Chapter 24- Song Bird
Sneaking forward, I find a tree nearby to listen in, the Careers have intentions to hunt down Katniss and any other tributes.
"Who do we want to find first?" Clove says, fishing out yet another knife from her jacket to play with.
"Katniss." replies Cato.
"But who else?" she says, using a tone to make him seem stupid, he turns a little red in the face and clenches his jaw tightly.
"Who's even left?"
"Us, then the girl from five, boy from 10, Thresh," (he says Thresh's name in disgust) "The little girl and the lovers. Lover-boy won't last long." I suck in a breath of happiness that Peeta is still alive.
"So lets focus on finding all the threats, lover-girl and Thresh." says Marvel.
"No..." starts Clove, then waits so everyone faces her, "Everyone's a threat. The rest of them must have something to help them survive this long."
Dam, she's smart. I was hoping they would all be too stupid to think that.
She continues, "Anyone know how the other survived?"
The boy from 3 who's called Flavius, finally speaks up, why would they let him be in the Career pack? He scored a 4 in training, and burst into tears at the reaping. Why recruit such a bad weakling?
"She's smart. I saw her in training. She could do things, like remember everything. She's really quiet too, snuck up on lots of people. I saw her stealing food from the instructors."
Ignoring the look of bafflement he is receiving, he carries on. "The boy from 10 was great with traps, he made loads of them, that were really good."
"So?" points out Cato, "Those won't keep them alive."
"Shut up Cato! Carry on." snaps Clove.
"Peeta was good at lifting, really strong, I saw him lift up a heavy bolder to give to Katniss with ease but he didn't throw them. Properly keeping it a secret. Katniss has a great aim, is smart and good with plants. She can throw knives, she was resourceful too, I saw her making a trap out of some thinned wood."
"How do you know all that?" asks Marvel.
"Instead of learning new things at training, I watched others. Noticed the competition like the rest of you should have too." he says, with a little pleasure in his voice at outsmarting the Careers.
"You missed out the girl." says Clove, frowning at him in wonder.
"Well...she's good with a slingshot and did well with plants." he says with uncertainly. Why does he know so little about me? Why am I the one he didn't take in? Am I not competition?
"What else?" encourages Marvel.
"I...I...don't know." he stammers, losing his cool a the sight of 3 annoyed Careers. "She was so tiny, only noticed her at a few stations. It was like she wasn't there."
He couldn't see me? I guess my keeping quiet to follow Katniss helped me more then I thought.
"So she's sneaky?" pushes Clove again.
"Yeah, I guess so." he replies firmly.
"So it was her who ruined our traps, it must have been!" snaps Clove, working it out. Again, I am annoyed she is so smart but pleased they worked it out too. I want them to know that they shouldn't underestimate me.
"We already knew that!" snaps Clove, "We saw her footprints!"
"What about 5?" asks Cato.
"Couldn't have been her." corrects Flavius, "I saw her here when you were up there, about the same time. She never could have got there to break them."
"Or Katniss or the boy?"
They're trying to find a way out a twelve year old getting the better of them
"The boy never could of done it, I saw him at the knot station. He sucked." says Flavius.
"Katniss then?"
"No." yells Clove much louder, "We already knew it was Rue remember? We told you, we found her footprints! We told you that we did!"
Cato shrugs like he doesn't remember. "I thought they might be your own footprints." he says moodily to Clove.
"I. Do. Not . Have. Tiny. Feet. " she snarls.
"Yeah you do." he says with a annoying smile and a wink.
"Take that back Spinald." she says, pulling out a knife.
"You don't scare me Tiliss." pulling out a sword.
He smiles.
She smiles.
They both drop their weapons.
Marvel sits uncomfortably on a stone, twiddling with his fingers and not looking. He was a volunteer, so there must be some aspect of the Games that he is best at, his traps are good but not enough to win. He must be here for a reason.
Either that, or he has nothing worth living for.
But I do, i remind myself, you have so much to live for. On that thought, I find the closest tree to Marvel and wait until everyone is looking the wrong way before sneak out about 5 meters, they all are watching Clove and Cato sparring with each other, not hitting but tapping to show a hit. It's so fast I can't see who's getting any hits.
I grab Marvel's back-bag and rush up the nearest tree without a sound, breath inside so insanely I want to burst. Then I hop through a few more trees, keeping quiet. Ever Tacitus would be impressed with how quiet I am being.
"Oi! My back-pack is gone!" yells Marvel loudly to the sparring. They both come and investigate.
"You lost it." says Cato.
"No man, it was right here!" he defends himself.
"It was her." Clove says with a spooky hint to her voice.
"Who?" asks Flavius.
"Her." says Clove and she lifts her hand up to point right at me.