18: Foxface

Gale POV

I can't believe it- Katniss and I can win together. There's no need to sacrifice myself for her, I can live and love her. The Capitolites may actually have hearts. Katniss grabs my hand and pulls me up. I look into her piercing grey eyes and take in every feature on her beautiful face. I no longer need to die. It seems almost unbelievable after having accepted it for so long.

"Come on Gale, we need to find Aravis," Katniss tells me. "Just because we have a chance of surviving together doesn't mean we don't need allies. Cato and Clove might win if we let our guard down." Her statements bring me back to the reality of the Games. We may have a chance at survival- quite a good chance judging by how much we've been sponsored- but this is still the Hunger Games. It's still kill or be killed and Cato and Clove are careers. We still need Aravis.

I pace around in a circle. "But we have no idea where she is!" I say in frustration. "This arena is probably two miles wide, we have an equal chance of stumbling on Cato and Clove as we do on Foxface. Probably more since they won't be hiding."

"We should have come up with a meeting place in case we got separated," Katniss admits. "Or at least a signal."

"Think you could climb a tree and look for her from above?" I ask. "You could see we Cato and Clove are that way too. And you found Rue like that."

Katniss shrugs. "I could try," she says. "But Foxface might be hiding somewhere, not in the open."

"Try," I order her. "There's nothing to lose."

Katniss searches for footholds in the tree and pulls herself up, grabbing large pieces of bark until she gets to the first branch. From there it's much quicker and within a minute she is out of sight, above the layer of leaves and branches. A few minutes later she slithers down the tree and jumps down the last meter or so, landing next to me.

Her face shows hope and happiness, so I take this to mean Katniss found her. "She's quite near us," Katniss says. "About two hundred meters to our left. Come on Gale." She grabs my hand and drags me to the direction she gestured to and we sprint the way, hoping she won't have moved much.

I catch sight of Foxface and call out her name. "Aravis?" I call. Foxface looks up and joins Katniss and I. Now that she's here up close I can see that the Games haven't treated her well. Her hair is caked in mud, she seems to have lost some weight and her skin has an unhealthy pale pallor to it. The wound on her arm seems slightly better, but could be infected.

"Are you alright?" Katniss asks her.

"Do I look alright?" Aravis responds.

"Do you want to come back to our camp?" I suggest. "We have disinfectant bandages and some leftover rabbit you could eat. Water too."

Aravis looks at me gratefully. "Thanks. I didn't think you'd want me around anymore. You've killed half the careers, you can win together. Why do you need me?"

"Just to make the odds a bit more in our favour," I reply. "Besides, you're our ally. We wouldn't just leave you to starve and we still haven't repaid you for fighting by our side against the careers."

"Most tributes would," Aravis points out bitterly. "This is the Hunger Games."

"We're not most tributes," I remind her. Aravis follows us as we return to the cave, wincing slightly as her injured arm holds her weight for a second. I pull her up by the other arm and she joins us on the cave floor. Everything is where we left it and I sigh with relief. Nobody knows where we are except for me, Katniss and now Foxface.

"Nice camp," she says, looking around. "You got sponsored?" she asks, catching sight of the backpack.

"With bandages, a backpack, some water bottles and this thing which stops smoke escaping a fire noticeably," Katniss explains. "Here, let me bandage your arm." She takes out one of my bandages and wraps it tightly around Aravis' arm, ignoring her winces and small noises of pain. "That should do," Katniss says. "Sorry if it hurt."

"It's OK," Aravis says. "Thanks. So can I have some food?"

I hand her a leftover rabbit leg, which she shoves ravenously down her throat. Within a few seconds it is gone and Aravis is sighing with relief. "I hadn't eaten in nearly two days," she explains. "Ever since you blew up the career food supply my way of getting food disappeared." She drinks some water from one of our bottles. "Much better. So how did you know where to find me?"

"Katniss climbed a tree and searched from above," I reply. "We should have come up with a meeting place. Meet here if anything else like this happens?" I suggest. Katniss and Aravis nod at the meeting place. It's a good place to meet, hidden, sheltered. The perfect hiding place from angry careers.

We relax in the cave for a while, outside now being uncomfortably hot. Every now and then one of us drinks some water to stay hydrated and maybe nibbles on the rabbit. I never thought boredom would be a problem in the Games, but now that we've found food, water and allies there is absolutely nothing to do. I don't really feel comfortable discussing things with Katniss in front of Foxface and I definitely don't feel comfortable discussing things with Katniss in front of the whole of Panem, especially the Capitol.

Suddenly, Katniss twitches. "Did you hear that?" she asks me. "That footstep."

"What footstep?" I ask. "Are you sure it isn't just a rabbit or bird or something?" I hear a small noise and know what she is talking about. It sounds too big and heavy to be something that small. It sounds almost like a fox or a deer. I stand up and Catnip and Foxface follow suit. Now I'm fairly worried, it's either very big prey- which I doubt the game makers would provide for us- or it's some dangerous form of mutt (which I have no doubt the game makers would supply).

We exit the cave cautiously. I have my bow and arrows over my back, knives and sword at my belt. Katniss has the backpack of supplies and her bow and arrow. Foxface is wearing a belt of knives. Almost as soon as we exit the cave, a huge creature leaps towards us. I instinctively slice my sword across its nose. It shrieks in pain and backs of a few steps. I get the chance to examine it closer for a second.

The creature has dark red fur, like a fox. It is larger than a fox though, about the size of a wolf. Its eyes are a vibrant green shade, the sort of green I imagine a poisonous snake to be. As it opens it's mouth I catch sight of long, straight, white teeth and blood red gums. It jumps at us again and my mind sees it in slow motion, taking in every detail of its sharp claws and large paws.

I am moving before I know it, running with Katniss and Aravis a few feet behind me. Towards the lake, a faint voice in my head tells me. Run towards the lake. Panting, with more than one fox mutt in pursuit, I swing around sideways and carry on running through the forest. Katniss seems to have followed me and Foxface follows her.

I stagger out of the forested area of the arena near the lake and stop for a second, catching my breath and waiting for Katniss and Aravis. About half a minute later they turn up behind me. "I think we lost them," Katniss pants. "Or maybe they're gone now- I don't know."

Behind Katniss, a large red shape rears up. "No!" I shout, diving towards her and pushing her away. Time seems to go in slow motion as the mutt sails towards me, its mouth open, rearing with unnaturally sharp, white teeth. Katniss falls to the floor and the jaws clench around my wounded arm. The pain that goes through my arm is nothing like before. I scream in pure agony, as two rows of teeth pierce an already injured area. It feels like the muscles are being torn apart, that the mutt is gnawing at my arm bone.

Blood pours out of my arm. Then a figure comes up behind the mutt. Katniss- she's taken my sword and wields in clumsily. The tip of the blade scratches of the mutts nose. It gives a high pitched yowl of pain and releases my arm. Running on adrenaline, a grab a knife from my belt, ignoring the pain. I reach my arm back and throw the knife towards the mutt. The silver tip pierces straight through its eye, right into its brain.

Goo mixed with blood trickles out. The creature is obviously dead, it's head slumps to one side and it's remaining eye has closed. I stay alert to anything for a few more seconds, before realising that there are no more mutts. We're safe. And the adrenaline rush has worn off, the sharp pain of my wound bringing me back to harsh reality. I look down at it, afraid of what I'm going to see. I'm not naive, I know that bandages can only do so much. If this is as bad as it felt it will probably kill me soon.

The wound isn't as bad as I thought- thank god. It is deep, yes, but it is fairly clean. Five deep holes, no tearing of the flesh anywhere. Not much worse in fact than my last arm wound, just that it came to a sensitive area. I'm lucky that I didn't try to struggle away or that Katniss sliced it with my sword before I could start to. Katniss has taken out another bandage from the backpack. I send a silent thanks to Haymitch for his earlier gift, it was almost as if he knew that I would hurt my arm again. I stay as still as possible, giving the odd grunt of pain as she wraps the bandage tightly around my arm.

"Katniss, I almost lost you," I murmur to her. "If I hadn't seen that mutt you would be dead."

"It's you who nearly got killed Gale. Please, don't put yourself in danger for me again like that," she responds, tying up the bandage.

"You would have died Katniss. I can't let that happen and live," I reply, honestly. "You don't know how I felt when you nearly died when you took the fireball for me."

"Just don't," she mutters as I stand. She hands me back my sword from the floor. I wipe the blood off it with my sleeve and put it back in the sheath, staring at the ground. I yank the knife out of the mutt's eye and suppress a shudder as its head jerks back and the legs collapse. I wash it off in the lake before putting it back in the knife belt. I scoop some of the cool lake water into my mouth, to get rid of the vomit-taste that came with being mauled by a giant fox.

"Are you OK?" I ask Katniss finally. "Did any mutts catch up to you?" I hesitate. "Did I run too fast for you?"

"I'm fine," she replies and I get a feeling of relief. "Nothing caught up to me, but Aravis had a close shave."

For the first time since the attack I take a closer look at Aravis. Now that Katniss has mentioned it I notice a small trail of blood coming down from her leg. It seems to be coming from just below her knee, not a lot of blood though. "I nearly tripped and one tried to scratch my leg," Aravis explains. "I stabbed it and it ran off. I shouldn't need a bandage for it- it's not serious."

I shrug at her explanation. "If you say so. Don't be afraid to ask for a bandage if you need one though: you're our ally, we don't mind giving you one." I look to Katniss for confirmation and she nods slightly.

"It's not that, I just don't need one," Foxface responds. "Look, I had no trouble taking your food and bandages earlier, what makes you think I'd have problems now?"

"Just making sure," I reply, and pick up the backpack. "We should get back to our cave, I bet Cato and Clove our staying somewhere near the lake." Katniss and Aravis pick up their weapons and follow me back, retracing our footsteps across the trail we ran across before, something tells me it's the quickest route back.

xXx-X-xXx

And Aravis is back. Hope you liked the chapter, and as always, please favourite, follow or review. Thanks for reading!

-MoonOfPluto