Once we had collected the weapons - my blow dart and sword, Cole's knife and Garnet's bow and arrows, we set off back to my cave. But when we get there, we find that it's gone.
"It was here." I say, frowning as I look at it. "It was right here."
"You're sure we haven't gone in the wrong direction?" He asks.
"Positive." I reply, frowning.
"Come on." He says eventually. "There's no point wasting time looking for it. We might as well find somewhere new, right?"
I nod. "Right."
We walk for a while, through the forest. We don't talk much, except the occasional warning of "watch that plant" or "Have you got the:_". We don't need to talk. We were just happy to have found eachother. Or I was happy to have found him, I didn't know if the reverse was true.
It begins to get dark quickly, and we have still found nowhere to sleep. We settle under a large tree, and because I've had a proper nights sleep the night before, I offer to take first watch. Cole stays up anyways.
"Are you thirsty?" I ask.
He nods. I hold out my water can to him. "I don't want to take yours..." He murmurs.
"I can get more." I say. "Just drink it."
He frowns slightly, and nods. He drinks for seemingly a long time, tipping his head back and glugging it down. But when he hands it back to me, it's still half full.
"You don't have any food, do you?" He asks.
I shake my head. He sighs. I haven't eaten since yesterday morning either. I take up the bow and arrows in the hope of being able to shoot an animal on it's way past our camp site.
"How many are dead?" Cole asks. He lies on his back with his arms folded behind his head. It feels so casual, just the two of us sat here, when really we could be shot at, stabbed or killed at any moment.
I try to count. "13. I think."
"So there's still 11 of us left." Cole mutters. I nod. "Great. Do you know who?"
"Daven, Aqua and Cora are still alive." I say. "I don't know where they are. Probably around the Cornucopia, or-"
Cole sits up, covering my mouth with his hand. He presses his finger to his lips, and looks at something over my shoulder. I keep my mouth shut,
and he keeps his hand in place. I hear a twig snap a few meters away. Keeping his finger pressed to his lips, Cole takes his hand from the mouth and picks up the bow. He notches an arrow, and fires it.
"Agh!"
We gather our stuff quickly and move towards the sound. On the floor lies Fisher. Dead. Cole killed him with one shot.
"Nice shot." I murmur.
"Thanks." He huffs. "Come on. Let'sgo back to the shelter."
As we sit down, I hear the canon go off. "12." I say. "Day 2. 12 tributes remaining."
Cole laughs but I can tell it's forced. We sit in silence for a while, and I'm sure he's fallen asleep, when he says, "There's a snake in that tree."
"A snake?" I ask, looking up.
"Yeah, there." He says, and points.
I search for it, but all my eyes can see are the broad green leaves and pale brown tree branches. I frown. Cole comes and sits beside me, and points. "There. See?"
I nod. It's long, it' body about as thick as the tree branch it's sat on, and bright green. It's eyes are red. I have no idea whether it's natural or whether it's a mutt, but I'm guessing it's the latter. We watch it for a while, as it slither along the tree trunk.
"Reckon it's a mutt?" I ask Cole.
It's forked tongue flickers as it smels the air around us. I dn't know what it's smelling, but it doesn't seem to like it.
"No," he says. "I think it's natural."
And then, as if to prove him wrong, it grins, and pounces.