Rae slept fine last night, but today she has a gut feeling of… of… uncertainty. She can't describe it, but she has a bad feeling this arena won't be in her favor. She has no proof. This is all just a bad feeling, which she tries to shove away, but if the feeling is this bad, then she may as well anticipate it. It's the best she can do to prepare.
After breakfast, tributes are led to an underground laboratory. The laboratory has enough individual rooms to fit every tribute, and so Rae has a room of her own, in which she is told to change to the arena uniform – a plain black thermal spandex tightsuit. When she is ready, the lab assistant tells her to wait, but she can prepare by lying down on the water bed. A bunch of nodes are attached to her body, and then she waits.
Rae waits until the lab assistant is given the signal to put her in.
"Good luck," he says.
With that, Rae's consciousness exits the physical realm and drifts into a dream.
The next thing she knows is that she doesn't wake up. Instead, she magically appears inside a box with no walls. The four sides of the box have a diagonal bar each, and the inside of the box is a smaller box, with a diagonal bar also attached to each of its corners, sprouting out to the inner corners of the bigger box.
"Tributes, welcome to the 19th Annual Hunger Games!" says the voice of an announcer. "As you may notice, each of you is tied inside a box."
At that moment, Rae notices that she is indeed harnessed to a rope, and the rope goes all around the box.
"Dammit," Rae mutters. She remembers the rope around the obstacle course from training. Maybe she should've attempted it again, but who knew?
"When you are given the go signal, you must maneuver yourselves through the rope tied around your box. You have to go over, under, inside, outside, all around several times to reach the end of the ropes course. When you do, you must untie the knot to leave your box. The sooner you exit, the sooner you'll be safe and out of the bloodbath."
The countdown starts at 90, and Rae looks around her environment. It's pretty dark around her, being surrounded by green trees planted on red soil. It looks like the sun is about to set, but that is hard to tell when there is a massive ceiling above them. It feels like they are in a forest in a cave, but perhaps there is more to this arena that she has not yet seen.
She looks around her. This box feels restricting, and it lowkey triggers her claustrophobia. Thankfully, the box is like a wireframe rather than a solid box trapping her inside. Still, she doesn't know what she's gonna do, or if she will even make it past the box before somebody goes after her. There's nothing she can do now but make do of the situation.
Different supplies are scattered around the floor. Navi has told her about the scarcity of food in most arenas. She would think about grabbing supplies as quickly as she can, but her main concern right now is the rope around the box. Also, the key to winning this game is to kill, not to hoard as much food as she can. In that case, she would need a weapon, as it would be difficult to win without one. She eyes roam around for a weapon she can easily grab then use, but now is not the time to think about that.
Now is when the countdown ends, so she starts scrambling around her box just like everybody else. This bloodbath twist is not meant for Rae, and she knows it. She's gonna do her best to climb up the box, then find another way in and out of the box, until she reaches the end of the frigging rope.
The sooner she can get out of this box, the sooner Rae can work on other strategies she and Navi had discussed on training nights. This box and all this rope is not doing her any favors. She's just trying to get to the end of this before she gets slaughtered unfairly.
As she's untangling herself from the side of the box, she trips in panic. At the same time, she can see her district partner doing something nearby.
"HEY HEY HEY! You can't do that! That's bullshit!" says the boy from Ten.
"You're bullshit!" responds her district partner.
Rae climbs up the box, trying not to get distracted with the events around her. As she's struggling her way out, she makes eye contact with her district partner, who is on his way out with his two young allies.
"Need help?" Angela asks from behind.
"Yes please." While Rae would like to maintain her pride in not needing the help of others, she would rather not die for failing to get out of a silly twist that wraps her into a box like a winter holiday present.
"You're almost out. Just gotta go in here and out right here."
Rae follows Angela's lead, and then Rae can see the finish line with just one more turn at the box's diagonal. She unties her rope as quickly as she can.
"I'll help Rubie." Angela continues, "Go get us some stuff before someone guards them."
Rae nods quickly. She grabs as many packs as she can, while seeing from her peripheral vision the boy from Five getting killed by the girl from Five. She can also hear the girl from eight screaming as the boy from Four stabs her repeatedly with his sword.
Some of the items in the area are tied. There are items inside the horn of the cornucopia, but she knows getting out of it would be a challenge. She would risk it if it is not a matter of life and death.
n second thought, she runs into it. She finds three packs wrapped with a net, and she is able to untie two of them before someone pulls her out of the horn.
"G-Gotcha!"
Rae quickly punches the boy from Zero in the face, making a mad dash out of the risky situation she just put herself into. She can see her allies waiting by the side.
"What took you so long?" Rubie asks in panic.
"I found us something good." Rae holds up the five packs she was able to snag out of the cornucopia.
Her two allies run ahead, and the last thing she sees is the boy from Ten screaming as he was slashed left and right inside his box, courtesy of the boy from Four.
If there's anything Rae is glad about, it's that she's not in the shoes of the boy from Ten. She saw him causing a ruckus with Flash at the banquet, and now he's dead because Flash got the upper hand and put him at a disadvantage.
Five cannons fire, signifying the end of the bloodbath.
"Where should we go?" Rubie asks.
"We should try to find our way out of the woods," Rae answers assertively. "Like previous arenas, I have a feeling there is more to this arena than just trees."
Silently, her two allies agree. With that, the triad sticks to one direction on their way out of the woods. Before they even make it out, the anthem plays and five faces appear in the sky. They belong to the girl from the Capitol, the boy from Five, the boy from Six, the girl from Eight, and the boy from Ten.
"Let's keep going. Night time came too fast," Rae suggests.
"It did," Angela says. "We didn't even have lunch."
"Oh honey, we won't be having lunch sometimes in the Hunger Games. We have to save our resources for when we go far," Rubie responds.
"You're not wrong, Loganberry," replies Angela.
Finally, they have reached where land meets sea.
"I see an island!" Rubie points out. Even though it is dark, the island is easy to see due to its glowing pink aura.
"What, we're gonna swim?" Angela asks.
"Hell no!" Rae argues. "That's too far even for you to swim, fish girl."
"No no, I agree. That's way too far even for me." Angela waves both hands to gesture no. "Either the water is shallow, or-"
Rubie jumps into the water, which catches Rae and Angela off guard.
Rubie reports, "It's too deep."
Angela looks back to Rae, then back to Rubie, then she continues, "As I was saying, either the water is shallow, or there's probably a raft or boat nearby."
"We can build a raft," says Rubie as she lifts herself out of the water and onto the rocky blue coast.
"I'd rather find a boat," Rae inputs. "I believe the gamemakers provided us a couple to allow us to explore not just that island, but also that one." Rae points to an island closer than the one glowing in pink. It is too dark to see clearly because of the night sky, but even Rubie and Angela can see the figure of an island from a distance.
"So this arena is full of islands…" Rubie thinks aloud.
Rae rolls her eyes at her luck. She really hopes she doesn't have to swim, but if push comes to shove, she knows she will have to. "I'm gonna look for a boat. Y'all can build one if you'd like."
She doesn't hear a response from her allies, but it doesn't take her too long to see the silhouette of a boat. She drags it to where she came from, albeit struggling to do so with her size. She ends up pushing it, which causes some noise that hopefully the other tributes don't hear. When she gets back, lo and behold, her allies have already cut down a few long pieces of wood.
"Well…" Rae observes.
"I like this…" Rubie says. "But I like your idea better, Rae."
With that, the three of them hop on the boat, not too literally, but Angela volunteers to row the boat first.
"We're headed to the pink island!" Rubie announces, pretending to be the ship captain.
On their way to the island, two cannons fire. As they approach the pink island, the water becomes more shallow, and the boat becomes a bit harder to row.
"Do you think we should just walk?" Rubie gets off the boat before her allies answer her.
"I'd rather not get wet," shares Rae.
Angela gets off the boat and starts to push it. "Don't worry about it, Rae."
Wow! Rae doesn't even have to demand someone to do it. Angela volunteers to push the boat while she's on it, and that… is how the queen stays queen.
Eventually, the water becomes too shallow that Rae has no choice but to dip her feet on the wet part of the beach. This makes her shoes wet, and it feels disgusting. Her allies are ahead of her on the pink beach. Rae can see a forest trail going up, and then two cliffs facing opposite directions. She also sees a big board.
"What does it say?" Rae asks.
Rubie reads, "Welcome to Lunatide Island. When you climb either end of this crescent-shaped island, I will tell you more information about the Trial of Tide. In the meantime, search for a lunar relic." Rubie pauses to examine the picture of the relic on the signboard. "The first tribute to complete this trial will be rewarded with a special prize. Everyone else will receive consolation prizes. To the moon and back! -Lunatide Kitsune"
"Wait, that's dope!" Angela comments.
"I know!" Rubie jumps up and down in excitement. "Where do we find the relic though?"
"I think it's just somewhere on the island," Angela says.
Rae finally reaches them. She takes a careful look at the drawing of the relic on the signboard. "I haven't seen that thing."
"I haven't either," says Angela.
Rubie makes her way through the glowing lavender forest. "I'm gonna go to the peak for more instructions."
"Me too!" Angela follows.
"Wait for me!" Rae catches up with them.
By the time all three of them reach the peak, they meet a… child? No, she tries to look like a child, but as she stops holding her breath, she transforms into her true form, one that looks like a fox.
"Hello and welcome to Lunatide Island! I believe you are all here to hear further instructions for the Trial of Tide."
"Yes!" the three of them say, almost in unison.
"Okay, here is how it works. On the seventh night of the arena, you have to bring with you a lunar relic. There's a lot of them on the beach, but they are easier to find when the tide is low. Also, only one of you can complete the trial, and to do that, you have to stand on this pedestal… bare, while holding up the relic. The full moon will rise every seven days in this arena, and that's the only time you will receive a super special item, gifted to you by the moon."
"So we have to wait for five more days?" Rae asks.
"Yes."
Rae knows she is not patient enough to wait for this reward.
"In the meantime, you can find food around the island. Be careful, some of these vials give you crazy effects even though they can fill your hunger, minimally."
"How do we know what the effects are?" Rubie asks.
"It's hidden at the bottom of the bottle." From a standing position, the kitsune relaxes a bit and sits.
"Well, do you want to wait for it?" Angela asks.
"Yes," answers Rubie.
"No," answers Rae.
"Oh…" Angela takes time to make a decision. "I vote yes too."
"What? So we're just gonna wait here?" Rae says.
"I think it should be very rewarding for it to take time to win," shares Rubie.
Rae sighs, then decides to stay on the island for the day. She and her allies haven't slept, and so they decide to take turns keeping watch.
They all agree to have Rae take the last shift, since she still feels disappointed about not leaving the island to wait for the tides to go down. Rae doesn't want to wait, but maybe… she doesn't really have to.
