Yes yes. I know. A day late. But I'm in the middle of a big move so things should be smooth sailing until the story's end. So lets not dwell on the past too much shall we? Happy Hunger games!

The next morning was met with more resistance than Korra had planned. They hadn't been attacked and they hadn't lost their supplies or anything. In fact it was exactly the opposite. Korra looked around her. Walls up to her chest made of thick, thorny brambles surrounded her. Beyond them sharpened branches widened their boarders even further. Trees blocked out the sky. And dotted around them small traps promised to take out an unlucky intruder with hardly any effort.

Why should they leave in the first place.

Mako was too focused on his goals. Reach the lake. Hunt the others. He pressed his agenda against hers like a soldier following orders. But Korra laid back against a tree within their little fort. If he wanted to leave he was welcome to. She however would stay. Catching the other tributes would be that much harder without her help. It took most of the morning and finally Mako settled near her with a heavy sigh.

Korra settled into making more traps. Mako started to help her in the beginning but instead left to gather more supplies. For a while Korra worried that he might not come back. He did of course carrying wood, vines, and the fairly burned carcass of a rabbit. By the end of the night they were picking their teeth with the bones of the rabbit.

For the most part Mako preferred to work in silence. He sharpened branches, stocked the fire, prepared kills for cooking, and maintained the fort almost entirely without a single word. It hadn't exactly made Korra comfortable. It reminded her too much of their time in the training area when she doubted his every intention. Should she be doubting it now?

Korra practically forced him to talk to her as she helped him dress a squirrel. She was from the water tribe. Hunting and related practices came much more naturally to her than it did to him. Her father had made sure of that. But even she had to give him some kind of credit because he never had any hesitation when it came to burrowing his fingers into raw flesh. Weren't city boys squeamish?

For a time they switched places. Mako guarded the supplies and the fort while making a few traps to set around while Korra hunted for more supplies and food. Korra admired Mako's precision when it came to hunting. Most of his kills were made by a shot of flame through the chest. Clean of a kill as it was it tended to damage a lot of the meat though. Korra preferred a quick slice, a stream of water so sharp it cut through the throat in an instant.

The thought disturbed Korra how she was able to kill a squirrel or rabbit or even on a single instance a fox, without a second thought. If there was even the slightest hesitation it came more out of being sure her kill was clean then doubting her actions. Yet not a night went by that she didn't see Tukun's brother dying under her. Why were humans so difficult?

On the fourth day they ran out of drinking water. For a while Korra was worried their only option would be to head for the lake again. Korra could hardly stand the idea. How many little traps had she scattered around here? She had lost count, and all would go to waste. Korra spent half the morning waiting for the argument to start up as Mako set to digging a hole. She almost laughed at it until he showed her the water under the surface of the soil pooling. There was more than enough she could bend and supply them until the end of the games if she had to.

After the fifth day a cannon echoed through the trees. When night came Korra watched the leaves above their shelter nervously until the capitol displayed the image of the girl from district seven. Wei was alright. At least for one more day.

"Tell me about your brother?" Korra finally said after the girl's face disappeared. If the two kept going in this quiet she was going to lose her mind.

Mako shrugged as he settled into a little bed made of the tiny pelts of their kills. They weren't as soft as the ones her mother prepared, and the scent of death still clung to some of their furs, but Korra had done her best. "He's a brother." Mako finally answered, "He can be annoying and naïve, but hes a good kid. Takes after our dad more."

"Is he a firebender? You know, like you?"

"An earthbender actually." Mako shook his head, "He's better than he realizes but he's too nice for these games. He doesn't have it in him to kill someone. It'd tear him apart."

Korra's heart sank at his words. A person who couldn't kill didn't belong in the games. She almost didn't even hear when Mako asked, "What about your girl? Asami, you said her name was?"

"Actually there's a different girl I've been worried about."

"Don't you save any girls for the boys in your tribe?"

Korra smiled. "No, she's not a girlfriend. But she is my best friend. Her name's Naga. So far though you're the only one I've told about her. Not even my parents know about her."

"They do now." Mako reminded her pointing up to the trees. "Besides, why keep the secret? Is she from some other, rival water tribe?" He even waved his arms a bit in mocking, sarcastic worry.

"Actually, worse. She's a polar bear dog."

"That's not possible," Mako told her. He leaned forward and rested his head on his knuckles.

"Who are you to tell me what's possible? You've never met her."

"I don't have to meet a polar bear dog to know about them. They're untamable."

"Naga's just, well she's different. When I met her she was just a cub. Now she's grown and I know she looks big and scary but she's just as sweet as any domestic dog."

"So does Naga know where you are right now? Or what she's going to do when you don't come back?"

"Who said I wasn't?" Korra hoped she sounded just as confident as her first day standing at the justice building.

"I guess you'll have to explain this conversation to mommy and daddy when you get home then won't you?"

"Maybe it's easier this way. I would hate for a hunter to take a shot at her before I got to show her to the tribe. She's had some pretty close calls."

"Bolin, my brother, he has a fire ferret." Mako added as if the two things compared, "Named it Pabu."

"Well if Naga and I ever go to Republic City I'll make sure she doesn't eat him."

"I think Bolin'd like that." Mako chuckled, "It's too late for this. Head off to sleep. I'll take first watch."

The morning came with a snap. A scream. A girl. Definitely a girl. Mako was on his feet, fire already burning. Korra summoned water from their little well. The girl from eight was dangling just outside their fort. Her leg was caught in one of the traps Korra had placed. She thrashed and swung to try to grab the tendril that held her. The thorns kept her grip from holding.

"Good call on the thorns." Korra complimented as she watched.

"It wouldn't matter without the snare itself." Mako returned. Korra felt something warm in her face as he praised her. A pride that swelled in her chest. All of it went cold when he continued on, "Do you want to take this one then?"

Korra looked up at the girl. She had a rough face, dirty, and her eyes were wild and fearful. Korra wanted to take the water in her hands and slash it across her throat. It would have been easy. As easy as the rabbits she caught yesterday. She didn't have the same eyes of a rabbit. Instead she turned to Mako and said "You haven't gotten anyone this whole game. Why don't you take this one?"

Korra stepped back to watch the firebender from district four make his first kill of the games. It was one strong punch. Fire burst from his hand. It did not even hit the tribute but instead snapped the vine that held her. With a shriek she fell to the ground head first. There was a snap and then she was still. A cannon fired and Mako only nodded.

"So that's it?" Korra forced her voice to be even. "Do we just go back to bed?" She turned around when Mako grabbed her arm.

"Wait." He said, "Do you hear anything?"

Korra tilted her head. She could hear wind and leaves but nothing out of the ordinary

"No?"

"Normally the game makers would take her body wouldn't they? But they're not. Can you think of why?"

Korra looked up and pointed, "How do you plan on flying an airship through the trees?"

"You've seen the games before. Kills happen in forests and closed buildings all the time. Do you really think a tree would stop them?"

"Ok, that's my idea. How about you come up with something better team captain?"

"What if," Mako stopped. His head snapped to one side. Had he heard something Korra hadn't, "What if they're hoping to take more than one tribute with them?"

"How? Is someone-" She wouldn't need to finish asking. She was answered by the way he lurched. He groaned and collapsed in pain. His hand gripped his side where a knife had been lodged. Blood welled around the injury dripping down his skin and clothes.

"Mako!" Korra's first thought was to run to him. Maybe she couldn't catch him, he had already collapsed onto the ground. Maybe with her bending she could heal him and fast. How deep was his injury?

Korra was stopped by the boy who had thrown the knife to begin with. The boy from district seven, strong looking and tall. His face had already grown the first signs of hair since she had first seen him in the training arena. He had the shoulders of a district seven boy, broad and thick with arms to match. He tried to hold her with those arms, pin her to the side of a tree.

Korra spun, twisting his grip and shaking him off. She pushed him with his momentum towards their fort. He stumbled and dropped to one knee before he would have hit the wall of thorns. He lashed out with an arm and the thorns came to life.

Korra gasped as the vines that had once promised to protect her wrapped around her wrist. The tiny little hooks dug into her bare skin. As the plantbender slowly closed his fist the vines tightened around her. Unbalanced Korra fell to one side and Eight retreated into the fort.

With his grip on her lessened Korra lashed out with her bending water to tear the vines off of her. With a roar Korra charged after him into the fort. There she found him crouched over their supply packs tearing out its contests one at a time.

"There's no food in there if that's what you're looking for." Korra said smugly.

His head snapped up and he glared at her in surprise. Did he really not expect her to break out of his little thorn trap? "I've never had the chance to plantbend before," Korra laughed as she twisted her arms. Out of her drinking hole a stream of water encircled the tribute before encasing her in ice. "Lets see how good you are with ice swamp boy."

"Better than you." He snapped, melting it just as Korra charged. She decided not to bother holding back at all. She threw her entire body against him, wrapping her arms around his chest and clinging to him as they both tumbled backwards. For a moment Korra could not even tell which of them had the upper hand. He was just as focused on getting away from her as he was beating her. Korra only wanted to win this round.

Korra felt her chest heaving when she felt him heavily hit the ground under her. One of her hands pressed the side of his head against the ashes of her fire pit. He thrashed and wiggled under her and screamed obscenities. Korra only held him there. What was she supposed to do now? Kill him?

While Korra hesitated he twisted in a way Korra didn't expect. He lashed out with a hand that felt more like claws. Nails trailed over her face. Korra winced as she felt her skin grow hot.

He scrambled away in a desperate panic. When he was a few feet away he turned and looked at her. Both of them only watched each other. His green eyes looked confused, fearful even. "What?" he turned and bolted out of the fortress like a rabbit out of a trap.

"Hey!" Korra shouted and gave chase. The hunt was slower in the forest. Every branch tried to slow her down. Dead leaves slipped under her feet. She couldn't stop though, and neither would the boy apparently.

"Get away!" He shouted over his shoulder after he cleared a fallen log. "Get away! I don't want to hurt you!"

"That's not going to work," Korra panted calling his bluff. He did have to die one way or another right?

"No! Stop! I don't want-" His pleas were cut off very suddenly as his body disappeared from view entirely. Korra skidded to a halt just before she tumbled over the same edge that claimed him.

A wide pit opened in front of her. The walls of it were enforced by the roots of the surrounding trees. They formed a thick, knotted wall and a crooked stairway stretched from one end. The middle of it looked clean enough. It was nothing more than damp soil and a few curled up ferns scattered across it. The swampbender was collapsed in a pile of strewn debris that must have once kept his little home secret. How long had he been buried under soil like a spider waiting for some unsuspecting tribute to cross him? Now he had fallen into his own trap and his body was broken in several places. Korra doubted that he could even walk.

Korra just stayed there at the edge for too long. A whip could end his pain quickly. She had done it before when one of the hunting dogs were injured after a particularly dangerous outing. Korra closed her eyes and flicked her wrist. The water whip lashed down at him but what struck him wasn't much more than a cold splash.

"I'm sorry you have to feel this way." Korra said, she felt like she should say something. Otherwise she was just standing at the edge of a hole while her prey suffered. Did he think she was taunting him, gloating over her victory? This had to be a nice show for the capital, seeing him slowly bleed out. She could fight him, make him bleed, break his bones, but she couldn't take his life.

"It doesn't matter." He whimpered, "You have to win this….. The spirits . . . I can feel the spirits."

Korra left him to his babbling. If the spirits could help him die more peacefully then so be it. Korra didn't know much about them at all. Some avatar she was.

She headed back to where she left mako. He hadn't moved much since he had been injured. His breath was shallow and he pressed against his injury with one hand. The blade still stuck into his side through his fingers. Take it out and the blood would only be worse. His face was already pale enough. Korra debated using the water from their drinking hole to heal him, but perhaps it was best to finish him here. At the very least she didn't have to help him did she?

No, that wasn't in the plan. She needed him still, just for now. But that little amount of drinking water might not be enough. Once that knife was removed there would be more blood than she could handle. Maybe if she could find more water she could control it.

Korra hooked Mako's arm over her shoulders and heaved him to his unsteady feet. He groaned as he tried to balance himself doing an understandably poor job. Korra hooked her fingers around his belt to keep him standing. She was almost dragging him just as much as leading him through the forest.

"Is he gone?" Mako finally managed to say through his pain.

"Yeah. All taken care of." Korra told him.

"I didn't hear a cannon."

"Maybe they couldn't?" Korra changed their directions. She could hear the faintest sound of running water. It wasn't a lake like Mako said, a small river cut through the trees. The water looked dirty in some places but Korra found a small place beside a tiny waterfall where she could place Mako. Here she could remove the blade. The nearby birds flew away from his screams when she pulled it out. Maybe they should have given him something to bite.

Blood welled from the gash in his abdomen and soaked into his clothes. Korra pushed his shirt out of the way as she let the glowing healing water pass over the injury. Slowly discolored grey and purple skin became pale. As she worked the blood leaked into the water, staining it and making it dark.

Mako stopped her process as he struggled to stop the bleeding. She could heal most of the injury, but as long as the blood flooded out of him she could not seal his skin together again. With shaking hands Mako lit a small flame between two outstretched fingers. The moment his flame touched his skin pain erupted from his mouth. Korra bunched his dirty and bloodied shirt and forced it into his mouth. He bit down on the fabric but silence never came. Korra moved behind him to support his head as he burned his injury shut. When finally it was sealed she could use her bending again to compete the healing process. Weeks of healing had passed in a few painful moments.

"I guess I owe you one don't I?" He mumbled. His head fell back almost into his lap. While the fear was gone with the wound he still didn't have the energy to stand. But color was slowly returning to his skin. "Thanks."

"You don't have to mention it." A cannon finally boomed. Once its echo died a second one fired.

"I'm guessing that's him?" Mako asked, "The guy you didn't kill?"

"You should drink something." Korra lifted the water from the stream in one cupped hand and held it to his lips. He drank a few sips before pushing her hand away.

"You don't have to lie to me you know?" Mako said, "I already know you can't kill."

Long chapter this time . . . . review and stuff.