Disclaimer: If I could I would adopt Peeta and call him my own, but alas I cannot because *drum roll* I Don't Own the Hunger Games!
Author's Note: thanks go to my Reviewers as always THG4, Arrow, KL10X, JB, Amber and Mia288 (happy belated Birthday Mia!)
Four chapters left people….Nervous? Sad? Happy? Lemme know!
Chapter 35
A Good Mentor
The week goes by so fast I can't understand it. One moment I am watching her get kissed on the chariot. The next she and I are heading for the hover plane.
"Any last words of advice?" Tracer asks, I can hear she is nervous so we stop when he exit the elevator.
She looks at me, I am barely scraping five foot she's a foot taller and yet I feel we are looking at each other in the eye, standing shoulder to shoulder.
I place a hand on her shoulder and she grasps it.
"Be true to yourself and what you believe is right" I say, "don't step off that platform until the gong goes off, don't rely on anyone to help you not for food and not for protection, not even Oliver. This is an individual sport Trace keep that in mind and you will do fine" then as an after thought, "for the life of me don't eat anything unless you are one hundred and ten percent sure it's safe"
She nods, it's short and nervous and almost spastic.
"Right" she says
I give her a hug, "good luck but you won't need it, I'll see you when you get back"
When we part she has a tear going down her face and wipes it away briskly as she boards.
Her life is in my hands now…I cannot let her down.
I head for victor's hall and begin talking to capital people, those who can afford to sponsor.
I think since I am so young and a mentor it's easier to get them chatting. By the time the rest of the mentors have reached the hall I have a half dozen sponsors each willing to help out when and if the time came. I even make wagers…if she gets to this point their money will increase by this much…and so on and so forth.
I could make a career at smooth talking I guess but that's not my goal.
For the most part I do not converse with my fellow victors. Not even Finnick, I'm on the job. Even at night I am staying in victor's hall to keep my eye on Tracer. They have them in a jungle setting. Both of my tributes have made hammocks to hang from the trees so they don't get eaten alive by bugs. Tracer has found trees that have safe fruit to eat.
Oliver has found a niche catching fish from a river that runs the length of the arena.
On the first day ten fell, I said quick goodbye to Beetee and Wiress, Seeder and Chaff and Haymitch. The other four were dispersed between six, seven, nine and ten.
The rest of the time I am watching the view screen and waiting for the time I need to send something. But Tracer is a lot like me, she was able to get a knife before running from the cornucopia. Oliver had made a spear from bamboo without the use of a blade. They are wholly self sufficient. I feel proud to have them both even though I know only one can live.
My sponsors come up to me daily and ask if she needs something. She was dubbed 'the princess' by Flickerman because of how cordial she was and how bashful she was at the talk of the kiss, almost regal and quaint. Its kinda fitting her last name is Kingsly.
Finally I realize she is going in circles half the time, I don't know if she doing it on purpose but I know she had passed that same tree twice in a matter of hours. I know she isn't dehydrated because I know the signs of that.
So I finally have something to send my tribute…a compass.
To send something you have to go into a directory. Sponsors come with you and you flip thru until you find what you are looking for.
Weapons are the most expensive, but smaller items can also hit the deep pockets rather hard.
Matches, ointments, iodine for water purification, can rack up the same as a knife depending on how far the games can last.
Surprisingly a compass is not all that costly. I would have though finding ones way in an unknown region to be pretty darn important.
Isis Merryweather an old lady with so much jewelry on its amazing she can stay upright suggests we not just send her the compass but a survival kit. It has a penknife; some waterproof matches a really well made compass and other items. It soo expensive and I don't want to run out of money. When I say this to Eros, another one of my sponsors he laughs.
"Don't worry Ms Crane, there is plenty of money, you haven't used one of us yet" he smiles benignly.
Sometimes I wonder if all they want to do is make the games last longer, this turns my stomach but I hide it with a smile of my own.
We place the order time and place for the drop, I add a small letter asking if she's a bit lost. The rest is up to game makers to do.
Not ten minutes after the order was sent does a chute fall in front of Tracer.
She looks at it dubiously until she notices my handwriting and launches at the box.
Her smile lifts my spirits as she mouths 'thank you'
I did that well.