ATTENTION LEUMER: I have revised this chapter and lengthened it A LOT so you'd better re-read this one and 14. (When I release it. Been doing a lot of advanced writing.)

Chapter 13! I finally have a free night and I really hope to get some writing done!

Disclaimer: Don't own PJO or HG!

Warning: another death. Kinda detailed. :)

Elise

"Where the heck are we hiking to?" Elijah asks. Nobody but me seems to hear him, so he yells ahead twenty yards to where Sadie, Fish, and Crystal are. "WHERE THE HECK ARE WE HIKING TO?"

"WHAT?" they yell back.

"WHERE THE HECK-"

"Shut up," I tell him, and punch him in the gut. I run ahead to where the others are, and Elijah soon follows me.

"What was worth yelling twenty yards to us?" Crystal asks.

"Where are we hiking to?" Elijah asks with a grin on his face. Fish does a facepalm.

"You yelled just to ask us that? You could've ran ahead in the first place," he says.

Elijah sighs. "I guess nobody will answer me. I feel so unloved."

"That's because you are!" I joke, and I punch him again.

"Actually, I don't know where," says Sadie. "What about you guys?"

"I dunno either. We should be looking for other tributes," Fish says. He doesn't look at us because he is looking down at a long length of rope he is knotting while subconsciously walking.

"I can't hear you with your nose in that piece of rope," Sadie sighs.

"How many tributes are left?" I ask as I scroll through the list of tributes still alive in my mind. I know that there aren't that many still alive, but you might as well keep track.

Let's see. I'm obviously still alive. So is Elijah, Sadie, Fish, and Crystal. There is also District 5, District 9 Male, and District 12 Male. That makes eight left.

I also realize at that moment that with eight of us left and five of them in our alliance, we're going to have to break off eventually. I go ahead and plan to escape with Elijah and go off and pray that it doesn't come down to the two of us.

By now, the hot, blazing desert is behind us, and we are back in the heavily wooded forest. Branches crack and twigs snap as we step over them, as we make our way through the heavily wooded area.

"We should probably think up a place to make camp," Elijah remarks. Looking at everybody, I can see that we all are exhausted and looks like they've been through shock, which they have. I take a moment to appreciate the cleverness of the game makers: putting all these dramatic landscape changes every mile. It really eats away at your body and causes a lot of shock.

"I dunno," says Fish after a long silence.

"Maybe we should go to the Cornucopia. See if anyone's hanging out over there," I say, jumping over a large trunk that's fallen.

"That sounds like a good idea," Sadie says. She steps over the trunk as well. "Hopefully, we have enough water to last us a while," she murmurs to herself. I take a look around at what we're carrying, and I see One, two, three, four . . . five gallon containers of water.

Man up. You'll have enough. I almost jump and scream, but I then realize that my father is speaking to me again, and it's all I can do to say SHUT UP! Back to him.

What did you just say, Missy? He asks, but I try to ignore him. Word of advice. The fates have been around, and not-so-pretty stuff has been predicted. Just follow your instincts, and hopefully you'll come out.

But what about Elijah? I ask back. That was meant to be a rhetorical question, but he replies anyways.

But what about Elijah? What about you? He says, and I have a feeling our conversation is over.

Eventually, the heavy woods morph themselves into long meadows of tall, green, beautiful grass as we continue on our hike to the Cornucopia.

I hope something interesting happens soon. The audience is probably getting bored! I think to myself. I wonder what they will do next to us. I just pray that we find another tribute.

We wade through the sea of tall green grass some more, but nothing really interesting happens until Sadie says, "SHH!"

It takes a couple of seconds, but eventually, I can hear somebody. Someone walking. I draw my knife, and Fish motions us to crouch down in the grass so nobody can see us.

The ground is flat, and there is warm dirt everywhere surrounding the grass. Crouching down, I try and make myself as small as possible, and pray that I am seen as a giant mosquito.

I look over at my fellow allies, and I make a face that tries to say Let's make this entertaining. Everyone else nods a yes, as if they get my message.

Suddenly, the quiet walking stops. I look around, and 20 yards away, I see someone. She looks around and luckily doesn't see us. She's not necessarily walking towards us, but she still doesn't see us.

We slowly and soundlessly creep towards her, army crawl style, hopefully being hidden by the tall grass that reaches about 3 feet off the ground.

We are now about 10 yards from the girl I now recognize as the District 5 Female. Elijah looks around at us, and mouths Three. Two. One. He then yells, "NOW!" and we all jump up, weapons drawn, and we start running towards her.

It's not that she is a fast runner, it's that we have a hoard of stuff. We all make a semi-circle around her, trying to catch her, and we aren't successful.

Three minutes of constant bolting, we see a gold glimmer in the distance. The Cornucopia. It gets closer: Fifty yards. Thirty yards. Ten yards.

We all drop our stuff and District 5 plunges into the lake that surrounds the plates that we were held for sixty-seconds at the beginning of the games.

Big mistake. Now that we have District 4 on our side, and all our weight holding us down gone, we have the advantage. Clearly, she can kind of swim okay, but of course Sadie and Fish catch her in about ten seconds, with Crystal, Elijah, and I close behind them.

We drag the girl to the little island with the Cornucopia. My stomach is churning, because we need to make this entertaining, and I hate to see her screaming and kicking. "Please! Please!" She begs. She has only one spear, but that is no good compared to five knives, an axe, a bow and arrow, another spear, a trident, and a sword.

Crystal knocks her down on her back and knocks her spear out of her hand. I look away. I hear a scream and a few tense moments of her last breaths. She makes one final whimper, and then she is silent. I know that she is now dead.

Crystal retrieves her knife, and a canon goes off. She has a smug look on her face as she sheaths her knife again. She turns to us.

"Well, I vote we set up camp over there," pipes up Sadie.

"That seems good," says Elijah. Fish, Sadie, and I agree without saying anything.

"Come on, guys. Let's let the game makers get her body," Fish says. Everyone clears out and swims back to the meadows, but I stay back. I want to grab her spear while I can.

I set my spear down and pick this one up. I am shocked by what it looks like. Just by looking at it, I know the head of the spear is half steel, half celestial bronze. I see the familiar shine of Celestial bronze, and I decide to try it out.

I poke the Celestial Bronze side of the blade, and it makes a small cut in my finger, and I see a drop of shining blood come from my finger.

I now poke the Celestial Bronze side of the blade to the dead District 5 Girl. It passes straight through and stops on the mortal steel side.

"It's like Elijah's sword," I mumble. Half Celestial Bronze, half Mortal Steel. I guess the fates are really liking me today.

"Elise!" Get over here!" Elijah yells. Everyone's already swam back. I drop my old spear on the ground, and swim back. I can hear the sound of a helicopter coming in and it comes and takes her body. We make camp.

You know, after this kid named Luke had a sword like that, everyone has something like that. There's only about 30 or 40 of those kinds in the entire world. They're not that common Dad tells me. I smile, and say, "Thanks." It feels nice that he's talking to me. I just wish he would talk to me forever.

Yay! A nice sized chapter for my epic return. Herest thou goest.