Fire is catching
Chapter 14
Authors Note: Whoa….I the ten reviews came really fast, so here is the promised update! I guess this was too easy. ;) AND NOW YOU'RE GOING TO FIND OUT WHAT THE ARNEA LOOKS LIKE! It's actually really creepy that one of you (bluerainst0rm) guessed almost right…, can you read my mind or what?! :p
Enjoy chapter 14
What I see takes my breath away.
This isn't an arena.
This is paradise.
I find myself in the most beautiful place I've ever seen.
Standing on a meadow full of flowers I can see a dense forest to my right and a wide area full of high grass to my left. A soft wind tickles my face and the warm sun shines on my hair.
The air is filled with a sweet smell and hundreds of birds sing their songs.
Beautiful, exotic flowers of all colors and shapes bloom around me and I can see bushes and trees full of delicious looking, ripe fruit.
Plants that I've never seen before, entwine themselves around each other. The whole ground is covered in multi colored flowers, one prettier than the other one, trying to beat each other in their beauty.
Each plant is giving their own scent into the air, filling it with a mixture of scents so different, varying from sweet and oriental to fresh and minty.
Somewhere far away I can hear the babble of a stream and the warm sun rays are caressing my face softly.
This place looks like it was designed to make me feel good, not to make me kill others.
If the wonderland I often imagined as a little kid really existed, I'm pretty sure it would look like this.
I was prepared for everything, but not for this.
I feel my body relaxing instantly and take in that beautiful sight.
Food, flowers, sun, this is easy.
Too easy.
I don't understand it right now, but there must be some kind of trick with this arena right? I mean the game makers wouldn't just put us in paradise and let us enjoy ourselves!
That can't be.
Anyway, I'll find out all about it sooner or later. What is important right now is to find water.
Although I can hear the flow of water clearly it is impossible for me to locate from where it comes from.
It's like the sound is coming from the left and right, before me and behind me, all around me and still nowhere, all at the same time. I will come to that weird problem later.
First of all, I have to decide whether I should go left or right?
I decide on going into the woods, as they give me more protection than the high grass does.
I enter the dense forest, being surrounded by sky-high trees and I'm fascinated by that sight.
As I'm from 8 I actually never was in a real forest and only read about it in some of my books.
I imagined them to be amazing, but I'd never expected them to make me feel that comfortable.
The smell of fresh wood, the soft rustle of the leaves, it all calms me down, makes me feel safe.
The trees are so high that I can't even see the treetops but their needles are giving off a smell so wonderful that I can't find the words to describe it.
Or maybe I can, the author in myself will give it a try.
Imagine things like safety, family, security, happiness, nature, early summer days and the sky would all be put together. The outcome of this would exactly smell like those woods did.
The golden sunlight shines through the foliage, projecting dancing shadows on the earth-brown ground. The quick movements of the shadows catch my eye, the dancing branches fighting a never ending battle of light and dark, just as it takes place in my mind right now.
Several branches crack, I can hear footsteps and the cries of some kind of bird, but what would've made me nervous just a few minutes ago doesn't bother me anymore.
What harmful things could there possibly be in a beautiful, carefree place like this?
What could damage me as long as the forest keeps me safe?
Nothing can happen to me here; this place is safe and sound.
I let myself drift through the dense forest, aiming nowhere, nothing on my mind.
The wind is whispering to me, telling me its stories and I just walk and listen.
Do you know that feeling when the back of your mind tells you that you forgot something but you just don't know what it was?
That's how I'm feeling right now, but to be honest, I don't really care. This place is way too calm and peaceful to be worried about some kind of unknown banality.
Looking back I really acted foolishly.
I reach a clearing and on the opposite side of it, somebody steps out of the woods, looking back, panic written on her face.
The bluenette immediately stops as she gets sight of me and we both stand there, our movements frozen.
Her arrival took me away from my little piece of heaven, the peaceful moments suddenly over.
"You look a little dreamy Lucy", Levy whispers still loud enough for me to hear it. "It's the smell. It makes you calm, it makes you slow, it makes you careless. This whole freaking place is making us dizzy. It looks harmless, makes us feel safe although it's full of deadly traps."
Her voice is echoing inside my head, my mind and body still affected by the arena's special surprise.
Deadly traps, huh?
I knew there was something wrong with that so called paradise.
Would've been too easy after all.
Why hadn't I noticed it before?
How could I let myself fall under that spell?
Now that I know it, I realize that the suddenly painfully sweet smell is indeed making it hard to think clearly. It's like the arena's scent is trying to hijack my brain, turning me into a cheerful zombie, an easy target for wild animals, traps and especially other tributes like Erza Scarlet.
I try to focus, to withdraw the sweet threads that try to wrap around my soul.
What will Levy do? Will she attack me?
She sure as hell could, as she doesn't seem to be under the arena's spell, at least not anymore.
I really like Levy, even if I would be able to fight her I wouldn't want to.
Maybe I'm stupid, but I feel like we could've been friends, very close friends under other circumstances.
Sometimes I feel like I had a life before that one, a peaceful life long time ago and sometimes when I meet people it feels like I know them already although I never actually saw them before.
That's the reason I spent so much time with Wendy. My intention just told me that this was the right thing to do.
Maybe she was something like my little sister in a former life?
The same goes for Levy.
It's almost like I have memories of her and me having a good time together, being hooked over some books and laughing happily, but that is simply impossible.
She comes from district 3 and I'm from 8.
We both live in Panem, so it's pretty sure we never actually were that happy in our entire life time.
And still I like those flashbacks, it gives me the hope that I had a good life already, or that maybe one is waiting for me, that the present is just an unpleasant time period that I somehow have to get through and after that I'll be released, saved from that nightmare I call my life.
Sounds strange to you, right?
I feel the same, maybe I'm a little weird after all but who cares?
There is this saying "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift, that's why it's called the present"
Well in my case, this quote is just completely wrong. It's not that my past was especially glorious, but I had a good childhood in comparison to other kids in district 8. Whereas the present is an absolute nightmare. I would easily give away ten days that still await me, only to be able to live in the past for one more day. The only thing worse than the present is the future, because I know that this arena will most probably be the place I die. I know that there are already a lot of traps and tortures and pain awaiting me. So yes, yesterday is history, the present is a horrible nightmare and the future is maybe even worse. I wouldn't hesitate one single second if somebody offered me to exchange my life for the life I sometimes remember.
It could be that I only imagine this flashbacks and old memories, that's most certainly the way it is, but I am desperate, okay? I know that I'm practically knocking on heaven's door, so I guess it's all right for me to escape into a world of dreams just from time to time.
And maybe, that life really took place.
Okay Lucy, stop it.
I don't have time for a monologue; after all I'm in the hunger games, maybe confronted with my death, who knows?
How could I drift off again?
It has to be that wicked smell of the arena that's swaying you in fake safety.
I don't have time for that!
I stand up, shaking my body as if I could shake away the tiredness and look her straight into the eye.
We both haven't made a move since we came across each other, waiting for the other one to take action.
To fight or not to fight, that is the question.
Okay, even I know that this joke was inappropriate.
"Lucy?" she asks.
"Huh?"
"Do we want to pretend like this never happened, like we never actually met here?"
Levy's eyes are looking at me hopefully.
"Yeah, I guess it's all we can do right?"
So we both quickly cross the clearing without looking at each other.
Jeez, how much I hate doing this, being so cold.
Well, as the other possibility is trying to kill each other, I prefer it that way, but still, I don't want to treat the people around me like my enemies although that's exactly what the capitol is forcing me to do.
Ok, we could form an alliance, but that's not what I want.
I don't want any allies.
I'll only get attached to them and in the end we would have to fight each other anyway and, blah,blah,blah….
"Good luck Lu-chan!" Levy exclaims and I turn around in order to catch a (maybe last) glance on her, but the bluenette already melted into the protecting shadows of the woods.
A tiny smile crosses my lips and I whisper "Be safe Levy-chan" before I step into the woods.
Authors Note: Tadaaaaaa, so this is what the arena looks like! What do you think about it?
Oh and maybe some of you got it already…., but those 'memories' of a happy life are referring to Lucy's fairy tail life! *boooooom*
And as it worked well the last time, I'll do that challenge again, but this time it's going to be more difficult! 18 REVIEWS UNTIL THE NEXT CHAPTER! See if you can manage that… *muhahaha*
Natsu: Awww, you're remembering your old life at fairy tail, your life was pretty cool back then ever since you met me…
Lucy: I wasn't referring to you at all!
Natsu: But you said your life…
Lucy: I was talking about Levy in case you didn't notice.
Natsu: B-But we're a team!
Lucy: Well first of all, you tricked me into forming a team! And you always sneak into my house and steal my food and use my bathroom without asking permission, how much fun is that!
Natsu: Well I always save you! *goes into emo corner*
Lucy: Well…uhm…that's not…., come on Natsu don't be so mean!
Natsu: I am the mean one?
Happy: Quit it you guys, you're acting like a married couple!
Lucy: I'm telling you we're not!
Mirajane: It's okay Lucy, everybody knows it anyway.
Lucy: Can I remind you what happened the last time when you gave me some love advice…?
*silence*