The Demigod Games

Training

Jason

I step into the Training Room. Percy's making knots and nooses; Annabeth is making fires; Piper and Leo are learning about berries; Frank is weight lifting, and Hazel is trying to shoot an arrow. I look at my choices. I decide to refresh my sword-fighting skills.

I take a long, silver sword off a shelf. I stand 5 feet before the 3 dummies, and stand ready. I summersault toward the closest dummy, and cleanly slice its neck off with a grunt. I spin around to the second dummy, and jab its chest, in which my sword tip appears in its back. I then twirl to the farthest dummy, and slash its wrists.

Maybe I didn't need to refresh my skills after all.

I walk over to the knives, and decide to see how well my knife-throwing is.

I grab 5 knives, and slide 4 of them into my belt loops.

I stand ready before the 5 targets.

I set my jaw, stand ready, and flick my wrist toward the first target. The knife lands in the middle of the target. I grab another knife, and pitch it to the second right target; it finds a home in the ring right above the bullseye. I reach for my third knife, spin on my heel, and throw it; it embeds itself in the bullseye. I slide out the last two knives, throw them at the last left and right targets, and they get the bullseyes.

I smirk with satisfaction. I probably didn't need training at all.

Piper walks over to me, and kisses my cheek. "Hey, Sparky. Nice throwing."

"Thanks," I chuckle. "Wanna learn how to make a fire?"

Piper laughs. "I'm sure if we get cold in the arena, Leo will make the fires for us. Maybe we can try the tree climbing course?"

I nod, and we head over to the small forest huddled in the back of the room. The instructor tells us how to grip the bark, use our upper body strength, etc.. It's not as exciting as we'd thought it'd be.

After Training, we're dismissed to lunch in our apartments.

Annabeth and I talk about the Games.

"What do you think the arena's gonna be?" I ask, biting into a chicken leg.

Annabeth shrugs. "The rebellion was only 2 years ago, so they'll make the arena super dangerous, and they'll want to kill off the Tributes faster. There probably will be a lot of exposure." She takes a bit of her pizza, and wipes her face.

"Exposure? What do you mean?"

"The Hunger Games are about fights to the death. There probably won't be as many hiding places, so the other Tributes can get to each other more easily. Therefore, faster deaths," she explains. She takes a small sip of Coke Zero.

"Ah." I put my plate away, and sit back down. "And the arena will most likely be pretty big, so us and the other 5 will have to stay really far away."

"True," Annabeth exclaims.

"Anyway...how's training going for you?" I ask politely, taking a sip of lemonade.

"Good. I'm not very good at archery or knot-making. I am pretty skilled at knives and swords though," Annabeth tells me.

The speakers come on. "Attention Tributes, report back to Training. Attention Tributes, report back to Training."

Annabeth quickly puts her plate away, and we have ride the elevator back down to the Training Room.
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FRANK

Hazel and I walk to the Ropes Course. "Do you wanna go first?" I ask.

"Sure, why not? It'll be fun." She climbs up the ladder, and stands on the metal plate. She takes hold of the rope railings, and does her best to walk on the tightrope. Even with the help of the railing, it's challenging.

She makes it across, and steps onto the next plate. Next, she goes onto the floor, and climbs horizontally across the ladder to the next plate.

She finishes within 10 minutes, and runs back over to me, grinning. "That was cool! Now, you try!" She encourages. I nod.

I take a deep breath, and climb up the ladder. I start on the tightrope, but almost fall off 2 dozen times. When I get to the second plate, I get on my belly. Halfway to through the obstacle, the ladder flips over, and I fall to the ground. "Owwww," I groan.

Hazel runs up to me, and puts a hand on my shoulder. "Oh, gods, Frank, are you okay?"

"Yeah...just hurt my ankle a little bit. I'll be fine," I exclaim, rubbing my throbbing ankle.

"Okay...sorry I made you go on the course. I should've known your big physique would've flipped the horizontal ladder."

It's times like this where I hate my body.