Emma would have died within the hour if it wasn't for Rose. Rose, the same girl who sent the tiger, sent the supplies for us to survive it. All we'd brought from the Bloodbath were some bandages. We didn't know how to use anything more complicated than that, and we didn't think we'd have to. We expected we'd either die in our only real battle- with Rapture- or one of us would be Victor. It was Rose who saved us both with her gift. She sent us cream that sealed the wounds and a sling for Emma's arm. Without the cream, I likely would have died as well.
It felt amazingly luxurious to receive such an expensive sponsor gift. But Rose could afford it. Rose could send anything. Rose was the master of the Games. If she wanted someone to die, she could send a bolt of lightning. If she wanted someone to win, she could send them a tank. She decided everything, and it was becoming clear to me that it might not matter who was strongest.
I'd been wrong about Rose. I thought she was a self-centered little girl who thought about the present, like most little girls. She was Snow's daughter. Even if she was nothing like him in temperament- and I didn't know if she was or not- she would be like him in thought. She was raised by a manipulator and master planner. Emma was way ahead of me in strategy. Now I knew Rose was, too. She picked us all as favorites, but she didn't sponsor all of us. She didn't leave a way for Mei, Angus, and Jonathan to escape the Bloodbath. She didn't make a way for Rapture to compensate for the fact that there were two of us. She could have made anything happen for anyone she favored, but she wasn't. She left it up to us. She wanted to see what we would do. She sent a tiger just to see if we could survive it. She was playing with us, and she was testing us.
It was possible this really was all just a game to her. A game is more fun if there's strategy and not just luck- if the winner gets there by merit and not because someone else was playing favorites. I wondered if Rose was fond of chess. Just like I didn't know what went on in Emma's mind, I had no idea what was going on in Rose's. If I became her best friend after all, it wouldn't be as boring as I'd thought.
Things were quiet after the tiger. She might have sent mutts after the others as well. I didn't hear anything, and none of them died. Emma and I stayed in our camp and tried to recover. I thought she might die on the first day, but after that, we started to knit. Whether Rose planned it, or whether she was a little girl who didn't understand the intricacies of anatomy, we weren't the same anymore. A sling held Emma's arm as the wounds closed, but it didn't bring her broken bones back into place. Her arm looked lumpy and misshapen, and she could barely move it. Slings didn't regrow severed nerves, either. My finger was stiff and immobile. It might as well have been severed.
We weren't the same anymore. We were damaged, Emma far more than I. I could see the Games shifting. When we started, the hierarchy was clear. Emma was strongest. Rapture was right at her heels. I was third, and Eleanor was fourth, and then the others. Now, it was a tossup between Emma and Rapture. If I wasn't Emma's friend, I would call him stronger. After that tie, I'd moved into second. Emma needed me more, and I might possibly be able to beat her. She hadn't mentioned the change in dynamics. I suspected she'd never admit she wasn't as strong as she was.
Five days went by without anything happening. We healed as much as we could and we discussed what we'd do when we were better. The cream accelerated the process, but it took time for Emma's back skin to regrow. She had to lie on her stomach for days to replenish the square foot of skin and bits of muscle that had been torn off, and what grew back was scarred and tender. I don't know what we would have done if Rapture had appeared.
Just before noon on the sixth day since the tiger, a cannon went off. We waited all day, hoping desperately that it was Rapture. The face was far too beautiful. The Arena had lost its songbird. Only the strongest were left. When Rapture was done hunting Eleanor, he'd have nothing left but us.
goldie031 is looking for female Tributes for her story Make Me a Match. I sent one in and I'm impatient as always to get started. I'll submit a dozen Bloodbaths if she'll let me, but hopefully you all will instead.