(Jerome's POV)

Mitch swiped his sword in one long arc which I ducked; it wasn't going very fast. Before I could retaliate, he lunged again, aiming right for my wire. I somehow twisted around so that it only caught me on the shoulder, leaving a small bruise. I managed to block his next strike, but only just; it was a blow to my stomach which would have knocked the wind out of me.

I felt my eyebrows-or as much of eyebrows as a chewbacca can have, anyways-furrow. Mitch was good. I swiped my ax, aiming for his shoulder, and he blocked it with his sword, twisting it to the ground. He made another move to cut my wire but I jerked my head to one side, avoiding his strike. I swung my ax straight at his. Mitch, however, hit me with the flat of his blade right in the arm, causing me to swivel my ax so that I hit his wire with the side of it rather than the point. We made eye contact briefly, and he grinned at me. I smiled back, showing my fangs. I moved my paw up the handle of my ax and stepped closer, trying to get the advantage by having him not be able to reach me with a longer sword. Mitch drew back him left arm and punched me in the side, sending me stumbling backwards. Before I could get closer again, he held his sword out at almost his full arm's length.

I stepped to my right; he followed. I stepped to my left, and Mitch sidestepped as well, keeping his blade up. Then he himself feinted a sidestep towards the left before lunging at me from the right. His sword caught me in the chest. Thankfully, it was blunted, but it still stung like crazy. I shifted my paw back down my ax's handle and swung at his wire once again, hoping to break it, but Mitch just juked me again and ended up on my left. I whirled around and raised my ax just in time to stop him from cutting my wire. His eyes narrowed, but he was still smiling. I stepped in closer, moving my paw up the handle once again, and swiped at his stomach. He stumbled backwards a few steps, but before I could rearrange my ax to reach him, he had caught me in the side with his sword.

I gripped my ax tighter and hit Mitch in the shoulder before heading for his wire. He raised his sword just in time to block it, and our weapons stayed crossed as we both tried to break through to the other. The instant I stopped trying to push forward, Mitch swiped his sword at the wire around my neck. My ax was down; I tried to lift it up to block it, but he had sliced my wire before I could get it that high. I watched, feeling a little empty, as it tumbled to the ground.

My wire hit the ground with a soft thud.

I looked up, panting, the exhaustion only just showing up. I felt beads of sweat form underneath my fur, and I opened my mouth slightly, almost letting my tongue hang out. Mitch himself had sweat stains on his white shirt; sometime in the fight his checked hoodie had fallen to the ground. He was breathing heavily, but his body was still tense, even though his sword was down. He grinned at me. “You're pretty good, bacca.”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “Eh, I do my best.” I felt almost defeated, losing to him, but from the way he was acting I at least put up a good fight.

On the billboard, the screen changed into a picture of Mitch, panting and grinning like crazy. Somebody's voice came through the loudspeakers. “Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce the winner of this month's Hunger Games competition: Mitch Hughes!” As an afterthought, he added, “For the seventeenth time in a row.”

I grinned at Mitch as he wiped his forehead. He just shook his head and waved a little at the cameras before the billboard resumed its normal appearance.

“Now, everybody, ya'll can enjoy the fair! Don't forget: Tomorrow, at this time, some of our sponsors will be hosting even more minigames!” The guy on the loudspeakers cut off, and everybody suddenly moved away from the billboard and started swarming the contestants who had lost or the minigame tents.

Out of nowhere, Seto appeared, Adam running into the arena behind him. A few seconds later, Jason showed up. “Good job, Fluffy!” Adam said, raising his hand for a high-five. I slapped it with my paw.

“You lost,” Seto noted. He turned to Mitch. “To this guy.”

“'This guy' has a name, you know,” Mitch said, but I could tell he didn't mind. “I'm Mitch.”

“Jason,” Jason himself said. “This is Seto, Adam, and Jerome.” Mitch blinked at Seto's name but seemed to shrug it off; after all, fighting a bacca was probably something he didn't do every day, either.

“Can we go play some minigames now?” Adam asked. “I heard that they had a game called Splegg, which is like Spleef with eggs.”

Mitch grimaced. “Trust me, you don't want to play that,” he told him. He seemed to fit right in with our group. “Or any other games at this time.”

“Why not?” Adam asked.

Mitch put his sword over his shoulder. “Everybody's playing the minigames right now. If you got in line this late, you'd still be in line when tomorrow came.”

“Oh,” Adam said. Just at that moment, his amulet bumped against his chest. His eyebrow twitched slightly but he somehow managed to stay composed. Jason shot him a worried look. “So... what would be a good idea right now?”

Mitch grinned; he seemed to do a lot of grinning. “Have you ever been to an inn?”

“Not recently,” Adam said, and Jason shook his head. I cast a sideways glance at Seto, who seemed to be deep in thought. About what?

His grin widened. “Well, I just met you guys-”

“-and we might be crazy,” Adam put in, to the tune of the song.

“-but we're all going to an inn and I'm paying.” We all just stared. I hadn't ever been to an inn before—come on, I lived on some distant planet then a spaceship for the entirety of my life—but I was fairly sure that they weren't all that cheap. Mitch apparently thought we were staring for some different reason. “No, the owner's perfectly fine,” he said. “I mean, he's a little odd, but he's a nice guy.”

“It's not like he's completely obsessed with watermelons or anything?” I asked, scooting around the whole 'Mitch was paying' thing.

“Um, actually...” Mitch looked at the ground, and Adam burst out laughing.

“He's obsessed with watermelons?” He doubled over, tears in his eyes. I didn't really get it. Okay, so the guy liked watermelons. What was his problem? Adam just shook his head and eventually managed to stop laughing. “I bet he says 'what the balls',” he managed to get out, to which everybody stared even more than they had at Mitch.

“Um, anyways...” Mitch said slowly, “Will you guys come? I'll be inviting some other friends-Ryan, Charlie, Janet-”

“You have a girlfriend?” I interrupted.

Mitch laughed. “No, that's just our nickname for Tyler. But anyways, will you guys come?”

“Sure,” Jason said. His hand reached up a little before sinking back down; even though he was STILL wearing the space suit, he had left Dillon back at the house.

“I am, like, SO there,” Adam said in a falsetto voice.

“Yes, dood,” I told Mitch, mimicking him.

“Seto?” Jason asked, turning to look at him. “Are you coming?”

Seto blinked, coming back to Earth. “Um, no, there're a few people I want to catch up with,” he said quickly.

Mitch shrugged. “Okay.” Seto slipped out of the arena quietly and the next thing I knew he was gone.

“Hey Mitch, what are we doing?” somebody asked, walking over. He was wearing a checked shirt, like Mitch's, but also had glasses.

Mitch grinned. “I thought I'd treat some new friends. What do you say to Bashur's?”