Chapter Twenty-Six, Unexpected Reasons

Harbor Pearl, who had killed his first tribute a few hours ago, sat down on a rock beside his ally. He had teamed up with Zinque Chart from District 11 during the very first days of training as they both had vowed to kill the Careers from 1 and 2 in order to show off in front of the Capitol viewers. Actually, for Harbor, showing off was not the only reason motivating his desire to get rid of the Careers; Caskar had mocked him when he had tried to ally with him and he had refused to have the District 4 boy in his alliance.

However, as it turned out, Harbor seemed to be better off without the Careers. Both he and Zinque had established that they would not try to go after trouble, but if they could find it, they would take their chances, just like Harbor had done with the girl from 2.

The young Crelin had not been that hard to take down. Her movements had been slow and uncoordinated, as if she had been a puppet in the hands of a child. During their "fight" Harbor even wondered about the ways in which the Careers from 2 were trained…

"So, what do you think of my fish?" Harbor asked his ally to fill up the silence. The District 4 boy had been pleased to go fishing when he had received a beautiful cane from a sponsor.

"Pretty good for an arena meal," replied Zinque through a mouthful of the fish in question.

"Told you," grinned Harbor, taking a bite of his own food. "Do you have any idea as to who's left?" he wondered after a few minutes.

"Well, there's us, that's for sure."

Harbor gave the District 11 boy a look. "Seriously, that's all you came up with?"

"Who cares anyway? There are eight of us left and we were fifteen at the beginning of the day. We've only met up with Crelin today, so the possibilities are huge."

Harbor shrugged. "I guess." He really hoped that one of the cannons had been shot for Caskar. Nobody but Caskar liked Caskar.

Eventually, just after the two boys had finished their supper, the sky darkened. "Well, friend, your questions are about to be answered," said Zinque, pointing upwards towards the stars.

Silyah tucked a rebellious strand of hair away from her eyes. She had finally finished building a tent with her ever-so-useful bed sheets. This time, she had tied their corners near a wall of rock, which curved like a roof. She had even built a safe fireplace inside of the tent before gently dragging Artemis in the shelter.

Once everything was in place, she unwrapped Artemis from his blankets and rid him of his drenched clothing. She then tucked him back up in a dry sheet and hung the wet clothing near the fire for them to dry overnight.

Artemis's skin had gained back some of its original colors ever since Silyah had rescued him, but he was still as cold as an ice cube. The small flickering flame from the fire casted a yellow glow over Artemis's features, allowing Silyah to see the stark contrast between his snow-white skin, his raven-black hair and the partially dried trail of blood, which had ran river-like along his temple.

Silyah's hands went to her belt, from which she took her first aid kit. She took a disinfectant cloth from the small pocket and wiped away the blood from around Artemis's wound. She hoped that unconscious, he would not feel the sting of the product… As she cleaned the boy's cut, Silyah felt a slight twitch under her fingers. Apparently, even unconscious, he had felt that.

A cold wind then creeped its way inside of the tent, making the fire in it flicker furiously. Silyah got out of her shelter, hoping to find something that could block the draft outside. Unfortunately for her, as soon as she set a foot outside, the anthem of Panem began to play. Silyah sighed. Tonight, it would take much more time to get through the Fallen…

Geneva Crass, District 1. Crelin Spooks, District 2. Elon Jokter, District 2. Novia Imous, District 5. Moss Alsevre, District 7. Thea Garber, District 8. Scpenser Ross, District 12.

Novia? Silyah let go of a small, strangled gasp. She had not expected her face to light up the sky so soon, but despite her sadness, another tribute's face had engraved itself in her mind… Geneva; her own victim… Silyah had a feeling that she would have to undergo a major therapy session to ever feel human again if she got back home…

Now feeling completely drained of energy and humanity, Silyah got back in the tent, having found nothing but a few twigs and strange-looking leaves to prevent the wind from entering her shelter. She would have to find another way to keep Artemis warm… The girl let out a long sigh as she took in her options and then truly hoped that her tent concealed her from any cameras. Pulling out her last bed sheet from her back pocket, she slipped beside Artemis, gently putting her ear over his heart as a way to make sure it would not stop beating. Feeling the blush rise to her cheeks, Silyah sighed once again. This type of physical contact was far from her type of thing, but she nevertheless fell asleep, protecting the Ice Prince from the winter-like cold.

Silyah woke up the next morning, her head still on Artemis's chest. The girl slowly crawled away from him as she stretched and then evaluated his state, which was considerably better than what it had been during the previous day.

"You're going to be fine," whispered Silyah with a slight smile as her gaze turned to the other side of her tent. The fire she had built during the previous night had died down, so the girl went into the process of starting another one.

After she was done, she got back to Artemis's side and watched him closely until her stomach started to rumble and she was left with no other option than to go out of her shelter. She thus concealed the tent with whatever items she could find on the ground and explored the nearby areas to try to make herself a breakfast.

Once she got back to her camp, Silyah sat beside Artemis in silence, mindlessly running a hand through his dark hair. Now, she was well rested and slightly less traumatized by the previous day's events. Her thoughts were as clear as they could ever have been, but she decided to keep them for later and let her mind wander. After a while, her gaze went from a blurry undefined point to Artemis's face. All of a sudden, she felt useless; boring and bored. She felt the urge to do something with herself. Therefore, she got up, made sure that the fire would not burn her tent down and headed for the woods…

Two and a half days and one cannon shot later, Artemis's senses slowly began to come back to him. His head was spinning in a slow waltz, rocking him back and forth between the real world and his comatose state. Eventually, the real world won and carefully, he opened his eyes.

At first, everything around him was just a blurry sketch, but then, it all started to make sense again. Well, kind of, considering that coppery brown, curly locks of hair – which were clearly not his own – were covering his chest. To add to the strangeness of it all, one of Artemis's hands seemed to be locked around something else. The boy attempted to raise an eyebrow, which only caused a flash of pain to go through his skull.

The brown locks of hair then moved slowly. Obviously, they were attached to a head…

Artemis cleared his throat and the head sprung upwards, nearly hitting itself on a rocky ceiling.

Silyah stretched her neck and blinked away the sleep from her eyes, yanking her hand from the boy's. "Artemis?" she squeaked with a creaky voice before clearing her throat and repeating his name once again with her normal tone.

"Have you been watching me sleep again?" he asked the girl. Despite the fact that his voice was as low as a whisper, his usual sarcasm still shined through his tone.

Silyah gave him a look. "So much for saving your life," she said, already feeling a rush of heat rising in her cheeks.

Artemis blinked, for the first time in his life feeling slightly confused. Had she? Then, he remembered, a flash of memories flooding him. The tribute from 2 had attacked him… "I was… dying?"

It was strange for Silyah to see Artemis so puzzled… Somehow, it gave him such an adorable look. "Of course you were!" she said with a small laugh. "You fell unconscious in a river of ice…" she added more seriously. "I brought you back with me when I found you."

"Why did you do it?" wondered Artemis. "The most logical behavior would have been to… Let me die and have one less opponent to –"

Artemis's voice trailed off. Why? That was such a good question… Many things in life were sometimes reasonless or simply happened right on the spot, just like the event that was about to occur…

In a fast movement driven by a strange impulse, the Silyah leaned down, letting her lips meet with Artemis's.

At this exact moment, everything that might have been going on through the boy's brain froze abruptly without him even knowing what shocked him the most; the fact that a girl was kissing him, the fact that the said girl was Silyah, or the fact that he was responding to it, locking his hand around her shoulders.

After realizing what she had just done, Silyah broke the kiss. The look on her face was a mirror image of the one on Artemis's; shocked, confused, stunned and yet, hidden in her eyes was a small hint of satisfaction.

"Oh… Well… I…" Artemis was more or less out of words, yet another thing that did not happen regularly. "I guess that it is a fair reason."

"Hum… Ugh… Was it?"

"Well," Artemis actually bit his lip. "Wouldn't you say it was?"

From the Training Center, Peeta and Katniss could see what was being displayed on every single television screen in Panem.

"Doesn't it look familiar to you?" asked the boy with the bread to his fiancé, pointing at the screen on which Silyah Natho and Artemis Fowl were sharing a kiss.

The girl who was on fire turned to Peeta. "I know… When we were in the caves," she nodded. Peeta sighed. "Not to mention that she is the one who saved him," she grinned. "Ah, boys nowadays."

"Very funny Ms. Everdeen."

Katniss suppressed a bittersweet chuckle; boys nowadays indeed, the man leading their country was so much of a coward, he preferred to send 23 kids to their deaths rather than to face "his people."

"What a way to break the ice," said Peeta, shaking his head with a slight smile when he saw the two tribute's expression as their lips parted.

"I have to admit that the Ice Prince was a very suiting nickname for the boy considering what he went through," Katniss pointed out after Caesar Flickerman mentioned his sobriquet. "Not to mention that he had a Clockwork Angel to keep an eye on him."

Now that the two tributes from 12 were dead, Katniss and Peeta had somewhat fallen for the District 3 participants… And they were certainly not the only ones.

Beetee's face was deep down in his palm. Of course he was glad that his two tributes were in the top seven, but now, things were getting really bad. They were actually kissing! 'Do not get too close to each other,' I told them, thought the man, pacing in front of his screen. "I knew it would come down to this one day," he mumbled, not being heard by anyone but him due to Xarone and Ilranor's delighted squeals.

"Oh, come on Beetee! It's not as if you did not know that this would happen," Effie rolled her eyes. "You have to admit that they look wonderful together; sponsor money will start to flow like chocolate in the buffet's fountain."

The mentor grunted as Ilranor tried to remove his face from his palm. "Think about the consequences on the other's sanity if one of them was to die! We have already seen a sample of them from Silyah…" said the man.

Reluctantly, Effie nodded, but deep down, even if she was a woman of the Capitol, the escort nourished the hope of Silyah and Artemis finding their own "nightlocks," their own way of both getting back to safety…

From behind the camera, Caesar Flickerman still commented the scene. "All right, who did not see that one coming?" he asked his viewers with a huge pure white smile

This time, his rhetorical question had a very clear answer; everybody but two persons in Panem had seen this event coming, those two being none other than Artemis and Silyah.

There was no doubt about it, Artemis's heart was working and beating pretty efficiently once again. His mind however was now in a strange state, taking way too much time to register what had just happened. The boy gently shook his head, deciding to focus on his location and state instead of the strange feeling inside of him…

He was in a tent built by Silyah, most likely concealed from enemies and he actually felt quite warm… But then again, he was not too sure if it was because of the latest event or because of the blanket wrapped around him. Then, Artemis realized something; the fabric Silyah had tucked him into appeared to be in direct contact with his pale skin.

"Silyah?" he began, rising an eyebrow. "Did you, by any chance… Strip me while I was unconscious?"

From one awkward moment to another, it seemed so. Silyah felt her face getting as red as a beetroot as she reached for Artemis's clothes near the fire. "I had to make them dry," she nearly stuttered. "You would have frozen to death…" She handed him his outfit and his backpack.

"Thank you," he replied, slightly alarmed yet still understanding that Silyah's process had been very logical. "Now, would you mind turning? Or have you already see it all?"

It was now Silyah's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Do you really think that it was my intention to strip you just to look at you? I had other things on my mind, Mr. Fowl; things like making sure your heart would not give up again," she said, nevertheless turning around as Artemis corrected her "Mr. Fowl."

"So," began Artemis after getting dressed – it was always a good thing to have clothes on when being in the Hunger Games, or in any televised event for that matter. "For how long have I been unconscious?"

"I've been watching you sleep for two days and a half."

"Ah, some rather enjoyable days for you then?"

"Let's just say that after a while I began to keep myself busy… Which reminds me; do you want sushi?" she asked him, hearing his stomach complain. She presented him a plate of fish wrapped in some type of edible algae. "I went fishing and got creative," she explained.

Artemis gave her a look, stretching the skin around the wound on his temple. This girl was full of surprises.

"Suit yourself," she said, sitting beside him for an improvised dinner. "I filled you water bottle, by the way," she mentioned between two bites, handing him the item in question.

Artemis nodded his approval and took a long and well-deserved gulp of the liquid, already starting to feel better than when he had just woken up. Speaking of… "May I know what has been going on in the 'land of the living' while I was… missing in action?"

"Well, for one thing, we are now seven in this whole arena… The day you were attacked, Moss, Thea, Scpenser, Novia, Crelin and Elon passed away and…" Silyah's shoulder sank. "I killed Geneva… Then Acassie died yesterday afternoon."

Artemis looked at her. She had been the one who had gotten rid of Geneva? For some reason, the boy felt really strange. Of course, he had not cared for Geneva, but the girl had been under his mesmer when she had reached the lake and he had told her to kill whomever came her way and, as it turned out, Silyah had been that "whomever," so technically he had almost –

"Are you alright?" Silyah resisted again the urge to take Artemis's pulse, seeing his complexion get a few shades paler.

"Yes. I…" Artemis swallowed, his throat suddenly feeling very dry. Was that how guilt felt like? "I never expected you to do such do such a thing…" he lied.

"Don't worry," she said in a small voice. "I never intended to do such a thing. I only protected myself." Was the boy afraid she would kill him? Yet another flashback from her nightmare attacked Silyah.

Artemis took another sip of water. He would have to change the subject once again. "You said that you kept yourself busy… What exactly have you done during those past two days?"

"I think that for the most part, I was being excessive…" Silyah looked around the tent. She had found clay by the river, which she had followed, and had made various "normal" objects from it. Plates, utensils, bowls, one hair comb and even a vase in which a few purple flowers had been placed… "Then also I tried to hunt, remembered that I was really bad at it and decided to gather edible plants and attempt fishing instead," she said, raising the corner of her tent. Outside was an extensive collection of weapons made of wood and stone including many spears, as well as two bows complemented by about twenty arrows each.

Artemis had a hard time not to blink. "You've been busy, indeed."

Silyah retrieved the bow that laid the closest to her shelter. "This one is for you… I hope you don't mind; I used your tool kit to make some of them."

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Why so many weapons?"

"Well, I thought they would be more useful than a flower vase."

Artemis turned his gaze to the vase in question and studied the purple plants in it. "What are these flowers?" he asked. "I have never seen this type before…"

"They are not dangerous, that I am sure of," smiled Silyah. "I think that they are a creation from the Capitol's botanists who probably wanted to make them trend." She took one of them in her hands. "I took the liberty of naming them aremèsias."

"You named a flower after me?" asked Artemis slowly, his infamous vampire smirk beginning to stretch across his lips.

"We could say that," nodded Silyah awkwardly.

"Flattering."

Silyah gave the boy a sideways smile and then, turned her attention to a beeping sound outside of her tent. She opened one corner of her shelter once again. Artemis noted that the ground was now almost free of snow as he watched a silver parachute make its way down the sky. Silyah took the falling object and brought it inside her tent. As usual, she read the note attached to the package, though this time she did so out loud for Artemis to hear. "Take care," the card said. Oddly enough, it had not been signed by Beetee… Silyah's smiled turned into a wide grin as she read the name that had replaced their mentor's. Effie Trinket.

"No way…" whispered Silyah as she opened the box. In it was an ankle brace for Artemis's foot, but it was not all. What had truly warmed up Silyah's expression were the two small thermos that came along the package. One of them was labeled "cream nose," the other, "mustache boy."

"I believe that this is for you," said Silyah with a wink, giving Artemis the mustache boy cup and the ankle brace.

Artemis did not laugh, but he smiled one of his rare genuine smiles. So apparently, Effie was also full of surprises.

"Thank you Effie," beamed Silyah.

Artemis laced the brace around his injured ankle and leaned back, his warm cup between his hands. "The chances of us making it through this are perhaps increasing…" said the boy. "We are still alive, after all."

Silyah drank from her hot chocolate, making a point of getting some cream on the tip of her nose and sighed. From then on, she promised herself that she would do everything she could to keep Artemis safe and sound. "We'll have to take things a day at the time…"

Artemis removed the cream from the girl's nose, just as he had done a while ago. "Well, I am sorry, but you will certainly not see me sporting a mustache today."

"How disappointing," laughed the girl.

With their cups of hot chocolate in hands, Artemis and Silyah were now back to what they had been before the arena; two tributes with hopes and shy smiles.