A/N- Sorry it's been a while, but I'm still working on my other story. I hope that you enjoy this, and Happy Holidays. My next update should come sometime next week. Thanks for sticking with this story, and please review.
That night, Katniss waited until the anthem played to start sawing down the trackerjacker nest. It was obvious that it hurt her hands, but if anything, she's tough, and she managed to get most of the branched sawed off before the music stops playing. When the anthem stops, she smartly retreats to her previous position, no doubt not wanting the Careers to learn what she's doing and simply move.
When she returns to her sleeping bag, she notices a parachute that must have landed when she was sawing; I hadn't noticed it falling, but my attention was singly on her. Sure, I feel guilty for rooting for her while Mia is one of the people who's sleeping underneath the tree, but if Mia lives, that's one person. If Katniss manages to make it through were her sanity in tact, she could save so many more. Well, as I was saying, Katniss had found a parachute, equipped with ointment. I have to smile at the look on her face as she spreads it on her hands and legs. Immediately afterwards, she falls asleep.
Since I'd been planning on sleeping before, anyway, I decide that I might as well rest while she is.
"Tell me if something's going on," I instruct Felix, then fall into an easy sleep.
Hours later, Felix shakes me awake. I'm met with the sight of Katniss once again sawing off the branch. This time, however, it's about to fall. I get nervous when some of the tracker jackers start stinging her, but she pushes on, finally getting the branch to plummet through the trees.
I watch the resulting chaos carefully. It's easy to see that the Careers hadn't expected such a rude awakening, and they try to scramble to the lake, but a couple of them get left behind. A small lump forms in my throat when I realize that one of them is Mia.
"Shit, run," I urge her under my breath, but I've learned about tracker jacker stings, and I know that she's finished. I think of her sweet disposition, of the way that she always seemed so nice, and I slam my fist down on the table in front of us.
"She didn't need to die like that," I spit at Felix, and he puts a hand on my shoulder.
"It's better this way," he tells me. Then we pack up our stuff and head to the District 12 room, where Haymitch is watching the screen with uncharacteristically sharp eyes.
"Sorry 'bout that girl," he said. I shake it off.
"Katniss needs to win." Then we continue to watch the other Careers jump into the lake. All of them except for Peeta, who staggers back towards Katniss, with the boy from District 2 on his tail.
"What is that moron doing?" Haymitch hissed under his breath. I have to wonder the same thing. He stumbles upon Katniss, who'd been trying to pry a quiver and bow off of the body of the girl from 1, who'd also died from the stings.
"She just had to get the bow," Haymitch murmured. I watch her nervously as she fumbles with it, attempting to load an arrow, but she isn't thinking straight, and almost collapses.
"What are you still doing here?" Peeta hisses at her. I notice how he quickly looks over his shoulder, but the boy from 2 is still too far away. "Are you mad?" He starts urging her forward, sending nervous glances into the trees. "Get up! Get up!"
She manages to get unsteadily to her feet, but Peeta continues to push her. She obviously has no idea what's going on. Maybe she's even in shock that Peeta's helping her. I don't know. I just know that I have to fight the urge to scream at the screen and tell her to get her butt moving, although it wouldn't do any good.
"Run!" Peeta shouted when she stared at him blankly. "Run!"
At that second, Cato cuts away the brush with his knife and fights his way towards her. He's soaking wet from the lake, and Tracker Jacker stings dot his body, a couple on his arms, and a big one right under his eye that's swollen up to the point that I doubt he can see how of his left eye.
Katniss takes one look at him, and her brains seems to turn on. Hugging her bow and arrows as if they're a newborn baby, she stumbles away from them and through the brush, never able to really gain her balance. Despite that, she pushes on, past the pool she was at earlier, and into a different part of the forest. Then she can't go any longer, and she collapses. At the same time, I'm watching Peeta and Cato, the boy from 2, fight in what appears to be slow motion. The whole thing takes over twenty minutes, because neither of them can even stand up straight.
They take swings at each other and Peeta tries throwing a knife, but nothing hits. It's about the equivalent of watching a bar fight between two shit faced drunks. In all reality, it's boring, but in an interesting kind of way.
For a while I'm convinced that nobody is going to win, but finally Cato takes a blind swing with his sword and cuts Peeta right below the thigh. At the same time, against all odds, Peeta finally manages a good stick with one of his knives, and Cato stumbles away with a knife sticking out of his arm. Peeta, despite that, is in even worse shape, and starts dragging himself forward.
"Oh, this doesn't look good," Haymitch comments, and I can see why. One of his tributes it the color of a ghost, and losing blood fast, while the other one is passed out on the forest floor, with almost the same skin tone as her fellow tribute has.
"They'll be fine," I assure him.
Only my confidence wavers. Katniss stays passed out all night, the day after that, and into the morning, while Peeta doesn't get to sleep for the first day and a half. He finally manages to get to a muddy bank in front of a lake, and then starts mixing mud and plants together, slathering the stuff all over his skin.
In a not very smart moment, I look at Haymitch and wonder, "What in the hell is he doing? That can't be good for his leg."
After giving me a well-deserved incredulously look, Haymitch says, "Have you ever heard of camouflage, or do you think he'd be better of trying to fight anyone who came near him."
"Oh, right," I say sheepishly. What can I say? I haven't had much sleep at all.
At least Katniss wakes up in just a short while, but she doesn't move at all. She sits there and thinks, to my growing irritation. Although no other tributes are extremely close to her, her lack of activity makes me nervous, and because she isn't moving, I worry that something is wrong.
Eventually she does get up, though, and even though she's slow, at least she can move. Of course, Katniss, being as smart as she is, takes stalk of all her supplies, then goes out to round up water. She finds a stream after a while and drinks and washes herself before seeing up camp. She shoots herself a turkey-like thing and cooks it, then sits and starts to eat.
That's when I notice the little girl from Eleven creeping towards her again. She has no weapons, however, and after last time I'm more interested than nervous to see their interaction.
Katniss hears a twig snap and raises a bow in a quick, experienced motion, but lowers it when she, somehow, catches a glimpse of Rue. She relaxes, and a gentle smile breaks out across her face.
"You know, they're not the only ones who can form alliances," Katniss tells her. Felix and Haymitch groan loudly.
"Her?" Felix wonders.
"What good will that do?" Haymitch asks.
"She looks like Katniss's sister," I answer, throwing my best guess out there.
"How?" Haymitch asks.
"They're built exactly the same," I answer, then hold up my hand to shush them, eager to hear the rest of the conversation.
At first, Rue simply looks up at Katniss warily, then she carefully opens her mouth. "You want me for an ally?" It's weird, how she can't seem to believe that. I find nothing wrong with the alliance, despite the fact that the others in the room with me don't like it. Haven't they noticed how she flies through the trees, or the way that she knows what to eat?
"Why not? You saved me with those tracker jackers. You're smart enough to still be alive. And I can't seem to shake you anyway?" Rue studies her face carefully, swallowing hard as she obviously thinks about the decision. Katniss, at that moment, holds up a piece of meat. "You hungry?" she asks. Rue looks at the meat hungrily. "Come on then, I've had two kills today."
Rue shyly steps further out of the trees, her eyes still wary.
"I can fix your stings," she says.
"Can you? How?" Katniss wonders. I have to laugh at the look on her face, like she doesn't dare believe it. I guess that they were bothering her more than I could tell.
Rue digs in a small pack she'd been carrying and pulled out a handful of leaves. I don't recognize them, but I'm hopeless with plants anyway. In my Games, I had sponsors to get me medicine and things, and I haven't needed to learn anything about them since, so I've just stayed away.
"Where'd you find those?" Katniss wonders, her eyes widening at the leaves.
"Just around. We all carry them when we work in the orchards. They left a lot of nests there," Rue says. "There are a lot here, too." Katniss, obviously trying to gain the little girl's trust, smiles encouragingly.
"That's right. You're District Eleven. Agriculture. Orchards, huh? That must be how you can fly around the trees like you've got wings." The little girl smiles, obviously proud of how she can fly from tree to tree like a little bird. I guess it isn't exactly something to laugh at. I can hardly climb a tree at all, let alone go from one to the other. My size has always been an advantage for me, but looking at Rue, I can tell that sometimes there's perks to being small as well.
"Well, come on, then. Fix me up," Katniss says, once she sees the girl's smile. She then chews up the leaves and applies them to all of Katniss's stings, which makes the older girl relax to the extent that her face is almost funny. She even begs to keep going, and I look at Haymitch.
"I don't think that she handles pain quite as well as it'd appear."
"Cut her some slack," Haymitch says defensively. "At least she has a chance at winning her Games without the Capitol's help."
"My Games were nothing but skill," I almost brag, even though they aren't something that I really take pride in.
Rue and Katniss talk a while longer, after her stings are healed, and I relax and watch them, only sparing an occasional glance at the dying Peeta when it's completely necessary, just because seeing him on his deathbed like that isn't exactly fun. Sure, he's not the hope of the districts like Katniss is, but I can see that he's a good person, and the way that he's dying promises to be long and painful. So, I watch the friendly banter between the two girls instead.
That night, they finally get to sleep, Rue tucked into the sleeping bag next to Katniss, and I have to smile at how nice it is to see that sometimes friendships can be made in the Games. Then I cuss under my breath.
"She's not going to be able to kill her, is she?" I ask out loud.
"If it comes down to the two of them, no, she isn't," Haymitch says bitterly. I bite my tongue and look at the two nuzzled together. Finally, I let out a small sigh. At least, if Katniss doesn't make it out, it'll be for a good reason.
I'll be mad, sure, but not like I'd be if some moron chopped her head off.
That night, I go to bed with those happy thoughts, thinking of how sweet Katniss and Rue look together, and wondering about my sister, and in turn about Annie. I go to bed with the pair of them in my mind, and dream better dreams than I had in a long time.