Heyyyy people! Long time, no action :L im gonna start wrapping this thing up now :) enjoy- i even made the chapter long (well, by my pitiful standards ;D )
I stare around the room, at my friends lying in various states of repose- with varying degrees of weirdness. Agrippina sucks her thumb in one corner (I need a picture of that!). Amelia stretched out with her feet on my stomach (no idea how they got there- she is sleeping beside me!). I can feel someone's toes against my leg but don't really care to check whose. And then the bundle of blanket curled up like a hatchling in her nest. Who knows who that is- but they are hilarious! I snigger softly at the gentle shivering of some of the others, including Agrippina. Bared by the little bird trying to keep warm.
I jerk and crane my neck at a sudden snap. The Avox stands beside the lamp, half illuminated in the morning light creeping in under the blinds. She is truly a wisp of a girl. So thin. She looks like a sudden gust would blow her away. And like she wishes with all her heart to fly away with it. Her raven's wing hair gleams in the half light. Bright eyes piercing into my own. I'd never noticed what gorgeous hair she has. So shiny. Her vast orbs pierce me, filled with an old yet fresh sadness.
Amelia yawns loudly in my ear and grabs me in an embrace. How wonderful! I'm being held in a sleep induced vice by my best friend! I return my attention to the gentle, padding footsteps of the Avox. She takes a tray of empty dishes out towards the kitchen. I stare at her back, wondering about her. What is her name?
"Alex? Al- ex?" Flavius appears beside me "the update starts in five minutes. Good luck getting that lot awake. I'll send the Avox in with some food to coax them into wakefulness.. But as soon as they're awake, I'm heading to Aurelia's."
"Oh, say hi to Scip, will you?" I grab his arm and immediately regret the beseeching note to my voice. Maybe he didn't notice?
"What? Tell him you loooove him?" Flavius prises my fingers from his arm and gives me a quick hug before skipping out, humming gaily.
And he's true to his word. Steaming pancakes soon have them sniffing and sitting upright, drowsily tasting the air, but with their noses. Like these Mutts they had in the Games a few years ago- blind dogs who kept their noses to the air to hunt. They had empty sockets that were both mournful and foreboding. Like yapping, snarling skeletons with skin stretched over the skull.
Their eerie baying for blood reverberated throughout this rocky canyon setup which was that Arena- pretty cool, eh? There were like five dogs but it sounded like a horde. Until some bratty District Ten guy killed them all- stupid farmer! They would have been cool in the zoo. But they could just have made more really easily in a lab I guess- maybe the upkeep would be too expensive.
I drift over to switch on the television, avoiding the feeding frenzy. Titiana is hunting, nose to the trail of Katniss and Peeta, who have left their cave to gather food. She keeps a rather big distance- which is intelligent seeing as the odds are stacked in their favour. Katniss is certainly her physical superior, even when Titiana wasn't a starving, emaciated gargoyle. Let's say she could do with a return to beauty base zero and have some food pumped into her! Add Peeta's strength into the mix... She doesn't stand a chance.
Cato lurks around in Clove and his old hunting ground, watching a gang of rather plump 'groosling'. I think he understands that food is required to survive but the pain is still etched on his features. Wandering through the Arena, his face becomes steely with suppressed emotion, further and further into despair. When he passes each campsite. Each memory. Even the broken husk of the Tracker Jacker hive where some of their allies were lost.
The quail hobble around, pecking at the ground. One splits. Wandering to the crumbs flicked from behind a bush. It resumes pecking. Until the hunter strikes.
Cato takes all his anger out on the poor bird. It lets out one piercing scream (didn't know birds could do that!) and flails, its attacker slashing with one arm and punching with the other, pinning its stunted wings to the ground, making an audible crunch. The sword half decapitates it, blood spurting from a torn artery. Cato's anger subsides slightly with the birds life. But its ruffled feathers, mangled limbs and hanging head say it all. Let's hope that this will not become the Girl or Boy on Fire.
The camera flicks back to a happier hunting party and we snigger into our plates when Peeta scares game away left, right and centre. The camera zooms in to show a herd of juicy deer leaping away from the danger. Katniss is amazingly understanding. But it's inevitable that they have to split up. She teaches him Rue's whistle and sets off. Peeta gazing longingly after her. AWWWWW!
Now Titiana sits up, mane of red hair seemingly invigorated by the proximity of the Girl and Boy on Fire! She slinks through the shadows, to where Peeta left the pack. It's like his tether post though- he doesn't go too far for a number of minutes- like a puppy who has to stay tied up but loses interest and begins to stress the boundaries more and more.
For more than half an hour, they play a game of hide and seek. Like when a puppeteer pretends not to know where the puppet is, providing the audience with hours of entertainment- in the form of shouting out "he's behind you!". But Peeta doesn't get any help, and so doesn't even notice the lithe little marionette fluttering in and swooping out to the beat of his footsteps.
"Boys..." sighs Amelia and we all chuckle as Peeta wanders off. Seizing the moment, half the cheese and an apple are wolfed down by our vulpine friend. She also helps herself to a number of roots and berries he had collected.
But again, she dances away. Katniss is returning, frantically. She whistles again and again. No answer. Titiana sprints a small distance, trips and falls. A choked squeal escapes her suddenly swollen throat. A tremor scuttles across her body but soon leaves a corpse.
Thankfully, our favourite couple are reunited before the cannon goes off. Can you imagine how scary it would be for either? Hell, if Scip and I were in that situation... Peeta doesn't realise at first that he made a kill. Albeit inadvertently. He thinks it's Cato who did it, when they see the wave of fiery hair cresting over the treetops, clutched in the hovercraft's claw.
But Katniss, bright spark she is, soon realises. She holds up the berries.
"Nightlock!" Phaedra squeals, mobile in hand. The joys of modern technology, eh?
Cato raises his bloodstained muzzle to the sky, and stretches his jowls into a feral reminder of a grin.
"That'd better be you, fire girl. You with your eleven. Your bow. Your destroying our supplies. Your killing my allies," he howls to the empty air "you don't even deserve whatever was rolled out to you. I want to do it."
But soon enough, he slinks back towards the Cornucopia. A lone wolf.
I always find that kind of sad. The alliances between One, Two and Four are usually very close knit- reflecting the healthy relationships fostered by the Capitol between the higher districts. If only the other tributes would be less silly and train their kids- or even feed them properly. So many, on arrival in the Capitol, had never seen a five course meal! Let alone a measly two- course.
When Katniss and Peeta begin heading back along the stream, it's easy to see that the Games are finishing up. No fish are left in the water. And the rushing brook of the morning has subsided to a dribbling trickle.
They settle back to prepare a meal. With only three remaining, I think tomorrow could be the grand finale!
Claudius Templesmith appears onscreen. He is releasing a public poll! In the next few days (tomorrow) the Games will culminate in a massive showdown. But what do we want to see?
He gives us two options with fairly cryptic explanations-
A. Phoenix- a fiery foe at best, will kill with a zest
B. Garous- a horde back from the dead, may just bite you in the head
"Don't you think the Garous sound cooler than the Phoenix? As much as I love the fire motif, I prefer hordes. And what do they mean by back from he dead?" I muse aloud.
"Omigosh, just what I was thinking!" Amelia squeals and the others join in "can we vote? Pleeeease?"
Weeeeellll...? Whaddya think? Id love a 'welcome back, ive missed your regular updates review'? Anyone? PLEASE?