Previously in Gale's Hunger Games: Prim and Rory are reaped; Katniss and Gale volunteer, and romance finally starts to develop between them. They make a grand arrival at the Capitol. The tributes start to meet each other that night. Katniss makes a splash with the Gamemakers, Gale makes a splash with the interview audience, and then they make a splash with each other. Gale and Katniss both enter the bloodbath. Katniss gets a bow. Gale and Katniss meet in the woods and they go through their hometown's marriage ritual. There's another couple, Glimmer pregnant by Cato. An announcement says either may win together. Those four, Rue and Thresh are the final six.

Review Commentary

Ellenka:

Epic chapter. I loved how you revealed the mockingjay connection. Rue was super cute, especially 'Miss Katniss'. Awesome action. 'marital/martial' contact was brilliant, and the "culture education" line was just priceless. Gotta love it when Gale has a girl on (metaphorical) fire to warm him.

Me:

Of course Ellenka loved it, you always do. I'm glad the 'mockingjay' exposition wasn't too awkward. I try to avoid saying 'Nothing happened' in order to cover the passage of time.

My storyline didn't call for any deaths yet, so I'm glad I did well making other stuff happen. (I sound like a Gamemaker – the series is very meta.) [Ellenka: Yeah, scarily meta. You are handling that very well.] Both sides had their supplies destroyed, that's the plot point. I couldn't resist adding the bit about Gale/Katniss snuggling or the other jokes.

Chapter

The ninth day ended with a chime rather than with pictures in the sky. The container and parachute was much larger for this second sponsor gift. Probably the cost too – sponsor gifts were much more expensive later in the games, and valuable items like this big thing probably was, even more so. I undid the claps on the container to reveal a large tan blanket, thick and puffy. We could only dream of such warm things in the Seam. Why didn't Haymitch send this last night? As loving as the snuggling was, it was unsafe. Maybe Haymitch had wanted us to further emphasize our relationship, maybe it simply took him some time to get the gift together.

Katniss undid the improvised bandage. The wound had stopped bleeding, but otherwise wasn't looking good. I positively smiled for the cameras as she poured in some antiseptic, but I didn't think it was accomplishing much. I announced. "Maybe I could do this myself, but it's so much nicer with you helping."

Catnip was getting tired, pointed to the blanket and echoed my comment as "I think I could take care of this myself, but it would be so much nicer if you helped." Haymitch hadn't sent us a sleeping bag for some reason, so we'd convert the blanket into one. She laid down in the middle and I folded it around her. I then used a piece of rope to tie the foot end closed. I gently kissed her in the lips, and once I broke that sweet hold, she said "Nice and cozy." Her voice trailed off as she immediately fell asleep. I can't blame her for extreme exhaustion; I would be feeling it myself in a few hours.

I leaned up against a tree, my eyes reporting through the night vision goggles No Cato or Glimmer. Still no Cato or Glimmer. Still no Cato or Glimmer… Katniss had a similarly uneventful watch in the morning. As I stirred, I thought, Another day with no killing, but plenty of fear of it. How can the Careers live for this death? How can the Capitol unquestioningly consume this vapid, superficial 'entertainment'? Would the veil of propaganda ever be pierced?

Waking up on the eleventh morning, I thought, The action of the past few days had kept the Capitol amused, but still, they may be getting restless about the lack of bloodshed. I was brought out of my thoughts with the answer to that concern. BOOM. I heard the all too familiar cannon sound for the nineteenth time, nineteen times too many. If either of our friends from Eleven had taken out Cato or Glimmer, that should keep the other Career from winning. Did Cato and Glimmer get the two to one fight versus Thresh that they hadn't managed to get against either of us? Had they finally caught Rue? I doubted her chances in combat even against only one of them, yet maybe the odds really had been in her favor with that slingshot, especially if she had found something good to use for ammunition.

They got Thresh. Katniss wasn't happy either, but seemed relieved that it wasn't Rue yet.

The next day, we went out looking for them. It was time to finish this, especially before my arm got any worse. At dusk, we settled in at the edge of the woods. As the last of the twilight glow faded, I slipped on the night vision goggles. Near dawn, I saw something in a grove opposite us. I woke Katniss up with "Uh, Catnip, I think I see our friend from Two."

She slipped on the goggles and saw the same silhouette I had. "Well, that's definitely not Rue." Yeah, Mr. Adams had at least a foot and a half on Miss Clayton. Katniss picked up the bow and got into her firing stance. "Darn it," she muttered. "I don't think I have a clear shot."

"Well, don't risk giving them a warning shot." She couldn't keep the bow drawn back, but she kept an arrow nocked.

I saw something move at first light. Rue had climbed down from the trees to look for food and she was running back towards the woods when blades started whizzing through the air. Now that Clove was dead, it was Glimmer throwing them, which explained why Rue hadn't been hit yet. Glimmer must have looted Clove's corpse. With the amount of supplies carried by a Career, why wouldn't you? Also, I remembered from training there was no love lost between those two. However, some of the knives sadly started to connect. Katniss rushed to her friend's aid while Glimmer fled the scene. The sparkling girl was at least smart enough to know that attacking Rue would earn Katniss' wrath.

Katniss handed me the bow and arrows, saying "I have something to do". I accepted the weapon and snapped into guard mode, even more vigilant than I had been before. Glimmer might come back and bring Cato with her. While not the healer in the family, Katniss was still the best one to attend to Rue right now. Her brow furrowed in much the same way her mother's did when brought a lost cause. Pulling out the blades would only speed the blood loss - she would know that as a hunter if not as a healer.

I overheard them talking. "Johnny, I hardly knew ya. We have apple, peach and sugarcane, but we really have sawgrass, willow and rock." I remembered what Katniss had relayed about Rue's family. She was the oldest of six. Her brother Johnny was the next oldest, followed by the fruit-themed twin sisters and two more brothers. She named Mom and Dad last. They must have been something special to raise an even larger family in an even more hellish place than District Twelve, and now their bright little girl was almost gone.

Katniss said "Goodnight, little flower" and I could hear the pain in both voices.

Rue channeled her last bit of vocal energy into the word 'Sing'. Katniss would of course oblige her last request, but was momentarily flustered about song choice. She started cooing a lullaby about the meadow. However, Rue would not wake from this sleep. Another cannon blasted. Katniss thrust her left arm skyward with the thumb and pinky of the hand folded down. This was the same gesture many District 12 folks had made for us at the reaping. It was a sign of respect, but Rue was dead and those back home had thought we were as good as dead.

However, even with her friend confirmed dead, Katniss' work was not done. That little girl should have been more than knife fodder for the amusement of a hundred thousand morons, and darn it, Katniss was going to let them know that. There were some flowers in a forest clearing behind our edge of the woods. Katniss went to pick some to lay over Rue's lifeless body. I straightened out Rue's legs and folded her arms over her chest. I pulled out the knives now. It was common for the mortician's hovercraft to hold off while surviving tributes worked with the body. Katniss got back, and Rue looked even more serene with the wildflowers sprinkled over her. Katniss lost it. "Not just a piece in their Games," I whispered.

I saw Glimmer reappear, with Cato in the background. I took aim at Glimmer. I could shoot her, and then shoot Cato before he closed the gap. Finally, the odds were in District Twelve's favor.

A/N

This is the last chapter. (Wow, I've finished a story!)

The sequel will be called Fanning The Flames. When I post the first chapter of that, I'll post a mini-chapter of this.