A/N- Sorry about the wait, guys. I'm spending almost all my time at my grandmother's lake house, and my internet connection is sporadic to say the least. I'll just post what I have written when I get a connection, but I don't know when it'll be. But though I may not be able to update for a while, I'm still here, and I'm still writing. Thanks for sticking with me.
Chapter 8
Adrian Martinez, District 5
"As strange as this is going to sound, I'm bored."
Baylyn slowly turns her head to look at me, eyebrows raised in a please-tell-me-you're-joking-Adrian sort of way. Sadly enough, I'm really not. Mom always used to tease me and say I had ADHD, but I'd always laughed it off. I'm starting to wonder if she'd actually been right.
"Well...what exactly are you planning to do about that?" Baylyn says slowly.
I shrug. "I don't know."
She looks at me, a funny expression on her face. "Then...why are you telling me this?"
"I was kind of hoping you'd have an idea," I chirp. Well, as much as any sixteen-year-old boy ever chirps anything.
"Why don't you...draw us a tick-tock-toes board." Baylyn suggests patiently.
"Nah. No one ever wins tick-tock-toes," I reply. "How about...I know! Let's go exploring."
Baylyn's eyebrows shoot up. "Exploring?"
"Yeah. It'll keep me entertained, and help us get a better feel of the arena," I point out, figuring that Baylyn wants some sort of practical reason beyond "Cause it's fun!".
"I am still recovering from all those ribs you broke, Adrian."
"Fine, guilt trip me. Not fair at all," I complain.
"I'm serious. It hurts to do pretty much everything."
"We'll explore gently, I promise. Please?"
Baylyn regards me in silence for a moment. "Alright. Fine."
I grin. "Thanks, Baylyn."
"Yeah, yeah," She grumbles, pulling herself painfully to her feet. I help her up and hook her arm over my shoulder.
"I'm not that much of an invalid, Adrian," Baylyn protests, but I have the feeling she's just being petty about exploring. I have the feeling that arguing about it is the wrong idea at the moment, so I just ignore it and start walking. We stagger for a minute until we get a feel for the rhythm of each other's walks. I put a lot more weight on my right leg, as I've got Baylyn on my left. She limps, but it's almost like she limps forward, always about to double over in pain at the waist. But our steps begin to synchronize and Baylyn winces less as she's no longer jolted or yanked by uneven steps.
The silence starts out a little miffed, but soon dissipates into its normal friendly comfort. Baylyn's enjoying herself, as I can see by the look in her eyes. She hasn't brought it up, not because she's too proud to say I had a good idea after all, but because she's wrapped up. When you walk through the arena, it stops being boring. The slow changes give a sense of peace. That's in short supply around here, I'm afraid.
"So, I've vented to you about my home life. Your turn," Baylyn says. I'm a little surprised. She's a pretty quiet girl, and usually isn't one to initiate conversation. But maybe she's just shy.
"It's really not very interesting. It's just me and my mom and dad."
"Do you have any siblings?"
"Oh. Yeah…my sister Lier. She ran off with her skeezy boyfriend more than a year ago. We haven't heard from her since." I mutter. I'd been hoping to avoid the subject of Lier.
"Well, that's pretty interesting," Baylyn says gently, trying to get me to open up more. I'm sure she knows I'm keeping secrets, but they're my secrets to keep. Besides, it's not like it's going to put her in danger or anything.
"Not really. That's really all there is to the story," I lie.
"Okay," Baylyn says. I can't tell if my good lie has eased her doubts or not. I have a feeling she hasn't really forgotten, that this will come up later. But for now I shove Lier to the back of my mind. Never helps to think about her. I just get angry.
"I wish I could whistle or something," I say to Baylyn. "It feels too quiet."
"I never did figure out how to whistle," Baylyn says. She sounds wistful, like she's never going to get another chance. I guess Baylyn's not so confident she's going to get home. I feel a little uneasy, because she may very well be right. Until her ribs heal, she's vulnerable.
"I'll teach you someday," I say.
"Okay," she replies with a smile.
Conversation disappears again as Baylyn and I retreat back into our own thoughts of whistling and missing sisters.
I'm hit by a sudden impulse. I turn sharply, almost before I think about it. Baylyn hisses in pain and surprise.
"What are you doing?" She says in the low tones we've adopted for speaking in the arena.
"We should go this way," I say apologetically.
"Fine, Adrian." Baylyn sighs.
Before long I see something else breaking into the horizon. The river. And by the sounds filtering to me from the banks, something big's going down.
Caspian Toushone, District 8
If this isn't just the best thing. Roe decides to teach me how to swim, being useful for once, and now she's not coming back up.
"Roe? Hey Roe?" I call out tiredly, just in case I missed her climbing out onto a bank somewhere. Knowing her, she might have forgotten that disappearing after you swim away tends to freak people out. But there's no response, so I figure she's still under the water. I wade into the river until I'm in about knee height. This will be a problem. I just now learned how to swim, and I'm no expert. If Roe's in danger, I may not be able to help her, simply because I might not even be able to swim well enough to reach her. But I guess I need to try.
I step in up to my waist and begin paddling clumsily. I never thought I'd find something that Roe was better at than I, but it's happened. I don't like feeling inferior to her. Without me, I bet she would have just sat around on the first day and have been killed right on her platform.
I can't see her anywhere. I push my face under the water. Still nothing.
I paddle further downstream. How long has Roe been under now? Almost a minute, I'd say. I'm beginning to get a little panicked.
"Roe? Roe?" I shout. I've worked too hard to keep her alive. I am not going to give up this easily.
"Caspian?" Someone's voice calls, but it's not Roe. I look up, eyes sweeping the banks for a moment before I find two figures not too far away from me. I take in the tan skin and dark hair even before I register the face. Adrian Martinez. I remember seeing him around before the Games. He didn't say anything to me. As far as I could see he spent most of his time watching and thinking. Which is why I'm a little surprised he has a blond girl leaning against his side. But I was probably just too distracted keeping track of Roe to notice them together.
"You okay, Caspian?" He calls. I don't question how he knows my name or why he cares. Right now I just need to find Roe.
"I can't find my District partner. She went under more than a minute ago and hasn't come up."
Adrian hesitates, and then takes the girl's arm off his shoulder, sitting her down gently on the bank. An unreadable, but definitely not pleased, emotion falls across her face and she whispers something to him. He shakes his head, replies, and pulls his sleeve from her grasp. He slides carefully down the bank and skids to a stop next to me. "I'll get her."
Before I can respond, he dives in and zips past me. I struggle back to the edge of the bank and climb out, panting. The blond girl has slowly inched her way towards the bank, and can't be more than twenty feet or so from me anymore. She has a knife in her hands, and the nervous look in her eyes makes it clear that she'll use it if she has to.
"Caspian Toushone, District 8. And you are?" I ask.
There's a short silence before she answer, "Baylyn Homer. District 1. And he's Adrian-"
"Martinez. From 5? I remember him," I say, but then realize she might have thought I was implying that she wasn't worth remembering. Which I wasn't, really. But judging by the way she hasn't been able to stand up yet, her ally is the bigger threat.
She doesn't respond, but looks at me with a ponderous expression. Before the silence has time to become awkward, there's a thrashing sound, punctuated by a scream. Our heads snap up. Without even thinking about it, I wrap my arms under Baylyn's and pull her to her feet. She yelps, in surprise or something, I suppose, but begins hobbling toward the noise, nails dug into my arm. We crest the top of a twist in the river, and freeze.
All I can see are tentacles. At first, anyway. Huge tentacles probably three times the length of my body, and thicker than my leg. After a moment of being stunned and overwhelmed, I can make out Adrian as he's pulled under the water, and Roe as she's briefly lifted up by the arm wrapped around her shoulders. She screams again and it plunges her under. Baylyn yelps in horror and crawls to the edge of the bank. I try to pull her back, afraid that whatever-it-is will get her too, but she slashes at me and I step back. I don't understand what she's doing, but she's clearly determined to go through with it.
"C'mon, Adrian!" She murmurs desperately. For a moment the only sound is the churning of water as the free tentacles of the beast flail, but then a form is blasted from the water. Baylyn tenses, then grunts in frustrations when she sees it's just Roe, screaming something about forks before she disappears again. Just when I'm thinking he's a goner, Adrian's ripped from the river. Baylyn screams his name, and throws the knife. I shout in surprise, thinking it's going to hit him, but it plunges into the tentacle. I stare open-mouthed at her. That was incredibly dangerous. If the thing had moved even a bit she could have buried the knife in his chest or head or…but I guess she knew she had to get him a weapon or that thing would kill him anyway.
There's a terrible, ground-shaking shrieking noise, and Adrian is pulled back into the water. The thrashing stops and the water is no longer churning. We wait in suspense, hanging over the bank. Slowly, something red spreads through the water. I'm not naive enough to wonder what it is. It's definitely blood. I feel panic rising in my chest. Where are they? Why can't we see them? Then I see something pink slip out into the river. I yelp and pull Baylyn back, thinking it's another tentacle, but she pushes me away and kneels at the edge of the river. She whoops in triumph and I dash back next to her as Adrian pulls a very dazed Roe into view and pushes off the bottom. Their heads break the surface, gasping and panting. They struggle to the bank where Baylyn and I pull them up next to us.
They collapse and cough while Baylyn and I thump their backs in relief.
"Never, ever, throw a weapon at me again!" Adrian splutters. "That was scarier than the sea monster!"
Baylyn grins and thumps his back "It worked, didn't it?" She laughs. Adrian glares at her and she just smiles.
"Uh…I…" Roe says and bursts into tears. Then I remember I have a job to do. Joy.
We parted ways with Adrian and Baylyn about an hour after the sea monster incident. They're not interested in more allies, although I'd love to have someone to talk to who actually gave intelligent replies. But after today's adventures, I can put up with Roe for a while.
The anthem plays abruptly. There's only one face. One of the boys. From…District 6? I'm not sure. But I don't really care right now. I just want to sleep off today's excitement.
"Uh…Caspian?"
"Yes, Roe?" I sigh.
"Yeah. I mean, night. Huh."
"Night, Roe."
Day six.
Surviving Contestants:
District 1: Wesley Sawr (Wez-lee Sahr)
Baylyn Homer (Bay-lin Ho-mur)
District 2: Hary Lumer (Hawr-ee Loo-mur)
Eewyn Carre (Yew-in Cuh-ray)
District 3: Nolaf Killt (No-lof Kilt)
Eviu Navers (Ee-vee-you Na-vurs)
District 4: Mattrick Brint (Ma-trick Brihnt)
Evita Cormichael (Eh-vee-tuh Core-michael)
District 5: Adrian Martinez (Ay-dree-un Mar-tee-nez)
District 6: Winona Sweet (Wih-no-nuh Sweet)
District 7: Kiteriin Fromet (Kit-er-een Fro-met)
District 8: Caspian Toushone (Cas-pee-in Too-shown)
Roe Tamden (Row Tam-dan)
District 9: none
District 10: Reno Serman (Ree-no Ser-mahn)
District 11: Dewq Deffen (Duke Def-in)
Berra Timsing (Bare-uh Tim-zing)
District 12: none
