Training for the games (open)

"Hey, kid. People in the Arena aren't made of straw. You'd better learn to guard, you'd have lost two limbs in the time I've been standing here against a real opponent."

"Hey girl, shut up, I'll take you on. And don't call me a kid I'm 14. I don't think you'd do better." That girl is just asking for it, who does she think she is? Believe me I know my form sucks but I don't care today, today is all about the fun. I take another look at the girl, damm she's hott, she blows Grace out of the water. Wow! But now I probably seem like an ass. Why am I so stupid?

I climb off the remains of my victim, I must look like a total idiot. I brush off my clothes and my shaggy red hair. I I acted like an asshole, hey maybe she didn't hear me, who am I kidding? Well I better try to look competent... or should I tell a joke? Why was I such an ass? I better put the knife down. What do I do now?

The girl hops the fence, now that's attractive. The pure grace as her body vaults over the fence. I'd say she's about 17, and by the look of her, she's spent a good amount of time on a boat, though she's not really the career type, it seems. There's a moment where we lock eyes, and for a second I see her falter, but that uncertain moment is gone and replaced by a look of disgust, great so she hates me. The girl rummages around for a knife and pulls our a one of the deadly curved ones, my favorite. By the way she holds the knife I can tell she's a sailor. When she hurls the knife at me I can feel as the blade whizzes over my head, clips a hair, and kills a dummy. "What was that about taking me on?" Wow she's hott, deadly, and fiery.

I can't help cracking a smile at this, wow what a catch, too bad she thinks I'm an ass and is trying to kill me right now. "Well if you want it that way" I say as I pick up the knife in front of me, I hold it horizontal the way Grayson taught me to, and let it fly the blade rotating in the air, a deadly projectile. The knife heads right towards the girl and right at the last moment, like I planned it curves to the right and embeds itself in post. "You see miss, the knife you threw is long and curved ts much more deadly in close combat, while the knife I just threw is perfectly balanced an therefore has a near flawless spin to it as it flies, and should rarely miss if thrown without mercy. By the way my names James." I can see now that thi fight will be a test of skill, not a blood bath.

A spear goes whizzing towards me, damm that was close. If I'd taken one step forward I would have taken a spear to the gonads. She threw the spear like a harpoon, I knew she was a sailor. "Top that you arrogant jerk" Shit she thinks I'm a jerk, I'll never get her to like me, why do I have to be so hot headed? That's when I see it, the discarded stake on the ground, the loose rope, going to the net of seaweed above, she's caught in my trap.
"Good shot River, you can throw a spear like a pro," I pick up a nearby hatchet. "I can tell you've worked on a wailer, but you should know I do more than train, I sail on a fishing vessel and it is my job to make the nets and traps for the vessel, and when I'm not working while were at sea, you can always find me in the rigging. So as you might imagine I'm quite skilled in the art of making traps, and working with rope. Now if you'd been a little more observant when you moved back to throw your spear, you would have noticed the stake that was pulled out of the ground by the rope you stepped on, and if you would look above you you'd see the work of art I made hanging above you. Above you now is a trap of my own design, and the only thing that is stopping that net of seaweed from falling on you, is the fact that the support rope, which you detached from the ground, is caught between your back and the fence. This here weapon is a hatchet, and if I were to throw it, it would sever the rope and the net would fall on you." With those words I throw the hatchet, and the net of seaweed come crashing down on River.

She's right of course, but still I don't know. "I know I don't need to be in the games to be strong, but when I'm training, when I'm sparring I feel whole." I flash her a smile, as a scooch a little closer to her. I look her in the eyes, she's lovely up close, and how her eyes twinkle, divine. I blush a little. "It's just hard, I mean I'm not emotionally scared by my past, it's just I feel this pull towards competition, and the exhibition of skill, and I can't help it. Do you really think I'm strong?" I really hope she does, because she is the first person besides Grace to really try to understand me, and I think I'm in love.

"But hey you've had a hard life too."

"I'm not an asshole career." I get River's hint she just wants to be friends, I can deal with that, friends first girlfriend later, but this time I won't let it happen like it did with Grace. Maybe she already has a boyfriend, or is still hung up on some other guy. I'm sure the power of love can get me through this, I mean I've only barely met her. "Hey not all of us careers are assholes, maybe if you trained here enough you'd know that, I mean Takeba was pretty all right... to bad she had to die."