The Hunger Games - Through the Fire and Flames - Book 1

Chapter 9

After the interviews I tried to find my brother and talk to him about the issue that was bothering him. The only problem was I couldn't find him. He left quickly after we were released and maneuvered his way through the crowd so fast that I lost him. After wasting 15 minutes trying to find him I decided to push it to the back of my mind for later and go get ready for training. I made up my mind to show them everything I had.

I kicked off my ridiculously tall heels and took off at a run to my room. Them moment I got inside I flopped down onto the bed and closed my eyes. Within seconds I fell asleep only to be shaken awake by my mother. She came to tell me they were doing the last call for dinner and if I didn't go eat now I wouldn't have another chance until breakfast. If I wanted food I could easily order it whenever I pleased. With that in mind I turned my nose up at her and rolled over onto my stomach before I shoved my pillow over my head and went back to sleep.

The next morning I was pulled out of bed by my wonderful stylist Cinna. He was a bit annoyed at me that I hadn't bothered to clean the makeup off my face and take the dress off before I went to bed. One of my female stylists undressed me and put me in the shower. She paid extra attention to my recently mistreated skin, making sure that my pores were clean and my face was free of makeup. After my shower I was dried off and put into my training suit. This would be the last time that I would get to train with the others. Tomorrow I would be focusing on a private session with my mother and then later that day I would be showing a panel of important high ranked people, one of them being the Game Maker himself, what I had. Their scores would either bring me sponsors or leave me with myself in the arena.

Once my hair was braided down my back in a simple plait I was headed down to the training room where I picked up a spear and began playing around with the different targets. I caught a few eyes after I nailed target a centimeter from the middle. After I got bored with the simplicity of the spear I moved to the swords and machetes where I began dueling against a robot dummy. In three short swift movements I relieved him of 3 of his limbs and severed him at his waist causing his plastic lower half to clatter at the floor.

"Are you looking for any allies?" the native girl asked me. She was even prettier up close.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I guess I could add a few more. I already have Phoenix as a allie."

Her eyes widened. "He is lethal."

"Isn't that a good thing?" I asked her. Surely having powerful allies in my group is good right? Then I realized that it was just as bad as it was good. Those powerful groupies of mine would soon be wanting to kill me off in order to leave the arena alive. The more lethal my allies are the more harmful they could be for me. "It's not a good thing." I answered for her. she shook her head in agreement.

I held out her hand and we shook it in a friendly agreement. Phoenix joined us a few minutes later and I introduced them formally to one another. My new allie Naomi and I moved over to the hand in hand combat mat where we fell into a practice fight. I had to admit she was good and was able to keep up. That was good because I always enjoyed a good challenging fight. The sight of two females using advanced fighting moves drew attention quicker then bees to honey. Soon we had a crowd consisting of the other 22 tributes from the 12 districts. They were cheering us on and voting for their favorite fighter. Naomi slipped up for one moment when someone wolf whistled at her and her attention fell away. I over powered her and got her pinned to the ground for the three seconds to claim my victory.

Before I could catch my breath I had several tributes at my side wanting to join in as my allie. After a brief conversation and a bit of consulting with my two allies we had recruited 7 more bringing our total numbers up to11 with the addition of my brother. So that meant we had to rid off 13 other tributes before we would begin killing off one another. That would give me and my brother some time to come up with a plan on how to get the others in our group before they got us.

During dinner that night we formally introduced ourselves. Two of our 7 allies were half sisters. Their father was a traveler at a high ranking level and he had a one night fling with the district 5 female tributes mother resulting in her birth. Her name was Alisa and her half sister was Layla from district 4. The two were similar in their looks with their large eyes and their large lips and brown hair.

From district 3 we had Mitchell and Rayda. From district 7 we had Tyne and Raider. District 6 we had Colt. Colts districts' female tribute was Ambruette who didn't approve of teaming up so she was on her own.

After my group of allies finished stuffing our faces we turned in for the night and headed to our rooms. I didn't bother dressing down because I was so exhausted. Cinna would be bothered for my lack of respect for my skin before I went to bed but I was exhausted and it wasn't exactly on the top of my list of priorities let alone it wasn't even on it. I had four things on my mind, eat, sleep, fight, survive. Those were the only important things to me at the moment, aside from my family.

Tomorrow I would have my private session with my mother and then I would be showing the panel what I had. It seemed like only yesterday that I had barely arrived here in the capital now I had less then three days, tomorrow, two days left that I was positive I would be alive for. After that I would be in the arena fighting for my life, literally. With a long exaggerated yawn I fell into a much needed slumber.