DISCLAIMER: Hunger Games are not mine!
Chapter the Twelfth
Mercy in the Arena
Farrow's ex-hideout is not what I would call my favorite place.
He found a small cave near some scrub bushes. True it's close to a cliff that has an underground spring hidden away, but this is prime for careers to seek him out, maybe he likes it that way, his plan all along.
I settle down to take a short nap when I hear it, the rattle of a snake and its damned close. I look around and take out my pen knife and open up the long blade. I wish I had something bigger and heavier, I will have to get the snake right in the head with this thing. I slowly get out of my sleeping bag and see its eyes in the very back of the cave. Boy is it huge! I've never seen a rattle snake that large before. And lo there is the rattle on its tail perked up and vibrating a racket anyone can hear and know 'back off' is pretty much what its saying.
I don't like getting ordered before I nap, and all I see is meat. I have plenty of water to wash this sucker down and the energy I can take in from his carcass will keep me going until tomorrow. No way will this snake live another day.
Its fast but I'm faster. I dash outside the cave and find a long stick that is heavy enough for this one shot, I take the cord that was supposed to cinch my jacket closer to me and use it to tie my penknife to the stick. It's rudimentary but I only need it for a moment. I get back in and the snake hasn't moved.
Poor poor idiot critter thinks a rattle will scare me off. Doesn't it know I've hunted its relatives in my district since I could shoot a spear? It lunges as do I and spear it right between his eyes and pin it to the ground. It coils and uncoils over my sleeping bag, I grab it at the base of its neck and shove the knife deep to stops it squirming. Diner will be underway as soon as I examine it.
It's the colour of the sandstone cliffs, a dusty orange rose colour. Its skin is rough and it looks to be a cross between a hognose pit viper and a diamond back rattler, but much much larger, and not much patterning to its skin.
I open its mouth and get a fright, it has two sets of fangs, one behind the other and when I go and express the venom its black. This is not your run of the mill snake for sure. Venom usually is milky white or clear, not black. And two sets of fangs? This is a mutt if I have ever seen one. I cut off the head for good measure and open the skin to reveal normal looking flesh, I lay the skinned carcass back on its skin as I set a fire to cook it while there is light still out there. I also take the rattle and get a sturdy stick to put it on, the rattle is heavier and the shakers are stronger than normal. If this doesn't scare Renard I don't know what would. For kicks I give it a quick shake. I'm not the perfect rattler, I can't go as fast as a snake can but the careers won't know that.
It takes a while to cook the meat but it's sweet and tender and not at all heavy and greasy.
As I finish up and wrap the rest in the camo cloth for later I hear two cannons, I wonder if its careers.
That's eleven gone, thirteen left including me….
Then another one…twelve left
And one more…eleven remain
They are dropping like flies.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the snakes. Or maybe it's the difficulty in finding water.
I drink my fill from the underground spring. And make to go when I hear a moan from nearby.
I try and ignore my instinct to find out but my feet drive me towards the pained moan.
It's the boy from six; he sees me and reaches for his spear with his off hand. He looks at me and I look at him, he is holding his dominant arm away from himself for reasons I don't know.
"Are you okay?" I ask and he looks at me like I said I have two head and I call myself Jabberwocky.
"Why do you care?" he says acidly
"Because you're moaning will attract the careers if you don't let up" I reply in turn just as annoyed
"Better they find me, I'm a goner" he shows me his arm and I know it will be etched in my memory.
It has turned black and it oozes pus that is not in any way normal.
"I rather they find me" his voice is hitching in his throat, the venom must be traveling faster now thru his system, or it's due to panic which would do so anyway, "it hurts"
I don't know why but my hands go for my crossbow, and the words that come out of my mouth are so foreign I can't figure where they come from. They are cool and calculated and out of my normal way of thinking, what my dad would have called 'clinical', I can only reason that I feel bad that he is suffering.
"I can help you, if you want to go quickly" I reply
I can't believe the relief he has in his eyes, "please, I don't want to die like the girl from four" he says his legs giving out and he lays against a tree, "do it"
I aim and fire at his chest and he slumps over, the cannon makes me jump and I rush to retrieve the bolt from his chest, I didn't kill out of hate or need to preserve myself. He asked to be killed!
Doesn't make it easier.
I run as far from the site as I can before half the snake comes back up.
I had never killed before, unless you count not warning the girl from four. I start to wonder how badly she was bitten if everyone is talking about her. If I see Farrow in two days I will have to ask him.
I can't sleep, with the cannons I have heard it brings us to ten, and I can't shake the sound echoing in my head. Ten tributes alive and it's just two days in. They must really hate us.
The nightly recap lets me know
The boy from six
The girl from ten
Both from eleven
That leaves both from eight, the boy from four, the careers, me, Farrow and the girl from nine
This must be the fastest games they have ever had, and just four days until my birthday.
AUTHOR'S NOTE : I realize I use a word that might be foreign to people….Jabberwocky, it's from a Lewis Carol poem (also not mine!) I always liked it, and the word is so strange, as is the image of Jabberwockies, just a completely messed up critter. Ariana uses this word to convey that her asking if the boy is okay would be something so out of the ordinary in the games, it boggles the mind. No one worries about how others are doing, so this little girl of 13 yrs is the only one so far that shows compassion. Kinda makes you wonder doesn't it? Flame away I don't care :P
