21: Day 13, The Feast
Peeta
I'm up hours before dawn. I don't know why I even bothered going to bed – I hardly slept anyway. Teasing aside, my brother has been quite good to me since I told him about being in love with Katniss. Last night, he told me that he would take over my early morning shift at the bakery, so that I could watch the live coverage of the Games, because the feast is taking place this morning.
Luckily for me, my Mother tends to sleep in on a Sunday, so I'll be able to watch the television in privacy while my Father and brothers are working.
I'm not surprised to see that Katniss is going to the feast, although a large part of me hoped that she would decide not to go, to run as far as she could in the other direction. She and Rue are both crouching in a bush, looking out over the clearing which surrounds the Cornucopia. Marvel and Clove have split up and are standing amongst the trees on opposite sides of the clearing. Thresh, surprisingly, has emerged from the wheat field for the first time in the whole Games, but is waiting further from the clearing than the others. Vivra is nowhere to be seen; she's smart and she's probably decided to avoid the feast.
As dawn breaks, both here and at the arena, the mouth of the Cornucopia opens to reveal a round table, covered in a white tablecloth. Atop the table are five backpacks: two large black one with the numbers 1 and 11-T on them, a medium-sized red one with a 2 on it, a green one with a 5 on it, a blue one with 11-R on it and the largest one, a triangular-shaped orange one with 12 on it, for Katniss. The announcer explains that, since there are two district 11 tributes, the "T" and "R" stand for Thresh and Rue.
As soon as the table clicks into place, Vivra dashes out of the Cornucopia – evidently, she had been hiding inside – grabs the green backpack and is away before the others even realise what's happened.
Katniss is the next to emerge into the clearing, carrying Cato's sword. She leaves Rue behind though, perhaps planning to get the packs for both of them. Katniss is fast – faster than I expected on her still injured leg – but Clove is right on her heels.
She's only a few metres away from the table when Clove slams into her and knocks her down. Katniss quickly turns over, so she's lying on her back, before Clove pins her shoulders to the ground with her knees, and throws the sword out of reach.
"You killed my district partner, you bitch! You killed my Cato!" Clove snarls
"No I didn't! I was..."
"Yes you did," Clove interrupts "You know you did. Don't lie to me, Fire Girl," she sneers, "But don't worry, I got you back. Your cute little district partner – Stevie was it? – didn't stand a chance against me. I cut him up and he screamed for mercy."
"You liar!" Katniss yells, struggling under the weight of the other girl. "You weren't even there when Steffi died!"
Clove raises her eyebrows, apparently realising the implications of what Katniss just said. Now she knows Katniss was there when the bombs went off.
"Ah, so you sent him in to get the supplies for you and got him blown to kingdom come. Nicely done, Fire Girl, I didn't think you had it in you!"
Clove opens her jacket, revealing a number of knives of varying sizes and shapes, every one of them sharp and deadly, "Lucky for me, these all survived intact. Now, let's give the audience a little show, shall we?" she says.
My hands are getting numb from clenching my fists so tight and my eyes are drying out because I can't bring myself to blink.
Suddenly, something barrels into Clove, knocking her off of Katniss.
"Rue! No!" yells Katniss, as the two girls roll over and over on the ground, both wrestling to end up on top. Rue's element of surprise, which was the only reason she overpowered Clove in the first place, is now gone and the older girl is quickly gaining the upper hand.
Meanwhile, Katniss darts to the table and opens the orange 12 backpack. She fumbles with the zip but eventually manages to open it, revealing a golden bow and many arrows inside. By the time she's managed to pull the weapon out of the bag, Clove has overpowered Rue and is kneeling on her, in much the same way she had knelt on Katniss just moments before, holding a knife to the young girl's neck.
"That's fine little girl, I'll kill you and then go back for the Fire Girl, I'm not fussy."
Apparently Clove has forgotten about the packs and doesn't realise that Katniss is already preparing to shoot her.
Rue
Katniss had given me strict instructions to stay behind and not to approach the Cornucopia, but when I saw her completely at Clove's mercy, I couldn't just stand by and do nothing. Before I even knew what I was doing, my legs had carried me halfway across the clearing.
I realised the flaw in this plan quite quickly when Clove overpowered me and I was in the exact same position Katniss had been in just seconds before. I closed my eyes and felt the cold metal of a knife pressed against my throat, felt tears running down my face, felt the pressure of her weight on top of me. Then, all of a sudden, the weight is gone.
I open my eyes tentatively, having no idea what to expect, and see Clove hanging a foot off the ground, held tightly in Thresh's arms.
Thresh looks from me, to Katniss, to Clove, who is wailing and struggling in his arms.
"Gonna cut this little girl up, were you?" Thresh says, menacingly, nodding his head in my direction.
"No! No! I wasn't!" Clove shouts, struggling even more, before screaming "Help!". Her blatant lie obviously doesn't fool him as, before I know it, he's smashed a rock into her skull and dropped her to the ground.
He turns and stares at Katniss and I. Katniss has her bow still raised, pointing at him, but she doesn't release the arrow. I'm still lying on the ground, looking up at the two of them, which is probably not the best idea in this situation, but my legs are shaking so hard I don't think I can actually stand.
If anything, Thresh looks even bigger than he did at the start of the Games. As his district partner, I know a little about him. He's big and scary-looking, but surprisingly kind; he looked after me when I was scared and alone after we were Reaped. He doesn't like to talk much, but he told me about his sister and how the two of them were brought up by his Grandmother; he told me he'd do anything to get back to them. I knew he could win the Games just on pure strength, but he was going to do it his own way and only kill when he had to, so I respected him for that.
"You're looking after this girl?" Thresh asks, referring to me again. Katniss nods, but still doesn't lower her bow.
A crashing sound from behind her distracts Katniss' attention – it's Marvel, blundering his way into the clearing, apparently having seen the kerfuffle or heard Clove's cries for help. Katniss spins round and fires an arrow in his direction, narrowly missing his shoulder. While she has her back turned, I half expect Thresh to bash her with the rock, but he doesn't – he grabs his pack from the table and takes off towards the wheat field. In a way, I think he was repaying Katniss for looking after me, since I am his district partner. In any case, I'm glad he let her be.
Katniss fires a second arrow in Marvel's direction and doesn't miss this time. It's a direct hit to his neck and he falls to the ground, a cannon sounding almost immediately. She turns on her heel and re-aims the bow where Thresh had been just moments before, looking surprised when she sees he's gone. It's just the two of us here now, feeling more-or-less safe.
Clove is still alive, though. I can hear her moaning and whimpering a few feet away – it sounds like she might be moaning Cato's name, although I can't be sure. I can't bring myself to look in her direction, knowing that I'll see the side of her head caved in where Thresh struck her. It's pretty clear, even to me, that she won't survive.
Katniss offers me her hand and helps me to my feet and eventually a second cannon sounds, indicating that Clove is gone. Before the hovercraft comes to take her, Katniss takes the knife out of Clove's hand and replaces it with Cato's sword. The knife will be a lot more useful to the two of us and the sword brings nothing but bad memories.
The two of us are both rattled by what just happened. In the space of only a few minutes, we've both endured very real threats of death and seen two more people die. Katniss seems to be more shocked by Thresh's behaviour than by the death of the two careers – I'm sure she expected him to turn on her and bash her head in with that rock too. I'm so glad he didn't.
The feast is over. I pick up the blue pack with 11-R written on it, and Katniss takes the orange 12 pack, even though she's already got hold of it's contents – the bow and arrow. We also take Clove and Marvel's packs. Katniss points out that they won't be using them now and they might contain something useful for us. Once we're a reasonable distance from the Cornucopia, so that the bodies can be collected, I open the pack to take a look at what the Gamemaker's decided I needed, and something else a little unexpected.
A/N: This is Chapter 21. Chapter 21 in the book is the feast as well... weird! More people voted for short, frequent chapters, so that's what I'm going with. Reviews are very much appreciated, thank you!