It was a slow and cold walk back down to the flatland where the Cornucopia stood. Greens had grabbed tightly to one of my hands and refused to let go. She spoke very little, occasionally offering guidance through her or my old footprints, but we were two fifths of the remaining trainers left; hiding wouldn't do us much good at this point. I squeezed her hand as we crossed the snowline and felt her frostbitten digits dig back in to mine. Ahead of us was about a hundred yards or so of thinly spaced trees on a gradual slope. Slink leaned his head on my shoulder, sometimes chirruping about something I had missed. Mostly wild Pokémon we would have otherwise stumbled in to. One particularly nasty looking tree was absolutely filled with Pineco, but we gave it a wide enough berth.

"Do you think we should catch one," Greens asked as we passed. I shook my head. We'd risk the entire tree going off like a firework, which is probably exactly what the League Makers wanted. A few yards later and I confirmed my suspicions as we plodded through a blackened crater.

As the trees grew thinner and I could begin make out the vast expanse that held the Cournicopia, I made sure to keep us behind trees relative to it. If I were alone I would have made my way back by now, if only to look for scraps. We wound up approaching the massive metal structure from the front, which was optimal. Surprisingly I could make out the Mamoswine still taking up guard. The large brown mound was now in a more natural resting position.

The great, green, handless lizard dropped from a tree next to me almost noiselessly, looking out at the Cornucopia without fear. He was just another wild Pokémon to whoever could be watching from afar (assuming we hadn't been followed, which had been the reptile's job to ensure). Greens squeaked as she noticed him for the first time, probably not having had a good look at him before now.

"When did you get a Sceptile?" She reached out and gently touched the healed-over stub of the lizard. He offered the limb for further inspection.

"Sceptile?" I hadn't even thought of what species it now was until she said it. It was nice to have a name in my head. "He saved me from some electric spiders and must have evolved in the process."

"Electric spiders?"

"Big yellow and blue things, and lots of little yellow things." She didn't respond. "I thought you were a whiz with Pokémon."

"Not with electric spiders."

"What about ghosts?"

"I think she is called a Mismagius. I would not let it out, they bring misery and bad luck."

"I'll keep that in mind."

We stood and watched the Cornucopia in silence. The sun moved higher in the sky, offering us less and less shade as we stood on the fringe of the woods. The Sceptile had returned to the trees, with Slink flitting off in the opposite direction. Occasionally I'd hear a little psychic buzz that meant he was still alive. But we were slowly beginning to die in the heat. The League Makers must be cranking up the temperature to flush us out. Our water supplies began to dwindle as we watched the now shimmering centerpiece. We'd have to move, but where? The river, as far as I knew, had run dry since the surf. The water was stagnant and filled with corpses. We could always go back for snow, but who knows how long it would last in this sun. Everyone would eventually do the same thing we were tempted to do: check the Cornucopia. I didn't know how the great ice-type could stand it, but he was sitting perfectly still in the heat of the day.

"Come on," I eventually spoke, "let's see if we're first."

"I am going to stay back."

I took a moment to process this. She wanted to hang back. She had a plan. I turned to face her slowly. We were mere inches from each other huddled behind one of the trees. She was filthy, drenched in sweat, and honestly looked very desperate. She clutched her Archeops' ball tightly in one hand and was trying to break the bones of my hand with the other. Figuratively, not literally. Or maybe literally? The heat was dizzying and anything was possible. I checked the water bag in the backpack at my feet for something to do. It was still empty.

"It's suicide to go it alone." I picked these words very, very carefully and said them in the slowest and most even tone I could. She locked eyes with me as I said them, and I felt a wave of guilt rush over me. I shouldn't have said it like that, I should have put a more tender inflection, given her some sort of inkling that maybe I wouldn't slaughter her the second I saw her again. Could I? I had to think about that. I couldn't right now, not with how she was looking at me.

She stood up, pulling on my hand to get me to follow her suit. I got to my feet clumsily and no sooner than I had gained my balance did she spring a kiss on me. I was pushed up against the tree behind me, hardly as tall as she was, and she forced her tongue in my mouth. Things connected in my head in ways I couldn't stand them to but I kissed her back anyways. I felt the bark press against my back as she pressed against me. I closed my eyes and tried to think of something else. I thought of my Cyndaquil. I thought of a dark night in the woods.

She finally pulled away. I opened my eyes and found hers. I doubt it was a very convincing kiss, but we were both young and otherwise stupid about romance and I had to hope she would buy it. I needed her to buy it. If I could cause her to hesitate at all when I saw her again it would be all I needed. I watched her eyes flick between mine. I wasn't paying attention to how my own face looked. Probably sweaty and pale. Probably awful. I had to sell it. I went in for another kiss and she met me half-way. Our teeth clicked together and we both reeled back.

"I wish this was not happening," she sniffed.

"Oh, come on, we're like fourteen," I joked, "we both suck at kissing."

We shared an awkward, quiet giggle. And for a second, we were both just two trainers who had bumped in to each other on a route. Slowly she backed away, holding on to my hand until the last possible second before letting my arm drop back to my side. She looked around as if she suddenly remembered where she was, then sprinted off back towards the snow line.

And like that, she was gone.

The hike to the Cornucopia was long and miserable. Much unlike the quick and admittedly exhilarating retreats I had taken from it, the trips towards were always slow and terrifying affairs. I was completely exposed and getting closer to any sort of potential danger. Even my Pokémon were bereft of cover. The Sceptile crawled next to me, limping slightly with every other step, and Slink rested on my back and paid close attention to my rear. Even the Joltik (I knew her name as she zapped me until I got it right) was out, a fuzzy badge of pride opposite of the Rising Badge.

As we approached we were hit by an absolutely unbearable stench. The Mamoswine was long dead, it seemed, and all that remained was its corpse. Thousands of flies were swarming the body and the tusks had melted in the heat long ago by the looks of it. I clutched my hatchet firmly in my right, the left resting over the Joltik on my chest. There was probably something eating the Mamoswine close by, and it didn't hurt to be too careful. At the same time, however, I felt like I needed to pay my respects.

As I got closer to the Mamoswine, however, I felt that something was wrong. I didn't notice what until I was about ten feet away from it when I saw a glimmer from one of its eye sockets. I froze in my tracks. Something was alive inside of the Mamoswine. The Sceptile next to me froze as well, getting as low to the ground as it could.

For a few seconds, no-one moved.

Suddenly, the Mamoswine reared up. Or, at least, appeared to. Out from underneath its snout shot a light green blur that was swiftly intercepted by my own green blur from one side. I turned to watch my lizard plow a Scyther in to the ground mere feet from me and felt an arrow glance off of my shoulder. Slink and I screamed at the same time and turned to face the corpse of the mammoth as we backpedaled. An arc of green energy tore up the earth in-between myself and the Mamoswine just before another arrow screamed passed me, this time missing by a long shot. I had to close the distance.

"Bug Buzz!" Slink crawled up on to my shoulder and flapped its wings as hard as it could. If I had known I wouldn't have asked him to do it, but all I could do was watch as what remained of one of his wings was shredded to bits as he generated a meager shockwave. It was enough, though, as the rotting flesh of the Mamoswine's face was pushed inwards over our unseen assailant. One of the fighting Pokémon next to us gave a cry as I pounced on the falling, blinded competitor. I tried to land with my knees in their midriff but the slimy flesh forced me to straddle whoever was underneath. I felt Slink hop off of my shoulder as whoever I had trapped reached up and tried to grab at me around their fleshy cocoon. They slipped on my shoulders as I readied my hatchet and brought it to bear. They found the wound and dug their fingers deep and I howled in pain.

I was rolled off to one side as the other tribute tried to stand up. The stench inside of the Mamoswine and the horrid stinging of the wound was enough to make anyone normal vomit, but I wasn't normal. And when the competitor got up on her knees I could tell she wasn't either. She was completely bald and shaking very hard. She tried to pull back the string on her bow but it slipped from her fingers and snapped hard against her forearm. She gasped and I launched myself at her, taking a wild swing with the hatchet. It flew from my fingers but slammed in to her bow, knocking it from her grasp and to the far side of the makeshift shelter.

We stared each other down for a good ten seconds. Neither of us moved. She had a knife at her hip, I could just make it out in the dim light. The sounds of the scuffle outside had died down. Someone out there had one, or at least was winning. Someone in here would have to do the same.

She went for her knife.

I went for her head.

In the end, all it took was one hard twist. My hand slipped off her chin, however. I didn't get the torque needed to kill her outright, but there was a very satisfying snap before she crumpled in to a heap on the ground. She didn't twitch like I thought she would. She was just slumped up against one side of the strange camouflage she had made. She wasn't moving, however. That's all that mattered.

I found my hatchet in the viscera. It was a disgusting mess inside of the Mamoswine, being just tall enough to walk in if I slouched a bit. It seemed to be skin held together by branches, poles, bent spears and whatever rope or string she could find. It was brilliant. Nobody had dared to disturb the Mamoswine, and from afar it looked as if it had been sleeping. And the ambush! I ripped a hole open in the side of the skin and looked outside. My big green lizard was happily gorging himself on the innards of the Scyther he had downed. I turned to face my own downed predator-turned-prey. She was comatose, hardly breathing through the snapped neck, but somehow still alive. Almost serene. She had obviously tried to shave herself with a sword at some point judging from the nicks on her skull, and she was much older than I was. She was smart, and strong, and didn't deserve the death I'd given her. To be reduced to a vegetable and then put out of her misery.

In the end, though, it had to be done. I knelt next to her, cradled her head in my lap, and wiped my hands off on my jeans. This time, I made sure I had a sturdy grip before twisting as hard as I could. Somewhere in the distance, the twentieth cannon fired.