Gamble of Wits || Finnick Odair

Chapter 18: Valley of The Dolls

"I think we should move on from the scores and talk about predictions for the arena." Sera had to quickly change the subject before Ira started to cry and Zephyr started to lose focus. "Last year-my year, it was bone-chillingly cold and snowy, very snowy. The arena for the Sixty-eight Games was a winter storm prone-abandoned town surrounded by woods teeming with mutts and very few animals to eat. I had to resort to finding odd flowers, winter herbs and sometimes I was lucky to find some snow rabbits and birds to eat."

Ira held her hand up like she was in class and Sera sighed before nodding. "Does that mean there's less chances of a snowy arena?" Sera nodded.

"There's potential few ideas for arenas I've thought about. It could be a normal forest or a snake-filled mangrove swamp." Ira shuddered as Sera spoke. "Or they'll go the opposite of Sixty-eighth and choose to put you all into a blazing desert with nothing around. If that happens, be careful of your environment, try to find water first. If not, find a cactus but remember-you cannot drink from any old cactus, they can be poisonous."

"Wait. The lady at the training center said it was safe to drink from a cactus."

"A particular type of cactus." Zephyr corrected. "Candy barrel cactus or fishhook barrel cactus, those are relatively safe to drink from."

"Even so, drink water from cacti only in emergencies. Your kidneys will be very weak when dehydrated. That being said, also be careful of potential cannibalism if you are dropped into a blazing desert." Sera glanced down at her notes again and continued. "Another potential arena is abandoned cities from the ancient days. There's a few of them on my list, some flooded, some irradiated and some teeming with mutated animals. In case you're dropped into them, consider yourself lucky because you can find a lot of valuable things in some of the crumbling buildings."

Ira held her hand up again and Sera nodded at her. "What kind of things can you find?"

"Weapons, parts, tools, potentially cups and bottles and even matches and lighters-sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Those abandoned cities also have plenty of mushrooms and plants. I hope you both paid attention to the foraging station because fungi were a big part of that station." She finished going through her notes and shut her journal, looking up at the two with Wells drunkenly stumbling inside. "I have nothing else to say but good luck, sleep with one eye open and I hope to see one of you again."

Those were the last things she said to the two tributes and the last time she saw them face-to-face, now she just watched them on the screen whenever it was time for the mentors to observe.

Zephyr's face flashed onto the large screen which was hung up in the middle of the ballroom. On the screen, he grabbed Ira's hands and pulled her out of a large sandy sinkhole before the two joined their allies.

Like Sera had advised, Zephyr had allied himself with tributes from 12, 11 and 6, being unfortunate to not convince either tributes from 4 or 3 to join him. It ended up working to his advantage since the tributes were dropped into a blazing hot desert, one of Sera's predicted arenas.

The tributes from the lower districts suffered with 4 being the biggest loser of that year. A girl from 4 had managed to stick around to top ten but even she wouldn't last long. Only district 1 and 2 seemed to be faring well for the career districts, if Zephyr played this well, he would easily win.

"How do you feel about your tribute, Zephyr getting only 'Three' for his score?" A woman with feathers in her hair and dressed in jewels approached her as she and Emilia watched the footage from the games.

Another guest followed the woman and approached her. "You must be very concerned." A man with wolf-like features glanced at the screen and back at her.

"Not at all. I fully trust Zephyr and I know that his skills might not have impressed the Gamemakers but they'll be enough for him to stay alive." The small crowd of sponsors nodded around her as they whispered among themselves. "He has a very sharp mind, a good memory along with being skillful at making and fixing things."