A Tale of a Boy and His Flower

Training

I nudged Jase to stop fiddling with his necklace while their head trainer was giving them a speech. He had always had that stupid necklace since we were kids. It was a locket, but he had never let me see what was inside. He had been allowed to keep it as a token with him in the games. I didn't see the need for such things nor had any idea of what mine would be so I decided to not have one. 

"From now until your time in the arena you must learn the necessary skills to survive." The trainer said, "Don't miss the survival skills as most of you will die of hunger, dehydration ,poison, or exposure." 

I looked around the room and there was a big screen with various pictures of plants which I assumed was for identifying which ones were poisonous. 

"The only rule is no fighting among tributes, there will be enough time for that later." The other tributes soon scattered. The careers immediately went to the weapons. The rest scattered among the survival skills. 

"We need to prepare for the arena but also scope out the other tributes." I said to Jase and he nodded. "Let's head to the weapons area first, then we'll end with survival skills." Before he could argue we got in line for the baton sparring.

Jase was up first. His opponent was a guard since we were not allowed to fight other tributes. His opponent was almost a foot taller than him and much stronger. He took Jase down within minutes. I groaned as I saw the other careers snicker. 

Jase groaned as he walked back up to me. 

"Well I don't stand a chance for sure." 

I gave him a look, "Don't say that. We both lack size and strength, but we have speed and skill on our side." he gave me a confused look. 

"Half the people here have barely held a knife or weapon, Jase. Our literal job is to slaughter animals, we have the skills to kill a human as long as we win in speed." I explained. 

"If you say so," He said unconvinced. I rolled my eyes. 

"I'll show you." I walked up to the platform and heard the careers snicker behind me. I chose a simple throwing knife as my weapon. I used knives and axes daily to cut up meat for the capital. I knew how to weld weapons accurately. But it boiled down to if I was fast enough to beat my opponent. 

I took my stance with my weapon in hand. I had to be mindful as well. If I showed off to much skill then I could become a potential target but at the same time, I wanted to prove to those careers that we weren't just kids. We should be taken seriously too. 

The guard immediately swung his weapon at me. He was strong but slow. I ducked easily dodging. Because he didn't come in contact with anything he became off balanced. I took my chance and kicked his knee taking him by surprise. 

Because of my small size I was easily able to jump on him knocking him down. I pulled the knife out and held it against his mask until he said "I yield" Another guard immediately grabbed me and pulled me off reprimanding me for such violence. 

"Ama, that was awesome! We're sure to survive with you on the team." Jase said, as the room went quiet. I tried not to turn around but I heard the whispering of the careers. I grabbed Jase's arm and pulled him into the other section. 

"We can't afford to piss off those careers." I told Jase. "They will most likely hunt down the weak first, and since we're young we are at the top of their list. What I just did should make them more weary to face us." I paused and stared at him dead in the eyes seriously, " but 5 trained killers versus two 12 year olds isn't good odds." he nodded. "we need to let them do the killing for us before we make ourselves known to them." 

"Amaryllis, I'm not smart like you.." he said, "I don't think quickly on my feet like you and I've never been good with weaponry like you...and I know that you came to send me home, but if anyone deserves to go home it's you."