Titus had shown admirable skill, the raven haired girl was certainly glad he had taken a liking to her. He was adamant they should be allies in the games.
Illyana was practising a ballet move on the ballet bars. Ballerinas. Beautiful, the picture of grace but people sometimes forget to be a ballerina, one needs drive. To push your body, to blend grace with muscle.Ballerinas were often underestimated, seen as delicate flowers rather than warriors with iron wills.
So while Illyana was thin her body held a certain amount of strength. It might not compare to the of the careers, but it would help her survive. It's strange isn't it, Illyana never felt quite like she lived yet but that didn't stop her from fighting with every fibre to just not die.
Xander, the other tributes from her district walked over to her. She barely acknowledge him as he stroad over.
Xander it turns out had been selected by the capital careers to "team up".
Turns out anyone will become a shit, if they think it will help them survive a few more precious minutes.
Illyana would do the same perhaps, if she felt like it, so who could judge the boy.
Fear it stirs up something strange within us all, does it not?
Finnick stood from where he was showing a girl the most effective places to stab. Knifes weren't his weapon of choice, but he wasn't fighting this time around, so if the girl need to learn to fight with a knife, he would teach her. Perhaps she would survive, she seemed nice enough,a little annoying, but nice enough.
Xander was standing face to face with Illyana, shr must of been a year younger, but she stood a few inches above him, her cold eyes not betraying a single thought as the boy silently challenged her.
Just as she thought he was about to back down he leaned in and whispered in the girls ear. Illyana's cold eyes met Xander's as he silently challenged her.
Illyana didn't flinch; she didn't run. She simply stared, hollow.
" Princess, best hope for a swift death in the games, it's not exactly like your welcome back in 10. I mean really the princess on the hill, so superior to use all, what just cause you got a bit of cash? We all know what your really are. A witch, as hollow as our stomachs.."
The girl didn't even flinch at the seething words, the angry face filling her vision. She didn't flinch. She didn't run. She just stared. Hollow.
"Xander control yourself, that fear of yours is showing"
But that itch.
The one starting in her chest, gnawing,
at her brain seemed to intensify .
That itch. The one that sends a rush of adrenaline and bad decisions through her skin. The one that had her begging to see if she could peel his face off with her nails.
She reached her hand up, meeting the boys skin.
He flinched.
She dragged her hand down his face, an action that could seem soothing...at a distance.
" I forgive you, I understand truly, fear, it makes us lash out, but I don't blame you my dear X"
She could see the cameras zoom in on their interactions, their observer's in a box enchanted and the girl knew the capitol was woo'd.She knew how to play the Capitol's game, and she played it well.
She gave him a smile, one that barely concealed the stabbing intent behind the action.
The small letter opener she had tucked into her sleeve for emergency was cool against her skin. Impulses they would get her killed, but not before she got what she wanted.
She let the blade slip down her sleeve, stealthy letting it drop into her palm.
A peace keeper coughed behind them.
The girl turned away from Xander staring at the white figure. She hated white uniforms, they surely held no purpose beyond showing the capital was wealthy enough. But she hated them.
She hated the capital. They were like a poison, one that had been left unchecked and it was spreading. She hated the capital, she hated the poison they made her endure.
A white uniform.
How stupid.
She pushed the letter opener back up her sleeve.
"Tributes are not allowed to fight each other until they are in the arena." The monton voice drilled out.
Illyana was trying to hide that ugly feeling bubbling, the one unsatisfied with Xanders punishment, the one seething at the capital soldier in front of her.
Impulses they get you killed .
Illyana reached up to the helmet of the soldier, she stood eye level, but the reflective black glass that covered the soldiers eyes obscure their feature. Her own reflect stared back, somewhat distorted in the curve of the glass. She took a deep breath. Smoothing her thick long hair back into the tamed bun which sat low on her head.
Breath.
She turned back to look at Xander, wanting to tear him apart. But in his eyes she saw nothing more than a child. Terrified of everything around him, lashing out in a desperate attempt to feel safe and in control.
How many times had she felt the exact same thing?
"I suggest you get back to training, try occupy yourself. I can see it eating away at you. The fear." she wandered off , out of training, past her mentor who was calling her name and into the quite hall. She hadn't realised how loud the training room. To hot, to noisy.
The hallway was cool against adrenaline flushed skin, it was quite so her thoughts could calm and reason with each other.
Running out of a room, her mother would be disappointed.
"If anyone gets in you way, if they insult what it's yours, you must ensure they don't go unpunished" her mother's finger running softly down the bridge of her nose. "So plan little one, and when you stab" she pressed her fingers against the pulsing arterie in the little girls neck "be brutal"
She could remember her mother's words as if they had only just been said. The feel of the brush her mother was dragging through her dark curls.
The look in her mother's eyes as she uttered such words.
Leaning against a wall she took some steadying breaths, this would reflect badly on her performance no doubt.
"Now sugar, one day I'm gonna walk in a see you with smile on that face"
Her head spun so fast you could almost hear the whip sound. She walked up to the boy, his golden hair was styled carefully, the soft waves only adding to his charm. She reached up intent to moving a lock of hair she deemed out of place, but her hand stopped a fraction away from actually touch it. Touching him.
She recoiled her hand, stopping the action before it went any further. Finnick looked into those dark orbs, they reminded him of the sea at night, tumultuous inky depths. His eye brow raised to emphasize his confusion as to why she stopped. Illyana simply swing her hands behind her back, clasping one another and leaned forward, her face inches from his.
"Perhaps when I win, I may just grant you that"
"Well then sugar " his face inches forward, his breath grazing her cheek "fight like hell."
A smile tugged at the corners of her lips. His words they sounded different. They seemed to light a spark within her chest, a warmth. There was no fear, the emptiness being eaten up. And for a moment, just a moment the world became quite. Illyana became quite.
"It seems survival is an art" she whispered "and I'm here to study "
A beat passed between them, charged with unspoken understanding. Illyana brushed past him, returning to the training center with renewed determination.
Survival was an art.
And if she was going to get what she wanted it was time to revise.
Authors note:
It's a short chapter this week, they start getting longer after this.