The Hunger Games - PRIM EDITION

Chapter 6 - Another Career?

It took all of my effort to open my eyes and get out of bed this morning, as all my limbs are aching from yesterday. Muscles ache that I didn't even know existed, so climbing the net today is a real challenge.

Today, I find Rue by the climbing ropes, where she was yesterday, and she agrees to help me master the climbing. When I feel the rope wobbling, I concentrate hard on staying in balance, not wanting for yesterday to repeat itself. When I stay on top of the net, I grin to myself.

Two wobbles later, I reach the top of the net. A feeling of relief rises in my chest, and I smile down at Rue. Despite enjoying the adrenaline from reaching the top, I feel much safer when my feet are on the ground.

"That was great!" Rue congratulates me, an identical smile to mine on her face.

"Thanks!" I reply. "And thank you for teaching me! I couldn't have done it on my own."

"No problem!" she smiles, and she goes over to the camouflage station, leaving me alone. I decide to go and learn how to make a fire.

When I get there, the instructor, Benjamin tells me only to light a fire if completely necessary, because it would be a big risk to light a fire, because the smoke and flames would attract the other tributes. After and hour of trial and error, and only a little bit of smoke rising from the wood, a small flame finally sets alight, making me happy that I haven't completely wasted an hour.

I stand up and stretch my back, as it is aching from crouching over the pile of wood. I look around the room. All of the stations seem to be taken; the careers have split up, Cato and Clove using axes, and Glimmer and Marvel practising with knife throwing. Peeta and Rue are sat peacefully in the camouflage station, making their arms match rock and grass.

I'm not in an artistic mood, so when I spot an empty station, I approach it eagerly. However upon arriving, I regret it. Shooting. The bows and arrows sent my mind into memories of Katniss, and suddenly, I feel the back of my eyes burning. I blink the tears back, and approach the woman stood next to the array of different bow and arrows.

"Excuse me?" I start, when u get near her. She glares at me with deep green eyes. "I was wondering if you could maybe teach me how to shoot?"

"Sure." She says, turning to the bows. She picks up one of the smaller bows and hands it to me. It feels heavier than I anticipated. The woman picks up a bigger bow for herself, throws a sheath of arrows over her shoulder, and walks briskly over to a cross on the floor.

She holds up her bow and pulls an arrow back on the string.

"Watch and learn, kid." She says as she releases the arrow. It flies through the air, and hits just off the centre of the target. She lets out a deep sigh, and pulls out a second arrow. I watch her as she frowns at the target, pulling the string tight.

She releases the arrow, and it hits the centre of the target this time. She grins to herself, and hands the sheath of arrows over to me. I throw them over my shoulder like she did, and stood on the cross marked on the floor, facing the target.

"I don't expect you to hit the target first time. The bow and arrow takes a lot of getting used to." She tells me. That's encouraging I think to myself. "Now before you send arrows flying across the room, try out the bow. Get to know it."

I don't really know what she wants me to do, so I just inspect the bow at first. I pull at the strings a bit, and imagine I am shooting an arrow at the target. I continue doing this for a couple of minutes, until I hear laughter behind me. It belongs to Clove.

"Hey, Cato!" she giggles. "Look, 12 forgot her bows!" I glare at them, and reach over my shoulder for a bow. I copy what the instructor did, and focus on the target. I pull back on the string, and feeling very aware of the sniggers behind me, I release the string.

The arrow soars through the air, and finds a place in the wall, a few feet above the target.

The sniggers behind me turn into loud giggles, which I try to block out as I fire the next arrow.

The next arrow flies lower than the last one, but too low, and it hits the floor before it hits the target. The giggle become laughter now, making it harder to ignore. I feel my cheeks redden, and I feel anger rise up in me. I snatch an arrow from over my shoulder, and without thinking much, I fire the arrow.

It flies through the air, and I guess it's third time lucky, because the arrow hits the centre of the target. The laughter stops abruptly, and I feel happy as I walk to lunch with Peeta. I reckon I'd have done Katniss proud with that last shot.

~~

After lunch, the arrow only found its way to the centre of the target two more times, and they were only lucky. After a good hour of trying, I give in, and move on to something different.

I head over to the edible plants station, thinking this would be helpful for food if my traps don't work. The instructor keeps me stood there talking, showing me all of the edible plants, and the definite no-no's.

Obviously, I can eat blackberries, and a few other berries, including a strange orange berry which I have never heard of before. I can eat stinging nettles, however I would avoid doing so, due to my childhood fear of them. I never really knew why I didn't like them, it must have been something about the spikes that made them my enemy. Now I have worse enemies to be afraid of.

There are a variety of roots that are edible, one of which I am familiar with: Katniss root. The mention of my sister's name startled me when the instructor first said it, but upon realising that she was still droning on about plants, my heart deflated a little. When our father died, my family basically lived off Katniss roots, because they grew in the forest where Katniss went hunting.

Despite the many edible plants and berries, there are just as many poisonous plants, which all sound terrible. Some would poison you, to make you dizzy, black out, or hallucinate. Some would make you lose your memory, and you would forget where you are why you were there, and even worse, making you forget everyone and everything you love or care about.

However, there is one berry that stands out amongst the crowd. This deathly little blue berry is called Nightlock. Just one of these, and you'd be dead before it reached your stomach. I make a mental note in my head; don't trust the blue berries'.

I leave the edible berries station, thanking the instructor as I go. I feel like this is the most well used time here. At least I won't starve, I think to myself.

I set over to have one last go with the knife throwing before the private training sessions tomorrow, when something that makes me stop dead in my tracks. I stare over at the other side of the room. As usual, the careers are in a pack, showing off their skills at the rope course. But their little group is not the reason I have stopped still.

There is another person with them, climbing the ropes at ease like a monkey. I notice that the person is a boy. He is stocky in build. Blonde hair. Blue eyes.

Peeta.