A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for checking out this story! I know there's been a lot of stories like this, but I hope you enjoy this just the same. This is my first fanfiction for The Hunger Games. So I hope you will like it! Some things might be mildly wrong, but it think I got it! Please tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from The Hunger Games.

I fill my canteen with the clear water sprinkling from the spring rocks above. I don't know whether it is clean or not, but I have no way of knowing. When my mother was in the games, the water wasn't clean. This makes me hesitate. It looks alright to me, but the eyes can trick, especially when you're dehydrated.

I've been trekking around this arena for two days, and only five cannons have sounded, meaning there are nineteen people left. Nineteen people still hunting me down. They knew me. They knew who my parents were…..who they are. Victors of the 74th and survivors of the 75th Hunger Games, and leaders of the rebellion.

My name is all that has buzzed through people since my birth. Wren Mellark. The girl whose mom was on fire, who started the uprising. Maybe that is why my name was picked - because they want to see if I am strong as my parents, if I can persevere through it all. I know I can't. Not possibly.

I've had countless nights of listening to my mother screaming through nightmares of this place, of my father grasping the nearest stronghold so he wouldn't collapse during one of his 'flashbacks'. I've had to learn about everything in school - why they had the Hunger Games and who was victor each year. Unfortunately, that involved hearing about my parents every lesson. About how they tried to commit suicide so they both could be free, so they didn't have to kill one another in the Games. About how that caused an uprising, rebellion, and thousands of peoples deaths.

I'm elated that my sister and her twin brother are too young to get their names thrown into the reaping bowl; My older brother, Nye, wasn't, and now is no doubt standing in our small living room in Victor's Village and watching me live. I can still hear his words ring through my ears when I was dragged into the Justice Building after the Reaping:"Fight for yourself, fight for nothing else, Wren! No matter who our parents are, you live through this! You hear me? Never let down! You know how to use a bow, and you know how to cut; Use those to your advantage."

I blink my dry grey eyes; even with the moistness in the air, nothing in my body seems hydrated. I'm still hesitating about whether I want to drink this water or not. Haymitch would probably tell me not to; he says the stakes are even higher this year than they ever were. I understand that. They weren't even supposed to have another Hunger Games ever, but now that we have a new president, she insists that it's mandatory. Right when everyone was settling down from the scare of the Quarter Quell, from the war my mother had to finish, their children had to be thrown back in here, to fight like never next person, and the last, to enter the room at the Justice Building was my mom. Katniss Mellark, formerly known as Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire. She was horrified, almost as much as I was; she always had a lingering sadness, from these Games no doubt. But in her deep grey eyes, which I inherited, I could see more than that sadness, and I knew it was only fear for me. She rushed to me and embraced me with a warm hug. My mother never hugged me; not often, anyway. It was always dad that did the acts of generosity. But with this hug, I could feel she didn't want to let go. So I hugged her back with as much force as she did me.

"Wren, I will just tell you what your father told me before the Games we fought in those years ago. He said he wished he could show the capital that they didn't own him. He wasn't a piece of their games; you're not either. You're stronger than that! You have a hunter and fighter's blood in you. I believe in you, and I trust that you will come home safe and sound. You are now the girl on fire! Show them that." Then she kissed my forehead and was guided out of the room.

I'd looked down into my hand and seen what she had placed in it while she was speaking. I'd smiled as I'd rolled the object around between my index finger and thumb. The pearl. The pearl my dad had given my mom in the Quarter Quell fifteen years ago, the only thing that was her stronghold through it all. That and the MockingJay pin, which she never let anyone touch, including my siblings and I. I honored that though, the pearl was good enough with me.

I look around. The immense trees crawl up at high as the eye can reach, and the leaves fall off as if it were autumn. The moss growing on the trees and rocks nearby tell me I'm going the right way. North, just as I meant to be , the sound of something snapping behind me makes me scramble to my feet, an arrow already set and waiting to be shot from my bow. A jabberjay flickers out of a tree ahead, and I follow it with the arrow. I sigh, and rest my arrow. Stupid birds.

"A little paranoid, aren't we, princess?"

I rush to point my next arrow at the source of the voice. My brain reels in fear as I recognize who it is.

"Flint! Don't do that, you idiot! I almost shot you!" I roar at him with a pricing look.

He brushes me off with a hand and saunters over to me. "You would've missed. Besides, I would have killed you by the time you even turned. You're too slow." He tells me.

I growl at him. "You're just lucky I didn't shoot."

He laughs and sits on the bank of the spring. He cups his hands and filters the water inside. He splashes some over his head and back. Then he lifts it to his lips, about to take a drink.

"Wait! Are you about to drink that?" I ask eyes peer over to me.

"Yes. Is that okay with you, princess?" My words are caught short. "How do you know it's not poisoned?" I reply sharply. "I mean, Haymitch did tell us to be aware of everything we intake. Because-"

"The stakes are higher than ever. Yes, I remember." He cuts in.

Flint was always somewhat irksome. Ever since he and his mom moved in next door to us in the Victors' Village, he's always been around me. My dad tells me that his dad, Finnick Odair, and his wife, Annie, were very close to my mom and him. He even said that Finnick helped them win the Quarter Quell, and then died during the rebellion a little while later. From what Flint has told me about his father, he gets a lot of traits from him. The bronze hair, the tan skin, those remarkable green eyes that hold all of his stories. He and his father both are remarkable looking, which was one of the things that annoyed me. Not to mention he should have never even been in our District. He and his mom should have stayed in District 4, where they originated, but my mom insisted that they move to Twelve so that her and my dad could 'keep an eye' on them. I've known him for at least seven years. Seven long years. He was one of the last people I wanted to be stuck with in the arena, but of course Effie had to pick his name from the bowl right after takes a sip anyway and swishes it around in his mouth for a moment before gulping it down. "It's safe." He tells me.I open my mouth to question him, but he cuts me short. "Because I'm from 4, remember? Where everything is covered by water. I was there for eleven years. I practically lived in the water. I would know if it were contaminated or not." He always did that - finished my sentences or knew what I was about to say, before I'd even thought about it myself. Reason number three that he came off as annoying to me. Not to mention he should have never even been in our District. He and his mom should have stayed in District Four, where they originated, but my mom insisted that they move to Twelve so that her and my dad could 'keep an eye' on them. I've known him for at least seven years. Seven long years. He was one of the last people I wanted to be stuck with in the arena, but of course Effie had to pick his name from the bowl right after mine.

He takes a sip anyway and swishes it around in his mouth for a moment before gulping it down. "It's safe." He tells me.

I open my mouth to question him, but he cuts me short. "Because I'm from Four, remember? Where everything is covered by water. I was there for eleven years. I practically lived in the water. I would know if it were contaminated or not." He answers.

He always did that - finished my sentences or knew what I was about to say, before I'd even thought about it myself. Reason number three that he came off as annoying to me.

I look down to my canteen in my left hand. My body was withered from its lack of water. I needed to trust Flint. I screwed off the top and gulped it down, slowly at first, then faster as my body begged for more. As Flint watches me, he snickers and shakes his head. I lower my canteen and wipe my lips with my sleeve.

"What?" I ask.

"Good thing I wasn't lying," He whispers. "Or you'd be dead."

I narrow my eyes at him. "Aren't you supposed to be with the Careers right now?"

He adjusts the pack on his back. It looked full, heavy. My mind yelled at me to snatch it from him and run, but I refused, no matter how large the urge.

"I'm about to go back to them. Just had to check and see if you had died yet. Surprisingly you haven't. Maybe you'll win this thing after all," He says.

My heart becomes warm with his last words. Yeah, maybe I will! He smiles at me and walks into the dense forest. No matter how much he did annoy me, I didn't like the fact he was with the Careers. He could get himself easily killed that way. But I guess that he has a plan, maybe.

No matter what, this is the Hunger Games…each tribute has a chance to die.