Authors Note: So this is the first Hunger Games of one of the canon tributes. Hope you like it xx
12th Hunger Games
Winner: Mags District 4
The 11th Hunger Games had ended with the Capitol wanting to find a way to stop tributes being over looked. What the Capitol really needed was a way to find out more about the tributes before they went into the arena. One of the Gamemakers came up with the idea at the end of the Victory Tour when the victor was asked how she felt. Why not have interviews for the tributes the night before the Hunger Games started? That way all the emotions that the tributes felt could be seen by the Capitol and they would get a proper understanding of each tribute. When the new idea was proposed everyone in the Capitol loved it so it was made official that starting from the 12th Hunger Games, there would be interviews from the tributes.
This announcement made up for the dismal Victory Tour that the districts had held this year. There had been a bad harvest this year and a famine had swept through the districts. This unfortunately gave the Gamemakers an idea. To make it really difficult for the tributes this year, there would be no food in the Cornucopia so the tributes would have to get their food by themselves or starve. This would be bad for nearly all the tributes except for the lucky ones who were used to having catching their own food such as the tributes from District 4.
At the reaping, the children that were picked all looked weak and tired, even the ones from District 1 and 2. Everyone looked malnourished and the ones who worked in the districts that handled the harvest distribution, District 9 and 11, looked like they would collapse at any moment from exhaustion and hunger. Anyone could win this year as none of the tributes looked particularly strong.
At the training, the tributes were warned that they would need to know certain survival skills this year and to at least spend a little time at those stations instead of just going straight to the weapons. The warning fell on deaf ears to quite a lot of tributes who wanted to build up their strength before the Games. After the last harvest fail, which has resulted in the tributes falling ill with the rich food (see the 5th Hunger Games), the Capitol were taking no chances and had given the tributes a strict diet. While this stopped them from being ill, it didn't help any of the tributes regain their strength and fitness. This resulted in over half the tributes not being prepared for what was to come.
The first ever interviews with the tributes went ahead as planned and they were a great success. Caligua Flickerman hosted these interviews and continued to do so until he died and his son Caesar took over. Thousands of people attended to see the tributes who mostly just answered yes or no to any question that was asked. This was the first set of interviews and the tributes had no idea what to expect and didn't provide a very exciting show. But the Capitol loved it and it became a Hunger Games tradition.
To make it a little easier for the tributes to find their own food, the arena this year was a huge river that stretched for miles with banks sloping up each side and huge clumps of bushes. The Cornucopia was on a bridge about halfway along the river. It was the only way to cross from one side to the other unless you were an exceptional swimmer.
When the gong sounded, as usual, some of the tributes grabbed a few things and ran and some ran straight to the Cornucopia and started the bloodbath. No one had noticed that there was no food; everyone was too focused on either getting away or the bloodbath. Mags had stayed at the Cornucopia long enough to get a spear and some other resources before running down the riverbank to get away from the other tributes. Hours had passed and still no one had noticed there was no food. Once the bloodbath calmed down, the winners began to leaf through the remaining supplies at the Cornucopia to see what there was and to their surprise they found there was no food left. Something wasn't right. There was usually lots of food left at the Cornucopia once the other tributes had gone. The tributes who had run away were staring to notice the lack of food once they opened their rucksacks and found that there was plenty of water but no food. At this news some weren't too worried because they assumed that there would be food at the Cornucopia and they would just have to go back when it got dark. That night many tributes went back to the bridge to look for food but no one dared to go up to the Cornucopia in fear of being killed. There was no such thing as alliances between tributes from other districts so there was no one defending the Cornucopia, but as there were so many tributes hiding near the bridge, it was likely that someone would be killed.
The tributes were camped out for hours just waiting for someone else to try first. During the night more and more tributes came, overcome with hunger, until all the remaining tributes were camped out near the Cornucopia waiting…watching to see if anyone would make a move. Eventually the boy from District 4, who had been reasonably well fed during the harvest and was struggling to cope with not eating for 16 hours, sprinted out from his hiding place to the Cornucopia. He was hoping to grab something quick. However when he got there, there weren't any obvious signs of food. In fact when he looked deep into the Cornucopia, there wasn't any at all! The rest of the tributes watched him eagerly to see if he would find any food but when he began to circle round the Cornucopia searching for food, it was clear that he wasn't going to find any. Just as the boy was debating on whether to tell the tributes he knew were hiding that there was no food, an arrow came zooming out of nowhere and buried itself in his chest. The other tributes quickly left, to avoid the hidden archer but they had the information they needed. They were going to have to find their own food.
The Hunger Games now became more of a race to find some food than to kill everyone else. Tributes were getting desperate and weren't really bothered about other tributes anymore unless they had food. Some tributes tried eating the insects that lived in the mud and all those tributes died, minutes after eating them as the insects were poisonous. Most tributes turned to the river for food but had difficulties catching any fish. The river simply swept away any tribute that tried to get in to catch fish and the pathetic fishing rods that some tributes tried to make were useless against the strong current. The tributes who had practised the survival skills were slightly more confident but struggled to actually keep the fish on the line as they reeled it in. The Capitol loved this. Tributes were dying all the time and it was prolonged and agonising, not like the quick deaths they'd got in the past Games. The Gamemakers even decided to stop tributes being sent any gifts involving food to make it even more difficult for them. However there was one tribute who knew what they were doing.
Mags had been fishing all her life. She could easily create a fishing rod and hook from just about anything. Her only main competition would've been the boy from District 4 who also knew how to fish, but he was dead leaving Mags to be the strongest tribute. The Capitol had under estimated the tributes from District 4 when they had created this arena; they didn't think the tributes would be old enough to know what to do. Mags was a problem that would the ruin the Games but would could the Gamemakers do? She was adored by the Capitol and killing her off would've put all their jobs on the line, she had to be allowed to live. So Mags just had to outlive the other tributes, without even using a weapon if she didn't want to.
This Games didn't have a very dramatic end and there had barely been any blood so the Gamemakers couldn't do something like this again for several years. But they didn't mind, it had been worth it. The Capitol absolutely loved watching the tributes slowly starve to death and seeing what lengths they would go to to get a meal; one tribute even tried to eat his own fingers. When the tributes were reaching their final moments, Mags would go and put them out of their misery with a quick spear in the heart. It was very clear she was going to win, being the only tribute who had a constant supply of food and she was doing a favour for the other tributes. If the boy from District 4 hadn't been killed, there might've been a showdown but Mags won the Games by only killing people who were nearly dead anyway. The Capitol had enjoyed this Games as a change from the usual gore but the 13th Games would be back to the usual killings and bloodshed. Mags would always be known as the kindest and most caring person to ever win the Hunger Games.