So I skipped some time because nothing exciting happened. Okay with you guys? Anywho, I have a tally for how many chapters there are going to be, since I finished writing Through the Trees (YAY!) just now! There are going to be 25 chapters! I'm so excited! So, I've decided to host an unannouced (until now, anyway) and comepletely random marathon! I will have the last chapter up by today! YAY! After that I will begin a new project, but I don't think its going to be a Hunger Games one. It will most like be a Young Justice fanfiction because, at the moment, I LOVE THAT SHOW! So yes, be prepared for the epicness... XD
Nothing of any significance happened until Day Fourteen. Feral was recovering from her injuries she had acquired in the underground river. She could practically sense the growing impatience and boredom of their Capitol audience. She knew something was coming. And she was right.
It was early in the morning when she first noticed the earth growing damper. By noon the water in the swamp was two-inches deep and there was no dry land available. Her own uneasiness was growing in her stomach when the water level reached her ankles.
"Rowan," she said finally. She sat on a rock, her legs pulled to her chest trying to stay dry while her partner sat in the water weaving a net out of vines looking totally contempt with the rate at which it was rising. "We need to go to higher ground. I think the Gamemakers are going to flood the arena. The water keeps rising faster and faster. Pretty soon we are going to be underwater."
"So?" he asked, looking up from his net with a blank expression that made Feral's blood boil.
"So?" She repeated anger in her voice. "So I can't swim!"
"I don't think the water is rising too much," he said dismissively. "I mean think about the ocean. The water level rises and falls drastically every day. It's not a big deal. It's probably going to dry up in a little while. Don't get anxious."
What is he talking about? She thought. Shouldn't he be concerned that I'm going to die! Or… what if… that's what he wants…? Suddenly she rose to her feet. He looked up, surprised. "I'm leaving," she announced. "With or without you." Not waiting for a response, she slung her quiver over her shoulder and picked up her bow. She started splashing away through the water. He didn't follow her.
She was heading north, hoping that it would be dry there. She was up to her shins in murky H2O when the ground finally began to slope up. The water slowly faded out until she found herself making her way through dry, rolling hills. Out of impulse, she lay down in a bed of grass, relieved that she could finally lie down again and not get soaked to the bone.
However, she was alone. Her temporary happiness left her and she sat up. She would have to fend for herself now and there would be no one she could talk to. But then, perhaps it was a good thing. There would be no one to drag her down and she could just go along with her better judgment.
She looked around in the hills for a little while until she found a pigeon which she shot down. Tying it to her belt she continued to search until she finally found a huge pine tree whose limbs scrapped at the dimming sky. She carefully climbed the limbs to the very top where she perched dangerously on especially thin branches. From the top she could see the entire arena. It was huge and bowl shaped, the marsh being at the bottom and surrounded by elevated land. She could see the river, swelled to twice its capacity and have already broken its banks, raging dark waters into the swamp which, just as she had thought, was about six feet deep in water.
A cannon blast sounded and Feral could see the hovercraft swopping down far off in the distance to pick up the remains of one of the tributes. She swallowed nervously and couldn't help but wonder who it was. Perhaps it had been one of the Careers. Or it could have been Tariff or Merchan… or Rowan. The hovercraft screen showed the dead tribute to have been Tariff. Swallowing nervously, Feral climbed down closer o the ground where the branches were sturdier and clipped her belt around herself and one of them before falling into a deep sleep.