AN: Hi everyone. I apologise for the delay in updating, exams and assignments have been weighing on my shoulders. They'll be over soon though so, hopefully, I'll be able to update more frequently :)
Thank you all for voting on the previous chapter and on which characters you want to see inside Blood Wars: Revelations. The first chapter is now up. The story is rated T for now but may progress to M later down the track. I will be updating that fic in between updating this story so, if you're in need of some Blood Wars reading and this one hasn't been updated for a while check out the other side fic :)
Here is chapter 13, the one all hunger games fans have been waiting for, so please enjoy.
Warning: This chapter contains strong violence, blood and adult themes.
Chapter 13
The Feast
The cave had become suddenly colder. Flora wasn't sure if it was the breeze that tickled her neck or the anticipation. The feast announcement had given them hope but it also could mean certain death. Sudenly something landed outside, making Helia walk to check it out. It was a gift, District 12 written over the side and he looked to Faragonda and nodded in acceptance. Instead of it being a container it was a knife, a single, sharp edged blade with a sturdy handle. I fit in his hand perfectly and he took it as a sign. Faragonda was telling him that he should be the one to go, that he should be the one to get the supplies. Flora was about to comment on the item he held in his hand when Helia interrupted. "I should go."
Flora shook her head. "You can't go by yourself."
"Yes I can, if I go and get the supplies and come back then you don't need to be put in danger."
"But what if you don't come back!" She yelled, tears welling in her eyes before she took a deep breath and turned her back on him. "What if you…what if you're killed?"
"It won't happen," he sighed. "It just won't. We've come this far and we can keep on going. I'll get the supplies and you can find a new hide-out, one that Darcy doesn't know about and we can get through this…together."
"It could still happen, Helia!" she turned, throwing her hands down with a combination of anger and fear. " Didn't you listen to Faragonda? Death is a reality in these games and we are lucky to have made it this far. And the only reason that we did was because the people who protected us, or who we were friends with, all gave their lives for us. You can't just run down there and get them, the others will be waiting. You know what it's like."
"I know! But we don't have any other choice! You still aren't completely healed, your wounds are still clotting and you'll be torn to pieces if you go there. So I'm the only alternative."
"We could go together," Flora explained, stepping closer and placing her hands on his chest. "We could go together. It would give us more of an advantage."
"No it wouldn't," Helia shook his head, putting the knife into his belt before placing his hands over her own and gazing into her watery green eyes. "Flora it's the only way and we aren't playing these games for ourselves anymore. If just one of us makes it home then District 12 will get enough food and medicine to last them a year and they need that more than ever. This isn't just about us anymore, it's about winning for them, and you have your sister and your mother to go home too."
"What about your uncle? You have family too."
"I know but I don't have any brothers and sisters, it's just me. I don't have to care for anyone else and my uncle will be fine. Miele needs you to come home, you promised her that you would try and I want to help you to do that."
"No!" She screamed, pulling herself away and pacing the cave for a moment. When she stopped she turned back to his shadowed face. Her bottom lips quivered as her breathing shallowed and she collapsed to her knees. Helia knelt before her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She opened her mouth to try and speak but the tears flowed slowly down her cheeks instead. "M-M-Musa," she stammered. "She said the same thing." Realisation hit Helia like a bullet in the chest. He remained quiet though understood her hesitation now more than ever. "A-and now s-s-she's d-d-d-d-dead."
"Hey," Helia soothed, bringing her sobbing form into his chest, enclosing the gap between them as her head buried deep in his shoulder. His warmth slowly tangled around her, helping the fairy to relax into his touch. "It's ok," he whispered into her ear, closing his eyes as a single glistening tear rolled down his cheek. "It's ok, I'm here… it's ok."
The sun rose beautifully into the sky the next morning, finally dissipating the clouds from existence and bringing the world back into light. Although Helia was glad that the sun had finally showed its face it also meant more danger. In rain vision could be blurred, tributes couldn't run as fast inside the wet grass and the clearing where the Tree of Life was situated would be more dangerous. The sun meant there was no room for error, no vail of water to hide behind, just the open well lit ground and nothing to keep you safe from enemy attack.
As Helia sat at the entrance to the cave, looking over his shoulder and noting how the exhausted Flora was still sleeping quietly, the answer became obvious. She had grown feverish during the night, her body began heating up as a cold sweat took hold. He used a piece of cloth, cut from his jacket using the blade Faragonda had supplied, and managed to keep her temperature under control. But, as a result, she was exhausted and was now lying quietly, gathering her strength. If she went with him to the cornucopia she would die. It was a simple equation. One exhausted fairy going into an open clearing with nothing but her weak magic for protection, against four other strong tributes…it would spell disaster.
And so, it was with a solemn and courageous heart that he stood to his feet and walked to her side. Kneeling down he checked her temperature before pulling the quilt further to her chin. Then he leant down and placed a delicate kiss upon her head. "I love you," he whispered quietly before taking a hold of the knife from the ground and placing it in his belt. He walked to the other side and removed his sheath of arrows and his bow, stringing them over his shoulder and into position. With one last look at Flora lying peacefully, and no guarantee that he would return, he stepped forwards. Forcing one foot in front of the other towards the sunlight before disappearing from sight.
Quietly trekking through the forest he decided his best approach would be long range. Perhaps he would be able to shoot at the other tributes from the trees if they tried to get their supplies and then go down and collect his own. It was a nice plan in theory, but practice could have been worse. If he shot the arrow, and it missed, they would know his location, be able to track his whereabouts and hunt him down. He would never be able to return to Flora then, aware that his every effort to keep her safe would be in vain.
Continuing through the forest as the sun rose high into the sky and his stomach growled from a lack of food, he managed to find a bush and carefully examined some berries. Popping a few into his mouth as he went he used the odd puddle for water until reaching the treeline.
There it was, the golden tree of life, standing triumphantly in the centre of the chaos. Waiting for them to return to where it all began, to where the world they knew ended forever and they became nothing but pawns in the world of entertainment.
Stepping over a moss covered stone Helia continued before stopping behind a tree surrounded by bushes. Kneeling down he took his position, pulling back on the bowstring to judge the distance and how clear it was. Only when he was sure of his field of vision, and that he could shoot to kill, did he notch the first arrow into his bow and wait. Pulling it backwards. The shadow of his body decreased, slowly returning until it was directly beneath him… midday. Now was the time.
He watched as a hovercraft dropped a cable. At the base was what looked like a table with five packages on it. They landed at the base of the Tree of Life before it shot away into the sky, leaving the bait and waiting for the reply. He wasn't sure what the people watching would have thought, whether his uncle would think he was noble or just plain stupid. Flora could have been right about them arriving as a team, two people against the others, it seemed logical. If she wasn't as injured as she was.
Suddenly there was movement below and Helia furrowed his eyebrows, adjusting his angle. One tribute ran straight for their bag. He wasn't entirely sure who it was but their light brown hair gave him a clue. Darcy.
Pulling back he anchored his shot, aimed and, just before his fingers could release, heard the sound of pounding feet behind him. Turning he was hit head on by a body, forcing him to roll through the trees and leaves and into the clearing. Landing in a heap he scrambled to his feet, only to have a hand grab his ankle, forcing him to the unforgiving floor. He rolled to his side as the man lodged a sword into the earth near him. Then another landed beside him as he got to his feet and looked around for his bow, he couldn't find it.
"Hey lover boy, you trying to kill my partner?" Bishop asked, his purple ponytail blowing in the wind, his two schemata blades crossed in front of him, one in each hand.
"She killed my friends."
"So, that just means she's doing her job," he laughed. "Where's your girlfriend? Huh, I'm surprised that you decided to show up, trying to be a hero? Nice guys finish last you know, especially in this arena." He ran forwards, attacking madly and making Helia fall to the earth, kicking upwards. One blow hit Bishop in the knee, making him fall for a moment before he turned and got back to his feet. But Helia was already running towards the Tree of Life. His feet sloshed against the still moistened ground while Bishop was in hot pursuit. Lifting his head he saw Darcy at the Tree, she grabbed the bag into her hand and put it around her shoulders before aiming for the woods. When a blast of magic hit her feet and she attempted to run herself. A shadow flew over the top of him making Helia look up and see Stella. She shot another blast at the witch who managed to block it with a shield for once.
"How dare you betray me!" She screamed, throwing another series of attacks that Darcy managed to avoid. When Stella finally landed and prepared another blast Darcy took her own shot, stunning the sun fairy for a moment before she flew backwards and into the table, sending the remaining four packages to the ground.
Helia kept his eyes trained on the bag, hoping to get in, grab it and get out before Bishop or the others noticed him but it wasn't going to happen. When he slowed down to get the bag he heard a yell from his right and noticed Stella now had Darcy pinned against the tree. Bishop stopped his pursuit and ran to her aid, preparing his sword to cut straight through Stella's back. But what happened instead no one saw coming. Stella closed her eyes and teleported away and Bishop was too fast to stop himself. The sword entered her stomach and Darcy slumped forwards, blood oozing from the wound. She fell forwards and he caught her before removing the blade and watching her body hit the earth below.
A strange emotion filled Helia, as the world seemed to slow down in time. He felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips, smiling at seeing Darcy bleeding to death. It was wrong, he knew it, and before he realised what was happening again he heard it. A yell, coming from behind him. He dived, took the bag into his hand and rolled out of the way, hearing the sound of a yelp before he turned. The tribute trying to attack him was Rose and she now had an arrow in her shoulder.
BANG. The first canon fired, signalling Darcy's life had come to an end.
Stella suddenly reappeared as a figure leaped from the tree and landed directly on top of her. It was Riven, the boy tribute from District 4, Mirta's partner. Before Helia could think he watched Bishop grab the backpack off Darcy and scamper away into the woods while Rose placed her hand on the arrow in her shoulder and yanked it back out. She stared at its wooden features for a moment before a blast of magical energy sent her flying.
Looking up Helia couldn't help but smile. High above him in the air, looking as delicate and beautiful as ever, was Flora. She landed by his side, keeping her eyes on the fallen tribute. "I told you we should have stuck together." She chastised and Helia nodded his head in acceptance.
"Yeah I guess but now we have to-" Another blast hit Flora, sending her away and tumbling in the grass before Rose set her sights on Helia. "Flora!" He called but she didn't respond, focusing all of her energy into pushing herself forwards. She looked to her left to see Riven and Stella in their own tumbling match, his brute strength overtaking hers.
Rose removed her sword from her back and held it in front of her, Helia's only defence being the knife he held firmly in his hand. "What do you think you are going to do with that?" She asked, tauntingly as Flora shook her head and her vision began to clear. "Kill you."
A scream to his right caught Roses attention and he took his opportunity, running straight into her body in an attempt to get the sword from her. She let it go and stopped him from using the knife over her neck. With all the strength she had in her arms she pushed against his force but his determination started to get the better of her. Releasing a strangled gasp she pushed harder, just as the tip of the blade nicked against her throat.
Suddenly her face of strain and effort changed entirely and a smile drew across her lips. The distraction made Helia's strength against the knife slip as her hands touched his chest and she concentrated once more. A bright white light shot from her fingertips, sending the young man flying high into the Tree of Life where he landed with a snap before falling down several branches and landing unconscious on the ground. Rolling over Rose reached for her sword when Flora stopped her, casting a spell that opened the ground, sucking the sword beneath before it closed. The furious woman turned.
"Nice to see you again, Flora," she smiled. "Sorry it's been so long, you know we really should keep in touch more often." She shot another attack that Flora blocked easily with a simple shield. "You should really try to make some new friends." Her head tilted sideways and Flora wondered whether she had truly lost her mind. Her eyes hardly blinked, they just stared at her, like a bottomless soul who was thirsty for blood.
Stella scrambled away from Riven, holding a wound on her arm as she ran for the tree line, hoping that he wouldn't follow even though he decided to. It left the two of them in a stand-off. One against the other. Flora cast the first spell "Venus Ivy!" Roots burst from below grabbing Roses legs and worming their way upwards. They stopped just underneath her head but she smirked, whispering something that Flora didn't understand before they exploded outwards.
"You aren't the only one with strong powers you know," She taunted before Flora lost it. She raced forwards and shot a series of blasts at the tribute who deflected each one. Her final deflection hit Flora, making her crumble before she turned and stopped. Rose stood above Helia, the knife he had been using in her hand, poised to attack.
"Helia," she sighed. "Wake up."
"It's no use, he's far too out of it," Rose smiled, kneeling down and lifting his head by taking a handful of his hair, bringing Floras dream several days ago back to the forefront of her mind. She swallowed the vomit that built at the back of her throat. "Aren't you little one?"
"Let him go."
"No," Rose smiled. "You know he's pretty cute, if you think about it. I have no idea why he showed so much of an interest in you when there are so many other stronger competitors around." Flora looked to Helia, tears starting to enter the corners of her eyes. Rose leant in and gave him a slight kiss on the cheek while her other hand prodded his neck, checking for a pulse. "No need to be a cry baby, he's still alive, but just."
"Let…him…go."
"You're getting tired little fairy, why don't you just give up. You must know whats going to happen from now on surely. Two tributes are dead now, soon Helia will follow and, if you want, I could kill you at the same time. I'll be merciful, make it quick, but youre struggling is just going to make things worse for yourself." Flora looked to the ground, her hands shaking with a rage she so desperately wanted to release but she was tired, her eyeslids became harder to open every time she blinked, her legs were shaking, her forehead hot and body needing rest. She nodded her head, doing the very last thing that she thought she would do.
Rose smiled innocently before standing straight. "Come here," she encouraged. "Don't worry, you and Helia will be with Mirta and all your other friends soon. Think of this as a gift, death is the ultimate escape from evil."
"Yes it is," Flora agreed, walking until she stood directly in front of her. "But escape isn't always the answer." Flora swung around, taking one of the arrows from her sheath and attempting to stab Rose with it. She missed, the other tribute madly swung the blade in the air, Flora managed to dodge each strike, waiting for an opening so she could defend herself. Another swing an she cut her forearm but luckily not her face. Then a foot collided with her leg making her fall as Rose landed over the top of her, straddling the nature fairy to the ground. She tried to move, tried to fight against the pain but she was too weak and she couldn't. "Allow me to be your salvation." She smiled, preparing the knife to enter Flora's throat so it would all be over. But it wasn't.
Before she knew what was happening two arms grabbed Rose around the waist and pulled her upwards, away from her. They took a hold of her wrist and twisted it until it cracked, forcing the blade to the ground. She landed with a thud and started to worm herself away from him, Riven towering above her with blade in hand. "What did you say about Mirta?" He asked, shadow covering his face.
"I didn't say anything!" She defended as Riven kicked her weak body in the ribs once as hard as his foot could. She choked, coughing as he rolled her back over to face him with the toe of his boot.
"What did you say about her?"
"I…j-just s-s-said that she is dead." Another kick and Flora heard a crack as she carefully crawled over to where Helia lay and placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking him gently while watching the scene before her.
"You killed her?"
"N-no!" She answered but he didn't believe this lie either. Flora closed her eyes as another crack echoed through the clearing, blood now coming from Roses mouth as she coughed again, feeling her lungs depleing of air. "I…k-k-killed h-h-h-her." She finally admitted and the beating stopped, though it was already too late for her body to handle. She coughed again, spitting blood into the grass below as her body trembled. "Why?"
"Because i-its p-p-part of the g-game?"
"No," Riven shook his head, kicking the tribute onto her back as she coughed again, blood splattering around her lips as he poised the blade above her and stabbed. It entered through her thigh, making her scream as Flora shook Helia harder, hoping that he would hurry and wake up so they could move away from the area as soon as possible but he still wasn't moving.
"Why did you kill her?" He twisted it, her body entering a new world of pain.
"I don't know!" She screamed.
"Helia wake up!" Flora forced, patting the side of his face with her hand. "Come on we need to get out of here."
"Why!"
"I don't know!" She sobbed, tears streaming down her face as her breathing hitched again and she spat more warm blood from her mouth, her complexion paling. "You have a reason, so why?"
"B-b-because she w-was alone," she stuttered making Riven remove the blade and kneel next to her, leaning the blade against her neck while she struggled to keep her eyes open. Her arms tried to lift themselves but the beatings and other stabbings he inflicted every time he asked her why prevented it. He hadn't hit any vital organs so she had been kept alive. Flora didn't understand the cruelty, why he was like this but she knew that if she and Helia didn't get out of there soon they could be his next targets.
He leant right down, so his lips were in her ear. "Look at them," he ordered and she did, move her tired and sore eyes to the two of them. "Now who's alone?" Drawing the sharp blade through her neck, he ended her life forever as the canon fired and he stood to his feet, looking down to the mangled mess that lay at his feet.
Lifting his head he looked to Flora who stopped her efforts and stared into his eyes. "What did she say about you and Mirta being friends?" He asked and Flora decided honestly was the best policy.
"I…we teamed up together, looked after each other." She explained, feeling around inside her backpack. Riven was on high alert, worried that she might have been concealing something inside but she hadn't. When the bag dropped he saw it, the small slingshot, carved beautifully from harvested bark. "She gave me this." Flora held it up as Riven took it into his right hand, inspecting it for a moment.
"What did she tell you about this?"
"That it's her token from District 4, and that her brother carved it for her. She said he gave it to her after the reaping and that it would keep her safe." Flora watched the sadness inside his eyes grow with every second that passed, his eyes staring at that one piece of wood, reading Mirta's name over and over, running his thumb over the ingraving. Then she realised what it meant, what Mirta had been talking about. How she knew about Rivens temper but said that he wasn't that bad a guy. That although he had a short fuse he could be alright at times. The only way that she would know someone, with as much detail as she did was if…
"Did you-"
"Yes," Riven replied, looking to Flora's eyes. "I gave it to her."
"But, you and she were both drawn from the bowls? How's that possible?"
"I rigged it myself," Riven explained. "We had both taken extra rations and put our names in more times and Mirta had the most entries. I'm not sure what it was that told me to do it but I did. I found someone with magic and asked them to help me rig the results, so that I would also be picked and be there for her through everything." He handed the slingshot forwards and Flora shook her head.
"No I cant take it."
"Take it," he insisted. "It might not have kept her as safe as I hoped but…maybe it will bring you better luck." Flora nodded her head, taking the wood inside her hands and looking up to him.
"You aren't going to kill us?" He shook his head.
"Not this time. You protected Mirta, and you were there when she died?" Flora nodded.
"I sang her to sleep, Musa and myself, we both stayed there, until the end."
"Then she wasn't alone." Riven smiled slightly before bending down and picking up his package and that of Roses. He opened hers and removed a few rolls of bread and gave them to Flora while keeping the other supplies for himself and slinging the packs around his shoulders.
"Good bye Flora and thank you." Flora smiled before watching him leave and never look back. Carefully she shook Helia again but achieved no results. "Why did you have to go out here by yourself?" She asked, putting one arm over her shoulder and walking through the field until she spotted their bow. With it back in their possession they continued towards the treeline as two ships flew overhead, ready to collect the bodies of the fallen. Two dead, five to go and all Flora could think about was home.
AN:Thanks for reading and please review.
I am still taking suggestions for my Blood Wars: Revelations fic :) if you have a character that you'd like to see their perspective on please send it through PM or Review. Don't forget to check out the side fic.
This is another important question, so please let me know your answer.
Question: Do you want to see Muttations included in this story?
a) Yes
b) No
Let me know through Review or PM.
Response to Anonymous Reviews
Lightixcosmicdragonpower – Yes they are :)
fennyfuzz – Thanks you for the review and the suggestion :)
Amy74101 – Thanks very much for the review I hope you like how the feast scene turned out :)
NaturePower – Nabu and Layla are dead. Helia tells Flora that they both died. Sorry if anything confused you, I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) thanks for voting on the last chapters question as well.