A/N: My Excuse: I'm just lazy... But if you re-read the chapter I bet I can come up with a better excuse though ;)


Day II: Part One

~Our Lives are Like Candles in the Wind~

"She's going to pay." Julian says as Lexi and Riley look through the scarce amount of weapons left on the blue tarp.

"I swear when I find her I'm going to rip out her throat and leave her there to fend for herself like she left us." He says for the second time, accompanied by Apollo's smirk.

"We still have enough to last us through the games, but it looks like she took the biggest, strongest weapons she could find." Riley says tossing swords and spears into another

pile on the tarp as he tries to find the expensive blow dart gun he got off of Reed in the cornucopia the other day. That too seemed to be missing.

"I knew that bitch shouldn't have been trusted." Lexi says crossing her arms and shooting Julian a glare. "This is all your fault. Just because a tribute was able to get a piece off

your 'co-captain' doesn't mean you let them stay with the career group, moron." The blue eyed fourteen year old wasn't at all expecting her district partner to take the lead in the career group. Her strategy wasn't unraveling well.

Apollo, with the cut on his cheek healing horribly, agreed with Julian. "Aurelia was trouble from the beginning. I say we kill her first and show her whose boss."

"And leave the other tributes to run around and gain strength. I don't think so. Don't get me wrong, I'm all in for the killing, but Aurelia can wait." Riley said running fingers through his perfect hair.

Amelia sits behind the bickering and arguing, trying not to say anything. One wrong word and it might be off with her head. Most of the careers are regretting her being in the group already. The only thing that reminds them why she's here is the food that she prepares so well for them. She gives a small sigh which Lexi notices and grins at. "What about you? Think that we should give Aurelia what she deserves or ready the weapons we have left to hunt down some tributes?" Lexi asks her.

With a small stutter at the beginning of her words, she answers: "I think I saw the small district eleven girl head east. The currents pushing westward, so there's got to be water where she's at." She gulps. "Water means a midnight snack."

The other tributes smile at her reply. They've found dinner and a way to kick the competition up a notch.

XxXxXxXxXx

The heat was scorching and Arabella felt like she couldn't take another step across the land. Wind blew grains of sand into her eyes that were already weakened by the sun. With one last step, Arabella sat herself down onto the ground and unzipped the baby blue backpack that added the weight to her back, the one thing that she was barely able to grab at the cornucopia unless she wanted to be seen in the skies by nightfall.

Arabella sighed of relief. Light wasn't one of those faces in the skies last night. The only problem on her hands now was finding him. The images of Light's coal black hair and stormy blue eyes flash before her eyes and she remembered watching him from her plate before the bloodbaths began. She can't remember anything that happened past the sound of the gong besides running to the horn for her life and grabbing the pack. After that she hid behind dunes for the night and tried to salvage the only food she could find.

In the sky-blue backpack, Bella had hit the jack-pot. Beneath the azure fabric was a scythe, two daggers, a sheet of plastic wrap, a roll of trustworthy string, three pairs of twelve crackers separated by the plastic they were wrapped in, still fresh, and a bottle already filled with enough water to last her through the day that was placed in the backpack's side pocket. Arabella, with her throat dryer than the desert she sat in itself, opened a roll of crackers and slowly lifted one to her mouth.

After a small gulp of water, Arabella noticed she wasn't alone. A small scorpion was approaching her left hiking boot. Slowly and carefully, Bella tried to stand up without giving the scorpion reason to harm her. Being separated from Light was bad enough; a sting was the last thing she wanted.

There wasn't much trouble after that. The scorpion stopped a foot away from her boot and Arabella had left from her resting spot soon afterwards. Not in need of another obstacle to try to deal with.

Bella cracks her sore knuckles. Years of having to practice for the games and she's never felt this bad. Her legs are worn down, as are her arms from swinging back and forth as she runs for her life. An unusual feeling flows through her body as she cracks her knuckles for the second time. The ring.

She looks at her tanned hand. The silver ring that once accompanied her fingers is missing.

XxXxXxXxXx

Sweat dripped off of Toth's forehead as she worked through the humid weather of the forest. The blade of her dagger was getting weaker and weaker and the handle threatened to fall off at any second. The sound of the dagger sawing through the tree was a sound she had been hearing all night. Her eyes weren't quite used to the daytime light that shone through the trees.

The cold, windy weather seemed to have taken the leaves and pines from the trees away, leaving only the lonely skeleton of wood. Finally the groove that had taken so long to start paid off and made an easy access to cutting through the tree. Still finishing sawing down the stock would take a lot of time away from her. Finally accomplishing her task, she then lays the wood next to the other six stocks.

Blisters on Toth's hands and the loose blade are the only things that hold her back from cutting down more trees. Seven will have to do.

Carefully, Toth drags the trees closer together then looks at the timber in front of her. She secures them together with some type of promisingly strong weeds and twine that made the seams of the bag of apples. The process takes up another hour of Toth's time, but she doesn't mind. She knows that the longer it takes to bind together the trees, the more chance she has of surviving the rough obstacles she's about to face.

When the hard night's work is finally finished, she stands in front of her assuring raft. Tomorrow she will be out to look for a water source that will hopefully guide her and her raft away from all the hunger game's madness. However, there is no way she can do it right now in this condition.

Toth sets her raft high up in the trees where she can lay peacefully on top of it and rest for the day. And as she closes her sleepy eyes, she gives a fake smile to the capitol cameras and worries for the day that the gamemakers figure out her ways.

XxXxXxXxXx

Rose probably never expected waking up in the hunger games to be so peaceful: the sound of the stream running beside her and the beautiful scent of marigolds filling her nose. Slowly she crawls towards the lake that rests only a few feet beside her. The mud under her palms that surround the lake is cold and makes her shiver. It is a good shiver though. One filled with relief and relaxation. Not one much like before; a shiver of fear as cold regret swarms through her blood.

Rose's reflection shines off the freshwater as she fills the water bottle she had found at the cornucopia. She places a drop of iodine into the water to rid anything that threatens her, and then takes a sip. The girl in the reflection mimics Rose's actions as she does.

Swallowing, she watches herself in the mirroring waters. She can see where the tears from last night washed away the dirt on her face. She'll never forget seeing her district partner in the skies. After all that he did for her, he was gone.

Sounds from other tributes fill Rose's ears in an instant. Careers. She wants to let out a scream as soon as she realizes who's in the meadow with her, but only a small squeal comes out.

The careers don't notice the pale skin and black hair until Rose stands to run away from the noises she hears. With Julian in the lead, the careers are already sprinting towards the district eleven tribute that is hardly visible from the flowers.

Rose as the smart girl she is, bends down as far as she can while running at full speed. She tries to keep from tripping over her own feet, but running in this position is too much and she trips and falls onto the ground. Rose crawls a bit farther from the voices until she understands that the careers are having trouble finding her and that moving would only make her more visible.

The career pack search frantically, screaming at each other to go different ways, or screaming at Rose to come out of hiding.

"Enough games little piglet, come out and put an end to this." Julian screams out over the fields surprisingly close to her. An awful smell overcomes Rose though. The poisoned flowers. Rose's fears become bigger and she realizes what a big mistake she's made.

Careers that were running around her searching now stand still gagging on the smell. The poison is actually helping me. She thinks to herself as Riley states: "Leave her. The fumes will kill her if we don't." There's not much argument later. Julian and the rest of them decide to stay by the lake though in case Rose tries to make a brake for it though.

Which Rose does indeed try to do before the poisonous fumes get to her causing her to fall into a deep sleep filled with darkness.

XxXxXxXxXx

"Julian, we've been here for thirty minutes and we haven't heard a single cannon. If the fumes haven't killed her yet, I don't think they're going to cause much harm." Lexi says irritated.

Riley blinks tiredly. "The smell might not have even reached her if she was far enough away from us."

"Look, if—" Julian's words are interrupted by a loud cough and heavy, raggedy breathing that sounds from the fields. The five careers are quick onto their feet and are already bolting towards the source. Their prey, Rose, won't go on without a fight though. She flees out of the area as fast as she can; her little legs picking up speed better than the careers.

The victory was too soon. Her feet came screeching to a halt as she stopped across the huge cliff that she encountered last night. The girl was lucky with her quick reflex being able to catch herself before falling; the arrow that sends her to her death has other plans.

The momentum of Lexi's arrow pushes her off balance and over the cliff. You can almost reach out and touch the intensity in the crowd that waits so expectedly for a force field at the bottom to bounce Rose back onto the surface… but there is no force field to save Rose Everwish.

XxXxXxXxXx

Zane's cracked lips meet the cold canister filled with chilling water. The same water that threatened his life. How did the water freeze so quickly like that? Which leads to the following question: How did the water unfreeze so quickly like that? He doesn't even want to know how the wind strong enough to pin him down came across.

The questions ponder in Zane's mind as he walks across the forest alone. But that statement changes when a dead snake plops in front of him. He's not alone. With a deep breath he draws out the knife from his belt, just as he did in the multi-season environment.

The knife drops to his side when he sees the girl with the red curls and black eyes. Zane trusts Nirvana. He had from the start. But when Lucas comes out from behind the tree and stands behind Nirvana, Zane's grip tightens on the knife.

"Watch where you step." Nirvana says kicking the snake towards Zane's direction, the smug smile hiding on her pink lips. It's a Philippine Taipan. The one's that were sent to district ten to be trained only resulting in killing half their district.

"Thanks." Zane coughs out placing his knife back into the loop in his leather belt.

The three are all really silent for a while until Nirvana speaks up. "I heard these snakes have a gland that helps burns. Why don't we make a fire, skin some rabbits and prepare some dinner?" She suggests as she grabs the first rabbit off the pile of fresh kills. Zane is thrown a rabbit which he almost drops with the clutter of the canteen in his hands also.

"You have water?" Luke asks staring at the canteen. Zane nods and tosses the canteen to his new ally, then sits on the ground and pulls out his knife to skin the rabbit. A small sip that runs down Luke's throat seals the deal. "Welcome to the alliance."

XxXxXxXxXx

"I was surprised you even agreed to stay with the careers." His voice peeked from out of nowhere. Aurelia looked around almost frantically. After dumping half the careers weapons into the ocean it was like someone had pressed the panic attack button on her.

"Safin?" She called out in question towards the dunes that the wind tampered with. The tall district four boy stepped out from behind the mountain of sand with a smirk on his face. His hair was soaking with water and the knife he had by his side was drenched with fresh blood. Aurelia took a step back in worrisome from the sight.

Safin threw a badger onto the ground. The same red paint on the knife was dripping off its body. "Calm down. If I came here to kill tributes you'd think I would be hanging out with the careers."

"What are you here for?" Aurelia said confidently stepping forward. "When you told me that no one else in this game mattered anymore before the interviews I kind of took in the thought that you didn't need me."

"You really take things for granted, don't you?" Safin laughed. "I told your cousin that I'd keep you safe in the games. It's the least I could do since she saved my sister. She must really care about you."

Aurelia's eyes grew shallow as soon as he mentioned her cousin. "Tulip?" She says softly. She remembers the little girl lying on the beach. The only hope for her was Tulip. Aurelia opens her mouth to say something, but a shriek catches her attention.

Nan.

The two tributes from district four run as fast as their feet can go. They are close to a richly soiled forest with trees everywhere you turn. It is there that they find the careers surrounding a burrow of rocks that Nan has run into to hide. Safin and Aurelia hide behind a thick tree that stands twenty feet from what's happening right in front of their eyes. Safin has to hold Aurelia from running out into the scene and trying to save one of the littlest tributes. There's no telling what Julian and the rest of them will do to Aurelia after what she did.

"This is pointless. Why are we wasting our strength on the smallest tribute in the arena whereas we can be putting it into better use with the bigger ones?" Lexi says snidely.

"What's pointless is having a snob like you who gives up on everything in this career pack." Apollo sneers as he tries lifting the heavy boulder again. Riley gives Apollo a death glare.

By the next five minutes the careers have given up and sided with Lexi's statement. There are still so many tributes left and the smallest of them won't even last until tomorrow morning.

As soon as they are gone, Safin lets Aurelia run to Nan's rescue. "Nan it's us. Safin and Aurelia." Aurelia says as she sits down by the boulders. Nan doesn't believe them though. The tributes from district four are usually careers. What if Aurelia was playing a trick this whole time? "Nan, please." She says again. Safin sits down beside Aurelia and bites his lower lip. His district partner looks at him with the worried look in her dark sea blue eyes. "What if she's hurt?" She whispers.

With a deep breath Safin says: "Nan, we're here to help you. Please just trust us. We could be allies." He stares at the backpack set next to a bag of crackers in the den. Beside that is the cracked bowl she must have tipped over in the havoc of getting into a hiding spot; the water that has spilled from it running over the downhill surface. "We'll show you where to find some fresh water and a new place to stay." He holds his hand through the crevasse Nan slipped through. "I promise."

Nan stared at his hand, covered in red scars. There's nothing but silence surrounding her. She needs a good chance to see if the careers are behind this and to see if there are more people waiting outside her hideout. And with that she does the only thing she has to defend herself with.

Safin tugs his hand away in shock to see the bite mark on his hand. "She bit me!" Aurelia's consideration goes to Safin's hand for a moment. And with that Nan sneaks a peek and looks to see if they are the only ones outside the burrow.

With a sigh of relief Nan slowly crawls out of the rocks. "Sorry. I thought you were a career. I had to check." She says looking at the bite mark she left.

Aurelia gives Nan a hug forgetting about her district partner and all the troubles that have just passed them by. All the troubles that are going to come right back and hit her in the face.


A/N: Aww, I missed you guys so much! Like I said in my last Author's Note (through PM), summer is finally here and we're finally getting started with these games- but I'm not making any promises for faster updates. I think I'm done with those promises, because if you haven't noticed, I'm not very good at keeping them. Haha… err… Moving on:

I noticed a lot of confusion with the sponsoring system so I made a more detailed explanation for anyone with some questions.

If you have sponsored for Take Life's Chance's "The 92nd Hunger Games" then you should be familiar with this sponsoring system.
All you have to do as a sponsor is fill out the form found in chapter two:

Sponsor Form:

Sponsor's name :( Username or a fake name you'd like to use due to if you feel like you may change your Penname in the future.)

Tribute's name:
Tribute's district:

Then as the games progress you can send me a PM or review saying an amount of money you'd like to send your tribute. You can view the amount of money your account has earned in chapter two at the sponsor lodge. Note that if your tribute dies your account is non-existing afterwards but you can switch your sponsorship to a different tribute. (You'll still have the exact same money as you had before).
Since you start off with $1000- let's say you sent me a PM saying: "I would like to give (a tribute's name that you are sponsoring) an item that costs around $200." So I, as the mentor, would take $200 off your savings and replace the previous $1000 to $800. Then, I will decide what the tribute gets depending on how much money you send me. So you don't decide on what the tribute gets, I do. Hopefully I'm making sense.
Long story short:
-I am the mentor(s), but you get the fun of taking the guess of how much an item costs and sending the money into me.
-You can sponsor up to two tributes at a time. (When you submit something to Gain sponsor points, both tributes you're sponsoring earn the amount of money you've earned.)
-If your tribute dies throughout the games, you are allowed to switch your sponsorship to a different tribute.
-Even if you don't send in your money for a tribute, I may still sponsor your tribute and send a gift to them throughout the games. No money will be taken away from your account if the tribute you're sponsoring gets a gift from me without you sending in money.
-You can sponsor ANY tribute you want... as long as they're not dead...
-Sometimes in the games I may say that I want to see who else you're routing for and (if you would like to) you can sponsor a different tribute FOR FREE just that one time.
-You can earn sponsor points by trying out the challenges I leave for you at the end of the chapter.
-When you send me money I can either spend all money given at once and give your tribute a gift, save the money for a time your tribute needs it (unless you insist your tribute gets something now), or use only a part of the money given to buy something your tribute really needs. (That still means you have to use your money wisely!) ;)

You can earn sponsor points in this chapter by:

-Reviewing on how good you think the chapter is. You know you wanna ;) ($50)

-What do you expect will become of the careers now that Julian and Apollo have stated their desire to kill Aurelia? ($50)

-Do you think Arabella will ever find her ring? ($25)

-How long do you think Nirvana, Zane, and Luke's alliance will last? ($50)

Thanks for reading. Please review and don't forget to favorite and subscribe to the story!

Love you, Fifi 3