*sigh* no i didn't miss a day . . . . I just have may have forgotten yesterday was tuesday. Anyway, getting back into the swing of things HAPPY HUNGER GAMES!

Chapter 10

The light was almost blinding after the dimly lit chamber. Korra was standing on a pedestal just big enough for her to balance on. On both sides of her the other tributes waited on pedestals like hers. All twenty four of them ringed what was called the cornucopia, a massive area filled with weapons, food, maybe even medicine. Above it the orange timer counted down from sixty.

She spared glances at the other tributes. She forced herself not to pay attention to the rusted walls that surrounded them. Most were focused on the supplies, trying to decide what to grab first. Korra met eyes with Chee. The firebender smiled and nodded.

Korra tried to think of what she she could grab. No, don't grab. Hold. The careers were going to take everything before anyone had a chance. Piles of fruit, a few swords, and an archery set, a few back backs that held who knew what else? The fewer of her enemies that held those objects the better.

The siren blared. The games had begun. Korra threw herself into the race to the center. She could hear the sound of fire blazing and a scream. Korra refused to look back. She could almost feel the pants of someone right behind her.

The moment she stepped onto the ground at the entrance she turned. With a strong movement her bending lashed out at her follower. One of the boys had been chasing her. He crumpled without even being able to take his next step. Had taking his life really been so easy and effortless?

"Korra!" She recognized Wei's voice. A friend in the madness around him. He threw off the girl that was clinging to his back. She hit hard into the wall of the cornucopia. With his bending he used the wall to seize the girl and quickly crush the life out of her.

"I have this end covered," She told him

"Then I'm covering it with you." He answered taking a defensive earthbending stance. Korra watched the way he stood. It was the first time she had been able to watch an earthbending master up close before. "Did anyone make it in?"

"Not that I saw." She struck a boy who was coming too close. District six she thought? He was quicker than she expected and ducked under her water whip. Wei however knocked him senseless with a boulder to his head.

They were not challenged a second time. The clearing was emptying. The opening volley was marked by the sound of a cannon. Three for the ones she and Wei had cut down. Four others Korra had not seen.

"We got them running!" Yong said laughing. He had grabbed a pair of dual swords and slung them to his belt. He probably thought he looked like Fire Lord Zuko carrying them. He wasnt that cool.

"Who'd you get?" Wei asked.

"The boys from eleven and twelve. Didn't even see you're little four." He laughed again.

"He probably took off the second the fighting started." Korra shrugged. "What about the Dragon?"

Yong spit on the ground. "There's you're dragon." He said. In the fire nation the title dragon was some great honor that traditionally came from killing an actual dragon. What had this poor boy from district five done to deserve their culture's honor? She could understand his frustration. She didn't want them calling some swampbending weakling a warrior.

"You killed him already?" Wei asked sounding both surprised and impressed. But did he sound a little concerned too? If he was Yong didn't even seem to notice.

"I watched him when the game started." Archer entered the cornucopia and sat on a nearby crate. In her hand she held a partially peeled grapefruit and was eating it like it was an apple. Like Korra had expected she had found a bow and clipped a quiver to her belt. "grabbed himself a pack the moment the siren went off and ran off the next moment. Headed towards the sun I think."

"Do we go after him?"

"Not yet." Yong ordered. "Let him take out a couple of the lesser tributes for us. After all, he's only got one pack right?" He paused to let Archer nod, "he's got to go after a few of them for supplies. Then we'll take him out together." He sat beside Chee and put his arm around her. Were they a couple and somehow Korra hadn't noticed the whole time? Korra heard of this kind of thing happening in district one, lovers fighting in a match to the death, but she hadn't been paying attention to it. More importantly when did he get put in charge? Didn't she get a higher score than him in the evaluations?

"What do we do for now?" Korra finally asked still grumbling.

"Well, we got all this food," Wei suggested. He batted a hanging sack of potatoes with the side of his fist. "It's really only a matter of time before another tribute or the game makers try to take it away from us. Why not have a party?"

"I don't know." Chee said even though she had already taken an apple out of one of the bags and taken a few bites out of it. Korra didn't like the way she chewed with her mouth open and talking through chunks of food. "If the games last too long won't it run out?"

"Wei's right though," Yong agreed, "Food is too much of a bait for the game makers to play with. If we let it sit they'll either lure the other tributes here or, I don't know, burn the whole place down. We might as well burn through as much of it as we can."

The tributes took to tearing through the supplies like starving moose lions. There was a sort of unspoken competition between them. All of them wanted to still wanted to look like they were on each other's good side. At the same time there was limited amount of everything and it was every man for himself.

Korra liked her lips when she found a case of salt. The case was overlooked by the other tributes but to her, the one that lived where they harvested it from the sea and used it to preserve almost all of their foods, it was like finding gold. Buried in the box in the box like an even sweeter, or in this case saltier, treasure a few cuts of meat were waiting for her. She fully intended on roasting them the moment Yong got a fire going.

Wei had found tucked away in a corner a case of what looked like wine. Korra had never tasted it before but she remembered Asami talking favorably about it once. She tried only a sip before deciding she didn't like the taste. Wine and coffee. Were there any drinks that her girlfriend liked that she would?

Wei and Chee practically split the case between them. The firebender didn't take to the alcohol well by the look of it. After a half hour she was stumbling around the cornucopia like a puppy learning to walk on ice. She kept claiming she had drunk worse in her district and was just fine. The others just watched her with disapproval. Wei on the other hand seemed just fine. He found a place to sit and laugh as he talked about Zaofu and the things his siblings did.

Yong finally got the fire going using debris and scrap boxes and a few emptied out crates. Korra remembered she didn't like the smell of wood burning smoke. It was different than the smell of burning elephant seal blubber although she could not quite describe how. She had only smelled wood fires a few times as a child. Wood was much less common in the southern tribe and blubber was a staple. She did think though that the smoke was doing something to the taste of her meat though and she liked it.

"How many of them are you?" She heard Chee's yell echo off the wall of their little den of killers. Somehow in her drunkenness she had forgotten how many Beifong children there were. Wei talked endlessly about the twin brother he had left behind.

"I'm going to scout the area." Korra finally said. She didn't know how long she could stand being around her. She was a career that should be reflecting her district. How could she be so careless on the first day of the games.

"I'll come with you," Archer volunteered. Korra personally didn't want her too but couldn't think of a reason otherwise. Together the two headed into the cool twilight.

The area around the cornucopia was bare and dusty. The careers had picked it clean of the packs before the feast started. Now it was only gravely earth cluttered with chunks of rock. All around them in a wide circle high, rusted metal walls rose. The shortest of them rose a good ten feet or so above Korra's head. There were openings in the walls, wide passages that seemed to enter a maze of the same baron ground.

"What kind of place is this?" Korra breathed

Archer only shrugged, "Just some broken down city. "Not the game maker's most creative choice." Korra thought it looked almost like a worn down version of the capitol. They both had high metal buildings and high walkways. Then again wouldn't every city look the same to her.

They choose a north bound corridor that opened into a plaza of some kind. The shops were old, the paint chipping away. A sign that said 'groceries' banged against the side of the building in irregular intervals.

"Think there's any food in there?" Korra said pointing, "There has to be more places than the cornucopia with supplies right?" The careers holding it like they were couldn't be making for an interesting show.

Archer readied her bow and nodded towards it. "You check the place out then. I'll cover you."

The thought of Archer shooting her in the back crossed Korra's mind. What would be the point of becoming a traitor so quickly? The other careers would drive her out in a second.

Korra brought a stream of water to her hands. The air here was thick with moisture that almost weighed her down. Korra like the feel of the real water again, not the synthetic bending of the training arena. It was cool and light and she realized how much she had missed just being able to hold it.

Korra pushed open the door. It did not open the entire way catching on something on the floor. She still managed to squeeze inside though the fit was tight by her chest. Right away she put her back to the wall to examine what she realized was an empty room.

One resource for you is one less for them. Tonraq's advice echoed in her head before she managed to move away from the wall. There were cabinets here, drawers, a closet and a line of old ice boxes. A door lodged in the back wall would have led to an inventory room if this was a working store. Korra dug through the drawers. There were papers and random dishes but no weapons of food she could find. The ice boxes were empty and the closet held only a broom. Could she turn this into a spear maybe?

When she opened the door to the back room she heard the crash. Metal against metal clattering across the floor. The two tributes that had been hiding there stood over a pile of recently opened cans. The closest one grabbed the opener and lunged at korra. With a swinging kick of water she knocked him aside. The second had followed right behind manage to grapple her around her middle. The force of his blow knocked her backwards through the door. He was larger and the both of them tumbled onto the floor into the main room.

Korra heard the sharp sound of glass shattering. A plate they landed on maybe. As she struggled for ground she tried to find shards from the broken plate to use as a weapon. She could not find one but with a kick to the stomach she finally wrenched herself free from the tribute. She leapt back a few feet and assumed a defensive stance.

The tribute stood and immediately begun his charge again. He stopped a second later. An arrow had appeared in his forehead. The injury dripped and the tribute fell. Korra and the second tribute watched, both stunned as he collapsed.

A second arrow flew through the window Korra now realized was broken. It buried itself in the throat of the second tribute. With a half a minute of gruesome coughs that stained his lips with blood he collapsed as well in a heap of gore. Two cannon blasts broke the silence.

"Did you even try to kill them?" Archer asked when she shoved the door open a little further. Together the two began to search over the bodies. Archer pried the can opener out of the boy's hand. The blade on it was dull, but it was still a blade and she pocketed it.

"Water isn't exactly the deadliest of elements." Korra defended, "You didn't give me enough time. I almost had him."

"That's how you end up dead." Archer stood and glanced out the window. "Come on, it's getting dark. We should be getting back."

Korra followed. The sun had just set behind the high walls. She didn't feel cold like she should have. The air was still heavy with water and the lack of breeze made it feel thick. Then why was there a shiver creeping in her fingers and up her arms?

Just as they made it back they heard the music. High in the sky the anthem blared and the symbol of the capitol glowed in the sky. The night was over and the kills of the day displayed. The girl from five, both tributes from six. Korra recognized the boy with his can opener. The blood bubbling on his lips as he fell. District nine lost both of their tributes as well. Ten lost their boy. Eleven and twelve were knocked completely out of the games. Which one had been the boy she cut down at the cornucopia's entrance? Did it bother her she couldn't remember his face?

"More than half gone." Wei noted as the sky grew dark again, "We should get some sleep. Volunteers for first watch? Most of you volunteered to be here so one more wouldn't hurt am I right?"

Wei had volunteered himself but it was Yong who ended up taking the watch. Chee had already fallen asleep in a stinking heap on the floor. The others settled around her, Korra being shoved uncomfortably close in the tight space. The smell of the wine was heavy in her nose as she tried to fall asleep. The ground was smooth but cold and hard. Had she become so easily spoiled by the bed in the tribute center? Here there were no drums or owls, only the distant sounds of insects.

Korra was waiting and watching. She was in the forest by the river, the very same she had spared in during training. The dragon had lived through the first day. She was waiting for him now. Every noise, every call of an animal, put her nerves on edge. When it finally came for her she reacted just as much out of panic as anticipation.

At first it was a blurr of movement. An arm swiped past where she had been standing only the moment before. When her vision focused she realized she wasn't facing the dragon at all. The boy was bigger than her with blank white eyes. From his throat the arrow was still deeply lodged. Dried blood crusted around his mouth and left little streams that pooled on his shirt.

Korra screamed as he lunged at her with his dull can opener.

The cry had leaked into reality and she found herself sitting up on the metal floor. Her heart was pounding and her forehead was wet with cold sweat. She held her hands in front of her trying to see them in the dark. They were shaking. She tried to force them to stop. Only day one and she was shaking.

Get it together. She told herself. She couldn't let the other careers see her like this. And the warriors at home. They couldn't see their career shell shocked and cowering after a single kill. But Asami? Korra could shake her head at the thought. She would have said the dream made her more human. The fear. The regret. What place did they have in these games?

With a heavy sigh Korra dropped a hand just behind her. She needed to get back to sleep. But when her hand felt something wet and slipped she brought it back up. Who had spilled something next to her.

That was when the smell hit her. It wasn't an unfamiliar one. She had noticed it on hunters almost every time they returned to the tribe. Her father would often smell the worse. He had always liked to carry the kill home himself.

Blood. Blood and death was next to her. Thick, stinking blood that pooled around the dead tribute from district one. It already soaked into her hair and clothes.

"Korra!" The should had come with a blinding light from a flashlight. She couldn't see who was holding it. Around her she could feel the other tributes waking up. The beam of light fell on Chee. Her body was cut in a dozen places and her throat slashed through. Again the light turned on Korra.

"You killed her!"