DISCLAIMER: I DO USE QUOTES FROM THE BOOK WRITTEN BY SUZANNE COLLINS. I DO NOT CLAIM ANY SIMILAR IDEAS OR WORDS AS MY OWN AND I AM NOT TRYING TO PUBLISH THIS STORY. I RENOUNCE ANY CLAIMS OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.
About an hour later, we start again. We are slower, yes. But for some reason, I sense we are getting closer to our target. Raspy coughing echoes through the pack, and then I catch a glimpse of the Girl on Fire, Katniss. I point. "Look!" Everyone looks to where she sits comfortably in a cool spring, and Cato's almost-demonically deep voice cries out, "Run!"
We draw our weapons and chase after Katniss, who is running remarkably fast with a limp. I see her scramble quickly up a tree in a manner similar to that of a squirrel. By the time we reach the base of the tree, we she is at least twenty feet up. I grow angry at her quickness. I try to climb the tree, but quickly stop since the jagged bark is ripping into my skin.
"How's everything with you?" she calls down smugly.
"Well enough. Yourself?" Cato snarls.
"It's been a bit warm for my taste," she says calculatingly. "The air's better up here. Why don't you come on up?" At this, the rage is boiling my blood, threatening to spew out of my veins and light her tree on fire.
"Think I will," says Cato.
I get a quick glance of the bow and arrows—my bow and arrows that Katniss neglected to take up the tree with her. Tossing them to our pack leader, I say, "Here, take this, Cato."
He pushes my offerings away. "No. I'll do better with my sword." He hoists himself into the tree before Katniss scurries up higher like a little tree rat. I make a sad attempt to shoot at her with an arrow, which she grabs and waves teasingly over my head. I can feel my face turning red in anger.
Peeta stops me. "Oh, let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning." Which we all agree upon. We end up staying there until the morning, devising a plan on how to kill the girl who mocks us with her tree-climbing ability. We are sleeping when all of a sudden, a swarm of angry tracker jackers engulfs us. I take off faster than ever because I know the effects a tracker jacker sting can have on a person; one sting can cause hallucinations, several and you're done for. I am running and running until I reach a tree, which I have no problem nimbly and adeptly leaping onto. Wonder why I didn't do this earlier, I think while climbing higher than Katniss could ever possibly climb. I am safely out of the reach of the tracker jackers before I realize that I left the bow in the reach of the archer. My heart really drops now. Shit! I think. Shit, shit, shit! She must've taken it! I promise myself I'll go retrieve it, but the exhaustion of my time here in the Games gets to me finally, and I sleep. When I wake up, it is a little after morning, but I feel like I have been out for days.
I reach the ground, unscathed by any stingers or venom, and start to where Katniss must be. When I pass the tree where the tracker jacker attack had occurred, I notice the disfigured bodies of the girls from District 4 and District 3. Girl from District 3…. I thought she was dead already!
I look for Katniss, but there is no sign of her. I stalk the woods until nightfall, and realize that I'm quite lonely without my pack. I suddenly notice a small fire glowing in a valley just beyond the stream I had enjoyed a few days ago. I run towards it, sword in hand, and then hide behind the thick trunk of a tree. Watching the scene unfold, I see Katniss inhaling her dinner and watch the little D-11 girl emerge quietly from the woods. Katniss's clear, alto-pitched voice startles me as she says, "You know, they're not the only ones who can form alliances."
All is silent for a spilt moment when the D-11 girl, whose name I now recall as being Rue, reveals herself. "You want me for an ally?" she asks in a quiet, childlike voice. She must be only about twelve years old, and suddenly I empathize with her.
I inch a little closer as the exchange unfolds and forms their little alliance. Katniss offers Rue a piece of meat. Rue offers Katniss relief for her stings. Katniss offers Rue a salve for her burn. The list goes on and on and I get quite bored until Katniss begins to talk of Peeta. My ears perk up.
"You know the boy from my district? Peeta? I think he saved my life. But he was with the Careers."
"He's not with them now," Rue affirms. "I've spied on the base camp by the lake. They made it back before they collapsed from the stingers. But he's not there. Maybe he did have you and had to run." Typical Peeta, always trying to protect everyone but himself.
Katniss is silent for a while. The conversation bores me again until Katniss begins to conspire against the other Careers. This has my attention more than anything she has said so far.
"Say the supplies were gone," she begins slowly. "How long would they last?" She takes a moment to lower her voice. "I mean, it's the Hunger Games, right?'
I poke my head inconspicuously around the tree as Rue whimpers, "But, Katniss, they're not hungry."
"No, they're not. That's the problem." The light of the fire illuminates her malevolent determination. "I think we're going to have to fix that, Rue."
I can stand no more, so I yank out a knife from my bag and emerge from behind the tree. "Fix what, Katniss?" I say in a snarky tone. Both she and Rue turn quickly at the sound of my voice, and Katniss raises her loaded bow at me. I just smile. "Are you trying to kill my friends? Because that wouldn't be very nice," I say, mock-pouting.
Glowering at me, she keeps her arrow fixed on me. "I'll shoot," she threatens. "Don't think I won't. I thought you were dead! I was sure the tracker jackers killed you…"
My grin widens. "A girl with a 12 in training didn't get it for nothing. I'm not just a pretty face, you know." The crowd will love this.
Rue whispers something to Katniss that I don't make out, and Katniss nods her head slowly. Rue clears her throat and says, "We'd like you to be in our alliance."
"Alliance, eh?" I consider, twirling my knife around my fingers. They want me to be part of their plan to kill the Careers. Why not? I'd get a chance to obliterate some of the competition—especially Cato. But then I remember that Marvel is still with them, probably badly hurt from the tracker jacker stings. What if he's dead? I had left him in my selfish flight for safety! My breathing goes shallow. "I…I can't."
Katniss's head cocks to the side. "Why not?"
Is it the time to tell them? Is it the place? How do I really feel about Marvel? Could I kill him without a guilty conscience? I am beginning to find out that the Games are no place for a girl like me. I couldn't possibly kill Peeta, no. I love him too much. But Marvel…could I really?
A flashback of one of the most beautiful scenes in my life plays through my mind. Me, sitting on the plush Capitol bed with Marvel holding me in his arms. I am watching through the eyes of a stranger, and I see him holding me as more than just a little sister. He's holding me like a treasure, like something he couldn't bear to lose. Almost like he loves me… and that's when I reach revelation.
"Because…" I start, lip quivering. The words shock me as the slip from my tongue. "Because I am in love with my partner tribute."
Rue's eyes sadden. Then, she runs up to me and throws her arms around me as sobs rack through my body. I don't know why I'm crying. Maybe because I know Cato could never let Peeta get by with saving Katniss, Cato's target. Maybe because I'll probably never get to tell Marvel how I feel. Maybe because I just need to cry.
Katniss does something strange. She offers me the wing of the cooked bird she was roasting. I wipe my nose and accept it silently, realizing it's a token of our alliance. Between sobs and sniffles, I savagely wolf down the sweet, fatty meat without really tasting it. I shove the other wing down my throat, but end up vomiting it all up because I still feel sick from the smoke and the sobbing.
Katniss wipes my mouth with her shirt. "What's your name?" I am sniffling softly as I mutter my name almost unintelligibly. She then asks me how old I am, and I inform her that I just had my fifteenth birthday.
"When was your birthday?" Rue asks silently, coaxing a dark red liquid into my mouth that must've been delivered by Cashmere and Gloss. I recongnize this stuff. Its Oxykriffon, a sickly-sweet syrupy substance that is known to alleviate almost every type of tummy ache or muscle cramp. My mother used to be addicted to the medicine before she had me, and my father used to joke that my mom had too much Oxykriffon in her system and that's why I came out with red hair, since no one in our entire family history had red hair. I never found it funny.
"My birthday?" I ask, and she nods. "It was four days before the Reaping." I didn't get any gifts that day.
"I'm sorry," Katniss consoles, but I quickly change the subject.
"How do you do this?" I ask.
"Do what?" they both reply at the same time.
"How can you be hungry like this? All I've had to eat in the days we've been here are crackers and air, both of which I'm pretty sure I've vomited up already."
"It's second nature," Katniss starts. "In Districts 11 and 12, we aren't fed much. Especially me. I've had to go weeks without a decent meal."
I immediately regret having taken my hunger for granted and having practically inhaled the pheasant I was so used to eating at home that would've lasted for weeks at the homes of Katniss and Rue.
As we lay out our sleeping bags for the night, I realize that having Katniss, the Girl on Fire, as an ally may not be so bad after all. I am learning to trust her…