Victor's Crown: A Hunger Games Story

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 [𝟱]

Since Careers dominate all of the stations Finnick had wanted to visit, he elects to frequent the survival skills stations instead. He learns about edible plants, how to bind a wound, how to sterilize a water source. Most of these skills he learned back at the academy a long time ago, but he figures it wouldn't hurt to refresh his memory, especially when he needs these skills to be second nature in a place where nature itself will be like nothing he's ever known. More than once, he catches the Career pack stealing glimpses at him, muttering amongst themselves, and pretends not to notice.

When he's sure they are watching, he studies them. Where Bellona excels at ranged weaponry, she is not so adept at grappling, and where Miles is proficient with swords he does not fare as well with spears. Alabaster is all brute strength and offense, while Ruby is swift and primarily defensive. There's something hypnotizing about the way she fights, like a serpent always slipping out of her opponent's reach, inflicting a series of blows while, not fatal singularly, serve to gradually exhaust her adversary and weaken their defenses. Then, once the opposition has worn itself out, she darts in to deliver the fatal strike, swift and deadly. It's a good thing he's at the knot-tying station or he would've made an utter fool of himself, ogling at her like a mudskipper.

At lunch, Finnick eats alone. There's no point in approaching the Callows at this point; they're all as nervous and flighty as rabbits after watching the Careers flaunt their abilities for them to witness and fear. In the pre-Games period, psychological warfare is a more potent weapon than any sword or spear.

Once he's finished his lunch, he walks up to the trap station to try his hand at building snares. It's not much different from making nets, and Finnick finds his hands flying over the rope and sticks in no time, tying knots and making loops and attaching them to meticulously positioned sticks.

While he's working on a particularly complex knot, the girl from Seven has already mastered her first snare and has begun another. She seems highly competent, perhaps even more so than he is, finishing her snare almost before the instructor. She must notice him watching her because her ears turn pink beneath her mane of curly red hair.

"You're pretty good at that," Finnick remarks, jutting his chin at her completed snare.

"Thanks." She tucks a curl behind her ear and smiles shyly.

"I'm Finnick. District Four." He turns fully toward her but edges back a little so she won't feel crowded. Even crouching, he can tell he's a good head taller and about seventy pounds heavier than her.

"My name's Linden. I'm from Seven."

Abandoning his own snare, Finnick sits back on his haunches and links his hands around his shins. "So tell me, Linden: How'd a girl like you get so good at making these snares?"

For a long moment she remains silent, and Finnick thinks he's scared her into wordlessness. Finally though, she replies. Slowly, as if measuring each syllable before letting it out of her mouth. "In Seven, everything is in the woods. We have to clear out the birds and critters and such before we can cut down the trees."

Of course, she can't just come out and say she's trapping animals. But Finnick is gratified by her willingness to answer, even if it's indirect.

"Sounds like a smart idea," Finnick replies honestly. Learning to capture animals via snare is something he never learned how to do in the academy. If the arena turns out to be woodlands, Seven will be able to use it to their advantage much more comfortably than Finnick, who grew up on the coast of Panem.

After another pause, Linden blurts out in a single breath, "It was nice of you to, um, stand up for the boy from Ten."

Finnick winces and tries to cover it with a nonchalant shrug, absentmindedly tying a knot in a piece of twine. "It was stupid of me. The trainers would've taken care of it."