Athena bids us goodbye and good luck as she hurries after the Careers. And then it's just the four of us. Alive and... somewhat well.
A deep ache settles into my arms before I finally pull myself into action. We can celebrate and relax after we're patched up.
"Trucy? How are you doing?" I grip her shoulder.
Eyelids still half-closed, she looks up at me. "All right..." She rubs the side of her neck and cringes.
"Where all are you hurt?" I start down from her shoulder. Both of her forearms are mottled red on the outside edge, and her right palm has clearly been pinched by something, although it's barely bleeding. Her pants and the front of her shirt are intact, so no damage there. The fabric between her shoulder blades is burnt, though, and it looks worse than her forearms. Her face seems fine, and she wouldn't have put her hat back on if her head was bleeding.
So it doesn't look like she took much from Aura, but... what was the District 1 boy throwing? Some kind of explosive, but was it the same as what Ema mixed up? I bet she could tell. We could probably treat this better if we knew.
I glance at Klavier, sure Jinxie must be tending to him, but she's standing in the same place, the bloodstained part of her sleeve wadded up tightly in her fist.
"Um..." I'm tired enough it's not actually that hard to keep my voice down. "Jinxie?"
She literally jumps but manages to look at me without turning and running.
"Did you set Ema down somewhere?"
She nods hard enough I can't confuse it for her shaking.
"It looks like we're safe here now. Can you fetch her back?"
She nods but doesn't move from her spot.
"Jinxie?" Trucy glances at her and sighs, looking down. "It must have reminded her of the bloodbath..."
No kidding. She looks more horrified than when she first came to us.
"It's okay." Klavier has turned himself around to face her, although he's still sitting and slouched. "We're in no rush. Everyone's doing fine. Just get to her when you feel ready to, or point us in the right direction. We can all go together if you'd rather."
Jinxie nods. I'm not sure if it was in agreement or just a general sign she heard him. Her communication skills are a bit limited at the moment.
Well, there's not much I can do about that. What I can do is wash some wounds and get bandages in place. I haven't passed out or anything, but my shoulder's still bleeding a little bit, and Klavier and Trucy should rinse off, too. Thankfully the stream's not too far, and it seemed reasonably clean and clear.
"Can everyone make it to the stream?" I start pushing myself to my feet, though not without cringing. I must have smacked my knee pretty hard falling down the rocks.
"I think so." Eyes a bit more alert, Trucy follows me up. "Klavier?"
"Right..." Gripping the steep rock behind him, he pulls himself up, and his arms shake immediately. He gets to his feet but presses his back to the stone and grasps both sides of his head with a tight grimace.
"Are you all right?" It's kind of a dumb question, but I'm sure he has the brains to take it in context—if they haven't been mashed to a pulp from Marlon's attack.
He gets out a laugh that's a little bark-like and not very convincing. "My hair must be a terrible mess... Let's—" he cringes as he lowers his hands—"get to the stream."
He has trouble putting one foot in front of the other, but we all manage to get to the riverbed. Jinxie, meanwhile, seems to have finally registered our request and has hurried off to get Ema. Well, hopefully to get Ema.
As I struggle to shuffle off my backpack, Trucy stations herself on her knees and carefully lowers her forearms into the water. She lets out a long breath through tight lips.
"Helping?" I ask, setting my bag on level ground and carefully pulling fabric away from my shoulder.
She nods. "It's nice and cool."
I splash a few fingers across the surface to confirm this. "Good. That can stop some of the bleeding."
By the time Trucy and I have helped each other clean up, Klavier has managed to wash the blood off his head on his own.
"How much bandage do you think you'll need?" I call as I scoot to my backpack and locate the gauze.
"Oh, I should be fine without." Sitting up with some effort, he wrings out a few handfuls of his hair and ruffles it back up. "I only had a few cuts on the side that hit the rocks. A couple of dabs of ointment should be all I need."
You seem to be struggling an awful lot for just a few cuts...
I push the thought to the back burner and get out the bandages. I might have a few scratches from falling on the rocks myself. I'll check once my shoulder is taken care of.
Patting the area dry with my jacket, I look up at Trucy. "Could you help me wrap this up?"
"Sure." She gets the ointment from Klavier first but starts applying the gauze before long. As much as it hurts, I try to keep my arm lifted up out of the way.
"Do we intend to stay here until the rest of the Fräuleins get back?"
I exhale. "It's probably a good idea, yes. We might all get lost otherwise."
"In that case..." He pulls off his jacket and drapes it over the closest rock. "I might as well freshen up while we're here. It can't be a good idea to stick around, and who knows when we'll find another good stream?"
"All right, then." I mean, we've been hiking around for two days, so I feel a little grimy, too. It's starting to cool down, though, and I don't want to take any chances myself. The rocks are pretty slippery around here, too...
"Actually, maybe you shouldn't." I look back over at him to find his feet bare, his supply pouches on the ground, and his shirt draped over his jacket. I sigh and watch Trucy finish up my bandages. "If you slip—which you very well might—it won't end well."
He picks up the length of chain at his feet. "Are you sure?" He winds it around a jutting rock twice and locks it in place. "This seems like a pretty good anchor to me. You can even keep hold of it yourself, Herr Forehead." He grins.
I slouch. "Why do I have to do it?"
Resealing the bandages, Trucy crinkles her brow. "Wait, are you just jumping into the river?" She turns around, pausing while she's presumably distracted by Klavier's state of dress. Then she spies the parachute floating down.
"Oh!" Tossing the package of gauze at my backpack, she hurries underneath the donation, snatching it before it can fall onto the rocks. She immediately pulls her shoulders back with a wince but shakes it off and looks over the new loot. It's a small jar, but I can't read the words from here.
"What is it? Medicine?"
She nods, turning around. "Burn cream!" Smiling wide, she waves at the sky. "Thank you, whoever sent this! Or anyone who contributed! I really appreciate it!"
"Ha." Grinning, I fold my arms. "Well, you deserve it. Here, I can get the burn on your back."
"Okay, thanks." She scurries back over as she unscrews the lid.
"At least keep your foot on the chain, all right?" Klavier dips a foot into the water before finding a good place to wedge his foot.
"Right." I scoot and plant my feet on the chain as Trucy sits down in front of me.
She slicks up one forearm before another parachute comes down, and another.
"Oh, wow!" Trucy pauses but decides to get cream on her other arm instead of running after the donations. "Three in a row!"
"Yeah, kind of sudden, isn't it?" I wonder what brought that on. It's been a little while since the battle, but that must be it. We haven't done anything else but wash up, so unless there was a surge of donation money from Klavier's fangirls seeing his shirt off...
...No way. If that got that much money, there would be a much bigger precedent in the Games. There was a little lag between sending the supplies and us getting them, that's all. There could be any number of reasons for that.
Once all of Trucy's burns are taken care of, she hurries over to the new supplies. The chains under my feet jerk, but a glance back tells me Klavier's pulling himself out of the water.
"This one is a bunch of chicken and apple slices, and this one's, um, a bundle of firewood, I guess."
Once Klavier's safe on dry land, I take my feet off the chain and get up. "The food isn't cooked, I guess?" It sure smells like it is... And come to think of it, we never had lunch. I don't know if I have the strength to keep lifting food to my mouth at this point, but I'll sure try.
"No, it is. The whole thing's steaming, see?" She turns around to present it to me, but that makes the smell of meat and sweet herbs stronger, and I am this close to snatching the biggest drumstick out of the middle before anyone else can get it.
"Really?" I hear snapping off to my right. "It would be a shame if it went cold before the others made it back."
"I think it needs to cool down a little bit, anyway." Trucy sets the platter down carefully and pulls the parachute away from the other donation. "I guess we don't really need the wood this moment, but it's already bundled up pretty nicely."
"Achtung! As I suspected."
I give Klavier a look, but his eyes are focused some distance past me. I turn my head to check.
Trucy gasps. "Jinxie! Ema!" She waves her arm high before flinching when it stretches her burn.
Sure enough, Jinxie is hurrying back. Ema's in her arms—still unconscious, I guess. That can't be good. But I'm sure we can afford whatever medicine she needs if we can get all of this. She must be doing all right if we haven't gotten anything for her.
"Good." Klavier tugs his shirt down, his jacket dark with water and slung over his shoulder. "I'm sure there's plenty of food for all of us." He adjusts the locks anchoring his chain around the rock before walking slowly to Trucy. "And it's already cooked, hmm?"
She blinks as a water droplet from his hair hits her nose. "Uh-huh." She looks at the wood. "It's weird timing, I guess, but it's not like we won't use it."
He pauses, frowning in thought. "...Ah." With a sigh, he picks up the bundle of sticks. "Let's put this in your shoulder bag by the meat, if you don't mind, Fräulein Magician."
"Huh? Sure."
By the meat...? To cook it, I guess. Is that why we got the wood in the first place? That's a little weird, when we got some fresh food at the exact same time. Clearly we're not going to eat the questionable meat with this steaming platter in front of us. Not for a while, at least.
...But we are going to eat it. Is that what this is about? Klavier seemed pretty disappointed, after all. Is it supposed to be a message that he needs to buckle down and eat some commoner food eventually? It's a pretty vague one.
Then again, the mentors are the ones who send these. I can assume this came from his brother. I wouldn't be surprised at him weaving messages into plain donations, especially if he can time them precisely.
Come to think of it, Klavier seemed to pick up pretty quickly that Ema and Jinxie were on their way back, just because the food was warm. Did he work this out with his mentor before the Games? Or are they on a close enough wavelength they didn't have to?
An ally of mine being on the same wavelength as Kristoph? That's a real pleasant thought... Of course, if that's what it takes to figure it out, and I've caught on, I'd have to be on Kritoph's wavelength, too.
Which is... an even more comforting thought...
Rubbing my forehead, I get my backpack ready to put on.
I wonder if he gave us that stew yesterday at a specific time. We were just at the riverbank talking—
Talking about why Klavier volunteered. If Kristoph intentionally got us the food just then... Was he trying to distract us? Hit at just the right time to keep us from revealing that Klavier is practically here by accident?
N-no way! No one could be that calculating!
I almost snort out loud. I'm talking about Kristoph Gavin here. Of course he could be that calculating.
"Do you want to go ahead and meet them in the middle?" Trucy has her arms folded. "They're going kind of slow..."
"Excellent idea." Klavier slides the forensics bin from the level above us—the top is dented in, so it doesn't close perfectly—and attempts to tuck it under his arm. "Herr Forehead, if you'd carry the platter?"
I sigh and kneel to pick it up. "Sure, if I get the first bite."
"Apollo!" Trucy thrusts her fists against her hips, indignant. "You're sharing with three injured young ladies, and you're going to help yourself first?"
I draw back, hunching my shoulders and rubbing my scalp. "I-I was kidding!" Apparently. "You guys can go first..."
Trucy grins as I pick up the food and start after her. "Okay, good."