District Four Tournament Day One: Krigel vs Rodero

If her absent father was good for one thing, it was giving her an advantage.

Bounding on to the stage, trident twirling in her hands, India's entrace was the one the crowd cheered for the loudest. Fresh off District Four's monumental return to the Capitol favourites and the Krigel name as regal as ever, India grinned and waved as she stretched and tried to pretend that she didn't care that this was yet another moment her father was missing. Grandfather and her Mom surely stood in the crowd with all three of the triplets competing - but that didn't bother India in the slightest. She was the best of the bunch and they all knew it.

Not caring for who she was versing, India picked up her weapon glistening gold and at the sound of her applause she felt like she could take on the world. When the whistle blew and the match began she took no chances hesitating, throwing all of her force into her first strike.

He blocks her first attack with ease. Go figure, India thinks. She's tiny for her age, easy to swat away, and although she makes sure to leap back once her attack is done he still catches her chest with his weapon. He's taller than her, stronger, and cuts through the fabric of her shirt easily - but it's not her sluggishness that makes her furious, it's what the boy says afterward.

"Daddy had something better to do?"

She grits her teeth and lunges. "He knows I'm going to win," she spits, fire in her eyes as she takes another shot. "Why bother watching you lose?"

"Does lying to yourself feel good?"

She's heard this every day of her life. From her mother, from her siblings, from the kids at school. From herself, even though she won't admit it. He's the voice in the back of her head after every birthday, every Ratmas, every milestone - and he's right. Leon isn't here. He had something or someone better to do, someplace better to be, and it hurts like the day they told her he was moving to the Capitol.

They've always told her to keep a level head. Letting her emotions get the best of her was always India's downfall. But anger was a comfortable feeling. It drove her. Fuelled her. Without it, she was just a forgotten child with a dead-beat dad coming in third to her better, brighter siblings.

She'd like Leon to get a taste of his own medicine. Hear how his daughter triumphed without him.

"It's not lying if it eventually comes true," she spits, anger in her movements as she swings.

She gasps a little when her trident finds his stomach, blinking in shock. It's the laughter that snaps her back, shoving the weapon out of him violently - she's surprised, pleased, and then frustrated. She wants him to hurt. Who laughs when they're hurt?

"You should hide your fragile pride better, Krigel," and that hurts. It's true, and she knows it, and no amount of words or screaming could undo the fact that he's been right every single time he's opened his mouth. Pride for a father who doesn't love her, isn't even here to watch her succeed. Pride for a family who'd rather she didn't exist, who didn't care to get to know her at all. Pride for a victory that wasn't even hers. And a fragile, crumbling pride at that.

Her nerves scream as he attacks and she winces, throwing her trident to one hand so the other can cover her shallow wound. There's blood, slippery underneath her palm, but her arm still moves freely with a loose swing.

"Someone might use it against you."

It's her turn to laugh, but its a bitter one. A hurt one.

"I'd like to see them try."