“If you want to learn, I will gladly teach you, but I want a favor in exchange”  He commented as he took the knife and injured his own arm.  “I don’t know you, but practicing with dummies is pointless. You don’t know how much pressure to add and you don’t get ready to see blood” He said as he applied a quick tourniquet to stop the bleeding. “I’ve learned some medical stuff these days.  Things that they won’t teach you in detailed in the training stations” He made a pause. “I’m willing to share them with you, but I need information from your side” He commented calmly.

“So, you are free to go or stay…” He commented seriously as he looked at her eyes, and then he looked at his notes on the table.  Max knew it was impossible for him to carry so many books around.  So, he made notes and drawings on his notebook. He had a very detailed drawing of an arm that included arteries and veins.  He seemed to have been studying what areas were safe to work with and which ones were not.

"I'll stay." Fern murmured as she took a breath. She wasn't weak in the stomach for blood, but seeing the blood of someone she was allied with made her anxious and paranoid. It also made her aware that she was going to see more blood than she could imagine in the arena. She remembered when she was younger watching the games that she had no idea how a person could have so much blood in them. Now she just hoped that she wouldn't have to see too much of it. Especially from anyone she cared about.

The dim light of the room illuminated the young man’s body as he stood in front of the table looking at the sharpened blade of the knife in front of him.  Carefully, he disinfected the blade for some minutes until he made sure it was in adequate conditions for what he was about to do. He took a deep breath as he started rolling the sleeve of his arms in order to expose the skin of his arms that sported the damage his body suffered for the last couple of weeks.

Swiftly, he took the knife and sliced his flesh hard enough to bring a considerate amount of blood.  He hissed, but he didn’t scream.  In fact, his face seemed to reflect somehow a kind of twisted pleasure.  After that, he just closed his eyes and took a deep breath.   The hardest part was coming; the first was just a children’s game.  He knew the game makers may not give him chance to threat his injuries in the arena.

When she was close enough he got a good look at her. Calloused hands, and if his memory served him right she was District 7’s female Tribute. People from that District were dangerous, they were born and raised with a weapon in hand, and the Gamemakers always made sure that at least an axe or two made their way to the Cornucopia. Dangerous Tributes make the Games more exciting, and the Capitol craved that kind of show, after all. Despite her sweet appearance Wex decided that this girl, this Fern was someone he wanted on his side. If he couldn’t manage that he’d be happy to know that she wouldn’t actively hunt him down first, at least.

“I’m not too much of a runner.”

Wex just coulndn’t take it anymore. All those plants looked the same to him no matter what his instructor told him. Look at the borders of the leaf? It’s just a fucking leaf, it’s green, it’s fragile… And it might kill him, the instructor reminded Wex.

Damn, this whole training thing was really taking its toll on him. Even though he always did all he could to look his best Wex had started to notice some shadow under his eyes, not to mention the fact that his smile, his best weapon according to everyone on his team, was becoming a rarer sight each day that passed.

Wex leaned forward and looked at the leaf the instructor was showing him. There was a veiny-looking thing there, but for the life of him Wex couldn’t remember what it was supposed to mean. “Hey, I appreciate your help, but maybe I’m just not in the right mood. You know what? I’ll go away, train somewhere else and then I’ll come back here with my mind fresh and ready for all your incredibly interesting plants. Deal?” Without even waiting for an answer Wex left the instructor and walked toward the obstacle course. He knew that this was a huge mistake on his part. Being able to recognize at least some plants in the arena could save his life, and he should work on his weaknesses, Wex knew that. But at that moment he just couldn’t do it: his life was miserable enough knowing that his days were possibly numered, he wasn’t going to spend them looking like an idiot in front of a desk full of lattuce.

He flexed his muscles and stretched his arms and legs before looking around the room with an hopeful glance. He saw some other tributes not too far away, all busy with their own things. Part of Wex knew that he could simply train on the course on his own, but another, bigger part of him wanted to show off his skills. Of course Wex didn’t even take into consideration the fact that these guys could be better than him at the obstacle course. Nope, with all the sneaking around he used to do back home to get away from those pesky Peacekeepers Wex was pretty confident he could beat anyone who showed up on the starting line next to him.

The tribute's gaze perked up from the ropes in front of her to the figure standing only a few yards away. She looked around to make sure that he was talking to her before she put on a sweet smiled and took a step over to him.

The thin girl's eyes scanned him looking for signs that would indicate his strengths. Which was pretty obvious. By the look of his physic, he was strong. And apparently from his own words, fast. An immediate weakness that she noticed was his arrogance though. And he seemed to be flaunting his strengths, which Fern wouldn't dare do. It would've put too much of a target on her back. That wasn't something that she wanted to start the games with since she already had her alliance.