So this is based solely on the first book, and I really wanted to clear up some questions I had about her character. I kept thinking back to the explosion, and how different things would have been if Foxface didn't get to the camp before Katniss. Then later, how Katniss making her first kill could be tied back to that moment. Foxface played a much bigger role than implied and I feel like a little character depth/background might have earned her some more sympathy from the audience, even though I was already sad to see her die.
Foxface,
Alana smirked. Befitting. Her ears suddenly perked, not at the sound of voices but the lack thereof. Katniss and Peeta were on the move again. In all of three seconds she managed to catch circumspect of her surroundings and quickly ducked away in the safest angle.
She felt superhuman. Her legs were moving too fast to feel. Surely her brain couldn't even be processing the speed. Quick as a fox, she thought. The familiar burning started up in her thighs and she began to hop, back and forth while keeping her eyes trained on an invisible line. Her movements suggested she might change direction but her true destination lie directly ahead of her. Quick as a fox, she repeated in her head, they can't catch me if I'm quick.
She didn't want to admit that she couldn't kill. Or rather, she could kill but it would break her heart to do so. She wasn't meant to play this game. She could only survive. It was the path Katniss and some of the others had seemed to choose until she shot that fateful arrow. Alana couldn't blame her; Rue was in it to survive as well. None of them had the intention to win.
Quick as a fox, she repeated, dodging branches as they threatened to slap her across the face. She saw the obvious comparisons between herself, Katniss, and Rue. How quickly the circumstances had changed. Alana felt guilty, as though she was the one who had sparked the fire in Katniss -the girl on fire-.
Until that one afternoon, she had fared well in the forest, plucking berries and sucking on leaves. None had poisoned her yet but she feared her judgement was becoming skewed as days went on with lack of better food. She knew Katniss could kill, and had probably tasted meat already. Alana was barely clinging onto her fruit. She decided to steal. It would be easy enough.
Even when she had spotted the triggers, she was quick enough to dodge the mines. It had been a moment of glory. She hoped the cameras caught her. Maybe a sponsor would send her a rabbit or goose to go with the dried fruit and crackers she'd poached. Just as she had made it a safe distance away from the camp, she heard an explosion. Surely the Careers wouldn't have triggered their own trap. That meant one of the other contenders was nearby.
Later on that night she saw the death of the District 3 boy up in the night sky and let out a sigh of relief. Someone else she wouldn't be forced to kill if she had any hopes of surviving.
Quick as a fox, she reminded herself, when her head became dizzy with flashbacks. She saw an alcove formed by bending branches and decided that once shrouded with the darkness of night, would make a good hiding spot. Keeping to her feet she circled the area predatorily, marking this spot as her home for the night, if nothing else. Quick as a fox…
The next day after the explosion there was a large amount of noise. She had nearly encountered Thresh by the sound of his massive footsteps and quickly turned the other direction, almost running blindly into Katniss's arrow. She was too enraged to notice. Alana should have taken off again, but she had to stay and watch. Rue lay pathetically in the ground, while the life draining out of her was measured by the amount of blood pouring from her wound. Alana bit her tongue. It was almost torturous the way the blood flowed, just like water which she desperately craved. But instead of providing life, this blood, seeping into the dirt, was the removal of life from the little girl.
She watched Katniss sing to her, and bathe her face in flowers. She saw the silver parachute float down with the appreciative loaf of bread. She camped out in those branches far longer than she ever would let herself…but something changed that night.
Katniss had flung her first arrow. The first one designed to kill. She wasn't a survivor anymore. She was a killer. Vengance had driven her towards it. Since day one Katniss seemed like the least harmful. Contrary to the misconception that Rue would be the most harmless, Alana could see it in Katniss's eyes. She wasn't built for killing.
Yet here she had so easily broken her own rule. Alana swore she wouldn't let it happen to herself. As much as it scared her to be alone, she knew she could always run. She didn't need friends in this competition. She didn't need a reason to kill.
She took off in the early morning, her fleeting footsteps covered by the sound of the anthem.
In her little alcove she shuddered once more at the memory of Rue's defenseless little body, being sucked up by the hovercraft like a vacuum cleaner collecting dirt from the floor. At the sound of her first sob she heard a twig crack, and immediately hoisted herself up by the branches. She slinked around the fat trunks and balanced across loosely strung vines as she continued her journey for survival. Even though she was too high up to take risks, she allowed her legs to increase the speed at which they moved, seemingly gliding between the trees while her tears trickled down the sides of her face.
Quick as a fox, she repeated in her mind, grabbing onto the vines now and practically swinging from them. The pressure of the air around her forced the tears back into her hair and despite the grime coating her face her skin positively shined. Her eyes slanted in determination; quick as a fox, quick as a fox…
Review please. There's always room for improvement.