19: The Feast

Katniss POV:

"Attention! Attention tributes!" I groan quietly at the voice over the microphone. I was just drowsing, nearly asleep when it came. Gale and Aravis are sitting next to me; both have part excited, part apprehensive looks on their faces. "I would like to announce a feast tonight at the cornucopia. There will be an item there that will help each of your teams to survive. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour."

A feast. Well I guess that was expected, what else would the game makers have planned. An item that will help us to survive though. I have no idea about Foxface, but Gale and I have pretty much everything that we need. To survive anyway. We have weapons and water and bandages. We can hunt. I can't think of much, but I'm sure that there is something there for us. Otherwise the feast probably wouldn't have been announced.

"Shall we go?" Gale asks, breaking the silence. I turn around to look at him and Aravis.

"Yes," Aravis responds, almost too eagerly.

"Wait," I say. "We have no idea what might be there for us. Is it worth the risk? Cato and Clove and Thresh will be there too."

"And why are you so keen to go?" Gale asks, catching on that Foxface is a bit too eager.

"Well you heard, something that will help us to survive. If the other tributes get their gifts and ours then we're at a disadvantage. In fact, it's likely that Cato and Clove will get everything, they're in an alliance." Foxface's reasoning is decent, but my gut instinct is telling me that there's something that she's hiding, something big.

"Any idea what you'll get?" I ask, trying to sound offhand so there'll be more chance that she'll tell me.

Aravis stiffens up. So she is hiding something. Then she relaxes and I wonder if I imagined it. "No, no idea," she replies. "But something is better than nothing."

"Really?" Gale asks. "No idea?" So he caught onto it as well, that she's hiding something from us. His voice is concerned, but serious and holds a hint of a threat. She probably doesn't know that though, she doesn't know him well. He's being a bit too serious about this though, for some reason he doesn't seem to like Foxface all that much. Sees her as an ally, a resource, not really as a human being. Perhaps it's just the Games, but maybe it's because his instincts are telling him that there's something off about her.

"Medicine," she sighs out. "When you were gone I got chased by a snake. I managed to behead it, but it bit me. I think it was poisonous." Pulling up her trouser, she shows us a small bite mark just above her ankle. It consists of two small holes, which are a dark red colour. "Slow-acting," she says. "I've been feeling a bit ill since it happened."

"How long ago was this?" I ask worried. Snake bites weren't common in 12 but occasionally someone who had been hunting in the forest would be bitten by a poisonous snake. They didn't have long to live, only about two days, and my mother didn't have any cure for snake venom. They always died.

"Just before you found me," she replies. "It was chasing me and just before you found me it bit me and I beheaded it." So it wasn't just a coincidence. It was probably a muttation, sent by the game makers to chase her towards us. They want her to be our ally. But still, it's good news. It shouldn't be too late for an anti-venom to work.

"We should go," I decide, looking to Gale for agreement. "This is essential for you and useful for us. Worth the risk."

"Worth the risk," Gale says. "But only if we have a plan. I'm not willing to risk just running out there to grab our gifts and hoping for the best. The feast will probably be in about an hour. Any ideas?"

"I have an idea," Foxface says. "I thought of it while watching past Hunger Games. What if we hide in the cornucopia before the feast. That way when we run out we only have half the way. If one of us stays behind to protect and two of us hide we should be fairly safe." Interesting idea. If me and Aravis go, and leave Gale with a bow to protect us we have a good chance at surviving.

"I guess that could work," Gale says reluctantly. "But which two of us should go?"

"I'll go," Aravis says. "It's my fault we have to go in the first place and I'm not brilliant with long ranged weapons."

"I want to go too," Gale says. "I can run the fastest and Katniss, you can protect us because you're best with a bow."

"You're injured though," I remind him. "And you are nearly as good as me. Seeing as I'm the least injured I should go because if you get any more injuries you might die Gale."

"I suppose," he says. "So you and Aravis, agreed?" Me and Aravis nod. "We'd better get going if we want to be there before the Capitolites then." He lifts up the bow and arrows and straps it over his back. "Katniss, you take some knives and my sword. Aravis, you have knives."

I lift the sword. Heavy. I've only used it twice before: when I was protecting Gale and at the bloodbath. It's not my favourite weapon, but for close distance fighting it should do fine. I have knives anyway. I take about half of the knives and put them in my pockets. Aravis takes the knife belt and puts it around her waist. We are well prepared for this feast.

We head towards the cornucopia quickly and quietly. None of us speak, Foxface is travelling through the trees. She told me earlier that she spent a lot of training time practising climbing and she was natural at it. Gale is in front of me, his posture tense: back straight and head looking down slightly. We reach the edge of the woods, where the trees abruptly stop, leaving the forest and becoming short grass.

The cornucopia glints about twenty meters away from us. The golden rays of light coming from it make it painful to look at. A large table is stood next to the horn, a cloth draped over it. "Good luck," Gale whispers to us and kisses me gently on the cheek. "Stay alive," he recommends grimly. I leave towards the table and with Foxface behind me while Gale pulls himself up a tree.

Foxface and I hide under the tablecloth and I give Gale a small thumbs up. I seems like forever before we hear the loud noise of a Capitol helicopter. From our spot under the table we see a woman with long red hair tied back in a tight ponytail. She carries four backpacks, one that reads 12, and the others 5, 11 and 2. She places them on the table before leaving back into the helicopter. I feel Foxface breathe faster for a few seconds until the Capitolite leaves.

"Now!" Foxface whispers quickly to me.

We run out from under the table. I grab the 12 backpack and sling it around my wrist so I don't drop it. Foxface already has the 5 one and is running towards the side of the woods. I see Clove and Thresh running towards their bags, presumably Cato is waiting behind to protect Clove. Before I know it, I am running. I hear footsteps behind me and I instinctively duck. A knife whirls above my head, embedding itself in a tree a few feet away from me.

Just a few more meters, I think, my heart thudding. Suddenly, I am dragged to the ground. Clove sits on top of me triumphantly. She smiles sadistically and reaches out of her jacket for a long, serrated hunting knife. Come on Gale, I think, where are you? I need you. I wriggle desperately for a few seconds, but Clove's weight on my legs makes it pointless.

"Forget it Everdeen," Clove says, an insane glint in her eyes. "I've got you. I'm going to kill you. Waiting for lover boy? It'll be too late, I doubt he's even here tonight, is he? I got a good knife in him last time." Her words give me a glimmer of hope. If she doesn't know Gale is here she won't be paying attention for his attack.

"Now where to begin?" Clove asks herself, twirling the knife in front of my nose. I would stab her, but she is sitting on where I kept the knives. If I could just get her off me.. "I think I'll start with the lips. Doesn't that sound like fun to you?" She's insane. There's no question about it.

The tip of her knife touches my upper lip and she delicately carves a line. It feels like pure agony, an icy cold line of pain. I taste blood in my mouth and panic even more. "Won't be able to kiss lover boy properly for a long time now," she says happily. Suddenly she gets off slightly with a cry of pain. An arrow is embedded in her arm.

I take the opportunity to kick her in the stomach. Another arrow comes and I run away, leaving it between the other tributes. Thresh is rushing towards Clove and I manage to get to the forest and climb a tree. I perch on the branch and wipe the blood from my mouth. I feel it smudge across my cheek and the sharp taste of it is still there. I wonder how bad it is.

A few moments later Gale and Foxface are standing next to me. Gale wraps his arms around me immediately and hugs me tightly. "Katniss, you're alive. I'm so sorry I didn't get there faster, I was shooting Cato."

"It's fine," I mutter, wiping more blood away from my mouth. "I didn't die or anything. And I got the backpack." I hold up the small bag with the 12 on it. "How injured is Cato?"

"Arrow in his leg," Gale replies. "I only needed to stop him helping Clove and it was hard to hit a moving target."

"We should go back to the cave," Foxface suggests. "See our gifts there."

We walk back to the cave; I hold hands with Gale. Every so often I need to wipe a bit of blood off my face with my sleeve. It takes the rest of the journey to stop my heart from beating so fast from terror and get back to a normal rhythm. Clove was mad, completely mad. Back when we were in the careers she wasn't that crazy, I hope the games haven't and won't do that to me. We reach the cave and climb in.

Foxface opens her bag. Inside is a small syringe and a piece of paper. "Inject into the vein," she reads. "Use all of the anti-venom." I offer to do it for her and she accepts. Steadying my hand, I pierce the surface of her skin with the needle. It slowly goes down into the vein and I gradually empty the syringe.

"Done," I say when I'm finished. I hear Aravis sigh in relief. "What's in our bag Gale?" I ask.

Gale opens our bag. Inside is a small bottle filled with capsules. "Cyanide," he reads the label. "One capsule will kill a tribute within one minute." He looks up at me. "Poison. They gave us poison."

"So we can poison other tributes?" I ask curiously. "Like the careers or Thresh."

"I guess so," Gale replies. "They've given us a plan. Maybe it was worth going to the feast."

"Maybe it was," I reply. "If you didn't nearly get tortured and killed. I'm going to sleep now, OK?" I tell him. The feast was exhausting. Even though it isn't dark yet I still need to sleep. Besides, tomorrow will be a long day. We need to find the career camp- I bet they'll have moved it- and manage to poison the career food with cyanide.

xXx-X-xXx

So that was the feast. What did you think of the gifts that I gave District 12 and Foxface? Believable? Well please leave a review telling me and thanks to all of you who already have reviewed, followed or favourited.

-MoonOfPluto