<My Career is {Deadly}><Gory

As he pulled back his wrist to throw, something unexpected happened. A flash of silver flew by him before lodging itself in his target mark as a knife.

He was startled for a split second, though quickly recovered, as he was trained. Weapon still up and poised to throw, Toss whipped around, searching for the thrower. This was a skill he rarely was able to train: finding live hidden enemies. Finding things wasn't a problem--in fact, his coach loved to hid things throughout the woods and send him looking--just "live" didn't happen often.

Got ya.

Toss buried one of his knives in a lower branch not twenty feet away, inches from the blond head of a younger girl, who was perched on the branch below, mostly obscured by the other leaves and branches. He allowed a triumphant grin to slide over his face, as he stood from his kneeling position behind the tree, arms over his head to show that he was not throwing anything else.

"Had I been aiming to kill, I would have."

Toss smiled and rolled his eyes. "In the Games, I doubt that the knives will be perfect for throwing. May as well get used to something below perfection." He shrugged. It was odd, being so critical of his aim while alone, but defending himself when questioned by a stranger.

"Besides, you don't need knives to kill someone. I can think of eight ways to kill someone with my hands--" he held them out for demonstration "--right off the top of my head. I'm deadly with a rock, too, from up to thirty feet."

He chuckled, half joking about the rock. Although, a well aimed lob to the temple could easily kill. It could if Toss tossed it.

Her hand felt very small in his own mitt of a hand as he shook it. "Toss."

He couldn't help it; Toss bust out laughing. In all his years, he figured that was the first time any confusion had come out of his name.

"No, no, I'm fine. That's my name, see. Toss. My name is Toss Mako. And yes, I have to be a bit full of myself. The alternative is to be so overly critical of myself that I have zero confidence. And that would end up with nothing but death for me." He shook his head, still grinning to himself.

"So you're... you're a Career, too, then?" he asked, even though the answer was already apparent. Without waiting for a reply, he went on. "This is my year. I'm eighteen, so I plan on volunteering at these games if I'm not drawn. I mean, there's nothing else in life for me, not one other option. Two choices: Live a victor or die in the games. I suppose I could fish, but that's not what I've spent the last ten years preparing. It's just--"

He broke off, realizing that he was ranting. It did feel good to let everything out, though. There was no one else that had come up to talk to, no one else going through the same thing as he.

Toss nodded agreement. "There are much worse ways to die than in the Games."

Silence consumed for a moment.

Though he didn't have an overwhelming urge to do so, Toss did want the almost awkward moment to be over with. He asked Columbia if he could borrow one of her knives. "Just to try it."

Delicately, Toss examined one of Columbia's knives. It's blade was much thinner than his, without the serrations all the way down--like on his fishing knives. The handle--banded with purple--was nicely proportioned to the blade, and the two balanced easily on his finger.

"This is much nicer than the fishing knives," he told her. It was. Toss drew back and flicked the knife towards one of the target trees, where it embedded itself quite nicely in the trunk--right on the edge of one of his circles--with a thwip!

"Of course I do more than throw stupid knives into a tree. It really gets old fast. Mostly, I just throw to warm up before I get to more trying activities, like swimming." He barely took a breath before going on to explain more.

"While throwing is about the only immediately Games-related thing I can do without my coach, I still like to build up endurance. I lift things, I throw things--and not just knives, mind you--I swim, I run. I can stay underwater for about two minutes without surfacing for air." What an odd thing to end a ramble with. It was a good ability, though, to stay submerged for so long. Even if he wouldn't need to remain below the surface during the games, it would help when running, at the least.