5th Hunger Games
Winner: Maia District 7
This year was particularly significant in the history of the Hunger Games as it was the first year the victor wasn't from a Career district although at the time there was no such thing as a Career district; District 1 and 2 just had a reputation for being the strongest two districts. The 5th Hunger Games was also the first year that someone won without just using sheer strength and weapons. Maia, the victor of the 5th Hunger Games, used trickery and the resources around her to win which no one had ever done before.
From the start Maia knew she had no chance of overcoming the other tributes using weapons. She was small and weak and found out in the 3 days of training that she was probably the worst at sword fighting, archery, target practise, basically everything to do with attacking other tributes. So she joined the other tributes that had no chance of defeating anyone at the survival bases, learning how to tie knots and make fires. Here was where Maia shone. She came from District 7, where wood was produced so she had spent nearly her whole life in trees. She could get food out of them and knew which plants where safe to eat that grew around the trees. Maia was brilliant at climbing trees and being small and light, she could climb the thinnest branches where no one else could go. As long as there were trees in the arena, Maia was safe.
As Maia's podium rised up into the arena, she was silently praying for trees. Her podium broke onto the surface, she looked around. The arena was….a wood. When the gong went off, Maia knew exactly what to do and she ran away from the Cornucopia into the wood to hide up a tree. Maia stayed in the trees for 2 days, listening to the sounds of other tributes being killed. 9 had been killed in the bloodbath, nearly all of them killed by the boy tribute from District 2. This year District 2 had the strongest tributes, not District 1. Maia ate bark from the trees and found a small stream for water. Apart from collecting water, Maia never came down. Her plan was to stay hidden for as long as she could.
On the 2nd night Maia woke up to sound of crackling logs and the smell of smoke. Forest fire! She jumped down from her tree and quickly ran away from the fire, dodging fireballs and burning logs. But she never left the wood. Maia depended on the trees. Eventually once the fire had killed a few tributes it stopped and Maia was able to climb back into a tree and hide again. But she had narrowly avoided death; you couldn't hide from a fire. Maia couldn't stay hidden forever; she needed to start eliminating the competition before some other disaster made by the Gamemakers killed her. Maia had no weapons but she did have the trees.
The next day Maia moved to a tree near the Cornucopia. The remaining tributes would have to come back here as it was the main food source. She hid in her tree waiting for a tribute to walk past. After a few hours, the starving girl from District 6 walked directly underneath Maia's tree. Smack! A huge branch hit the girl killing her instantly. Maia had managed to cut a branch free and then drop it on the girl's head. And her plan had worked. Before the body could be taken Maia quickly jumped down and took a knife from the girls pocket – a knife would make things much easier in cutting the branches. After the body was taken, Maia moved the branch so no one would suspect that was how she'd died and climbed back up her tree to lie in wait for the next person.
Over the next few days, Maia killed anyone who went to the Cornucopia by dropping branches on them. She had killed 7 tributes before she realised that there was only one tribute left that she had to kill. So she waited and waited and waited but they didn't come. She waited for one more day before the last tribute finally last tribute was Remus, the boy from District 2 and he was incredibly tall and strong.
Maia wouldn't have a chance if it came down to a fight. Maia jumped from tree to tree to get near him before throwing the huge log she had cut off. But as she jumped to the last tree, she startled several birds that flew away squawking. This caught the attention of Remus who suspected Maia was up there and fired an arrow into the tree. It hit Maia in the leg and she screamed which made Remus fire another one which hit Maia's other leg. As Maia tried to ignore the pain and get the branch ready, arrows rained around her and a few more hit her in the legs, as that was the only part of her Remus could actually see. Just as Maia was about to pass out from the pain, she let the branch fall but seconds later she lost her balance and fell too. The branch hit Remus in the head killing him instantly but as Maia fell, no one knew if she'd survive the fall. She hit the ground at an awkward angle and didn't get up again. She was lifted into an aircraft and was given life-saving surgery which involved the amputation of both her legs leaving her with prosthetic ones. It took a week before the Capitol could see their new victor but Maia was a legend. She was the first victor that hadn't used a weapon from the Cornucopia against another tribute and was the inspiration for many other victors to come that won form being smart instead of being killing machines.