Wicked Game ~ An Hedric AU Fanfiction

Chapter 5: Training For The Arena (Part I)

Harry's PoV

Lavender and Harry both entered the elevator directly from their Districtʼs apartment that would take them down into the basement where the training center for preparing the tributes was located.

They were both wearing their sweat-absorbent skin-tight training suits, which all the tributes had to wear during training, their District number printed in white on the back of the training suit in between the shoulder blades.

On the first day of training as Effie had thankfully explained to them - because Lockhart couldn't stop talking about himself for more than ten seconds - they would be doing obligatory exercises in preparation for the arena, the exercises apparently sometimes but not always slightly changing to apply to the specific arena for the year, so paying attention was very much crucial.

The two days after would be free training where the tributes could work on whatever skills they deemed individually useful for their survival in the arena or practice what they had been taught during the obligatory exercises; on the fourth day they would have to show off a skill in front of the Gamemakers who would give them points from 1 to 12 rating their survival chances in the arena based on their shown skill, the points also playing an important part in attracting sponsors just like the opening ceremony.

The fifth day could be used for another and final training session with your respective mentor but time would be limited since it would be equally split between twelve Districts.

Harry had no idea what it was that he could learn from Lockhart that would drastically improve his survival in the arena since he didn't really picture Lockhart as a fighter or survivalist, the self-proclaimed 'writer' from the Capitol probably never even having tried doing one of those, but probably still insisting that he knew what he was doing and of course exceptionally good at it, so ... how much help this part of the training was really going or rather not going to be, he simply had to wait and see.

That Harry himself didn't bring any special skills or talents useful for the arena with him from his former life in the District like the Careers in District 1 and 2 for example didn't make any of this any better.

He highly doubted that three days of training would be enough for him to not make a complete fool out of himself during the rating of the Gamemakers or the arena with absolutely no prior experience whatsoever.

With a ding, the elevator doors slid open, and Lavender and he stepped into the empty, seated anteroom of the training center.

The automatic door to the training hall stood already wide open and looking through it, Harry could see the rest of the tributes already standing in a circle, waiting.

Lavender and he immediately hurried inside, coming to stand in the last free spot in the circle next to District 11.

It seemed they had been the last two tributes to arrive as Harry quickly skimmed over the people standing in the circle.

'Welcome to your first day of training at the Capitol! Long formal introductions won't be necessary, you just need to know that I'll be the person supervising your training for today as well as the following two days. Today we will start with four obligatory exercises, each one of you will have to do at least once to make sure you have achieved basic training for the arena. The four obligatory exercises will roughly cover the categories of survival, reaction, fight, as well as strength/endurance.'

The dark-skinned woman who hadn't told them her name and apparently would be their training supervisor for the next couple of days, paused, taking her time to look at each one of them before continuing to speak.

'Now, to the rules. No fighting with the other tributes outside of training purposes, you will have enough time for that later in the arena. You're allowed to talk to other tributes for the sake of forming alliances but you should keep your voices down, so nobody will get distracted from their training. Weapons you might be using during the training, of course, will be returned at the end of the training. Our Peacekeepers will also keep an eye on you to assure no weapons are leaving the training center. Only one violation of these rules will result in you being excluded from the rest of the training for the day without question, thus possibly dimming your chances in the arena. Lastly, I'm going to inform you that a few of the Gamemakers will watch you during all three training days. This is done to see your development during training and to ensure the most accurate ratings during your performance on the fourth day.'