The Hanging Tree Games Tasks

Task Two: Training

Here is my entry for task two :) I received a score of 12 :)

An axe flew by Sartan's head. He turned his head to the right, avoiding it. His father's words rang through his mind. They were a reminder, a chant of something he had heard since he could walk. "These are not just holograms. These are real people."

Sartan dodged to the left, using his right hand to form a knife to strike the target's throat for a kill shot.

His heart, his mind, his body and his soul were at peace. Like the serenity of an ocean, calm and tranquil.

"In the Games it will be real blood you are spilling." Twenty steps in front of him, he heard the thwack of a bowstring being released, and the whoosh as the arrow zipped through the air. He twisted to the right to avoid the arrow. Instantly, he heard the squelch as it embedded itself into the leg of another hologram. Ooh that was naughty, Sartan thought.

"Do not let up. Do not give them the edge." He darted forward, striking the next target in the chest multiple times, followed by an open palm to the sternum, stopping the heart.

He had done training like this so many times before. It had been his daily routine. This was his life, had been his life since he'd been able to walk.

This was home.

Once again, his father's voice reverberated in his mind, rolling around in a constant chant. "Every shot must be a kill shot." He swiped the axe up off the ground, flipped it around and threw it to embed it in the bowman from before.

He could imagine nothing else, no other life. Training, blood, killing, death, winning. Nothing else mattered; he was made for nothing but this.

"Because if not, it will be your death at their hands." Sartan moved his legs in a back-spin-kick to catch the next target in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. He back flipped into a knee slam, crushing the target's head.

As he stood and turned toward the exit of the holographic training area, he breathed in deeply. He was not tired, had not even broken a sweat. For a moment, he allowed the feelings of serenity and calmness settle over him, like a blanket keeping in warmth.

Footsteps scuffled on the ground behind him. Without turning around, he pulled a dagger out of his belt and threw it at the target. The dagger buried itself deep in the target's eye.

Sartan continued walking out of the hologram area, as if nothing had even happened.

Boisterous applause and cheering bounced around the room. The entire training room was massive, with stone walls that echoed every sound. Don't they know how annoying they are? Sartan silently questioned the crowd in his mind. The noise was enough to almost make him wince, but then he remembered his father's training.

He forced his muscles to remain rigidly frozen.

I will never wince again.

Walking over to the far corner, he flicked his fingers together. He could hear his ally, Kale, talking even from as far away as he was. As he took a seat beside Kale, the other two allies they had made, Jeremy and Artemis, stopped whatever they had been saying.

"Finally decided to join us, eh Sartan?" Kale asked.

Sartan simply nodded.

"Hey! Look at that girl over there from district five." Sartan heard Kale's hair rustle against the wall, as he nodded his head. "She's young, but she seems confident."