Notes:
This chapter is somewhat anti-climatic because I needed to put one scene in here without using any material for the next chapter (Which I had already written before this because I just wasn't feeling this one as much).
I was debating how to write this chapter because I needed to use Gold since Katniss didn't have enough material on her own. When I switch between characters points of view I want them to have weight/meaning rather than just being frivolous. This is especially true for characters I made (who i'm sure the readers hold less value for). I didn't really want to use Gold this chapter since *Spoiler? Maybe? Barely?* I have another chapter a few down the road which follows a victor. So I didn't want this moment to disvalue that one. Although Gold is ultimately the best for this specific chapter as she's been somewhat thoroughly introduced (So i'm not just throwing a Ruve or a Gile moment in which would hold next to no value since we know nothing about them and therefor don't care too much... yet)
I try to add a lot of small foreshadowings into my writing so let me know if you have any predictions! Examples - Such as how the mystery man in the dead zone said Katniss, which turned out to be the only cure for infection (We assumed he was calling her by name) or how When everyone wanted Katniss to join the careers Brutus just grunted (Which was taken as agreement) and then he pulled that shenanigan moments before the game. I have a lot of . other bits that will come full-circle but i'll hold off on them until they have their time to shine.
After this chapter the games are going to be switching up from the original. We will see some similarities and some mirroring events but a lot of change.
Shameless plug - My insta - Carlisle_Enlow
Let me know if you see any errors. I don't own the hunger games.
- Katniss -
She's been walking since the previous day. The nights half gone by now and her steps are weaker and less sure with each stride. She stumbled twice so far and a part of her fears that if she falls she won't be strong enough to get back up.
The search for water had continues on through the night and she wishes more than anything for a bonded pair and a sponsor. She wishes she could trade the knife she carries for the water bottle it drained. She wishes she hadn't offered this option to her grandfather as every moment that passes she becomes less and less sure of the results. Results that had once seemed so obvious.
She wishes her mouth would regain the ability to produce a spoonful of saliva that she could swallow to coat her throat.
- Gold -
She and Diamond had spent the better part of the last two days inside the Victors mentoring quarters. They'd both been immensely grateful at the unorthodox invite they had received from district two. Gratefuller still when they had been met with accepting, yet still apprehensive, stares from the remaining victors.
Cinna had appeared not long after at his own accord.
Her princess had been searching for water throughout the night but still had yet to hit a triumph. Gifts were tight on all fronts according to Enobaria. Career pack or not, the citizens did not want to waste a single coin on one of the so-called 'bonded-pairs' that didn't include their precious royal.
The moment it became apparent that the princess had become dehydrated and was in desperate need of water was the moment that an unspoken rule had fallen on the victors, like a fog. Not a single attending party had lifted a glass. Haymitch had been the one to present the unspoken rule as he had quietly set down his clear bottle and announced to the room that he 'would not take another drink until the princess did. Or until she no longer had need to'. He was now experiencing the first step of sobriety.
All the Avox's in attendance had taken note and stopped offering up life's liquid.
After watching her princess wander through the woods, with a progressing stumble and lethargic motion being incorporated into her step, she decided she had had enough and needed to blow off some steam in the palace training rooms.
- Katniss -
She'd fallen.
Hours ago at the very least. Upon impact she's struggled, temporarily, before accepting slumber. Or fainting perhaps? It had been equal parts as long without sleep as it had been without water and that is the notion she'd used to justify her defeat.
The sun has risen and is well on its journey to the high point in the sky before she manages to get an eye open. The other is glued shut with mud wedged between flesh and mask. She's too tired to wipe it away. She doesn't see much anyway. It's as though she's looking through a fog, feeling through a fog, and thinking through a fog.
She hasn't heard any canons since the girl from the first night. The citizens must be bored. She should put on a show.
She must lay there for a few hours longer, her fingers brushing through the mud. The sun has made it to a peak point and is shining down on her violently. Looking directly into the sun isn't good for ones eyesight.
She roles over.
The mud feels cool on her face, just like the clay she and Cinna slather on for acne. He'd brought her the first jar a few days after her tenth birthday party and casually told her later that night to make sure she watched her sugar and alcohol consumption. 'Even the princess isn't immune to puberty' he'd told her.
This mud is more likely to cause then to fix... She's laying in mud.
Mud minus dirt equals water.
There's a water source nearby. She still doesn't want to get up but her growing clarity of mind inform her it's do or die.. Slowly, it adds. And so she crawls.
She crawls about ten feet before her chin dips into the edge of a pond. Thank god her legacy didn't succumb to 'the princess that drowned just feet from a lake'.
Her water bottle becomes impossibly heavy for her weak limb with the added weight of water and a water purifying tablet filling it. Only thirty minutes before safe consumption.
- Gold -
She'd stopped her workout short and had spent her time cleaning weapons. She hates to admit that after just forty minutes she'd grown uncomfortably dehydrated to the point that continuing would put her resolve in jeopardy. She couldn't be the one to cave as her princess suffered, not as victors who barely knew her child stood strong.
She also hadn't wanted to return to the mentors room so quickly after fleeing. It was too stuffy with so many people. What would the victors think if she couldn't even hold out in training for an hour. Her desire to prove herself to them rearing its head once again. It was too stuffy in there with so many people.
Stayed stationary for hours cleaning each individual weapon. Sharpening every individual arrow by hand and only allowing a few self pitying tears to leak through as she'd picked up the princesses first bow.
While wondering back to the mentors room, taking the scenic route, Gold finds herself in the wrong place at the right time.
Looking through a cracked presidential door is President Snow himself. Back to the entrance, glass in hand, eyes locked to a monitor that had never previously sat upon his walls.
There is her princess. Still as can be. The princess has never looked so filthy in her life as she does in this moment. Filthy and tired.
A perfect mirror of royalty hydrating them selfs after a long night.
Somewhere Haymitch is getting reacquainted with his mistress, the drunken haze.
She'll hold out for a little longer.