Royal Spinel
Valencia thought she had me wrapped around her little finger. For a while she was sort of right. I didn't consider her a threat, so I humored her in some small ways as we went through the Arena. I could have killed her whenever I wanted, but I didn't have to. I didn't have to until she tried to cut my throat in the middle of the night. Then I did what I could have done all along. She had a nice pair, but not nice enough to die for.
Something changed after I killed Valencia. As I saw her bleeding out silently, I realized I needed to get my butt in gear. I'd been lagging behind and not doing much ever since the Bloodbath. I'd been happy to make time with Valencia and let the weaker ones die out. There wouldn't always be weaker ones. And when it was just the Careers left, I'd have been the weakest Career. Not anymore.
Valencia had had a good idea. She just couldn't pull it off. I finished what she started and killed Thompson right there. I would have killed Venus, but honestly, I was scared of her. Instead I took a bunch of supplies, threw a bunch into the muck, and took off.
I got lucky with Venus. I saw her face in the sky a few days later. She must have gotten attacked by that gigantic crocodile monster I saw once when I was far up in a tree. He probably wasn't around anymore either. She'd already taken out Peppermint and Apollo for me, so the toughest opponent I had left was Dane. He wasn't as tough as I thought.
It took a long time to find all the others. I had to look through muddy holes and climb through more branches than I ever thought possible. After a while, I found it was easier just to stay on the ground and throw spears. I was no tree climber.
Jean gave me some trouble before he died. I was lucky Valencia's sponsors had already sent an obscene amout of money. Azure used it to send me medicine that kept me from getting some horrible infection from the filthy Arena. I was better in no time, and I was back to killing Tributes.
The last one I found was Astra, the girl from Six. I knew it wouldn't be hard, but it was even easier than I thought. She didn't run when I found her. She was slogging through the mud with her legs dragging behind her when I saw her. She saw me coming, but not before I smelled her. She smelled like she was already dead. I thought she must have an infected wound, but it was her feet. They looked like pale sponges. They stuck out of her shredded shoes and I could see the missing toes and peeling skin. She couldn't even stand, let along fight. It was easy for me to win once I got my head in the game.