Four (Point Five)

Smellerbee, Province 11

The plan is simple enough. Go in, grab whatever you can get your hands on, go out. Standard procedure for a feast. But as Longshot and I walk toward the edge of the prairie, I immediately begin to shiver. It's not a cold day, but I'm nervous beyond belief.

Truth is, no plan for a feast is foolproof. My fighting skills may be good, but they diminish as soon as another tribute launches himself into the fray.

Longshot is walking beside me, his namesake bow and quiver in hand. It's hard to tell what he's feeling. In fact, he's pretty much acting normally, exuding a typical air of calm. I should be more like him; then I'd miss less whenever I'm throwing knives.

I watch the sun rise higher into the sky, filling me with a sort of dread.

The feast begins at noon… Those were the announcer's specific instructions to the rest of the tributes, the ones still alive.

Suddenly, I barely see the first column rise from the horizon, way above the treetop level. A heathen mass of dense rock. The 'Pillar of Earth'…

Suddenly, everything I've feared for the past week hits me full force. My brain suddenly churns, imagining all the ways I could die today. Zuko burns me to a cinder. Ty Lee leaps behind me and breaks my neck. Suki butchers me with her fighting fans. Katara waterbends –

By now I realize, belatedly, that I've stopped dead in my tracks. Longshot turns around and looks at me, nonplused.

"I can't do it." I whimper as I fall to my knees. "I'm going to die today. I'm just too weak."

I know how pathetic this looks. I'm Smellerbee. I'm a tomboy. I'm a badass. Nothing can hurt me. But now, I've descended into a hissy fit. Even though I am only on my knees, I feel lightheaded. I could faint right now. But, a hand on my shoulder keeps me steady.

I look up and see Longshot, towering over me. He is taller than me, anyways.

Then, he speaks for the first time in three days.

"You can do it."

He turns forward and continues walking to the pillars. I sit there dumbly for a moment, and then I stumble to catch up with him.

We stop near the edge of the meadow where the feast will take place. Right in front of us is the circle where all the tributes were launched. A distant memory of the bloodbath sends a shiver down my spine, but I brush it away quickly.

For an area where a quarter of the tributes lost their lives instantly, it's quite peaceful. Several patches of vividly colored wild flowers dot the landscape, while the grass and wheat is about knee-height, billowing ever so gently in the wind. As by regulation, the launch circle is flat and void of most of wildflowers. On three sides, the circle is encompassed with the forest zone, which provides cover for some certain tributes waiting for a feast to begin. Across from us is the great chasm. I never dared ventured toward it, since the forest ends an abrupt several feet before the edge. In the Element Games, losing cover equates to certain death.

In the dead center of the circle is the customary set of pillars, the same ones that appear during every Element Games. Apparently, they represent something about the 'united elements', but it's not like I care about political symbols. There are four of them, arranged in a square formation. Each pillar is nondescript, which is sort of the point since it draws attention to the element it represents. Water – a hovering, flowing ball of water. Air – a constantly churning mini-cyclone. Fire – an elegant flame, impossible to blow out. Earth – an enormous piece of heathen dirt.

In the center of it is where they stock everything, weapons, food, medicine, you name it. But now, it's bare, stripped clean of what it looked like during the bloodbath. That's where we should expect the table to rise with the feast, whatever it turns out to be.

I figure we still have an hour to wait, so I stock up on weapons. We both climb into the nearest tree; we don't want to run into another tribute before it all begins. After he helps me onto the final branch, I grab every knife and dagger from our items, reserving only the arrows for Longshot to fire. He won't join me; he'll instead be up in some tree providing cover for me. I don't see anyone below us, but I just know that there are other tributes across the meadow, waiting to fight to the death. This image makes me gulp nervously.

I grab what seems like the umpteenth throwing knife when a gong stops me in my tracks. Crap – it's already started.

Training my eyes to the pillars, I see movement, but not where I was expecting. It's not just one table, it's multiple ones. Rising in a circular formation around the pillars, I make out what appears to be food, a whole lot of it. It really is a feast…

I look closer and see that each table has a different food group. The ones closest to us represent grain and fruit. It's certainly abundant, arranged artfully as if in ignorance of the fact that it's located in an arena of death.

Next, I keep my eyes on the circle. No one has run out from the forest yet. Everyone's trying to make their own strategy. Well, I've got mine.

I climb stealthily down the tree, until the branches are about five feet above the ground. If figure that if I go in first, I'll get to leave this hellhole first.

Three…Two…One…

In a flying leap, I jump off the branches and summersault onto the prairie. Sprinting faster than I ever have before, I run for the closest table. I pass the launch pads and run the home stretch to the tables. But, fate has other plans.

I already sense the first fireball coming before it does. Jumping just barely in time, it instead follows its trajectory towards, ironically, the Pillar of Fire before it bursts. I whizz around to the left and see Zuko, the Elite from Province 1, walking towards me. What's the nerve with this guy? Is he really that arrogant? If he wants to fight, then he'll get one.

Bring it on, scar-face.

He shoots another fireball from his hands, but I dodge it easily and throw one of my knives at him. But what would have been a fatal hit does, well, nothing. Instead, it only clangs against what I must assume must be armor and falls to the ground. When did he get armor? From sponsors?

"You've already underestimated an Elite." he says as he stops suddenly. "Well, you won't from now on."

Suddenly, he runs at me full force. Crap – now I'm really screwed. How can I fight him when he has armor on? With a running leap he jumps above me before he attacks me with a downward fire kick. It knocks me backwards, right onto my back.

What's Longshot doing? Wasn't he supposed to cover me? My question is answered prematurely with a ting!, which tells me that his arrow was enough to penetrate Zuko's armor. Automatically, he turns around. I use the opportunity while I can and aim a kick straight for his knee, which causes him to fall onto the ground.

"Ugh...," he grunts as he lands on his back, rather ungracefully.

Just as I turn around, I see another pair of feet running towards me.

"Hey!" the figure shouts, with a slightly familiar voice. Who-who is that?

Suddenly, she spirits herself into a full, leaping somersault. From the distance, I also see the lightest glint of metal as she unsheathes her perfectly sharpened steel knuckles. Oh, of course. It's Ty Lee, another Elite, which really makes this a party. Somehow, I don't think she'll go down quite as easily.

Zuko gets to his feet, and, after a quick look at Ty Lee, begins to run immediately to my left in a wide arc. Ty Lee mirrors him toward my right side. Oh crap - now they're using tactics.

I run to the table as fast as I can, but I feel that I won't get there in time. But just then -

CLUNK

Someone else has arrived too, but I don't dare hesitate to see who it is. But, I should thank him/her for slowing down the Elites. Before opportunity knocks twice, I'm at the center tables and run to the nearest table while also clawing open my backpack. Just by chance, I happen upon the one that probably is the most helpful - meat.

Greedily, I reach out and grab something-something to at least ensure that this Feast won't be a failure for us.

Fortunately, that thing happens to be a whole ham. A bit extravagant, sure, but food is food. I stuff it in as a race around the circle counter-clockwise, this time making it to the table filled to the brim with fruit. I grab two grape branches, and am just about ready to reach for a melon before a knife whizzes past me, impaling the object I was close to reaching for.

Upon closer inspection, though, it's not a knife. It's a closed fan.

Turning around, I see Suki, coming out of nowhere from the direction of the cliff. As of yet, I don't think the Elites see her. She unsheathes her other fan and swipes at me. I duck just in time, as she ends up lobbing off the top of the already-damaged melon. I kick at her legs, keeping her off balance for just enough time to give me a head start. Running like a maniac, I make one final dash for the forest layer.

Just as my feet hit the edge of the circle:

BAM!

The shock of the cannon is enough to trip me off onto my front side. Someone has died, likely the first of many.

I crawl desperately in the forest, for some reason not bothering to get back on my feet. My precious arena clothing is covered with (yet another) layer of dirt as I finally make it into the protection of the bush as another unfortunate life is lost.

BAM!

Author's Note: Anyways, I apologize to my readers for my utter, utter laziness. Basically, school's started in my province (hehehe, get the pun?), so I have roughly a fifth the time to write than I did before. Because reaping chapters are incredibly boring to write, I wrote this one as a brief interlude. This chapter's been sitting in my inventory for a while, so I thought to publish it as a preview of the upcoming arena chapters. Don't worry, the Element Games is not over, just going at a really slow pace. I intend to see this through to the end.

Don't worry, though, this is only a rough preview of the future arena chapters. I might reuse parts of this, but it will be much much different.

Oh, and in other news, I'm adding two new tributes to the Element Games, bringing our total up to twelve. A bit much, but I thought the current set needed some company. They are Pipsqueak and the Duke, both former 'Freedom Fighters'. They're both male, since I though the current cast was severely lacking in male characters.

Meanwhile, I will not add Sokka or Azula to the games. This is because it doesn't make sense logically; what are the odds of a brother/sister duo being reaped? Answer: really, really low. However, you may see them get their own starring roles soon enough. *Hint*Bonus Chapter*Hint*

Well... that's all for this semi-update. See you in a week. Or two. Or a month...