There was another bottle in Xenia's pack, along with another jar of water purifier. There was also a woolen cap, a jar of pickled baby cucumbers, sunscreen and a flint. Danni's pack had a brown broad brim hat, two pairs of sunglasses another bottle and another flint. I gave Danni the spear I had gotten from the district eleven girl, and set the canvas up; attaching the ropes to wheat fronds and propping it up against the boulder and the wheat. I then got Xenia and Danni to help me dig some earth so the ground was cooler on the floor. By this time the water bottle was full and I replaced it with my second and added the water purifier.
By the end of this, we all had our jackets off and were sweating like pigs, but luckily the sun was just setting. I knew this was bad because we didn't have much water, so I made us all take a break until we felt ready to finish. This was hard because I was used to working all day then either drinking from the water that the peacekeepers supplied to us or stealing from the livestock troughs.
"Hey, Mesilla, come up here." Xenia sounded strange. I lifted my eyes and saw her perched on the top of the big boulder. I scrambled up beside her and looked where she was pointing. My eyes widened and I shoved her off the rock; her blue hair would be too noticeable.
Four people were tramping through the fields: cursing the sun, by the look of it. One was a beautiful girl with light brown hair tied loosely in a knot at the back of her head, and she had scored an eleven in her training score. She was in front of the procession, slashing with something the get rid of the wheat fronds. The second in line was a hulking guy, all muscle, with brown hair so dark it was almost black. He was complaining to the girl in front, who in turn, was yelling back at him. The fourth boy in line was the boy from district four; Xenia's counterpart. He had wavy sea green hair, bronze skin, and, even from here, I could see his grimace. The last person was decidedly female, with jet black hair in a bun and a posture like one of the panther's I once killed when it tried to take my bull. She also scored an eleven, and those two girls were the only ones who beat me. She stalked behind the others saying nothing, but glaring at the boy in front of her. The strong tributes from district one, two and four, by the look of it.
I motioned for Danni and Xenia to stay put. The tributes didn't look like they were heading towards in our direction, but parallel to us, so I didn't tell Danni to repack his pack: the insides of which were still scattered around our little camp. Suddenly, someone was following them; a boy, by the look of it, with black hair and an olive complexion- the male tribute from district twelve. Abruptly, he swung a mace at the back of the panther-girls head. Suddenly, panther-girl was gone. She reappeared behind him and, with a crack I could hear from where I was perched, snapped his neck with a simple flick of her wrist. I slowly sunk down onto the rock face; lying flat I could just see the Careers over the soft heads of the wheat. I didn't want to be spotted, and I flinched at the sound of the cannon. They continued to traipse through the field, until they were lost in the yellow. The sun finally set when I couldn't see the big guy's shoulders anymore, and I slid back down to Danni and Xenia.
"Who was that?" they asked in unison.
"The strong tributes; the ones from districts one, two and four." I answered. Xenia gulped and Danni frowned at the floor.
"Was Marcus there?" Xenia asked. I asked her who the heck Marcus was. "The boy from my district, with the green hair. Marcus." She exasperated. I suppose she was tired.
"Yeah, he was. He doesn't look like a very happy guy," I answered, gently. Her eyebrows creased.
"Sorry," She mumbled. "He's my cousin, you know." Danni petted her shoulder sympathetically. I sighed. Another reason these games were inhumane. They didn't care who they put up against each other, as long as there was good sport.
I took first watch this night. It was cold, as if all the temperature had been sucked from the arena, so I put on the woolen cap and kept my hands in my pockets. Covering my knees was Danni's jacket, because it was too warm in the sleeping bag. Danni and Xenia were sharing the sleeping bag, curled up against each other and generating enough heat that, if I placed my hand on the outside of the bag, I could feel the warmth. At eleven o'clock I was to wake Danni up, and then at five he would wake Xenia. No-one had any objections to sharing a sleeping bag with each other because, just when we were eating a dinner of dried beef and baby cucumbers, the temperature had dropped and our noses had started freezing immediately. Then they had screened the first day's deaths. Seven had died; the two I had killed, the boy from district twelve, the girl from district five, both tributes from district six and the boy from district nine. Seventeen people left.