Disclaimer: I am not the brilliant Suzanne Collins, so I do not own The Hunger Games.
A.N. Thanks to all who reviewed and favorited and/or followed this story. I am so excited to be getting all your positive reviews. So thank you so much for your reviews. For those who left longer comments then they like the story or to update here are some responses. However any review is appreciated even if it is just one to tell me to update. I did a number of these chapters in a short time for myself and needed to find my muse for it again.
And then even with a muse life gets in the way. Sorry to all who had to wait so long for this story.
Pearl Rancher: thank you for your comments on my writing, it took me a while to update just because while I knew that Peeta was going to have a love for Prim I could not decide on what direction it would go on in the games. I also was working more hours and had more inspiration for my other stories after giving a lot of chapters for this one in a short time. hopefully you will like what I come up with for this chapter.
Bookbaby13 : Thank you for your comment. This is the first fanfiction where I have tried so many povs and trying to get the voices right has been really hard. I am glad people are enjoying them.
Fire'sCatching: I am glad the twilight story idea interested you unfortunately it has been put on hold as I don't know where I am taking the plot past the initial idea so it will have to wait. Also I think that three stories is enough to handle at one time so until I finish one of my stories it will be put on the back burner.
Conquest
Waking
Prim
Prim was slow to wake up from her unconscious state. She honestly was not sure she even wanted to wake up. If she continued to sleep then she would not have to deal with the brutal reality that she knew awaited her. She would be able to sleep and dream of better times. Times where her family was whole and happy. Where she didn't have to worry about be surviving in a killing ring. But her body had other ideas and was forcing her to acknowledge the world around her. She started to hear voices around her. Prim was unable to make out what was being said, but it was being said rather heatedly. Then one of the voices sharply cut the other off, and the argument ended. Soon after Prim felt gentle hands shake her shoulder and heard one of the voices again.
"Come on angel. It's time to get up we have to go hunting and I can't leave you here by yourself defenseless." The voice said and she recognized it as being Cato's. When that realization hit her Prim's eyes flew open and she was suddenly wide awake. There he was Cato. The boy who had held on to her this past week. The boy who had decided he wanted to get her through the games and helped her learn to fight better and showed her different strategies to get through the games. The boy who wanted to claim her. And the boy who she had witness slaughter two people only to kiss her afterwards.
Cato must have seen that she was still a bit dazed from her fainting spell and picked her up, carrying her bridle style out of what must have been the cornucopia. Prim had to force herself not to flinch when she felt his hands on her. Hands that had blood on them the last time she saw them. They stepped out into the sun and Cato sat her down of a small pile of boxes, before standing next to her and putting an arm around her shoulder. Not wanting to look back at Cato just yet Prim turned her attention to what was going on in the clearing. She watched as Marvel, Glimmer, and Clove sorted through the supplies putting all the food together. Wait Marvel, Glimmer, Clove and Cato as next to her so where was?
"Pearl?" Prims voice squeaked out the question loud enough for everyone to hear. The other tributes turned to her just now seeing that she was awake and about.
"Well, well sleeping beauty is finally awake, I thought healers would be fine with blood, but you seem to faint at the sight of it. You better toughen up or we will rethink our investment in you." Clove said with a sneer and Prim felt Cato's chest rumble as though he was going to growl at the girl.
"Pearl's dead." Marvel spoke next. "She took a knife to the belly so your master here slit her throat." Prim wanted to know what he was talking about when he said master, she was not a slave, but then she felt something on her wrist and saw that she now had a pretty platinum cuff around it. It was a claiming cuff, Cato had claimed her, and now she would be his for the rest of her life however long that was. Master was not the proper term for a claimer, but it was one many used. Then the rest of Marvel's statement worked its way into Prim's brain.
"Why would you do that, if you had woken me up I could have tried to help her. I was brought into this group to be a healer why would she need to die when I could have helped!" Prim exclaimed.
"You were brought in to heal things that would not take us out of the games, if we get cut, you are here to keep it from getting infected or to help with twisted ankles or to counter act if we are deliberately or accidentally poisoned. You are not here to save people who become weak links. Even if you could have helped Pearl she would have been no use to us. You better put a cap on that bleeding heart of yours or you will not make it much longer." Glimmer said as she came over along with the other two so that they all stood in a semicircle around Prim and Cato.
Prim looked at the faces of those around her, these could not be the same people she had spent the last week with could they. Before while everyone had felt an underlying seriousness from the upcoming games, they had still behaved mostly like the teens that Prim knew from back home. Glimmer had coyly confessed to Clove, Pearl, and Prim one day when they were together without the boys about the one time she had gotten to kiss Gloss during a festival. Prim had listened as Clove had complained about her younger sister constantly stealing her cloths. She had heard how Pearl had been named after the export that saved her family's fortune. Prim had watched as Marvel constantly tried to start a food fight with Cato by throwing a different district's bread at him every meal they had together.
Over the course of training week Prim had thought that she had come to know the volunteers, and they had become human to her. When Prim had sat down on the plane this morning the volunteers had gone from being the monsters who she thought would kill her, to people who were being sent to fight to survive just like Prim. And even though Prim knew it was stupid and naïve she had come to care for them a little and hoped that they had cared for her as well.
Now looking into the hard eyes and faces of those around her Prim realized how out of her depth she was these people had just slaughtered a group of other children and would continue to do so until they were the only ones left and then they would kill each other. Prim didn't know if the hardness in their eyes had always been there and she had missed it or if it had grown there watered by the blood of their victims, but Prim knew just from their eyes that the group would have no trouble trying to kill her if she did not pull her weight.
Of course, she though shifting her wrist, they would first have to go through Cato to kill her. The two of them were linked and even if he changed his mind, which with the way he still had his arm over her shoulder would not change, he would defend her if only to stay alive himself. And Prim was not completely defenseless either and she would fight as hard as she could to stay alive especially, as dying would cause the death of another. But would she be able to protect herself from Cato, and would she need to protect herself from her claimer.
Before the start of the games she would have said no, while Cato was rough with everyone else he had always been gentle with her, but that was before she watched Cato kill two people as easily as breathing. And if Marvel was to be believed he slit Pearls throat as she was lying on the ground hurt. Pearl who the two of them had come to know and like for the past week. She became a liability and so she was dispatched. Just because Cato couldn't kill her didn't mean that there were other things he could do. If she didn't listen to him he could beat her up and lock her up somewhere where the others wouldn't be able to find her. Cato had been extremely into physical contact since they had started training. What if he wanted more while they were out here. While it hadn't happened while Prim was alive there was a story of a claimer violating his conquest during the games. The conquest had killed herself as soon as she was able killing her claimer as well. What if that happened again would she be able to kill herself or would she spend the rest of her life with her rapist. Prim's thoughts were spiraling further into darkness, when she felt someone shake her shoulders.
She came out of her mind to see Cato's face in front of her and this time she couldn't contain her flinch. Cato pulled back slightly and something flicked in his glacial eyes before he started to bark out orders to the rest of the group.
"Enough talk, we need to finished sorting the supplies before it gets too dark to see. Give my conquest any medical supplies you find so she can sort through what will be useful to use and what we should keep on us or leave here when we go out hunting. Speaking of hunting the second the moon comes up we go out looking for anyone stupid enough to make a fire." He said most of this to the other volunteers barely looking at Prim.
My Conquest. He called her. Was that all she was to him now his conquest, his prize when he won the games. Prim thought that he might have cared for her, but with the way he was talking about her she might have just been an object to him. Was all the care he gave her this week false. Although what care had he really given her this week.
He was possessive of her, always calling her his, his angel, his flower and he always had an arm around her. But possessiveness was not a sign of caring, someone could be possessive over an object just as much as a person. He never even used her name, how could he see her as a person and not an object if he wouldn't even use her name. He had tried to help her learn to fight better, but that could have been to make things easier for him. If she knew how to protect herself then Cato would have less work keeping her alive.
Primrose tried to think back to what they had talked about over the past week to see if there was any instance of Cato mentioning his feelings for her. But as she went over the last week she realized that they didn't talk much at all. Cato seemed to be quiet by nature and so was Prim so when they were together they didn't talk much and when they were with the others, they did most of the talking. Not that they had much of a chance to talk together anyway. Unless they were training the tributes from different districts were kept apart. Because of this the only times when they were alone enough to talk were when they were waiting for their mentors for private training, and then they either were sat enjoying each other's quiet or talking about what to do during training.
Prim knew nothing about Cato other than he volunteered, and trained for the Hunger Games, he was from district two and his mentor Brutus was his uncle. And she only learned that last bit because of his interview the other night. Wait that was not completely true, she also knew that he didn't seem to talk much to anyone even his mentor, he worked hard at training, and like to listen to music while doing so and he seemed to hate roosters if the glare he gave the rooster clock someone in the elevator was holding, was anything to go by. But she knew nothing of how he would treat her after the Hunger Games. She didn't know anything about his home or family other than Brutus was part of it. Prim didn't even know why he wanted her.
From what she knew Cato hadn't even met her in person before Brutus talked to Mr. Abernathy about claiming her. Cato would have decided to make her his conquest just by her reaping, meaning that he would have known nothing about her when he decided to claim her. He still didn't know much about her. He knew about her family from her interview, and her healing because it was what she could offer to the career pack, but she hadn't volunteered any more information to him than he did to her.
Did it mattered that they knew nothing about each other. Prim thought it did. If Cato won than they would be spending the rest of their lives together. Prim's entire future had been taken from her the second Cato claimed her. Though one could argue that she had no future the second she was chosen for the Hunger Games. Any dreams she had of finding a nice man and settling down with children in district twelve was over the second that her name was called, but even though those dreams should have died they were still in the back of her mind. If she won no matter how unlikely that thought was, she could have had her dream. Now it didn't matter, as she wouldn't be going back to twelve but to two and she had no choose. Either she and Cato died or they would live the rest of their lives in two.
Prim would be living out the rest of her days with this ice eyed killer who had claimed her for his own. She had gotten more comfortable with Cato as training week had gone on. But how much of that was because he put her at ease and she liked him and how much of it was Prim adapting to the new world she was in. Prim was good at adapting when she her life changed. It was what kept her and her mother alive for the past five years, but could this trait have blinded her to the threat that held her in his arms for the past week.
She was tied to Cato until she died and if he died first she had no idea what would happen. There were only three pairing who made it out alive and all of them were still alive. The oldest pair Dylan and Mellora were only in their seventies and as Dylan was a victor they had the best health care possible and could live at least another twenty years. If Cato dies Prim wasn't sure if she would get to go home or if she would have to stay in district two would they give her to another victor to keep like some pet who needed a new home. If her and Cato had children in the future if they wanted to and he died would she be able to stay with her children.
Prim closed her eyes. She didn't have an answer to any of her questions and it was not the right time to talk to Cato about her fears either. The last thing she needed was for the career pack to think either of them weak or in her case weaker since fainting earned her no favors in their eyes. The future would have to wait until she knew if she would even be alive to see it.
Prim reached for another piece of medical supplies from the pile the others had put near her only to touch the grass. It seemed while lost in thought she had finished sorting all the supplies that she was given. Prim looked up at the sky and saw that it would be dark soon. The career pack probably wouldn't want to make any fires at night until they took out more of the competition, so dinner would be cold and come from what they had in their stores.
Prim thought that she saw some sorrel, and dandelions on the other side of the cornucopia and when added to some of the jerky that she saw would make a filling dinner without depleting their food much on the first night. Who knew how long the games would last after all. Depending on the environment and how well people were able to hide the games could go on from anywhere from five days to three weeks, so they would need to conserve food until they were sure that the end was near.
Prim grabbed a small dagger and an empty container and went to work collecting greens to add to their meal as well as a few useful herbs that she found growing near them. She had just about finished when she saw caught a glimpse of some particular leaves on the edge of the clearing. Primrose moved closer hoping that she was right about what she saw. To her pleasure prim was right about spotting the fag shaped leaves of the semperfame plant.
The plant was as natural as the adrenal plant, though where the adrenal plant was made to help people the semperfame plant was engineered to hurt. During the wars when prisoners were captured it was common practice to torture them for information. Since the capital was really into making sure that people knew what happened to rebels, Prim knew that the capital used to need time to torture people. They used lack of sleep and starvation as much as physical violence to get people to talk. But because that took too long they came up with alternatives to speed the process along. Semperfame was one such solution. The leaves caused the feelings of extreme hunger and starvation in whoever ingested them. Instead of needing days to starve a person a torture could feed a prisoner the semperfame and have the prisoner feel the same way after only hours.
Prim had used the plant herself when healing. A small amount of the leaves made into a tea with some restraining agents encouraged sick patients to eat. Prim had to use the tea a time or two on her mother when it became difficult to get the woman to eat anything. A little tea and her mother would eat anything Prim put in front of her. The really interesting thing about the plant though was that while the leaves made one hungry the roots had the opposite effect. The roots held the antidote to the leaves but when eaten alone they also made the person who ate them feel full. Prim picked a few plants they could be useful. She made sure to keep the leaves as well because anything could become useful in the hunger games and with a large enough dose of semperfame leaves a person would eat nightlock berries even when they knew it would kill them.
Prim was searching around for other useful plants when a hand landed on her shoulder. Lashing back with her fist she forgot that she was holding the dagger until the person behind her grabbed her wrist and twisted forcing her to drop the knife. Her arm was forced behind her back and the hand from her shoulder wound around her waist pulling her against a hard chest.
"Careful little flower, if you gut me we both die." A familiar voice sounded close to her ear, before Cato let go of her arm and turned her to face him. Once they were face to face, the volunteer didn't speak for a few moments and instead ran his eyes over her like he was looking for something. He seemed about to say something when Marvel's voice came from back by the cornucopia.
"Did you catch her, Cato? Do I win the bet was she trying to run?" Cato's arm tightened almost painfully around her when Marvel mentioned the possibility of her running away. The blue eyes that had softened slightly while looking her over hardened and the Prim was thrown a broad shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
She had no time to even prepare for the move. One moment she was held against his chest and the next the Neanderthal had tossed her over his shoulder. Prim wheezed out a breath as the shoulder she was on dug into her diaphragm when Cato bent down probably to pick up her knife and he container she had. They made their way back to the cornucopia like that and not for the first time Prim wished that she was more like her sister. Katniss would not be slung over a brutes shoulder. Because that was what Cato was right now a horrible brute. Katniss would have had any boy or man on the ground in pain if they had even thought about tossing her about, or at least Prim like to imagine that she would.
Instead the only thing Prim would be able to do would be to yell at Cato once he put her down. Unfortunately, she couldn't yell now as the small bit of breath she had left was forced out of her as Cato's jog bounced her up and down. Just as she was sure that the bumpy ride was going to force her to throw-up what she had in her stomach she was slid off the shoulder and set down.
"Well was she trying to run?" Asked Clove from where she was sitting on a pile of boxes.
"No, just gather a bunch of greens." Cato replied as he set the container with the plants she collected down so the others could see. Then his hand grabbed her chin and forced her face up so that Prim was looking in his eyes. Any plans Prim had to berate him for carting around were lost as she stared at his blank face. "Understand this angel if you don't tell me next time you so much as think of stepping out of my sight, than I will find some chain and keep you tied to me or something stationary for the rest of the games. Do you understand?" he said in a hard voice, though there was an odd edge to it that she could not quiet place. Prim went to nod only to realize that she couldn't with her chin still in Cato's hands.
"I understand." She said quietly. They were the first words that she had spoken to Cato since the start of the games. It was hard to put a side her fears of the future when she was almost trembling in fear while speaking to her claimer for the first time since they were bound together.
"Hey look at all the plants the conquest was able to get. Can we eat any of these?" Glimmer said as she dug through he container of greenery Prim collected. Primrose looked over at the girl and saw her about to taste on of the semperfame plants that Prim put in the container.
"Stop!" Prim shouted. She pulled away from Cato and snatched the plant from the now loose grip and dropped it back into the container. Then she quickly separate the sorrel and dandelions from the others and put them on top of one of the crates.
"These are the ones that are safe to eat. I gathered them to add more substance to our dinner tonight. The other plants are helpful medically or might be helpful later on. The one you were about to eat was semperfame." When Prim said this all she got was a confused look and she realized that they probably knew the plant by its slang name. Prim didn't like to call it that because it lent more to the torture aspect of the plant and not the medical one, but it was the name most knew it by.
"You might know it as Starving Fang." Prim said and that certainly got a reaction. Glimmer leapt back from the container and started wipe her hands on her pants.
"Are you insane what possessed you to put Starving Fang in with the plants you were going to feed us for dinner? Were you trying to kill us all on the first night?" Glimmer accused as she grabbed some water, probably to was off her hand.
"Don't waste water, when you can just keep wiping off your hand." Cato said as he tore the bottle from Glimmer's hand.
"Don't waste water do you know how dangerous Starving Fang is or was it's use during the rebellion not taught in district two?" Glimmer almost shouted at Cato.
"I know what it was used for, but my conquest should have proven her knowledge of plants during training. She knows how to handle the plant and what makes it dangerous, it would be stupid to put it in our supper unless she wanted to die as well since she will be eating the same things as us." He stated.
"It would not have hurt you until you ate it. Most of the properties it carries are activated when they are broken down using the enzymes in our saliva. Besides the roots of the plant that I also gathered hold the antidote so if you accidentally ate the plant I could cure you before you even experienced symptoms." Prim told her though she decided to leave out that because the effect of the leaves were so much more potent it took at least two separate doses of antidote to save you. If Prim had wanted to kill them using the plant she could have only given the first dose and then let the affects of the leaves creep up like natural hunger until they were too far gone to realize that they were still affected and they ate something poisonous to deal with their overwhelming hunger.
"Fine whatever Glimmer's not dead or poisoned hurray. Since you decided to gather some extra's for dinner why don't you take care of preparing the rest of it while we arm up it will be dark enough to find see fires soon. If we want enough time to hunt down whoever was stupid enough to make them we need to leave soon." Clove said as she started to pull throwing knives out of one of the piles.
Prim quickly mixed some dried meat and nuts with the plants she gathered and then moved them into some bridgeable bags that she found I the supplies. She had enough to give everyone a generous proportion and have two extra bags left over. Prim figure that they could eat their salad out of the bags as they were searching for others and she would keep the other bags on her in case anyone needed seconds. Though it would be better if they were satisfied with what she gave them. You never knew how long the food would last during the Games and it was always better to conserve what you could.
The group gather around Prim when they saw that she was finished and grabbed bags. They drifted off to eat as they gathered weapons and equipment they would need to get around in the dark. Both glimmer and Marvel seemed to be a bit nervous to be going into the woods in the dark, and Prim figured it was probably because district one didn't have much wildlife it was close enough to the Capital that it was mostly either gardens or house and factories for the luxury products they made.
Cato, and Clove seemed to not have the same problem though with Cato it would be impossible to tell if he was. Prim herself was terrified to go into the woods. She wasn't afraid of the woods themselves. That would be close to impossible with the amount of times Prim went walking and foraging in the woods at night. No Prim was terrified of what was going to happen in those woods. Primrose had no doubt that some of the tributes would be stupid enough to make fires and she was sure the pack would find them. Prim could only hope that the tribute's death would be quick and that she wouldn't have to watch. There was no point of trying to get out of the hunt by staying with the supplies. Cato already said that she was going.
Prim finished up her portion of dinner and packed up the left over portions into a small backpack to take with her on the hunt. She also made sure to pack a bottle of clean water and another bottle that contained chemicals to test water sources. If they found another source of drinkable water on this trek it would only be helpful for later in the games. Prim grabbed some disinfectant cream and bandages. She also packed a few more bags and a knife, so if she found more helpful herbs she could either harvest them or carve a trail sign into a tree to help her remember the way to them. She finished packing and swung her pack onto her back.
Just them a large calloused hand thrust into her vision with a belt of senbon. The needles went all round the cloth belt each in their own thin holder. Cato stripped the pack off her back before tossing the belt over her head and right shoulder so it hung off Prim's frame like a sash. Then he handed the bag back to her to put on once more, though now it had a large hunting knife attached to right strap. Prim felt his eyes roam over her once her was settled with her supplies again and saw him nod.
"Good," He grunted "Never go anywhere unarmed the dagger in the bag was nowhere good enough. We leave in five minutes, if you can use any of the herbs you gathered to poison some of your needles quickly do so now and keep an eye out while we're walking for any other plants you can use to poison them." He finished and walked away.
Prim saw that he had a sword strapped to his side and a spear poked out from behind the shield that he strapped to his back. As she watched him he added a knife opposite the sword and put two small daggers up his sleeves before grabbing another spear. This one he kept in his had and Prim figured that he would use it as a walking stick and his first weapon if they found anyone. She looked at the others and saw that Marvel was similarly equipped to Cato though she didn't see any bulges in his sleeves to indicate knives. Clove, and Glimmer were loaded up with knives. Clove had an extra brace of knives strapped across her chest like Prim's senbon.
It was Glimmer that gave Prim pause. She found a bow in the supplies, but it was unstrung and it looked like she was having trouble getting it operational. Glimmer had practiced somewhat with the bows during training and was a decent shot. She was nowhere near her father's or sister's skill or even Gale's skill, but she could hit someone in the chest across a field. Unfortunately, it looked like she never had to actually string a bow. All the ones in the training ring were already live and Prim ha no idea what things were like when she trained at home.
Prim hurried over to the district one girl and gently took the bow and string from her hand. Then she planted one end in the dirt and stepped so her feet where on either side of the shaft. She bent the white wood down and slipped the strings loop over the top and into place. Prim pulled the bow up and got into a stance pulling the string bag to her ear to feel the draw before easing it back into place and handing the bow to Glimmer. She looked at the others in the clearing when all the noise from their prep stopped and saw them staring at her.
"You think we would stopped being surprised by what you can do, do you want to take the bow since you seem to know what to do with it?" Marvel asked. Prim felt like sighing, everyone one had been so short with her today as they seemed to think she was useless just because she didn't like violence and her talents were subtler than hacking into people with blades. Now that she showed talent with a more obvious weapon they saw her as useful again.
"No, I only know how to take care of a bow because I took care of my father's after he died, which included keeping it limber by stringing it every now and then. However, my skill with a bow is like my skill with throwing these," Prim ran her hand over the needles on her chest. "I couldn't bit a building if it was in front of me. I am better close up, for all my size puts me at a disadvantage. Let Glimmer have the bow." Prim finished and she hopped that she would be able to keep in some good graces by mentioning that she was not as defenseless as she looked.
"Enough talking it's time to go, I saw a few target run in that direction to escape the boodbath, so we'll head that way to. Let's see if we can't find some tracks to lead us to our prey." Cato said pointing in the direction that Peeta ran before grabbing Prim's wrist and pulling her alongside him.
Prim wanted to roll her eyes as Cato sent another glare at Marvel, Glimmer and Clove. The three of them had no idea how to walk in the woods. Their stomping was so loud that they had given enough warning to the first person the pack had tracked that they were able to disappear from their campsite before the pack had found them. All that was left was the dying fire. They had tried to find tracks to point them in the right direction but, it was no use.
Prim knew exactly who the campsite belong to and how they escaped from the pack. For the past hour since they found the empty campsite Prim felt eyes on her and heard someone following the group through the trees. Rue was really great when it came to moving around above their heads, but once and a while Prim caught a rustle from above them that wasn't the wind. She didn't think the others even noticed that they had a follower, even Cato seemed oblivious. Though with him you could never know, but Rue was great at moving silently and her dark skin kept her hidden in the pitch black canopy. She felt no need to tell her companions about the girl following them, they would have no way to get her before she took off through the branches, and Prim didn't want to be responsible for the death of someone even younger than her. Rue out of everyone in the games didn't deserve to be here.
Prim figured the only reason she caught on to their stalker was because she was so used to the woods at home and these woods were almost a copy of those. Prim knew which sounds were natural and which were not. She needed to if she was ever found foraging in the forest outside the fence it was death or slavery for the rest of her life. Prim trained herself to notice any noise that was not natural. It was this training that allowed her to hear the slightly faster rustle of Rue compared to the one that was going through the trees because of the wind.
Thinking of wind, it shifted and Prim was able to catch a slight smell of smoke that was carried with it. Cato caught it too as he stopped the group. Cato came up with a plan after finding the abandoned campsite. The three noisiest would spread out slightly and come at the camp from the from front while Cato and Prim would circle around back to cut off any escape attempts that resulted from the tribute hearing the others. She knew it would work. Prim and Gale once saw a pack of wolves take down a huge buck the same way while Prim was teaching Gale to hunt.
Primrose thought quick as Cato went over the strategy one more time. She didn't want Rue to see what was going to happen. The young girl was already in the Hunger Games and she wanted the girl to be around as little violence as little as possible before she died. Prim knew she wouldn't be able to keep the girl safe, but she could at least keep her sane, and she might even be able to help her a bit as well.
Quickly Prim took out a bag and her small knife she used to harvest plants and caught Cato's eye. She gestured to a large tree that had some mushrooms growing on the other side, and saw Cato nod and hold up a hand with three fingers up. The tree would hide her from view and the mushrooms were good finds so Prim should be covered though with only three minutes she would have to be quick.
She heard the quicker rustle follower her around the tree and smiled. Rue's attention was on her which would make things even easier. Prim knelt into the dirt near the mushroom as stuck her knife into a stream of moonlight that made it through the canopy and tilted her blade until it reflected the light up to where she felt Rue's eyes. She felt the girl freeze, but Prim pretended not to pay any attention to the girl. The harvested the mushrooms and then put the bag into her pack, with one hand and pulled out the extra bags left from dinner and hid it under one of the bigger mushrooms left. She tilted her head up to the girl frozen in the tree and nodded her head to the mushrooms.
Then Prim got up and left. She had used up all her time and now it was time to try figure out a way to keep her own sanity once they found the poor person who lit a fire.
Rue
Rue kept completely still even as the sounds of the group left. She was terrified and wanted to run, but she couldn't be sure the girl from twelve or the boy from two left with the others. If she learned anything from playing hide and seek in the tree in district eleven, it was that if you stayed still it was harder to see you. She was sure the girl from twelve had seen her, especially when she laid her trap, but it would be hard for the girl to find her again or pinpoint her with that bow the other girl head as long as she stayed perfectly still.
When she first heard the group coming towards her campsite, she had kicked herself for making a fire, figuring that was what lead them to her. She packed as quickly as possible, thanking her luck that the group didn't know how to move through the forest. She was able to scramble up the nearest tree and hide behind the trunk just in time as the group. She watched as the boy from one stabbed at her fire with his spear, only to be berated by the other boy for moving so loudly, and scaring her away.
At first Rue was just going to hide until they left, but as they didn't seem to notice her she decided to follow them. She was hoping to find out if they had any weaknesses or to see if she could scavenge some more supplies from who ever they found next. Of course now she realized how stupid she was. They must have realized she was following them a while ago and now set a trap so they could get her out of the tree and in range of their weapons. Rue was slightly worried about the bow, but she is pretty sure that the only one who can use it is the girl from one and when she watched her during training, rue was sure she wasn't good enough to hit her as long as she stayed in the tree.
After what felt like an hour Rue was getting tired, but she was sure the pain in her arms and legs from staying in the same position forever would keep her awake. Her heavy eyes were about to win against her hurting arms when a terrified scream tore through the night. Rue jolted and nearly fell out of the tree as the sound echoed around in the dark woods.
She knew where the loud ones in the group when while the quiet ones hid waiting for her to take their bait. The ones who had probably just seen her jump. Quickly and praying that the shadows would keep her hidden, Rue shuffled up against the large truck of the tree and scaled another ten feet up. She settled on a wide branch the dipped a bit at its base. It was a good branch, she would be able to stay in a more comfortable position on it until the two waiting for her got tired and went away.
Rue blinked awake at the sounds of the birds starting to chirp in their nests, and saw the sun starting to just peak over the horizon. She searched the area around her tree in a panic. She hadn't ment to fall asleep, but she had been so tired and hungry. Rue tried to remember the last time she ate and she was pretty sure it was yesterday morning just before the guards took her to the plane. Rue thought about eating some berries she found once she got far enough away from the cornucopia, but even with what she learned from the girl from district two about edible plants, Rue didn't want to risk it.
Rue could deal with hunger. Most of from district eleven could deal with hunger. What she couldn't deal with was that she had been in the tree the whole night and she had to use the bathroom. She felt her bladder cramp again and tried to hold it. She needed to go, but she had no idea if it was safe to leave the tree. The longer she wanted the more it hurt. Rue felt her bladder try to release and started crying. Even if she wanted to go, she couldn't pee running down the tree would be a huge sign that she was there and she didn't know if it was safe yet.
Rue wanted Thresh with her. He was supposed to stay with her, he'd promised. But they had ended up on opposite sides of the cornucopia and the screaming had started right away. Rue had panicked and grabbed the bag closest to her before bolting and running as fast as possible away from the screams. They had tried to plan fir this possibility. Rue was supposed to find a tree and climb it and stay there until Thresh was able to find her tracks and her. But she messed up, she ran to far trying to get away from t he screams and then she made camp because she was tired from all her running. Then instead of staying in the trees surrounding her campsite she followed the careers like and idiot. Now he would never find her and she would die alone in the tree, not even knowing if it was safe to come down.
Rue didn't want to die in a tree, she spent enough time in trees picking fruit she would ever eat for the capital. If they were going to spring the trap and kill her she wanted to die on the ground. She didn't want her body to fall from her perch when she died. Rue and seen the body of a friend who fell one day. His limbs were twisted and broken and his head was burst open like a melon on the rock it hit when he landed. Rue didn't want her family to see her body like that. It would be better if she went down and was killed with a blade instead of being shot out of the tree. It would be cleaner and quicker and maybe it would be easier.
Rue rushed down the tree and relieved herself, before looking over to where the girl had set her trap. Rue knew she should run, but they had probably already seen her and she was curious. Rue knew she was dead whether she ran or sprung the trap and at least she would be able to figure out what was left to get her out of the tree. Rue reached into the mushrooms and pulled out two bags full of meat and greens. She reached in the bag instantly, after seeing the food. She was about to stuff her face when the bush right next to the tree spoke.
"Is it safe now?" It took all of Rue's will not to scream. It would be really bad if she screamed. Especially since it seemed the trap layers had left and she didn't want to bring them back. Then the bush started to move, and Rue was reconsidering screaming.
However, she soon realized that it wasn't the bush moving or talking but someone under the bush. When the boy finally was out from under the bush, he was so covered in mud, dirt and leaves that Rue couldn't recognize him. She was able to see that he didn't have any weapons, but he was big enough and Rue was small enough that if he wanted to kill her he wouldn't need them. She quickly tried to back away from the mud covered boy only to hit the trunk of the tree.
"Easy there," the boy said as she backed away " I won't hurt you I was hiding for the night when the group came through here, and once I saw you on the ground I figured it was safe. I'm Peeta by the way Peeta Mellark from district twelve."
"Rue district eleven." She responded quietly still a bit afraid of the boy.
"She left that for you, you know?" he said gesturing to the food "I saw her look at the tree when she left it, it won't be poisoned or anything. Prim was always too nice for her own good and leaving food for the youngest member in these games is exactly something she would do. I just hope she doesn't get in to much trouble from the careers for the missing food."
Peeta looked a bit worried at this thought though he had smiled when he spoke about the girl from his district. Then Rue remembered that he mentioned in his interview that he loved her.
"You still like her even when she spent all of training with the careers, and is helping them now?" she asked starting to feel more comfortable around the mud covered boy which was probably going to bit her in the butt later.
"I don't hold it against her, Prim's a healer she was safer with them then if she was against them and they didn't want her helping anyone else. Besides she stuck with them. I saw the cuff on her arm as she stuck her knife in the moonlight. Prim's a conquest and while I'll love her until the day I die which will likely be soon, she's out of my reach. I just have to be happy that the di… er guy who claimed her will keep her safe through the games."
"Hey you know while alliance between the volunteers is the most famous, others have made alliances before as well. Do you want to team up? Between the two of us we might be able to find some of the stuff around her that's edible and well four eyes are better than two for watching you back. What do you say, I could at least help you out until that big guy from your district finds you, I was sure he was going to be around to help you?" Peeta finishes. Wow this guy loves to talk, but he has a point and he could have killed me already of he wanted to so there's no danger in going along with him for now.
"Things didn't go as planned. But sure why not, do you want some of the food that you district partner left, there's enough for two."
