Author's Note

I do not own the Hunger Games.


She managed to kill two squirrels in the evening, which gave them something to eat, even if it wasn't much, and they picked the carcasses clean.

None of them wanted to leave or waste anything.

They didn't know when they would get more food.

Luciente stuffed a leg in her pocket.

If any of them noticed, none of them said anything.

She requested the morning watch this time, the last one. Nathaniel had third, Bunny second and Heaven first.

They would probably have to move on from this place soon.

They might get another day, maybe two if they were lucky, but then the audience would start to get bored of watching them amicably hanging out together.

She had her suspicions about why Bunny had been sent that dagger.

She slid out of bed as Nathaniel took over, touched his shoulder. "Take my watch if I'm not back. I'll take yours tomorrow."

"Well where are you going?" he whispered back, which was a fair question.

"I need to check on something."

"Then I'll come with you! You shouldn't go alone."

She flashed him her teeth. "I can take care of myself. Stay with them; I'll be back soon."

Nathaniel sighed. "If you're not back by dawn I'm coming looking for you."

So headstrong.

It occurred to her as she slipped from the cabin, that she was letting him out of her sight.

And more than that, she was letting him out of her sight and leaving him with Bunny and Heaven.

She trusted him with them, she realised.

She'd read them without meaning to, decided they were trustable, and left her most precious possession with them.

Well, she hoped they appreciated it.


She prowled down to where she'd seen Bethany during the day, absent-mindedly rubbing her fingers over the material of her sleeve.

She didn't appear again, but then Luciente hadn't really been expecting her to.

Instead she took a right when she reached the stream and began to follow the way she had earlier pointed. She found her way in the dark, feeling through the trees, relying on her hands and feet and sense of knowing as much as her eyes.

At last the trees began to thin again, giving way to a strip of land only maybe six feet long before it dropped away into a steep cliff.

The air smelt of salt.

She knelt on all fours to peer over the cliff at the white topped waves as they crashed below.

The sea.

There was no freedom to be found there.

She backed up, and caught the by now familiar shimmer of yellow as Bethany appeared by the trees.

"Hi," Luciente said.

Bethany's mouth moved slightly. Luciente's heart twisted a little. Sweet. She still thought she could speak, as though she had anyone or anything to speak with.

"It's Bethany, right?"

She nodded, almost shyly.

Luciente pulled the squirrel leg from her pocket and held it out. "I brought you an offering."

The girl reached for it with waspish, silvery hands. Luciente pressed it into the silvery mist and watched as it dissolved. Of course, most preferred flowers or pretty baubles, but she didn't exactly have a multitude of those to hand right now.

"What is it you were trying to show me?"

Bethany pointed out to sea again.

"There's nothing there for me."

Bethany pointed again, more insistent this time. Luciente peered back over the edge. There was a sliver of beach that might be larger when – if – the tide went out.

"You think there's something down there?"

Bethany nodded.

"Something from the Gamemakers?"

Bethany hesitated.

Oh, now that was interesting.

Almost everything in any arena came from the Gamemakers. Occassionally there would be some natural phenomenom they couldn't control, but for the most of it, even the air was controlled by the Gamemakers.

The world was as they carved it.

For Bethany to hesitate…

This thing had to have been overlooked.

Or old.

"I'll come back in the morning, when it's light."

And when she had Nathaniel with her. She might need help with whatever this thing was.

She found her way back to the stream, following it back the way she came. Finding her footing in the dark she followed her sense of where Nathaniel was to return to the cabin, padding back to where he was waiting in the doorway.

"Told you I'd be back soon. I'll take the last watch."

He climbed to his feet. "Where'd you go?"

Luciente smiled. "To the sea. How would you like to go treasure hunting?"