A/N: Hey! Normally I quicker at updating, but... Anyway. Enjoy!
The first thing I noticed was the flock of magpies descending on us, as if we were something shiny, something of their desire.
I didn't notice the murderous glint in their eyes until it was too late.
"Fabian, stay down there!" I called, magpies scraping at me.
"No!" He called back. "Look down!" I did as he asked, and understood his need to be up the tree. A sleek black panther circled the tree, along with a few unfamiliar birds.
I cursed under my breath. The Gamemakers just had to send them to us.
"Fabian!" I called again, loading my bow. "Slash at the birds with your knife!"
"You think?" Fabian yelled over the snarl of the panther. I rolled my eyes and concentrated. I only had a dozen arrows, and I wasn't too keen on losing any.
I lined up the arrow, aiming for the neck. I had a feeling that would down it long enough for us to get out of there.
I let the arrow fly, and I guided it into my target. I wasn't too bad with the bow anyway, so it didn't need too much adjusting.
The panther groaned and fell to the ground.
"C'mon! Let's get out of here!" I shouted to Fabian – probably not the best idea, shouting in the middle of an arena full of people trying to kill you.
I leaped from the tree, taking off far from there, with Fabian on my tail. I could hear some of the birds following us, but I think a lot of them were distracted by someone calling "Hey! Bird Brain! Come get some!"
I didn't think I wanted to know who was that stupid.
We continued on for what seemed like hours.
At first, I thought I was going crazy.
The boy from District Three – Telemachus, I remembered – was fixing some kind of black box to a panther's head. I could tell it wasn't the panther I almost killed before, but the fact that there were more sent shivers down my spine.
"Shadow, wh-" I put a finger to my lips to silence Fabian. I gestured towards Telemachus, who was still wiring the panther.
"What the?" Fabian murmured. We stood there for a while, watching him.
"We should probably go," I whispered, turning in the opposite direction. Fabian simply trailed after me as we flew through the forest, barely making any noise.
I waited until we were a reasonably safe distance away before stopping for a breather.
"What was that?" Fabian breathed.
"I don't know, and I don't think I want to," I whispered back.
"It was almost as if he was wiring that box into it's brain," he said.
"Kind of like mind control?" I asked. "That would actually explain a lot."
"So, the box wired into the panther's brain would let him control it?"
"It's just a theory," I said modestly.
"But it makes sense," Fabian insisted.
"True. But we'd better get going. Otherwise we're going to get no sleep tonight," with that, I took off again, still walking away from Telemachus and his new pet.
"You think those birds will attack again?" Fabian asked in a whisper.
"Hope not," I murmured. We were high in a tree, trying to get some more sleep. We needed it if we were going to live.
And almost as soon as I closed my eyes, the first rays of light filtered through the treetops.
"Fabian, wake up. We need to get out of here," I said, prodding his shoulder.
"Why?" he sat up, on red alert.
"Call it a gut feeling," I told him, and sure enough, the moment after I said that, the cannon fired.
"Well, I'm not complaining," he muttered, watching as a hovercraft came not to far away from us and picked up someone. Judging by their looks, they were not killed by animal.
"Okay, this is where we run."
A/N: Possibly a bit short, but I'm kind of doing each chapter by a day in the arena. Anyway, I hope you liked it!
Review?
