Hi everyone! This is our first time writing fanfiction. We're still in school, so we'd really appreciate it if you could comment what you think of this story. We have about 14 chapters written so far; it's just that we have a little - okay probably a lot - of editing to do.
Warning: Bad Disney puns below...
"Welcome, tributes, to the 100th annual Hunger Games!"
Pocahontas fidgeted nervously as she waited to be released from her starting plate. There was a countdown of ten seconds; ten seconds until the Hunger Games began, the cruel and unjust form of entertainment that the people in the Capitol so desperately desired; ten seconds until the beginning of a living nightmare that would ultimately end in her death.
Pocahontas was not stupid. If anyone had thought that this year's Games would be less competitive than the ones in the past—with half the number of tributes and all of them being female— they would be proven wrong the second the fight started. She'd seen some of the other tributes. One had magical ice powers, which was a huge, unfair advantage— one blast to the heart and Pocahontas would be dead. Another had the ability to heal, which Pocahontas thought was even more unfair— how was anyone supposed defeat someone who was practically invincible? And Pocahontas definitely remembered the confident girl with the mass of curly red hair who spoke rashly and didn't give a damn about what others thought of her. She grimaced as she remembered staring with wide eyes as the girl shot ten straight bull's eyes in a row in the training room, and how there was an unspoken agreement in the room that this girl was a force to be reckoned with. She was definitely the most intimidating tribute.
But, Pocahontas thought as she steeled herself for the inevitable, that girl might not be able to get her hands on the bow and arrows. Her mind raced and a lightbulb went off in her brain. That girl may be lethal with a bow and arrows, but Pocahontas was the fastest runner in her village for a reason.
And she wasn't going down without a fight.
Mulan shuddered as she stood on her starting plate. When she'd heard that this year's Quarter Quell twist would be that the tributes were all Disney females, she had been slightly relieved. At least, if she got reaped, then she, as the only military trained Disney female, would have a good chance of making it out alive.
She had been so wrong.
Mulan preferred not to remind herself of their terrifying capabilities, but every time she shoved the thought to the back of her cluttered mind, images of the unexpected factor of magic in these Games would come reeling back with the slightest bit of prompting, whether it be drinking iced water, or eating salmon at the tribute's banquet.
Mulan sighed as she remembered how she had first gotten a glimpse of their magical abilities. One girl with long, golden hair had gotten herself a paper cut, and, after crying out in pain and sucking on her thumb, she had wrapped her hair around the "injured" finger and started singing. Everyone had stopped what they had originally been doing — Mulan herself had put down the knife she was learning to throw, in the case that she didn't obtain a sword — and trained their eyes on the bizarre scene in front of them. But stunningly, at the end of her song, her finger was as good as new.
Mulan tried not to overthink, but it was easier said than done. It didn't matter how skilled or tough she was; how could she beat people who could heal any damage she did to them, create glaciers out of midair, or switch back and forth between human and fish form?
She told herself repeatedly that it didn't matter; her goal was already accomplished — she'd kept her mother safe.
"And our tribute from District 2 is... Fa Li!" the woman whom the whole district referred to as the 'matchmaker' announced with a smile.
Mulan's heart stopped. No. This couldn't be happening. Mulan glanced up at her father, who had gone sickly pale. They locked eyes and the look on his face told Mulan what she needed to do.
"I... I volunteer as tribute!" she blurted out, running towards the stage as her father's eyes widened. Both her parents had looks of horror on their faces, but Mulan had made up her mind.
"I volunteer as tribute," she said again, this time with more confidence.
"All right then," the Matchmaker declared. "Our tribute from District 2 is Fa Mulan!"
Mulan snapped back to reality as the countdown got to the lower numbers.
3...2...1
Before Mulan could fully comprehend what was going on, she saw the other tributes running off their platforms. She jumped and started sprinting towards the center, mentally berating herself for her lapse in awareness.
As the timer finally counted down to one after an achingly long ten seconds, Pocahontas immediately leapt off her her plate and began sprinting toward the Cornucopia. Pocahontas had always been a fast sprinter, and it was finally coming in handy. She even had the spare time to pick up a small satchel and a knife on her way.
In her peripheral vision, she spotted a ball of ice coming at her head and was forced to swerve to the right to avoid it. Cursing, Pocahontas flung the knife she had picked up in the direction the ice had come from. She watched in astonishment as the knife made its mark, burrowing deep into Elsa's upper forearm.
"Yes!" she exclaimed in victory. Pocahontas had never been good at aiming, even when she wasn't running at the same time, so she hadn't actually expected the knife to find its target.
Screaming in pain, Elsa turned around and headed into the woods. Good, Pocahontas thought. Now she can't freeze us all to the Cornucopia.
Returning her attention to the bow and arrows, Pocahontas realized that the redhead, Merida, was running straight towards them, too. Sucking in a sharp breath, she willed herself to go faster, eyes trained on the spot she and Merida would meet.
This was going to get messy.
Mulan glanced around at her fellow tributes as she began sprinting towards the Cornucopia. Most, like Belle, Aurora, and Snow White, were making their way into the woods east of the Cornucopia. Tiana, closely following Ariel, was heading towards a lake to the south. Probably to go find some frog to kiss, Mulan thought sarcastically. She slowed down to pick up a small backpack on the way, then urged herself to go faster to make up for the lost time.
Mulan watched in awe as one of the girls, Pocahontas, hurled a knife at Elsa, the tribute with ice powers. Better watch out for those two, she thought as the knife made it's mark.
Returning her attention to the Cornucopia, Mulan arrived only shortly after Pocahontas and the redhead, Merida. Spying a sword, Mulan grabbed it quickly, skidded around an intense fight between a Middle-Eastern princess and a blondie, Cinderella, and stopped, contemplating whether she should help Pocahontas in her fight against Merida. Pocahontas didn't have powers, but she was quick on her feet and had managed to somehow throw a knife at someone while running, so she was dangerous, but she would also make a good ally.
Boom! The sound of the first cannon of the Games surprised Mulan. She spun around, only to find herself facing the Middle-Eastern girl who had defeated Cinderella. The girl stood over the bloody body of her victim, a mischievous glint in her eyes. Mulan recoiled slightly when she spotted the many stab marks that covered Cinderella's face, distorting her once picturesque features. Nevertheless, she raised her sword and put on the fiercest expression she could.
I can do this, she reminded herself.
I can do this.
Pocahontas almost jumped a foot into the air when she heard the cannon— the first one of the Games. She and Merida had engaged in a cross between a fist fight— since Pocahontas had used her knife on Elsa— and a game of tug-of-war. Merida was stronger than she was; Pocahontas mentally cursed herself for stopping to get the other supplies. Her priority should have been go straight for the bow and arrows.
She felt a stab of pain as Merida's fist collided with her face. Spots clouded her vision and as she struggled to regain her eyesight, Pocahontas felt the bow and arrows being pulled out of her hands. She grabbed on, desperately trying to pull them back, but Merida slammed her to the ground.
Pain shot down her back. Pocahontas struggled to ignore it as she felt the weapons slipping through her fingers.
Please let an angel come, Pocahontas prayed sarcastically, as, in a desperate attempt to doom Merida, she tried to snap the bowstring. No luck. Before Pocahontas could even get close, she was hit in the stomach and fell to the ground with a groan.
Mulan cringed at the sound of the cannon signaling her first kill. She had done it numerous times before; war had prepared her for this. But even when killing the Huns, irreversible guilt had cracked open in her chest every time one of them fell at her hand. Killing innocents was even worse.
Mulan summoned her mental strength and forced her eyes away from her victim's dead body. Conflicted, her eyes flitted between the relative safety of the woods and the ongoing... interesting fight between Merida and Pocahontas. As she saw Pocahontas being slammed to the ground, Mulan made up her mind.
No, this was not a humanitarian act of kindness to Pocahontas, but the logical solution. If Merida got her hands on that weapon... Mulan had seen what her abilities were.
"Stop!" Mulan yelled, pointing her sword at Merida, who, obviously, was the bigger threat to her safety at the moment. As Merida turned around, Pocahontas sprang up and snatched the bow and arrows out of her hands. Mulan relaxed as soon as she saw that Merida had lost possession of it. She hadn't seen Pocahontas use the weapon in the training center before, so she wasn't as worried about her.
But Mulan saw Merida try to grab them back, and that's when she started sprinting towards them. Please hold on, Pocahontas, she prayed as she ran at top speed to the two of them.
Merida and Pocahontas were both holding on with all their might, but Mulan could see Merida winning. She ran faster, sword at the ready.
Pocahontas clung onto the bow and arrows so hard that her knuckles turned white — hard to do when you had copper-colored skin. As she was losing her grip, a sense of hopelessness filled her, with images of her inevitable death flashing in her head... but then she saw the Chinese girl, Mulan, running towards them, weapon held out intimidatingly.
Jumping up to escape, Merida let go of the weapons, the sudden release causing Pocahontas to fall backwards. She panicked when she saw Mulan pointing the sword at straight at her. Pocahontas quickly held up her bow and nocked an arrow threateningly.
"Go or you die," she spat, trying to hide the fact that she had no idea how to use the bow and was absolutely terrified. She was 99.9% sure that Mulan was convinced by her act.
Does she really think I'm going to buy that? Mulan thought, thoroughly disgusted. The girl was holding the entire bow backwards, had a huge tremble in her voice, and had the arrow aimed more at the clouds in the sky than at Mulan. In fact, Pocahontas was more likely to shoot herself in the heart than at her somewhat amused target.
Suddenly, a movement caught Mulan's attention. It was Elsa, coming back for revenge, her arm as good as new. Mulan caught Pocahontas's eye, and suddenly there was an unspoken agreement between the two. They backed up against the Cornucopia — Pocahontas fake aiming the bow and arrows at Elsa, and Mulan pointing her sword with the packs slung over her shoulder. Mulan suddenly felt the bow and arrows being shoved into her hands. She glanced over to her right in alarm; this meant Pocahontas was unarmed. Without thinking, she quickly forced her own sword into Pocahontas's hands, reciprocating the action. Then they both aimed their weapons — for real this time — at Elsa.
Even so, Mulan did not like their odds of prevailing.
"Hey Elsa!" a voice called. "Need help?" All three girls turned to see Tiana, Ariel, and Rapunzel standing casually in the clearing, as if everything was was completely normal.
"You?" Elsa spat out at Tiana while keeping her eye on Mulan and Pocahontas. "It's your fault that I got hurt-"
"But you're healed-"
"That was Rapunzel; you were the one who distracted me-"
"Please just let it go, woman!"
"Let it go?!" Elsa screamed. "You want me to let it go?!"
"Uh, yes-"
"The snow glows white on the mountain tonight-"
"Um, the mountain's over there... we're on flat land-" Tiana tried to correct.
"Not a footprint to be seen…"
"Well, I mean, what do you expect, we're stepping on grass, not snow, 'cause like I said, the mountain's over there-"
"A kingdom of isolation-"
"Elsa, don't tell them your plan!"
"WELL NOW THEY KNOW!" Elsa wailed, breaking out into full song. "Let it go! Let it go!" she sang — more accurately, wailed — while creating a gigantic ice castle around her.
Tiana, Ariel, Rapunzel, Pocahontas, and Mulan all took this awkward but enticing opportunity to run away.
