The Fourth Quarter Quell (Naomi David and Mercenary)

"No, I'm definitely in with you." Thal told her. As she told him about districts 1 and 2, he turned his head and looked behind him. Sure enough, there was the guy from district one, staring him down. That gave him a weak smile before turning back around. "I'm just hoping I don't regret teaming up with you, especially do early. There can only be one winner." Thal said.
 
Shira smiled prettily, so even her sharper teeth didn't alarm anybody for once. She spoke,"I am no backstabber or betrayer. People like that don't last in District 4 for very long." She spoke so quietly so only he could hear her,"I was snooping around the train... I was listening in on the Peacekeepers, they were speaking with the Gamemakers... This will be the Third Quarter Quell all over again... Arena's arranged like a clock, with a new terror each hour... But the terror is confined to only their wedge... Tick tock, spread that along to your crew, this'll help you all to stay alive." She flashed him a look of her solid gold mockingjay pin, to prove to him that she could be trusted, that she was not a lap dog of the Capitol. Then she covered it back up again.
 
That listened to her unsurely, nodding every now and then. He was starting to wonder if she could be trusted. Shira had won the last hunger games, which meant she had evolvement with the capital afterward. She could just be their pawn. But as soon as she flashed the mockingjay, Thal's trust was instantly restored. "Alright, thanks for the heads up. I'll tell the others later." Thal said.
 
"Also... How good are you lot at throwing axes?... I'll show you how to throw tridents, fight with them, really, if you show me how to throw an axe. Might need to learn how to do so in case I don't have my signature weapon with me in the Arena." Shira spoke, her tone reasonable. To her, axe throwing was like knife throwing, but she knew they were difficult to do.
 
"I can't really throw axes that well, honestly. But I'm an expert at throwing spears and knives. If you need help with those I can help." Thal told her. "Other than that I'll take your advice and not reveal my speciality." He said. "When dies training start anyway?" Thal asked her, wondering what time it was in general.
 
"I can always use tips and pointers for any sort of weapon usage, I mean, I don't know how good you are with them, for all I know, you may be better than me at knives and spears." Shira spoke politely. She spoke,"As for training, it starts at 9 in the morning tomorrow. Normally they only give us a few days for training, but they're extending it to two weeks. Probably to whip the lot of us into shape, to make sure that even the older victors have a chance... Oh, you do realise that our back up tributes get to fight longer, they train till they're called to replace us." She scowled when she saw the male District 1 victor trying to provoke Thal's partner, so she yanked out one of the pins in her hair, and she threw it at him, and it sank into the District 1 male victor's cheek. He yowled in pain, blood runing his pretty make up, and she smiled, really smiled like a shark. She spoke,"Well... See you later on, and keep an eye on your group. I think I may have angered District 1."
 
"Well, If we play our cards right, hopefully the back-up won't be needed." He said, watching Shira pull a hair pin out. "Well, apparently you're good With throwing, uh...pins, I guess." Thal said after the hair pin sank into the tribute's face. He cringed slightly as he did, rubbing his hand over his own face. He turned around, noticing Shira had sharp teeth like the district 1 guy. What was with that? Well, he would find our later. "Yeah, see you." Thal replied as age walked off.
 
Shira spoke quite calmly,"Well, he wasn't being very nice to your partner, he needed a lesson in manners. If you are wondering about the teeth, I did it to remind me that my body is a weapon." Shira smiled nicely, not showing her sharklike teeth, and she walked off, walking back to Ezekiel and the rest of her crew, and they headed to the elevators.
 
"Oh, okay." Thal replied, trying to make it sound like he didn't think it was weird. He watched her for a bit before walking back to the other tributes from district seven. "Hey guys. I just got done talking to that girl over there, Shira. She offered an alliance with us. What do you think?" Thal said to them as he reached the group. He noticed the district one and two tributes eyeing them. Thal looked back at Elizabeth, who was looking away, looking somewhat ashamed. "Actually, uh, I just kinda teamed up with district one. And two, I guess. I tried to get you in, but they only wanted me." she said, facing forward now but looking down. "What? How'd you get in with them?" Thal asked, surprised. Elizabeth didn't reply. She just looked away again and blushed. "Only da boys wahned hur." The other girl said, making Elizabeth blush harder. "Fine. I'm still in with district four. If you want to join, feell free." Thal said to the other two tributes, irritation in his voice.
 
Shira didn't even need to ask District 11 or District 12's crew for an alliance, one of them had seen how she had bloodied the District 1's male victor with just a pin, and they were eager to ally with somebody who could injure another with just a small object. Needless to say, Shira had the pick of the litter with the victors and tributes. Maybe she might be able to form more alliances come training time.

Shira had modeled her teeth after Enobaria's teeth, an old District 2 victor from a few hundred years ago, who had her teeth sharpened. If anything, at least Shira could rip a throat out or give one nasty wound if she got close enough to bite somebody.

Eliana, Shira's stylist, had promised Shira an extra special dress for her public interview with the TV personality, Benedict Redwood. She had been jokingly wondering if Benedict was getting tired of District 4 as the winners.

Shira was excited for the training, despite the circumstances of the training, it meant that she'd be able to show the twins how to properly work.
 
Thal told his stylist he wanted nothing special for the interview. She was wary to oblige, but Thal didn't want to be noticed and get through the interview as fast as possible, and he finally managed to convince her only to add green coloring to the outfit he already had. But he didn't have to worry about the interview just yet.

Now they were being lead to some sort of meal. Thal didn't know what it was or where, so he was just waiting to get there. After that they would be sent to their rooms to sleep. Training started in the morning.
 
They all would be eating in the Training Center, well, each District had a floor to them selves, it was above the actual Training Center, the tributes would be eating in their apartments, well, the dining room in their apartment, though in the individual rooms for the tributes, if one was hungry, all they had to do was whisper a food from the menu, and it would appear instantly, hot or cold, depending on how it was supposed to be served.
 
After the meal, Thal almost forgot how terrible the hunger games were. It was so delicious and amazing. But the thought of fighting to survive in a world of pain kept lurking in the back of his mind. Thal was in his room now, trying to get some sleep. Unfortunately, if it would come, it wasn't coming easily.
 
Everybody ate well, enjoying their food and drink. All of the tributes came from very wealthy families, so they never needed to worry about going hungry, but there was always the chance that something would happen, so despite the families being wealthy, they were all very frugal. Eventually, all the food was cleared away, and everybody cleaned up and went to bed. Shira slept easily.
 
The next morning, Thal woke up suddenly, sitting up in the bed. He looked around at all the luxuries, thinking he was in a dream. Then Thal remembered where he was. "More like a nightmare." he muttered to himself as he got out of bed. Thal got dressed in the plainest clothes he could find and walked out if his room.
 
Shira easily woke up, sighing as she got up, she padded down to the dining room, still in her night clothes. An Avox servant was there, an Avox was one who had their tongue cut out for crimes against Panem slash the Capitol. She asked if she was allowed to serve herself and the Avox spoke. Not exactly spoke, but Shira was skilled in lip reading since one of her brothers was partially deaf. The Avox told her,"Yes, you can serve yourself. And I remember you. I was one of the Avox servants on District 4's floor in last year's Hunger Games. You were very kind to me, helping me adjust to the life of not speaking by teaching me how to talk by lips. I showed it to the others, and they are grateful, since we now all have a proper way of communicating with each other." Shira spoke by lips,"One of my brothers is partially deaf, and his deafness is getting worse. Doctors do not know why. But we have learned to compensate by talking without sound, so we can still understand each other." Shira began to serve herself, and as a show of kindness, made a plate for the Avox as well. She did not know why she was being nice to the Avox. But it was obvious he appreciated it, and began to eat. He spoke of it being a shame that he couldn't taste with his tongue, but he could remember how the taste was, and he also said that memory was good enough. Shira laughed, and they both finished eating, and she went to her room, showered, enjoying all of the funny settings with the shower, rinsed off, dried off... And now her hair was a thick light brown glossy curtain that hung to her waist. She put on her outfit, a blue and silver suit with the number 4 stitched onto the back, and she headed down to the Training.
 
Thal didn't notice it before, but as he passed a large mirror, he noticed something in the back of his shirt. That pulled on the side if his shirt to get a better view, and finally realized it was a seven. He didn't really care about it, and kept walking. Eventually, he found someone who looked like staff. "Hey, do you know where the tributes are supposed to be?" Thal asked the man. He didn't realize the person he was talking to was an Avox, and was a little confused when all the man did was point. Thal nodded in thanks before walking off in the direction the man had pointed.
 
Shira was already practicing archery, and she had well hidden her mockingjay pin, but was still wearing it. She had riled one of the Gamemakers on purpose because he had been asleep with a long bottle of booze in one hand, and she had riled him by shooting the bottle, and making it explode. She had a particularly smug look on her face now, since they had put up a electromagnetic force field to prevent any more incidents like that. She knew where the chink in the armor was, it was shimmering, one could see it only if they were paying super close attention.
 
Thal was practicing spear throwing, though he was making his targets the outside of the bullseye to make it look like he wasn't really that good. In all truth though, he was hitting exactly where he was aiming. But every now and then he would glance over at Shira. For some reason he had a hard time not thinking about her. He didn't know why, either, and it bothered him.
 
Shira didn't even notice Thal was watching her, she just kept on shooting, hitting bullseyes on the targets, even the moving targets got bulleyes as well. Like her name, which meant 'song' in Hebrew, she could indeed sing, but she never sang, well, she never sang in front of people. She did whistle though, she did allow people that much of her voice to hear. She knew exactly what she would do to freak out the Gamemakers come evaluation day, and perhaps she would get higher than a 10 this year, for her score was 10 last year, she might get the impossibly high scores of 11 or 12 this year. She'd be thrilled if the twins got scores like that. She then got bored with archery, then again, she had run out of arrows. She then decided to do rope climbing, or messing around on the ceiling of the Arena, which she had done last year, hiding about on the ceiling, allowing her to watch what the other tributes were good at. It was a semi sweet memory, because the little Holly had the same idea as she had, watching the other tributes. And in honor of Holly's memory, Shira had planted a holly tree in the backyard of her house in the Victors Village, as well as a second holly tree in her front yard, and she had planted sea flowers around them as well, she wanted to shame the Capitol every time they passed her house, to make them remember that they killed a child, a child that should have been playing with dolls and dresses instead of fighting for her life. And right now, she was on the ceiling, messing around there, and she shouted,"Hiya Thal! Want to come up here?" Instead of waiting for his answer, she disentangled herself from the ropes, and flipped down to him, landing like a cat, landing lightly on her feet.
 
Thal had begun throwing the axes they had available, quickly starting to get used to them. He still had to use an ax multiple times, even though he worked in the processing plant. This his target was the bullseye, and he had managed to hit one in the first outer ring. Thal went to throw another when Shira called down to him. It took him off guard and messed up his throw. The ax went way outside, hitting the last circle of the bullseye. He was lucky he didn't miss the target completely. It could have flown passed and killed someone. Then he would have been in so much trouble the the game makers might cut his tongue out and turn him into a slave. Which, compared to his situation right now, sounded about evenly matched with terribleness. But Thal could only imagine what other horrors where done to Avox's. Also, he didn't want to make to make two other tributes be drawn to replace them. The teams had to start out even, after all. Or at least, even in numbers. Then he looked over at Shira. "What is it?" he asked her, like she didn't just about ruin his life even more.
 
Shira chirpily spoke,"Want to come up and climb the ceiling with me? The view is amazing!" She had come down early because she wanted to get some practice in before the place got crowded. Shira looked just as beautiful without make up as she did with make up. She spoke,"Did you sleep well, eat well?"
 
"Uh alright. I assume we get there with the climbing rope?" Thal replied, looking at her. Apparently the make up wasn't what made her beautiful, that was just natural. He couldn't stop looking at her, but he managed not to stare. "Yeah, I ate and slept well. Great, actually. The Capitol sure gives you a warm welcome before they send you to your death." Thal said, only half jokingly.
 
"Most do. Not many have the guts to brave the ceiling. I hid up on the ceiling last year, observed what the other tributes did, that way I could find out their strengths and weaknesses." Shira spoke lightly, smiling. She spoke, her voice dropping to a whisper,"Observe the Gamemakers, notice how there is an area that seems to shimmer and warble when you look closely?"
 
"So like a spy. You're crafty, you know that?" He complimented Shira. Then she told him to look at the gamemakers, looking for something. "Uh, yeah, kind of." Thal said as he squinted. He didn't actually see it at first, but after looking more closely he did. "Why?" Thal asked her, wondering what it was and why it was important.
 
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