Kestrel had almost nothing to work with since I didn't even get his original form so it was pretty hard to put something together.
Kestrel Hood, District Two male (18)
The Hunger Games were the only place where people could really live. Everyone always wanted to say that everyone had value, that anyone could make it big. The world didn't work that way. There were strong people. There were weak people. Life wouldn't slow down to wait for you and the only way to get ahead was to take what you wanted. There were people who could do that and people who couldn't. The people who could won the Games. The people who couldn't died.
Most people would never know the intoxicating thrill of the Bloodbath. After years of training, to finally see all of those victims in front of you. Years spent firing arrows at targets and swinging swords at mannequins who bled nothing but stuffing. Finally I was where I'd been training all my life to be. This time when I swung my sword it wasn't stuffing that flew through the air. In a moment a girl lay dead at my feet. One less person between me and winning the Games. In another moment a boy lay next to her. Just like that, I'd killed two people. For someone like me it was easy.
The forest Arena gave a primal air to our hunting. I was like a wolf stalking between the trees looking for something to attack. Once I caught wind of a Tribute I ran after them and kept running until they couldn't go any farther. It wasn't my fault I was faster.
The Career breakup was probably my least favorite part of the Games, to be honest. With the other Tributes it was just a hunt but with the Careers I had to fight. Truth be told, I didn't like fighting if there was a chance I would lose. That was the whole reason I did all that training in the first place: so I could always win. So I'll admit I was a little more cunning and a little less honorable and- well, I stabbed Mako in the back. Really no way to say that in a nice way. But I was still alive at the end of the day and he wasn't so I'll take what I can get.
In the end it wasn't the other Careers that came closest to killing me. It was the infection in the slash Opal gave me before Mako killed her. Over the next few days it grew redder and angrier until I could hardly raise my left arm without pain. I kept dabbing it with water and smearing on the antiseptic we'd gotten at the Cornucopia and that kept it down long enough for me to find and kill all but one of the remaining Tributes. If the last boy knew I was wounded he might be able to wait me out by simply hiding. Of course he'd probably been hiding from the start anyway.
It was kind of a letdown, really. Things might have lasted another week if the Gamemakers hadn't called a mandatory feast. There wasn't even anything at the Cornucopia when I got there- funny, though, how the feast was announced when I was right in that area. Almost like they wanted me to get there first. Outliers had won the last few Games and I guess the Gamemakers were getting nervous about something that could be interpreted as defiance. They wanted a Career Victor this time and I was the last one left.
The boy from Seven was a smart kid. He had to be to have lasted this long. But smart can't do everything on its own. The Games are about killing, not homework. Once he got to the Cornucopia the ending was set in stone. He ran a long, long way before I caught him. Not long enough.