Yes! We're in double digits for chapters :D! Anyway I hope you like this one! Katniss causes trouble for the careers again sure you know it, but here's the careers POV. by the way this chapter is all in Clove's POV, there'll be an all Cato POV chapter next time.

SORRY THIS UPDATE IS SO LATE school work was just piled on me :'(

Enjoy!

Chapter 10-The Girl on Fire Strikes Again

Clove's POV

CRACK. All of us freeze where we stand, as my eyes spin around to Cato. He stands, his sword hand in the air telling us not to move, a singular finger on his other hand covering his mouth to call for silence.

SNAP. I smirk as Cato grins evilly, that confirms it; there's a tribute out here, our next target.

With a hand of his finger, we previously discussed hand signs and what they mean yesterday back at camp after we ki-… well… yesterday.

A wave of his finger means to form a ring around the target, in this case the location of the sound. I look to Marvel and nod as he heads to the left of the sound, whilst I walk behind it and Cato takes the right. We decided that I look the least intimidating, at first glance, especially when far away because I could be mistaken for a 14 year old due to my size, or a slightly tall 12 year old. This tactic of letting me be seen draws the target in, assuming he or she will try to fight. Both Cato and Marvel will make sure to overtake the sound by about 50 metres, not in view, but in earshot. This tactic draws two possible main outcomes each with 3 subsections in a way.

Outcome number 1, as previously mentioned, the target will mistake me for someone much younger, this is the main outcome. The subsections are as follows: The target will remain where he is and prepare for battle, or he will go to take cover for what he believes will be a 'surprise attack'.

Outcome number 2, the target becomes suspicious and, due to this suspicion with either: try to run out of my sight and (hopefully) earshot, before hiding, or will try to put as much distance between myself and themselves before tiring.

Both of these outcomes of course, have a solution. Should outcome number 1 appear, and the target prepares for battle, I shall begin to fight, Cato and Marvel hear this, and come to my aid. Should outcome number 1 appear but instead of preparing, he tries to hide for the traditional 'if I hide she won't find me so Haha jokes on her' otherwise known as the 'surprise' attack, I will continue following the trail, pretending no to have noticed him and simply look around wearily, whilst either Cato or Marvel, one of which will have heard him approach their direction in order to hide, will begin the fighting, and as myself and whichever is not in conflict hears this, we shall go to their aid.

Should the target instead attempt to run, either with the intention of running and hiding, or running flat out, I will give chase and both Cato and Marvel will go to cut the target off, leading to an eventual (and inescapable) 3 on 1 fight which of course, leads to their death, and one less tribute to worry about.

Once in the semi-circular formation, or the backwards arrow-head formation depending on how you want to look at it, I look to Cato whilst he still remains in view and he puts his two wrists together, his fingers spanning out above like tree branches, another of his many code signs. He then holds up his fingers 10, but he repeats, 20. 20 metres. I nod again, confirming that the message was received and he looks to marvel this time repeating the action 8 times, to show 80 metres. 60 ahead of me (10 extra metres to make up for walking time). Perfect. We begin to walk and I watch as the other two fan out.

We worked out yesterday how many paces to a metre we all do, and in 'sneak mode' (corny I know) I do half a metre per step. After counting out 40 paces I duck behind a tree as a third (and perhaps final) CRACK meets my ears. I count to 3, I purposefully take sneak mode to allow the boys more time to gain position so they should be ready at the exact point the target begins his reaction. I peek around the tree to find the boy from I think 10, he has nothing on him save for the clothes he came in with; doubt he'll be fighting then. On seeing him a distinct image comes to mind of the boy practicing with a baton, surprisingly well, so if he does fight… he could easily use a branch or a small log… not like we're short of them.

I take out my hair tie and slide it over my wrist before standing, my back to him. My most hated part of this plan. In order to look weak and innocent, he needs to think he's seen me before I've seen him… we practiced the technique with 3 where I appeared first and he quickly shrieked thinking we'd turned on him, yet with my back turned, and hair undone he didn't recognise me and thought I was a remaining tribute like 5 and so instead tried to move out of view before I 'saw him', or at least that's what Cato told me. And so, to my great annoyance, this is the plan we work with, a defenceless girl who looks no older than 16, no younger than 12 (though that wouldn't be possible anyway as you have to be 12 to even be in this thing.)

I turn my head left and right and purposefully step on a twig, pretending to shriek in fear at the 'snap', yet never let him see my face. I hear the softest sound behind me as leaves crunch beneath his feet which I now know are approaching me, and gaining speed.

Smirking, I turn and draw out two knives to face him. He has a log raised even though he's still metres away, his posture bent, offensive, yet easy to manoeuvre back into a defensive stance. Instantly, and to my delight, the look on his face turns from careful concentration, to shocked horror as he realises who I am, as he should realise who I am.

"10, right?" I smile, my voice dripping with fake interest.

"2. Right?" he tries to copy my bold way of speaking, yet his voice shakes and I know he will only last seconds, minutes if he's lucky.

"Name's Clove… not that you need to know." I smile and rush at him, he swings the log at me but I duck and swipe at his stomach. He quickly reacts so that as my knife cuts through his shirt (his jacket having been worn undone) he brings the log down so as to knock the knife away, though I still feel the joy of having made contact with him, and though shallow, barely a scratch, I know I drew blood.

He knows it to though doesn't bother to try to aid it, or try to acknowledge about his pain, he concentrates on this situation, and I know I must to. I don't wait, I pounce, with my free right hand I bring the second knife down into his leg, and this, gains an acknowledgement. He screams in pain and as he does so an arm wraps around his neck, Cato, he smirks at me, and then a spear is run through his side, all the way through, skewering him as if he was nothing more than a mere kebab. I withdraw my knife, Cato lets go, and Marvel draws out his spear. The bleeding, lifeless boy falls to the floor, his eyes full of sadness as he realises what's happened.

BOOM. The cannon sounds and it confirms it. He's dead.

"One down, so that makes… how many now?" I raise an eyebrow at Marvel as I use the boys jacket to clean my knife.

"Including us… I'd say he was 10th so… 9."

"Nearly the final eight, how 'exciting'" Cato laughs and I smirk; Marvel too grins as he wipes his weapon on the grassy floor.

"Did he have anything?"

"Nope, he picked up a log for a weapon."

"Ah, fight technique? He looked like the running kind of guy when we passed him, or at least he did to me. What did you think Cato?"

"Got to agree with him… but fighting or not, he lost. Idiot…" We all laugh again as the sun rises above the trees, it must have been morning for a few minutes but none of us had truly realised.

"Come on; let's get back to camp, few more hours sleep before the next preparation for the next hunt and then again the day after and-"

"Cato. We get it. We have a routine and in preparation we sort everything we need blah blah, just like we did with the code signs, correct?"

"Well… yes, correct." I roll my eyes at him and he gives me a shove, I know he wants to be a good leader but sometimes he forgets that we're not idiots, or at least I'm not, can't vouch for Marvel I must say.

Joking and laughing, we head back, to camp, though I can't stop the memory of last night's kiss creeping into my mind, and even if Enobaria says no, I want it more than anything. I know Cato does too but I have to try and suppress it… I know I do… but for now, I go with it, one of us might die soon anyway, and complicating things further wouldn't do any good, so that's what I tell myself, and push it out of my mind as we head back, a small, innocent smile playing on my lips.

"Cato! Marvel! Get up! Get up!" Smoke. It started rising above the trees a few minutes ago and I quickly try to shake Cato and Marvel out of their slumbers, we've basically become nocturnal since the arena, having only ever hunted at night.

Cato shoots up grabbing his sword and looking around instantly, worried that we're being attacked, which is surprising as I don't think anyone's dumb enough to attack us whilst were a group.

I quickly point up towards the sky and his eyes fall on the smoke. A grin comes over him, making a fire at night is one thing, but in pure day? Now that is just an open invitation. I smile darkly and Cato turns to find Marvel rubbing his eyes annoyedly.

"Why the hell did you wake me I don't h-" He breaks off yawning widely before continuing "-hear nothing…"

"Idiot…" Cato mutters before gabbing Marvel and turning him in the direction of the smoke. He removes his hands from his eyes and looks towards it groggily, yet quickly awakens at the sight of it, a wicked smile crossing his face.

"My bets on the plant lover from 5." It's quite fun that we do this, bet on who the tribute will be, we don't know many of them, and if we do it's only by a number, but even if we don't know them, then we can just make bets to see what number will appear in the sky.

Cato smirks at him. "You're on. My bet is it's the girl from 11. She's 12 right?" He looks to me with a raised eyebrow.

12 years old… wow… "Yeah… how the hell is she still alive?"

"Well she won't be for long!" Marvel says cheerily and looks towards Cato. "Where too boss?" As always, he rolls his eyes, Marvel has been calling him 'boss' just to take the piss since he got over (or seemed to get over) Glimmer. He was seriously upset about her, Cato and I guessed that he just fell for her like all the dumb capitolites but either way, he isn't moping now… and without her, he speaks a hell of a lot more too, nothing to gawp at I guess.

"Where do you think? The smoke dumb ass, come on!"

I grab my knife jacket, yet don't withdraw my usual two just yet, the smoke seems to be a while away and what's the point in wielding them when I've got so much distance to cover first?

We set off at a run, full of adrenaline at the prospect of fresh meat, though it's only 10 minutes before we settle down into a jog.

We're thick within the forest and the sign of smoke is temporarily lost. Cato pauses hesitantly, so we're obviously lost… never leave a boy to pick directions, even if he is a career.

"Oi Clo."

I roll my eyes at Marvel annoyedly. "Clove…. not Clo!" stupid Marvel.

"Whatever… can you climb the tree?"

"Why me?" Sure I can but why would I answer simply? He can't get my name right, he won't get a basic answer.

"You're the smallest…" I narrow my eyes at him, dumb Logic. Turning my eyes to Cato, my annoyance grows as he just shrugs, meaning he agrees, and so, grudgingly, I climb up one of the nearest trees a few feet to try and find the trail.

"That way! And we're not far!" I point slightly to the left of where we were headed and quickly jump back down, yet slip on a branch. I topple downwards but instead of hitting the floor, I'm caught in a large pair or muscled arms. "Oh th-thanks Cato." He lowers me sheepishly as I try to force the red out of my cheeks before Marvel sees.

"Nice one Clove nearly falling and breaking something, yeah that would help."

"You climb the tree next time then you idiot."

"Oi both of you! Come on Clove said it's not far let's go!"

"What the hell?" A large heap of wood and dried leaves lies in front of us and we look at it in confusion. Where are the tributes? Marvel and I turn to Cato in unison whilst he kicks one of the burning logs. "Fan out…"

"Wait. What's that….?" Another column of smoke has started to rise into the sky and as I point Cato's look hardens. "I don't know but let's get the bastard that's doing it so I can goddam kill them!" I nod and we set off at a sprint towards the source. We're nearly there when an ear-splitting BOOM reaches are ears, the ground shaking ever so slightly.

In shock, all 3 of spin around as Cato and I say in unison: "the supplies!"

We turn, forgetting the tribute and run, Cato just ahead of me.

When we finally reach it we find the pile up in smoke, all of the charred remains strewn across the ground, the district 3 boy looking around in shock and confusion. In a swift and quick movement Cato walks up to him. He tries to back away, terrified, but he's no match for Cato. Within seconds Cato has grabbed his head, twisted it, and the boy falls to the floor.

BOOM. One more dead.

I turn around to find Marvel nowhere in sight. "Marvel?"

Cato looks to me as he hears me calling for Marvel and his anger, though still prominent, lessens slightly. "What's up Clove…?"

"Marvel's like… vanished. I know he's not as fast as us but still he's nearly always in view… isn't he?"

Even Cato looks a tiny bit worried, we may not care about Marvel but we decided ages ago when we finally take on Thresh we'd need all 3 of us for it to properly work, then we could turn on him. I walk up to Cato in silence. "Should we search nearby? He could have tripped? He is a clumsy idiot after all, even if he is deadly with a spear."

Cato drops his voice slowly. "Or he could be hiding and has turned on us... we're not close enough to the bushes for a proper attack... not yet…" I pause, slightly annoyed I hadn't thought about this but also nod.

"So we do nothing?"

"We do nothing."

We go to gather the remains of the supplies and it's not long before both of us freeze. BOOM. I look to Cato who looks to me in confusion. "Marvel?"

"i… don't know." And I don't… I have no idea who just died.

"Maybe Marvel went after whoever started the fires?" I nod slowly at this comment. I guess it's possible.

BOOM. "So if he killed whoever started them… who was that?"

Okay so I hoped you liked this chapter, ironically when I typed, and everytime I re-read "Why the hell did you wake me I don't h-" He breaks off yawning widely before continuing "-hear nothing…" I kept yawning :0! But anyway, reviiewwwww

Thanks!

-Tara
xxxxx