Author's Note: So it's my birthday today and as promised here is Chapter Seventeen. This chapter is sort of building things up chapter, not too much happens in it, but its building up certain thing that will happen later on. But it is a relatively short chapter so I might post Chapter Eighteen today or tomorrow.

Chapter Seventeen

"Why did we even come up here?" Jeopardy was complaining as we started off the next morning, trudging along the forest edge.

"No reason." Came Jade's reply and I watched tiredly as Jeopardy seethed.

"No reason? We travelled through that creepy forest for no reason?!"

"Yes."

"Jep!" Serendipity and I both said, trying to calm the blonde boy down before he did something stupid. We could all see that was exactly what Jade wanted.

"So where are we going now?" Serendipity ventured once she was sure that her twin wasn't going to do something that he'd quickly regret.

"Back to the lake." Merle said, glancing at Cole and Jade who both shrugged. He glanced at me who looked back at him tiredly, "we need more water and food." I nodded and went back to staring at my feet.

I hadn't slept well last night, probably only got maybe three hours of sleep all up and I was exhausted. My own fault, but my mind wouldn't allow me to rest; it just replayed the horror of last night over and over again inside my head.

"But that was where that weird roaring noise came from last night." Serendipity reminded us. We paused for a moment before pressing on.

"What do you think it was?" Sera asked me.

I shrugged, how was I to know?

"Not a mutt," I could hear her whispering to herself, "Don't let it be a mutt. Hate mutts!"

I was so glad when we arrived at the lake's edge just after midday. Even though I was nervous as Sera about the roaring from last night, seeing water again made me feel more like me again.

I cup my hands into the water and take a sip. It's still as sweet as it was the other day.

I look around me, towards the middle of the lake and frowned.

What was…

I stood up and stared harder at the lake.

"What?" I heard Merle say from near me.

I glance at him and he looked back at me questioningly.

"I just - I thought…"I trailed off when I looked back towards the middle of the lake and saw that the shadow that I had seen near the surface of the water was gone.

A cloud passing overhead, maybe?

No, there was something in the water, something very big to cast such a shadow.

"Never mind." I say and we start walking along the beach towards an outcrop of rocks that go out into the lake, a good spot for fishing.

I was surprised that the others actually let me spend time to make several fishing rods to fish with, but I guess their hunger overruled their desire to hunt down tributes.

Of course it wouldn't be until dusk before we actually got any food, since fish aren't overly active in the day time, so after I made my rods, Merle and I set up more traps in the forest to catch rabbits with.

While we did this I saw the first signs of other tributes. I mean besides the three I saw last night, but I wasn't thinking about them. I refused to.

I crouched down by an already set up trap near the lake and gulped before shaking my head and moving away from it. Merle was a little distance from me but as he hadn't noticed the trap and I wasn't about to bring it up we continued on setting up our traps before heading back to the lake. It was dusk by the time we got back and I went and sat on one of the rocks that went deep out into the lake.

I set my lines up, baiting them and casting each just how my father had taught me so many years ago, before turning my attention to watching the Merle, Cole and oddly enough Jeopardy spear fishing in the shallows. So far, Merle was the only one who had caught anything and it was too tiny to eat.

I enjoyed simply sitting there, my bare feet dipped in the water, watching the sunset dance upon the lake's surface, feeling the breeze in my hair. I almost felt like I was back home. Almost… the lack of salty smell and the cry of seabirds were a constant reminder that I was far, far away from home.

I was almost drifting off to sleep when I noticed that one of my lines was straining. I moved forward, ready to wind in my catch when the rod was suddenly ripped from my hands. I took a step back as I watched in disbelief as each one of my carefully crafted fishing rods were violently pulled into the lake.

What?

Then I noticed the shadow, closer this time and moving steadily towards the shore where the boys were still spear fishing.

What was it? A Mutt?

I had never seen an underwater mutt before, at least not one that looks as big as this one did!

"Look out!" the scream erupted from my throat before I had time to think better of it.

Merle looked my way in confusion but when he saw the huge shadow in the water, moving towards him and the other two he was bolting for the shore, Jeopardy hot on his heels. Only Cole stayed in the water, raising his spear, his face filled with determination to face whatever was coming.

"Run Stupid!" I yelled at him.

He ignored me and threw his spear with the strength that I could only dream to have.

I staggered back on my rock at the unearthly screech that came after Cole's spear embedding itself into the shadow.

"COLE!" I yell as I watched a huge, grey and blue tentacle suddenly shoot out of the water and grab him around the waist and start to yank him away from the shore.

I can hear the others yelling in shock and fear, but Cole remains strangely calm and continues to fight against the huge tentacle, stabbing it with his knife. But the tentacle was stronger than him, its width the size of his torso almost and it clearly did not like being stabbed.

With a loud yell he was dragged into the lake.

I stared in horror as I watched him being pulled pass where I was standing and without a thought of just how stupid I was about to be, how I really should just let the boy die so that I can have a greater chance of surviving these games. These thoughts didn't enter my mind until afterwards, right now I was filling my lungs with air and running for the edge of the huge rock I was standing on, performing a perfect dive into the lake's water.

It was natural to be in the water again, natural to swim. Swimming was the only thing I'm good at, only thing I'm truly proud about myself.

I swam after the shadow and after Cole, who I can see is still fighting against the tentacle that is holding him, but I can see he's already lost most of his strength and that he's running out of air.

I waved at him to stop, to stay calm as I pulled my long knife that I had strapped to my back… it was meant for beheading the big fish I had been hoping to catch but now seemed like a better use for it.

I won't go into just how hard it is to try and cut a huge, living, slimy thing in water, but I was at least annoying it enough to make it shove us to the surface and loosen its grip on Cole so that I could pull him free.

"Can you swim?" I ask as he spewed up water and gasped for air.

"COLE!" I say loudly because he's blue in the face and I think he's close to falling unconscious, "can-you-SWIM?"

A very weak shake of his head.

Oh, wonderful.

And… oh.

I felt something slimy and strong wrap itself around my ankle. Trying to stay calm, I don't move, all the while trying to keep myself and Cole afloat. Not an easy task when the guy is twice my size. The slippery thing gets bored of my ankle and after a moment of continuing to remain motionless I start to swim cautiously, my strokes getting stronger and faster the closer I get to shore, dragging the half conscious Cole along with me.

When my feet are able to touch the bottom of the lake, I look behind me, to make sure I wasn't being followed by the mutt and I felt my heart stop.

Kraken.

It's a Kraken! They've made a Kraken!

A thing of myth and legend and the Capital has made one, just for these games.

"ANNIE! COME ON!"

It's only when I get to shore and have made sure that Cole is breathing alright and isn't about to die on me, which would be a quite a blow after the effect I put into saving him - as stupid as that was – did I look back towards the lake, towards the sea monster that I had feared as a child. A creature who wasn't even meant to be real and yet, there it was, swimming right in front me, its huge, ugly head bobbing up and down in the water, its tentacles moving about it.

It actually looked quite… peaceful. Maybe it was simply territorial and once we were out of its watery territory it now had no interest in us.

"That's a Kraken." I hear Merle say sounding as breathless as I felt, though our reasons behind our breathlessness are quite different. But still, I can't help but grin at him nor can he help grinning back.

Yes, this creature had terrified us children of District Four for generations, if we're not good the Kraken will come and get us, but actually seeing one, real and swimming before us, was simply… amazing is the only word I can thing to describe it.

The others however, didn't quite feel the same.

They wanted nothing more to do with lake, even though it was our only source of water that we knew of and they wanted to head back into the horrid forest, rather facing it and its silence than the creature in the lake.

"We don't even know if it eats meat. It may have been just curious about Cole." I grumbled as we start packing up our things. I don't really wanting to move as its getting dark and cold and I was still in wet clothes and basically I'm just happy where we are.

Yes, even with an enormous squid nearby, I was happy to stay where I was. But majority overruled me and we moved back into confines of the forest and built a camp within a small clearing that we found after half an hour of walking.

I was glad that the boys had caught as many fish as they had; I was too tired to go and check our snares or to go and hunt for any roots or fruits. I still had to cook the fish.

I ended up burning a few of them, but no one complained and ate all that I gave them, even though the fish was actually quite plain as I hadn't seasoned them with much of anything.

I even got thanked by Merle and the Twins. Cole was still fairly out of it but he took the food from me and even smiled. Jade didn't say anything but that was probably for the best.

I fell into an uneasy, heavy sleep, too tired to even think about the nightmares that were bound to visit me throughout the night.

Once again I woke up to find everyone asleep, that no one was standing guard and that the fire had become a low and dying embers.

I heard a faint crack nearby, too heavy for a rabbit or any forest dweller that I could think of and I doubted that the Kraken's tentacle could reach this far.

I sat up my heart pounding madly in my chest as I built up the fire once more before springing to my feet, my knife in hand.

But no one came, no one moved into the light of the fire, though I knew they were there. I could just feel it and at times I swear I could hear ragged breathing that weren't from the sleeping five around me.

I don't know how long I stood there waiting for someone to appear and attack me, but it was a long time as my legs ached when I finally sat back down by the fire. My back was to it and I stared out into the forest, into the darkness, feeling a sense of heaviness around me.

"I don't want to hurt you." I say out loud without even thinking, "I don't want to hurt anyone."

Still no one appears and I settle down a little, that is until I hear a distant cannon goes off and I hear the faint sound of running footsteps, running away from our camp.

"What was that?" Serendipity yelped out in fright. The others echo her bewilderment.

"Cannon." I say.

"But who?"

I shrugged.

"Maybe one of the kids who were hurt during the bloodbath…" I trail off shuddering. Dying from a deep, infected wound was not the way I would want to go, if that was how this tribute had in fact died.

I shuddered again. It took him or her three days to finally die.

Or, he or she could have been killed by another tribute or by a wild animal or mutt… I closed my eyes and shove the thoughts away.

I stay on watch for a little longer before Merle takes over for me and I fell once again into an uneasy sleep.

Author's Note: So I have a Kraken in my games. Did the Gamemakers throw it in to simply make things more interesting in the games or has it got something to do with Annie?
Just another heads up, just to let you all know before you actually read it, things from now on are going to get really, really dark after this chapter, starting with the next, like really dark. And will probably continue to do so for the rest of Part Two... things might change for a time in Part Three but I'm not going to tell you how because that just ruining the story.
Anyway, Hope you all enjoyed. Reviews are loved and its my birthday and yeah. Chapter Eighteen might possible be up soon, demanding.