THE TWENTY NINTH ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
"The Cave You Fear"


INTRODUCTION

Despite the several twists, quirks, and flaws of the last few years' arenas, the Capitol was never really finished experimenting with and improving upon their old formula. They had been experimenting with different landscapes, shapes, weather-patterns, and the other technical aspects of arenas past. They came to the conclusion that the arenas that made the audience (in the Capitol, at least) surge with exhilaration were those that were open and variable in terrain. Estella Whited took these facts into account when she began designing the arena for the twenty-ninth annual Hunger Games. Meanwhile, President Coriolanus Snow faced the first of many hurdles throughout his presidency; large numbers of riots had begun to spring up in districts like 3, 6, and 8. Snow rigged the reapings of those districts in order to seal the fates of the children of some of the most dominant rebels.

The career alliance consisted of five members. The District 1 male was the leader of the career pack. He displayed a wide range of skills, particularly with swords and axes. District 1's female was of heavy Asian heritage, a new look for 1 and a contrast to their typical crop of blondes. Her talents with the axe and sword earned her a nine, just short of her district partner. The District 2 male made the sponsors swoon because of his confidence, talent, and looks. He was your typical all-in-it-for-the-honor career, and his skill set mainly revolved around the knife. He was also a fast and agile runner. District 4's male was the youngest career, scoring a nine with a harpoon and trident. The District 4 female was likely the second strongest career after District 1's boy. She displayed a wide range of skills, including bows, axes, and swords. She had looks to match, too. Then, there was the District 2 girl, Discordia Komine. She actually rejected a spot in the careers, something virtually unheard of from District 2. She earned an eleven, the third tribute in history to do so. She was not the most skilled tribute in the world, but she used fear to her advantage. She liked to play with her food before she ate it. She wanted to stalk around her prey and fill them with terror before killing them. She was dangerous. Although the other careers didn't admit it, it was obvious that they were scared of her.

Outside of the career districts, the training scores were impeccably high. Four nines were earned outside of the careers. The first was earned by Glenn Ember, District 7's male who displayed exemplary skill with bows and axes. The second nine scorer was Dalton Etheridge, the District 10 male who was a great knife wielder. Nines also went to Lillian from 11 and Aspen from 12. A single 10 was earned outside of the careers. It was scored by Adriene Ostrander from District 8, whose skill set included the knife, bow, crossbow, sword, and axe. The rest of the tributes scored between eight and three in their private sessions. Despite the strong crop of tributes, there were no volunteers outside of the career districts. Here are the tributes:

District 1: Aragon Ciardi, 18, (10) 4-1 and Akoya Hazlewood, 17, (9) 8-1

District 2: Thane Lubach, 16, (10) 7-1 and Discordia Komine, 18, (11) 3-1

District 3: Zephyr Bruce, 17, (6) 20-1 and Vespera Hardacre, 15, (5) 27-1

District 4: Cerulean Kennett, 15, (9) 9-1 and Isla Mazzeo, 18, (10) 6-1

District 5: Oberon Blythe, 17, (5) 23-1 and Caspia Gregg, 17, (5) 23-1

District 6: Nebulon Kinthart, 14, (4) 50-1 and Isabel Brontsema, 13, (3) 60-1

District 7: Glenn Ember, 18, (9) 10-1 and Solstice Knowles, 16, (8) 14-1

District 8: Robbie Kasper, 12, (6) 36-1 and Adriene Ostrander, 18, (10) 7-1

District 9: Haywood Rutherford, 17, (7) 15-1 and Libbie Mcculloch, 17, (6) 16-1

District 10: Dalton Etheridge, 17, (9) 10-1 and Florinda Musgrove, 18, (8) 12-1

District 11: Aster Cruz-Sanchez, 18, (6) 17-1 and Lillian Meadows, 16, (9) 12-1

District 12: Aspen Luovenpaux, 16, (9) 13-1 and Rosanna Cyndalence, 13, (5) 41-1


THE GAMES

The arena that Estella Whited designed for the games was an underground cavern. A huge chamber stood in the very center of the arena from which tunnels spread out and wormed their way through the earth. The cornucopia and all of the supplies surrounding it were glow-in-the-dark. All of the cave system's life was bioluminescent as well. Everything from the snakes that slithered across the walls to the spiders that crawled in the corners to the fuzzy worms that inched across the ground glowed a brilliant yellow. Scattered around the arena were patches of mushrooms that glowed in the dark. They were edible. They tasted of cream and vanilla. The most prominent supplies in the cornucopia were knives, swords, bows and arrows, and machetes, although many other weapons were supplied, just in much smaller numbers. Then, there were the flashlights. The cornucopia burst at the seams with flashlights. Each flashlight had a total of exactly five hours of battery life, so the tributes would have to use them sparingly in order to preserve their power for when they really needed it. In an arena like this one, the element of surprise would be strongly against, or in favor of, the tributes. The only thing in the arena that actually emitted light was the cornucopia. It emitted golden rays of light that fell across the stone ground in beams. Something that Estella particularly liked about the arena was the way that human eyes appeared in it. The curvature and texture of the human eyeball made it so that human eyes would seemingly glow like the eyes of a cat.

The tribute's eyes took a while to adjust to the darkness of the arena. Those whose pedestals were in dark areas actually had an advantage. Those whose pedestals were in light areas were at a disadvantage because they would have to take time to adjust their eyes to the darkness after the mines deactivated.

One tribute, Caspia from 5, tried to move her head as far away as possible from her pedestal so that her eyes would be in a dark area, where they could adjust. However, Caspia lost her balance. She fell off of her pedestal directly on top of the land mines. Her corpse was thrown against the ceiling in a mass of scattered bits, dying before the games even began.

Caspia Gregg, District 5 Female: 24th, Killed by Land Mines, Pre-Bloodbath

The two tributes whose pedestals had been right next to Caspia's saw her remains on the ceiling and both vomited with disgust. Their vomit splashed over their pedestals and onto the mines. Those two tributes were blown up.

Aster Cruz-Sanchez, District 11 Male: 23rd, Killed by Land Mines, Pre-Bloodbath

Robbie Kasper, District 8 Male: 22nd, Killed by Land Mines, Pre-Bloodbath

The gong finally rang. When it did, every single tribute ran toward the cornucopia. Not a single tribute turned tail and fled at the very beginning. The first tribute to reach the weapons was Akoya, who swept up an axe that leaned modestly against the glowing cornucopia. Akoya turned sharply on her heel and planted the axe into the stomach of a nearby girl. The girl collapsed to the ground, the axe sliding even further into her torso as she did. Her blood stained the stone ground red.

Isabel Brontsema, District 6 Female: 21st, Killed by Akoya, Bloodbath

The next to fall was little Rosanna from 12. She tripped on a sharp piece of rough stone and face-planted into the ground. Unfortunately for her, she fell right into one of the beams of light radiating from the cornucopia. Nearby Discordia, brandishing her curved sword, found it easy to cleave apart her tiny frame.

Rosanna Cyndalence, District 12 Female: 20th, Killed by Discordia, Bloodbath

Adriene, the ten-scorer from District 8, didn't seem to mind killing nearly as much as the typical girl from 8. In fact, Adriene was actually itching to get down to business and get in some kills during the bloodbath. She swept up a knife that sat in a cluster of glow-in-the-dark mushrooms about ten yards from her pedestal. Adriene flung the knife into the forehead of the nearest boy. He fell to the ground with a thump, his body slowly shutting down from the grievous wound that he had sustained.

Nebulon Kinthart, District 6 Male: 19th, Killed by Adriene, Bloodbath

Discordia, having wrenched her curved sword out of Rosanna's torso, fluidly attacked her next victim, a stormy-grey-eyed by who was taking inventory of the contents of an orange backpack. Discordia's sword slashed across his back. He screamed as he fell limp onto Discordia's sword, marking Discordia's second kill.

Zephyr Bruce, District 3 Male: 18th, Killed by Discordia, Bloodbath

District 10's Florinda, one of the strongest non-career tributes, locked her dexterous fingers around a pickaxe that sat on a countertop within the cornucopia. Florinda exited the cornucopia and, keeping to the shadows, quietly shuffled toward distracted Isla. Florinda slammed the butt of her pickaxe into Isla's skull, knocking her unconscious. Over the course of the next few minutes Florinda beat her the rest of the way to death, wiping off her bloodstained weapon with her shirt once she was finished.

Isla Mazzeo, District 4 Female: 17th, Killed by Florinda, Bloodbath

Cerulean and Thane both spotted the blonde merchant girl from District 9 at the exact same moment. Cerulean hurled his trident into her stomach at the exact same moment that Thane thrust his dagger into her back. The girl crumpled to the ground onto their weapons, marking the first collaborate kill of the games.

Libbie Mcculloch, District 9 Female: 16th, Killed by Thane and Cerulean, Bloodbath

Akoya, eager to make her next kill, fidgeted anxiously with her axe. When one of the weaker girls ran directly across her field of vision, she was laughably easy prey. The trained career swung her axe into her waist, sending the girl's weapon spiraling away and clattering to the floor. Discordia came over and finished her off, lodging the serrated edge of her sword deep into her head, chipping her skull.

Vespera Hardacre, District 3 Female: 15th, Killed by Akoya and Discordia, Bloodbath

Although Aragon had yet to make a kill, one thing was certain: he was an overachiever. Aragon spotted a serrated axe that lay on a table. With hopes of adding a little style to his tactics, he zigzagged toward the weapon instead of running straight. However, during his complicated maneuver, he tripped on a gash in the ground and fell face-first onto the axe. Aragon screamed as the axe's edge sank deep into his face. He ripped it out, screaming and wailing at the top of his lungs as blood oozed from the gash. With his last ounce of energy, Aragon swung the axe into Adriene's torso, but missed. Aragon passed out from loss of blood, and confused Adriene picked up his axe and bludgeoned the career the rest of the way to death.

Aragon Ciardi, District 1 Male: 14th, Accidentally Killed by Himself and Intentionally by Adriene, Bloodbath

Discordia made the final kill. She caught a quick glimpse of a boy running through one of the beams of light emanating from the cornucopia. Discordia was on him like a hound. Discordia grabbed him by his head and threw him to the ground, hacking mercilessly at his head and throat with her curved sword.

Dalton Etheridge, District 10 Male: 13th, Killed by Discordia, Bloodbath

Twelve kills had been made in the bloodbath, an average number. However, three of those occurred before the gong rang. Therefore, the number was actually only nine. Estella was having a streak of bad luck in terms of number of bloodbath kills. The year before had had eight kills, and this year had nine. If this trend continued, Estella might have needed to begin fearing for her career or even for her life. Dastardly Coriolanus Snow had nailed into her hands the importance of the games being a reality television show for the Capitol, and so it made Estella's stomach squirm with terror at the thought of this absurd trend continuing.

Only three careers remained: Akoya from 1, Thane from 2, and Cerulean from 4. Each of the three careers was assigned a certain task to carry out at the cornucopia. Akoya organized the supplies. This was much easier said than done because she had to be constantly using her flashlight due to the darkness of the cornucopia's interior. Thane immediately went out hunting, but returned back that night with his efforts fruitless. Cerulean was evidently the weakest career, but he did have some use. His father was an engineer who designed boats and other vessels. As such, Cerulean held knowledge of electricity. He ended up using bits and pieces from the several tasers provided in the cornucopia to rig up a system of flashlights surrounding the cornucopia. Cerulean worked all through the night, but he was rewarded for his perseverance when the contraption worked. With the flick of a switch, a series of nearly a dozen flashlights illuminating the clearing could be turned on and off at once. The others congratulated exhausted Cerulean on his job and insisted the he needed rest. He was more than happy to agree, and he slept like a rock for what little time remained until they needed to go out hunting the next morning.

The cave was dark and damp; many a tribute had to walk slowly to keep from slipping or sliding on the slick rock ground. Two tributes headed north: Solstice from 7 and Aspen from 12. Solstice had managed to escape the bloodbath with a coil of rope, a package of rubber bands, a pillow, and a flashlight. Her only weapon was a knife that she managed to snatch from Akoya's hands at the cornucopia. Solstice was miraculously able to escape unscathed. However, she had embarrassed the careers. Solstice knew that she was high on their kill list. As such, she kept to the shadows for the better part of her journey. Solstice travelled all through the night, and by the time midnight had arrived she reached a rather good hiding place: a cove hollowed out into the wall of a clearing. A massive stalactite hung from the ceiling and blocked the entrance to the cove, which meant that Solstice had to squirm and wiggle her way around it to get into the hiding place. It was dark, and there were very few places that anybody could see her if she crawled into the corner. She fell asleep almost instantly, resting assured that she had survived Day 1. Aspen from 12 was a different story. Aspen's strategy was to keep low to the ground for the first few hours after the bloodbath to keep out of the sight of the stronger tributes. After the first two hours of so, he got up and began jogging. In the cave, the slightest sound echoed so he had to be quiet in his footsteps. He ran on his tip-toes, a strategy that was rather risky for fear of stumbling but proved effective for Aspen. After alternating between walking and jogging for the entire rest of Day 1, Aspen finally reached the river that surrounded the arena. The sound of the river roared in his ears, and the cold droplets that splattered against Aspen's face refreshed him. Aspen took a can and a rope that he had retrieved from the cornucopia. He used a rock to punch a hole in the side of the can. Then, he fed the rope through the hole tied he two ends. He lowered the can down into the river and pulled it back up. He was happy to see that it was full to the brim with crystal-clear water. For about an hour, Aspen tested it slowly to make sure that it wasn't poisonous. Once he was sure it was safe, he began gulping down the cool liquid. It splashed against his throat in the most satisfying way, and whenever he finished he just dipped the can back into the river for more. All fear of dehydration was eliminated from Aspen. That was, if he could avoid getting lost.

A single tribute headed east: Lillian from 11. Lillian had ran into the bloodbath and left with nothing but a can of sardines and a single flashlight. After a few hours of travel time, Lillian began to grow hot. Then, she began sweating. She couldn't help wondering why she was so hot! Her question was answered when she turned into a tunnel and saw a light at the end of it. Lillian ran toward the light, not bothering to quiet her footsteps. Finally, she emerged on the lava. She looked down into the bubbling pit. It was filled with lava. Just as an experiment, Lillian picked up a rock and threw it in. It soared downward before landing into the lava and sinking in. The heat was unbearable; beads of sweat rolled down Lillian's face. She couldn't sleep there, no way. She ran away and away, and the temperature gradually returned to the coolness that she liked. Dehydration would be her first problem in the morning, provided that she could sleep through the night.

Three tributes headed south: Glenn from 7, Haywood from 9, and Florinda from 10. Despite lacking in other areas, Haywood was an impeccably fast sprinter. He travelled the deepest into the cave system. Around seven o'clock at night, Haywood and Florinda had an encounter. Florinda was strolling through the area, looking for food and fresh water when she spotted Haywood, a figure roughly forty yards away. Florinda didn't think she could survive in a fight against Haywood; she instantly threw herself against the wall and ever so slightly inched into a darker, shadowy area of the wall. The wait for Haywood to leave was torturous, and Florinda seemed to be exploding with panic when Haywood walked right past her without looking back. Once he was merely a speck on the horizon, Florinda exhaled sharply with relief. District 7's Glenn was actually knowledgeable on past Hunger Games arenas. He knew that there was virtually always some kind of barrier, some kind of natural "wall" to prevent contact with the force field. He also knew that caves most often contained rivers. Therefore, he reasoned that there would be a rushing river surrounding the arena. He could not be more correct, and he smiled, affirmative of his prediction, when the roaring drone of the river filled his ears. All he had to collect the water was a small container. He needed about twenty feet of rope. This was a cheap sponsor present, and once he had it he fashioned himself a little water collection device. Lowering the container into the river, he pulled it back up and saw crystal-clear water at least an inch high inside of it. Glenn's thirst was quenched as the cold liquid splashed against his throat in a satisfying way.

Oberon from 5 and Adriene from 8 both headed west at the conclusion of the bloodbath. West was certainly a risky direction to go; it was immediately obvious that that path would be the bumpiest, rockiest, and most difficult ride. But, the two tributes took this as a double-negative and realized that the careers would never expect them to be there. Adriene, the fastest runner, had a knife, Aragon's axe, and a strange mechanism that she snatched from the cornucopia on a whim. She ran all the way through the day and night, and she was the third and final tribute to reach the river. Quick to realize that the mechanism from the cornucopia was a water collection device, all fears of dehydration were quelled. Oberon had gone into the cornucopia and escaped with nothing. No supplies, only a few scattered scratches from careers. He alternated between walking and jogging for the entirety of Day 1, and he reached about a third of the way to the river before dropping from exhaustion. He would need a good night's rest for Day 2, and he knew it. Might as well get it. If he could.

That left Discordia, the District 2 girl and eleven scorer. She shaped herself up as a real hunter. She would hunt day and night, staggering one hour-long power naps throughout the day as opposed to taking one long sleep session at night. She used the shadows to her advantage, leaping between them. There was something gracefully elegant yet sinister about her movements that instilled a rather queer feeling into the scene.

Discordia met her first human prey around six o'clock at night on Day 2.

Discordia was prowling through the arena when she heard it. A small whimper coming from a dead-end just around the corner. Smiling, Discordia turned the corner. She could see her prey's eyes, glowing at the end of the hallway like a cat's. It was Oberon, the District 5 boy. Discordia stalked toward him, taking her time and trying to fill Oberon up to the brim with terror. All Oberon could see of his predator was her two, round, glowing eyes. Every minute or so, Discordia would close her eyes, rendering her invisible. Oberon was shaking and sobbing with terror. All of the sudden, the fear became too much. Oberon let out a scream. Discordia lunged toward him and smacked him in the head, silencing him.

For the next hour, Discordia walked around and around the boy. Every now and then, she would lunge forward just to make him jump. Oberon's entire world had been reduced to sheer terror. It is possible to define two different kinds of terror. There is the logical kind of terror. This is the kind that you feel when you lose your keys and look everywhere to try to find them. This is the kind of terror that you feel when you're running out of time in a video game and have to take fast routes to get to places quicker. Then, there is the all-out, senseless, mania kind of terror. This is what Oberon was feeling. This is the kind of terror that makes your entire world collapse into a dark void of fear. This is the kind of terror that makes you run up the stairs as fast as possible when you turn the basement lights off at night.

Finally, after two hours of terrorizing the poor boy, Discordia was clearly beginning to grow bored. She lunged forth toward the weeping boy. He wailed with pain and fear as Discordia relentlessly slashed at his neck and upper torso.

Oberon Blythe, District 5 Male: 12th, Killed by Discordia, Day 2

The rest of Day 2 passed virtually empty of conflict among the remaining tributes. The careers and Discordia went through with their hunting routine, but their efforts were fruitless. The morning of Day 3 came in the form of a cannon shot. The careers went out early that morning with hopes of catching some sleeping tributes. Because of the cave's lack of sunlight or nighttime, every tribute had different definitions of when it was time to sleep. Some tributes might think it was midnight whereas some might think it was noon. The career pack was doing their routine sweep of the arena when Thane threw forth his flashlight beam. It landed directly on Solstice, who had dropped all of her supplies in the river the day prior by accident. She was completely helpless as Thane did the honors, slitting her throat with his machete.

Solstice Knowles, District 7 Female: 11th, Killed by Thane, Day 2

A single death occurred on Day 3. Haywood had long heard the sound of rushing water from the river, but it was very difficult to find the correct path to reach it. The cave system was like a maze; even though Haywood knew the general direction of the river he couldn't find a good path to it. Little did he know that, this entire time, he was being pursued by Adriene. Adriene, even though she was from District 8, didn't mind killing and wanted to end the games as quickly as possible. Adriene tried to keep at least fifty feet behind Haywood at all times. She also tried to keep to the shadows. Once or twice Haywood even turned around because he heard something. He dismissed the sounds as his imagination. Then, hours later, he finally found the river. Haywood ran to the edge of the ravine, at the bottom of which the river roared past. This was Adriene's chance. She darted up behind him and pushed him forward. He screamed as he stumbled to regain his balance, but he was unable. He tumbled forward into the freezing water, instantly swept away by the current. The water was freezing; his body forfeited to hypothermia roughly one and a half minutes later.

Haywood Rutherford, District 9 Male: 10th, Killed by Adriene, Day 3

Discordia made her next kill around nine o'clock in the morning on Day 4. She used the exact same strategy as she had used on Oberon, postponing the killing of the tribute for nearly two hours before slashing open their stomach with her blade.

Lillian Meadows, District 11 Female: 9th, Kiled by Discordia, Day 4

That left the final 8: Akoya Hazlewood from District 1, Thane Lubach and Discordia Komine from District 2, Cerulean Kennett from District 4, Glenn Ember from District 7, Adriene Ostrander from District 8, Florinda Musgrove from District 10, and Aspen Luovenpaux from District 12.

The gamemakers couldn't let the games end so soon; it was merely Day 4 and the final eight had already been determined! If the games ended soon, millions of dollars' worth of muttations would go unused, only to produce a victor whose hardships were miniscule compared to the usual.

Day 5 was declared by the gamemakers to be the muttation day of the arena. At six different times during the day: 12, 4, and 8 in the morning, and 12, 4, and 8 and night, a different round of muttations would be thrown into the arena.

The first set of mutts was unleashed at midnight on Day 5. They were bioluminescent rattlesnakes that slithered over the ground and had jaws that could open as much as two feet. The snakes caught one sleeping tribute off-guard, injecting her with their poison so that she would be paralyzed and then tearing her body apart with their fangs.

Florinda Musgrove, District 10 Female: 8th, Killed by Rattlesnake Muttations, Day 5

The second round of muttations were jet-black spiders, but all of the tributes went unharmed through the storm of them. At noon, huge mice roughly three feet tall were released, but they did not kill or injure anybody.

Four in the afternoon saw a swarm of poisonous wasps released into the arena. They caught up to Cerulean, the slowest runner out of the remaining tributes. They dug their stingers into his flesh and injected their venom into him. His knees buckled and he fell to the ground. But, this poison was not enough to kill Cerulean. Even if he waited for several days he would come nowhere near death. Luckily, a group of Capitol scientists had recently made a breakthrough concerning the hormones and motives of the common hornet. This allowed them to create a type of hornet that was fast, powerful, and had a thirst for blood. Its venom could cause nausea, vomiting, hallucinations, and death in extreme cases. These were the first tracker jackers. The gamemakers finished off Cerulean with them, leaving him a bloodied, poisoned mess as he died a hazy death from the poison.

Cerulean Kennett, District 4 Male: 7th, Killed by Wasps and Tracker Jacker Muttations, Day 5

The gamemakers sent the tracker jackers after another tribute, killing him as he tried to run.

Glen Ember, District 7 Male: 6th, Killed by Tracker Jacker Muttations, Day 5

The tracker jackers and wasps were recalled by the gamemakers. The final round of mutts was released at eight o'clock that night. They were star-nosed mole-rat muttations. They chased the tributes inward toward the cornucopia, where the bloody showdown would commence.

Although Thane was a very fast runner, he wasn't the most agile. He tripped on a sharp piece of rough stone and fell to the ground onto his nose. A crunch sounded, but his broken nose was the least of his problems. The rats caught up to him, mauling apart his corpse as he screamed.

Thane Lubach, District 2 Male: 5th, Killed by Star-Nosed Mole-Rat Muttations, Day 5

The final four met up atop the cornucopia, where they were slightly out of reach of the bloodthirsty muttations that banged against the cornucopia, causing it to shudder in its frame. Akoya had her axe, as did Adriene. Discordia brandished her curved sword, whereas Aspen wielded his knife.

A fight instantly began between Akoya and Adriene. Their axes banged against each other. Sparks flew. The scream of metal against metal had long filled the air when Adriene triumphed, planting her axe securely into Akoya's neck and triggering her cannon shot.

Akoya Hazlewood, District 1 Female: 4th, Killed by Adriene, Day 5

Adriene wrenched her axe out of Akoya's neck and turned around just in time to see Discordia charging toward her. Adriene swung forth her axe, but Discordia batted it out of the way with her blade. The two watched as Adriene's axe flew along its path and disappeared from sight. Adriene wept as Discordia slashed open her abdomen. She continued to slash it across Adriene's face and neck, killing her and reducing the tribute count to two.

Adriene Ostrander, District 8 Female: 3rd, Killed by Discordia, Day 5

That left Discordia Komine of District 2 and Aspen Luovenpaux of District 12 to vie for the crown. Coincidentally, Aspen was already in a prone position upon Adriene's death. Aspen was expecting Discordia to take a bit of time to revel in her kill, giving him time to get situated. But, that did not happen, and Discordia charged straight toward unsuspecting Aspen. Discordia knocked Aspen off of the cornucopia, watching as he fell straight into the pack of hungry mole rats that tore his body to a pulp.

Aspen Luovenpaux, District 12 Male: 2nd, Killed by Discordia, Day 5

"Discordia Komine of District 2, you are the victor of the twenty-ninth annual Hunger Games!" Estella trilled, her voice accompanied by a symphony of trumpets in congratulation of Discordia's victory.

Discordia raised her bloodstained sword high into the air, whooping and cheering in celebration of her victory.

Discordia Komine, District 2 Female: Victor of the Twenty-Ninth Hunger Games, Day 5


AFTERMATH

Discordia was a hit in the Capitol; her beauty, grace, and elegance made her easily one of the most coveted victors of the first Hunger Games century. In fact, Discordia was the one who kicked off the victor prostitution industry. As a direct result of this, the tesserae system went into effect. The reasoning for the tesserae system went like this: older youths would be more likely to take tesserae than younger ones. This would increase the number of older tributes, which would increase the number of older victors. A young victor, anywhere between twelve and fifteen, could not be prostituted because they were not old enough. By the time that happened, the victor would probably be lost in the sea of new victors and would be forgotten. By increasing the number of older victors, the number of eligible victors for the selling would increase. Discordia, unsurprisingly, was in high demand, and prices for her went through the roof. Throughout the districts and the Capitol, Discordia earned the nickname "The Terror of the Twenty-Ninth" because of her antics.

Discordia moved into the Victor's Village of District 2, the ninth victor to do so.

Her victory tour was rather quiet and somber, as the majority of the districts' population were terrified of the girl's tactics.

Discordia would live to the age of eighty-nine, dying from appendicitis around the time of the one-hundredth annual Hunger Games. In her lifetime, she would not marry of have children. However, she would begin work training children at District 2's combat academy, particularly with swords and axes.


NEWS

Discordia moves into the Victor's Village of District 2, the ninth victor to do so.

Isaac Crandall marries his first spouse, a woman named Ada Love.

Gold Carson marries his fiancée, Admirance Hester.


LIST OF VICTORS

1HG: Cordin Frey (#1, District 3)
2HG: Sapphire Waber (#1, District 1)
3HG: Molly Toliday (#1, District 4)
4HG: Amelia Spangler (#1, District 2)
5HG: Misty Sablone (#1, District 12)
6HG: Olivia Seager (#2, District 2)
7HG: Flux Stafford (#2, District 3)
8HG: Brandi Coyne (#2, District 1)
9HG: Isaac Crandall (#1, District 5)
10HG: Velvet Farrow (#3, District 1)
11HG: Mags Flanagan (#2, District 4)
12HG: Slate Ogston (#3, District 2)
13HG: Woof Dozier (#1, District 8)
14HG: Blaze Skalnik (#4, District 2)
15HG: Dina Wilmarth (#2, District 5)
16HG: Beatrice Toland (#1, District 6)
17HG: Amelia Bankston (#5, District 2)
18HG: Markus Gardd (#2, District 6)
19HG: Odius Ruttler (#6, District 2)
20HG: Seeder Kaiser (#1, District 11)
21HG: Freya Digard (#7, District 2)
22HG: Gold Carson (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ashlyn Breston (#3, District 6)
24HG: Dayta Albrand (#3, District 3)
25HG: Diamond Griego (#5, District 1)
26HG: Thor Rosner (#8, District 2)
27HG: Magnet Lisagor (#4, District 3)
28HG: Maria Dutra (#3, District 4)
29HG: Discordia Komine (#9, District 2)


How'd you like the chapter? Discordia certainly was a fun victor to write; I really liked her antics. Lots of new things this chapter! The first tracker jackers, the first victor prostitution… lots of new stuff! I've gotten lots of nice reviews recently that have made me really happy. Thanks for those :D