Chapter 14
Day 4
In the morning, we leave our tree to collect the rest of our water. As he's sliding off the lowest branch, Luster has a suggestion for us.
"After we bring the water back here, let's go hunting for tributes. We can kill the girl from 6."
"We shouldn't go looking for trouble like that," says Shadow, "If you want revenge, you'll have to wait."
"And you're certainly not in any state to fight," I say. He looks over to where I'm pointing and notices his hands, which are still holding onto the tree branch to keep him standing upright.
"All right," he says, "So let's go get the water."
"Are you sure you're okay to come?" I ask.
"Yeah," he says. He lets go of the branch and takes a step. He stumbles and Shadow and I rush forward to catch him.
"I think it's better if you stay in the tree," says Shadow.
"No! I want to help!" he says. I can see the humiliation in his expression. Being out of action isn't something he prepared for. He doesn't want to spend the Games he trained for his entire life relying on his allies to find food and water.
"If you say so," Shadow says. Luster takes a few steps forward, and then collapses. Shadow and I are too late to catch him before he hits the ground.
"I'm okay, I'm okay," he says, "Here, help me up." Once he's standing again, we each take one of his arms. Leaning on us, he makes it pretty far before he needs to rest. We've reached the spot where we set up most of our water containers, so I start to climb up the trees to get them.
"She's good," Luster says to Shadow as I make my way up.
"Yeah," responds Shadow, "I can't climb well at all. Can you?"
"I suppose I could try…" he says, "But not now." They both laugh.
"Got it!" I call. I climb back down.
"Right!" says Luster, "Where to next?"
"This one," I say, pointing at another tree, a few feet away, "Then, we find food."
After I get the water down, we return to our camp and store it in the bushes. By this time, Luster has regained his ability to walk without help, which he seems happy about.
"Alright," says Shadow, "I'll go hunt. Luster, you can gather with Leda. It's not because we don't think you can hunt. But we saw you indentifying plants in the Training Center. You're really good at it." Luster nods, pleased with the compliment. Shadow walks through the uniform trees of the forest, looking for rabbits and squirrels. Luster and I travel toward that dry riverbed, where there's a variety of different plants.
"These are safe," he tells me, pointing at the purple flowers, "In fact, they sometimes have water inside of them." He peels back one of the petals.
"Wow!" I exclaim, "Now we don't have to wait for the rain! What about these?" I point at a small bush covered in dark purple berries.
"Nightlock," he says, "Very deadly. Don't you have it in District 2?" I shake my head.
"And these are safe," Luster continues, "They taste pretty good, too." He picks a handful of green leaves from a bush.
"So…nightlock," I point to a bush, "Very deadly. And these leaves are safe." I point to another plant.
"Actually," Luster says, "Those are blueberries. Very safe. And that's poison ivy. You don't want to eat that."
"Oh," I say, "Thanks. How about these?"
"Safe. Safe. Poisonous." I nod my head. We start to fill our packs with roots, berries, and herbs. Luster teaches me how to identify many of the plants in this area.
"See, the difference between blueberries and nightlock is the juice. Nightlock 's easier to break, and it stains your fingers. Be sure to wash it off as soon as you test it."
"When you see a plant like this, don't pick it if it has these little thorns under the leaves, okay?"
"Don't eat a plant that looks like this unless it has more than nine leaves. These two look very similar, and it's easy to get confused."
"Where did you learn so much about plants?" This time it's me talking. Luster pauses. He leans toward me and whispers in my ear.
"They offer a course on plants at the volunteer school. Not many of us take it," he whispers, barely audible. I hope the microphones undoubtedly hidden everywhere didn't hear that. I nod.
"So, do you think we have enough?" I ask. Before he can answer, Shadow comes through the trees.
"I got a bird, but nothing else," he says sadly. He holds up a dead bird not much larger than a pigeon.
"At least you got something," I say. He nods and puts it in his backpack.
"Why don't I take over hunting for a while? Leda can teach you about edible plants," Luster says.
"Okay," he says, "Do you want to take my sword?" Luster shakes his head.
"Don't need it," he says, holding up his spearhead. As he walks away, I glance at Shadow, raising an eyebrow. Shadow shrugs.
I've only had time to show Shadow the difference between blueberries and nightlock when Luster returns. He's killed four rabbits with only the spearhead! Since he doesn't have his own backpack, he puts two in each of ours.
"There," he says. Then, he shows Shadow and I more about plants. He decides we're ready to split up.
"Let's meet back here in ten minutes," says Shadow.
"Okay," says Luster, "Just be careful, and don't eat anything until then." He gives us a grin and disappears into the trees. Shadow walks away in the other direction. I stay where I am. As I work, the pocket of my backpack fills up with plants. Suddenly, I hear a shout. It's very close by. I'm standing there in the silence that follows, unsure whether to run towards or away from the sound, when I realize I recognize the voice. It was Luster! I run as fast as I can through the trees. Thud! I slam into Shadow at top speed. We're both thrown back onto the ground.
"Ow," Shadow says, rubbing his head. I spring to my feet and help him up.
"It's Luster. He may be in trouble. Come on!" I start pulling on his arm.
After about a minute of running, we're thrown into a sudden bright light. There aren't any trees here. I'm about to keep going, when I realize there's nowhere to go. The ground falls away into a steep cliff after just a few feet. I look off to my left and find Luster in the middle of a fight. I can just barely see the girl from 4, Iela, stabbing at him with her dagger. We start racing towards them, ready to fight, but they're so far away. I see that Luster, who couldn't stand on his own a few hours ago, is using all the skills he undoubtedly learned in his years of training, even with only the tip of a spear for a weapon. Iela dodges his blows, though, and strikes back jut as quickly. He should be doing wonderfully, but he's still weak, and Iela's too fast. She almost fights circles around him, eventually forcing him to retreat to the edge of the cliff. We're just forty feet away. Thirty. Twenty. Iela ducks under Luster's spear-tip, throwing him off balance. Before he can regain his footing, she puts her dagger in his side. Luster gasps and falls backwards. We're still ten feet away when he hits the rocks below.