Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Hunger games

Chapter 35

Katniss pov:

Katniss slowly lowered her bow when she heard that the young district eleven tribute had found her district partner. She felt like she had to at least try and help him if she could. She definitely owed him that much. Of course she also didn't want to lay all of her cards out on the table.

"Why do you think I want to help him?" Katniss asked skeptically.

"Because you just lowered your bow when I said we could," Rue smirked.

Katniss cursed under her breath, "well… I guess you're not wrong." "Where we headed?" Katniss wondered.

Rue motioned up stream with a nod of her head, and beckoned Katniss to follow her. "Wait, we have to head back for my supplies before we leave," Katniss stated.

Rue nodded and followed. The trek back to Katniss's supplies was uneventful, but Katniss's nerves never settled. She hadn't realized how careless she had been. It was frightening to think that another tribute had been able to follow so quietly that Katniss had been completely unaware of her presence until she was directly above her head. If it had been any other tribute, Katniss was sure she would not have been quite as fortunate.

When they got back to her supplies, Katniss packed up her backpack and took a sip of water before offering some to Rue. She gratefully accepted and took a long swig. "Thanks, my water jug ran out yesterday and my backpack didn't come with a way to clean the water from the arena."

Katniss nodded and went to check on her bird, which was still cooking. It looked slightly overcooked, but Katniss wasn't about to make a fuss about it. She took it off the fire and kicked the flame out. Then she ripped a leg off and offered it to Rue while they walked. Rue's eyes got wide when she looked at the leg, and Katniss asked her what the problem was. She said that no one had ever given her a full leg to eat, even back home in district eleven.

"You have these back in district eleven?" Katniss asked.

"Yeah, they're called groosling. We always find them roaming the orchards back home. We would catch them and cook them up for lunch while working."

Katniss took a bite of the other leg, and it was actually very good. It reminded her of the turkey she would sometimes bring home back in district twelve for dinner. As they walked, Katniss asked Rue more about her life back in district eleven. She was shocked to hear how much more strict the peacekeepers were there. Whipping was always a foreign concept back in district twelve. It was something that Katniss had never actually enforced as a form of crime, even though she knew the peacekeepers could if they really wanted to. It seemed that in district eleven, whipping was done almost daily for matters as small as sneaking fruit from the orchards. Rue talked about her siblings, five to be exact, and all of them were younger than her. Katniss could never imagine having to take care of that many siblings by herself. She said that her job climbing trees back home was how she became so good at moving through the trees.

Rue asked Katniss about life back in district twelve, so Katniss explained the mines and the seam. She decided to leave out the fact that her dad died in a mining explosion. Katniss wasn't ready to talk about that. She also decided to leave out her hunting excursion's with Gale and the Hob, beings as though it was more than likely the capitol was listening to their conversation.

"That was a pretty big gamble back there, thinking that I wouldn't shoot you I mean. How were you so sure I wouldn't?" Katniss thought aloud.

"Well it wasn't entirely a gamble…" Rue drifted off uncomfortably.

Katniss looked at her with a raised eyebrow signaling for Rue to explain herself.

"I uh sort of knew the two of you were partners already." Rue said hurriedly.

"Wait, were you following us?" Katniss asked to which Rue's cheeks turned red.

"Well yes, but I swear it wasn't in like a creepy way. I know I'm small and young and I probably don't have a very likely chance of making it out of this alive, so I figured the safest place in the arena would be near you two," Rue rambled not meeting Katniss's eyes.

"Why's that?" Katniss asked.

"Well the obvious reason is because you both got the highest scores in the games… and your pin," Rue gestured to the mockingjay pin on Katniss's jacket.

"My pin?" Katniss asked.

Rue nodded before whistling a simple tune. Suddenly all around the forest mockingjays started repeating the tune like a long harmonious echo. Katniss watched on in wonder as more and more birds picked up the tune until it seemed the entire forest was humming with Rue. "Wow that's amazing," Katniss marveled.

"Back home when the sun was setting I would whistle that tune and the birds would carry it throughout the orchard to let everybody know that the day was over," Rue recalled. "So when I saw that pin with you, I knew I could trust you."

They stayed silent for a while, and Katniss kept a watchful eye on their surroundings so that they wouldn't get ambushed. It was comforting to not be alone after days by herself. Sure she hadn't been alone the entire time. There was Percy, but that had only lasted a morning. She realized now that not having an ally in this arena could drive you insane. The company keeps you human.

"He's not much further," Rue finally broke the silence.

The scenery started to become familiar to Katniss as she spotted huge rocks and smashed trees. The flames were gone, but this was definitely near where Katniss left Percy last time she saw him. Katniss noticed that Rue was clutching her arm rather fiercely. "Are you alright?" Katniss asked with concern.

"Yeah. I'll be fine, it's just when the games makers sent those rocks one caught me in the arm while I was escaping."

Katniss nodded, "yeah, one caught me in the leg."

"There!" Rue pointed to a mound of leaves and sticks on the ground. "I tried to cover him up the best I could."

Katniss ran over to the mound and shed all of the shrubbery to reveal a boy lying belly down with multiple dagger-like spikes embedded in his back.