I waved a wing at my family as we started walking through the tunnel.

Goodbye, Mother. Goodbye, Father, I thought sadly. No, I was going to see them again. I would win this. I had to. But first, I probably had to organize a team. Antlion had made his alliance clear - with the Gloryhunters, as they were called. The Gloryhunters this time were Flare, Jet Stream, Laurel, Mirage, Fangtooth, Marauder, Cantata, and, of course, Antlion. I had no desire to join them, though, or Brightsting's group with Crinoid, Buckeye, Mango, and possibly Shasta, who had wings and silk now due to Darkstalker's magic. Snakeroot, Sleet, and Taiga were probably going to go out on their own, and that left the MudWings and Python.

-<o>-

We reached the training center in the ground, and the groups so far clustered together, discussing plans. Marauder had broken off from the Gloryhunters when one of them - perhaps Fangtooth - had insulted Marauder, and Jet Stream, the self-appointed leader, seemed doubtful of Cantata's abilities. They were now sticking together. I decided to approach them first, since HiveWings and NightWings were related. Gathering my courage, I walked over to Fishing, since that was where they were. Cantata was talking with Marauder, and as I was going after a large fish, shooting it with a few darts from my tail, the younger NightWing approached me, Marauder close behind.

"We wanted to ask you - Firefly was your name, right? - well, we wanted to ask you if you wanted to join our group," said the NightWing.

"Actually, I wanted to ask you the same thing!" I said. Cantata smiled.

"So, deal?"

"Deal." We shook talons, and introduced ourselves and what we were good at.

"I was planning to ask Python if he wanted to join us, too. Is that alright?" I asked the NightWings. They nodded, and we headed for the RainWing who was in venom aiming practice. I fired two darts at one of the targets, landing fairly close to the middle, but not as close as Python was getting with his venom. We asked Python if he wanted to join us, and he inspected our dark scales closely before nodding decisively. "Alright. But let's stick to more forested places when we can. Your scales will stand out in any wide-open spaces during the day."

Marauder grinned. "I bet I could hide there just as well as you can!" Python narrowed his eyes fiercely. "You're on!" The two raced over to the camouflage station. Cantata and I paced down absentmindedly to the fighting practice station.

"I can hunt pretty well, as can Marauder, but I imagine Python doesn't eat meat very much. After they're done, we should check out the plants station," said Cantata.

"I am the MASTER of taste tests and smell test. I could probably do that, as could Python," I remarked. "How are we for shelter building? I can get by with a tree-shelter type thing."

Cantata looked thoughtful. "Marauder can find hiding spots with ease, but I don't know how we'd be in the trees. Python probably would do well there. Either way, we should practice. How about for fighting?"

I held up my pale-gold-and-black tail. "I can shoot darts. When they hit something, chemicals inside mix and heat up. I imagine that'd be useful. Python has his venom, and you guys have your fire. But I definitely need more training for claw-to-claw combat."

The NightWing nodded. "Marauder can fight pretty well, although he prefers running. I can't fight too well by myself. I'm good in teams, though. Here's the fighting practice station. Let's wait here until Marauder and Python finish in their camouflage and hiding competition."

Our instructors, a SandWing and a HiveWing, set us up in a forest simulation after giving us armbands which kept us from inflicting more harm than a few bruises. I folded my wings and crouched down, hoping that my dark scales would help. I held up my tail like a SandWing or a scorpion might, and kept my ears pricked and my claws ready. I heard a rustle behind me. I backed up against a tree to keep anyone from sneaking up behind me.

More rustling from the left... I shot three darts to the right as I snapped my head to the left. I heard a noise of a bush being whacked as Cantata dodged the darts. I leaped at the NightWing, claws outstretched, and whacked her in the jaw and shoulder, knocking her onto her side. I jumped forward to pin her down, but quick as a snake, she jumped away and flapped a wing at me, stirring up a cloud of leaf junk. I jumped through it and faced Cantata again. She was the one who pounced this time, knocking me over. She held down my head and neck, and I snapped at her talon before she could hold down my neck. I flapped my wings forward, soaring backwards and onto a boulder I felt with my tail. I jumped onto a rather thin tree, which swayed slightly as I scrabbled up. I sat in the bunch of branches at the top, hissing slightly. If Cantata tried climbing up, I'd jump off to the next tree and hopefully unbalance her. The black dragon had a different idea, though. She rammed her shoulder into the tree. I yelped as I tried jumping to the next tree, but one of my back talons got caught in the swaying mess of branches. I pulled loose, only to run into the neighboring tree, and I fell. Cantata crowed triumphantly as she put one talon on my throat.

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?" I asked the NightWing.

"It was really just an idea that came to me at that moment," she replied, fiddling with a twig. The forest began vanishing as the instructors came forward.

"Good job, both of you. Flying practice later?" asked the SandWing. We nodded, and the HiveWing took our armbands and gave us a little necklace with beads on it. Our beads were red, representing that we'd done the fighting one, and we got one each, showing that this was our first time at the station. We heard talonsteps behind us.

"Looks like we won't be able to ask the MudWings for help," said Marauder sourly as he nodded at the two mud dragons talking with Brightsting.

"At least since now they have the biggest group, the Gloryhunters will focus on taking them out. And some of them seem like good fighters, so hopefully, a few Gloryhunters will be eliminated," said Python, fiddling with his purple bead. "Also, Marauder is really good at hiding. Better than some RainWings, that's for sure. Not me, though!"

Marauder rolled his eyes. "Anyways, we were thinking about shelter, plant identification, swimming, and supplies. Python should go to plant identification, I think."

"So should Firefly. She has a good sense of taste and smell," added Cantata.

"We'll go to swimming and maybe a bit of fighting, then, and then we all go to shelter building and trap-making," said Marauder, nodding to Cantata.

As I headed to plant identification with the RainWing, who was currently mimicking his environment slightly, with his pale grey scales, I saw the Gloryhunters in combat training and trapping and swimming, Brightsting's group practicing traps and hunting and fishing and camouflage, Sleet and Taiga practicing shelter building, and Snakeroot, already at the plant identification station. He barely glanced at Python and I as we sat down in front of our LeafWing instructor. In fact, the trainer was a winner from one of the Hunger Games. Was her name Manchineel? She was very dark green, with reddish patterns on her wings and a toxic-apple-green color for her underbelly.

"This," said the LeafWing without preamble, pointing to an array of pinkish flowers with dark green, long leaves, "is oleander. It's very poisonous. Try to sniff it without touching it."

I inspected it carefully without touching it, trying to make it seem like I wasn't trying to memorize the flower's smell until I could find it blind, deaf, and dizzy, which I was. Python did the same, although he was looking at it more closely.

-<o>-

We continued like this for a little, until we finished examining the final plant - needleroot - and began to have to find the plant in an environment. I took the poisonous ones, and Python looked at the edible ones, then we switched, then we both found the medical ones. We received two green beads each, since we'd taken the normal trial and the more advanced one. After a bit of combat training - I now had two red beads, and Python had one - met up with Marauder and Cantata, who had two blue beads and another red bead each, with two in Cantata's case.

"So, about shelter building: what experience to you guys have with it? I'm a very still sleeper, and can find hiding spots pretty well," said Marauder.

"I can sleep in a tree, if it has enough branches," I answered.

"I can build tree hammocks and "walls" quickly enough," said Python.

"You can build walls in trees? Guess we're sleeping in trees as much as possible, then!" said Cantata.

At the shelter station, we could practice building lean-to's - absolutely not, everyone agreed - building tree shelters, digging out hollows, and disguising our shelter. We created a little tree-fortress with flexible branches, vines, twigs, and leaves, and it was already very well-hidden. Python was a master at it. Inside, we piled up some leaf debris - which wasn't collected near the tree to avoid suspicion - twigs, branches, and then covered it all with pine needles and big leaves. It was rather cozy, but we could handle it. Once we had hid there for long enough, we practiced quietly destroying it and hiding the materials (and our scents) so that no one and nothing could track us easily.

Long story short, we all received three orange beads. Then, we took trapping. Python made the best, most, complicated traps, but I didn't do too terribly in making hunting traps. Cantata, meanwhile, could disarm traps, while Marauder could find the traps, and ways to go around them. We got two yellow beads at the end. We spent the rest of the four minutes talking about plans and strategies and scenarios.

"Jet Stream, please enter the testing room," said a light green SeaWing, walking out of the test room door. The NightWing guards moved aside their spears to let the red dragon pass.

"We should stay near a source of water, and know where the nearest resources are - where the food is, the healing herbs, the water supply, to name a few," suggested Python. "In case we have to leave wherever we decide to stay."

"And let's not forget the dangerous places, too," said Cantata darkly.

"I've seen weird things in the previous Hunger Games - like patches of forest with flowers that make you sleep, then a massive bird-like thing comes and kills you. Or giant worms in the water that are half-buried in the sand, and when you go over them, they lunge out and kill you... those things gave me nightmares for months," shuddered Marauder.

"Next!" said the voice of the green SeaWing from the testing room as Jet Stream came out, flicking her wings proudly. Flare entered the room in her place.

"I'm next," said Cantata. "Any tips or suggestions?"

"Don't touch the purple flowers on the long vines. They make you sneeze like crazy," suggested Python.

"Stick with what you know," I offered.

"Good luck!" said Marauder. At that moment, Flare walked out and the SeaWing called, "Next!"

-<o>-

"Next!" said the SeaWing again. It had gotten rather annoying, to be honest. I began walking into the testing room. As I stepped into the cave and the doors shut behind me, I saw a balcony. Several judges were there - the light green SeaWing, a sunset-orange SkyWing, a yellow, dark brown, and grey SilkWing, Manchineel, and a pale blue IceWing. I went over to the targets section, and shot three darts from my tail, which landed near the middle. I practiced fighting some enchanted dummies, too, and smashed some dangerous plants in their "faces." I started sorting the poisonous, the edible, and the medical plants. I did a few other things, like air maneuvers (I did not do too well), trap making, and camouflage. At the end, I got an idea. Using some fire-starting skills I had learned a while ago, I set a stick on fire, and shot a dart through the flames.

The dart caught fire and soared through the air, before landing with a small thud. The target burst into a whoosh of flames, blinding me slightly. I turned back to the judges. The SkyWing nodded in approval, as did Manchineel and the SilkWing. The IceWing and the SeaWing were too busy scoring me. The SeaWing looked up. "Next!" he said. As I left and Antlion slunk in, I wondered what my score would be.

"I hope I didn't take too long," I said to the team.

"Nah, you're fine," said Marauder. "Anyways, you know what I was thinking? We need a team name."

Cantata and Python slowly nodded.

"Maybe something with Shadow in it? Like ShadowWings," offered Python. I nodded. That sounded good. "I like ShadowWings," I said. Marauder nodded. "It fits us," said Cantata.

"ShadowWings it is, then!" I said. Python turned his scales ebony black to match our dark scales.

"We've practiced almost every station here, and at least one of us is good at something," said Cantata. "I think we could actually win this."