*6th of August A/N* I will publish tomorrow, or the day after maybe! I've got 2 new fanfics planned, one on Johanna, and a long, Harry Potter one, but I'm doing the next chapter of this first, don't worry!

Disclaimer - I own an EasyNote TK Packard Bell. I am extremely happy about this. I do not own the Hunger Games. I am extremely unhappy about this.

Talking

By the time I've finished making my way up to the cliff path, darkness has returned, and with it, stabbing pains of hunger and thirst. When was the last time I ate something? It seems like years, and the dry sensation at the back of my throat reminds me that I need to drink too.

I'll do that tomorrow though, after what happened last night, I'll wait until dawn here, those things really put me off sleeping out in the open. But how could I sleep at all then? An idea hits me, though it's more of a theory. Cliffs have caves right? So I just need to walk along this path until I find somewhere to stay, a cave hopefully.

I pull the rope ladder up before I go off to find the aforementioned cave, and tuck it into my black backpack. The cliffs around here seem empty enough, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I don't want someone finding the rope and realising that someone's around here while I look for a cave. Even if they're not Careers or other murder-fuelled tributes, they might take the rope ladder, and I spent all of yesterday making it and I don't really find the idea of losing it an attractive one.

I decide to move west, towards the Cornucopia. The east had those undead things, and I really don't want to encounter them again, even if I end up facing a Career, or the whole pack. Something tells me that I do not want to be hurt by the undead ones, as I now call them, and I could always stab myself couldn't I?

Nice, pleasant thoughts I have, aren't they?

The night's air is cold again, not unlike winter nights back in District 4, which is quite a warm place for most of the year, except when a hurricane hits, or in the dead of winter.

Then again, back home I wouldn't venture out in shorts and a tank top like the things I'm wearing now. I shiver slightly, the sea breeze not helping me warm up. The wind has definitely increased in velocity since yesterday, and I beginning to wonder whether the Gamemakers want me to get blown off the edge to die in the sea.

It's hard to believe it's only been 2 days, (well, more like 1 and a half)and yet in that short space of time my life got utterly ruined, along with my arm. I glower at it, as if staring at it hard enough could fix the damage the knife did.

Sadly, it doesn't.

Just last week I was still in District 4, on the beach with my friends, (and two working hands) wondering who would have their life ruined the next week, assuming that it would be a Career, an idiot who seemed to enjoy killing and being killed. But a Career wasn't chosen to go to the game, a bumbling idiot was.

Guess who that bumbling idiot was!

Correct

Why's it always me?

After about half an hour of walking, I can see the forest ahead, along with occasional glimpses of movements that could either be of Tributes or Animals. Or those weird undead things that attacked me two nights ago. I shiver, even though the temperature is high, and I'm covered in sweat now, both from me being way too unfit, and due to the heat.

I'm in the open here, and I push myself against the cliff wall, and edge along, hoping that no one has chosen this moment to look up. It's day time so it wouldn't take super senses to spot me, though getting to me would be hard enough.

I try to remember if there was a bow in the Cornucopia, but none comes to mind. That means the spears and the throwing knives, and I've already been hit by a knife, and I'm in no real rush to do so again.

Speaking of the Cornucopia…

The place seems empty, but you can never be sure with Careers, and in most of the hunger games I've seen they've set up camp there. It could be a trap then, and if so, they'll be nearby.

That probably means that they'll be able to see me up here, on this narrow ledge.

Immediately, I flatten myself to it, and increase my pace, while still facing outwards, looking for a glint from a sword; or a knife being thrown my way. I've been pretty lucky; no one's come near me so far in the games, excluding the arm I keep whinging about. The games might be beginning to be boring if I'm unlucky though, and that means death. Hopefully there's a death soon.

I just wished for someone to die.

I just did.

And I don't even feel that bad about thinking it.

They'll be time for philosophical thinking tomorrow, or the day after, or when I lose the games and am waiting up near the pearly gates. Now, just think about winning these games and getting home in one piece. Preferably with two working arms attached on each side.

I scowl at my arm again.

Thankfully, I make it round the Cornucopia, without being spotted (I think and hope) and I continue forward, quicker now, to try and get out of sight as quickly as possible. That involves getting off this damn cliff, something made hard by my limp arm, and near impossible by the sweat that covers my other arm, leaving it slippy and not the best gripping tool in the metaphorical box. I just hope that if I make it far enough away from the Cornucopia, the path will lower to the ground, and then I can go find water.

I glance behind me again, the nagging sensation of being watched niggling at the back of my brain again, even though I know no one could possibly be following me, could they? I try not to think of that, and keep walking, watching the trees disappear into the distance, the wide plain with a river separating the two. The same river that separated me from the Cornucopia in the first place. A roaring sound is loud here too, leading me to believe that I am near the waterfall, and that maybe the path will lower me down there.

My intuition seems to be right (for the first time ever) and the path bends downwards, stopping about 100 feet away from the great waterfall I saw at the beginning.

I couldn't feel its true power when I was back at the Cornucopia.

The thundering is immense, and I probably could make out its yell from where I slept last night, if I knew what I was listening out for. Not only that, but the water is spraying out, soaking me even though I stand quite a while away from it. I wonder vaguely about moving closer, but decide against it. I can hardly breathe as it is, and it wouldn't be the best way to go, drowning in spray.

It's above 'murder by Career' though.

Just.

I walk away from it, towards the small pool that it feeds into, and glance around, checking for other people before I stop for water. The scenery seems lonely enough, but one can never be sure, right? I throw the rucksack onto one shoulder, and grab the bottle out with my left hand, ignoring the stabbing pains this produces. I need my right hand for holding the spear. I then bend down, and fill the bottle to the brim, before carefully sticking it back into the backpack and zipping it up.

I chuck it back onto my back in case I have to run for it, and lean over into the pool.

Okay, I admit it now that it was a stupid idea to do that. Did I have any idea what could have happened? No, I just leaned over and jumped into the water! So many bad things could have happened to me! I get angry just thinking about what I did now. I can think of 3 different bad things that could have occurred due to my stupidity!

Bad thing 1 – Mutts. Why didn't I think of the mutts? I'd just faced off 11 of them two nights ago, and got injuries from the meeting too. The Gamemakers put Mutts everywhere! There could have been anything in that pond! Sharks, plesiosaurs, mutant dolphins, piranhas, sharks again, poisonous frogs, bloody sharks again! Hell, some of those aren't even mutants! And I just leap in there, without thinking? With 1 and a half arms? I'm lucky I don't have massive gaping wounds from bites all over my body!

Another awful thing that could have occurred 2 –Water is not plain H20, it's got all kinds of invisible little deadly things in it (not to mention the sharks). Bacteria is in that stuff, and I didn't jump in for the pleasure of it, I did it to have a nice drink now. Which could have poisoned me. Come to think of it, I'll have to risk it with the bottled stuff too now, unless I get Iodine pills from a sponsor, which seems unlikely due to my idiocy which probably lessened the chances of me being sponsored by anyone with some sort form of self-preservation instinct.

A final reason why I am a total arsehole and it is surprising how I am still alive to shout at myself at the moment 3 – I can't only fear nature and Gamemakers here, (despite how terrifying sharks are). There are Careers here, who could have been sitting at the edge of the pool, just waiting for me to jump in, so they could jump on me and kill me in the pool. It's a big water source, and they're not total idiots, they must know that a water source like this might attract attention. And so I leapt into the trap like the idiot I am.

Luckily for me, none of those things happened. (Much). Instead what did happen was this:

I feel at home again, in the water of the pool, and I open my mouth and take huge gulps of the water as I swim. It's nice to cool down in here, after the humidity and heat of the air surrounding the pool. The water's like a massive ice pack to me. I drift for a bit, feeling more alert than ever, the cold and the water helping me regain the focus I need to stay alive for a few more days (and hopefully, years). I roll onto my front, and see multi-coloured fish darting about in the water, not even bothering to stay away from me. They'd be easy to catch. I wonder vaguely about doing that, and finding something to eat. The only thing I've eaten in 2 days is a packet of nuts and the grumbling of my stomach is almost louder than my grumbling about my arm

Almost.

They'd be so easy to catch, drifting about, unaware of the danger that could kill them at any second. Feeling safe just because they're in the water, where they belong. False illusions of saf…

Did I just describe exactly what I was doing?

Saying some pretty descriptive swear words, I leap out the water, running to the shore, practically sloshing with the water I have drunk. As I make to run, a wave of nausea rolls over me, caused either by the water or the concussion, and I vomit, sending runny vomit everywhere, along with any food I had just eaten. It's lucky I didn't eat, or it'd all be on the floor now, wasted. I steady myself, still clutching my only weapon, and stand there, looking to see if anyone is watching me (after glancing in the pond to check for fucking sharks!) Luckily, I seem to be alone. I exhale loudly, and turn to the pool again, when a *rustle* hits my ears from behind me.

I spin around, holding the spear up high, my heart pumping hard.

I don't want to kill, and I hope I won't have to.

Trying to sound confident, I say "Who's there?"

It comes out more like a croak, my voice weakened through lack of voice, but luckily that only serves to make me sound crazier, hopefully covering for the lack of murder on my part so far. Maybe I won't have to kill this person, whoever they are?

Another rustle, followed by a louder one, as a small figure crawls out from around the bush, his hands in the air. As soon as I recognise him I let the spear fall to my side.

His short blond hair has been dirtied, leaving it half brown. One whole side is a dark ochre, leading me to believe he spent the last two nights lying on the mud. I almost pity him, but that's before I remember how I spent the last two nights doing. Fighting undead ones and refusing to fall asleep respectively. He seems shorter than I remember him, but that's probably because I just pointed a spear at him, and I know I'd try to shrink myself to nothing if someone did that to me.

"Going to break your pact Aal?" he asks

I smile at Dou, glad to see him alive even though I know he wasn't dead. There haven't been any deaths since the bloodbath and his face wasn't up in the sky. He looks saddened by something, and I'm about to ask what when I realise that it would be a stupid question. I'm in the Arena too, and I know what he's been through.

"Rough time?" I ask him, sitting down beside the pool, wondering about fishing again.

He nods, and with another jolt, I remember Demeter, and her face lighting up the sky.

"What happened to her?" I say softly "Did you see it?"

He shakes his head "We said we'd go south whatever happened, and leave the Cornucopia alone, we're not idiots, we know that the bloodbath's, well, a bloodbath. So I ran south like we said we would, just far enough away to see what was going on, and waited for someone to run out of the battle this way, but nobody did. Then you came, and I saw them chasing you, you went off into the sea. She didn't come, so I hid in a bush for a night. I thought she'd come later, and then I saw her face in the sky."

His face becomes bitter as he continues his story.

"I bet she ran straight into the fight. She told me the night before that… well… she didn't come to training and she'd sort of given up."

The idea of her killing herself makes the idea of her death worse, especially as I can't say I haven't wondered about it up to now. I was even joking about it this morning.

And Demeter did it.

I put my arm around Dou, wincing as his back touches the bandage I made for myself. I can positively hear the Capitol audience screaming through the TV sets, telling Dou to run, or baying for his blood. Probably the latter.

I feel awkward doing this, and I remove the arm a second or two later.

"Do you want something to eat?" I ask, trying to change the topic. I don't even have any food.

He nods and I gaze around for something to eat.

"Wait a second" I say, before walking back to the pond, more carefully now, holding the spear out in case of sharks. I peer at the water, and see one of the fish I saw earlier. I poise myself, and thrust the spear at the fish. A spurt of red informs me that I have struck my target. I lean forward and pick up the fish, placing it on the ground by the pond and going back again.

After 10 minutes I have a small pile, and I walk over to the scared looking Dou, and chuck 3 of them at him. They hit him in the face and he jumps visibly. Maybe not the best idea then.

"Have them" I say, biting into the others. I feel slightly guilty about taking most of the food for myself. I try to quash the thought. He wouldn't have anything if it wasn't for me. I think, trying to justify it.

We sit in silence as we eat, and I'm just getting started on my last fish (Dou still eating his slowly) when Dou puts his food down, and speaks.

"I'm not allying with you"

I nod, pretending to understand, as silence falls again. A few seconds later, the silence is broken again, but by me this time.

"Why though?" I say, before adding "I mean, you'd-we'd be safer together"

He raises an eyebrow. "You mean I'd be safer. You're wondering why I'd turn up you for an ally, when you got the same score as most of the Careers, higher than me by far."

I nod sheepishly.

"I don't want to see anyone die" he says simply "If I'm with you, I'll have to"

He sees my raised eyebrow and continues hastily "I mean, you would kill if you had to, or if it was closer to the end"

I jerk my head towards the sky, and he quickly adds "or maybe if you, you know, went mad"

I roll my eyebrows at his feeble lie, and gesture at him to continue.

"I don't want to see anyone die, even if it means I'll die myself. I doubt I could win these games even if I was trying, and so isn't it better not to try? I'd be a burden to you, and don't you try to deny it."

I swallow my last fish, and turn to him. "What did Demeter do in training?"

He seems surprised at the change in discussion, but answers the question anyway.

"She went to the edible plants section, the one she spent most of her time at during the training, and took all the flowering plants, and made a bouquet." He smiles at the memory. "I told her she could get a 7 or 8, with her snares, but she said she'd rather get a low score and die then become one of their slaves."

I look up at the skies in fear. No one says anything like that in the games! When no poisonous gas appears, my heart rate returns to normal speed. Maybe tributes often say that sort of thing, but they just cut it off. I'm hoping they won't try and hurt us because of what he said.

We sit by the pond for a bit longer, discussing home in our district, and how this Arena reminds so much of home.

After some more idle small talk, I can tell that we're running out of things to discuss, and we return to silence, listening to the wind blowing across the plains, and the all-powerful sound of the waterfall, still thundering loudly.

"I should go" he says, looking towards the forest again. "Thanks for the fish"

"I'll go too" I say, looking in the other direction, back at the waterfall, and at the path behind it. We stand up and start to move away from each other.

"So long" I say to him as he walks away.

"Thanks for all the fish!" He replies, disappearing into the forest.

I might never see him again.

I walk back to the path, and proceed to climb up onto it, the familiar sound of the waterfall increasing in intensity, as well as soaking me again.

Just after I've finally dried off from the pond incidence I think sadly, before becoming irritated at myself again. Remind me to kick myself if I ever try something as stupid as that again.

When I make my way along the path to the Cornucopia, I see smoke billowing from outside the golden cone. So I was right, they did set up camp there. I was lucky I wasn't spotted by them, and even luckier that I decided to come via the path, and not swim over, they'd have seen me for sure, and I can't run to save my life!

Oh the irony.

I sneak by quietly, preparing to break into a clumsy run if someone leaves the tents that surround the Cornucopia. I can also see a silhouette of someone sitting outside the Cornucopia, keeping guard. They must be hunting at night and sleeping in the day. I squint at the figure, ruling out the person as either of the trolls. They're massive, and this person is smaller. Copia's pretty tall too, which leaves Kai and Nyx. This actually helps me relax quite a bit, and I stop squeezing myself against the rock, and move round to the point where the path turns, no longer following the land.

It's a narrow place, and if I was to fall off, this would probably be where it occurred. I didn't notice it much the last time I walked past, as I was too busy trying not to be seen. I put one leg across, along with my bad arm. I hope I won't need to use it. I'm sort of hugging the wall now, half of my body on either side of the angle. I'm just about to swing my leg across when.

*BOOM!*

I almost slip, but I catch myself just in time, and more or less throw myself at the sea ledge.

Why do they always go off when I'm almost about to fall off things?

"THAT'S IT!" I yell up at the sky, not even caring that the Careers can probably hear me. "SOMEONE UP THERE IS DEFINITELY LOSING THEIR ABILITY TO PROCREATE!" I kick the cliff angrily, before remembering what I said earlier, at the pond.

Remind me to kick myself if I ever try something as stupid as that again.

Ah…

I make my way back without much difficulty, and put the rope ladder against the rock again, to go fishing again, despite little warning alarms going off in my head. Astonishingly (sarcasm sign!), the alarm seems to sound exactly like a 17 year old girl screaming SHARKS, SHARKS, SHARKS, SHARKS, SHARKS, SHARKS! At the top of her voice. Which is what I feel like doing, but restraint is keeping that shout from escaping my lips.

I catch a fair few fish, (whilst looking out for the sharks) and wonder what the Capitol thinks of me at the moment. I let someone go. I could have killed Dou from the very beginning, and I didn't. I'm supposed to be some sort of perpetually-angry, psychotic, murdering loony, and I let some boy go, after giving him food, and letting him refuse to ally with me.

My sponsor levels must be even lower than they were yesterday when I disappointingly didn't murder any other teenagers in this place.

No, tributes. I can't let myself think of them as people like me. It's too late as far as Dou and Kai are concerned, I could only kill them if we were the only two left.

And even then…

I make my way up the rope ladder again, my arm feeling slightly better than it was this morning. Maybe it'll actually heal!

Another reason I haven't been getting any sponsors, this damn arm.

And my continual whinging about it.

Sunset.

I'm waiting for the people to appear in the sky right now, as I can't enter the cave until then. (Can't see the sky in a cave, duh!) Two cannons went off today, and I'm hoping Kai and Dou aren't either of the dead.

The anthem starts, and the first face fills up the sky. Hermes, the boy from 6. The only survivor so far who wasn't on my side of the river at the Cornucopia. Turns out the Gamemakers are fortune tellers then. I allow myself a smile as I realise that Kai and Dou are not dead. Or at least, not both of them.

I begin to hold my breath again as I prepare for another face to light up the sky.

I look up to see…

Hang on.

That can't be right…

AHAHAHAHA! Cliffhanger! Yes I'm evil, didn't you already know that from the (only) weekly updates? Good, now remember to review! OK? Now, I know it doesn't take long, but some people still don't do it, and I don't blame you, it can take effort sometimes and I often don't review. So, here's something that will really take 2 seconds, stolen from someone who I can't remember the name of. If you are them, please PM or Review and I'll give you credit.

Simple, copy and paste this review and then press review. It takes a second, and I won't judge you for doing it. I'd prefer it to no reviews.

Here it is!

Hello writer! I really like this story, and I'd love to tell you how much I love it, but I can't really find the time to write out my thoughts and feelings, but this is to let you know I read it, and liked it! Sorry I couldn't write one myself, but I still loved the story.
Sincerely, an avid reader!

Now don't you tell me it'd take too long to copy and paste that! You obviously didn't review because you hate me, *sob*!