Trudging up the stream, which was much higher than it had been before, the girl said, "If we want food, we better head back up to my old hunting grounds."

Finch thanked them for revealing their strategy as the two District 12 tributes walked up around a bend in the stream, leaving as little trail as possible. This seemed easy for the girl, as if moving stealthily and silently was natural to her, but the boy was making all sorts of noise, partially due to a bad leg.

As the two disappeared upstream, Finch dropped lightly onto the rock in front of the cave and squeezed inside. The place smelled even better than it had before. She could smell broth, fruit, fresh bread and other wonderful scents. These two must have very generous sponsors.

Finch scoured the cave for any of the food, but they had left none of it behind. Despite the generous sponsors, they must have known enough not to take even a small amount of food for granted. Frustrated by her lack of results, she crawled back out of the cave and followed the two tributes up the river.

The boy with the injured leg was slowing the girl down and it wasn't long before Finch caught up to both of them. Though she made sure to keep quiet, the boy was easily making enough clamor to drown out any noise that she made.

Finch followed them for several hours through the pine woods, but they didn't reveal any more of their strategy. In fact, they weren't talking to each other much at all for supposed newfound lovers. Perhaps it was just the stress of the games. However they were far from silent- the boy was making enough sound for the three of them.

Eventually, the girl addressed this problem as politely as she could, though it came off sounding as if she was nagging the boy. "You've got to move more quietly", she said, probably sounding more annoyed than she meant to. "Forget about Cato, you're chasing off every rabbit in a ten-mile radius."

"Sorry, I didn't know", the boy replied, taking off his boots. When they proceeded, they were quieter, but he was still making enough noise that Finch knew that she could easily find the boy again if she lost sight of him.

The girl must have realized this too, because she stopped once again and suggested that the two split up. It was the opportunity that Finch had been waiting for. The girl taught the boy a two note call to use to tell the other that they were safe, then went their separate ways. The girl headed off into the pine grove and the boy headed toward the stream.

To Finch's delight, the two had left their food on the ground, just asking for her to take it. With so little food in the pile, it was possible that they would notice if she took a roll or an apple, but Finch was desperately hungry. The last thing she needed was for her rumbling stomach to give up her position. One little mistake, she brought back the words of her mentor. They seemed more relevant now than ever. However, from what she had seen, the two didn't seem to be overly bright. Even in the slight chance that they were paying attention, they certainly had no reason to think that she had taken it. They would probably just blame Cato again. She took a few bites of the cheese, then followed after the girl.

Finch quickly discovered why the girl on fire had scored an 11. The girl from District 12 moved quickly and silently, taking in every movement and sound in the area. When she spotted something, the girl was quick to draw and fire the bow at a target that Finch had not seen, though it had been right in front of her. The rabbit blended right in to the dried pine needles, but Finch had not even noticed it. What she did notice was that the girl's shot was deadly accurate, spearing the rabbit right through the eyes. A clean kill.

The girl's accuracy and focus astounded Finch. How had this girl not won already? Finch knew that if it was her who had that kind of skill with a ranged weapon and stealth, the games would have been over days ago. Instead of hiding in the cornucopia, she would have sat at the edge of the woods and picked off anyone who dared enter the clearing to grab their bag. Instead, this girl had gotten close enough to someone to get her head sliced.

Skilled, but not very smart, Finch noted. She could deal with that.

Finch doubled her effort to remain unseen and unheard, making sure step in time with the girl so that the sound of their footsteps blended together. If the girl could see a motionless rabbit blended into the foliage, she would have no problem spotting a mane of red hair against the brown tree trunks.

As the girl moved, she whistled the tune that she had taught the boy to communicate that they were safe. When the boy didn't return the two note call, the girl became worried. Finch didn't want the girl to be suspicious, so she hastily whistled the two note call in reply. The mockingjays picked up the tune and it reverberated through the trees. The sound seemed to calm the girl down and she went back to hunting.

The boy must be out of earshot. These two tributes were being careless. Slinking back into the shadows, she went to find the boy.

He was not hard to find. The boy was down by the stream gathering blue berries from a bush, storing them on a plastic sheet. With the stream moving so quickly over the rocks, it was obvious why the boy had not returned the call. The sound of the stream was masking just about every other sound. Limping along the shore, the boy was all but oblivious to the world around him.

Careless! How had they survived this long?

Finch continued watching the boy gather berries until a shrill yell made its way through the forest. Even over the stream, the scream was clearly audible. Finch figured the girl had gone long enough without a signal and must have gotten worried. The boy, hearing his name and the panic in the girl's voice, picked up his berries and ran toward the source of the yelling.

So loud! Finch though. So much for stealth. The girl's practically asking for someone to attack her.

The berries that the boy had been picking were growing on bushes all along the stream. Finch picked a few of them and looked at them. She had seen the girl from District 11 gather these earlier in the games, so she trusted them. She plucked a few of them off the bush and followed the boy back. As she did, she popped a couple of the berries into her mouth, happy to have a snack to tide her over.

Finch immediately noticed something wrong. The berries had a different taste than she had remembered. These berries were sickly sweet with a slight touch of melancholy. She had never tasted anything like it these the same berries she had eaten just a few days earlier? They looked like the same ones- maybe they just weren't ripe yet.

Finch investigated the berries, rolling them over in her hand. I need to be more careful. Finch shook her head to clear her thoughts. One simple mistake...but her thoughts trailed off.

She found that she felt oddly at ease.

Looking around, Finch suddenly couldn't remember what she was doing in the middle of the forest or how she had gotten there. She had a vague sense that there was something that she was supposed to be doing, but she just couldn't remember what it was.

As she stood there thinking about it, Finch heard a voice behind her, speaking her name.

She recognized the voice instantly, but could hardly believe it, even as she she turned and saw her old friend standing before her smiling, arms outstretched.

"Agatha!" Finch cried. She did not care how Agatha had gotten there, only that she was. Suddenly, whatever she had been doing didn't matter to her anymore.

Dropping the berries, Finch ran into Agatha's warm embrace, tears streaming down her face. "I thought you were gone! They said you were never coming back!"

"I'm right here, child. I'm not going anywhere", Agatha said softly. "I'm so proud of you."

Somewhere in the distance, she heard the faint sound of a cannon firing.