I set to work, felling stalks of bamboo and making a clearing around our camp, and built a little shelter. Now with a roof over our head and no place for attackers to hide within a 50 foot radius, we were quite safe. Now, there was only one natural challenge left to face. Once we ate all the food from the backpack, we had no obvious source of energy. As I sat by the pond thinking about a solution, Sabrina came to me with a handful of white strips, and her mouth full.
`In District 7, when we were hungry, we would take off the bark of trees, and eat the inside bark. It doesn't taste great, but its' food. I think we can eat bamboo bark and their leaves.`
I took a strip of white bamboo bark from her hand, and tentatively chewed on it. It was bland, but there was water in it, had a little tang of sweetness and was somewhat soft and moist, not stiff like I expected. I gnawed at it, the taste reminding me of the nectar of a honeysuckle. Because bamboo held very little nutrition, I had to eat my way through eight plants before I was full and charged. I cut the rope, and started to bind together the shelter so to keep it sturdy. In the background, I heard the Capitol anthem play. I raised my head, and saw the Capitol seal drifting in the sky. Slowly, the faces of the dead tributes appeared for one last time, before the disappeared forever. First came the District 2 girl. So the rest of the Careers had survived. No surprise. District 3 boy, District 3 girl, Kyle, District 5 girl, District 6 boy, District 7 boy, District 8 boy, District 8 girl, District 9 boy, District 9 girl, District 10 boy, District 10 girl, District 11 girl, District 12 boy, and District 12 girl. They appeared for three seconds each, then vanished, now gone from existence. `I'll take first watch.` I said, and sat myself onto my sleeping bag. Sabrina curled up in hers, and was asleep in seconds. I envied her for being able to sleep so quickly. I knew that tonight, sleep would not come easily to me. The faces of the eight tributes I killed would haunt me in my dreams.
I was woken by a cannon shot early in the morning, when Sabrina had been on watch for less than an hour. I shot awake, the rays of dawn shining one Sabrina's porcelain skin. `How do you think they died?` She asked quietly.
`No telling…` I muttered, watching as a hovercraft appeared and snatched away the body. There didn't seem to be any blood or wounds on the body, and the corpse was situated close by to the river… `Oh. I know. I poisoned the lower river. He must have drank from that and died.` I said sadly, thinking of the boy's family, friends, and the people that had been hoping that he would come back, only to have their dreams shatter. I heard Sabrina sniff. `What's the matter?` I asked.
Sabrina inhaled deeply. `I saw my district partner, Tian, get killed before my eyes. The District 1 girl took two swings at him with a club, and smashed his skull. He fell to the ground, and the girl impaled him with a spear. I saw the blood he spat out, I heard the low moan he produced from his lips. I knew his family. We were close friends. Now he's gone. Back home, I have two siblings who can't take care of themselves. If I die…` Sabrina trailed off.
I paused, and let it sink in. At the training center, I had every intention of killing the boy after he burst out crying, and now, his district partner was my ally, and I had to somehow work out a way of making her feel better. After a moment of eerie silence, I broke the quiet vigil. `I'm sorry about Tian, Sabrina. I know how you feel. I lost my dad to a fishing accident, my mom is mute, and I've got a seven-year old brother depending on me.` I leaned back, and smiled at the girl. `And I also know that the dead can't be brought back to life. The best way of dealing with it is to say: `What would they have done?`. It'll help you cope with the sudden loss of guidance.`
Sabrina stopped to think for a moment, then threw her arms around me. She stifled her sobs in my jacket, her warm tears spilling down her cheeks. I held the crying girl tight, clasping her to my chest. A flash of silver caught my eye. I eased a small necklace out. It was a leather string with a tiny silver disk engraved with her initials. S.W. The same as Spencer Watchorn's. For the first time since I left District 4, I thought of my family and friends. It was then that I realized, Sabrina and I had a lot in common. We both had families to take care of, lost a loved one, was trying to make it out of these Games alive for their families, and were currently entrusting our lives to someone we had met just hours ago. I felt a sudden need to make sure Sabrina won the Games, but at the same time, I knew that mom and Josiah were counting on me to win. Torn between my family and Sabrina's, and overwhelmed by the tributes I killed, the deaths I had witnessed, and Sabrina's story, I snapped. It wasn't like I was going to kill anyone instantly, but instead, for the first time in my life, I let tears slide down my face. Whether she knew it or not, Sabrina had broken me, Aqua Kent, the unbreakable tribute.
A/N: That was a filler, so sorry for the uneventrul chapter. So what do you think of Aqua's dilemma? Tell me who she should pick over, Spencer, or Sabrina, by reviewing :)
-Katara Macken
