Iris
I woke up; a radiant light was burning the metal horn of the cornucopia where I had been sleeping. The night had been freezing, so I had crawled in with the supplies for a bit of warmth. I crawled out of the horn, flapping my arms to try and cool them down. That was really annoying. The days are boiling and the night's cold enough to freeze a human solid. Most of the careers had thrown their coats away because they didn't think they'd need them because it was a desert. They were wrong. Morpheus was sitting cross legged beside a small fire, it looked like he was burning a cactus…Morpheus turned around and smiled at me,
"Look Iris. The cacti are full of food!" I walked over to him and saw that he was roasting something pale and white.
"That looks disgusting," I said. Morpheus rolled his eyes and took some of the cacti from the fire; he popped a bit in his mouth. I looked closely at the fire; confused about what my brother was actually burning.
"It's a bow and arrow, simple wooden ones." Morpheus said, reading my mind.
"You're burning our weapons, are you insane? We could need them!" Morpheus shook his head and gestured towards the cornucopia. Piles and piles of weapons had been stacked against the golden horn, okay point taken. We weren't going to run out of weapons any time soon. I sat down beside Morpheus and picked up some cacti.
"Eat it, it's nice."
"Are you even sure it's edible?" Morpheus shrugged and ate another square. I placed the cactus in my mouth and chewed. The cactus tasted weird, it was soft and mushy but it had a strange bitter after taste.
"I don't know how you can eat that, it's disgusting!" I said, grabbing a water bottle and taking a big sip. The bitter taste was still in my mouth and my throat felt weird-like it was burning. A hand landed lightly on my shoulder,
"Morning Iris," Rolex said in a cheery tone. Morpheus scowled and stalked away, taking another square of cactus with him.
"Shall we go hunting today?" Rolex said, handing me my rucksack. I smiled and placed it over my shoulder and I took my silver sword from my belt loop.
"See you guys later, me and Rolex are going out." I called, Diamond shifted in her hammock. Surely her back was burning, that thing was really thin and there was nothing to hang it from so it was just lying on the floor. Maybe she was too dumb to notice? I trailed off towards the rocks I had seen yesterday, Rolex at my side.
Rolex steadily climbed down a rocky ledge, landing neatly on his feet at the bottom of a 12 ft. drop. I threw my rucksack down towards him,
"If I fall you'd better catch me!" I called, Rolex laughed and nodded. I grabbed a rock ledge and lowered myself slowly down. My foot scrambled against some loose rocks that tumbled towards Rolex. My heart hammered in my chest and my hands started to feel slippy with sweat.
"Careful Iris, there's a bit of rock that you can put your feet on a couple of centimetres away." I took a deep breath and placed my feet on the rock cliff Rolex had mentioned. I looked down, wondering if I should just jump rather than scratch all my hands off trying to climb down. I smiled, and let go of the rock. I landed hard on my back, stunned. Rolex looked over me, his face filled with concern.
"Iris are you okay?" I nodded, giggling. What an adrenaline rush! I stood up, the rocks and sand spinning around me.
"Whoa be careful. You just fell off a cliff, best to take it easy. Take a sip of water." Rolex placed something in my hand and gently sat me down on the sand. I took a long sip, waiting for the pain in my back to subside. After about half and hour- and a lot of arguing Rolex decided I was well enough to go and find some tributes.
"Where do you think they'll all be?" he asked, I frowned looking around. The rock ledges were a good hiding place from above but here, you could see there were small hole where a tribute could easily hide. I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled towards a rocky ledge placing my ear near the hole, I listened hard. Rolex lay down next to me, doing the same thing. So faintly I almost missed it, I heard the sound of someone crying. Rolex's eyes glinted and he pulled a knife out of his belt loop. He ducked under the rocky ledge and tumbled into the small cave. The thing inside screamed and tried to run out into the open. I leapt up, grabbing the child's coat before it could run away. It was a young boy, only about 12 or 13.
"No, please!" he begged, Rolex stood beside me laughing.
"No please," he mimicked. I laughed, and slashed my sword across the boy's chest. A cannon fired a few moments later.
"Nice kill there, Iris." Rolex said, giving me a high five. I laughed and put my sword back in my belt loop. I took one last look at my victim, would his parent miss him? Who cares? He was weak he even tried to beg me not to kill him! His parents should have trained him if they wanted him to live in these games; it was cruel not to teach your children to survive in the arena. If I ever have kids as soon as they can walk they'll be taught how to kill.
Rolex gave me back my bag and we trudged towards another cliff ledge. Most of our prey must have been hiding because we didn't find anyone else. I sighed, disappointed.
"Why can't the tributes come out any play? They know they're going to die so why try and hide it's a waste of their time and energy." Rolex shrugged and leapt up the cliff, I had to say, he was a good climber. He undid his belt and dangled it over the side of the cliff. I took a few steps back and ran at the cliff, using a rock to propel me up I grabbed the belt. Rolex held the belt tightly and I used it to scramble up the cliff face.
"Thanks," I said as I safely reached the top of the cliff,
"No problem, I think we should have used that technique before she fell and hit your back." Rolex and I walked back to camp in high spirits. Maybe it was because of the kill or perhaps because Rolex and I were a good team, but I felt happy- really happy.