Games 10

I was struggling to keep up with Foxface. She was quick in stride, and I had to contrain myself from running. If I did, I'd get a little carried away and loose myself in the forest.

Litteraly.

So I settled for a quick trot, trying not so make so much noise. I was clumsy in this awkward way of walking, unlike she, who was graceful and light on her toes. I was more like a wounded bird, tripping over every little bump in the forest road and slipping into piles of dirt and ants.

I was absoutley on edge.

Katniss had taught me one time that a hunter has to be light on their toes, nimble, and quick. If they weren't, that would scare off the prey. If I didn't straighten up, I'd attract my enemy, Cato. Or I might make Foxface get angry with me, and then I'd die in one of her foxy, complex tricks.

I was between a very large rock and a very firm hard place.

She suddenly stopped, and it took almost everything I had to not fall ontop of her. She glanced sideways at me, her fists clenched to her sides, and my throat ran dry. Was she going to kill me now? Hopefully my death would be quick and painless...

"Here," she tossed me something she'd plucked from the ground, "food. Eat up...maybe you can get your strength back."

"T-thank you," I appricated the act of kindness as she plucked one of the berries in her mouth.

Then I noticed the type of berry. Dropping my bundle, I tackled her and slapped her on the back to get her to spit it out. Wrapping my arms around her waist, I gave a push, and the berry flew out.

I was suddenly on the ground, a knife blade to my throat, and she growled, "What the hell was that for?"

"Nightlok..." I choked against her grip on my throat, "poison...die...instantly..."

The grip lossened, "And how do I trust that?"

My eyes went over to a bird flying overhead. He circled...circled...and landed on the bush where Foxface had found the berries beside. I watched with a little sigh as he took one in his beak, gulping it down with a satisfied flap of his magnificient wings.

And then he went still, bug-eyed, and dropped to the ground.

Her hand dropped from my neck completley, and I walked over to him on trembling legs, though I already knew his fate. Reaching down with a shaking hand, I felt weakly for a pulse and let myself drop to my knees. Tears slipped down my face as I brought my hand to my heart, then rose again, holding the lifeless bird in my arms.

"Be free, you beautiful creature," I folded his wings back to his side and perched him carefully onto a branch, letting him watch over the forest on his perch, solem and looking almost free now.

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"I believe you now," Foxface's voice was soft and understanding, and it occured to me she wasn't too crazy about death herself, "let's leave him in peace."

Thresh had warned me that the Gamemakers would have to keep the pace quick and entertaining with us all, especially with only a few left to work with. My beliefs in that were renewed when I woke up to the sound of rushing water.

The rain was pouring down too heavily too quickly. The water was already up to my knees, and I realized I'd been floating down a powerful current that, to stand, I had to cling to a tree trunk.

"Foxface?" I called above the slowly increasing volume of the water, "Foxface?"

She wasn't exactly an ally, but she was the first person in these games besides Rue and Thresh that wasn't interested in murdering me brutally and eating my internal organs for breakfast. I was forced to climb that tree as fast as I could as the water came closer to my neck, and I watched with absolute terror and horror as the water slowly rose to touch my feet.

I could do one of two things: Let the water take me to probable death or find higher ground, far from the flooding area.

So I jumped in the water and struggled to find land until I passed out.

I was saved by a twig.

My shirt had snagged on a tree, and I gasped and almost died as soon as my eyes opened. The water was in a highly powerful, unrealistic stream straight down a waterfall that would lead straight to darkness and into hell. I grasped that twig with all my might, pawing my way up it and praying hard it wouldn't break.

I saw a hill on the horizon and could only sigh. Maybe I'd make it by some miracle...

But that was too easy.

"Prim...Primrose!" Foxface's scream sounded too much like Katniss', "PRIM!"

I turned around, still clinging to my life on my branch, and almost threw up the water already in my lungs. She was clinging to the trunk, struggling just to get a breath above the raged waters. I could reach down, pull her up...

But I'd fall in.

She'd tried. She'd really tried to help me. My eyes stung as I realized what I had to do.

And yet my hand still reached for her. Our fingers just touched before a huge wall of water sent both of us under. I grasped her hand as tightly as I could, my viens almost popping with my grip. We were swirling in a dark blue and red whirlpool, and the sun disappeared.

I woke up in a cave.

I was dizzy. I was weak. I could barley open my eyes. And then I threw up everything I'd ever eaten in my life.

And I went back into unconscience.

I woke up again what seemed like minutes later. The sun was down, and my entire body trembled as the sky lite up. The athem seemed to be distant as Foxface's face lite up the sky.

Another one down. Four more to go.

At least Rue was alive.