Fountain of Knowledge

I've just begun writing a sort of Medieval Dystopian Young Adult novel, and I'm having trouble deciding what POV and tense to write in. I'm leaning more towards First Person / Present Tense; however, my novel will switch viewpoints between a few characters. It poses a problem to switch unless I title the new chapters with the name of the character whose viewpoint you'd be reading which I honestly do not want to do.

I guess what I'm asking is which POV / Tense combination do you think would be best for the novel?

Here are a few samples of text:

Third Person / Present Tense:

Example One: The heat from the fire burns Claire’s face. It is comfortable, familiar, and the brightest part of her life.
"Claire?"
Make that the second brightest.
"Yes?"
"You've let that sit in the forge too long."
Claire looks to the iron in her hand. It glows a heavenly white, blinding as the sun itself. She curses. The barrel of water next to the forge hisses when she throws the scrap iron in.

Example Two: Fabir opens his eyes to Claire standing over him.
“Fabir,” she whispers.
“Claire.” He reaches out to touch her cheek. He must be dreaming.
“Fabir, we have to go!” Claire crushes his fingers in hers.
“Claire, they’re coming.”
“Who’s that?” Fabir asks, pointing to Gabrielle.

Third Person / Past Tense:

Example One: The heat from the fire burned Claire’s face. It was comfortable, familiar, and the brightest part of her life.
"Claire?"
Make that the second brightest.
"Yes?"
"You've let that sit in the forge too long."
Claire looked to the iron in her hands. It glowed a heavenly white, blinding as the sun itself. She cursed. The barrel of water next to the forge hissed when she threw the scrap iron in.

Example Two: Fabir opened his eyes to Claire standing over him.
"Fabir," she whispered.
"Claire." He reached out to touch her cheek.
"Fabir," Claire gripped his hand and tugged, "we have to go!"
"Claire, they're coming."
"Who is that?" Fabir pointed to Gabrielle.

First Person/ Present Tense:

Example One: The heat from the fire burns my face. It is comfortable, familiar, and the brightest part of my life.
“Claire?”
Make that the second brightest.
“Yes?”
“You’ve let that sit in the forge too long.”
I look to the iron in my hands. It glows a heavenly white, blinding as the sun itself. I curse. The barrel of water next to the forge hisses when I toss the scrap iron in.

Example Two: I open my eyes to Claire standing over me.
“Fabir,” she whispers.
“Claire.” I reach out to touch her cheek.
“Fabir,” she grabs my hand and tugs, “we have to go!”
“Go where?”
“Claire, they’re coming.” I look around Claire and see red curls and a pale face.
“Who’s that?”

First Person / Past Tense:

Example One: The heat from the fire burned my face. It was comfortable, familiar, and the brightest part of my life.
"Claire?"
Make that the second brightest.
"Yes?"
"You've let that sit in the forge too long."
I looked at the iron in my hands. It glowed a heavenly white, blinding as the sun itself. I cursed. The barrel of water next to the forge hissed when I threw the scrap iron in.

Example Two: I opened my eyes to Claire standing over me.
“Fabir,” she whispered.
“Claire.” I reached out to touch her cheek.
"Fabir," she gripped my hand and tugged, "we have to go!"
"Claire, they're coming."
"Who is that?" I asked.

* Would it be completely insane to switch from first to third? * Don't judge me.

As for the sorrow, I wish people would use this forum more often! It could be an excellent source for quick advice. It used to be.

Anyways, thanks in advance!

Rachael

PS - If there are any grammatical errors, just swat my hand and send me off to fix them. Thank you!