Shadow sat on the bench, his claws repeatedly sliding in and out. He knew he didn't do well during the parade, so he needed to get this right. He had planned this out meticulously, every little detail taken into account, every little problem neutralized. He was a planner. It was in his blood. He knew what he was going to do. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that something would go wrong. //It probably will,// the voice told him. //I'm sure something will go wrong. This plan of yours is all or nothing. If one thing goes wrong, it all comes crashing down.// /That's the point!/ Shadow thought back. /I need to go all out if I'm gonna have a chance in the arena!/ //Well if anything goes wrong, you know who to blame.// Shadow didn't even respond, just gritted his teeth. There was nothing to do but wait. Finally, his name was called. "Shadow of District 7!" This was it. He had to do well. The only other option was death, and Shadow was not about to just give up. He gritted his teeth and stepped through the door. The first things he noticed were the incredibly large gamemakers gorging themselves on fine food, and paying absolutely no attention at all. /Stop. Take this time to get ready. I need another knife.../ He grabbed a third knife from the table of weapons, and moved to the center of the room, noting the positions of all the dummies around him as well as the position of the rope holding the chandelier above the gamemaker's table. Shadow closed his eyes, took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then his eyes snapped open. Immediately, he threw the knife in his hand. It flew through the air, tearing straight through the rope holding the chandelier. It crashed down on the table, crushing the roast pig the gamemakers were eating. Shadow didn't even stop to see if they were looking at him. As the noise of the light crashing down was still dissipating, he dashed forward, knives drawn. Within the timespan of two seconds, Shadow had slit the throat of the first dummy, then moved on to the next one. Slashing it's chest, he then threw one of his knives, landing it square in the forehead of a third, and while the capitol cats were distracted, rushed towards and stabbed a fourth. He paused to retrieve his other knife from the head of a dummy, noted the position of a fifth dummy, then sheathed his knives and grabbed a vial of poison and a third knife. Facing the dummy, he estimated the distance between him and it, and threw the vial up into the air. Time seemed to slow as he calculated angles, trajectories, momentum and the like, then, after a split second, he threw the knife in his hand. The knife's blade collided with the poison in mid-air, shattering the vial and coating the blade in the deadly substance. The knife then flew straight toward the straw-stuffed cat, and lodged itself in it's chest, poison trickling down the outside. But he wasn't done yet, oh no. He had only just begun. This next move would be the gamebreaker. He had practiced and practiced, and he knew if he failed this it would be all over. He ran to the wall, and plunged one of his knives deep into it. He then stepped on the hilt, and, holding his other knife in his hands, stuck it in the wall as well, but a bit higher than his other one. Now, he had his front paws on the higher knife and his back paws on the lower one. He took a deep breath. Then Shadow pulled out the lower knife, holding it as best as he could with his back paws. He then handed it to his front paws and put his back paws on the higher knife's hilt. Finally, he moved his front paws up and stabbed the knife higher into the wall. All of this happened in the space of a few seconds, and gave him the appearance of walking on air. He heard the gasps from the gamemakers as he got higher and higher off the floor. Soon he stopped. /That's high enough./ But he didn't waste time knifing his way down, that could end badly. Instead, he jumped off, wrenching his knives out of the wall as he did so, and plummeted into the pool with a loud splash. Shadow climbed out and shook out his fur. He turned toward the stunned(and partially wet) gamemakers. "If you still think that I'm a weak, homeless child even after what you have seen, I'd advise you to ask Flame about me. Oh wait, you can't. She's /dead/." He half drew one of his knives to make absolutely sure they knew what he meant. Then he left. As Shadow walked towards his room, he felt the adrenaline of the session draining away, and felt very tired. He wanted to go straight back to his room and sleep, but first he went and grabbed a glass of water and some food. He wasn't hungry or thirsty. As he entered his room, he put the water and the food in the mini refrigerator by his bed. /Beds,/ he thought. /I'd never slept in a bed before I was reaped./ And then he fell onto his bed and slept for two days straight. (haha lol making up canon reasons for why I won't be active over the weekend go brrrr)
Ndemic creations for the music. Scratch cat looking a little sus Idk why I did that
