This WOULD have been on yesterday but Fanfic was down.
Mati Berlin- District Ten female
Austin was not happy. He stood at the bottom of the tree I was precariously climbing, looking up at me with consternation and worry.
"You're going to break your neck," he called up.
"No I'm not," I said, dragging myself up one last branch. Right in the middle of the branch was exactly what I wanted. The big cluster of bright purple flowers was beautiful, but I had something else in mind. I deftly picked out the little red trio of hairs inside each one and cradled them so they wouldn't get scuffed as I scooted backwards down the trunk.
"You didn't even take any of the flowers," Austin said.
"I got something better," I said, opening my hand to reveal the threads. I walked over to the pot dangling over our campfire and tossed the threads in with our boiling rice. Almost right away, a spicy scent perfumed the camp.
"Wow, that smells great," Austin said, peering into the yellowing rice.
"Let's see if the boys find any meat," I said. Jay and the others were all out hoping to find a bird or something. Jay was the only one who knew how to use a spear, but maybe they intended to dogpile it and punch it to death.
"Hey, we got a bird!" Logan said, swaggering into camp with a big quail in his upraised arm.
"How'd you kill it?" Austin asked.
"Jay winged it and then we all piled onto it and kind of squished it," Logan said. Austin and I shared a knowing look.
"Woah, what did you do to the rice?" Jay asked.
"It's yellow," Zach said.
"It's saffron," I said proudly. "It's the most expensive spice in the world." I dumped the quail in after Austin dressed it. It was the tastiest spice, too.
Gizmo Torrens- District Three male
In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.
It would be in my best interest if Whyte never found us. He and Floki were a pair. When the alliance broke, I didn't want people to be watching each others' backs and taking sides. I knew no one was looking out for me, and I didn't want anyone else to have that, either.
That said, we needed water. Going uphill would have meant finding the cleanest water eventually at the origin point, but going downhill made it certain we would find water quickly. We had purification tablets from the Bloodbath. It would taste gross, but that was it.
It was good to be in an alliance with Careers. I was the one everyone could overlook, and the security meant we could have a fire and make a real shelter. Floki made that almost entirely by himself, since he could practically lift a tree trunk one-handed. I did the thatching, since that required a defter hand. We heated some spicy food from the Bloodbath and sat around the fire.
I clapped my hands to my ears when a screech pierced the air. It was impossibly loud and sharp- so sharp I felt like my ears were bleeding. Miall almost fell into the river, and Priscilla screamed back reflexively.
"The heck was that?" Miall asked when we recovered. I got to my knees cautiously, getting ready to run if it was a mutt. The screech came again, closer this time, and I dropped to my knees with my hands over my head to cover my vitals. The air turned a shade colder, like the sun went behind the clouds.
That's not fair. A bird the size of a single-engine plane was dropping from the sky like a torpedo, its wings folded for speed and so it would fit between the trees. Its talons were spread, and they were coming right at me. It was such a waste. All the thinking in the world couldn't do anything when a giant bird dropped on your head.
Alder Peacebrook- District Twelve male
All I got from the Bloodbath was a pocketknife. I wasn't going to do much damage with that. I was screwed in most fights anyway, though. All I could do was lay low and hope no one found me.
The good thing about being wimpy and malnourished was that I could climb a tree that strong, buff Careers couldn't. I was perched in a skinny, willowy palm tree far enough away from other branches that no one could get close to me.
I saw Ruby as she walked under me, looking for Tributes to hunt. Keep looking around. Don't look up. Everyone is down there.
She looked up.
"Yo can't come up here," I said. "It's too skinny."
"Yep, it sure is," Ruby said. She bent over and picked up a rock.
"Hey," I said, and I scuttled backwards against the tree. I cursed my choice as I realized that my tree was too small for most people to climb, but it was also too skinny to give me any cover beyond visual. Ruby threw her rock at my head. I dodged, and it smacked into the leaves behind me.
She threw another rock, and that time she missed all on her own. I dodged her next missile, but the one after that hit me square in the face. My head snapped back, and I clung weakly to the branch. I barely saw Ruby picking up another rock, this one the size of a baseball.
The next thing I felt was my back hitting the ground. I was surprised I was still alive, and barely felt connected to my body. Through fuzzy vision, I saw Ruby appear over me and raise her sword.
Floki Grimm- District Four male
You didn't leave a man behind. That wasn't just a Viking thing. Every warrior culture all over the world knew that nothing was worth losing a brother. You would run back into battle, straight at a thousand men holding swords and into a volley of arrows, just to find him.
It was all my fault that Whyte wasn't with us. I should have been looking out for him at the Bloodbath. Every time I heard a cannon, I flinched. He could be anywhere. Any minute, he could be seconds from death. He needed me, and I wasn't there for him. I needed him, too.
The worst thing of all for someone like me was inaction. When there was a problem, I wanted to fix it. I wanted to get out there and tear the Arena apart until I found Whyte. I built our shelter in half an hour with all my nervous energy, and then our second shelter in thicker woods after the bird incident. I tried hunting and fishing and pacing, but nothing helped.
"So, we gonna talk about Gizmo or what?" Shui asked.
"He's dead. Nothing to do," Miall said.
"He was kind of schemey anyway. I think he wanted to kill us in our sleep," Priscilla said.
"We should try to find Whyte," I said. It wasn't my first time.
"Gizmo said we should stay still so he could find us more easily," Ember said.
"Well, look how smart he turned out to be," I said. "He probably didn't even want us to find Whyte. He was competition."
"That's a horrible thing to assume," Shui said.
"I don't care. I'm going," I said. I couldn't take it anymore. No one said anything as I stomped out of camp.
"Whyte!" I called. "Whyte!" I didn't care if anyone heard. If anyone gave me trouble, they had another think coming. And I wasn't scared, even if it was a risk. I only cared about Whyte.
"Floki!" After long minutes of searching, I heard his voice from far in the distance. I called him again, running toward his voice.
"Floki!" I sprinted between the trees and finally saw him as he burst from between some branches. He smiled back and shot toward me. Then a trident flew sideways out of the greenery and shot through his throat.
Arielle Ermin- District Four female
Whyte and Floki were making enough noise for an elephant. I had nothing against either of them, but the target was clear. If I went for Floki, I could hit him right in his eye and he'd still chase after me until he ran me down. Whyte was a Career, but he was no Floki. I threw my trident as soon as I got a clear shot.
Never in my life had I heard a shout like what came from Floki immediately after. I didn't think he was that close. He must have been running like lightning. I needed to get away fast. That wasn't a fight I wanted to pick.
I tore through the trees like a deer. There was no cowardice in not being stupid. I needed to get back to our armory anyway. I'd intended to pull my trident out and keep hunting, but Floki was way closer than I thought. Leaves and twigs crackled underfoot as I ran headlong.
I looked over my shoulder as I went and saw Floki looking after me. I didn't think he'd be able to catch me. He was just so much heavier. By the time he got up to speed, I'd be out of sight. I turned back and doubled down, not wanting to tempt fate.
A tiger slammed into me from behind, propelling me forward into a tree so hard I almost merged with the wood. Pinned in place, I looked down at myself. A massive two-handed axe was through my stomach and buried in the tree, protruding from my navel to my sternum and mounting me like a butterfly.
I didn't think it was possible to throw an axe that heavy that far. I estimated Whyte correctly, but I fatally underestimated Floki.
91st place: Gizmo Torrens- Snatched up by Garuda
Usually Gizmo is a master schemer who gets a lot done. He got votes early this time, mostly from people who thought he'd be targeted in a Career alliance. Unfortunately he didn't get to do a ton of planning, but sometimes you straight up get snatched by a Garuda. Garuda, by the way, is a gigantic bird. He's more of one particular bird than a species as far as I can tell, since The Mahabharata refers to "Garuda" and not "a garuda". He brought down this cool heavenly tear from Heaven for mankind, so he's a cool bird. Sometimes he's depicted as humanoid and sometimes not. This one is just a bird.
90th place: Alder Peacebrook- Stabbed by Ruby
Alder got votes jut for being young and not that strong. He made it past the Bloodbath though, which is cool since he didn't have a following, this being his first appearance in this universe. I'm still cleaning up numbers, so people are dropping fast.
89th place: Whyte Roberts- Trident by Arielle
I didn't have Whyte get separated with the intent to kill him. I intended to have him find his way back and just separated him because it seemed realistic that not all the alliances would meet up perfectly. Then he got enough votes and I had to kill him. Whyte was sort of a half-Career, so I didn't know how he'd do. Vera was always more popular, so she's the Victor so far.
88th place: Arielle Ermin- Killed to death by Floki
I was hoping Arielle would go a long way, since I always felt like she got shafted a little in her first story. I didn't bump up her training score to make her SO COOL, though. Someone just had to be on top and it happened to be her. When she got enough votes at the same time as Whyte, it made sense to do this. There's no shame in getting killed by Floki "Terror of Terror Birds" Grimm.
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