Author: Okay you guys. Tobias Odair fixed her user name. Yay! I'm really excited to have a fan so amazingly nice. And also, this is the longest chapter yet. Anywho… Back to the story.

We drudge on the entire day without refilling our canteens. By evening, even I am panting from thirst. The sun is about to set, and I know that we have to find water soon. I scent the air for even the tiniest smell of water. This is a forest. There are trees. There has to be water somewhere. I finally catch a whiff of what I've been longing for, and I suddenly dash through the trees. "Wolfgang, where are you going?" Millie yells after me. But I can't stop. My life depends on this. All of our lives depend on this.

When I break into the clearing, I can't believe what I find. There's a lake. It's a lake. It's a large, calm, beautiful lake. After becoming this thirsty, this place seems like a divine oasis. I slowly walk to the waters' edge, wondering if this is all some horrid mirage sent by the Capitol to torment me. What if it disappears? I shake my head because I can't let that happen, but I don't increase my speed. I lay down my spear. I slide of the backpack that contains the book. I creep over to the rim of the lake and kneel down. It can't be real, can it? They wouldn't put such a wellspring of precious, life-giving water in a place where they all want us to die. I slide my hands into the water, and the lake doesn't vanish. I cup my hands and bring a mouthful of the sweet, clear liquid to my lips. I wonder, too late, if the Capitol has poisoned this water supply. But I'm alive.

Suddenly overcome with joy and unspeakable thirst, I plunge my head into the lake and hold my breath, taking long gulps under the water. I want to go in and swim. I want to splash and whoop and howl. But I can't do that. The Careers would find us. And I need to go back for everyone and tell them what I've found.

I stand up, and the cool water drips from my now wet hair and onto my neck, a welcome relief from the heat. I turn around and pick up the bag and the spear, heading back in the direction from which I came. I go slowly at first, and then rush with uncontainable excitement, wanting my comrades to feel this sweet, liberating relief.

I burst out of the trees right in front of Millie, who screams. "Wolfgang!" she snaps at me. "You just scared the crap out of me!"

"Sorry, Millie," I rush out in an excited breath. "But you guys are never going to believe what I just-"

BOOM! A canon echoes through the arena, cutting me off. We all jump. To whom did that belong? BOOM! Again, another canon sounds. We wait a little longer, but nothing else happens.

"…found," I finish lamely.

Everyone looks back at me, subdued. "What did you find, Wolfgang?" Millie asks sweetly.

"Water," I reply.

Suddenly everyone's eyes widen, and I smile and say, "Come on," before leading them to the lake.

"Is this real?" Seamus asks when we get there.

I laugh. "I know, right? I had the same reaction."

Coal just kneels down and bends his head over the lake, sucking water in with his lips and making this really annoying slurping sound. Millie fills her canteen and says aloud, "I wonder who those people were that died."

"Not us, that's the important thing," Seamus grins as he dips his canteen into the lake. Coal pulls up from his drink and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

"It might have been Barley," I answer. In truth, I'm wondering if it really was him. But I can't think about that right now. I need to do something to get my mind off of it.

Coal fills his canteen and Millie gets up and walks around, looking at the surrounding plants. She smiles and finds something. "Blackberries," she says softly. She begins to pick the berries and pops a few in her mouth.

"Are you sure we can eat those?" asks Seamus, coming up behind her.

Millie rolls her eyes. "Of course. They're blackberries." She grabs some more and shoves them in her mouth.

I shrug. "Millie is one of our plant experts. If she says we can eat it…" I pull a few berries off of the bush and pop them into my mouth. The tiny fruit squirts surprisingly large bursts of juicy flavor onto my tongue, even though the seeds are a little tough on the teeth. "I claim this part of the bush," I say.

Millie stands at an angle on my right, and she laughs at my statement while picking more berries for herself. Seamus stoops down and begins to eat berries from the bottom of the bush. Coal comes over and joins us, taking fruit from the side of the bush to my left. The berries are really good, and I'm glad that I don't have to hunt for meat tonight. No one else will eat raw meat, and I don't want to have to build a fire again.

Forty-five minutes later, the berry bush is pretty much stripped clean of its fruit. We all sit at the edge of the lake with full bellies, staring up at the stars in the night sky, waiting for it to happen. As if the Capitol knows we are waiting for it – and probably, they actually do – the sky lights up with the symbol of the Capitol, and the anthem plays. The two fallen tributes are shown: Atom Quark from District Five and Timber Wood of District Seven. I breathe a sigh of relief.

"Do you think the Careers did it?" Millie asks quietly.

"Probably," Seamus replies. Coal snorts as though this answer is obvious, and I just continue to gaze at the sky.

"Heck naw," drawls a voice from somewhere behind us. "I did."

We all turn around. I smile when I see a small figure in the darkness, his dark skin blending into the night around him. "Barley!" I say happily. "I was wondering when you were going to find us."

Barley nods at me and teases, "Please, mutt. Did you think I was just gonna leave y'all up in the peach tree?"

"How did you do it?" Coal asks, and I can hear the edge in his voice.

"Hm?" Barley replies. "You mean find y'all? I watched the sky at night for the Capitol broadcast of the dead tributes. Then I'd head toward the nearest place where I saw one light up. It just so happens that I got lucky that tonight and the closest one was y'all's."

"That's not what I meant," Coal explains.

"Oh!" Barley exclaims. "You meant how I killed them other two. That's easy." He begins to explain, "I followed the broadcast on the first night too. It led me to their camp last night, instead of the one I was hopin' for. – Did you guys know that us and the Careers… we ain't the only alliances out there? There's one more of 'em. Or well, there was." Barley stops and snickers before resuming. "This alliance was the District Five guy, the two from District Seven, and your district partner, Wolfgang."

"Octane?" I ask in surprise.

"Yup," Barley goes on. "Her leg is hurt kinda badly. She walks funny."

I nod slowly. "That would be because of the knife that I accidentally threw at her."

"Anyways," Barley tells us, "she and the others had their little group. – I came upon them last night and decided to hang around 'til they fell asleep. They left the District Seven boy on guard, and I came up with a plan. So I went and picked a whole bunch of poke berries. I stripped 'em off their stems and waited until the guard got up to go pee. While he was gone, I snuck the poke berries into one of their backpacks and left, hopin' they would think that they were okay to eat because they were in their packs. I slept in a tree until the heat at around noon woke me up today. And this evening, two of 'em are gone, so it seems that my plan worked."

"Poke berries?" Seamus asks.

"They're poisonous," I inform him.

Barley nods at me. "Well at least you remember that. But it takes eatin' quite a few handfuls of poke berries to do anything really bad. That's why it took until this evening for their canons to go off."

"How many did you pick?" Coal asks.

"Probably twenty or more stems…" Barley answers. "But each stem has about fifteen berries on it."

"Twenty times fifteen…" I do the arithmetic in my head. "Goodness, Barley! That's about three-hundred berries!"

Barley nods. "This forest has a lot of poke weeds, that's for sure."

Coal yawns rather loudly. "Alright you guys. I'm going to sleep. Good night." It relieves me when he drifts off.

"I'm going to sleep too," Seamus agrees. He opens the backpack he has been carrying and pulls out the sleeping bag.

"I'll stay up and take the first guard shift with Barley," Millie offers.

I nod in agreement. I could stay up tonight too, but it wouldn't be wise. For all I know, all of my allies will die tomorrow. I'll sleep while I can still do so safely.

When I wake up in the morning, Coal is keeping watch. Millie and Barley sleep on either side of me, and are probably doing so for warmth. The sleeping bag that Seamus has is made of material that traps all of his warmth in, so that none of it can escape to those around him.

It makes me uneasy that Coal has kept watch two nights in a row. He sees me sit up and waves. "Good morning, Wolfgang," he mumbles.

"How are you doing this?" I ask him.

He gives me a funny look. "Doing what?"

"Keeping guard two nights in a row. Don't you need to sleep?" I ask as I get up and move closer to him.

"I did sleep."

I raise an eyebrow. "Humans usually require more sleep than that."

Coal glares at me.

"I mean… Yesterday!" I try to explain. "You fell off of the cliff and were alert enough to dig your pick axe into the rock. And then, you had the strength to hold on to the rope and bring the pick axe back up with you. I'm sorry, but that just doesn't seem humanly possible, especially after you staying up all night beforehand."

Coal continues to glare at me. "Wolfgang, that's my business, not yours."

I shake my head. "I just don't understand how you could do that."

Coal grunts and looks away. What is he hiding? And more importantly, why?

After a while, his facial expression seems to soften. He looks around and makes sure that the others aren't awake. "I suppose I can tell you. You would be the last person able to judge me for it."

"Okay…" I trail off.

"So, here's the truth about me," Coal mumbles. He shivers a bit, and I think that he's only reacting to the chill of the wind that's coming off of the lake. But that's when I notice it: the black hair. It's growing longer on his arms and shorter on his head. Before I know it, he has morphed. And what's more, Coal Black is a purebred. Coal Black is a wolf-mutt. And creepily… he kind of reminds me of my dad. His morph form is tall and covered with black fur. His head is no longer human, but rather that of a canine. He looks down his muzzle at me and his nostrils flare slightly, taking in my scent. The only difference between Coal and my dad is that Dad's eyes are light brown, whereas Coal's are black. Also, Coal lacks the gray flecks in his fur that my father has, although that's probably only a matter of age.

I stare at him. "Y- you," I stutter, "you could do this, and you still let me lead?"

Coal morphs back into his human form. "Of course. I'm not going to reveal my secret to the others, at least not yet. But I trust you because you said that if it comes down to the two of us, you'll let me win."

I shake my head, baffled. "Not that I would stand a chance against a purebred anyway," I retort. Then I wince. "Your mate."

Coal nods. "You're probably wondering why I didn't get the howl of farewell like you and the District Four mutts?"

I am curious, and so I admit it. "Yeah."

Coal looks up at me. "I'm the only one of my kind left in District Twelve. My dad died in a mining accident. My mom died giving birth to my baby brother. Without her around to nurse him, my brother died too. I'm the only wolf-mutt left in my district. For the longest time, I thought I would always be alone.

"And then, one day as I was walking home from school, Karina Ellis came up behind me and promised me that I would never be alone ever again. I've loved her ever since." He laughs bitterly. "It's in our nature, you know. I couldn't stop loving her if I tried. Her father hates me. Her mother is afraid of me. They both want her to settle down with Pritchard, the mayor's son. And Pritchard wants that too. They've threatened me over and over and over again, telling me to leave Karina alone. But they just don't get it. I can't turn this off. It's not like that. I don't have that human leisure."

Coal laughs darkly again. "You know, we wolf-mutts are supposed to be the strongest thing that the Capitol ever invented. But we're not. We are the weakest. Such a small thing can make us feel so helpless. Pritchard's never going to leave it alone, and he knows that there's nothing I can do to him without getting punished for it. And we wolf-mutts… we don't take kindly to physical forms of punishment. If they tried to do something like whip me…" he trails off, and I can imagine what would happen. The wild animal within us won't stand for being physically beaten on purpose. It goes against our instincts. If someone tried to hurt us, I think it's pretty safe to say that said someone would end up dead.

"And so… what can I do, Wolfgang? How can I fight this? I'll love her forever, even if she changes her mind about me. I can't give her up like that. It's not possible. But my love for her is causing her so many problems… I feel so guilty. It's gotten to the point that I wish I could give her up for her own good, but we don't work that way." He's starting to cry. "I've tried to make myself seem more human, hoping that maybe her mom won't be so scared of me if I act like less of a wolf, hoping that maybe her father will realize that I'm not as bad as he thinks I am. I started favoring my right hand because not many humans are ambidextrous. I managed to control my growls and howls and barely ever morphed. I stopped panting with my tongue out. I stopped wolf-like body language. And did either of her parents notice or care? No.

"And now I'm in the Hunger Games. I bet Mr. and Mrs. Ellis are thrilled. I bet they're sitting back and waiting for me to die, looking forward to it even." Coal sighs in frustration and runs his olive-skinned hand through his dark hair. He wipes the tears off of his face before saying, "And I can't help but wonder if maybe Karina would be better off if I did."

"Coal," I begin, "you do remember that we're in the Hunger Games, right? You didn't just tell that to me. You told that to all of Panem."

Coal nods. "I know. Most importantly, I told it to Karina, and to her parents, and to Pritchard. Most importantly, this speech will be recorded and shared for centuries to come. I hope that everyone sees it. I hope that this moment is remembered forever, this moment when I finally mustered the courage to tell the whole world exactly how I feel about the girl that I love. I hope that her descendants will one day watch the seventh Quarter Quell and say to one another, 'He loved our great-great-grandmother.' If I'm going to die here, I want to be remembered for what I did while I was alive. And so far, loving Karina has been my only great accomplishment."

We're both quiet for a long while. Then Coal speaks again. "Wolfgang?"

I look up at him. "Hm?"

"I haven't decided what I think is really best for Karina yet. But if it comes down to you and me, and I ask you to kill me, would you do that, too?"

I stare at him in awe. "Do you really think she would be happy if you did that?"

He shakes his head. "Of course not, but I think that it might be something that I have to do."

I swallow my saliva and nod. "If you're completely sure of that decision if and when the time comes, then I'll do you that favor."

Coal nods solemnly. "Thank you."

We both start at a noise coming from the direction of the others. Barley has rolled over and bumped into Millie, and the two of them are beginning to wake up. "I'll wake up Seamus," Coal says. He goes and grabs one of the canteens and stoops by the edge of the lake to fill it. Pulling back the edge of the sleeping bag, Coal dumps the canteen of water onto Seamus' face. Seamus sputters in shock and sits up, blinking. Coal laughs, and Barley looks over at what has happened and laughs too. He pokes Millie on the shoulder and gestures for her to look. When she does, she presses a hand over her mouth to stifle her own giggles. Everyone else may be laughing right now, but I'm still thinking about the serious conversation I had with Coal. If and when the time comes, will I really be able to do what he has asked?

"I'm gonna go get us some breakfast," Barley says, standing up.

"I'll go with you," Coal offers, "as a guard."

Barley looks annoyed by the suggestion, but concedes anyway.

"I'm going to take advantage of this lake and take a bath," Millie grins sleepily. "Maybe the cold water will help wake me up."

Seamus stares at Millie as she takes off her jacket and tosses it to Barley. "You can carry breakfast back in this."

"Thanks," Barley says. "Come on, Coal."

Coal refills the canteen that he had dumped on Seamus' face and grabs his pick axe. Then he and Barley head off into the trees.

Millie stares at Seamus, who is still staring at her. I know what he's thinking, and I'm not going to let him. "Seamus," I order, "fold up the sleeping bag and return it to the backpack. Put the rope and the tarp in there as well."

I hear him groan in frustration, but he does as he's told. He folds up the sleeping bag and stuffs it into the backpack. I hear Millie holler, "Thanks, Wolfgang." Then there's the sound of the knife and her clothes hitting the sand. It's followed by the sound of a body plunging into water.

I walk over to the place where I had left my spear and the purple backpack, returning both objects to my person. I see Seamus out of the corner of my eye, shoving the tarp into the green backpack. He tucks the rope inside after that and zips the pack shut.

I walk over to Millie's clothes and pick up the now sandy knife, and go dip it into the water to wash it off. Seamus is refilling our other two canteens. "I should have spread that tarp out to sleep on last night, but I forgot that we had it," I grumble. "Now I've got sand all over me." After cleaning the knife, I put it in the bag with the book, to make sure we don't forget it. We don't want to leave a weapon behind for another tribute to find. "I'll give it back to Millie when we start walking again." I stand up and try to dust the sand from my pants before picking up my spear again. Seamus hands me a canteen and glares at me. I don't care. I'm not going to condone him looking at Millie while she's naked.

Suddenly, from the lake, there's a huge splash, and Millie screams. Seamus and I both look in her direction, and Seamus hollers some sort of District Eight swear word that I can't make out over the sound of a horrid roar. There, in the lake, is a huge creature with a long neck. It roars ferociously before bending its head down toward Millie. The monster opens his mouth and swallows her whole, and then starts swimming to where Seamus and I stand on the edge of the lake.

"Run!" I command. Seamus whirls around and runs for the green backpack, swinging it onto his shoulder while he's still moving. I follow him and quickly catch up thanks to my wolf-mutt speed. Millie's canon sounds, and I grimace at the thought of being eaten alive. It's then that I recall the words: He swallows man whole and devours him true. Oh crap. This is the Loch Ness monster.

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