As Sylvia's head emerged into the arena, she could've given a shout of joy.
This arena was perfect!
Surrounding the clearing where the cornucopia sat was a large expanse of trees covered in red and gold leaves. The entire ground, she could see, was also covered in leaves. In the far distance, she could make out some sort of rocky feature that encircled them.
The sky above them was completely overcast. There were no other colours to be seen apart from this glorious rainbow of red, gold, orange and brown.
Well, apart from the tribute uniforms.
To Sylvia's left was the bottle-green jacket of the boy from Nine, and to her right was the coal-black jacket of the girl from Twelve. And all the way on the other side of the semi-circle they all stood in, she could see Markus next to one of his allies, Daisy from Eleven.
The countdown displayed above the cornucopia had reached "thirty seconds" and most other tributes had their game faces on.
Sylvia spied a black backpack nestled in the leaves a few metres from her pedestal that she thought might be useful. She'll need supplies out there. Yes, her mission was important but this moment, as well as the following moments, were more important. If she survived the next ten or so minutes, then she would be home free.
As the countdown announced the number "twenty", Sylvia felt her nerves constrict even further. For the past week, she'd been so focused on doing the Fire Spirit's work that she'd mostly neglected to think about the Games themselves, and what would happen if she found herself on the wrong end of a sword.
But there was no time to ponder them now. She at least knew to play extremely safely for the next few minutes, then she'll just have to work her way from there. At least the arena plays to her strengths, so she wouldn't be too lost on what to do.
Ten seconds to go, then it was showtime.
Sylvia got into a running stance, ready to dash over there, swoop up that backpack, then get the hell out of dodge.
Just a few more seconds to go…
And then the Sixty-First Hunger Games had begun.
Sylvia leaped off her pedestal, feeling the crisp leaves crunch deliciously under her thick boots. She wasted no time in running over to the backpack and closing her fist around one of the straps.
As she made to run away, she felt a tug on the backpack. She turned to see that the girl from Twelve had had the same idea as her, and wasn't going to give it up easily.
Sylvia gave a mighty tug on the pack, but the girl dug in her heels and pulled back. Sylvia, already fed up with this girl, lashed out a foot and kicked her in the shin. The girl slid to the ground with a gasp, and Sylvia took the opportunity to wrench the pack from her grasp, then she turned away and sprinted in the opposite direction, sidestepping Gaius from Two as he tried to skewer the boy from Six on his spear.
Gaius was too preoccupied with what he was doing to give chase, however.
Sylvia did not stop for anything else, and when she finally cleared the treeline without being followed, she knew that victory was already in reach.
By the time nightfall arrived, Sylvia, having put sufficient distance between her and her opponents, was already building the first giant pile of leaves. She worked quickly, gathering up leaves and branches and adding them to the pile. She built it up at the base of a tree, the trunk slowly becoming encased in leaves.
Progress was good so far; she was just hoping that no one would mess with her piles until she was ready to use them.
She took a break from her gathering and leaned against the trunk of another tree. Through a gap in the leaves above, the seal of the Capitol shone in the sky as the anthem began to blare.
The total number of bloodbath victims was eight, along with one more death a few hours later. She hadn't paid enough attention during the bloodbath to see who was fighting who, and she hadn't seen another tribute since the bloodbath, so she looked up to see whose faces would be in the sky.
The girl from Three, both from Six, then Marcus, both from Nine, Daisy, and both from Twelve. Sylvia watched their faces shine, one by one, until they disappeared and the sky grew dark and quiet again.
Sylvia did, actually, feel a little sorry that Markus had died. Even though she never really knew him, even though he avoided her like the plague, he still seemed like a nice kid.
After a brief moment of silence, she resumed what she was doing.