Soli Deo gloria

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the Hunger Games or Disney.

Here is the point of view of Jane!

We settle down a bit after the anthem and band goes down. I settle against the tree while I get hit with the fact that there's only five of us left. Tarzan just said that one of us could win it. He's right—I mean, we could. For some reason, though, I don't think I'll win. I mean, I might win—I just don't see myself winning. Me, Jane Porter, the artist who rarely spends time outdoors, winning the Disney Games. Sounds a bit preposterous, really.

Tarzan should win. He's a great competitor, a great guy, and a great friend. I find myself comfortable around him, while I'm not usually with other guys. I'm a sort of shy person, and I'm not shy around him. It's a bit strange, but fun. He's quiet, but knowledgeable, and together we've done brilliantly.

"Do you know the names of the other tributes?" he asks me suddenly.

I sit up and say, "I heard the girls are Tiana and Rapunzel. Do you know the boy's name?"

"Eugene, I think," he says.

I nod and count on my fingers, "Tarzan, Jane, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Eugene."

"The end is coming soon," says Tarzan quietly. He pokes at the fire and adds, "Maybe tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I ask, for some reason startled at the thought of this life we've been living for a few days being over.

"Yes," he says, "these Games have been particularly fast." He looks around and adds, "There's . . . I don't know . . . I feel like it'll be tomorrow."

"Like you're not going to spend another night in this arena?" I ask him.

"Yeah," and he looks back at his fire, muttering, "just . . ."

"No, I get it," I say quickly. He looks up at me and I add, "It . . . it probably will end tomorrow."

"Yes," he says.

I nod and I look out, and I say lightly, "I wonder how our mentors are doing." Our mentors, Gepetto and Jiminy Cricket, have control over our funds. So far they've sent us nothing, because we haven't need anything. I wonder if they're going to send us something tomorrow for a big breakfast before the final showdown.

Our escort, the Blue Fairy, hopefully has helped us get sponsors. She's a glittery sort of person, a real people person. Between the three of them, we should get some sponsors.

"They're probably getting us something for tomorrow," says Tarzan. He leans against a tree and says, "Maybe a big breakfast, or big weapons that can help us."

Oh. Weapons. I suppose it would make more sense to get us better weapons than our one sword and one spear. We could always raid the cornucopia, but the weapons had mysteriously disappeared from it. There was food and water, but no weapons when we went there yesterday. It was strange, but we didn't pay any attention to it.

"Yes, big weapons," I say before I let out a loud yawn. "Wellllll," I say, stretching a bit, my full tummy almost uncomfortably full (the food from the Capitol's awfully rich), "one of us best get to bed."

"I can watch first, if you want me to," says Tarzan.

"I can take the first watch, Tarzan; you need sleep," I say, for he's been keeping watch first since the first night in the arena. "You need sleep more than I do."

"No, I don't. Get some sleep," he tells me. He looks at me with this soft look and says, "I'll wake you up if we get attacked, okay?"

I smile softly and say, "Well, all right, then," and I snuggle against my sloped tree trunk.

Once comfortable, I close my eyes and say quietly, "Good night, Tarzan."

He answers back with a, "Good night, Jane," and I fall asleep to the sound of the crackling fire.

The next morning, I wake up to the sound of birds talking to each other. I sit up, and Tarzan says quietly, "There's the sunrise."

I sit up straight and turn to him, shocked as I say, "Tarzan! You were supposed to wake me up to take the next watch! Did you get any sleep at'all?"

He shakes his head and says, "I didn't want to disturb you."

I don't know how to respond to that. I sputter, "Well, you're . . . you need sleep too, Tarzan!"

He smiles softly and nods toward the view as he adds, "The sunrise."

"Oh, yeah," I say, and I gasp as I turn and become speechless. The sun is absolutely beautiful. The entire sky is a mixture of colors, with bright orange strips and bits of soft pink and splotches of dark pink. There are yellow stripes and red ones and one big yellow blob rising in the sky.

"I could never be able to draw something like this," I say. I turn to my companion and say, "This is really, really beautiful, Tarzan."

He nods and stands up, starting to put out the fire with his sandaled feet. "Want to head to the cornucopia for breakfast?"

"Let's," I say; I put on my jacket and grab my spear as he picks up his sword. We leave the parachutes, for we have no need for them. We're heading to the cornucopia where there's food, so we won't be needing containers for things we could pick like berries and such.

We have our spear and sword ready, just in case any of the other tributes are out by the cornucopia. We both know that this will be the last day. It's just a matter of time before one of us is dead.

I gulp nervously at the thought and follow Tarzan as we walk.

We move our way about the leaves and trees, careful as we look about as well. You never know when an enemy is hiding in the shadows, waiting for us to show up so they can attack us and get us out of the way.

There's a great many places to hide, here in the jungle, and the littlest noise starts to set me off.

"Goodness, there's another one. Was that a tribute, you think?" I ask, looking up at Tarzan. Before he can answer, I continue, looking about, "There could be any of them, right now, watching us."

"Jane," he says firmly, and I stop talking and look at him. He looks at me firmly yet gently as he says, "Calm down."

"Oh. Well, all right, then," I say, though I'm not sure how I can calm down. I nod and he starts to walk again, and I follow him, keeping within two steps of him.

We continue our silent walk, and around ten in the morning, we can see the bare tip of the cornucopia. That's where we need to be, and I'm starting to get famished. We had been eating fish and some berries after checking for hours if they were poisonous for four days and picking at the cornucopia and after having such a big meal like that last night, I feel a bit hollow.

We both settle under some leaves, checking to see if there's anyone near the cornucopia before we head in. I keep my head down and my spear ready, but we see no one.

"No one's here," I say.

Tarzan nods as he stands up, still slightly crouched, as he says, "Let's go."

I nod and follow him to the opening of the cornucopia, subconsciously stepping over the metallic plates we arrived here on.

The whole arena suddenly becomes darker, and I look around in surprise as Tarzan, poking around a bit with his spear, heads into the cornucopia.

"Why's it so dark?" I whisper to myself. Daddy would know. Daddy knows many things like this; though, if this is a Gamemaker's trick, I highly doubt he'd be able to figure it out. It must be a Gamemaker's doing, for nothing like this happens when it's as dark as night.

I hear Tarzan shuffling in the cornucopia as I hold my sword in a way that I'll be able to spring into nervous action if I need to. He's silent when he comes out into the dark light and I say, "What happened?" for I can see in his face that he's annoyed.

"There's nothing in there. No weapons, no food, no water; nothing," he says.

I look at him, shocked. Did any of the other tributes come here and raid the cornucopia or something? Did the Gamemakers take everything out, or did some ravage wild animal come and eat everything?

"That's . . . that's . . . what do we do, then?" I say this last part in a stronger voice, knowing that showing fear is not going to earn me or Tarzan sponsors, and now we're going to need sponsors. Surely we won't need much food at all today if this is the last day, but remaining strong throughout the Games is something that the Capitol and the sponsors eat up.

"We find the other tributes, and we kill them," he says, holding up his spear. "The Gamemakers might try to get us all together, so that should makes things easier."

"Yes, of course; it shouldn't be that hard, then, for we've all been near the cornucopia," I say. We've seen Tiana and District 8 near the cornucopia. They can't have wandered off too far.

I nod and just as we turn to go looking, we hear the pounding of many feet. The sound fills me and makes me feel small and pressured as we both look about. I say under my breath, "My goodness, what is that?"

We hear several snarls and find several shapes start to form out of the leaves. Grey ears and spots of snout stick out among the large jungle leaves.

"Wolves," Tarzan says, and he grabs my hand and runs.

I stumble over my feet as my heart pounds, my voice saying, "Wolves? IN THE JUNGLE?!"

"Mutts!" he yells back, and he lets go of my hand so that I can find my own fast pace. I find my feet soon enough as we rage through the jungle; the snarls of the beasts become more apparent as they yell and pound against the ground; I fear that their four feet will carry them more quickly than my two will do for me.

I search frantically for some help; the vines in this part of the jungle are either nonexistent or tangled around the trunk of a tree. Either way, a vine is not going to help us get out of this particularly sticky situation.

My lungs gasp for air. We had just been walking for at least an hour, and now we're running, running straight back to whence we came. We don't turn, for we can feel the wolves starting to slowly surround us.

I look back at one point and gasp as I turn back. They're all almost in a straight line, all coming toward us, closing in on us. I gulp in a breath when I realize that we're back at the camp we had last night. We don't stop and climb the trees we had rested against, though, for then we'll get torn apart.

My heel almost gets nipped and I let out a cry. A hand reaches out and I look up to see Tarzan running, looking ahead. We don't speak as the impending nature of our cruel deaths comes closer and closer, the animals snarling and whimpering. I can practically see their fangs drip with drool as we run down across the green leaves and lovely wild flowers.

I gulp when ahead of us I see the cliff near the gorge. There's no way to get out of this. We have to get out of here, and we're going to get out of here either by getting sliced and ripped to pieces by wolves, which have no place in this jungle, or by jumping over this cliff to the ground below.

I look behind me and look away quickly before I turn to Tarzan, my heart pounding as I say, "We have to jump, don't we?"

He stays quiet, doesn't talk as he breathes heavily through his nose. After a moment he says quietly, not looking at me, "I'm sorry, Jane."

I look at him and know that he doesn't have anything to be sorry about. He did nothing wrong.

"Don't be, Tarzan," I say, and we're ten feet from the ledge. We're going to have to have a running start, because we're not stopping to take a breath, for that will mean quick death via wolves.

"Goodbye," I say, and he smiles and says, "Goodbye, Jane," and we jump.

Heading down feels freeing. No more heavy breathing. No more scary, drooling, faster wolf mutts. I'm falling to my death.

I hit bottom, still holding Tarzan's hand, and my body feels paralyzed with pain.

I close my eyes and I draw my last breath just as I hear two cannon shots. One for me, and one for Tarzan.

WE ARE DOWN TO THREE. GOSH. Just Tiana, Rapunzel, and Eugene left.

I made a reference to the regular Hunger Games where the mutts looked like wolves, almost. I used piranhas and leopards from Tarzan and I added the wolves to be a little reference toward Beauty and the Beast.

Thankies for reading, and please, let me know what you think!