Chapter 23:
Night One
Pascal Flores, 12, District Seven
He doesn't deserve to be here. He doesn't deserve to be in the arena in the first place, let alone surviving past the bloodbath when his ally didn't. He certainly doesn't deserve to receive a knife. Ally deserved the food she got, but Pascal? He doesn't deserve to have something to defend himself with now, not after he couldn't do anything to defend Betula.
They were just trying to get to him.
"Pascal," Ally calls to him as he keeps stomping ahead of her, sulking as he tries in vain to keep tears off of his cheeks. At least if he walks ahead of her, he can keep them hidden from her. But a hand on his shoulder pulls him to a stop. "Come on, Pascal, we should take a break for the night."
"We need to keep going," Pascal shakes his head at her before turning his face away before she can see his tears and get concerned. She's already too concerned for him, he doesn't need to make it worse. He really doesn't understand why she's that concerned…he doesn't deserve any of this… "We're almost to the building, come on."
"Five minutes, Pascal," Ally tells him, not letting up on her grip on his shoulder until he finally sighs loudly and agrees to sit down. She immediately gets their water bottle out of the bag and passes it over to him. As he quietly sips it, glaring out at the arena around him, he starts noticing the ache in his legs. He hasn't walked this much in so long…not in months since that time Elin decided they were all going to go for a hike.
Elin…
He sold them out. God, he was so quick to sell out their family for his own safety. It's like Luciano could have offered him a cornchip and he would have agreed immediately. But Vera was responsible for him being here…so why the hell is he feeling guilty about it right now?
"I want to keep moving," Pascal says as he hands her the water bottle. It's just easier to focus on moving forward, easier to keep being frustrated and angry at Vera for putting him in this situation. Easier than questioning if he will even make it out of here alive or if the Gamemakers will have some pity on him. He wants to believe what Luciano told him…but blind faith has let him down before.
"Alright, we can, but just a couple more minutes to rest, okay?" Ally asks and he glances over at her, hearing the slight waver in her voice as she tries to stay strong. But he can see the quivering of her bottom lip, the glossiness of her eyes, as she struggles to keep back her tears. She takes a deep breath when she notices him looking over at her and forces a smile on her face. "You know what? We can keep moving now."
"Yeah, okay, let's do-"
Pascal never gets to finish his statement as Ally lurches forward and starts coughing blood on him. He reaches out to grab her, seeing the knife in her back poof into thin air before blood starts pouring out of her. "No!" he shouts as he grabs her arms, trying to pull her up to move as he hears footsteps thundering towards them. Whoever threw that knife is heading their way, yet he can't bring himself to move. "Come on, we have to move!"
"Go," Ally coughs at him and tries to push him away from her. "Please, Pascal, don't die with me."
A knife flies past them, too close for comfort, and with tearstained eyes, Pascal finally gets his legs to start moving. Ally's grip on him slips as she shoves her bag at him as the careers get closer to them. "Win for us," Ally whispers before turning to face the three careers as Pascal runs away from them and towards the building.
Pascal uses his arms to brush the tears away from his eyes as he races towards the building, choking back a sob. He doesn't hear any screams from Ally and he glances back as the girl slits her throat.
Boom.
Pascal fights back a scream as he pushes his legs to move faster, yet fear threatens to freeze him up. How is he ever going to outrun careers? He's a scrawny twelve year old with just a knife. He's more likely to injure himself running with it than injure the actual careers. But he has to keep moving. He can't stop running, not after Ally just gave her life to give him a shot at staying alive.
Pascal's lungs are burning as he reaches the building and throws open the large black doors. He shuts them just as quickly and leans against them, catching his breath for a moment as he squeezes his eyes shut, forcing back the tears. But when he hears a slithering noise and air blowing on his face, he stops his quiet sobs as he slowly opens up his eyes, finding himself face to face with an all black dragon staring down at him with glowing yellow eyes. "Oh you have got to be kidding me."
The dragon pulls herself upright, her head leaning down to peer at him as she opens her mouth, revealing very large and very sharp looking teeth. Pascal is quivering in fear as she stares him down, pressed against the door and knowing he just pissed himself on live television. "Hello, Pascal Flores," the dragon whispered to him in a slithering voice, sending chills down his spine. "I am Naymia, the dragon of humility. Come with me."
Pascal could only blink at the dragon a few times in shock as she starts to move across the building, back towards what looks like an altar of sorts. Naymia glances back at him, coughing out a threatening little burst of fire that has him instantly moving to follow her. Is it incredibly dumb to be following a giant dragon mutt? Yeah. Is it dumber for him to not follow along with what the giant dragon mutt wants him to do? Absolutely.
Banging on the door has him glancing back over his shoulder, but the door stays shut as the careers yell, but he doesn't know how long that will last. Naymia seems unbothered by it as she wraps around the altar, her head resting next to the pedestal holding a gleaming crystal sword on it that somehow seems to be radiating light. "You are the first to arrive at my temple or any temple. Tell me, Pascal, will you take my weapon and be my champion with it?"
Pascal feels like he's balancing on the edge of a cliff, not trusting this one bit, yet feeling like this was some sort of test. Are Lisia and the Council testing his loyalty? Seeing if he really would listen to them or maybe they want to go back on their word and kill him? "What's the catch?" he finally asks as he takes a hesitant step onto the first stair leading up to the sword.
"Clever boy," Naymia tells him and in any other situation, that statement would have made him smile, but hard to be excited about things when there's literally a fire breathing dragon staring him down. Yet her voice sounds…trustworthy, which is dumb, why would a dragon mutt in the Hunger Games be trustworthy?! "If you asked my counterpart, he would give a false answer or not tell you anything. For you, there is no catch with this weapon. It will lose its strength with each strike, but it will not hurt you." Pascal walks up the last few stairs, drawn to the gleam of the sword as he studies the pedestal it's on, wondering if taking it will set off a trap. "And now…you must make your choice."
The doors slam open and Pascal immediately picks up the sword, swinging around to hold it in front of himself defensively. The three careers that killed Ally barge in, all holding knives in their hands as they stare him down. Various looks pass over their faces as they see him standing there holding a sword and with a dragon at his back. Kaz has a look of awe on his face and almost a hint of excitement, Marian has her eyebrows raised in shock, and Rodrick has that cold look in his eyes that reminds Pascal that he was the one who killed Betula. "Stay back!" Pascal yells at them, his voice cracking in fear as he has to use both hands to hold up the sword. "I'm warning you!"
To their credit, it does make them hesitate for a moment, but Pascal suspects it's more from the dragon moving behind him. He glances back over his shoulder, finding Naymia standing upright to her full height. "You two don't belong here!" she yells at the careers and let out a huge roar that makes Pascal crouch down in fear behind the pedestal. The three careers split up, racing in different directions, as Naymia opens her mouth and starts breathing fire across the temple as Marian and Rodrick duck behind pillars of stone. Kaz hides as well, slowly moving closer to Pascal, and it takes a moment for him to realize that he isn't getting targeted by the dragon.
As fire and smoke start to fill the temple, Pascal stays low to the ground, trying to use it as cover. But he cries out in pain as a knife lands in his leg, sending him toppling to the ground and the sword sliding away from him. "Shit," he says as he presses his hand to his bleeding thigh, trying to stop the blood pouring out of it. He starts dragging himself over to the wall, before having to stop and cough at the smoke filling his lungs. The fire is encroaching ever closer to him and Pascal gasps for air as he presses his face to the ground, desperately trying to breathe some clean air.
No…he can't die like this.
He can feel the fire starting to burn his feet and lets out a shriek of pain before all the smoke he breathed in makes everything turn black.
Marian Lilley, 18, District Two
When Marian first saw the dragon standing behind that scrawny kid from Seven, she was a mix of awe and fear. After all, the mutt was truly something she has never seen before in the Games and Lisia had outdone herself. And like…it's a dragon. How could anyone not think it was cool looking? If she was back in Two, she would have been so excited about the mutts.
But as soon as it started breathing fire, any awe slipped away and was replaced with pure survival instinct.
Now, Marian is pressed against a pillar, arm covering her mouth as she tries not to breath in the smoke, all while the dragon stomps around, fire crackling as it prepared to breath more fire at them. She doesn't know where her two allies are anymore or that kid, but she wants that damn sword he held. She knew there had to be better weapons out in the arena and damn it, she wants one!
"Marian! Rodrick!" Kaz calls out to them, just before a cannon fires.
Marian wonders for a moment who the cannon was for, hoping it was that boy and not one of her allies – well, maybe hoping a little bit – as she peers around the pillar, trying to see through the smoke. She catches a glimpse of Kaz running across the temple and the dragon sees him too, yet just lets him run right past it. What the fuck, why does he get to run freely while she gets fire blasted at her?! "The boy's dead!"
"Fuck it, I'm out of here," Marian mutters to herself, taking a deep breath – before starting to cough and realizing that was a bad idea – as she tries to prepare herself for running back to the front doors. Yet fear holds her in place, catching her off guard as it's not something she feels very often. "Lisia, if you let me get out of this building alive, I promise I will make sure you get the career drama you want," she says aloud, hoping the Head Gamemaker is listening to her. "Betrayal, deception, you name it."
"Marian!"
She glances around the pillar again, catching sight of the open doors where Kaz stands in front of it, holding that sword in his hand. Oh he is not getting away with finding that sword. Here goes nothing.
Marian darts over to the next pillar, glancing over her shoulder at the dragon as it swings its head towards her immediately, fixing her with that unsettling yellow gaze. She braces for the spray of fire, but it doesn't come, so she darts to the next pillar as the dragon snarls at her. It's working, holy shit it's working!
The dragon's gaze is pulled to the other side of the room and a spray of fire hits the wall as Rodrick cries out in pain. Marian ignores him as she sprints the last bit of distance towards the open door, where Kaz gets a look of relief at seeing her. He's so trusting…he is going to regret that sooner or later.
"Move it, assholes!" Rodrick yells at them as he pushes them aside, limping as he swats at his burning pant leg. The dragon lets out a huge roar behind them as they run down the front steps of the building before the doors slam shut behind them. He cries out in pain just before he stumbles to the ground, clutching his burned leg. He immediately tries to stand up right away, but Kaz motions for him to stay down. "I'm not staying anywhere close to that thing."
"But you're hurt," Kaz tells him, yet Rodrick ignores him as he stands up and keeps limping away from the building.
Marian keeps her mouth shut, mostly to avoid letting them in on how ecstatic she is that Rodrick got injured. "I'll treat it when we get back to camp," Rodrick spits out, scowl on his face as he stomps as much as he can with his limp back in the direction of the cornucopia.
"Let him," Marian tells Kaz, putting a hand on his shoulder to stop him from trying to make Rodrick stop. Instead, she nods at the sword he now holds, trying to hold back the intense jealousy in her that he has a seemingly good weapon now. "Fancy new sword you have there."
"It is," Kaz nods his head as he holds up the sword to look at it better. "I guess you were right about the buildings holding something important."
That comment puts her jealous thoughts on hold as a new thought enters her brain. She glances around at the arena, not really able to see the other buildings in the darkness, but she knows there's other buildings out there. And if all of them hold a weapon… "We need to go to the other buildings, then."
"Yeah I'll take a hard pass on that," Rodrick calls back over his shoulder at them, his limp becoming more prominent the farther they walk, yet Marian isn't going to offer to help him. Kaz might, but she's sure Rodrick will turn him down. "I will pass on getting burnt to a crisp or eaten alive by a dragon."
"Well you won't be going anywhere any time soon," Marian points out to him, making him give her a brief glare at her over his shoulder. She just gives him an innocent smile in return, making the scowl on his face deepen as he turns back to watch where he's going. "But personally, I want to see what's in those other buildings. If there's more weapons, that alone is enough to make me willing to face a dragon."
Marian's steps slow at the thought of the dragon, something about it not making sense to her. Why didn't the dragon attack that boy and Kaz, but try to attack her and Rodrick? What does a scrawny kid from Seven have in common with a career? She doesn't have the answer to that, and it nags her the entire time walk back to camp.
Rodrick stumbles a bit and Kaz quickly steps forward, putting his arm under Rodrick's shoulders to support him, despite the grumbling protest the boy from One gave him. "I'm fine!" Rodrick tries to tell him, but Kaz insists on helping him walk the rest of the way to their camp.
Marian watches them, pleased with the injury Rodrick has. If she were to fight him, all she needs to do is kick that leg and he'll be down. Now the only one that's really a threat to her in the career alliance is Tiv and Marian seems to have that girl wrapped around her finger. Kaz is way too trusting of her and the others and she has no doubt it will be his downfall. And Abel had no chance of winning against her in a fight, not with his legs. Again, she just needs to give a good kick to his legs and he'd be down for the count. And they had taken out two more tributes tonight, one by her own hands. Aside from nearly getting killed by a dragon, tonight wasn't too bad of a night, all things considered.
A smug smile slowly forms on her face as they continue to their camp and Marian is glad she has the cover of darkness to hide it from them. Who is going to oppose her victory now? The careers won't be a threat to her. Who does she have to fear from the others? That bitch boy from Eight? He might have volunteered, but he's no career. The only person Marian has to fear is Lisia Arune, who she just made a promise to that she has every intention of following through with.
She doesn't care if it means being deceitful to her allies. It's what she's done throughout her years in training, anything to make sure that she was the one who was chosen to volunteer when she was eighteen. There just wasn't any alternative for her, not if she was going to get out of that shitty household. And now…now there's no alternative for her aside from getting out of this arena alive and she'll keep doing what she's been doing, and more. Her allies are not her friends, they're her competition. She didn't come here to get attached to them and then have guilt when she gets forced to kill them. What kind of dumbass would do that? Marian is no dumbass. No. She's a winner.
The other careers have no idea what's coming for them. Deception and death.
Sissel Wetherburn, 17, District Ten
Sissel had taken first watch for several reasons – someone needs to keep watch at all times since they set up camp so close to the careers. And one of those reasons was getting tired of listening to Asha repeatedly apologizing to him about not doing more in the bloodbath. There was only so many times he could just give a non-committal shrug and say it was whatever as she kept beating herself up for it. He knows he's not one to talk about holding onto things – he'd like to see someone hold a grudge for longer than he does – but he doesn't actually talk about it.
But finally he has some sweet, quiet peace to himself as he sits on the broken roof of a building, staring in the direction of the cornucopia, as Asha sleeps in the building below him. She stirred at the two cannons, but when he told her to go back to sleep, she thankfully listened to him. He'll admit, he thought she would be more…at least do something in the bloodbath. Yet she had frozen up like prey locked in a falcon's sights, leaving him to do everything. But if there's one thing he is, it's patient from years of working with birds and gaining their trust. He knows what he saw from her in training. He just has to figure out a way to get her to release that side of her…
It would also be helpful if the Gamemakers would send him the thunderbird they promised him.
Sissel's eyes went up to the sky for a minute, knowing he won't be able to see the bird in the night time. No one ever saw Yune at night time until she had them in her grasp. But why haven't the Gamemakers given him a bird yet?!
A bell chimes twelve times, making him jump as Asha let out a little squeak of surprise at it. He shushes her quickly and can hear some rustling of stone, until her head is peeking up over the rooftop at him. "What was that?" she whispers to him, looking around nervously as she pulls herself up the rest of the way.
Sissel fights back a sigh at his peace getting interrupted and instead goes for giving her a shrug as she pulls her knees up to her chest as she sits beside him. He glances up at the large moon in the sky and points up, bringing her attention to it. "My guess is that it's midnight."
"But why would they want us to know that?" Asha asks him and he simply shrugs once more.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Sissel answers her. He doesn't know and he isn't going to waste his time speculating. Let someone else waste their energy doing that when they won't ever get a definitive answer.
"Hmm, I suppose," Asha says with a shrug. "It's just…noticeably different from the cannons so it shocked me. But…who do you think those cannons were for?" Again, something that he could speculate on all day and waste energy when the Gamemakers will tell them tomorrow at sunset. He shrugs again, yet Asha doesn't seem to pick up on him not wanting to keep up pointless conversation right now. "Hopefully a career…that would work out in our favor, huh?"
"It would," Sissel agrees with her, willing to give her that much. He underestimated how exhausting it can be keeping up with an alliance and the mundane conversations he has to participate in. Another reason he enjoys birds over people: birds don't try to keep talking to him and fail to pick up the hint. "Guess we'll find out tomorrow."
"True," Asha says before she finally seems to get the hint that he doesn't really want to keep talking and they fall into blissful silence as Sissel continues to scan the arena in front of them. They saw the careers head out earlier in the day, yet they hadn't returned yet. Surely they were responsible for the cannons – but Sissel wasn't going to bring that up to her.
"Look, Sissel…" Asha starts quietly, letting out a sigh before they fall into silence for a minute as she tries to figure out what to say to him. Sissel keeps his mouth shut, not about to encourage her. "I'm sorry about earlier…I promise I'm going to do more. Next time we run into a tribute, I…I'm gonna fight them."
"Shh," Sissel tells her as he catches a sound in the distance, something he has been waiting to hear all night. He holds up is finger to her, listening closely until he hears the surefire call of a thunderbird searching for him. He keeps a smile off his face at the Gamemakers finally giving him the bird as Asha watches him expectantly. "I thought I heard something but was wrong. But you know what, I have to go use the bathroom. Might be awhile, those beans are upsetting my stomach."
That wasn't true at all, but Sissel just needed an excuse for her to not follow after him or question him being gone for a bit. To her credit, she didn't make much of a face at him suggesting he had to take a big shit, instead nodding her head. "I'll keep watch. Make sure you take the knife with you."
"I will," Sissel says as he grabs the knife and bites down on the handle, freeing up his hands to climb down the broken rock. That would be a horrible way to die, getting killed while taking a shit. The climb down is easy for him, having climbed much smoother surfaces back in Ten while gathering up birds. He lands softly on his feet and grabs the knife in his hand once more as he slips out of the building and into the broken rubble.
Sissel is on edge as he quietly makes his way through the buildings, glancing back occasionally at their hideout to make sure Asha isn't following him for some reason. He gets a far enough distance away that he thinks she won't hear him, or just think he's a weirdo that whistles while he shits, before letting out a trill to summon the thunderbird.
He waits for a couple minutes, until he hears a scuffling of stone and turns around, holding his knife out in front of him defensively. He tries to stop his heart from racing, knowing that the thunderbird wouldn't walk to him on the ground and make noise like that. Which means a tribute is approaching him and he has to try and fight them off.
Come on, thunderbird, where are you?!
But it is not a tribute that steps out of the darkness of rubble. He hears the growl coming first before seeing the pair of glowing red eyes, just before the dog mutt leaps out towards him. Sissel lets out a small cry as he slashes at the mutt with his knife, just for it to disintegrate after slashing its side, but it doesn't stop it. The dog tackles him to the ground and Sissel puts up his arms to block his face and neck as it tears at his arms. He tries shoving it away, but the weight of it has him pinned down.
"Bastard," Sissel mutters as he tries to shove the mutt off of him before staring in surprise as he actually manages to push it away. But he soon realizes it was not him that did it.
Standing in front of him, in all its full glory, is a thunderbird, the dog mutt pinned under its sharp talons. The bird is massive, standing well above Sissel's height, as it fixes him with that intelligent sharp gaze, head slightly tilted to the side. Sissel finds himself mimicking its head tilt as he studies the facial markings, having seen pictures of a male thunderbird but not in person. He slowly approaches it, holding out his hand to keep it calm, pausing when it snapped its beak at him. He isn't afraid of him, knowing the Gamemakers – or rather, Theodosius – wants to see this bird in action and wouldn't kill him, but they had to put on a show. "Hey there," Sissel says quietly, and the bird tilted his head the other way. He steps ever closer as the dog continued to bark, only cut off into a whine as the bird squeezes his talons tighter.
Sissel gets close enough to reach the bird and stops for a moment, letting the bird very lightly nip his hand before letting out a little chitter and putting his head down lower for him to reach. Sissel gently rubs the spot on the top of his head, slowly smiling as the bird starts making noises of happiness at the scratches. "Hey there," he says softly, the bird's intelligent eyes studying him. "Let's call you…Katsu."
His victory.
No one is going to stop him now. Not when he has a thunderbird by his side. It doesn't matter that his arms are bleeding and he lost their one knife. He'd deal with those things later and come up with an excuse for Asha. For now…he glances down at the mutt still in Katsu's talons, the beast that tried to attack him. "Let's see what you can do," he whispers as he steps back before letting out a low whistle for a couple seconds, Katsu fixing him with a sharp look as he waits. When he sharply increases the pitch, a menacing grin spreads across his face as he points at the dog mutt, his thunderbird waiting for his command. "Kill it."
We are back in action, my dudes! First things first:
Eulogies:
17th - Ally Ishmael [10], killed by Marian [2]:
Going into the Games, I knew obviously that Ally was going to die simply from the fact that she was a non-featured tribute, but I always knew I wanted her death to be so that her ally could get away. She was a headstrong girl fighting for what she believed in, so I wanted her death to mean something. And she died happy knowing that Pascal was (seemingly) getting away from the careers. Unfortunately, sometimes deaths are in vain and the person they were trying to save didn't survive. But at least she died before knowing Pascal's fate. Thank you Fox for Ally! RIP Ally.
16th - Pascal Flores [7], killed by dragon mutt:
And so the first featured tribute has fallen - and first of mine. I always knew going into the Games, probably before even writing his intro, that Pascal wasn't meant to win. Between his history and family, and the fact that he's a scrawny twelve year old, the odds were never in his favor to win these Games. And so I knew his death had to be what introduced us to the dragon mutts. He might not have won, but how many tributes can say they got killed by a dragon? (We'll answer that question at the end of the Games lol) It's sad to let go of the first of my tributes, but it had to happen eventually. But he still has quite a part to play within my stories thanks to his connection to Elin and the rebels... RIP Pascal.
Well, I certainly didn't expect to be updating this today considering when I woke up I had nothing written for it so far. But I gave it a shot and at least tried to just start it, and here we are, one full chapter later XD What can I say, I got motivated by the mutts lol. And finally I get to reveal the mutts and what's in the buildings! Oh man that's something that's been planned since at least fall last year so it's exciting to finally be here. And also I wasn't planning on having the thunderbird in for another chapter or two, yet here we are so a big YOLO to that XD Worth it because Sissel meeting the bird was just so cute.
Looking ahead, not sure on the frequency of updates still. If you're following Renegades or have looked at my profile recently, you might know I've taken a little break from writing my stories the last month. I'm slowly getting back into it and now that I've gotten a taste of the Games excitement, I suspect I'll want to keep writing this story for sure. So that being said, if you wanna sponsor before the next chapter, I would do so soon.
I've fallen behind on housekeeping stuff like sponsor points and the blog, but I'm gonna get around to updating that today. So keep an eye out for those things!
RQ #23: What would you name your thunderbird if you got one in the arena?
Alrighty dudes, I'll see you...sometime soon with Day Two!
