Hello, all. :) I've been working on the story arc this past week and I'm so excited for some of the stuff I get to write about and I can't wait to see what you all think. Too bad it'll be a while... maybe summer'll speed things up.
Thank yous go out to all of my readers, followers, and favoriters. More specific thanks to Midnight'sRevenge, Frostivy, TheMaximumExperience, and Anon (Here ya go, dear. Thank you!) for reviewing. I absolutely love reading what you all have to say. And, like I said last time, if you have any questions about anything in the story let me know. I'll respond next Saturday when I post or maybe later today if you review in time. ;)
Anyway, here we go. Some Finch 'n Nic time.
My fists clench then unclench. I refuse to cry here in this Arena with the entire country watching me. I will not let it happen, I will not show weakness. It doesn't matter how terribly I want to, I won't cry for him.
Then the face of Finch's District partner flashes up in the sky. I look over at her as her head begins shaking. "I told him not to run to the Cornucopia. He knew better and he did it anyway."
Somehow, we end up holding each other as the remaining faces flash in the sky. The faces of the dead. The faces of children who will never get to see their parents again. The face of Zayn, my district partner and friend.
My eyes close as tears threaten to spill. I pull Finch in close for a hug. She embraces me right back. Neither of us are willing to appear weak to the audience, this moment will be taken as the solidification of our alliance. Our partners are gone; we're all that we have left to rely on. Two girls fighting to survive against all odds. It should be dramatic enough for the Capitol.
Once the faces fade away with the anthem, Finch and I crawl in under the bushes I hid in earlier. Neither of us wants to be alone. Besides, it's cool out and we only have the one sleeping bag, which I now realize with a sick feeling in my stomach was probably meant to be Zayn's.
I press the shell to my ear as a tear unwillingly falls.
We wake up to the boom of a cannon. Instinctively, Finch and I clutch each other and look around us for any sign of danger. After a few, excruciatingly slow minutes, our breathing evens and we let go of each other. The terror has mostly passed.
Finch's brown eyes are wide as she looks at me. "Who do you think it was?" she whispers.
I shake my head, unwilling to speak. I have no idea, but if a guess was necessary, I'd wager it was one of the younger kids. I won't say it though, it sounds too terrible.
"Should we go back to sleep?"
"Probably. Who knows when we'll get another chance?"
She nods and lies back down.
Her breathing evens after a few minutes. It takes well over an hour before mine does too. It's getting harder and harder to shut my mind off and we're only a day in.
Finch shakes me awake in the morning. She looks disheveled, like she's just woken up too. Her hair's an absolute wreck full of leaves, twigs, and dirt with pieces of it falling out all over the place. There's even a smudge of dirt on her cheek.
I laugh. It sounds throaty and hollow though, a mere echo of what it used to be. If I ever genuinely laugh again, I'll be surprised.
Her brows furrow and she cocks her head.
"You're a mess," I say with a shrug.
"So are you," she counters.
My hand instinctively runs over my hair. It is a mess. It's only been a day since it's been washed but it's already feeling greasy and nasty. I grimace and make a face. "Know where there's a stream?"
She shakes her head, rubbing her eyes.
Crawling out from under the brush, I look up at the sky. It's all blue, no pinks or purples. It's clearly been a long time since sunrise. Part of me is amazed I managed to sleep so long, but now that I'm up it's time to go. Today I will find water and better shelter. I'll learn the area around here and it will be my domain as much as the Cornucopia is the Careers.
Finch joins me, her eyes nervously surveying the area around us.
"Hungry?" Her stomach answers and I pull the red apple out of my pants pocket and hand it to her. She shakes her head and takes her own. "We should find a stream. There have to be a few flowing off from the lake."
The apple crunches in my mouth, juice flowing down my lip. It's sweet and I want more, but I pace myself, knowing food will be scarce from here on out.
"Come on," I say, striding towards the Career Camp. "Let's find some water."
Finch follows me with our sleeping bag tucked under one arm.
The Career campsite isn't the hub of activity I'd imagined it would be. 3 is tinkering, completely unsupervised, with something near the pile of food. It looks technological, but I have no idea what it could be. A glance at Finch's furrowed face tells me she's not sure what it all means either. The only other person I see wandering around is Peeta and it really doesn't look like he's doing anything productive. It's impossible to not wonder about where the others are. They could be watching us attempting to watch them, evil smirks in place as their weapons rise to the ready.
Finch takes the lead now, plunging me out of my dark thoughts as she begins wandering stealthily around the edge of the forest towards the shining lake. I follow her bright red hair, my feet careful not to step on anything lying in the undergrowth. As we creep, we keep a lookout for our enemy.
Once we work our way around the edge of the Cornucopia, it's revealed that the main four are asleep inside of it in a mess of sleeping bags and limbs.
Unwillingly, I feel my blood boil when I see Glimmer snuggled up to Cato, her leg casually thrown over his stomach and her head nestled in his neck. But I shake my head and let the feeling go. Until the end, there is no real loyalty between us. Even then, loyalty is probably nonexistent now that Zayn is out of the picture. A frown tugs at my face as I cast his sleeping form one last look before hurrying to catch up with Finch who has managed to silently scamper a few meters ahead of me.
I want so terribly to jump into the lake once we're near enough to it. It's highly unlikely that Peeta or 3 will try and hurt or kill us, but there's still the risk that the quartet will wake up and slaughter us in the water.
Cato's words from the Training Center echo in my head as I watch the rippling surface. I'll drown you, babe.
A shiver unwillingly slides up my spine as my arms wrap around my body.
"You ok?"
Finch's golden brown eyes are filled with concern, probably at the possibility of a weak or useless partner. I delude myself into believing it's genuine worry though.
"Yeah," I mumble.
"No, you aren't," she says, but doesn't press the issue. Instead she goes marching along the bank of the lake from inside the safety of the forest.
Eventually, the lake curves out and narrows into a river, which we follow until it's more of a shallow stream. The terrain has changed by now too- no longer dense brush, but more open and almost beach-like. The water is flanked on either side by rocks that dip slowly down into it or jut out above it forming outcroppings. As we walk along I identify some fish swimming around near the surface. They should be easy enough to catch, even without a trident. It's almost as if the Gamemakers are trying to help us out by giving such an easy food source to us. Either that or their mocking us, knowing the fish are too quick to catch or that we won't be able to light a fire to cook them with.
"This shouldn't be too bad," I say. My hand gestures to the nearest bit of river.
Finch looks skeptical but nods.
I strip down to my underwear and jump in, not even waiting on my ally. The water feels wonderful. It's cool, refreshing, and washes some of my worries down the river with it. My head dips under so I can tug my bun loose and work some of the knots out. It feels so good to let everything loose for a few minutes.
When I emerge, Finch is still standing on the shore, fully dressed. She's looks nervous as she alternates watching me and the forest. She must think there's something or someone out there.
"Come on, Finch. It's now or never," I call, treading the water.
Her eyes meet mine and she beckons me closer. A chill runs down my spine as the idea of danger being behind me fills my mind. Or maybe it's in the water with me. Gamemakers have been known to put a dangerous species in a foreign habitat in order to keep tributes on their toes. What if there's an alligator lurking in the water below me? Or a shark? What if it's a muttation made from the two of them?
My body stiffly moves through the water, perfectly aware that this could be my last few moments.
When I reach the edge, I run out and over towards the girl from 5. My head whipping around to make sure I'm safe. There's nothing there though. No terrifying animal or muttation. No hulking tribute about to spear me through the gut. It's just as peaceful as it was when I leapt into the water.
My blood boils. She's terrified me for absolutely no reason. I turn towards her about to give her a piece of my mind when she mumbles three words that cause me to freeze in place.
"I can't swim."
This thought had never occurred to me. When you grow up around something it's easy to forget that not everyone has the same talents or abilities as you. Survival skills like swimming and fishing are so easily taken for granted in 4. It's a way of life for us. I can't believe I'd been so thoughtless though. I should have known Finch couldn't swim, especially since she'd told me she was basically starting from ground zero in the Training Center that first day we met.
I nod sadly. "We'll move to a shallower place. The current's a little too strong here anyway."
She shoots me a grateful look and scampers ahead as I gather up my clothes and follow her. She picks a pretty shallow pool (it looks like it will only reach to about our waists) with an almost nonexistent current.
By the time I catch up with her she's dipping her toes in the water to test it.
I set my clothes beside hers on the bank and watch for a minute as she slowly puts her leg in up to the knee with a huge shiver. I giggle and she shoots me a glare.
"I'd just jump in," I say, walking in at a brisk pace so my body will readjust to the cooler temperature. She never moves as I walk past her and in to the deeper water, ducking my head under.
My fingers go back to my hair as I continue working out the knots and scrubbing out the dirt and grease. It's nice to get this out and be clean again. It's also mind-boggling that I managed to get this filthy before twenty-four hours were even up. Hopefully this won't have to become a daily ritual, much as I'd like a daily swim it's too much of a risk.
"It's freezing," Finch howls and I turn to see her hugging herself as she hunkers down to about her neck.
"Go under. You'll adjust quick enough."
Her head goes under and she emerges quickly, spluttering and scowling at me. "Still cold."
"Give it time," I say, my mind wandering back to a time similar to this when Castalia and I had taken our siblings to the beach for the day. Keenan had hated the first half of our visit. After he'd adapted to the feel of the ocean and the cooler temperature though, he'd only come out when he was too tired to play around anymore. The day before the Reaping he'd begged me to take him back and I'd promised him I would in a couple days after things settled down… the thought of not being able to now makes me sick to my stomach.
I finish washing and crawl out of the water to lie on the shore and dry off. My hands rake through my hair, tugging on any leftover knots, before securing it on top of my head in a bun.
All around us the forest is grumbling with the sounds of habitation. There are birds chirping and frogs croaking. I even see a little rabbit hopping around in the undergrowth across the river. Other than that one animal though, there's no movement in the woods. It's positively still, which is both unnerving and comforting at the same time. No movement means no tributes are coming closer, but it could also mean that another tribute has scared away most of the animals that would normally be scampering about. I'm worried that we've been in the same place too long. Being stagnant could make us more susceptible to an attack.
"Almost done?" I call.
Finch nods, her red head disappearing under the water again for a brief moment before reappearing a few feet closer to me. She's at least trying to swim, it's more progress than most would attempt to make.
She walks out, her body shivering as she sits down beside me. "Can you do my hair?" she asks. "I'm too shaky to do it."
"Sure," I say, crawling behind her. Her hair is soft and most of the tangles are out of it so my fingers slide easily through before parting it down the middle. I gently take one side and then the other, twisting and securing them low on either side of her head, almost exactly as they had been before our swim. "Done." I pat her shoulders and move to sit beside her again, facing the forest to her back. It's impossible to be too careful.
"Do you and Cato have a deal?" she asks after a few minutes.
A knot clenches in my stomach. I really don't want to lie to her, but I also don't want her to know everything. She's as close to a friend as I have here, but she's also my competition, my enemy. "What do you mean?" I ask, attempting to find a loophole and buy myself some time.
"Is there anything going on between you two?" When I open my mouth to tell her no, she adds, "Please be honest, Nicaea. I can handle whatever it is."
Her calling me by name gets me and my head falls down to rest on my knees. I'll tell her part of what's happened between us, but not everything. Not yet anyway. "If him promising to drown me counts as a deal, then yes."
Red hair moves slowly left and right. "He likes you, you know."
I laugh. "He likes the idea of killing me."
"You like him too," she says. I can hear the smile in her voice. She's enjoying squeezing little details out of me and reading between the lines.
"I like the idea of killing him."
She laughs, a high-pitched bleating sound. "Good luck with that."
"It can be done." I think of Finnick and his Arena, of how he made a net and trapped the other tributes before killing them with the trident his sponsors bought for him. I could do that and wouldn't it be a shock to the Capitol citizens?
Finch has other ideas though. "Maybe if you work your mermaid powers on him and lure him into the water." She looks thoughtful for a moment. "I bet if you were swimming topless he'd dive right in without a second thought." She giggles a little. "Spear boy too. Then they'd kill each other trying to get to you first and we'd be down two Careers." She lies down beside me. "That's a good one. We'll have to keep that plan on the backburner."
I roll my eyes. "Right. If times get tough, I'll keep that in mind."
By now I'm mostly dry so I grab my clothes and begin tugging them on. Finch follows suit, despite still being mostly wet.
"Alright," she says, as she secures her boot on her left foot. "Let's split up and explore some. We'll meet here at sunset then head out to sleep somewhere safe."
"Sounds good," I say, heading off to go further into the woods and unexplored territory. I'll leave her the sleeping bag to carry around this time too, knowing she won't part with it and knowing that asking to take it would most likely end our alliance prematurely. Similar to the seagulls back home, a forager like her won't give up a treasure once they've found it.
"For what it's worth, I think you two would make adorable babies," she calls.
I scowl at her over my shoulder. The idea of reproducing with him is a nauseating one and, considering our situation, impossible.
The woods here are surprisingly bountiful as a food source. There are lots of fruit bushes to raid from, but I don't dare touch them in case I mess up like I did at Training. How sad would it be if I died because I ate a fruit? Almost as bad as dying because of an alligator in the water. Now that I'm actually wandering inside of the woods, I realize that there are quite a few animals wandering around. For the most part it's just birds and rabbits, things that I'm not sure how to trap, which means my only source of protein will be any fish I can catch in the river.
The time passes slowly as I wander through the forest. It's true that I'm getting more familiar with the trees and am finding identifying markers here and there, but it seems like such a waste of time. Certainly there's a better way to spend the afternoon.
It's just as I'm thinking this that I stumble across the first of the caves.
There are six of them scattered around the river. A couple have pools of water forming at the bottom of them. They're like little, hidden ponds. I yearn to explore them, but hold back knowing they're probably infested with all sorts of poisonous water snakes. Three of the others look fit for habitation with one located under a dip in the river that I find particularly appealing. The sixth and final cave is essentially blocked off by rocks so I can only catch a small glimpse of what lies behind, which just looks like more rocks.
I spend a fair amount of time exploring these caves. Even though the others are more accessible and larger, my favorite is easily the one hidden under the rapids. The river speeds up and becomes dangerous about a mile from the lake. There aren't any fish here, which makes me think other tributes will stay away too. When the river takes a sharp plunge to the right, there's a piece of rock that continues to jut out. It's under this that there's a crack which serves as the entrance to the cave. It's almost undetectable, making it perfect.
Since it's located under the river, it's loud and cold in the cave, the thundering of the river echoing in my ears, but it's dry and a bit of light comes in from small cracks that I can't locate. This will be my hideout when and if things go bad. I won't even tell Finch about this.
When I emerge from my cave, it's getting close to sunset so I make my way back to Finch and I's meeting spot. Again, I don't run into any other tributes and easily make my way to our bathing pool in the river.
Finch's red hair stands out dramatically against the green and gray landscape here and I hurry to catch up to her. When she hears my footsteps, her head turns in my direction and she smiles impishly at me. Something must have gone her way while we were apart and, since I never heard the cannon go off, I have absolutely no idea as to what it might be.
"What happened?" I ask.
"I know what they're doing. Find anywhere we could stay?"
I'm not sure who "they" are or what "they" are doing. I can assume she's referring to the Careers, but it's impossible to know for sure. She'll tell me when we get settled down for the night. "There's a cave a little ways from here we can sleep in."
"Awesome. Lead the way."
It's a quick jog to the nearest cave, but it's one of the smaller ones so I head a little further to a slightly bigger cave. As we go along, I notice Finch stopping periodically to collect some berries. My stomach unwillingly grumbles, clearly remembering that the last time it was fed was breakfast this morning.
Finch chuckles and grabs a few more berries.
"Here it is," I say gesturing to the rocky room when we get close enough.