In the morning when the group woke up they were still full from the previous night and had no reason to leave their shelter.
"Well, we could always stay here for a change," Sahara proposed. Klara gestured to her broken arm and declared that lethargy might be nice for a change.
Klara and Aven kept shifting positions, always pressed up against each other, taking turns resting their heads on the other's shoulder or lap. In the morning they listened to the birds wake up, it seemed the animals had survived the tornado.
"Klara," Aven broke the silence. "You can always fall asleep so quickly here, but the noises keep me awake, what's your secret?"
Klara laughed. "Actually, it's a funny story. In the early spring I was returning home when I noticed something lying in the plants at the front of my house. It turns out it was a partridge, dead of course, but I wondered where it came from. I looked up at the house and the window in my bedroom was completely shattered, it looked like someone shot it. When I went inside there was glass all over the floor and the only thing left was the window's screen. I cleaned up the glass, but could never afford to get a new window, so I've been sleeping with my own personal forest sound track ever since. I think it would be weird now to sleep somewhere completely silent."
Sahara looked shocked. "What did you do with the partridge?"
"Oh, we had it for dinner."
"You have some of the strangest stories," Aven said with a grin.
"Well maybe if you lived in the forest they wouldn't seem so strange," Klara returned.
"Are you kidding me?" Aven sat up straighter. "I've seen some of the weirdest things in this forest."
"Oh? Like what?" Klara challenged.
"Oh, you know, just the usual deadly cats, tornados, beautiful girls…"
Klara blushed, smiling.
Sahara chuckled from across the rock. "Not to mention a pair of ooey-gooey teenage lovers," she teased.
The three burst out laughing, not even minding the fact that there might be tributes nearby. The weather was perfect; it seemed like too good a day to die.
When the laughing subsided, Klara leaned her head back on Aven's shoulder then a thought crossed her mind and she started laughing again.
"What?" Aven asked turning so he faced her.
Klara regained her composure, "Oh, I was just thinking, we've probably killed as many tributes as Kyah and Jaxton have, if not more. Look at us! What are the chances?!"
Klara looked directly at Aven and Sahara, with a serious look on her face. It only lasted a couple seconds before all three's lips curled into a smile and they burst into fits of giggling. Klara wondered if it was a completely sane thing to be laughing about, but then again this was the Hunger Games.
Sanity wasn't a requirement.
After they all caught their breaths, Aven stood up to stretch, towering close to Klara.
Sahara was staring curiously at the tall boy. "When we saw Kyah and Jaxton that one time, they each had specialty weapons that they must have got from sponsors. Is there some sort of weapon that you're best with, Aven?"
"Well…" Aven opened his mouth to speak but was hastily silenced by a beeping sound resonating from above. All three shifted out of their hiding spot to go see what the parachute would contain.
Aven got to it first and loosened the strings holding up a long metal case. When he lifted the top, his eyes widened in recognition and excitement.
"What is it?" Klara inquired.
"You were wondering what my signature weapon was?" Aven asked with a hint of a smile. "Well, here it is."
He pulled out a long sword with a thick, razor sharp blade. It was curved inwards at had two sharp prongs at the end that reminded Klara of a snake's tongue.
Sahara let out a low whistle and Klara just stared, the sword was most certainly deadly.
"I guess they talked to my coach back home," Aven stammered. "This is almost identical to the sword I use at the training center."
He slashed it through the air a couple times and weighed it with both hands. Klara could see her eyes reflecting in the blade's shiny surface. Sahara looked shocked, a gift like that would be insanely expensive. Klara just hoped that it didn't drain them of all of their sponsor money.
But with this new weapon came hope. If they had survived this long with only hunting knifes and Klara's knowledge, how well could they do with a sword?
Aven smiled, slinging his backpack over his shoulders. "What do you say we go hunt some Careers?"
In the early afternoon they arrived at a clearing.
"Do you mind if we sit down for a second?" Sahara asked. "Walking through all this snow is really tiring."
"No problem," Klara replied. "In fact, I was just about to suggest it too."
They all sat down on a fallen tree, chests rising and falling quickly, Klara adjusted her makeshift cast. Suddenly, she heard a loud thump from behind her that made them all jump.
"Ummm… what was that?" Sahara asked.
Klara and Aven both spoke at once. "I don't know…"
Another thump came from in front of them. Aven stood up, pulling out his sword protectively. He took a couple paces into the clearing, then Klara saw a flash of white from the sky and a loud clang echoed through the air as what appeared to be a softball bounced off Aven's sword.
Aven picked up the ball just as soon as a voice boomed from above. "Hello Tributes, congratulations on making it to the final six. In honour of your strength and resilience, we thought we'd give you a break from your constant search for water. However, the form it appears in might be more dangerous than dehydration. That will be the only announcement. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour."
The three looked at each other, exchanging nervous glances until Aven held up the ball. "It's… hail?"
Sahara shot up. "Come on! Come over here!" She ran over under a large tree with many strong, protruding branches. Aven and Klara both ran over.
The tiny girl explained the message frantically. "It's hail, we can melt it for water, but its big enough that if we get hit by it, it could really hurt us us. We're running low on water I think we should collect as much as we can, then meet under this tree and melt it."
"But what if we get hit by it?" Klara asked, concerned.
"Stay under the trees and put your bag on your head, you'll hear the hail hitting any branches on the way down and your bag can soften the blows, should you get hit. I think one of us should stay back here and start a fire, that way if one of us doesn't come back they can go looking for us."
"Good idea," Klara agreed. "Aven, I think you should stay here. You're bigger so you would be more likely to get hit, plus you have your sword for defense."
Aven nodded. "Okay, I'll just cut some wood off one of these trees nearby. Try to be quick."
He fluffed Klara's hair and she slung her bag over her head, it wasn't extremely comfortable, but it would protect her enough.
Klara rounded the corner of the tree, wary of the constant thudding of hail balls all over the ground. She only picked up ones that landed under branches, but was still hit by the occasional ball that bounced off a branch above her.
The hail varied in size from the size of her fist to a golf ball. Klara tried to collect a lot of small ones because they would melt faster over Aven's fire. She moved along in the opposite direction of Sahara, being careful to stand under the few trees with branches left after the tornado.
After a couple minutes, Klara started to notice that the beating of the hail was rather rhythmic and paired well with the saddening destroyed landscape. Then it hit her, weather, this year's arena was based on extreme weather.
All of a sudden, Klara heard a hail chunk clattering on above branches. She drove left trying to avoid it, but instead put herself right into its path. The hail landed with extreme force on her broken arm, sending searing pain all throughout Klara's shoulder. She crumpled to the ground, temporarily immobilized in her agony.
When she was able to look up again, Klara checked through her bag and found it was nearly full of the ice. She got to her feet with the assistance of some stray stumps and sticks, then turned around, pain pulsing with every step.
As she was nearing the clearing where Aven was set up, Klara heard rustling that didn't match the pattern of the hail. Instinctively, she crouched down behind a pile of snow, sticks, and rubble that was concealed by a few bushes. She could make out Aven sitting by his fire, also startled by the rustling, getting to his feet and pulling out his sword.
Two figures burst through the trees across from Aven.
Kyah and Jaxton.