Disclaimer: I only own the characters I created and my ideas. The Hunger Games and it's characters belong to Suzanne Collins.
…
Chaff
I wake up in my bed in the training center. Looks like I sort of just collapsed on top of it more or less. My mouth is dry and my head is pounding. I walk into the bathroom and use the computer to order something for this headache. Two white pills appear in the delivery slot in the wall and I take them with a glass of water. I set the shower for extra hot with some sort of manly smelling soap. When I'm finally ready to leave I tell the Avoxes not to worry about me that I will eat downstairs but that Seeder is coming up and I don't know what she'll want. I step out of the elevator on the mentor's floor and things seem pretty quiet. Seeder is sitting next to Blight, almost lost in the white squishiness of the chair. "How's it going?" I ask the two of them sliding down onto a divan.
"Six boy died in the night, Careers got him," Blight says glumly.
"Hobb and Moira teamed up" Hoster drawls, "They got themselves an alliance now. He saved her from an alligator."
"Where's Rye?" I ask Seeder.
"He's still asleep inside that tree. I think maybe he stepped on something last night, something that made him sleep.," Seeder whispers.
"Something like what?" I ask her.
"I don't know, just last night when he was running he stepped on some kind of mushrooms and a powdery clouds sort of came up out of them but he kept going so I didn't think it would matter but then he stumbled a little, found that tree and was out. That forest looks evil Chaff. It looks like a forest I saw in a book of fairy stories when I was little."
"Stories from before the dark days?" I ask her grinning.
"From way before the dark days, hundreds of years before the dark days. They were stories for children and there were always witches and dragons and princes and princesses and wicked queens, I loved them," she sighed and I could tell that she was far away inside, remembering something good probably from before she lost her parents.
"Alright then, I'll watch out for wicked queens and fairies and stuff. You go to bed."
"I'd be more worried about the dragons," she said seriously on her way out of the room.
I go over to the table where we ate last night which is now spread with all sorts of delicacies. Crepes, which are some sort of thin pancake thing with fruit or chocolate rolled in them, bacon, sausage, cereals, bagles, French toast omlettes made to order, fruit, biscuits and rolls, butter, anything you could possibly want to eat for breakfast is all laid out ready for you to grab. I fill up a plate, grab a drink, and settle into Seeder's empty chair. Rye is finally starting to wake up, the effects of the mushrooms from last night must be wearing off. He sits up and rubs his eyes and looks around. It's daylight but little sunshine is making it through the thick trees. Kid got out of the bloodbath with a knife but that was it. He's gonna need some things, a water container for one. A blanket, something to eat. I check our sponsor funds. There is a good bit of money thanks to Finnick sending some of his sponsors our way but I think I'll wait a bit before I send too much. I get up and go look through the backpack options that we have available to send to the kids from sponsors. I'm going to have to send the water container and purifying drops if he's going to live because I'm betting that whatever water is in that black forest is poisonous and I wouldn't drink out of the swamp either. I pick a small pack with a water canteen, purifying drops, some dried meat, a pack of dried fruit and a blanket in it and send it down with a note that says he'd better put it to good use. I almost died in my games after I lost my water container, I'm not going to have that happen to a tribute if I can help it. The pack drifts down in front of Rye and he bolts over to it. He make sure he's alone and goes through it hanging the canteen from his belt. Luckily the pack was brown and not some bright color that would stand out. Rye decides to walk back the way he came and he's soon found a stream, a rough running wide one and he sits down to fill his container. Before he sticks his hands in he grabs a stick and shoves that in first. Satisfied that it is in fact water and not acid or some other corrosive substance he fills the canteen and puts in a few drops of iodine to purify it. He climbs back up the bank and sits up in a tree to eat his breakfast which consists of some of the dried beef and fruit from his pack. When he's done he walks out in the open, holds up his canteen and says "Thank you!" I guess he's looking for food because he walks by the stream until he finds a slow, deeper spot, takes his shirt off, ties the neck and arms shut and uses it as a net. He catches two fairly large fish that way That he ties to his belt with one of the parachute strings and walks a little further downriver and stops to pull up some wild onions. Those go in the parachute itself along with some berries growing near the water. Not bad this kid. He might have a chance.