May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor

I was standing on the shore of an island and I was frightened to death. There was no reason to be frightened but I was. The waves were flowing against my bare feet and although it was a relaxing scenario. I was anything but relaxed.

I saw some kind of fin coming out of the water so to be on the safe side, I walked away. As I stepped away, I kicked a rock that blew up directly as it was out of my range. I was knocked down but no damage was done. I walked toward where I had kicked the rock to examine why it exploded. There was a hole in the ground and a no trace of the rock. I figured that since I wasn't hurt, it didn't matter too much.

I walked away and entered the large forest that was about ten yards back. I immediately heard a rustle. I turned to see a bush's branches swaying back and forth. I thought it must have been a squirrel so I thought nothing of it. I turned and saw the most horrifying thing ever.

There was that strong looking boy from District 3 holding a long sword and charging. I tried moving but I was stuck in my place from shock. He seemed to be moving in slow motion but I couldn't move so any speed would be bad. As he approached, he started to swing the sword down and when he was an few feet away, the sword swung down and as it was an inch from me, I woke up.

I was sweating and I was sitting up. Sometime during the night, I kicked the blankets off because they were all on the ground. I heard a dinging noise and walked toward the door. I opened it and Grap walked through holding about the same thing he was the day before. He threw it at me again and as I was putting it on, he looked at the sheets and saw that they were soaked.

I noticed that he looked at them and I opened my mouth to give an explanation but he interrupted.

"Nightmares?" His voice was slightly serious almost as if he was saying that having nightmares before the Hunger Games was completely out of the ordinary.

"How did you know?"

"Same thing happened to me." My jaw actually dropped. I was amazed. I hadn't seen Grap win the Games, his Games were twenty years before I was born so all I knew about it were what people told me. Apparently, it had been one of the most suspenseful games so far.

Grap and the boy from District 4 were the last two left. It had been days since the last person was killed so the Capitol was getting annoyed. The Gamemaker was setting fires, causing storms, earthquakes, miniature tsunamis. Anything that would get the two in a face off. Both of the tributes kept getting farther and farther away from each other. Eventually, Grap decided to turn around because he was headed in the same direction for days and didn't see the other tribute. Grap saw the boy a few days after and killed him by smashing a mace into the side of his head in a surprise attack. From what I was told, he died before he hit the ground. I didn't think Grap won in the most courageous way but he won and that itself was a reason to respect him.

"Don't be so surprised," Grap began, "Every tribute I've mentored has had a nightmare at least one night before the Games. It is expected. It is very likely that they would die anyway. And from what I hear from other past winners, they sweated too, and so did the ones they mentored."

I couldn't have been more shocked. I mean, every time I would see a tribute interview, the person had been confident and mentally unbreakable. Then, I realized that, like me, they were told to act like that. They were told to be tough and threatening just like I had been told to be cocky.

I put the clothes on that he gave me and went out for another day of training. I decided to not use the pole arm that day and I tried to learn what was safe to eat and drink. I already knew that salt water wasn't safe but they taught me a way to get out the salt. I was also told how to prepare meat so I wouldn't get sick. The last thing I would want to happen in the arena would be to get sick and be a sitting duck.

I went to a few other stations but nothing stuck out except when I actually hit the target at knife throwing. After about two hours at practicing knife throwing, I was actually getting pretty good. I was still going to stick to my pole arm but It was nice to have something to fall back on.

The day passed by quickly and I went to the district one dining room. It was just a room that was bigger than the average dinning room that had two tables. One was for the District 1 boy and the other was for the District 1 girl. The mentor and stylists sat with the tribute and they talked about strategies.

Grap arrived with an avox who was carrying food again but this time, the food was different. It looked like nothing I had seen before. Like a bunch of different kinds of meat stuffed together. It was oddly delicious. Grap ate quickly then started to talk.

"Anything happen today?"

"I get decent at using throwing knives." I sounded almost like I was trying to look at a silver lining that didn't exist but I got my point across.

"So not too good?" he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"No not really."

I guess he had no advice today because he just left. Not angrily but he did seem deep in thought. I couldn't help but wonder what was going through his head.