try a bow tomorrow," Woof offers, "both of you. I'm assuming you've never used one?" We both shake our head. "Well there's just the slightest chance then, that you're a natural."