𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘳

𝐈𝐈𝐈. 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆

'𝙣𝙤𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙨, 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧'

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𝐌𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐒 𝐈 𝐒𝐖𝐔𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐘 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 at the hologram, striking the engineered figure in the neck. I watched with satisfaction as orange blocks fell, signifying my victory. I swiped a hand across my forehead, clearing the sweat droplets that had formed during my workout. I turned around to step off the platform and met a pair of unexpected curious eyes.

I recognized the girl from the Chariots. We stared at each other in awkward silence as I waited for her to speak up. "hi?" I finally greeted with a questioning tone.

She blinked. "hi, sorry. That was really good." she complimented. "have you always been good with swords?"

"yeah, that's how I won my hunger games." I spoke as I walked to a table that held an assortment of water bottles. I could hear her footsteps as she followed behind me. I grabbed the water with my district number and twisted the cap off. She held eye contact as I took a sip, causing me to feel self conscious.

"you're the winner of the 69th games." she gasped in recognition after a moment of thought.

"yeah." I nodded, giving her a closed lip smile. "what are you?" I wondered. I didn't remember her, though she seemed too young to be a winner before me. So I assumed she won the following years after my victory.

Her face twisted into confusion at my question. "I won the last games. 74th winner." she talked in a tone that implied it should have been obvious. "what are you, living under a rock?"

"something like that." I answered, which only stunned her more. "it's a long story that I don't really feel like sharing. soo.." I walked off without another word, and headed to another training station. I decided to work on some skills I've learned from traveling district to district.

The first skill I decided to practice was from District 4. I stood at a steel table, next to an elderly lady, and began with making a net. Once I was finished with that, I decided to copy the person next to me, and craft a fishhook from scratch.

Right as I finished, I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. I turned towards her with my eyebrows raised. The elder gave me a warm smile before pointing towards my hook and holding a thumbs up. I assumed she was complimenting my skill so I smiled. "thank you." I looked down to her hook. It was clearly better than mine, as she had years of experience, and was an actually from district 4. "yours is amazing."

Her smile grew wider at the compliment. I watched as she lifted her hand and placed it to her heart. That was her way of saying thank you. "you're welcome." I grinned, before looking around the room, trying to look for another skill to practice.

"hey, do you want to go practice hunting now?" a familiar voice asked. I looked over to where the elder was to see the 74th winner standing there with a soft smile. Her eyes shifted off Mags and landed on mine. "I can teach you too." Before I could reject the invitation, the old lady nodded her head continuously. She placed a hand on my arm and carefully dragged me to where the other girl led. "do you wanna try with me?" she asked as she grabbed a bow off the display.

Mags quickly shook her head no, which made me laugh internally. The brunette looked towards me with her eyebrows raised. I took the silent offer, grabbing the bow with a small smile. "sure." I wasn't new to archery, so there was no reason not to take the offer.

I grabbed a set of arrows before following her inside. "you can take that side, and I'll take this one." she pointed towards each opposite side of the room before clicking some random buttons on the hologram pop up.

"okay." I nodded, stepping up on the platform. The room grew dark, and the once visible windows turned white. I pulled out an arrow from my back and turned towards my side of the training. I placed the arrow in the arrow rest as I waited for something to appear.

"you ready?" she asked once orange lasers began to turn on and glide around the floor.

"yup." I mumbled, keeping my eyes focused in the area in front of me. I could hear something spawn, and the sound of the brunette behind me shooting it.

Suddenly, an orange figure spawned in the corner of my eye. I quickly adjusted my position to face it, and pulled back the arrow. I squinted my eyes as I peeked into the peep sight, making sure my bow was directly lined up with the creation. I released the arrow once I was sure with my position, a small smile forming on my lips as I watched the orange man fall apart.

Though my happiness didn't last long. A new figure appeared in front of me, but this time, it was running my way, charging towards me with an axe. I quickly pulled out an arrow and placed it on its rest. I had no time to check my position, so I released it with no calculations. I was surprised that it hit, but couldn't bask in the victory for long as another figure appeared.

The training only got more intense, figures started to appear faster, and they started to fight back. I had to duck, roll, jump, all to dodge the weapons that came flying towards me. By the time it finally slowed I was breathing heavily. I turned around to face the other girl as she shot the last target. "that was fun." I smiled, though the exhaustion on my face made her laugh.

"it was. You did great!" she complimented, as we went to step off the platform. The windows became see through again and it wasn't until then that we noticed the giant crowd that had formed. Everyone pressed up against the glass in curiosity. One person even began to clap.

I laughed nervously, obviously flustered from all the unexpected attention. I walked with the brunette out the glass room, and through the group of tributes.

The following days of training were all the same. Katniss and I would occasionally practice archery together, and I taught her how to control a sword. She brought me a strange sense of familiarity though I was never able to place it. Either way, she grew on me, and I was afraid of what that meant for the arena.

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A/N: another filler/boring chapter, i decided to make it short so the next chapter could be better. my writing has been so bad because i genuinely have no interest or ideas for this part of the book, but i PROMISE, next chapters will be sooo much better. ty for reading! ily all!

ps, it's so crazy that my archery descriptions are so bad because i literally took an archery CLASS during my freshman year of high school LMAO. (tbf i was too embarrassed and shy to participate in anything so the teacher allowed me to sit on a chair with my phone while everyone else went to go shoot) so honestly i'm not surprised i didn't learn anything at all.

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟏𝟐𝟑𝟔