Author's Note: (see chapter 1 for disclaimer)

I'm sorry for such a delay between updates, I'm back in school so there is hardly any time to breathe let alone keep up with my stories. So I apologize in advance and would also like to thank anyone who has taken an interest in the story =]

Thank you so much for reading and I would really appreciate your feedback!

Oh, and a little something that I forgot to mention...the point of view will be changing every so often throughout the story. It will be in Annie's first person view for the most part but every once in a while it will switch over to third person to give a different perspective on certain events.

I hope you enjoy this chapter =]

Love,

AL

We awaken to the sounds of the cannon echoing off of the tall, wispy trees under which we camp. Two more tributes are dead and dawn has just barely broken. I can't help but wonder who they are. Theo stretches beside me as I pull my clothes back on. The heat of the sleeping bag did the trick and my tank top is still warm and crisp as I pull it over my head. This year's wardrobe choice for the arena leaves much to be desired-a coarse, thick-strapped tank top which matches the washed out color of the desert sand that surrounds us paired with a baggy set of gray cargo pants. Either the pants were given to me a size too big or I've shed a few pounds in the last three days but regardless, I can hardly keep them secured at my waist.

"I wonder who the casualties were," Theo ponders while rolling up the sleeping bag before stuffing it into his gray pack. "There are no casualties in the Hunger Games," I reply with a negative shrug and tuck my pants into the thick leather boots that we were given to wear. It's far from attractive but it does help with keeping my pants in place. "You know what I mean." His tone is sour and I can't help but wonder if my poor attitude is beginning to rub off on him. I doubt it, since we have yet to consciously occupy the same space for a full twenty-four hours but he could just be someone who is easily influenced.

I wash my face in the stream and then stand to stretch my arms out in front of me. I am granted with a temporary moment of happiness as a rush of warmth floods through my aching muscles.

"Hungry?"

As if he has to ask. A hopeful gurgle sounds from my stomach. He smiles and my cheeks flush red. Despite what my stomach wants I refuse his offer of squirrel jerky and decide to survey the area instead. He makes noises of delight with every bite and smacks his lips together every time he chews but I know that he is only trying to get me to eat. I refuse to give in.

"No breakfast?" he says in between bites.

"No thank you-I don't accept food from strangers." I glance out at the desert as the sun begins to rise. The oasis isn't much-a small stretch of stream surrounded by some patches of grasses and weeds and a cluster of spindly trees. I can't see the cornucopia from here but I'm sure that this place is ridiculously visible from other places on the sand but still no on other than Theo has stumbled upon it and it certainly isn't a large enough space to conceal multiple people without them knowing of one another's presence.

"Aww, we're not strangers," he argues.

I shrug, "we're not friends."

I turn in time to catch a glimpse of him lightly chuckle. He's no longer eating but stands with the jerky in one hand and the duffel bag hanging limply from the other. "You have an odd sense of alliance, Annie Cresta."

I don't know why he keeps using my full name but it's beginning to make me uncomfortable. My eyes fall upon the jerky for a brief moment and suddenly there is just something that I can't understand. "Did that food come with the bag you found?"

Theo glances at the duffel bag and shakes his head, "I climbed a tree and caught the bugger by the tail. He put up a fight, see?"

He points to his neck. I hadn't been lucid enough to notice the bright, puffy scratches that ran from the bottom of his ear to his color bone. What I thought was a tan is actually the tinted hue that the blood left when it dried and peeled off of his skin. A small gasp escapes my lips and I clamp one hand over my mouth, not in surprise, but to prevent any other sounds of sympathy from coming out of me.

He shrugs, "Had to eat somehow. Anyway, it doesn't hurt. Hardly stings."

It's hard to imagine that the bark-like meat in his hands was once the creature that inflicted those angry marks upon him. I'm glad I decided against eating such a vicious creature for breakfast. "A tree? These are large trees but the branches are too thin to climb…how did you find a squirrel with a tree all the way out in the desert?" I ask, my curiosity returning. Theo narrows his eyes, throwing me a confused look. "Haven't you been by the lake?"

"The what?"

It almost sounded like he said lake. Maybe he did, maybe he actually saw one…a mirage, perhaps?

His eyes widen in surprise. "You haven't seen the rest of the arena?"

"The rest of the arena…" I mimic, struggling to find words of my own, "you mean there's more?"

Theo nods earnestly, "From the North to the West may be all desert but if you get far enough South you'll find the mouth of the lake-it's enormous! There are a good amount of trees there too."

I am beyond words. How could I have missed an entire side of the arena? An enormous lake side? A LAKE? Those days of drying, flaking, blistering in the unforgiving heat, of crawling through the sand while every last bit of water was sucked from my very soul. And all of the while there was a lake. Right here. In the arena. I press three fingers hard over my quivering lips so as not to scream. It takes every ounce within me not to do it. I want to tilt my head back to the sky and shriek away the pain.

I want to take the lump of frustration and pity and fear that sits heavy within me and thrust it out into the air for all to hear. But I can't, for so many reasons. Instead I take a deep breath. Inhale, exhale, and repeat.

Haven't you been to the lake?

…the lake. The place that I haven't been…but every other tribute probably has. It's most likely the only source of water aside from the oasis…it's amazing that there haven't been more deaths if such a spot exists. I glance up at Theo, suddenly elated. There haven't been many deaths, which means that the lake truly has to be huge. That is just what I need right now-a big body of water. Somewhere that I can dive deep into and swim away the residue of these awful games.

"Annie?" Theo asks, looking slightly concerned. I'm still in awe of how genuine and trusting he appears to be. I'm almost one hundred percent sure that this is a part of his act to survive but he saved my life so I might as well just go with it.

"Will you take me to the lake?" I sound too eager but it doesn't matter anymore. I want to die by the water. The lake is where I want to go.

He shrugs and slings the bag over his shoulder, "I thought you'd never ask."

And so begins our trek across the sand. At first I had assumed that it would just be a long walk across the desert, but Theo likes to talk. It feels like his voice makes the distance even greater. I can't zone out like usual and allow myself to shift into auto-pilot. His questions prevent that and it feels like he has oh-so-many questions.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Yellow," I reply dully. It shouldn't be, but it is. Not the yellow of the scorching sun or the sand or the palm-sized fruits that grow beyond the borders of District Four-it's the yellow tint that reflects off of the straw which lines the floors of hatchery sheds when the sun filters through the windows, the yellow glimmer of the scales of a fish as it whips its tail from side to side, or the yellow of the rising sun sending beams of light through the fog over the morning waters.

It's a different kind of yellow, a soft and delicate kind. He is waiting for me to ask him his favorite color in return but doesn't say it out loud. I make a note of this, adding it to the mental list that I have put together of the character traits he has displayed so far-genuine, trustworthy, curious, patient…the random tribute who happened to stumble across my vomiting carcass is turning out to be a real dream boat.

No one is ever who they seem to be.

I can practically hear Mags' wisdom ringing in my ears. Ever since I was a little girl she was on my case about being too trusting and once she became my mentor the reminders were even more severe. It's a good thing that I'm not planning to live through this. It makes me sad, thinking of what it is going to do to Mags when she has to watch me die…she and my father and sisters…

I expel such thoughts from my mind because even the mere idea of their grieving faces causes my eyes to sting with tears and I definitely cannot afford to lose any more precious water. I already hate that I have to pee. Even if it is my body's waste it still reminds me of how much liquid I'm losing per day. Finally, I'm forced to keep up the conversation since my mind is beginning to wander into hostile territory.

"What is yours?"

Theo's lips curl up into a small smile, as if he knew that I would come around eventually. I frown in return. His arrogance is a bit much for me but at least it hardly ever shows. I shudder…he's beginning to remind me of someone else I know.

"Purple." He is so sure of this answer-so confident in himself. I raise an eyebrow and question, "purple?"

"Yeah," he shrugs, "it's subtle, misleading. Often times in the woods near the lumber yards there are clusters of purple berries. They're always really plump and round and when you pop them between your fingers all of this juice will run down your hands."

My mouth waters at the mere mention of these berries, but there has to be a catch.

"They look delicious, but really they are poison. Because of these berries all of the animals have learned to stay away from the color purple. Over the generations their offspring adapted to recognize the color as a dangerous thing. It just seems like a really cool thing to me."

"It is," I give him a genuine reply. I had no idea that animals could adapt in such a way.

I can still see the oasis from here-just barely, but those wispy trees are still insight. We still have a long ways to go. I sigh. Theo's asking me something again but I don't really listen. Somehow his voice slows down time-as if nature itself stops to listen. It's not a bad thing, just…peculiar. It feels like he's unintentionally forcing the world to pay attention to his every word.

"Huh?"

"Tell me more about your district," he repeats as I throw myself back into the conversation.

I turn my gaze to the sky, but only for a moment. It is just enough time to catch a glimpse of blue before my eyes roll back to the sand through which we shuffle. The sun is so blinding that it is hard to look anywhere but down. "District four? Well, we fish." I shrug and he snorts amusedly in return. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I'm bothered by his reaction.

You are so much more then fishing! Make your district proud!

"And there's the ocean," I start back up, "and the docks and beaches…it's crisp and fresh and…absolutely nothing like this awful dust bowl. We always have a little bit of everything when it comes to weather…the mornings are often misty and gray but the fog burns off by the afternoon and its warm and sunny until night falls and the air turns cold. But not too cold…it's a good kind of chill. We don't have many birds, a couple of Mockingjays at most, but there are tons of crickets and they are always singing."

I glance over at Theo. He continues trudging through the sand, silent and pensive so I pick up where I left off, "I know that my district is often a part of the Careers…but we don't have many volunteers. Kids start working on the docks early on, so our tributes usually have some kind of experience. It's a really close knit place...all of the families know one another and help each other out…as if our suffering brings us together."

This grabs Theo's attention and his gaze has returned to me. A small smile plays on his lips, "I bet you guys don't get to keep the seafood you haul in, huh?"

I shake my head and he snorts as if to confirm his suspicions. "I don't think that district eleven gets to keep their produce either-just like we don't use our lumber to build houses of kindle our own houses. It's funny how that works out, isn't it?"

I don't know what to say to this.

He tilts his head back and sighs, "Your home sounds nice…I'd like to see the ocean."

I don't know what to say to this either, so instead I say what's on my mind, "I'd like to hear about your home too."

He gives me a sideways glance paired with a smirk, "maybe one day but we are almost to the lake now."

"Really?" relief drowns out the sound of my voice. He nods and points to the ground. I'm surprised I hadn't noticed it sooner. The earth beneath our feet has transformed from tiny grains into significant flakes of soil. I smile, suddenly ecstatic, and when I glance back up, Theo is smiling too.

Roots begin to appear in the dirt, and soon there is green. Green all around. Vines and leaves and other shrubbery deeply tangled into the soil. Our feet crunch carelessly against the liquid earth. The closer we get to the lake, the more the ground turns to mud, and the more sounds our boots utter with every stomp. Maybe Theo is secretly on guard. He looks normal, but perhaps beneath his determined façade he is actually monitoring every little thing going on around us. Or maybe not. Maybe he is every bit as clueless as I am right now.

I don't take the time to be alert. I don't look out for danger or listen for sounds. I'm afraid that if my eyes wander away from the mud that it will turn back into sand and my ears are no good-I have the hearing of a dead squid. It has gotten cooler though. I'm grateful for the few mangled trees that are tall enough to provide shade from that ball of fire in the sky. I'm surprised that the heat hasn't eaten holes through the broad leaves.

I've never seen such peculiar trees before. Their trunks are thin and pale, almost sickly looking, while their leaves are large and curved and broad. "Hey," Theo nudges me, "we're…"

I don't hear the rest of his words. Something bigger has caught my attention. Something much bigger. My dry eyes sting with the promise of tears but I fight them back at once. I will not cry. Not here, not now, and not with so little water left in my body. But that is about to change. Soon I will be hydrated with a belly full of water.

The lake is more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. After weeks of being away from my district, the lake causes a sweet calm to wash over me. Even if it is only a fraction of the ocean, it is rippling and magnificent in the evening sun. The shade of the trees is gone but the sun is beginning to set. Dusk is falling and the trip costed us a day's worth of finding food but it was undoubtedly worth it. Every little bit. Theo smiles and points to the shore before trotting down to the edge of the water and falling onto his knees. I smile and wrestle back a giggle that is trying to surface. Eventually I give in and laugh.

My first laugh since the reaping. Even if this place is swarming with all of the other tributes, it is a place of renewal. Something as vast and amazing as this lake was unfathomable to me when I first laid eyes upon the mounds of sound when we first entered the arena. This lake is a jewel hidden in the sand…it brings me hope. I'm not sure what I could possibly have to be hopeful for, but I am all the same.

I look out at the calm, murky waters and breathe in deep the cooling air. It reminds me of home.

"Your home sounds nice…"

Suddenly, while staring out at this gorgeous, shimmering body of water, a horrible thought seeps into my brain. What if Theo was only asking about my district to gain more knowledge about me? He knows everything about where I grew up and I know nothing about his background. What is this whole thing is just some elaborate ploy?

Don't be stupid, my conscience reprimands (as it often has to do from time to time in order to pull me back from the brink of delusion), if he wanted you dead then he would have killed you by now.

Not if he wants to generate a better show. Befriend some useless wimp of a creature and pretend to be devastated when she's murdered. Play up the drama, gain popularity with the Capitol. My conscience has nothing to say to that. My eyes flicker over to the spot where he is kneels, splashing scoops of crystalline water all over his chapped face. I bite my lip, riddled with uncertainty. There is something about him…something that I just can't place. Even though he saved my life and led me to such a beautiful place…I can't help but wonder if I will ever be able to truly trust this baffling boy.