Showdown

I was trying to hide it from Jett as best I could but Caden's prolonged absence was making me extremely restless. And why shouldn't it, he was my...friend I had every right to be worried about him. Not to mention the guy saved my life, which seriously shapes ones opinions of a person, and with my ridiculously over active imagination I couldn't help thinking up an extremely long list of horrible situations that Caden could be in. Despite my subconscious frequently telling me to calm down, that Caden would be back any second, I couldn't stop thinking about him or where the hell he was. I finally resided myself to believing that I wouldn't stop acting like a scared little child until I saw his face and knew he was alright so I decided to stop pacing around the crevice like a madwoman and just sat down. Jett was watching me with a fascinated expression, like he was watching a weird and exotic animal or something and monitoring its behaviour, but wasn't saying a word. Finally the staring got to me.

"What?" I snapped at him.

"Nothing," he said with a small smirk and casually looking away from me.

"Then quit staring."

He grinned mischievously, "It's just...your pacing."

I frowned, "No I'm not. I'm sitting."

"You were pacing."

"So what?"

"Nothing," he said in an equally irritating tone as the last time he's said that.

I paused, "I'm worried ok? There, you happy?"

Jett smiled and rolled his eyes at the same time, "I already told you once I didn't hurt him. He just went to get some water."

"Just because you haven't killed him yet doesn't mean someone else hasn't."

Jett's smiled doubled in size, "Don't tell me you fell for him after he confessed his undying love for you."

I imagine my face would have looked absolutely hilarious to not only Jett but also to anyone watching on the TV after that. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped completely. I decided to let the 'fallen for him' comment go and just get down to the underlying question which of course was something along the lines of, "How the hell did Jett know that?"

"You knew?" I exclaimed, the surprise making my voice hit a note possibly not audible for human ears.

Jett cracked up, no longer able to contain his laughter after seeing the look of absolute shock on my face.

"More or less yeah," he said once he had managed to catch his breath.

"How?" I didn't care that I was alerting every single threat within a ten mile radius to our presence with my volume, I was confused and infuriated all at the same time.

"Oh come on Eora it was so obvious," his amusement at this topic was not at all appreciated by me, "And the fact that you were completely clueless made everything so much better."

I had to sit on my hands so I didn't slap him right across the face. This was in no way something to laugh at and the stupid self-satisfied smile on his lips was enough to make me reconsider not stabbing him with my knife.

"Well why didn't you tell me?" I couldn't stop the irritation I was feeling coming out in my voice.

"I did drop some hints," he said with malicious glee.

"When?"

"For one I told you he couldn't keep his eyes off you."

I tried to remember that. Oh yeah he had said something like that on the first day of training. He couldn't call that a hint, that was just an observation. But now that he mentioned it, some of his other actions during training suddenly made a lot more sense, like the humoured look on his face when he looked between Caden and I when we were talking at the sword station.

"That is not a hint," I yelled defensively, "A hint would be something along the lines of, 'Oh by the way Eora I think Caden's in love with you,'!"

Jett laughed at me again and once again I was fighting the burning itch to hit him, "That wouldn't be a hint, that would be telling you straight out."

"Well maybe you should have told me straight out, ever think of that partner?" I dropped the partner bit hoping to give him some grief about keeping a secret from me but it didn't work.

"If you couldn't see it when it was so ridiculously noticeable, you would have believed me anyway," he said with a devilish chuckle. At least this was fun for one of us, "I mean everything about the way he was around you, the way he looked at you, the way he 'lit up' whenever you were around, how could you not have seen it?"

"I don't know." I admitted quietly. I'd already accepted that I was an absolute idiot.

"Everyone else I talked to about it seemed to have the same assumptions about Caden's reasons for being here, well that's only really Clyde, my escort, and my mentors Siobhan and Sterling."

Was I the only idiot on the planet? How many other people knew and just decided not to tell me? Did Haymitch know? Did Macie? Did Rubin? Wait...Rubin. He was the one who had come to talk to me after that first night of training. What was it he had said to me...something about it not being smart to make friends? Ah, of course he knew, that's why he tried to keep me from befriending Caden, because he knew that Caden was already way past friendship. He was right of course, just look at me, I was already half scared to death just because Caden had left to get some water, making friends was definitely a stupid idea.

"How did everybody know?" I frowned as I concentrated. I mean Jett was right, looking back I should have suspected something, he did look at me a lot, he was different around me and don't even get me started on the way he kissed me that night back in our apartment. I should have realised, but everyone else? They weren't around for most of that stuff, how did they all figure it out?

Jett's smile faded a little, "I'm guessing you didn't watch the replay of the reapings?"

I frowned again. The reapings? What did they have to do with anything?

"No I watched them."

Jett raised an eyebrow, "Even yours?"

"Oh, actually no I didn't watch ours. I...couldn't."

Jett nodded, as if he had just gained some kind of understanding, "That explains it. Well if you had watched it, you would have known."

The confusion must have shown on my face because Jett continued.

"You wouldn't believe how many cameras they have during those reapings," he explained, taking a deep breath, "Nor would you believe what they manage to capture, or who they manage to capture." The way he empathised the word 'who' seemed to suggest that that made everything clearer but I still didn't quite get what he was saying.

He took another deep breath, "I imagine the live reapings would have looked different because they didn't know what was going to happen afterwards but in the recap I watched after they called out your name the first person they switched to was you, then two little girls standing with a pretty dark haired girl-"

"My sisters," I cut in, "and my best friend Alara." Hearing that I was glad I hadn't watched the reaping, I didn't want to see the look on Alara's face after I was reaped, or the confusion that would have been on Dori and Raine's faces after they heard my name.

"Yeah I assumed that was them after you told me about them," Jett agreed softly, "Well after they showed your sisters, they cut over to Caden's reaction."

He paused. Oh.

Jett looked like he was struggling for words, "If you had seen the look on Caden's face...well let's just say it wouldn't have been quite a surprise when he told you."

So that was why Caden hadn't wanted to watch the recap, not because he was reliving his actions, but because he didn't want to have to watch me get reaped again. Jett was right, I wasn't that blind, if Caden's face had been as telling as he seemed to think it was I would have realised and probably saved myself a whole lot of trouble trying to figure out why he had volunteered. Then again, whatever Caden's face had looked like, I imagine that would have haunted me just as badly as Alara's would have, so perhaps it was a good thing I didn't see it.

It seemed that neither of us really knew what to say next. While I was glad that Jett finally seemed to appreciate that this situation was not in any way humorous, I kind of wanted him to burst out laughing again so this awkward silence would break. However just before I was going to ask some menial question regarding...the weather or something unimportant like that, I heard the sound of approaching footsteps outside. I quickly jumped to my feet and had my hand on my knife instinctively, before mentally chastising myself for being so jumpy, especially considering I was pretty sure I knew who it was coming towards us and I had no intention of hurting him.

I ran out of the crevice to intercept him and as soon as I saw Caden's gorgeous face unharmed I yelled out his name and ran towards him, throwing my arms around him in relief. I didn't really care what I was doing I was so relieved to see him, the last half an hour or so had been ridiculously stressful and despite my constant reminders to quit freaking out and Jett's reassurance, I had still been imagining lots of unpleasant scenarios.

When I pulled away from him I could see a mixture of surprise and glee in his ridiculously dazzling blue eyes and he beamed at me. I quickly looked over him to make sure he was fine. His face was a little flushed and the thin line under his chin from where Jett had scratched him in their fight was still there but aside from that he looked perfect.

"What took you so damn long?" I asked, unable to hide the anxiety in my voice.

He smiled at me reassuringly, "I-" he started but he quickly cut his explanation short as he looked over my shoulder. His face darkened and his smile turned into a hate-filled scowl and I turned around to see what he was looking at and panicked a little when I saw it. Jett had come out of the crevice and wasn't standing nearly as far away as I would have liked.

I turned back around and was about to start explaining and pleading but Caden put up a hand to stop me after he saw I wasn't in anyway startled by Jett's presence. He took a few silent moments to absorb what he was seeing before he turned his glare to me.

"I don't even want to know how the hell he talked his way out of this," he spat through closed teeth.

"Caden everything was just a misunderstanding," I gushed apologetically.

"Oh I'm sure it was," he said venomously as he returned his malicious scowl back over my shoulder at Jett.

"Caden-" I started, trying my hardest to get him to understand but Jett cut me off.

"Leave it Eora," Jett said sturdily, "I can deal with this," he changed his focus from me to Caden, "Come on. Get it out then. You don't think I've already shot down all of her accusations? What makes you think yours will be any worse? If I can take her on and come out innocent I think I can take you."

Caden snorted and took a step towards Jett. I had a horrible feeling that my position in between them was probably the only thing keeping the two of them from knocking each other's heads off. Not only was I caught in the middle of a fight over supposed loyalties, I was in the middle of a fight over two boys' damaged egos. Uh oh.

"My list of accusations in considerably longer than hers," Caden snapped and stepped in again

"Oh yeah? How is that even possible? I never agreed to work with you." Step.

"No, but you did manage to attack me. Eora might have been upset you double crossed her but my reasons aren't quite as delicate. You tried to kill me." Step.

Jett laughed, "Oops did I hurt your feelings? In case you haven't noticed, this is the Hunger Games. Everyone in here is trying to kill you." Step. The gap between the two of them was quickly shortening and I was running out of room between them.

"Yeah well so far you're the only one who's come at me with a sword. That always translates into trust. Think about it Jett why shouldn't I trust you?" Step.

"Hmm let me think...because you haven't been in love with me for god knows long like the only person you do trust." Step.

That took Caden momentarily off guard but he didn't falter for long, "I trust people who've earned my trust. Being in love with her has nothing to do with it." Step. It was good to see that I wasn't even getting my name mentioned anymore.

"Ha, that's a joke. You've had it in for me from the moment you met me. And not because I did anything to prompt it, only because the girl you're in love with was spending more time with me than she was with you." Step.

I could feel the tensions rising. There was way too much testosterone in this increasingly small amount of space between the three of us.

Caden snorted, "Yeah because she was the one following you around," Great, sarcasm was always going to make this situation better, "I didn't like you because you are a career and I didn't trust you for one second, and I was right not to obviously." Step.

"How good of you to be the bigger person and stereotype. Quite obviously I'm not a career." Step.

"Just because you're not with the career pack doesn't mean you're not a career. I've been watching these games ever since I was eight years old and the first thing I learnt was that the tributes from one, two and four will all do anything to get back to their perfect, pathetic little lives."

"This might be a surprise to you but not everyone is the same. Just because tributes before me have acted like monsters doesn't mean that I'm one."Step.

"Well your track record definitely supports you." Step.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"Step.

"Well let's see...what have you done so far? You've been reaped, pulled a ten in training, completely dazzled a crowd at your interview and then entered the arena and in the first five minutes were attacking the boy who was carrying your supposed ally to safety. Sounds like career material to me." Step. There was only a foot or so between Caden and Jett now, and I, being the lucky human being I was, had somehow managed to end up in between them.

"Oh you're so brave, brave enough to accuse me when she's standing in front of you protecting you. Well done you." Jett clapped his hands in mock approval as he stepped in again.

Caden was just about to lash into him again when I decided it was about time I stepped in. I put two fingers in my mouth and used them to let out a loud, high pitched wolf whistle. They both looked down at me in surprise and I looked back between them.

"Yeah, that's right, I'm still here," I added, ignoring the fact that I had stooped to using sarcasm as well but hey, if you can't beat them join them.

"Eora-" Jett started but I was in no way ready to be silenced yet.

I put my hand up to silence him, "You, shut up," I yelled defiantly, which prompted a grin from Caden, before I turned back to face Caden, "And you, listen to me. I get that you don't believe him but I do," now it was Jett's turn to shoot a satisfied grin at Caden, "and I know you don't get why and you don't like it but I do. So you don't have to trust him for know because he hasn't earnt your trust, but trust me. Ok?"

Caden wouldn't meet my gaze and I could see his anger still quite evident on his face. I kept looking back and forth between the two of them looking for signs of agreement but I wasn't getting any.

"Guys there are twelve people out there that are all trying to kill you and I give you my permission and my blessing to kill any and all of them if you want to, just don't kill each other.," I paused to calm myself down and catch my breath. I'd regret yelling at them later but for now it seemed to be working, "Twelve people, that's four times as many as the three of us, and we're going to need to be able to trust each other not to get ourselves killed if we want to have any kind of chance of living through the next, however long the games go for. So can we just agree... to work together...please?"

They looked at each other, not nicely I'll admit, but there seemed to be some kind of mutual understanding passing between the two of them. They both nodded at each other and then Caden looked down and smiled at me. I smiled back and turned to look at Jett but he wouldn't meet my gaze. Oh well, not my biggest problem.

Jett sighed, "Well, I did bring this as a peace offering anyway," he said wearily as he pulled his broadsword out of its sheath on his back. I couldn't help taking a step back away from him as he pulled it out which prompted a small smile from him. He tossed it from his right hand to his left before handing it out to Caden.

Caden looked at the outstretched sword dubiously, "How convenient. A peace offering that could have been used to kill us both if we hadn't been so open armed about your return." I hit him lightly on the arm for his negativity and frowned at him. This was actually a pretty big, I mean Jett had just given Caden something he could use quite easily to kill him if he wanted to, my speech must have worked.

Caden was trying to look unaffected by Jett's 'peace offering' but I could see in his eyes the delight he felt in having that sword in his grasp. Jett unstrapped the sheath from across his chest and handed it to Caden. He hesitated before taking it.

"Are you sure?" Caden asked doubtfully, "I mean, I don't want to take the blame if I can't use it as well as you."

Jett shrugged his shoulder, "Nah, you're better with it than I am anyway. As long as you promise not to slit my throat with it while I'm asleep, you can use it."

Caden muttered a small thanks as he strapped the sword sheath around his shoulder and placed the sword in it and I couldn't help feeling a little bit proud of myself. I nodded in self satisfaction and turned around to walk back towards the crevice muttering to myself.

"Stupid boys with all their bravado and testosterone, always trying to solve their problems with their fists rather than their brains. If they had actually just decided to talk it out rather than engage in a death match we could have saved ourselves ten minutes."

"What was that?" Jett said as he came up next to me, a impish grin on his face, like he'd just caught me out.

"Nothing." I murmured innocently.

The three of us managed not to say much to each other, for better or worse I'm not really sure, but I think somewhere along the line we all decided just to head out and see what happened because not before long we were back out in the open and ready for the events of the day. I made sure to keep myself safely between the two of them as we walked around the hillside because, even though they'd made some progress on the trust front, I still worried they'd crack and start throwing punches.

The hillside had been completely transformed from the way it had looked yesterday. The forest floor had been enveloped in a thick, calf deep layer of soft powder snow that glistened in the emerging sunlight. It was kind of beautiful, the way snow clung to the bare branches of the trees and the rocks, even if it made walking ten times harder than it should've been. It was hard to believe that the entire arena had been shifted into this wintry paradise and I was actually boiling. I mean don't get me wrong, it was bloody freezing outside, but wading my way through the damn snow all day was really making me work up a sweat and I almost wanted to take off my jumper just so I could cool down.

At one point, just after we had stopped for a water break, Caden looked up towards the peak of the mountain.

"Well," he murmured after taking a long slurp from his flask, "This snow might be horrible to walk in all day, but there's one good thing about it?"

"Oh yeah what's that?" Jett asked humourously.

Caden had a devious grin on his face, "We can take some comfort knowing that the careers will be freezing their asses off sitting up there on that mountain."

Jett laughed and I, who unfortunately had been in the middle of taking a sip off water, managed to start choking on my water as I tried to laugh and drink at the same time. I almost fell off my makeshift rock seat in surprise. Caden...had just made a joke...with Jett around? Well I can tick that off my list of things I never thought was ever going to happen. Maybe this could work out after all.

However just as I had recovered from my coughing fit I heard the sound of rustling branches through the silence. I quickly got up and snapped around and did my best not to gasp at the sight in front of me. Prowling their way through the forest, approximately a hundred metres away from Caden, Jett and I, were two of the biggest beasts I had ever seen in my entire life. They were like nothing I had ever seen before. Their fur was only a shade or two darker than the snow they were standing on and even from as far away as I was I could see their long canines sticking out from inside their ridiculously large jaws. They slightly resembled cats, with long thick tails and huge paws, so they were probably some kind of feline creature, but I could never had imagined a cat to be anywhere near that big. Even on all fours they looked as if they would be nearly as tall as me, maybe only half a foot shorter, and their limbs looked strong and powerful. It took only one look at the way these creatures held themselves to see that they were predators, and I had a horrible feeling we were their prey. There was absolutely no way that whatever these animals were that they were creatures of nature. No way in hell. Nature wasn't designed that unevenly. This snow cat looked like it contained every single element needed to be a perfect hunter.

"Mutts," I breathed, daring not to move in case I startled them. For now it looked like they hadn't seen us but it would only be a matter of time, I could already see one of the creature's long snouts pointing upwards towards the air, like it could smell its prey. There was no doubting it, this thing had been created by the gamemakers. Mutations or 'mutts' were not a rare sighting in the Hunger Games but still the sight of these two cats took my breath away. During the dark days the capitol had experimented on a number of animals and had turned them into weapons to use against their enemies. After they had defeated the untrained and under provisioned rebels they ran out of uses for most of their mutts, but the rumours spread that they were still experimenting on animals, which were of course proven true when a couple of their aberrations popped up in the Games when things started to get boring. Mutts weren't the gamemakers favourite way to heaten up the Games, because of course that would mean that we weren't killing each other which is always the most entertaining way for us to get knocked off, but like I said before I shouldn't have been shocked that they had resorted to using these cats. Only one person had died yesterday, and so far no one had died today, it's almost surprising the gamemakers hadn't intervened sooner; capitol viewers don't like it when things get boring so early in the games. Something, or someone, must have been keeping them entertained.

Caden, Jett and I all stared at the beasts, all three of us barely breathing. I watched in terror as one of the cats' head slowly turned towards us. When its eyes met with mine it paused for a second, like it was sizing me up, then took a cautious step forwards.

Jett turned around and started making a break for it. I looked back at Caden but he was already looking at me, the fear in my heart echoed in his face. The cats were still hesitant to approach us.

"Come on you idiots!" Jett called as he ran, "Run!"

There was no way in hell I was going to take on one of those cats and win, knives or no knives. Caden nodded at me and we both quickly turned and ran as fast as we could, following Jett's tracks despite the sound approaching footsteps behind us.