After Rufus and Annaleigh unlocked all remaining cases, they scattered the items they unlocked, including the contents of the bags they unlocked. Rufus can feel that the messenger bag is still heavy. It's like something is hidden in a secret pocket. He ignores the fact for now. He'll just call dibs on the messenger bag and check it out when everyone else is asleep. He tosses the bag on top of the other empty bags. Annaleigh follows when she's done digging out the contents of the handbag.

"Now we have to sort items if they're supplies or weapons," Anneleigh says.

Rufus nods in response.

Annaleigh starts with the bows. There are two of them, but there's only one quiver of twelve arrows. She thinks of a way to separate them, but decides to put both bows beside the quiver instead. She puts all the water bottles together with the mango drink she put aside earlier. She then finds a pair of shades. She wears them, looks around, and realizes that they're X-ray vision glasses. I don't have to tell anyone that I found this, and no one will suspect. For her, keeping it to herself will give her an advantage, so she hides it in her jacket's pocket.

Rufus looks at the helmet and wonders why it exists among the supplies. Coming into the arena, he was not expecting a helmet, but he puts it away regardless. He may or may not need it. He then grabs an orange sleeping bag, which he tosses aside to where the other sleeping bags are. He picks up a foldable fishing rod, now thinking that there is a source of water somewhere in this arena. He hasn't gotten a whole view of it yet, but he's guessing that there's water inside the mountain. He tosses it to the pile of 'other stuff' then picks up what happens to be a compact mirror.

"Oh my gosh! Give me that!" Jeanne grabs the mirror from Rufus and looks at her own reflection with it. "I need to make sure that I look attractive at all times."

"You are babe," flirts Argentum with a smirk.

Jeanne rolls her eyes with sarcasm.

Argentum picks up a gun. "Wow! Is this real!?"

Annaleigh grabs it back and points it at Argentum. Argentum plays along and raises his hands, trusting that Annaleigh won't kill him.

"BANG!" Annaleigh pulls the trigger, as she squirts water into Argentum's shirt.

"Yo what!?" reacts Argentum in shock, relief, and disappointment.

Annaleigh tosses the gun back to Argentum, which he catches and squirts at Jeanne.

"GROSS!" Jeanne screams in shock. She slaps the water gun away from Argentum's grip then backslaps him, leaving him to rub his cheek right after.

Annaleigh and Rufus have put in a knife, a beverage, and a sweet into each backpack. The only food they have are three pouches of candy, three packs of cookies, some fruits and vegetables, honey, and olive oil. For stuff they don't think they need, they just dumped them into the handbag and the messenger bag. The items not inside bags are ideally to be shared by all. This includes weapons, sanitary items, ropes, first aid, tents, blankets, sleeping bags, and other random items.

Horden says, "Guys, I think we shouldn't be staying here. It's hard to get down from here to hunt."

"I think it's hard to get to anywhere with an arena this big, but I do agree that we should not stay here tomorrow," says Annaleigh.

"It is hard to hunt from here. Ugh!" Jeanne says in disgust. "I think we can all agree to stay here tonight, because it's getting dark too."

Brenna and Rufus just nod at the background. Argentum raises both hands and shouts, "YEAH!"

With that settled, the plan is to stay in the cornucopia for the night, then hunt tomorrow morning. It's getting cold, and the blankets have been passed around. There are only five of them.

Argentum says, "Nah babe, you can have it. I'm strong for this type of climate." He kisses his muscles, then hugs his legs right after.

"Alright, just don't come crying to me that it's too cold," says Jeanne.

A couple of minutes later, the sky gets even darker, and the hovercraft finally arrives to pick up the empty cases as well as the dead bodies. Horden helped put aside the empty cases altogether, while Brenna did the same earlier but for the dead bodies. Someone used one of the transparent cases to excrete, as it was practical to not leave it behind in their current camp, with no water to flush it away. After collecting everything, the gamemaker in the hovercraft delivers them a cage with a seagull inside.

"What the..." reacts Jeanne. She inspects the cage only to back off in surprise.

"AAAAA"

"Who the hell sent us this!?" Annaleigh reacts angrily, not afraid about hiding it.

"AAAAA"

"Why don't we take it out from its cage?" suggest Argentum as he opens the bird cage.

The seagull steps out slowly, waddling around curiously. "AAAAA," it says in response.

All the careers exchanged eye rolls with each other, sans Argentum who's still amused by the feathered creature.

"I'll call you... Birdy!" Argentum says.

Annaleigh and Jeanne facepalm in annoyance. Brenna walked away from the seagull and to some other part of the cornucopia. Horden just stares at Argentum playing with the seagull.

"AAAAAAAAAA," it says.

Rufus catches another sponsor gift. It has "D2M" on the package, and he opens it while everyone is distracted with the seagull. He finds a sword inside the package. A smile of excitement creeps into his lips. He tries to stop smiling, but he finally got what he had been looking for. He's excited to finally use it tomorrow, if he gets a kill. – No, when he gets a kill tomorrow. He chuckles softly, trying not to get the attention of others. He looks around only to notice Brenna looking at his direction before looking away, not caring about Rufus and his sponsor gift.

"What are we gonna do with this seagull?" asks Jeanne with a tone of annoyance.

"I say we cook it," suggests Annaleigh. "We'll all have food."

"AAAAA"

"No!" Argentum defends. "The sponsor isn't gonna like us if we kill Birdy. We'll never get sponsor gifts from them again."

"AAAAA"

"But they sent us this!" Annaleigh says as she loses her patience. "Why would I want another one!?"

"Maybe this is a test," argues Argentum with a chuckle.

"AAAAA"

The careers were expecting food, but none came other than the bird, and the sword in which not everybody noticed. Since they had a vote, and the result is not to have the bird killed for dinner, they decide to munch on some cookies instead.

"Hey what's this?" Argentum pulls out a bottle of beer from the other bag.

"Um, probably apple juice," Annaleigh responds sarcastically. There is a label on the beer bottle, so it'd be stupid of him to not know it's beer when the bottle itself says so.

Argentum pops open the bottle of beer anyway. He drinks it, then says, "This is the best and the worst apple juice I've ever tasted."

"AAAAA"

Jeanne rolls her eyes, and Annaleigh just shakes her head.

Why are we keeping this doofus here? Annaleigh thinks.

Filly, Dorian, and Corinna find an exit and find themselves on top of the mountain's edge.

"I think we should go back," says Dorian calmly. "There's nothing here."

"But look!" Corinna points up curiously. "There are stuff floating around the sky. Also, is it just me or do any of you feel lighter than usual?"

Filly is still sad over Thomas, but he's about to move on from it, knowing that there is no way for him to see Thomas again. With Corinna's question, he then realizes that he also feels lighter than usual. It's like gravity works differently here. He tries to jump, and he jumps a bit higher than usual. It frightens him a bit at first because they're at the edge of the mountain, but he's barely going down from the after-jump position. He tries to swim midair, and successfully moves away from the mountain. All he sees below him is the sky, reflecting from what can be seen above.

Shortly after, Corinna tries to swim off the edge of the mountain, and she doesn't fall off.

"I'm flying!?" reacts Corinna loudly in utter surprise.

Filly replies with, "I'm pretty sure Thomas would have loved to try this." His eye starts to water and his mouth curves in an awkward way of wanting to cry once again.

Filly starts to sob, and Dorian is just rolling his eyes at the background. When he lost his grandfather, he was angry, and he'd known his grandfather since the day he remembered. For Dorian, Filly crying over someone he just met in the past couple of days is ridiculous. Dorian thinks of how soft and fragile Filly is, but as long as it doesn't affect his chances here, he shouldn't care. Dorian can already see Filly and Corinna flying further away from him, although it is obvious that they are waiting for him too. He has a fear of heights, but he refuses to show any emotion of fear. After all, if they can fly, why can't he? He takes a leap of fate and quickly swims to catch up to his allies. At the same time, he appreciates the view around him.

As it is already dark outside, stars begin to twinkle in the night sky. There are a few cumulus clouds floating in the sky with them. Rocks are also present in their surroundings. They look like floating islands in which the top part of the rocks are flat, yet there's no need for anybody to land in these floating islands, because everything else in the sky is floating. This includes water, distorted into irregular figures while also artificially illuminating blue; lava, clumps in irregular shapes emitting light as if they are small suns; and mud, semi-liquid soils drifting around like wet asteroids in the solar system. Looking down, they can see the night sky too, as it is being reflected from what is seen above. Filly and Corinna were awestruck from this illusion, but Dorian thinks that what's below is like a huge mirror. If there is one thing that stands out like a sore thumb in this part of the arena, it's the tower made of marble, sitting atop a perfectly hemispherical floating marble island. That is where Dorian wants to go, and it is also where Filly and Corinna are heading towards.

Filly is still sobbing, and he has cried enough tears to form two table tennis sized balls at the bottom of his eyes, as an effect of the lack of gravity.

"Fil, I know you care so much about him, and I was sad to see him go like that too," Corinna consoles with sympathy as she rubs Filly's back continuously while waiting for Dorian to catch up to them. "Someday, everything will be okay. I'm sure Thomas is in a better place now."

Filly sniffs between sobs. Corinna can only hope that he'll feel more positive soon and less down about this whole situation with Thomas's death. She wants him to live on the brighter side of the world like she does. She always wanted that for anybody, thinking that being sad for too long is not the right way to live.

Right way or not, Tira, Chip, and Macy had moved from their spot and found themselves at the edge of grass, bordering a muddy territory.

"I wanna play in the mud," says Macy.

Tira then says, "But there's no place for us to wash it off later."

"But it's gonna be my last chance to play in the mud." Macy knows that she's never gonna get out of here alive. She got lucky in the bloodbath, but she thinks she's not lucky enough to win, especially with her unwillingness to kill and her constant freezing out of fear in scary situations like the bloodbath. Her eyes start to water, thinking that the truth hurts and it's hard to ignore that she will die because of how she acted in the bloodbath. Even before the bloodbath, how she is naturally would not be enough to get her out of here alive. Her time will come and it is inevitable.

Tira gives herself a moment to think, but before she thinks of a response, Macy jumps belly-first into the mud.

"WEEEEE!" Macy then makes a mud angel, except her face is flat on the mud.

Tira can't help but think, Gross. If only she could wash off later. I haven't seen a source of water around here so far, so she might have to stay muddy for the rest of the games.

Chip, who was zoning into his world, is confused as to why Macy is on the mud. Did someone push her? Are there any tributes around them to attack? Is she trying to camouflage herself because of a nearby enemy? Is she just having fun? Maybe Tira and Macy were playing a game? There are so many possibilities running in his head, so he stands there staring at Macy making a mud angel.

After some more time, Tira thinks that this is a moment she can never return to. It's not even one Macy can return to. What is there to lose with a little fun right now?

"Dinner is served!" says Halizeia as she knocks on the bathroom door gently.

This makes Ciara and Arlenna panic and wonder how this mysterious person found out of their presence in the bathroom. Maybe there are hidden cameras? Tributes have no access to them! Maybe it's a mutt the gamemakers sent to trick them?

Halizeia knocks on the door again. "I don't want you two starving. We have vegetable stew from today's harvest. I can promise you that it's fresh."

"It seems too smart to be a mutt," says Ciara softly.

"Then who is it outside?" Arlenna responds softly.

They don't recognize the voice at all. One thing is for sure: It can't be a tribute, and there's a very low chance for it to be a mutt. They have not seen mutts that are smart enough to say that in the previous years. It was even talking to someone, and it knows how to cook from what they heard earlier. It can be some new advanced technology, but it just doesn't seem to be that credible.

Arlenna is curious. She wants to go out, but she knows that there's a huge risk of dying by leaving this safe hiding spot, this comfort zone for the past few hours.

Ciara is just as curious. She wants to leave as well, and she's actually getting sick of staying inside this cramped space called the kitchen bathroom. Now she's starting to think that she's been talking too loud that they heard her.

Arlenna takes out the map that Ciara found in one of the bags earlier. She knows they're inside the mansion on the northeastern part of the arena. She looks at other areas on the map and realizes that there are other indoor areas in the arena, like the tower on top of a hemisphere, the pagoda on some dark lands, and a castle on top of the water. Maybe there's someone special waiting for them outside, and the same goes for every building in each part of the arena.

Ciara prepares by carrying a dagger in hand. "Winnie, I'm going out."

Arlenna thinks that it's safe to go out, but this is the Hunger Games. Nothing is always safe. With that, she takes out a weapon from her bag too and nods to Ciara about agreeing to go out.

Ciara unlocks and opens the door. She looks around and finds a gradiently green-haired and brown-skinned lady wearing a green dress, sitting on one end of the dining table anticipating Ciara and Arlenna's coming out of the bathroom. Arlenna then peeks her head out and sees the same.

"Welcome to Mudland Mansion," greets Halizeia. "Please take a seat, and I shall introduce myself."

After so much doubt, the two girls think that maybe this is a safe person to be with. Well, "mutt" but they can't be sure at all. Ciara and Arlenna take seats across each other, inspecting the food on the table, which include Caesar salad, tomato soup, vegetable stew, rice, orange juice, and papaya.

"Good evening, girls. Thank you for joining me tonight. My name is Halizeia, h-a-l-i-z-e-i-a. As the earth guardian of Elymantyl, one of my responsibilities is to serve food in the form of fruits, vegetables, and grain, whichever is available. They are freshly harvested from the farm, which you can't see now because it's too dark, but if you look from this window and through the trees, we get our harvest right there."

The two girls try to look through the window Halizeia just pointed to, but they can't see anything indeed.

"If you choose to stay here tonight, we have beds in bedrooms, as it is my responsibility to be prepared for guests if they choose to stay here tonight."

Ciara reacts with a silent 'ooh' out of interest and surprise. She wasn't expecting to sleep comfortably in a bed tonight, especially in the Hunger Games, but her arena offers this kind of twist, so she's lucky to be getting this kind of accommodation. Arlenna is too, of course.

Questions run inside Arlenna's head. Does she trust this person? Is this some sort of twist in the arena? Who could these other guardians be? She has a lot of questions.

"If you have any questions, feel free to ask me as long as your mouth is not full. Let's eat!"

Lainey received her dinner and is in the process of consuming it. It's three cups chicken with rice from a Taiwanese restaurant called The Big Eats. It's great because it fills her stomach just when she needs it. This can be her last meal, and she surprisingly likes the taste of this. She hasn't eaten anything this good at home. She thinks it's probably some Capitolite ingredients that is helping to make the food taste better.

Home. It feels weird to be away from home for the first time ever. All her life, she stayed in District Eight with her parents. Now, it's been a week since she has seen them. She misses her family. She misses District Eight. Lainey misses everything back home, but she knows she's here for a reason.

Six years ago, someone volunteered for her when she was just twelve. It was a feeling of fear and anxiety replaced with relief. From that moment onward, she made sure to train with weapons with the time she has and the resources around her. The Sashes were able to afford a few luxuries in their lifetimes, but they can't afford everything. With what Lainey has at home, she trained diligently. She wished she had guidance in those years, but having tried to use kitchen knives and a makeshift spear as weapons is better than not being able to practice it at all. Those six years taught her comfort and control with handling weapons.

It's not until she was training in the Capitol that she learned the proper way of handling weapons. It was hard at first to adjust from old habits, but with some more practice, she'll get the hang of it. The difference now is that there's no one around her to give her live feedback, not even an ally that she was hoping to have with her at this point. It still saddens her traumatically when she thinks of her dead ally. It's too hard for her to forget about Kylie's death, and she's getting frustrated with herself for trying to remember it. She hopes that she doesn't make a big mistake when she's on the actual battle. For now, she has time, but it's not time that she needs. Rather, it's the numbers dwindling down that she needs. For that to happen, she either waits for deaths, or she makes her move.

In Ingeo's case, he doesn't know if he has to make a move.

What's taking them so long? he thinks. He has already considered the possibility that they might have died in the bloodbath, but they were right behind him, and didn't make so much sense to him. Although, he wasn't looking back so much during that time. He just kept running until he realized that he lost his allies.

Maybe they're not dead. Maybe they're just lost. The only way to find out for certain is to see or not see their faces in the sky tonight.

Wait. He's inside a cave, in a mountain. It's not the sky. Maybe he'll find it on the mountain's ceiling. How exactly? He still isn't sure.

He's thankful for his escort and mentors for sending him sweet and sour fish with rice for his dinner. He's not used to the taste of it, but at least he has something to fill his belly. He doesn't finish the meal just yet, because he's planning to save up for the next day or two.

Some minutes pass, and he receives a sponsor gift, via sponsor-bot since receiving his sponsor gift in a parachute wouldn't be logical in this setting. He opens the capsule that says D8M, and the first thing he finds is a message. It says, "Eqrwirufhwtr"

Ingeo can't understand what the message is supposed to mean, but what's inside the capsule confuses him even more.

It's an egg. He doesn't know if it's supposed to go with his rice, or with his sweet and sour fish, or maybe it's just a totally random gift for him to eat on its own. He thinks the sender probably hard boiled the egg for him already. Nevertheless, he's thankful for food no matter how small. There's a hack when trying to crack a hard boiled egg, as he learned from his friend Lux. Just crack the egg onto the table – the ground in this case – and since it's hard boiled, it won't make a mess. Then, roll it on the table (or ground) with one's hand before peeling off the egg shell completely.

The problem is that he thought wrong. The egg is raw! He doesn't even have to go to the next step when he applied the life hack to the wrong kind of egg. Now, he made a mess on his hiding spot. He should clean it up, but he can't. There's nothing in his bag to help him clean it up. There's also no need to clean it up if he just moves his hiding spot, so he does that instead, annoyed by his own assumption.

His face twists into utter disgust and confusion, now thinking, Why would someone send me an egg that is raw?

Why would someone send me stuff? is the first thing that came to Dante's mind when he first received his sponsor gift from the sponsor-bot that delivered it to him.

Dante got off the cornucopia without getting anything, mainly because the cases were locked and he didn't have enough time to just grab something and go. He had to unlock them from cases, and he felt pressure because someone could stab him from the back anytime and it would be all over.

He knows he's lucky to be receiving a sponsor gift, but he doesn't deserve it. He did nothing spectacular in the parade. He didn't garner a high score for training. He didn't have an amazing interview that caught the audience's hearts. He did nothing during the bloodbath other than to just run and hide. He didn't kill. He didn't unlock a case. He doesn't even have or need allies. He's on his own and constantly being under the radar because he does not want to be noticed or remember, yet here he is with a pack from sponsors. He doesn't think he deserves it at all. What did I do to be memorable to someone? he thinks.

Despite feeling that he did not deserve what he just got, he still received them, and their his. He won't just dump them off and starve to death. He now has a ham and egg sandwich, two full water bottles, and a knife. It's the basic stuff. He's satisfied with these. It now makes him think that he really didn't make himself memorable, and maybe it was his mentor and escort who arranged these basic essentials for him. For now, these will keep him alive for at least another day, unless someone murders him, but he's hoping for no one to find him. What are the odds?

He's still in his hiding spot inside the mountain. How long is he gonna stay here? He doesn't know. The gamemakers will give him a signal to either run or die. Is he gonna wait for it? He doesn't know. For now, staying in his hiding spot might be the best idea. It's just the first night. He's not ready to leave his comfort zone just yet.

The careers are setting up camp for bedtime. Horden is holding a folded tent and suggests, "I think it's best if the watchers take the tent and the blankets to keep them warm during the night."

"That's a good idea," says Jeanne. "But I don't take suggestions from peasants!"

"It is a good idea, and I think we should follow it," says Annaleigh.

"Yeah!" agrees Argentum out of nowhere.

"AAAAA" goes the seagull.

Jeanne rolls her eyes and accepts the deal regardless. She's too tired to argue, and she needs her beauty sleep. She takes one of the sleeping bags and squeezes herself in there comfortably. She shuts her eyes in a relaxed manner, but Argentum sets up his sleeping bag not long after and stays right beside her.

"AAAAA"

Jeanne opens her eyes and glares at Argentum. "Babe, put away the stupid bird," she says in panic and disgust.

"Fine fine." Argentum lets go of the bird from his gentle grip, then shooing it to the opposite direction from them.

"Good!" says Jeanne aloud with a big breath of satisfaction.

On Horden's side of the boat, under the tent, he volunteered to be the first watcher of the night, since he already slept earlier today. He doesn't think anybody's coming to raid the cornucopia and their supplies, since they're on top of the mountain, but he's aware that anything can happen. None of the careers were interested in making fire, so Horden's only source of light are the stars above him. He begins to think if they're natural or artificial. When he stays outdoors late enough in Four, he would stargaze with Aurora. He misses Aurora, and he can't believe that seeing the stars would let him remember home. Four is nice. He likes it there. He'll be home soon enough. All he has to do is win these games.

He looks at his surroundings. He notices the pair from Two sleeping significantly farther away from the lovebirds. The seagull is just waddling nearby.

"AAAAA"

Annaleigh joins Horden inside the tent. She gives him a pair of goggles.

"What's this?"

"Night-vision goggles." Annaleigh wears her pair then continues, "It allows us to easily see our surroundings in the dark."

"Oh," reacts Horden with interest. "Thanks." Horden wears his pair and looks around once more. He notices the seagull waddling in circles around the lovebirds. He can also hear snoring from their direction.

Annaleigh says, "I have a good feeling about this."

The seagull continues to waddle around and lets out an annoying "AAAAA" once in a while. Jeanne wakes up from one of them and tries going back to sleep, but Argentum's annoying snoring is also keeping her awake. Since he's asleep anyway, she decides to move away from him. Now she positions herself somewhere between Argentum's and Brenna's positions. She tucks herself in comfortably once again, and sighs in relaxation. It takes about a minute or two before that relaxation is bitten off.

"AAAAA-OWWW!" Jeanne screams with the pain on her nose, realizing that the seagull bit her there.

"AAAAA"

Jeanne grabs the seagull by its neck and starts to choke it.

"AAAAA"

"One more time and I swear to Snow that you'll never see the light of day again!" Jeanne says in an angry voice, with an annoyed and tired huff. She drops the seagull to the ground afterwards, still fuming over her pained nose. She takes a look of her nose with her compact mirror, but she can't see any difference at all, since it's dark. She snugs herself back to her cozy sleeping bag, hoping that she can get her beauty sleep at long last.

"Is that an exit?" asks Orion to his friend.

Kobe doesn't respond, but as they reach the exit, they notice how warm it is outside. The mountain lacks wind, so it's not really cold yet it isn't as warm as the exit they reached. They step their feet outside the mountain cave and find a barren land all over the place. They can see that something is weird on one part of the ground, but there are other parts that lead to a cliff. They slowly approach one and see lava below the cliff.

"What... what arena is this?" Orion asks, slightly shaking at the sight of lava. He's aware that he's in the Hunger Games, yet he's surprised to see lava in this year's arena. He's hoping that this is just one side of the arena, and not what every exit leads to, if other exits exist.

They may be too far from the cliff, but Kobe says, "I'm not going further." He turns back, and Orion follows immediately after. It doesn't make sense to go near a lava lake, especially if there's no place to hide nearby. Had there been trees, maybe they would've considered, because nobody would expect them to be there. It's also too hot though. Maybe they really wouldn't be staying there at all, or anywhere around this place for that matter.

Orion looks around to see a pagoda and a gray building around the area. He's curious what's over there, but they look very sketchy and is not in the mood to explore them just yet. "Let's return to the mountain?" Orion says in a questioning tone.

Kobe nods in response. They can both agree that the temperature in the mountain is better than it is here. They reach the part of the mountain where they came in from and went inside. They decide to camp near this exit in the meantime.

Orion says, "Kobe, I'm gonna get some rest now. You should too." There's a hint of concern in his voice. While he's aware that someone should keep watch, he cares about Kobe's time to sleep too.

"I'm not sleepy," responds Kobe sternly. "I wanna see who died today."

Orion lets some silence hang for a while, thinking that maybe Kobe's plan isn't a bad one. "Okay. Good night, Kobe."

Kobe doesn't respond immediately, hesitating to respond to his buddy, but he says, "Night," anyway after several seconds.

Ciara and Arlenna are surprised and impressed to get actual beds to sleep on for their first night in the arena. It feels weird to be in this state of comfort. After their conversation over dinner with Halizeia, they think they can trust her enough to be in this cozy position. They were even provided green or brown sleepwear, whichever they prefer. Ciara changed into the brown one while Arlenna picked the green one. Once they're on their sleepwear, Halizeia visits their bedroom of two beds.

Halizeia says, "Hi girls. Don't worry about staying here for the night. Tributes and mutts can't just easily enter your room and the mansion this late at night. If there is a storm, you're safe in here too. If you need anything, just press the button on the side of your bed, and the avox or I will come and visit you. Now, would you like me to read you a bedtime story?"

Ciara and Arlenna look at each other. However, Ciara responds first without needing Arlenna's input. "I think we'll pass tonight."

"Okay," says Halizeia with a gentle nod. "Sweet dreams!" She blows a kiss to each of them, before turning off the lights and leaving the room.

Ciara stares at the ceiling. It feels even cozier with this ambience. It's dark like a bedroom with the lights off should be at night, but there's an open window for wind to flow in. There's a bit of light outside, likely from the stars. She's getting too comfortable and she's in the Hunger Games. Now she wonders if this is just a twist or if it's also a test. Regardless, she enjoys this privilege for the night.

Arlenna worries about this privilege. What if this will be broadcast to the other tributes as a twist? It's hard not to be paranoid even in a comfortable position, but it's a long day. She and Gracie flew off without a scratch, and now they're here, enjoying comfy beds in a dark and cold room inside a mansion. She thinks of other tributes, probably sleeping on rocks, or around trees, or maybe in another building like they're in.

It's just that Tira and Macy had too much fun in the mud that Macy fell asleep on the mud at some point. Tira tries dragging her out of the mud, but there's no point to it. She gave up that plan immediately. She and Macy were throwing mudballs at each other. They had fun playing and laughing, but now they're dirty. She's gonna have to find a water source, or she's gonna have to endure being this icky for the rest of the games.

Tira looks up at the night sky. She sees the stars, and maybe a few galaxies. The sky is so clear here compared to the sky in Three. There's an evident difference remembering the smoggy skies and semi-bright nights in Three, compared to the crystal clear night skies here on the mudland that allow her to see stars as well as some galaxies. She finds it amazing. It's a breathtaking view she's appreciating right now, ironically in what could probably be one of the last moments of her life. She's astounded by how different the sky is here compared to the sky back home. It leaves a smile in her face as she continues to stare up to the sky.

Chip is behind the tree waiting, still clean as a new pin since he did not participate in playing with them. He's saving his energy. His algorithm is telling him that he'll need it for later. He sits by the tree and waits. He's not immediately visible from where they were playing, but he's not too far from it too. He just wants to save his energy and remain clean while possible.

At the headquarters, Alistair's alarm wakes him up. He stops the alarm as he adjusts himself. A nap for a few hours is definitely much needed when it's Hunger Games season. Even he can't predict what will happen next. Nobody woke him up, which means nothing important happened while he was asleep. For him, that's good. He didn't need to be interrupted from his much needed nap. For the viewers... well, it's still too early to need some action and force it out of the tributes.

The only reason he needs to wake up at this time is for the faces of the dead tributes to be known to all, especially for the remaining tributes. He already assigned someone to schedule it along with the anthem at twelve midnight sharp. All he has to do is double check and monitor for the first night.

While waiting for midnight, Alistair looks for Jom, but then he realizes that it's not his shift. Oh well. He goes to the camera room instead, carefully checking on each tribute group. Some of them are asleep in their sleeping bags, on beds, or on the dirty ground. Others are waiting for the faces to show in the sky. For those inside the mountain, the bots are on their way to each tribute. Each bot has a small monitor to show the faces of the fallen tributes for the day. It also has two small speakers for the anthem to play.

The only tribute group catching his attention is Dorian, Filly, and Corinna. They are swimming on Sector One towards the tower. They are almost there, but they won't be making it there before midnight, so he'll check back on them after.

Sector Two is also particularly interesting at this point in the games. Eltha has already made the sector snow, freezing over the lake. It's also the sector that is farthest from any tribute at this point. There is one tribute group in Sector One, two tribute groups in Sector Four, and one pair at the mouth going to Sector Three.

He checks for a few more details, going back and forth to some of them. After waiting and waiting, the anthem starts to play, and he prepares to watch from one of the monitors the fallen tributes for the day. The sky and bots' screens first show the face of the girl from Six, Kylie Ford. To Alistair, she wasn't really memorable. He wasn't surprised to see her go in the bloodbath, but he was surely surprised with how she went down. The next face to show is that of the boy from Six, Thomas Barnaby. He knows this guy wants to try everything and go out with a bang, and he thinks Thomas got to do that successfully. The face of the girl from Seven was next. Susie Ye was very off, to Alistair. Something wasn't right with her yet he couldn't pinpoint it. He was surprised to see how she went down too. She just snapped like a twig. The next face to show is that of the girl from Eleven. Poppy Sennett was just like any tribute out there, not really memorable. Same goes for the next face, belonging to the boy from Eleven. Owen Lee Bai felt a bit sketchy, and it wasn't surprising for him to take down an ally. What was surprising was a different ally reciprocating it to him. It was a weird yet unique bloodbath.

Other than that, Alistair isn't surprised that there are no other deaths after the bloodbath. Sometimes, there's one or two. Sometimes, there's none of it at all. With the cornucopia at the mountain summit and the exit leading towards the mountain cave, it should keep tributes apart for a good chunk of the day. Alistair and his colleagues will find ways to let certain tributes meet each other when he deems the moment fitting. For now, the tributes can catch their breaks for the night. The action can commence later in the day or even on the day after.

"Yeah, they all died," mutters Ingeo after he saw the faces of his ex-allies. For each one he saw, more tears well up on his eyes. He already knows this, and he already accepted the possibility that they could be dead. But now... now, he's certain that they're all dead. Susie, Poppy, and Owen are never coming back to find him. He's officially on his own here, and he's gonna accept it, but it's a very hard pill to swallow. He may think that he has accepted the fact that they're all dead, but he's still crying over his dead allies. He's at the point of not being able to sit still. His vision is blurry from tears, and he continues to wipe them away as more tears form in his eyes. Words can't describe how sad he is to be all alone and ally-less. He knows they're dead, and he wants to accept the fact that they're dead, but he can't stop crying over them.

He curls into a ball, whimpering endlessly into the night. He can't sleep now that he can confirm that they're gone, forever. To make his mood any worse, he receives his fifth egg for the night from the bot. It's been coming every hour, and he's getting annoyed at it. If he has the energy for it, he would throw it at someone and smash the egg into their face. He has no target to release the stress within him. He has no energy to smash the egg into a mountain wall either. He just wants to stop crying and stop thinking about the three of them, but it's impossible.

He picks up the capsule from his curled position. He lets out a scream as he throws the egg to a nearby rock, but it lands on the ground and makes a mess. Yeah, he has no energy indeed. He can't even hit the target. He continues to whimper in pain, in fear, in angst... until he cries himself to sleep.

It's not just Ingeo who's crying an ocean over dead allies. Filly stopped forming tears at some point. He already wiped off the balls of tears that formed on the base of his eyes. However, when the anthem started, he couldn't resist but to look up. It was in Thomas's face that he screamed to the sky, yelling for Thomas's name and continued to sob. Now, the balls of tears are once again below his eyes. He wants to cry and cry until he has no tears left to cry, but tears don't just run out. All this crying and sobbing just made his eyes look terrible.

Corinna also let a few tears slip off her eyes upon seeing Thomas's face, but she wipes them off as much as she can. She knows Thomas is dead and there is no way to bring him back, but it's been hours since he was gone. They're only showing the faces of the fallen tributes. She already mourned for Thomas, and she doesn't want to do it again. It's too sad for her. She tries not to think about it because she will cry again, but she's been unsuccessful, wiping tear after tear with her cotton shirt.

"We're here," says Dorian as he steps on the marble island. Now, he's waiting for Corinna and Filly to catch up. He finds it ironic that they left ahead of him at the mountain. But now, he's meters ahead of them. Normally, he would wait for his companions to get there first, then open the door for them. However, this is the Hunger Games. He doesn't feel obliged to wait for them. They're just allies, not friends. Without any drop of patience left, Dorian tries to open the tower door, but it's locked. Therefore, he knocks on the door using the marble door knocker. If the door is locked, maybe someone is already inside. It can't be the careers, and it can't be a mutt that will immediately kill him. He doesn't think he needs a key to open the door to this tower, not when he can clearly see a castle and a mansion too on other parts of the arena. He doesn't think the gamemakers will lock them out of all the indoor areas of the arena. There has to be a twist, and it can't be a mutt, he thinks.

Just as Corinna and Filly step foot on the floating marble island, someone opens the door for them. The fair-skinned man is wearing a platinum-colored silk vest over a spandex long sleeved shirt in light green. He has tight platinum-colored pants, also made of spandex. His rubber shoes are mostly white, but what catches the three tributes' attentions are the aesthetic gold wings attached to the side of the shoes. His glittering white hair is short and spiky. He's wearing his goggles, but he puts it up in the meantime, and it clearly shows his light green contact lenses.

With his left hand, Titan Smith flips his shining light green wing-shaped cape. "Welcome to Topland Tower. How can I help you?"

AN:

We got stuff, but not action. Action can wait for a little more. The audience has enough of Day 1 from a long bloodbath. So yes, more of a chill chapter focusing on this arena's specialty and some monologue cities. Feel free to let me know what you think.

As usual, arena map will be updated in the blog and will be sent through Discord. Please give us a few days to do so. Same goes for the has-needs list. The link to it is on my profile.

Voting for the SYOT Awards is now open! Link to the forum is on my profile. The awards are in the SYOT Alliance! Forum. Please check it out because we want the awards to be fun and exciting just like it had been in the past years. :D

I can't guarantee another update this year even if I want to, but we'll see. In any case, hope you enjoyed the chapter and happy holidays! :3