Chapter 14: Don't Feel Like Eating
I wake up the next morning, with a major headache. The black liquid and bugs are gone, though, but images from my nightmare flash before my eyes. Katniss dying. My family dying. Watching so many deaths, over and over. And I could do nothing about it. I lay there, shivering for the longest time. Then, I start crawling along the river bank, and stop to drink some water. My throat's dry and burning, and the water quenches my thirst some. I sit down after I can't move anymore. I start covering myself with mud, so the Careers can't see me. Then, I close my eyes.
Everyday it's the same-old same-old. I wake up, burning. I crawl to the river. I drink water. I crawl back. I sleep. Then I wake up and repeat it. It goes on for a while, so long that I lose track of time.
After catching a fish one day but not hungry to eat it so I let it go, I decide to take a nap. I wake up to a trumpet sound. How long as it been? I strain to listen and hear Cladius Templesmith's voice.
"There has been a rule change. If the last two tributes alive are from the same district, they can both be the victors." Then he repeats it.
Katniss and I can survive! Not much chance of me surviving, though. But at least there's hope.
I sit there with my eyes closed, and later, I hear footsteps.
"Peeta?" I must be dreaming. "Peeta!" Katniss' voice calls out. I peek out and see her, beautiful as always, looking for me. My heart skips a beat. She steps in the water.
"You here to finish me off, sweetheart?" I ask. She turns in my direction and my eyes snap close.
"Peeta? Where are you? Peeta?" She asks, walking along the bank. I open my eyes and crack a smile.
"Well, don't step on me." She jumps back. I open my eyes to find her staring at me. She gasps and the shock and surprise on her face makes me laugh.
"Close your eyes again." She says and I oblige. "I guess all those hours decorating cakes paid off."
I smile. "Yes, frosting. The final defense of the dying." I try to joke.
"You're not going to die." She says.
"Says who?" I ask, confused.
"Says me. We're on the same team now, you know." She says.
My eyes open again and I look at her. "So, I heard. Nice of you to find what's left of me." She takes out a water bottle and gives it to me to drink. The fresh cool water is so much better than the dirty water I drink every day.
"Did Cato cut you?" She asks. How did she know?
"Left leg. Up high." I answer.
"Let's get you in the stream, wash you off, so I can see what kind of wounds you got." She suggests.
"Lean down a minute first. Need to tell you something." She does and I whisper, "Remember, we're madly in love, so it's all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it." I'm only half-joking, but she jerks back and starts laughing.
"Thanks. I'll keep it in mind." She says. My heart drops as she says these words.
She attempts to roll me down to the stream, but the pain is so intense, she gives up when I'm at the edge. Tears were starting to blur my vision, and she sighs, then comes up with another plan. She fills a water skin and props up for the other two to get filled and starts to wash me off. After about forever, Katniss finally washes off the mud. She props me up against a boulder, and continues washing everything else off. She takes the stingers out of the tracker jacker stings. I wince at the pain, but after she takes them out, she applies something that relieves the pain, which makes me sigh in relief. She washes my clothes, and as they're drying, she applies some kind of cream on my chest. She looks concerned and looks in her pack. She takes out some kind of pills.
"Swallow these." She tells me. I do, and the burning in my chest dies down a bit. "You must be hungry." She tells me.
"Not really. It's funny, I haven't been hungry for days." She offers me some meat and I turn my head away at the smell.
"Peeta, we need to get some food in you." She says, worry in her voice.
"It'll just come right back up." After much begging, I eat some dried apples. "Thanks. I'm much better, really. Can I sleep now, Katniss?" I ask.
"Soon." She promises. "I just need to look at your leg first." She takes off my boots, socks, and starts inching down my mud-caked pants. I don't see what she sees, but the look on her face says it all.
Pretty awful, huh?" I ask Katniss. I'm watching her, memorizing this moment forever. Memorizing her words, her face, every angle, her braid, the loose strand of hair fluttering delicately in the wind.
"So-so." She says and I can tell she's lying. "You should see some of the people the bring my mother from the mines. First thing is to clean it well." I didn't know Katniss is a Healer. I've known she was a hunter (and a damn good one at that) and she is very smart at school but I never would've guessed that Katniss Everdeen is a Healer. She has left on my undershorts. I can tell it makes her uncomfortable. She pours water over me, cleaning the mud and dirt all plastered all over me. I try hard not to wince. She treats my burns and stings but her eyes trail off to my gash that Cato made that hurts like hell. I can tell she's uncertain about what to do. I feel sorry for her.
"Why don't we give it some air and then..." She trails off, never finishing that thought.
"And then you'll patch it up?" I ask, feeling sorry for Katniss and knowing she's lost. At least, on what to do about my gash.
"That's right." She says, returning to Healer Katniss. "In the meantime, you eat these." She says sternly, reminding me of my mother once. I was 5. My mother was still kind and loving. It was before she found out that my father loved another.
Flashback
"Peeta." My mother called, looking for me. I held still, holding my breath but it was no use. My mother found me and tickled me until I came out, giggling. "Sorry, Peeta. You have to eat it though." My mother said. I was very picky when I was younger.
"No." I said. My mother sighed.
"Then, I'll tell everyone that you still hug your teddy." It was an old thing, a hand-me-down from many generations but I loved that bear. It was a bit embarrassing though, and my cheeks burned. I sat down and ate whatever my mother had told me to eat reluctantly.
Flashback over
She hands me some pears. When her back is turned, though, I put them in my pockets. I really don't feel like eating right now.