31st Hunger Games

Winner: Jute District 6

The 31st Hunger Games was peculiar in many ways. For a start it was the first time that one of the ordinary districts, that didn't produce regular victors, won back to back Hunger Games. It was also the Hunger Games where instead of being worshipped by the Capitol, the Career districts were mocked and teased.

The reason the Capitol turned against their favourites? They were outsmarted several times by the same tribute and they never even realised it.

The tribute that outsmarted the six Career tributes was Jute, a 16 year old from District 6.

Following the victor of the last Hunger Games being from District 6, it was only natural for District 6 to be over-confident at this years reaping and they weren't disappointed. The girl that was reaped for District 6 looked very promising; she was tall and strong and was very pretty meaning she would attract sponsors. Jute, however, was skinny and very shy; he only spoke during his interview from being reaped to entering the Games.

It was typical for everyone to cast Jute off as someone who'd die early on, they should've known better really, considering the amount of weak-looking tributes who'd won without fighting.

Yet they still underestimated him even though he proved to the Gamemakers during his individual evaluation that he had picked up some valuable skills from District 6's newest mentor. Jute was going to try and use camouflage again.

After successfully hiding for the entirety of the 30th Hunger Games, Fabry tried to teach this year's tributes that you could win without having to be good at killing. The girl hadn't listened to her but Jute did and had spent most of his time at the survival stations and therefore, realised that he also had a flair for camouflage as long as it was very simple colours; he would never be a painter like Fabry. He couldn't just hide like she had though; he would have to come up with something different.

The arena this year was a forest so thankfully Jute could use his camouflage as he could just stick to using green leaves.

When the gong went off, despite not having the stomach for fighting, Jute still ran to the Cornucopia to grab a weapon. Like his mentor, he chose a knife despite showing no interest in them during training.

But then he disappeared.

Nobody saw him leave the Cornucopia, not even the Careers even though they were guarding the Cornucopia. The Gamemakers, of course, knew where he was because of the trackers but they were the only ones.

So where was Jute?

Right at the back of the Cornucopia, behind all the weapons, was some tar like substance that was meant to be used for camouflage. After Fabry, the Gamemakers had decided to put a little bit of camouflage paint at the back, just in case any tribute wanted to use it. Jute had gone to the back of the Cornucopia originally to hide but when he had found the camouflage, he decided he might as well use it. It was nothing brilliant but Jute wasn't intending to spend the entire Hunger Games hiding. But for now he did need to hide.

Meanwhile the Careers had decided to make the Cornucopia their base instead of just wandering around, hunting tributes down. After the bloodbath, the six of them stayed behind to make camp and guard the rest of the weapons and the food. They were intending to stay there and wait for the other tributes to come to them; the District 1 tributes were very good with a bow so they could shoot anyone they could see from the trees. Of course, even when they weren't tracking tributes down, the Careers were still a huge threat.

Jute had decided to hide not too far from the Cornucopia for the first night, to see what was going to happen and what the Careers were going to do. His camouflage was working reasonably well but it wasn't permanent and if someone looked hard enough, they would be able to see him. Jute would have to go back to the Cornucopia eventually as he only had a little bit of water and food and a single knife. From using the survival stations, Jute could tell that many tributes were going to die once the food started to run out as nearly all the berries and plants were poisonous and not many tributes would be skilled enough to catch rabbits and squirrels. Most of the food that had been on offer to the tributes was still at the Cornucopia which is where the Careers were so any tribute wanting food would have to fight them first.

Jute knew he would have to go and fight them as well.

After staying in the trees for as long as he could with barely any food and only a few days worth of water, Jute headed back to the Cornucopia as there was nowhere else for him to go. He only had a knife, which wasn't enough to catch any wild animal and he was so close to the Cornucopia, he might as well try to sneak some food away from the Careers. His camouflage was beginning to come off but he had topped it up with some leaves and mud that he'd found.

When he got back to the Cornucopia, to Jute's dismay he saw that there were three Careers milling around, practising with weapons. However they had their back to the Cornucopia and Jute saw his chance, dodged out from the trees, and sprinted over to the Cornucopia before crouching down right at the back between some rope and some medicine.

Jute realised that there was a flaw to his plan when he saw he couldn't get back out again without being seen, especially when he saw the rest of the Careers returning. He would have to wait until night.

It was very uncomfortable crouched in between a medical kit and an old bit of rope as sharp bits of equipment kept poking into him and the rope was big and heavy. Thankfully, it wasn't something the Careers wanted so they left Jute alone and he remained unnoticed.

When night fell Jute sprinted away with his arms laden down with food but he intended to go back. The medical kit had given him an idea.

Despite having enough food to last him for the rest of the Games if he was careful, Jute spent the next few days gathering plants and berries. The Capitol were confused, it was clear he knew they were poisonous as he hadn't done what many other tributes had already done, and eaten them straight away.

Jute actually intended to rub the berries and plants on his knife and go back and hide in the Cornucopia. That way if any tribute came for supplies, Career or another tribute, he could give them a little prick on the foot that they'd barely feel and the slow- working poison would eventually kill them. If the tributes didn't feel anything, they wouldn't know there was another tribute there and Jute hoped his camouflage was good enough to hide him in the meantime.

Once he had gathered enough plants and berries, Jute went and put his plans into action. This time, there was only one Career standing guard so it was much easier for Jute to slip past him. Despite not wanting to be seen, Jute hid himself much nearer the front of the Cornucopia, by the food where he knew tributes would go.

He had his first shot at killing someone that night. The girl from District 2 went looking for some water and Jute just slipped his poison-coated knife into her big toe. The climate was quite warm so the tributes had been given very thin shoes so they could walk long distances without their feet sweating so Jute was able to use this to his advantage.

The poison took about 12 hours to work so Jute didn't find out if it worked until the next evening as both District 2 tributes were getting bored and went to see if they could find any tributes to kill. When only the boy, Jute assumed his knife had worked, especially when the boy from District 2 said she just dropped dead suddenly. The Careers had no idea what happened and assumed there had been another tribute in the trees somewhere.

Over the next few days Jute continued to stay in the Cornucopia and prick tributes feet. But in four days he'd only got three tributes, both District 1 tributes and the girl from District 8 who'd managed to sneak past the Careers. The Careers had no idea what was happening, they were all just dropping dead all of a sudden.

Jute was determined to kill all the Careers at least, to prove that brains were just as good as fighting skills. He sat patiently and waited for the tributes to come to him. He wasn't disappointed.

Towards the end of the Games, more and more tributes came back for food and water, especially when the Gamemakers released a chemical that polluted all the ponds and rivers in the forest. Jute's camouflage got better and better the more practise he had and it paid off as he was able to kill many tributes from his own hiding place.

When it got down to the final two, Jute still waited for the boy from District 3 to come to him. She did eventually and then all Jute had to do was sit and wait for 12 hours for the announcement that he was the victor.

The Capitol was surprised with Jute and disgusted with the Careers. Everyone backed the Careers yet they'd all been killed by someone who'd been right next to them the whole time. They should've spotted Jute.

One thing was for a certain, the Careers would not be as popular as normal for quite a few Games to come and the Careers would definitely make sure that District 6 didn't win for a long time.

Jute on the other hand was sadly one of the victors that turned to morphling to help cope with the horrors of the Hunger Games. Living in constant fear in the arena had shook Jute's brain and he couldn't cope with watching his own tributes die year after the year so was therefore unable to become a mentor.