Mouse Parentii, D10

Smaller is harder to see. Some Tributes are so small you can't see them at all. Especially in a dark, gloomy Arena with dark, crunchy grass. And especially if they smear themselves all over with soot and only crawl through the grass at night.

I was already a thief. It was sort of my nature. There were so few things in the world for people like me, and it was impossibly tempting to see people who had so much more. I saw them walking past with fat wallets and some combination of nature and nurture took over. I knew pickpocketing was just the only option for people like me, but there was something in my mind that made me think I would have done it anyway. My fingers started to itch and my eyes just focused in on that wad of bills. I couldn't get rid of the jitters until I went away with a little more than I went out with.

There was nothing to feel about about if I was stealing from Careers. They didn't earn the food, and we all needed it to live. I felt more thrilled than guilty as I sidled through the grass, right up behind the Career on watch. I crept around the neck of the Cornucopia and swiped a dark brown can. It was the least flashy thing within reach, so it wouldn't betray me as I crawled back away on my stomach and elbows. Usually the cans were packed in water, so I took care of eating and drinking. Once the sun was up- as much as it got up in this Arena- I smeared myself with another coat of soot and curled up in the tiny divot under a fallen tree.

The next night, I started my trip back to the Cornucopia. As I was low-crawling, I heard voices. One voice wasn't out of the ordinary. Sometimes the Career on guard talked to himself or did little things to keep awake. But two- or three- voices meant they were all up. If they were all up, there was no way I was going any closer. I didn't even want to risk crawling away. Especially not when they were the only ones left with me and I was all of their biggest targets. I pressed myself up against the tail of the Cornucopia and listened.

"There's only one left. If we split up, we'll find him faster," a boy said.

"And it will be easier for you to follow and kill us as soon as we do," a girl said.

It never got farther than that. I heard metal scrape against something, and then a scream. I heard the fight play out, wondering what the noises attached to and knowing it couldn't be as bad as what I was imagining. There was one cannon, and I waited, still as death, for another. The next sound I heard was a thin whimper.

"Daddy," a girl's voice came. There was only one person it could be, but it didn't make any sense. Eltara would never sound so small. She sounded smaller than me. Against my better judgement, I crawled closer.

It must have been Nero's cannon. He was lying facedown beside the Careers' lantern, which had tipped sideways against the ground. The other boy- Torchy, it must have been- looked almost as dead, but I could see the shadows shift on his face as he breathed. Only Eltara was still stirring.

"Let me go home," Eltara said, not really looking at anything. "I'm going to die."

We were all the same underneath. One and Two thought they beat the Games by making volunteers ready for them, but they only made children who hid their fear until the last minute. It was there all along, or else she was just now finding out what she'd been running from.

She was going to die. I saw the slash all down her chest. It glistened when she breathed, and blood trickled down off the side of her throat. She was lying on her back, and she wasn't even trying to hold the wound together. Torchy's cannon sounded, and Eltara's leg jerked. Morbid curiosity drew me closer, until she saw me. She reached out her hand, and it was pale in the dim light.

"Please," she said, and I understood she wanted me to come closer. I sat on my knees beside her, and for the first time, I looked down at her.

"Please get help. Tell them I'm hurt. Please go fast," she said, and she gripped my hand.

"Okay. I will," I said, because there was literally nothing else on Earth I could have said. Eltara tugged on my hand, and then her grip went lax.

"Daddy," she said again.

Eltara must have seen it many times before, but I never could have anticipated what it looked like to see a life drain out. Her eyes had shone with pain and fear, and all at once, they didn't. That was even worse. I glanced up at the air above her, sure I would see the spirit going up... maybe I looked the wrong way. Some piece of my soul must have left with hers, because I never felt the same after that.