Since Last Games
District 10 Mentor, Bianca García, retires from her position. Byron will hereby take over as District 10's Mentor.
Byron moves into District 10's Victor's Village.
The 3rd Annual Hunger Games
Preface:
While the flames of the rebellion in the districts are gradually being put out by the districts' loss in the war, increased quotas and poverty rates, and of course, the Games, rebellious activity is still flickering to life in some areas of Panem. One area in particular was that of District 8, where a riot took place the day after Byron Irving's stop in the district during his Victory Tour. Peacekeepers quelled the riot easily enough, leading to the deaths of 14 District 8 citizens. There was also a larger-scale riot in District 5 after the loss of both of their tributes during the finale of last year's Games. This riot was a more violent one, with things being lit ablaze by rioters, as well as Peacekeepers being trampled to the ground. 51 people, including three Peacekeepers, lost their lives to the riot. District 5 was placed on Lockdown for five consecutive days afterwards, until everyone was allowed to return to their normal routines. President Corsican maintains his grip on the nation, no sign of his reign ending any time soon. Regis Haysend returns as Head Gamemaker for a third year. Hosts Perseus LeRouge and Neptune Amarillus return as well.
The arena is unsurprisingly the same one as has been used for the two Games prior. The simple, deciduous forest with a grassy clearing for the Cornucopia, as well as some spotty ponds located throughout the forest returns for its final Game. In contrast to last Games, the ponds of the arena were not made to be deadly poisonous. Instead, there would be eight areas throughout the arena that, when the ground was stepped on, would collapse into a square, ten-by-ten hole. While this is not an advanced trap by any means, nor is it as interesting as last year's poisonous ponds, Regis Haysend figures that the simple surprise will be enough to give some tributes a little jolt, and do so without spending much of his arena budget.
The first ever Private Training Sessions are held this year, marking the first ever year that tributes are assigned Training Scores. Ranging from one to twelve, each tribute is scored based on a performance in front of the entire Gamemaking team in the Training Center. One would be a legendarily low score, while twelve would be legendarily high. Along with Training Scores, tributes are also judged on their odds of winning. The highest score this year would go to Vice Kaelamari of District 4, an attractively wild boy who managed to score a ten in his Private Session. Some other standouts include Sapphire from 1, a dazzlingly beautiful girl who became the Hunger Games' first ever volunteer by volunteering for her blinded cousin. She would receive the second-highest score this year, with an eight. The boy from 12, 13-year-old Den Northview, is the oldest child of the still-somewhat-rebellious mayor of District 12. Corsican figures that sending his own flesh and blood into the arena should give Northview a wake-up call. Besides Vice and Sapphire's high scores, four sevens would be scored. They were earned by Hercules from 2, Reida from 3, Owen from 7, and Fredrick from 13. The rest of the tributes scored between a six and a three in their Private Sessions. There are no volunteers other than Sapphire.
The Tributes:
District 1: Valour Gonlen, 12 (5) 42-1 and Sapphire Gemstone, 18 (8) 17-1
District 2: Hercules Stenman, 17 (7) 20-1 and Melissa Yancy, 13 (4) 43-1
District 3: Techan Hevos, 14 (4) 39-1 and Reida Felicity, 18 (7) 22-1
District 4: Vice Kaelamari, 17 (10) 8-1 and Jaquelyn Perean, 16 (6) 25-1
District 5: Gregory Calosi, 16 (5) 31-1 and Dana Harkato, 13 (5) 39-1
District 6: Canton O'Vese, 15 (3) 53-1 and Amaya Whistley, 15 (5) 33-1
District 7: Owen Hazels, 15 (7) 25-1 and Pamela Gonfrey, 12 (4) 48-1
District 8: Cross Astera, 14 (3) 53-1 and Ester Filips, 17 (6) 26-1
District 9: Aster Lockley, 18 (6) 27-1 and Sara Welton, 16 (4) 38-1
District 10: Astin Halsey, 18 (6) 28-1 and Nora Westford, 18 (6) 27-1
District 11: Rico Pines, 16 (5) 31-1 and Dia Mavoritz, 15 (4) 37-1
District 12: Den Northview, 13 (3) 61-1 and Evelyn Calper, 17 (5) 34-1
District 13: Fredrick Dalten, 18 (7) 23-1 and Siobhan Karter, 14 (5) 30-1
Into the Arena:
None of this year's tributes seem to be very surprised upon noticing that the arena is the same one used for the past two Games. As the Cornucopia Countdown ticks away, a puffy cloud momentarily obscures the sun, rendering the arena far darker than the tributes expected it to. Before the countdown is over, the cloud harmlessly passes by, and the arena brightens up once more. Unlike last year, two tributes who want to avoid the impending bloodshed at the Cornucopia, decide to flee into the forest rather than bolt for the Silver Horn. The two younger allies, Melissa from 2 and Dana from 5, run right for the forest while the other two dozen tributes go straight for the glistening Cornucopia.
One of the first tributes to reach the Cornucopia, powerful Vice from 4, swiftly scoops up a trident and scans the nearby area for potential victims. Spotting a smaller, lower-scoring boy in the vicinity, Vice readies his trident and throws. The three-pronged weapon slams right into the boy's skull, sending him to the ground. As he retrieves his weapon, Vice is disgusted by the brains, blood, and even the eyeball that comes out of the boy's skull along with Vice's weapon. Starting to maniacally laugh at the carnage he caused, the first kill of the Games has been made, and someone's already broke.
Cross Astera, District 8 Male, 26th Place; Killed by Vice, Bloodbath
Meanwhile, Fredrick from 13 fights a fellow seven-scorer over a mere wire that both tributes want to use to build a sort of trap. As Fredrick's opponent, Reida, reaches down to the ground in order to pick up a pipe to bludgeon Fredrick with, the boy buries his pick axe in Reida's back before she can stand back upright. The boy rips the pick back out of Reida's spine, and darts off to join his allies as the 3 girl bleeds out.
Reida Felicity, District 3 Female, 25th Place; Killed by Fredrick, Bloodbath
Young Pamela from 7 is escaping the Bloodbath along with her alliance as she trips on a crate and sends herself sprawling forward. A nearby boy runs towards Pamela, only with the intention of helping her up and requesting to join her alliance. With this unbeknownst to Pamela, she throws one of her hatchets right at the boy, hitting him square in the chest. The boy lifelessly falls to the ground as Pamela and her allies escape.
Den Northview, District 12 Male, 24th Place; Killed by Pamela, Bloodbath
A newly-bloodthirsty Vice trips a nearby girl with a net, sending her crashing to the ground. The olive-skinned girl screams bloody murder as Vice stabs her in the chest with his trident several times, all the while grinning and cackling sadistically. The now psychotic Vice only stops stabbing once the girl stops screaming.
Evelyn Calper, District 12 Female, 23rd Place; Killed by Vice, Bloodbath
Wanting to make a splash with sponsors, Sara from 9 figures that she's going to have to make a kill before leaving the Bloodbath. Sara readies her machete, and slashes a nearby girl's thigh wide open. The girl screams, and Sara quickly slices her across the chest and back as she plummets to the ground. Like Pamela, it's immediately evident that Sara deliberately underperformed in her Private Session.
Ester Filips, District 8 Female, 22nd Place; Killed by Sara, Bloodbath
With the same idea that Sara had buzzing around in his mind, Rico from 11 figures that he'll attempt to make a kill in order to appeal to sponsors. Rico makes the mistake of slashing Astin from 10's calf open with his sickle. The larger boy yells in pain, and swings his cleaver right into Rico's throat, nearly severing his head. Rico thumps to the grass, not to ever receive a single sponsor.
Rico Pines, District 11 Male, 21st Place; Killed by Astin, Bloodbath
With only the final few tributes remaining at the Cornucopia, Vice claims the seventh and final kill of the Bloodbath. Canton from 6, shaking from Morphling withdrawal, staggers away from the Bloodbath with a small pack over his shoulders, as Vice's spear effortlessly penetrates the pack, as well as Canton's back and chest. With Vice's blade protruding from both sides of the boy's body, it doesn't take poor Canton long to bleed out.
Canton O'Vese, District 6 Male, 20th Place; Killed by Vice, Bloodbath
Now that the Bloodbath has subsided, Vice grins at the corpses scattered around the Cornucopia and goes to take a nap inside of the Silver Horn. As he does so, the other eighteen remaining tributes scatter across the arena, many attempting to distance themselves from the Cornucopia by as much as is possible.
Young Valour and Sapphire from 1 had allied prior to the start of the Games. Each with a pack over their backs and a weapon in hand, the two distance themselves as far from the Cornucopia as they see fit, which is rather far. They eventually settle down in the grass in the middle of a cluster of several bushes. Hercules from 2 snagged a pack and a katana from the Bloodbath. He explores the woods for a while before slumping against a sturdy oak tree, not really caring much if he's spotted. Melissa and Dana, the two younger girls who had fled from the Cornucopia, find a source of water. Melissa's Mentor sends her a water bottle for the two girls to fill up and share. After having their water, the two girls decide to stay nearby the pond, camouflaging themselves in the nearby tall grasses. Techan from 3 only grabbed an empty water bottle and a plastic sheet from the Cornucopia. He too collects some water, before quickly scurrying up a nearby pine tree to rest. Vice remains at the Cornucopia, napping for a while before deciding to peruse through the Cornucopia's abundance of remaining supplies. He snacks on some crackers as he does so, seeming almost sane again for a little while. Jaquelyn from 4's gear includes a small pack and a spear. She decides to stay right in the rim of the woods, close to the Cornucopia, figuring that her District Partner would be willing to share supplies with her if and when she needs them. Gregory from 5 descends deep into the western portion of the arena, and sets up a few snare traps nearby the tree he chooses as his camp. He mainly sets them in hopes of catching a rabbit or two, though he figures if a tribute is caught, he'll stab them with his knife and claim a kill for sponsors. Amaya from 6 made it out with only a water bottle, a loaf of bread, and a screwdriver. Her water bottle full, Amaya decides to hide in a wide bush and munch on some bread for the time being. Owen from 7 has formed an alliance with his District Partner, Pamela, Aster from 9, and Fredrick. The four well-supplied tributes scour the forest for a while, before setting up a campground near a larger maple tree that seems to be naturally oozing sap. Sara escaped the Cornucopia with her pack and machete. She settles down for the night in a sturdy pine tree, even falling asleep for a few minutes once the sun begins to set. Astin, his calf still healing from Rico's attack in the Bloodbath, settles down underneath a sturdy willow tree. He's sponsored some cream to put on his wound, which extinguishes the pain immediately. Astin wraps his leg up in gauze, before deciding to allow himself to rest for a while. Nora from 10 escaped with a small pack and a katana. She offs a passing rabbit with the blade, before setting up a temporary camp, gutting and skinning the thing, and cooking it over a small fire. Dia from 11 only managed to grab a sack of apples and a sickle from the Silver Horn. With her apples over her back, Dia sprints through the trees for a good while before resting in a lower branch of an oak tree. Siobhan from 13 grabbed a small pack and a dagger from the Cornucopia. She picks a few handfuls of edible berries, stashes them in her pocket for now, and sets up camp underneath a smaller maple tree.
At precisely ten o'clock that night, twelve hours after the Games began, Panem's national anthem blares throughout the arena as the faces of today's seven casualties light up the sky: The girl from District 3, the boy from 6, both from 8, the boy from 11, and both from District 12.
Not much of anything transpires on Day 2. Most of the tributes keep to themselves, either staying at their camp or exploring the arena briefly. Vice stays holed up at the Cornucopia, deciding that he'd rather nap nearly the entire day than go hunting for any of the other tributes. The alliance of Owen, Pamela, Aster, and Fredrick send the 7s out for firewood while Aster guards the camp and Fredrick works on some sort of contraption. Or rather, it seems, multiple smaller contraptions.
"I need some more wires. Preferably not red or blue," Fredrick seemingly tells the sky as loud as he dares.
Sure enough, mere moments after making his request, a parachute floats down from the sky and makes a beeline for Fredrick. The 13 boy opens the metal canister attached to the parachute, revealing a note from his Mentor, along with multiple green wires. Fredrick reads the note, bids the sky a polite "thank you" and gets back to work.
Dia is up before the sun on Day 3, suffering from horrible nightmares and unable to get back to sleep. The harvester girl, having gone two days without any real source of water (the water provided by the apples has been Dia's saving grace thus far), figures that it would be wise to attempt to find a source of water. Before the sun has even risen, Dia is out and about in the arena searching for some water.
Remembering that the arena this year is the exact same one used in the prior two Games, Dia tries to remember where the various ponds of the arena were located. Dia is unsure if the waters will be poisoned as they were last year, though she figures that even if they are, a two-minute death by poison is far better than a two-to-four-day death by dehydration (even though Dia'd be able to last a little while longer due to the water content of her apples).
Around eight o'clock in the morning, after several consecutive hours of wandering around and taking occasional breaks, it isn't water that Dia finds after stumbling through some thick bushes. It's the tributes from District 1.
Upon stumbling across the tributes' camp, Dia is unsure of what to do. She clutches her sickle in her hand, looking back and forth between Valour and Sapphire. Expecting an attack, Sapphire stands up as quickly as she can and readies her spear. Before the girl can do anything, Sapphire shoves her spear into Dia's abdomen as hard as she possibly can. The spear impales Dia completely, going into her abdomen and coming out her back. The younger girl stares Sapphire directly in the eyes as she coughs up blood on her. Valour screams, and Sapphire's eyes are as wide as oranges, as Dia continues coughing up blood. Sapphire then rips the spear out of the 11 girl as quickly as it went in. A cannon fires mere seconds after.
Dia Mavoritz, District 11 Female, 19th Place; Killed by Sapphire, Day 3
Valour shouts at Sapphire accusingly for a few moments, before the girl is able to calm her younger ally down. As soon as Sapphire is able to do so, the two pack up their camp and leave the area, allowing the Hovercraft to collect Dia's body.
Not much else of note occurs throughout the remainder of Day 3. As per usual, most of the tributes keep to themselves, not really moving around too much or bothering anybody else. The exception to this, of course, is that of Vice. The boy hunts vigorously throughout the entirety of the third day, and yells in frustration when at sundown, he still hasn't found anyone. Unfortunately for Vice, that fact remains true of the remainder of the day.
A little before noontime on Day 4, as Fredrick and his alliance are scouring the arena for a deer or groosling to cook up, Fredrick mistakenly falls right into one of the eight square pits in the arena. Fredrick screams at the top of his lungs as he plummets ten feet to the ground below. Owen, Pamela, and Aster, all flabbergasted at the occurrence, stand with their mouths open for a moment, before dropping a rope down for Fredrick to climb. Luckily, the boy is unharmed save for a few scratches, cuts, and bruises.
A few hours later, as Amaya from 6 is snacking on some edible berries from her trusty bush, she hears a noise of footsteps nearby her camp. Alarmed and suddenly paranoid, Amaya turns her head this way and that, looking for any potential signs of an attack, but doesn't see any.
"Hello?" Amaya dares to call out, much as Carla from 9 did right before her death last year.
As if responding to her call, Gregory from 5 bursts through the bush and into Amaya's camp. The 6 girl screams bloody murder, and Gregory begins screaming merely because Amaya is screaming. As quickly as she can, Amaya scoops her screwdriver up, and slams it right into Gregory's foot as though it's a knife.
"Get out! Get out!" Amaya screams, stabbing Gregory's foot with her screwdriver a total of six times.
Gregory lifts his foot up to his abdomen, and grips it tight as blood continues to flow out of the newly-inflicted wounds. Still screaming himself, Gregory almost comically falls to the ground, landing on his right side. Amaya sees an opportunity, and gets on top of Gregory as quickly as she can. With her teeth gritted, she drives her screwdriver in and out of her opponent's throat several times, more blood splattering than Amaya had expected. Just wanting the whole ordeal to end, Amaya jabs her screwdriver into Gregory's heart with as much strength as she can muster, and surely enough, Gregory's heart stops.
Gregory Calosi, District 5 Male, 18th Place; Killed by Amaya, Day 4
With Gregory now dead, Amaya manages to calm down a little bit. The girl from the Transportation District raids Gregory of his supplies, piles her own measly belongings into what is now her pack, and decides to leave her beloved berry bush for the time being.
The remainder of Day 4 passes by without any further conflicts. Vice continues to hunt, only growing angrier with every minute that he doesn't find someone. The crazed boy wanders through the forest talking loudly to himself, leading any nearby tributes to conceal themselves in advance of him arriving near them. Sara is sponsored a brand-new, never-used scythe, the most expensive sponsor gift sent in the Games thus far. Fredrick continues to work on his contraptions, which are starting to look more and more like grenades as time advances. Whether they're grenades or not, he's got six of them, and they're bound to be dangerous.
On Day 5, the Gamemakers send rain. As happened last year, most of the tributes stay relatively stationary throughout the day, not wanting to get cold and soaked. The District 1 duo of Valour and Sapphire have seemingly recovered well from Sapphire's killing of Dia. The two spend the day staying out of the rain and under a mulberry tree, snacking on the tree's tart fruit. In order to stay out of the rain, Hercules builds a simple lean-to type structure out of an abundance of leafy branches he hacked down with his katana. The lean-to works well enough, and Hercules is able to stay dry. The alliance of Melissa and Dana decides to keep their camouflage strategy going, this time doing so in leaves and mud. It certainly isn't very comfortable, though Vice walks right by them without noticing. Techan remains in his pine tree, collecting rain water in his water bottle and snacking on some tree bark. Bark isn't the tastiest stuff, though it's better than nothing. Vice continues hunting throughout the rain, once again coming up empty. He screams and swears on his way back to the Cornucopia that evening, scaring any nearby pray away instantly. Jaquelyn was on her way to propose an alliance with Vice, his instability unbeknownst to her, when she hears him cursing at the top of his lungs after not finding any prey. Jaquelyn goes back on her decision, and retreats back to her camp. Amaya spends the day zipped up in a sleeping bag that she got from Gregory's supplies. She only comes out of it for a few sips of water and to eat two dried apple slices, before retreating back into the sleeping back. The Large Alliance, as they've simply been dubbed by Perseus, consisting of Owen, Pamela, Aster, and Fredrick, remains nearly stationary at their camp as well. Fredrick is sure to keep his explosives out of the rain, as not all of them are sealed and completed as of yet. Sara goes out to hunt for only about a half hour, before deciding to return to her camp and try again tomorrow when the rain will hopefully have subsided. Astin's leg wound is healing rather well, though he decides to keep it bandaged up merely to be safe. He manages to catch a rabbit, and cooks it under a mulberry tree of his own. A girl of few words, Nora hums quietly to herself as she picks some edible nuts off of a tree. She snacks on a few as she quietly makes her way back to her camp. Siobhan manages to climb about twenty feet in the air in her maple tree. The thing's not overly sturdy, though it's sturdy enough. She naps on and off throughout the day, not really having the energy to do much else.
Fortunately for most of the tributes, the rain comes to an end around dawn on Day 6, and the skies begin to clear. Early in the day, Fredrick's hand grenades are finally completed, all six ready and rearing for use. Fredrick and Aster set out to test the new weapons, while the 7s remain at their camp to act as guards.
A little after noontime on Day 6, while searching for the trees that she took the edible nuts off of yesterday, Nora walks right by the camp of Sapphire and Valour. The two notice her, though neither party moves in to attack. Nora slowly and suspiciously walks by the pair, and comes across her trees a few minutes later. During her trip back to her camp, Nora grips her katana and narrows her eyes at the tributes from 1. Valour, apparently seeing this as a threat, throws a throwing knife in Nora's direction, only missing her by about a foot.
"You want to start shit? Fine," Nora grumbles, readying her katana for a fight.
Nora runs at Valour and Sapphire as fast as her legs will carry her. Immediately jumping upwards, Sapphire readies her spear and throws. The spear sails through the air before penetrating Nora's chest, impaling her all the way through. The quiet-but-feisty 10 girl falls to the ground like a rock, bleeding out in mere moments. Her cannon shatters the previous tranquility of the warm, sunny day in the arena.
Nora Westford, District 10 Female, 17th Place; Killed by Sapphire, Day 6
Sara twirls her scythe as the cannon penetrates the relative silence in the arena. She continues practicing with the weapon merely to pass some time. Wondering aloud who just died, Sara barely spots the camouflaged forms of Melissa and Dana in the distance. At first, Sara considers going over there, before she notes just how small the human forms are, especially from this distance. Luckily for the two younger girls, Sara decides not to pursue them, in hopes of finding a larger and more threatening adversary instead.
As Vice hunts during the latter afternoon ours of the sixth day, he comes across the camouflaged forms of Melissa and Dana just as he had the day prior. The two girls get unbearably nervous as the crazed killer boy stumbles closer to the two of them. Vice doesn't notice either one of the camouflaged tributes until he literally steps right on top of Dana's abdomen. The girl shrieks in pain and terror as Vice grins widely.
Vice tosses a net woven from rope over a screaming Dana as Melissa jumps up to run. She knows damn well that there's no saving her ally now, and it's better for one of them to survive this ordeal than for neither of them to do so. Noticing Melissa's attempt to flee, Vice jabs the girl in the thigh with his trident, prompting Melissa to shriek. Vice pulls his weapon back out of Melissa, and the girl bolts away just the same, ignoring the new streams of blood flowing down her leg.
With Melissa gone, it's only Vice and Dana that remain at the scene now. Dana gulps and tries to force herself to relax as she prepares for death. Thankfully for her, Vice isn't the type of crazy to enjoy drawing out a kill sadistically, as many future Career Tributes from his district would be. Standing dominantly over the young, panting girl, Vice raises his trident high before bringing it down hard on Dana's chest. The blade pierces Dana's body entirely and sticks right into the dirt below her. Vice cackles as blood splatters everywhere, and Dana promptly bleeds out.
Dana Harkato, District 5 Female, 16th Place; Killed by Vice, Day 6
Following Dana's death, the remainder of Day 6 is rather quiet. The only action that occurs is that of Sara slicing a couple of rabbits to pieces with her scythe, before cutting them up yet some more with her knife and preparing them for cooking. Sara smartly puts her fire out before night falls, so that none of the other tributes will find her due to the smoke and flames.
Before the sun even rises on Day 7, Hercules is up and scavenging for other tributes. He figures that if he can attack while they're still sleeping, they'll be dead or close to it by the time that they'd be conscious enough to do anything to ward of his attack. Hercules spots Amaya's camp about fifty yards away, and begins moving toward it with a cowardly grin spread across his face. The grinning District 2 boy is a mere fifteen yards away from Amaya's camp when seemingly falls right into the ground.
Hercules hits the bottom of the ten-by-ten pit hard. His leg is undoubtedly broken, as the limb is twisted in all of the wrong places. Blood leaks out from the appendage as Hercules rushes to wrap gauze around it in hopes of stopping the bleeding. After successfully wrapping his leg, Hercules groans up at the sky, knowing that he won't be escaping the dirt pit anytime soon. Perhaps he could beg that girl from 6 for help?
The action picks up yet again later on that day when, while out hunting for other tributes, Owen and Aster come face-to-face with Jaquelyn while she's collecting water at one of the ponds. The boys ready their weapons, while Jaquelyn quickly screws the cap onto her water bottle and runs as fast as she can away from her possible killers.
"You can run, but you can't hide!" Owen hollers at Jaquelyn from afar.
Jaquelyn's a decently fast runner, though Owen and Aster manage to be right on her tail regardless. The District 4 girl manages to get far away from them to hide in a bush without being seen, though unfortunately, Jaquelyn's stomach rumbling as her two opponents search for her is enough to give her location away. Jaquelyn breaks into a run yet again, with Owen and Aster on her tail, even closer to her than they were last time.
For the next few minutes, Jaquelyn manages to maintain her distance, until some sense finally smacks into Owen as he prepares to throw one of his hatchets. Jaquelyn looks back at them, and screams at the sight of Owen getting ready to throw the hatchet. The second that Jaquelyn cranes her neck back around, Owen lets his hatchet fly. The weapon slams into Jaquelyn's back, and she hits the ground with a painful thud. Owen and Aster then take their sweet time walking toward Jaquelyn, before Aster does the honors and nearly decapitates the girl with his scythe. Jaquelyn's lifeblood leaks out of her in mass amounts, leading to her death in mere moments.
Jaquelyn Perean, District 4 Female, 15th Place; Killed by Owen and Aster, Day 7
No other deaths occur on Day 7. Throughout the remainder of the day, the cameras mainly focus on Hercules, whose condition is rapidly deteriorating. The quarry boy had lost a good amount of blood by the time that he was able to quell the bleeding, and even then, one roll of gauze can only do so much. Being surrounded by mud, dirt, and earth certainly isn't helping, and Hercules fears that when he has to change the gauze (which will be necessary sooner or later), he may accidentally get some dirt in his wound.
No matter the case, it's abundantly evident that Hercules won't be finding his way out of the dirt pit any time soon.
Day 8 is the third deathless day of the 3rd Hunger Games thus far. The tributes that are currently in alliances do pretty well for themselves throughout the day. Valour and Sapphire remain under their newfound refuge of their mulberry tree. The pair from District 1 spend the day eating some of the tart fruits, joking, and talking about home. The Large Alliance has a good day as well. After Owen and Aster offed Jaquelyn yesterday, tey decide to take the day off from hunting, with Fredrick's explosives threateningly guarding their camp from any potential attacks. The four allies also spend the day munching on food, joking, and roasting a couple of squirrels over a fire. All-in-all, Day 8 is a pretty good day for the allied tributes.
While those currently in alliances have a rather good day on Day 8, the same can't be said for many of the unallied tributes. Hercules remains in his pit, doing his best to ward off infection. His supply of food and water from his pack is deteriorating, and he knows that it's only a matter of time before his supplies run out. Meanwhile, Hercules's District Partner, Melissa, is still struggling from the loss of her friend and ally two days prior. She munches on a few crackers while trying to ward off the memories of Dana's terrified screams as Vice did her in. Techan remains high up in his tree, sipping some water and chewing on some bark. He doesn't really move any more than that, except for one time when he puts his hands over his face in order to cry. Having not found any victims in two days, Vice is once again growing impatient. The crazed fisher boy grows increasingly angry as the hours tick by without him claiming a kill. Amaya remains in her sleeping bag, pitifully isolating herself from the world. She screams midway through the day at the sound of soft footsteps, but a peek out of her sleeping bag reveals that it was only a groosling. Sara is one of the unallied tributes that is actually doing well. She hunts for a little while on Day 8, before deciding that she's had enough for the day and settles down. Sara chops some branches off of a berry bush, and hereby plucks the berries off of the branch and pops them in her mouth. Like Sara, Astin is also doing well. Thanks to the medicine he was sponsored, his wound that Rico inflicted in the Bloodbath is nearly totally healed. He too cooks a couple squirrels over a fire and enjoys the meal. Siobhan ventures out from her tree in order to collect some water, before returning to that same tree and immediately scurrying upwards. Siobhan does so in due time, as Vice passes by below mere moments after the scientist girl settles down in her tree.
The morning of Day 9 passes without any incident. The two alliances in the arena both stay at their camps, neither one showing any sign of moving from their current location anytime soon. Poor Hercules remains stuck in the dirt pit, knowing that he's going to have to change that two-day-old gauze sometime. Melissa, Techan, Sara, and Astin all remain stationary, none of them quite ready to get moving yet (although in Techan's case, there are no plans to get moving). The only two tributes moving around by eight in the morning are Vice and Amaya.
Vice is already up and rearing to find another kill. The bloodthirsty boy's head snaps at even the smallest sound, his trident itching to be stained. Vice stops to relieve himself behind a tree, then to refill his half-gallon canteen with some nearby pond water. Vice takes a sip without even iodizing it first, only realizing his mistake once it's too late. Luckily for him, that specific pond is clean enough that making that mistake won't really have much of an effect on a tribute. Perhaps an aching stomach, though that's really the worst that could happen from it.
Amaya, finally out of her sleeping bag, could also use a replenishment of her water supply. The District 6 girl isn't far from a pond, when she unknowingly stumbles right into the Large Alliance's camp. Fredrick and Owen notice her presence immediately, and Fredrick reaches right for one of his hand grenades that he's been waiting to test out.
At the sight of the explosive, Amaya screams, and jumps behind a nearby honeysuckle bush for an attempt at cover. Fredrick pulls the pin of the hand grenade, throws it right by Amaya, and covers his ears. Amaya screams yet again right before the hand grenade detonates. A small hole in the ground and some smoke replace Amaya, until bits and pieces of the poor girl begin to rain from the sky, splotching the Large Alliance's camp with blood. A delayed cannon fires for Amaya, though there really isn't much of her left to mark as dead.
Amaya Whistley, District 6 Female, 14th Place; Killed by Fredrick, Day 9
Hearing the loud explosion followed by the cannon, Vice begins to make his way in the direction of the explosion. Hopefully for him, whatever tribute caused the explosion isn't the one who just died, and he'll be able to catch a victim or two over there. If not, then he supposes he'll merely keep on hunting.
After about twenty minutes of stupidly allowing it to dry, Aster decides that he's going to go clean Amaya's splattered blood off of him in a nearby pond. Aster's allies were able to wash what blood they were splattered with with some mere rags, though unfortunately, Aster got a bit more covered than they did. Aster bids his allies a momentary goodbye, and is so focused on the thought of washing the drying blood off, that he forgets to take his scythe to the pond with him.
About ten minutes later, Aster arrives at the pond. He jumps right into the pond as soon as he's there, not trying to stay quiet whatsoever. Aster begins to scrub the drying blood off of his arms and cheeks, even taking his waterlogged shirt off in order to scrub the thick, red liquid out of it, much to the enjoyment of many a Capitolite viewer. Aster is so enamored in cleaning the blood off of him that he doesn't even notice when Vice creeps up to the waterline.
A wicked grin slides onto Vice's face as he spots the oblivious, shirtless boy scrubbing blood away in the pond. Vice decides to have some fun with Aster, and dives into the pond after him. By the time that Aster notices what's happening, Vice is already scissoring through the water. The bloodthirsty fisher boy quickly catches up to Aster, grabs him tight, and pulls him under the water. Without any weapon with which for Aster to defend himself, Vice holds him there for close to a minute, before finally allowing Aster to resurface. Vice lets Aster take a few breaths of air, before shoving him back under the water again. Aster kicks and flails, almost wrenching out of Vice's grip, when Vice plunges his trident deep into Aster's back while the boy is underwater. Now mortally wounded and deprived of air, it doesn't take long for Aster to slip away.
Aster Lockley, District 9 Male, 13th Place; Killed by Vice, Day 9
It takes about an hour after Aster's cannon for Owen, Pamela, and Fredrick to wonder if it was their ally who died. They quickly come to the consensus that Aster's either dead, or a deserter. Armed with his five remaining hand grenades, Fredrick sets out into the forest in search of Aster, if he's still alive, that is.
Around two in the afternoon, Hercules decides that it's finally time to change his gauze. He nervously peels the now-pink gauze off of his leg, only to reveal a slight compound fracture with bone barely sticking out of the skin, a deep purple bruise in a circle around the wound, and a nasty, green liquid slowly oozing out of the leg. Hercules fails to hold a faint shriek inside of him as he quickly wraps the wound back up, before proceeding to turn his head and vomit.
Unfortunately for Hercules, while he was rushing to cover his wound back up, a small amount of dirt managed to find its way into the wound. Unbeknownst to Hercules, the dirt getting into his wound and eventually into his bloodstream will cut his life even shorter than it already would've been. The dirt speeds Hercules's blood infection up rapidly, and at this point, the boy likely won't live to see tomorrow's sunrise.
Fredrick returns to his alliance's camp around five o'clock that evening. He is quick to announce that he didn't catch any sight of Aster anywhere throughout the day. He suggests that the alliance mourn him, unless the night's anthem proves that Aster's still alive (which it obviously won't). The alliance of three sits in silence for nearly an hour, nobody saying a word, mourning their fallen ally.
By nine o'clock that night, the dirt is already flowing in Hercules's bloodstream. Following a couple of hours of shivering and laying down in the dirt, Hercules has seemingly slipped into a sort of comatose state. The dirt finding its way into the quarry boy's wound and eventually his bloodstream put Hercules's preexisting blood infection into overdrive. The boy lies comatose, deep in the dirt pit for a good hour of so, before the blood infection finally claims Hercules's life.
Hercules Stenman, District 2 Male, 12th Place; Killed by Blood Infection, Day 9
Unrelenting in his search for kills, Vice is out hunting for tributes early in the morning once more on Day 10. The bloodthirsty boy scours the forest for even the slightest movement, willing to do anything to get the high of making a kill. For some killers, making a kill is just like a Morphling shooting up; it's like a drug to them.
Vice wants to end the Games. He wants them to end, whether that means that he has to track down the other ten remaining tributes and kill them off one by one, it doesn't matter. He tells himself, the sky, the cameras, a squirrel, a tree, a pond, whatever is willing to listen, that he wants to end the Games. After the three deaths that occurred yesterday, Vice figures that the Games are making good progress. Not good enough in his mind, however. Vice continues to hunt fervently until, around midday, he spots another tribute plucking some berries from a bush.
"Jackpot," Vice mutters.
Vice creeps up behind the unsuspecting tribute as quietly as he can. He then tosses his net around the boy as quickly as he can, to ensure that the tribute can't make an escape. With Vice's net tripping him, Astin hits the ground hard, the fall knocking the wind right out of him. Vice cackles as he secures the net as tightly as he can for the moment. The psychotic boy readies his trident, smiling evilly at his prey.
As Vice stands above the entrapped Astin with the clear intention of spearing him, Astin begs the crazed boy to spare his life. Astin asks Vice if he remembers him from Training, reminding his killer-to-be that they did a few stations together one day in the Training Center, that he had wanted Vice as an ally but had been to nervous to ask. But that was before Vice had snapped. The old Vice would've been far more sympathetic, though Astin's panicked pleading has no effect on the new (or maybe by this point, not-so-new), psychotic, bloodthirsty Vice Kaelamari.
Completely ignoring Astin's cries for mercy, Vice rakes one of the prongs of his trident ever-so-slowly down Astin's leg, the one that Rico had slashed open in the Bloodbath on the first day. Astin screams as skin and even some muscle is torn up like tearing the lid off of a soup can. Noticing Astin's evident fatigue, Vice repeats the action, but instead with Astin's other leg this time. Then, following this, he goes back to Astin's right leg once more. Vice continues to peel layers of skin, muscle, and cartilage right off of Astin's leg like a banana peel for the next ten minutes or so, until the psychotic fisher boy gets bored with it.
"You like that, big boy? Wait 'till you see this, then!" Vice grins.
Vice then begins to stab the trident into Astin's already horribly bloodied legs, prompting the butcher boy to scream bloody murder. Deciding that he's done with Astin's legs, Vice moves to the poor boy's arms next, jabbing them more than twenty times each in all different spots. Vice then moves to Astin's groin area, then his abdomen, his chest, and finally, his skull. By the time Vice gets to Astin's chest, blood is pouring out of the boy like a few hundred faucets as more and more holes are poked in Astin's body. Finally, after about a total of forty minutes of torture, Astin's lost too much blood to keep going. The butcher boy slips away, prompting a cannon to fire. As the cannon booms, Vice grins widely at claiming his sixth kill of the Games.
Astin Halsey, District 10 Male, 11th Place; Killed by Vice, Day 10
Poor Astin is the only tribute to meet their end on Day 10. Fittingly, ten tributes remain alive scattered throughout the forested arena. For the District 1 duo of Valour and Sapphire, it is a rather sad day. Little Valour voices his honest, growing worry of Sapphire backstabbing him, though somehow manages to do so kindly. He proposes that the two split up, as neither wants to end up having to killing the other, and there are only ten of them left anyways. Sapphire agrees to this, tears welling up in her eyes. The two divide their supplies evenly, and head their separate ways. Melissa spends the day camouflaged in a bush, quietly telling some funny stories from back home to the audience. The stories are actually pretty funny, earning Melissa a small bottle of water and two chocolate chip cookies from a sponsor. As expected, Techan is still way up in his tree. He manages to continue surviving off of only water and some small bits of tree bark. As is also expected, this earns Techan zero sponsors. Vice continues his crazed hunt for the blood of the other tributes. The insane boy hunts throughout the rest of Day 10, hoping that he may get lucky and find another tribute again. Unfortunately for Vice, this is not the case. Vice returns to the Cornucopia at sundown without any fresh blood on his trident. The Large Alliance, now down to three members, ignores their current, pressing situation of being in the Hunger Games and roast some more squirrels over a fire. They also enjoy some berries, roots, and water, doing their best to joke around and distract themselves, as they all know that their days as an alliance as well as alive are likely numbered. Tired and warm after hunting for game for several hours, Sara momentarily cools off in a pond before setting up a camp and cooking a rabbit she managed to butcher. Sara's clearly rather capable with that scythe of hers, and it's only a matter of time before another tribute ends up on the wrong end of her blade. Siobhan also kills some game - a squirrel - and quietly roasts it over a fire. It's not anything that the scientist girl is used to doing, though Siobhan manages to adapt well enough.
The morning of Day 11 starts out the same as usual. The Large Alliance is the only intact alliance left in the arena, and the other seven tributes besides them remain alone, mainly staying quiet and stationary throughout the morning hours (with the exception of Vice, of course).
Sara decides to resume her tribute-hunting duties today, after taking a break for the past couple days. Unlike Vice, when Sara hunts, she doesn't yell and scream if her hunt is unsuccessful, nor does she whip her head around any time she hears any noise whatsoever. Sara pretty much just walks seemingly nonchalantly through the forest, observantly scanning any areas she strolls through for other tributes. She figures that if she doesn't find someone soon, however, it may be time to fine tune her hunting strategy.
Meanwhile, after camouflaging herself on the ground since the beginning of the Games, Melissa decides to attempt to scale a tree. There's not really any overabundance of trees in District 2, so it isn't exactly like Melissa had been climbing trees all throughout her childhood like some of the other tributes in the Games had. Shrugging her shoulders, Melissa decides to attempt the climb anyway.
Melissa wraps her arms around the trunk of her tree, and uses her legs to push herself upwards. Much to her surprise, it actually works, and she manages to do it again. Melissa then reaches up and grabs hold of a nearby branch, and pulls herself up even further. For the next few minutes, Melissa manages to climb far higher than she had previously thought was possible.
Deciding that she'd like to go even higher yet, Melissa manages to pull herself up onto a not-so-sturdy branch about 80 feet from the ground. Realizing her mistake, Melissa attempts to reach for another branch, though it's too far away. When Melissa pushes off of her knees and jumps slightly upwards in order to reach the branch, she grabs it, though the branch she was sitting on snaps under the pressure of the impact. Now, Melissa's left dangling 80 feet in the air, only holding on to one branch for support. Melissa tries to grab the branch with her other hand as well, though she can't seem to do so. Her hand begins to slip from the branch, and the quarry girl knows that she's done for. Melissa's hand slips from the branch, and she plummets 80 feet down to the ground. She hits with a sickening crunch, snapping numerous bones upon landing, and killing the poor girl in mere seconds.
Melissa Yancy, District 2 Female, 10th Place; Fell from Tree, Day 11
With only nine tributes remaining, Owen is beginning to become weary of his allies. He seemingly jumps every time that Fredrick, or even his little District Partner, Pamela, do anything. About a half hour past noon, Owen finally decides to speak up and say something about his newfound situation.
"There's only nine of us left, ya know," Owen says out of the blue.
"Yes, I suppose so, after that cannon we heard earlier," Pamela agrees.
"Well, with so few of us left, I was figuring that maybe it's time to... ya know... go our separate ways," Owen says quietly.
"Why? Do you not trust us?" asks Fredrick. "You're welcome to go if you like, though I don't think I was planning on a breakup of the alliance until the final five."
Deciding that it's perhaps better to stay and shut up rather than aggravate Fredrick any more than he already is, Owen quiets down and remains sitting on the same log he's been sitting on for the past hour. He draws in the dirt with a stick silently, and confirms to his allies that he'll be staying until the alliance formally breaks up. In response, Fredrick and Pamela give Owen small smiles, before Fredrick suggests that perhaps Owen could do the alliance the favor of refilling their water canteens.
A few hours later, as Sara is continuing her hunt, she hears what sounds like footsteps crunching some of the leaves on the ground. Walking toward the noise, Sara readies her scythe, mentally preparing herself to fight anyone or anything. She catches a glimpse of a leg from behind a tree, and before she even thinks about it, Sara bursts forward and completely severs the tribute's leg with one slash of her scythe.
What sounds to Sara like a young boy screams at the top of his lungs, as Sara covers her mouth with her hand and steps towards her victim. There, laying on the ground with only three limbs, is Valour. Valour clutches the stump that used to be his leg in a feeble attempt to stop the bleeding. Realizing that it's no use, that he's going to die no matter what, and that trying to stop the bleeding would merely extend his suffering, looking directly into his killer's eyes, Valour manages to whisper the word, "Please".
Knowing now what Valour wants her to do, Sara silently promises to make his death as quick and painless as she can. Sara slashes her scythe right across Valour's chest, brutally ripping it open. The boy slumps on the ground, staring blankly in the distance, as he bleeds out in moments.
Valour Gonlen, District 1 Male, 9th Place; Killed by Sara, Day 11
And with that, only the Final Eight remain: Sapphire Gemstone of District 1, Techan Hevos of District 3, Vice Kaelamari of District 4, Owen Hazels and Pamela Gonfrey of District 7, Sara Welton of District 9, and Fredrick Dalten and Siobhan Karter of District 13.
Now that only eight tributes are left in the entire arena, Owen decides to leave his alliance before Fredrick's planned breakup time of the final five. Fredrick and Pamela help him gather his share of the supplies, before he bids them a tear-jerking goodbye. They instate a no-kill pact that will last until the final five. After hugging it out, Owen leaves the camp of the former Large Alliance, now really only the Alliance.
Only a few hours after sunrise on Day 12, six of the eight remaining tributes are out hunting for one another. Some, like Vice, are doing so mainly for his enjoyment of killing. Others, like Sara, are out hunting merely because they want the Games to end. Whatever the case, with so many of them actively hunting for one another, it's only going to be a matter of time until one of their hunts is successful.
About midway through the day, Sapphire catches a glimpse of Siobhan up in a tree, making some sort of medicinal solution to apply to the small (albeit nasty) wound she obtained yesterday after slicing herself on a seemingly razor-sharp tree. Sapphire considers scaling the tree in order to take the 13 girl down, but decides against it. Sapphire knows she's not the best at climbing trees, and even if she made it up, what would stop Siobhan from shoving her right back off of the tree before Sapphire can secure herself? Nothing. While shaking her head at Siobhan, Sapphire quietly moves on.
Owen, both glad and sorry that he left his alliance, is on his own now whether he likes it or not. Unfortunately for him, the only thing that Owen manages to find while hunting on Day 12 is a rather terrified groosling. Owen chucks one of his hatchets at the thing as hard as he can, and the hatchet lands right in the poor groosling's side. It takes the thing a few minutes to bleed out, though once it does, Owen cuts the thing up and prepares a fire to cook the meat. This will be a much better meal than the crackers, jerky, and dried fruit he got from his former allies.
Pamela and Fredrick are on their way back to their camp that evening when they hear a nearby crazed cackle. Standing about twenty yards in front of them is Vice, trident and net in hand, eager for more blood. Fredrick readies one of his hand grenades, hoping to throw it at Vice before he can come any closer. By the time he arms the hand grenade, however, it's already too late.
Unfortunately, Fredrick has no choice but to throw the hand grenade as far away from the three of them as he can (either that, or all three of them would've been blown to bits). Before Fredrick or Pamela can stop him, Vice is already virtually on top of them. Pamela digs her hatchet into Vice's left shoulder, and Vice throws his net over the young District 7 girl in retaliation. Fredrick swings his pickaxe at Vice as hard as he can, though somehow Vice manages to dodge the blow. After another couple minutes of the two boys going back and forth, pickaxe against trident, Fredrick manages to land a good blow right to Vice's abdomen. Driven now by pure pain and rage, Vice thrusts his trident right into Fredrick's heart before the miner boy can even attempt to block the move.
Fredrick Dalten, District 13 Male, 8th Place; Killed by Vice, Day 12
Vice clutches his abdomen as tightly as he can, doing his best to stop his innards from merely dropping to the ground. He rips his trident out of Fredrick's chest with a moist-sounding squelch, and wordlessly strolls over to where Pamela has managed to cut herself out of the net.
"Sorry... little girl, but your... time has come as well," Vice mutters.
In response to that, Pamela throws her hatchet directly into the center of Vice's forehead. Feeling triumphant having killed the biggest threat in the Games, Pamela looks down only to see Vice's trident embedded right in her abdomen. As Vice falls to the ground to momentarily bleed out, Pamela makes the mistake of ripping the trident out of her gut. Now she has a near zero chance of surviving this ordeal. Only minutes after Fredrick's and Vice's cannons fire, young Pamela falls to the ground as well, succumbing to her wounds inflicted by Vice. Hopefully Pamela found solace in the fact that she knew that she'd be Vice's final kill.
Vice Kaelamari, District 4 Male, 7th Place; Killed by Fredrick and Pamela, Day 12
Pamela Gonfrey, District 7 Female, 6th Place; Killed by Vice, Day 12
Hearing three cannons fire so closely together, Siobhan looks up from her concoction. The scientist girl grins, realizing that she's now in the final five. Today, Siobhan has concocted two solutions: The first is the medicine that she's now applied to her wound on her shoulder and arm after scraping against that tree yesterday. The second is a deadly poison she's concocted mainly using a berry whose name is rather simple and to-the-point: the Bloodberry. Siobhan grins upwards at the sky, revealing to the nation that she also likely underperformed in her Private Session. Knowing now that she has a decent chance of going home, Siobhan relaxes and decides to go on the offensive first thing tomorrow.
When morning comes, it's clear that Siobhan's plans will have to wait. Just as was true on Day 5, the same sky that showed Vice's, Pamela's, and Fredrick's portraits the night before, pours buckets of rain throughout the entirety of Day 13. The heavy rain and far-less-than-ideal conditions force the five remaining tributes, all of them contenders (with the exception of Techan of course), to remain relatively stationary and wait for the rain to subside. Sapphire spends the day under one of her beloved mulberry trees. She's becoming a bit tired of the tart fruit, though she doesn't mind too much. She figures that if she dies, at least she'll have had something far better than what most tributes eat in the arena as her last meal. And if she survives, well, then Sapphire'll pig out at the Victory Banquet, she supposes. Techan isn't phased by the rain. He never had any plans to move from his tree anyway. The boring, pitiful District 3 boy spends the day napping in his pine tree, allowing rain water to collect in his canteen. Owen gnaws on some cold groosling from yesterday as he begins to formulate a plan of his own. He quietly whispers to himself about his plan throughout the day, leading some viewers to wonder if the boy is losing it. Sara hides from the rain under a large bush, one with edible berries at that. She spends the day relaxing, snacking on some of the berries, and unfortunately worrying about the future. Sara isn't going to allow herself to think she can win until she hears the damn victory trumpets. Siobhan spends the day in an oak tree, noticing that Sara is rather closeby her tree. Siobhan decides to take the unsuspecting girl out as soon as she can, which she's hoping will be early tomorrow morning. From there, she'll have to find the others.
As soon as she's up on the morning of Day 14, Siobhan has what passes for a quick "breakfast" in the arena, and prepares to take Sara out. As quiet as a mouse, Siobhan sneaks up to where Sara is laying in her berry bush. Then, using the same strategy that Jason Kells used to kill last year's District 9 Female, Siobhan unscrews the cap of Sara's water canteen as quietly as she can, before pouring a mere few drops of her poison into the water. Siobhan closes the lid, sloshes the water around a little, and returns the canteen to Sara's side. She then darts off into the forest in order to find another victim.
Only but a half hour later, Techan has an unpleasant interaction with a songbird that apparently nests in the same tree as he does. The winds and the rain had happened to blow the songbird's nest out of the pine tree during yesterday's storm while the songbird was away. Upon her return, the songbird notices that her nest is gone, and that only a few branches below its former location, is Techan. Believing that it was Techan that discarded her nest, the songbird then begins to fly at and peck Techan for several minutes, before the manufacturer boy manages to finally swat the songbird away. The songbird leaves the scene, leaving Techan alone once more with a few small holes in his skin from the songbird's beak.
Sara doesn't wake from her sleep until almost ten o'clock in the morning. After actually getting a decent night's sleep, Sara allows herself the luxury of a long stretch. Deciding she's thirsty, Sara unknowingly takes a sip of the poisoned water. Unlike many poisons, Siobhan's poison does indeed have a taste to it, as the poison is mainly composed of a poisonous wild berry. By the time Sara realizes what's going on, it's already too late.
Sara gets up from her bush, walks about twenty feet, then slumps against a large oak tree. She begins to feel a sort of split-pulsation in her body, and small, circular red dots begin to appear on her skin. Sara begins breathing heavily, before vomiting up a massive amount of blood and bile. Poor Sara continues to vomit blood for the next several minutes, as the dark red stuff also begins to leak from her nose and even a bit in her tears. Violent muscle contractions and convulsions get a hold of Sara, while she continues to vomit a seemingly endless amount of blood. This continues for several minutes before the poor girl's body finally succumbs to Siobhan's poison.
Sara Welton, District 9 Female, 5th Place; Killed by Siobhan, Day 14
Sapphire decides that it's time to resume a hunt of her own. She packs all of her supplies up into her pack, readies her spear, and gets on her way. For the first couple hours, Sapphire doesn't really find anything more than the occasional rabbit, groosling, or squirrel. The exasperated District 1 girl continues her hunt regardless, knowing that she'll have to find one of the other three tributes sooner or later.
Owen hunts for a little while himself, before eventually getting bored with it. He stops underneath a mulberry tree in order to pick some of the tree's edible fruits. They're rather tart in flavor, though they'll probably taste better than cold, two-day-old groosling. Owen munches on the fruit for a little bit while wandering more-or-less aimlessly through the forest, only really half hunting for others. Unfortunately for Owen, he soon makes the fatal mistake of leaving his three-quarters-full water bottle on the ground against a pine tree along with the rest of his supplies as he goes to wash off in one of the ponds.
As the cameras gleefully capture Owen bathing in the pond, a nearby Siobhan makes her move. Siobhan quickly and quietly unscrews the cap of Owen's water bottle, drops a mere few drops of her deadly poison into the water, screws the cap back on, and sloshes the water around a bit in order to mix the poison in. Hearing Owen begin to come to the shoreline, Siobhan makes a quick escape and ducks behind a bush close by, hoping that Owen will drink from his bottle sooner rather than later.
Surely enough, much to Siobhan's pleasure, Owen takes a big gulp of the water as soon as he returns to his supplies. Just as was true with Sara, the first thing that happens to Owen is that he loses his balance. The lumberjack boy falls to the ground and clutches his stomach, knowing something's certainly wrong. Sapphire arrives on scene just as an abundance of red dots begin to appear on Owen's skin. The partially-digested mulberries along with plenty of blood comes right back up out of Owen like a faucet. As Owen hemorrhages yet some more, blood pours out of every available orifice of the poor boy's body. Sapphire covers her mouth and looks away, as does Siobhan, as Owen continues to contort, convulse, and vomit blood everywhere.
Deciding that enough is enough for poor Owen, Sapphire steps forward towards the convulsing, blood-vomiting boy slowly, and readies her spear. Sapphire arguably heroically thrusts her spear directly into Owen's back and out his chest, merely aiming to end the boy's suffering. Thankful that it's ending, Owen lasts a mere few seconds after having been drained of so much blood.
Owen Hazels, District 7 Male, 4th Place; Killed by Siobhan and Sapphire, Day 14
Knowing obviously that Owen was poisoned, and that it must've been Siobhan who did it, Sapphire looks around for any sight of the scientist girl. From behind her bush, armed only with her survival supplies, her poison, and a dagger, Siobhan takes the chance and throws her dagger directly at Sapphire. Sapphire sees this coming, and moves out of the way in time, spotting Siobhan's head poking up from her bush.
"There you are!" Sapphire hollers.
Not having any weapon on her other than her poison now, Siobhan turns tail to flee. She makes it about ten yards before the blade of Sapphire's spear slams into her spine, sending her sprawling to the ground. Siobhan hits hard, as Sapphire's spear protrudes from her chest. The scheming scientist girl rolls on the ground for a few moments, blood bubbling up in her mouth just as it ironically had with Sara and Owen earlier today. Sapphire stands above her dying opponent holding back tears as Siobhan swiftly bleeds out.
Siobhan Karter, District 13 Female, 3rd Place; Killed by Sapphire, Day 14
"I'm sorry," Sapphire mutters, looking down at Owen and Siobhan.
Sapphire reluctantly raids Owen's and Siobhan's packs for any supplies of use, and piles them into her own pack. With a heavy sigh, Sapphire leaves the scene and sets off to find the highly-reclusive, somehow-still-living Techan.
With the day beginning to fade away, Sapphire figures that it would be better to begin her hunt for Techan in the morning, when she'll be less tired and the events of today will hopefully be less prevalent in her mind than they are now. Sapphire rests beneath a large oak tree, correctly figuring that Techan is nowhere immediately nearby, still up in a tree somewhere. Sapphire slowly closes her eyes, unintentionally drifting off to sleep.
It rains again on Day 15, delaying Sapphire's pursuit of Techan another day. Throughout the cool, wet, rainy day, both remaining tributes stay holed up where they are. Sapphire finds recluse under a large bush. She takes a small blanket from Owen's pack and drapes it over the area of the bush directly above her, shielding her from the rain. Sapphire spends the day relaxing, preparing herself to hunt and kill her elusive final opponent. As for Techan, well, he does what he's done since the Games began: Collect rainwater in his water bottle, munch on a bit of bark, and shield himself from the rain with the plastic square he snagged from the Cornucopia on the first day. As expected, Techan doesn't budge from his tree all day, content with just hanging out in one place waiting for the rain to cease.
The rain predictably ends on Day 16. Sapphire wakes early with a start, having managed to finally escape from a horrid nightmare detailing Owen's and Siobhan's deaths. Sapphire allows herself about a half hour for her breakfast, munching on some crackers from Owen's pack and some blackberries from Siobhan's pack. Afterwards, she gulps down a couple sips of water. Sapphire rests in her bush for a few more minutes, knowing all too well that it's about time to begin hunting for Techan.
Meanwhile, Techan himself is just as lazy as ever. He stays all holed up in his tree, taking a couple tiny sips of the rainwater that collected in his water bottle over the course of the day yesterday. Thinking that it's too early for bark, Techan goes without. He simply lays back on the uncomfortable pine branch and waits for the eventually inevitable.
Around eight in the morning on Day 16, Sapphire packs all of her supplies up into her pack once more, grips her spear tight in her right hand, and sets off to find Techan. Sapphire hunts vigorously for hours on the farthest rims of the forest, figuring that the manufacturer boy would've ran as far from the Bloodbath as he could before settling down. Unfortunately for Sapphire, the opposite is true. Techan has remained in the same pine tree since the first day, one only about 250 feet from the Cornucopia clearing. After hunting the far rims and into the middle of the forest all throughout Day 16, Sapphire eventually comes up empty and defeated at the end of the day.
The Games will certainly continue into their seventeenth day as Sapphire sets up camp for the night underneath an oak tree. Sighing and just wanting the Games to end, Sapphire openly roasts a rabbit she caught earlier over a fire, not giving two damns if Techan sees the smoke or not. And even if he does, Sapphire figures, it's not like the damn boy will come towards it anyway.
Sapphire resumes her hunt early on Day 17, not even having any sort of breakfast other than two meager sips of water. Sapphire reverses her plan from the day prior, this time scouring the rims of the forest nearest to the Cornucopia clearing. Unbeknownst to her, it wouldn't be long until she found her final opponent.
Techan is just as lazy and indifferent as usual. The boy is still asleep forty minutes into Sapphire's hunt, when he suddenly jerks awake to the cawing of a bird. A crow caws a few more times in a nearby tree, as though to warn Techan of something, before flying off into the distance. Not really thinking anything of it, Techan shrugs his shoulders and takes a small gulp of his water. The lazy factory boy doesn't take the hint that Head Gamemaker Regis Haysend practically spoon-fed him.
It's a little before noon on Day 17 when Sapphire finally spots Techan lazily laying up in his tree. Sapphire glances up at the District 3 boy, wondering momentarily if he's going to drop some sort of... something down onto her. Sapphire relaxes when so such thing occurs. Up in his trademark tree, Techan heaves a heavy sigh as he glances down at Sapphire.
"Just do it," Techan mutters, barely speaking loud enough for Sapphire to hear.
Knowing that it's now or never, Sapphire prepares to end the Games. She really doesn't want to climb the tree - she's deathly afraid of heights. Instead, Sapphire decides to throw the spear from the ground, and hopefully she'll get a lucky shot. Unlike countless kids from her district would be in the future, Sapphire isn't trained in how to throw a spear or wield a sword. With a sort of grunt, Sapphire throws the thing as hard as she can, and with a burst of luck, the spear slams right into Techan's exposed backside.
The spear penetrates Techan all the way through, prompting the boy to fall right out of his tree. Techan hits the ground with a sickening crunch, and blood flies everywhere, as well as collects in a shallow pool around the soon-to-be-deceased tribute. Mere moments later, Techan's heart stops, and the final cannon of the Games rings throughout the arena.
Techan Hevos, District 3 Male, 2nd Place; Killed by Sapphire, Day 17
"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you, the Victor of the Third Annual Hunger Games, Sapphire Gemstone of District One!" Neptune Amarillus hollers over the trumpets.
Sapphire drops to her knees, a smile managing to spread across her face. She's won, she can go home, and she can gorge herself at the Victory Banquet after all.
Afterwards
District 1 was elated to receive its first Victor. Admittedly she hadn't done much during the mid-Game, though in the end, Sapphire fought hard for her victory and was worthy of such a thing. Escaping the arena with only a few scratches and bruises, Sapphire was the least beat-up Victor yet at the time of her win. As was expected, especially with her coming from District 1, Sapphire was forced into prostitution like countless Victors would be in the future, and like Rome and Byron had been before her. Sapphire's Victory Tour was a good one, though Districts 7 and 13 were a bit angry at Sapphire for her slaughter of Owen and Siobhan. Though to be fair, the fallen Siobhan was equally as responsible for those deaths as Sapphire. District 3 wasn't upset however, as they knew from the beginning that Techan was not Victor material. Sapphire would grow to be another popular Victor. She was a decent Mentor, bringing home a couple tributes over the years. Sapphire would be one of the leading voices calling for the construction of District 1's Hunger Games Training Academy, which would begin construction in 7 PR (the year of the 7th Hunger Games).
Sapphire would marry twice, ending her first marriage rather quickly due to her spouse being abusive. She would go on to have two sons with her second husband. Sapphire would live her life as a kinder, welcoming lady, not overly effected by his Games, though she was certainly effected enough. Those nightmares of Owen's and Siobhan's deaths would unfortunately be here to stay, as would Valour screaming as Sapphire speared Dia, their fight with Nora, and Techan's trademark fall. Regardless, Sapphire would somehow manage to steer clear of drugs and booze, not taking up any addictions to help quiet her demons. Sapphire would live to the age of 75, dying after a tragic fall down the stairs in her Victor's Village home, in early September of 60 PR.
Victors So Far
1st HG: Rome Artiman (#1, District 2)
2nd HG: Byron Irving (#1, District 10)
3rd HG: Sapphire Gemstone (#1, District 1)
A/N: Apologies once more for the long wait. Hopefully the next one will be out by the end of the month, cutting this wait time down a bit. ;) Anyway, any thoughts on the tributes, the Games, or of course the eventual Victor? Hopefully these Games were a good one, even though we haven't seen all that much variation... yet.
Stay tuned for the first ever arena that isn't a circular forest with some spotty ponds and a clearing for the Cornucopia! Hope to see you then!
Until next time.
-Bo
P.S. This is our new longest chapter yet, clocking in at just under 13,000 words. Whoo!