'Heyyyy people! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Sorry it took so long, it decided to delete itself!
PS: I wuv you all, even those who hate the story and think it's a disgrace to the Hunger Games!
Aricula is sitting in a moderately tall Elm tree, sharpening her knife with a rock.
Her black hair is tied in a Dutch braid down her back, not unlike Katniss Everdeen in the 74th Hunger Games.
The sky is grey, and rain is softly falling into the arena.
A bush starts to rustle.
Aricula stays where she is, her knife ready.
Kai enters the spot below Aricula's tree and looks around.
'Come on, District Five. I know you're here. I saw you.' he says.
Aricula looks confused.
'I have a knife, if you're here to kill me.' she says to him.
'I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to warn you.' he explains.
Aricula raises an eyebrow.
'What could you possibly warn me about?' she asks.
'Well... My allies. Well, ex-allies. They're going to kill Ten and then you.'
Aricula rolls her eyes.
'I'm no threat. I'm dehydrated anyway.' she says.
'You're a bigger threat than Three or Eight. Eight's got no weapons and Three's stuck in a cave.'
'What about Levi?' Aricula demands.
'We haven't got the slightest idea where she is.' Kai replies.
'And you know where Ari is?'
'... Well... No. But she's a bigger threat than you.'
'How do I know that you're not lying to me? You did kill Grey and Bridget. My ALLIES.' Aricula demands.
Kai hands his water bottle up to Aricula.
'I gave you water. Now do you trust me?'
Aricula thinks for a second. 'No. But what do you suggest I do to not get killed?'
'Come down here and I'll tell you.' Kai says.
'No. You come up HERE.' Aricula replies, putting her hands on her hips.
Kai rolls his eyes and starts to climb up the tree.
'I'm not going to hurt you.' he promises.
'I'm not a skittish animal.' Aricula retorts.
Kai looks at her face.
'You have pretty eyes.' he says.
Aricula rolls her "pretty" eyes.
'So. How do I stop-'
She's interrupted by a loud roar.
Her eyes widen.
'Climb. Don't make a sound. Just climb.' she orders.
Kai makes a strange face and starts to climb after another loud roar.
Aricula is about twenty feet up higher than before, scanning the ground.
A huge, brown bear with huger white fangs appears.
It roars loudly.
'What is THAT!?' Kai demands.
'Just climb. I'll tell you later!' Aricula yells over another loud roar.
The bear grabs onto the first branch and starts to follow them up the tree.
Aricula is almost invisible, freaking out in a flurry of branches and leaves.
'Keep climbing, Kai!' she yells.
Kai is tired a lot quicker than Aricula, and stops to rest.
The bear quickly catches up with him.
'Kai!'
Kai attempts to stab the bear, but the sharp edge of his spear bounces off its thick fur.
The bear rakes Kai's face with its long, sharp claws, leaving a deep gash through one eye.
Kai swears loudly.
'Help!' he yells.
Aricula jumps down to a lower branch and stabs the bear in the back of its throat with her knife.
Before she has a chance to get it out the bear crunches down on her arm.
The reaction is instantaneous. Aricula screams and takes her arm back, the bones pretty much crushed.
The bear falls down off the tree, wounded. It roars, and is subsequently hit in the mouth with Kai's spear.
'So... Now will you tell me what it is?' Kai asks.
Aricula is clutching her arm, her face contorted in pain.
'Crap!' she yells.
'I guess that's a no?' Kai says.
Aricula grimaces.
Kai jumps down out of the tree suddenly.
He reaches into the bear's mouth to grab their weapons and starts to skin it using Aricula's knife.
From the inside of the skin he cuts it in half.
Then he cuts off the belly skin, the softest part.
He climbs back up to Aricula and puts it onto her broken arm as a makeshift cast, then takes off his jacket to make a sling.
'Thanks.' Aricula says.
Kai goes back down to the bear and divides the spoils in half: a bit of bear meat, some blade-proof bearskin and one fang each.
He stuffs one of the piles into his backpack, except for the bearskin which he fastens around his neck to cover his entire body.
Aricula starts to climb down the tree, more falling than climbing due to only being able to use one arm.
She one-handedly puts her half of the spoils into her own backpack and retrieves her knife from Kai.
'That was a Vampire Bear mutt.' she explains. 'They can smell meat from up to ten metres, they are invulnerable everywhere except their mouth and their tongues secrete toxic sali-'
She looks down at her bearskin-covered arm.
'Kai, get this cast off of me this minute.' she orders.
Kai obeys.
Aricula's arm has turned an obvious shade of mottled blue, like Stilton cheese.
'Oh my gosh...' Kai breathes.
Aricula winces. 'Holy crap, I'm going to die.'
Ari and Azure have successfully reached the ruins of the city, on the opposite side of the arena to Aricula and Kai.
They're hiding out in an ivy-covored tower, roasting some kind of bird.
'Well, it seems I won't need the food tablets for now.' Ari says with a light laugh.
Azure tilts her head. 'You are keeping them though... Right?'
Ari laughs again. 'Duh. I wouldn't leave them now!'
'How many are left?' Azure asks.
'All the tablets except one morphling. You know, the one we used for your knife wound.' Ari replies.
'I meant people.' Azure says.
'Oh! Uh... Both from one, the girl from three, both from four, the girl from five, Levi, me, you. So that's... Nine.' Ari tells her.
'Ughhhhh...' Azure groans. 'Hey, nobody's died today. Do you think they'll force some people into a fight?'
Ari shrugs. 'Well, we don't know if there's been any fights today.'
'You seem relatively calm about that.' Azure mentions.
'I grew up killing things, remember.' Ari reminds her.
'Did you get to eat it? The meat, I mean.' Azure asks.
Ari looks shocked. 'No! You get horribly punished!'
Azure returns the shocked look. 'What do they do to you?'
Ari bites her lip. 'Well, I got whipped when I was seven for taking some pig entrails. Usually you get whipped or beaten or something, but they do kill people sometimes. Like if they steal a weapon or those poison tablets, or a good cut of meat.'
Azure grimaces. 'We don't really get punished that badly, but my mother said that's only because the Peacekeepers feel sorry for us. They're infinitely "rebuilding" stuff. I'm not sure what or why, Mother won't tell me, but I've heard that Twelve and Four are the same.' She makes air quotes to emphazise the word "rebuilding."
Ari shrugs with one shoulder. 'It could have something to do with the second rebellion.'
'Maybe.' Azure replies.
They're quiet for a minute.
'Hey, how funny would it be if the Capitol decided they didn't like what we were saying and blew us up right now?' Azure jokes.
'Not funny at all.' Ari answers. 'And it would be the Gamemakers, not the Capitol.' she corrects.
A building across the plant-covered road collapses into a pile of debris and flame.
'Niiice, Azure. Now we're going to blow up.' Ari says sarcastically.
The Gamemakers must be joking, because they don't drop any more bombs.
'Haha, very funny.' Ari says.
'Should we sleep now?' she suggests. 'Seeing as it's peaceful.'
Azure shrugs. 'Yeah, why not.' She takes the bird off the fire and throws her jacket over the burning wood to put it out.
Ari takes off her own jacket and curls up, using it as a blanket.
'Good day.' she says.
Azure laughs and starts to nod off herself.
Velon is STILL stuck in her cave.
Right now she's trying to push one rock out of the doorway, using a long, flat stone as a lever.
It's not quite working for her.
She's just about to give up when finally the rock rolls out of its spot, showing her daylight after two days of being stuck in the damp blackness of the her cave.
She squints as her eyes adjust and stares out at the arena.
'I could get out of here.' she says to herself.
The familiar bell of a parachute rings, and Velon is met by a medium sized silver backpack with a matching silver parachute.
She takes the pack into her cave and unzips it.
She starts to take out the contents, finding a gallon of water first, in the form of two half-gallon bottles.
A grin covers her face and she opens a bottle, gulping down as much of the precious liquid as she can hold.
Her thirst quenched, she takes out the second item.
It's a silver dagger about six inches long with a gold coloured hilt.
The blade is sharp, and Velon shivers.
She puts it next to the water bottles and reaches into the bag again.
The third and last item is a book. It's title is 'The Art of War' by a man called Sun Tzu.
Velon looks at the book curiously and flicks through.
The language is complicated, something that usually only Capitol citizens can read, but Velon manages.
She collects the remainder of her loaf of bread and cuts off a slice with her new dagger, eating it slowly and drinking water along with it.
She doesn't have much food left, but now she has water.
She picks up her long, flat rock again and starts to lever the other rocks away from the entrance of her cave.
One more falls, and now there is a big enough hole that Velon is able to get through.
She puts all her things in the silver backpack, with the exception of the parachute.
She holds one string in each hand, takes a deep breath and jumps out into the air.
She floats safely to the ground, out of the cave finally.
The Fallen
Nobody