Chapter 45- Shore Seawind
I can't remember her voice.
Ma always said, when someone dies at home, that the memories of their speech, their laughter, their whistles, fade first. "It's just natural," she told my sister Pearl, "Sound is like the water; it slips away before you can grab it again, and once it's far enough out to sea, 'tis gone for good."
Thalassa's not dead, but she's slipped away from me, just like she did in my dream last night. She was stranded out towards the horizon, calling my name, before she was pulled under the waves with the sound of a cannon.
I have water, I have sand, I have the world above and below me, but District 4 has never seemed farther away than it does right now. If I hadn't been chosen; if they had chosen me next year, I could be sitting on the docks with Thalassa right this very minute.
Instead, I'm sitting on a strange beach next to my two allies, the two that are left from the band that formed back in Training. How long ago was that? Time's slipped away just like the sound of Thalassa's laughter. I heard her calling my name in my dreams, but it wasn't her voice. It was Tiara's.
Tiara is dead, and we've moved on. There's not really a point in grieving for her; we said our goodbyes, and now she's gone. That's how the Games work. Wish her well and forget as soon as possible.
I'm the leader; I can never forget that. I'm also the only one sitting here that will make it out alive. I'll get back to District 4 and marry Thalassa; I can relearn her laughter and her voice, and I can hear it every day for the rest of my life.
That will be a better reward than any victor's crown.
The sun's up; we should move on. We need water, we need to find more tributes; we need to keep moving until we find something we're looking for. I'm the only one awake; my two allies are sprawled out next to the dying fire. Dominicus looks smaller when he's asleep, and Aggie looks younger. She could pass for twelve right now, curled up with sand dotting her black hair.
"Hey, get up. Time to go," I say loudly, reaching over for my trident. Aggie's eyes shoot open instantly and she sits up, shaking the grit out of her hair.
"What's the hurry, Ocean Boy?" she grumbles at me, fumbling around for her collection of knives. She's conveniently arranged them in rows just a few inches away from where she's been sleeping; a good idea since we got almost ambushed by Reaper yesterday.
Reaper: another boy I've killed. Move on, forget. Win.
"Thought you'd actually want to see Day 5 instead of sleeping through it," I say. Aggie rolls her eyes.
"Do you have an itinerary?"
"What?"
"You've got every day planned down to the last goddamn minute, that's what."
"They're all uptight over in 4," Dominicus says, as usual sounding like he's speaking through his nose.
"In case you haven't noticed, I've been keeping everyone afloat here," I say, using my trident to help me stand up.
"Oh, sure," Aggie says sarcastically, standing up to join me.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'll let you figure that out," she says with a toss of her hair. "You want to go? Let's go. You promised me the District 3s yesterday, and I haven't gotten them yet."
"What is your obsession with them anyway?" I ask. They were annoying in Training, and I was the one who suggested that we eliminate them, but Aggie's taken that idea and run with it.
Aggie cocks her head at me and smiles. "I think they'd be very fun to play with."
I smile back, if only to humor her. "Aren't you a little old for toys, Aggie?"
"Not the kind I'm thinking of."
"Get the parachute first, if you even bother to look at it," Dominicus puts in from behind Aggie. Together, Aggie and I turn to watch the all too welcome parachute descend, before it comes to a rest a few feet away, directly next to a blue rippled shell.
"Dommie saw it first, so he better open it before I do," Aggie says, crossing her arms and shifting her weight over so that she's nearly leaning towards me. "Maybe's it's that roast we were talking about the other day; what do you think, Ocean Boy?"
"I prefer seafood," I tell her. Aggie laughs her crow laugh.
"Of course you do."
Dominicus pulls the parachute away and cracks the parcel open with two swift moves. "What did we get?" Aggie asks, sauntering over with a knife in hand.
"Breakfast," Dominicus says, holding up a large golden muffin.
"Excellent," Aggie says, snatching the muffin from her district partner and biting into it with a satisfied look on her face. "Chocolate chip," she says with a full mouth.
"Can you stomach these?" Dominicus asks with a sarcastic edge to his voice. "It's not seafood."
"Just give it here," I tell him, taking a muffin from him while he hides a grin.
"Here, they sent us some juice too," Dominicus says, handing out three smaller transparent bottles full of an orange liquid.
"They're being fancy today, aren't they?" Aggie says, looking at her bottle closely. "Money to spend, and lots to spend on."
"Keep it coming!" Dominicus calls up to the cloudless blue sky, making Aggie crow laugh again.
I, for one, am glad to see that they're still sending non-essential things down to us. That means we have plenty of sponsors who are willing to give up their money for anything- and no lack of funds whatsoever. Everyone knows that the longer the Games go on, the higher the prices are for gifts. We're in the best position in the arena.
Everyone at home will be glad to see that we're eating like this; it means that they don't have to worry. I'll sit here and eat whatever they send me. But, however good this food is, it doesn't hold a candle to Ma's cooking. The Capitol doesn't know what they're missing.
"So, you're apparently keeping us afloat," Aggie says, sitting back down. "Where are you floating us today?"
I know she's making fun of me, but I don't care. I'm the leader of the alliance, I'm going to be the victor, just as long as I can keep Aggie and Dominicus in line, and kill them before they kill me. If I can hold my conscience off, I could kill them soon. But they're quick, and they're smart- and they're too alive.
Killing my allies now feels cruel, even though it's what I'm supposed to do in the end. The pack breaks apart and one survives; it happens every year. But I know my allies; they aren't strangers or passing tributes; they've been my team for five days. I don't trust them as far as I could throw them, but I don't want them dead either. Tiara and Cloak are already gone; which one of us will be next?
"We'll keep going the way we've been going," I say, gesturing with my muffin. "See what we can find."
"Or who," Aggie puts in. I nod.
"Or who."
"About time we saw some more action," Dominicus says.
"You want more after yesterday?" I ask. He takes a swig from his juice before setting it down beside him.
"The Games aren't supposed to be boring, if you haven't noticed. More tributes, more action, more sponsors."
"And the sooner we get out, the better. I've got business to take care of at home," Aggie says, watching the light shine off her knife as she twists it side to side.
"What happened again?" I ask. I know she's mentioned this 'business' before, but a lot's happened in the past two weeks and it's too much to keep track of. Aggie's face darkens and she slams the point of her knife deep into the sand beside her.
"I wasn't going to volunteer until I was eighteen. This idiot girl got it into her head that she was going to volunteer, and she had backing to do it. No competition or anything. A clean sweep into the tribute slot and she would be here and I would be still working at home," she says bitterly.
"Let me guess; she didn't," I say. That's obvious; Aggie's sitting here, isn't she?
"Minerva backed out after I got reaped. So, she's sitting at home, while I'm here eating a muffin on a beach. Do you know what I'm going to do when I get home?"
"Tell us all, Agrippina," Dominicus says cheerfully. I get the idea that he's enjoying this.
Aggie looks up at the sky and says, louder than she needs to, "I'm going to go home and kill Minerva Lampright where she stands. And I won't feel a second of remorse for it."
"That's right; agitate the people at home," Dominicus says, stuffing the last of his muffin in his mouth.
"She should have volunteered like she said she was going to do," Aggie mutters. "I'm here too early."
It's funny, but I didn't realize that Aggie doesn't want to be here until now. She's District 2, I'm District 4, and everyone knows that we're the best prepared of the Districts. We were both volunteered in a way; me by my District, Aggie by Minerva not volunteering herself. Both of us are here earlier than we thought we would be. Just like Kelpie.
And Dominicus? He volunteered because he wanted to.
Aggie's trying to go home just as much as I am, and I feel bad for her because she won't. She'll never go home and kill this Minerva girl of hers, because I'm going home instead. Listening to Aggie talk about her reaping is interesting in itself, though; she's full of well-kept layers, and I'll never manage to peel them all away to see the true Agrippina Crass.
"Can we go now?" she asks, pulling her knife back up and out of the sand.
"Dominicus, you carry the new supplies," I say, grabbing onto my trident and pulling myself to my feet.
"Why me?" he asks annoyedly.
"Because you saw it first."
He rolls his eyes, but he does shove the canister with the last of the juice and muffins into his pack before slinging it back over his shoulder.
"So, we're going straight?" Aggie asks, standing up and shaking her hair out of her face. I run my fingers through my own hair; it's standing on end from not being combed for almost a week. There're worse things in the world.
"Straight," I agree. "See if we can find some tributes and some more water."
"You and your water," she mutters again, but I ignore her. I could argue, but I won't.
"Let's go," I say instead, and I start off, my two allies trailing along behind me.
The Gamemakers must be raising the temperature every day that we're here; today is the hottest day yet. Dominicus pulls out the sunscreen he's been hanging onto since we left the Cornucopia, just a half hour after we get going.
"Pass it around, 2," I say, holding my hand out for my share. I can feel the skin on the back of my neck starting to burn already, and I'd like to head it off before it gets any worse. We don't burn often in District 4, but then again, it's never this hot there.
"You should get your own," Dominicus tells me.
"Yeah, from where?"
"Just pass it over, Dommie," Aggie says. I'm getting the feeling that she's starting to grow less fond of her district partner. That's good and bad; they'll be easier to handle when the time comes if they're not a team, but at the same time, if we break up the alliance before we have to, nobody here will come out of it well.
I'm doing what Mags told me to do, and I'm going to use my allies to help me survive until the last minute. That's what any victor would do, isn't it?
Aggie smears the white sunscreen paste across her face and arms, before passing the bottle to me. "Thanks," I tell her, sticking the prongs of my trident into the sand so I can take the bottle and do the same as she is.
"You look like idiots," Dominicus says. His nasally voice is starting to really get on my nerves. I could handle Aggie alone better than having him tag along- but the alliance is the alliance, and I'm not going to break it early because of his voice.
"Takes one to know one, Dommie," Aggie says, grabbing the bottle from me and lobbing it at Dominicus's head.
"Have to try harder to kill me," he says, catching the sunblock easily.
"Don't worry, I will," Aggie tells him sweetly. "I'll give it my best shot sometime."
Something small and colorful flashes in the trees behind Aggie and Dominicus; it's so quick I almost miss it. "What was that?"
"What was what, Ocean Boy? You seeing things now?" Aggie asks with a sardonic edge to her voice.
"Just something in the trees." I pull my trident up, just in case I have to use it.
"Tribute or figment of your imagination?"
"Not a tribute. Too small."
"Maybe they started shrinking the others," Aggie says with a short laugh. "Anything's possible in here."
"There!" Dominicus says, pointing at one particularly bushy tree. "I saw it too."
"Not a figment of my imagination, Aggie," I say. She shrugs.
"Tiny tributes then," she says.
"Did you get hit in the head yesterday?" Dominicus asks her.
"Oh, shut up."
Dominicus reaches down and picks up a large white shell, turning it over and over in his hand. "What are you doing?" I ask.
"Knocking Aggie's tiny tribute out of the tree."
"Say that three times fast," she says, laughing.
I don't think that hitting whatever's in the tree is a good idea, but it would be more hassle to stop Dominicus from doing it than it is to just let him throw the shell.
"Hope your aim's better today than it was yesterday," Aggie continues.
"As I remember it, you missed him, not me," Dominicus says.
"Just throw the shell," I tell him; listening to them carry on is getting annoying. Dominicus shoots me a glance that tells me he hates taking my orders, but he doesn't say anything. With one swift movement, the shell's left his hand; it hits whatever's in the tree with a shriek.
"Well that sounded good," Aggie says sarcastically.
"Killed whatever it was," Dominicus answers.
"Sure about that?"
Aggie's right to ask; the trees fill up unnaturally quickly as small reddish creatures with long tails start to appear, all looking at us with too much interest.
"What the hell are those?" Dominicus asks. Aggie shrugs, but I recognize them, vaguely, from a Games I watched when I was very small.
"Monkeys," I say, not taking my eyes off of them. "They're monkeys."
"You have those in District 4?" Aggie asks. I shake my head.
"No, I remember them from a different Games."
"Well, were they friendly in those Games or do they want to eat us?"
"That many looking at us? I doubt they're friendly," Dominicus says.
"If you hadn't thrown stuff at them, maybe we wouldn't have this problem!" Aggie says, her voice raising.
"Shut up, both of you," I command, and both of them go unwillingly silent.
The monkeys take this silence as their cue. They all move as one, surging down out of the trees and onto the sand below, screeching with an ear-splitting wail.
"Mutts," I say, holding my trident even tighter.
"No shit, that's obvious," Aggie snaps. She's only holding one knife; I don't know where the others are. Dominicus has one as well; I know he and Aggie divided the knives they got at the Cornucopia. They better get the others out.
At the front of the pack, one monkey, larger and redder than the others, screeches; almost like a seagull but higher pitched and deadlier.
"What's he on about?" Dominicus asks, knife at the ready.
"Pretty sure that means attack in mutt," I say.
"Monkey-whisperer," Aggie mutters, just as the monkeys swarm towards us.
And we are clearly outnumbered.