Chapter 10

Realization

Beatrix sees the terrifying beast approach us and lets out an ear piercing screech. Normally I would have lectured her for letting everyone in the arena know where we were I am very close to screaming myself. I do what any logical person would have done I run away from that thing. But when I turn away I see that Beatrix is frozen with fear. I know I will definitely regret this decision later but I run over to Beatrix and grab her wrist. I pull her away just before the headless beast brings the axe down upon her forehead instead it clips her shoulder making a large stream of blood flow out of her shoulder. I hear a low voice whisper Beatrix Matilda O'Brien. We run as fast as we can away but it follows us on the massive horse that is much faster than us.

A thought suddenly occurs to me when we are desperately running for are lives. It seems to be able to see us but it has no eyes on its body. It must see trough the skull in his hand. I hear the beast approaching us and I waste no time. I run up to the beast making Beatrix scream for me to stop. The thing raises the axe but before he can hit me with it I knock the skull out of its hand and it lands on the ground, I lift my foot and kick the skull as far away as I can. The beast tries desperately to hit me but obviously misses because his head is in the middle of the forest. We both jump into a ditch.

Beatrix sobs beside me traumatized of what just happened a minuet ago. I tear a piece of the bottom of her top and then tie it around her wound to stop the constant flow of blood. She gives me a quiet thank you I nod trying to smile but it mustn't have been that convincing with tears brimming my own eyes. I turn around and look out of the ditch that we are hiding in to look at the beast which I am satisfied to see is still looking for its head in the forest. I am about to suggest to Beatrix that we run now when I suddenly realize something. I have definitely seen that thing before. And know I know what it is.

Dullahan

I remember reading about it somewhere. I look at Beatrix's arm and see a metal thing that was on her shoulder. I try and remember all of the things I have read about them.

"Trix listen to me get that thing of you." I say pointing to the piece of metal.

When a Dullahan stops riding the last person whose name they whispered will die.

I definitely heard it whisper Beatrix's name if she doesn't get that thing of she will most defiantly die when it stops riding. I try rack my brain for any weakness it might have.

Dullahans have one weakness: gold it terrifies them.

I look at Beatrix's bracelet and remember her telling me that it was made of gold. I take it of her wrist and run into the forest, I have to prevent that thing form moving.

"What?" Beatrix asks when I take of her bracelet.

"Trust me Trix." I say getting up from the ditch and running into the forest. I see it has got its skull back and is about to stop riding. Without a second thought I scream as loud as I can.

The thing charges for me.

Maybe I didn't think this trough? Maybe the game makers don't know as much about mythological creatures as I thought they would.

I hold the bracelet in front of me and close my eyes shut. I hear the sound of a distressed horse and then I hear galloping that slowly fades away.

I open my eyes a tiny bit and see that that thing is gone. I turn around to the ditch.

"Did you get that thing of?" I ask.

I see Beatrix emerge from the ditch shaking slightly.

"Yeah I did." She says walking slowly towards me. "How did you do that? What happened with the bracelet? Do you know what that was?"

I hand her the bracelet. "That was a Dullahan they where an originally and Irish mythological beast. They are also know as headless hunters they carry their head and It is said that they throw blood at people when they pass and that the last person whose name they whispered will die when they stop riding. We have a book in the library at home about mythological beasts that's where I learnt that They have one weakness and that is gold." I say that all in one breathe and I flop to the ground from exhaustion of running for half an hour straight and fighting that thing.

She opens her mouth to say something but is cut off by a loud screech. We think it is something else like a Dullahan but then another one comes. They are ten other screeches.

Me and Beatrix run up a tree and hide their.

"That thing at the start, do you know what that was" Beatrix says after two minutes of silence.

I think back to the woman in the box at the cornucopia. I think I have seen something like that in the book before.

A banshee.

I try think of everything I know about them.

Each family has a Banshee it is known to scream, wail or moan when a family member is going to die.

Maybe when a tribute dies the Banshee screams. That's smart.

"It's a Banshee." I say.

"No!" Beatrix says hiding her face in her hands. "Those things really scare me."

"And Dullahans don't." I ask.

"Yeah it did but we have always heard stories of the Banshees before at home and what if they let it out?" She says.

"I know and I wish I could tell you that they won't but they nearly definitely will." I say with a sigh.

After a few minutes of silence Beatrix speaks up.

"What if another Dullahan comes back, you don't have any gold." She says

"I guess tomorrow I will head back to the cornucopia, the game makers probably left some there." I say.

"Tomorrow?" She asks.

"That thing didn't look like it would hesitate to kill." I remark.

She nods and then sits up bolt right.

"What did you get in the cornucopia?"

The bread! I jump down from the tree and run back to the ditch where we had hid from the Dullahan. I jump into it and search around on my hands and knees. I am worried that I have lost it but am relieved to see that it had just slid under a bush. I take it out and wipe all of the dirt of it.

Beatrix runs over to see what I was doing.

"So I see you got bread." She says sitting beside me on the ground.

"Yeah." I say.

"Anything else?" She asks.

"Yeah a purifier and a flash light." I say taking them out of my pockets.

"Wow that's really good." She says shining the flashlight under her hand to test it out.

"What did you get?" I ask her.

"A piece of plastic and an empty water bottle." She says taking the plastic out from under her jacket and the bottle out from her big coat pocket.

"That's good." I say picking up the water bottle and sighing when I find out that it is bone dry.

We sit there for a few minutes before I suddenly realize something. I clasp my hands over my mouth to stop myself for squealing with delight.

"What is it?" Beatrix asks.

"We survived the bloodbath and survived a Dullahan, which most Irish people would tell you is pretty hard to do." I say.

"We did. We survived."She says looking delighted. "Can we take a quick break?"

"Yeah come on we have to climb a tree." I say getting up from the ditch.

"Climbing is not my idea of a break." Beatrix complains laying back further in the ditch.

"Unless you want to get attacked by a Dullahan." I say.

"Fair point." She says as I help pull her up.

"We have ten more minutes before we are moving further towards them mountains." I say.

"Okay." She sighs.

I begin to mount the same tree we were up before except this time with the bread under my arm. We reach a branch that both of us can sit comfortably on.

"The flashlight will be useful for night I guess." Beatrix says.

"I wouldn't use it because people would be able to find us." I say grinning at the flash light.

"If it's useless then why do you look so happy?" She says surviving my face. "Do you have a plan?" She asks playfully poking my side.

"Well just they are a battery and wires and they can come in useful." I say grinning slyly.

"Okay Faye I am going to leave the smart stuff us to you." Beatrix says with a shrug.

I remember the capital are watching and that I want to make them excieted for what will come next.

"Well Trix I have a very fun surprise coming up." I say grinning slightly.

"I am going to clime the tree higher so I can look for water or something." I say getting up after a few minutes.

"Okay Faye." Beatrix says playing with the plastic she got from the cornucopia.

I clime the tree up higher and higher. Before the games I was very good at climbing and after one week at the capital training center I perfected it.

I was so high up that a normal girl would break the tree but I was quiet short and skinny. I look around I can mainly just see the tops of trees I try and see if I can see any water. I think I can see a small pond a good bit away from us. I take a mental note of where it is. Maybe we should stay here for another few nights. If they are water nearby. I shimmy around to the other side of the tree so I look at the mountains; they still seem to be very far away. I am very surprised that I could see them from the cornucopia they look so far away.

I scout out the area for other tributes. I can't see any. I am not surprised with eleven dead and approximately seven careers they won't be anyone near us for a while and this is a very big arena.

I climb back down the tree being careful not to fall. When I reach the part with Beatrix is I slide in beside her.

"How did you go up that far?" She asks.

"It's not that high when you're up there." I say.

"Okay what did you see?" She asks.

"They are no tributes near us, the mountains are still pretty far away but I think I saw a small pond near us." I say.

"Great we will go there." She says.

I nod and we both jump down and I guide her to the direction where I say the pond.

"Are we going on to the mountains or staying here?" Beatrix asks on the way there.

"Maybe we should stay here because more tributes might come here because of the water." I say.

"Why do you want to run into other tributes?" Beatrix asks.

"I don't want to run into them I want to steal from them." I say.

"I forgot that's one of the things you do." She says.

"hey that's the main thing I do." I say.

She seems to be about to say something else then she sees the pond, she squeals in delight and then we both run to it. She fills up the water bottle and I put the purifier in it.

"When can we drink it?" She asks.

"Tomorrow." I say.

"It takes that long to purify?" She says looking confused.

"No you idiot we don't need water until tomorrow." I say.

"Can we eat?" Beatrix asks.

"Definitely not." I say. "If you where on your own Trix you would have all your food gone in a hour." I roll my eyes.

"I would." She admits.

We clime another tree and wait up their discussing tactics and family. After a few minutes we search for ruths and berries which I will only put near my lips if we don't take at least take half an hour to inspect. After a few hours the anthem starts and we clime another tree ten minutes away from the pond.

The boy from district three, no surprise there I say Evan kill him. His name was Alexander. Both tributes from six. Dylan and Zany. The male tribute from seven. Robert. The male tribute from eight Casey. Both tributes from nine. Addison and Shawn. The girl from ten, Nina. The male tribute from eleven. Sheamus. Both tributes from twelve. Haily and Gordon. It might ne weird that I know all of their names but that is because of how much it affected me when the tributes from twelve forgot my sisters name.

It scares me to think of all of their families that will feel the same way mine did when Finch died. I silently hope that their families won't be as traumatized as I where.

Someday the capital will pay for what they put me and all of their families trough.