Hello readers!

I'm back with a new chapter for you! Here we get a little more background on Riker, a peak into what Ebony is really like, and a little more arena action!

Chapter Thirty: Freya.

"Run! Go!" Ryder pushes Lisa ahead of him, urging her faster as they dash among the treetops.

"What are we doing? I thought we were climbing down?" Lisa shouts over her shoulder.

"We are, but we've got to get far enough away from the rain first, give us time to climb down."

Lisa slips and almost falls, but Ryder grabs her arm and pulls her back up. "It's coming too fast! We'll never be able to climb down in time." She gasps, struggling to keep up their break-neck pace. "And even if we do, does it really matter?"

Ryder nudges her to the right, and they begin moving in that direction. "I'm guessing the rain is designed to send us to the forest floor, I doubt it'll fall farther than the upper branches."

"What are we going to do? We have no idea what's down there." Lisa's voice is clearly worried, bordering on panicked.

Ryder tries to comfort her, but he's just as concerned as she is. "We'll be fine, as long as we stick together. Come on, we've got to climb down now."

They pause, and Ryder quickly checks their harnesses before pulling out several climbing spikes. "Okay…so how do we do this?"

Lisa takes the spikes from him and moves over to a tree trunk. "I'll go first and place the spikes, you climb down after me and pull the spikes out as we go, then pass them down so I can use them again. Okay?"

He nods. "Sounds good, go ahead."

She starts the climb, jamming the spikes into the wood, testing them for a brief moment before climbing down. Ryder is close behind, pulling the spikes out as he descends.

They make good progress, but the rain is right behind them.

I bite my lip and run my fingers through my hair distractedly.

Dash reaches over and takes my hand in his, holding onto it tightly. "They're going to make it." He says quietly.

I nod, my eyes flickering from the screen showing our descending tributes, to the one displaying the rapidly approaching rain.

They've just cleared the layer of branches that serve as the upper level of the arena as the rain washes over the place they'd just been.

Dash and I both hold our breath, waiting to see if Ryder's assumption about the rain not falling farther than the branches is true.

Ryder and Lisa tense, waiting to see if their fate is sealed. After a few moments, Ryder laughs and looks down at Lisa. "Told you we'd make it."

Dash and I both exhale heavily, letting out sighs of relief. He turns and wraps his arms around me, holding me tightly as the tension and stress lifts off both our shoulders.

I take a deep breath, summon my strength, and turn back to the screens. "They haven't reached the ground yet, and we have no idea what's waiting for them down there."

He nods and turns to face the screens as well. "True, but so far they've proven that they're tough, capable, and resourceful, they'll be alright."

My eyes track their progress downward as I murmur under my breath. "Let's hope so."

As it becomes evident that the gamemasters aren't planning on throwing anything else their way, at least not until they've reached the ground, Dash nudges me and motions toward the door. "You should go get some rest, or food, or something."

I raise my eyebrows at him. "Or something?"

He shrugs. "At least go stretch your legs."

I roll my eyes and sigh as I stand up. "Fine, I'll be back soon."

He nods. "Oh, and could you bring me back some coffee?"

I nod as I move to the door. "Sure."

"You got it."

As I exit, I decide to take his advice and take a brief walk around the cave. I go and investigate the lounge first, since it's pretty much the only place I haven't visited.

It's large and luxurious, everything I expected from the Capitol. There are large television screens on each wall, displaying the games, tribute statistics, and interviews featuring sponsors, and random citizens from the Capitol concerning their thoughts on the games this year, who they think will win and so on.

After two more tribute deaths they'll be interviewing the families of the remaining eight tributes.

"Well, look who it is."

I turn to see Ebony leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his lean chest casually. He flashes me a grin, his emerald studded canines glinting as they catch the light.

"Oh, I didn't realize anyone else was in here." I say coolly.

He laughs and straightens up. "Just us. What's the great Lady of the Sea doing here?"

My eyes harden at the nick name. "Don't call me that, and I could ask you the same question."

He shrugs. "Whatever you say, I was just relaxing, taking a breather. That is what this room is here for after all."

I nod. "So it is."

He wanders over closer to me, and leans against the back of a couch, watching me for a moment before saying. "So your tributes look pretty capable."

I narrow my eyes at him and cross my arms. "They are, but I'm not discussing my tributes with you."

He lifts his hands defensively. "Whoa, settle down there, was just trying to make conversation." He rests his hands against the back of the couch and continues. "Riker and my tributes are pretty tough this year too."

I nod. "Yeah, they are."

He laughs. "Although, your boy pulling one over on Jasper took us all by surprise I think. That was a dumb slip up on Jasper's part, should have been keeping an eye on Four like we told him to."

"Jasper's a good kid, you shouldn't talk about him like that."

Ebony looks surprised. "How would you know?"

I shrug. "I had the chance to talk with him a bit before the games started."

He regards me for a moment, then says. "Did you tell your boy not to kill him?"

I shake my head. "That was all up to Ryder, guess not all tributes turn into ruthless murderers in the arena."

Something flickers in Ebony's eyes for a moment, and I immediately recognize it, that same haunted look I've seen countless times.

"But some of us…well, some of us do turn out that way, don't we?"

He narrows his eyes and glares at me. "Is this supposed to throw me off my mentoring game or something? What do you think you're doing?"

I frown. "I don't know what you mean."

He straightens up and steps toward me. "Implying that "some of us" turn into murderers in the games, who the hell do you think you are? Miss perfect, miss big sister, miss morality. You don't know anything about me, you don't know what it was like, even if you watched my games you don't know anything!"

I raise my hands defensively and back up a step. "Ebony, I don't remember watching your games, I don't know where this is coming from."

"Then why'd you imply I was a murderer!"

"Because you have the same haunted look in your eyes that Dash does!"

He freezes. "What?"

I sigh. "Just a moment a go, you got that look in your eye, the same one that Dash gets sometimes, when he thinks about what he did in the games."

Ebony falters. "O-oh…" He rubs the back of his neck and looks away. "Sorry for yelling at you."

I'm taken aback, suddenly faced with a slightly ashamed young man. "It's okay. I get it."

He sighs. "It's just…everyone gets a little edgy during the games."

I nod. "I know."

He bites his lip. "Listen…I'm sorry if you got the wrong impression of us, the Capitol tends to make jack-asses of us all."

I smile. "Dash was the first victor I ever met, so yeah I get that."

A rare, sincere smile, curves his lips. "Well then, I guess you have had some experience with jack-asses."

I nod, then meet his eyes and ask. "What did you mean "us", about getting the wrong impression I mean."

He shrugs. "Oh, I meant Riker and I, he's really not that bad of a guy."

"Are you two close?"

He smiles slightly and shrugs. "Buddies since childhood, I always looked up to him, so of course when he volunteered for the games and won, I decided to follow in his footsteps."

"I see."

He shrugs. "Found out how stupid a decision that was pretty quickly." He lets out a sigh and rubs the back of his neck. "Anyway, just wanted to clear the air."

I hesitate before asking something that's been bugging me. "Do…do you know who Freya is?"

His face instantly changed to surprise and confusion, and for a moment I think I catch a hint of pain in his eyes. "How do you know that name?"

I frown slightly, confused at his accusing tone. "I, um…I woke Riker up from a nightmare and he didn't really wake up all the way at first, and he called me Freya."

Definitely a pained look now, he avoids looking at me as he answers. "Freya was Riker's fiancé."

"His what?"

Ebony looks slightly amused as he meets my eyes. "You know, Riker has a reputation, but that doesn't mean he's always been that way."

I think of Dash and nod. "Right…"

Ebony crosses his arms. "Now you're wondering what happened, but you don't want to ask because frankly it's none of your business."

I smile slightly. "Is it that obvious?"

He shrugs. "Not really, but I'm pretty good at reading people." Then he straightens up and stretches. "Well normally I wouldn't tell you personal stuff about Riker, but this once I will, only so you can understand what he's been through and hopefully cut him some slack about his attitude."

I look surprised, but don't say anything, waiting for him to explain.

"Before he entered the games, he didn't have anything, just some orphan kid living in community homes. Freya loved him, and he loved Freya, but he knew he could never support her so he tried to keep things between them as casual as possible. Then, after winning the games, he had a name for himself, a fancy house, and more money than he knew what to do with."

"So now he can support her."

Ebony nods. "He proposes, they get engaged, everything looks like a dream come true. He can finally put the games behind him, through her seeing a purpose for all the killing. But then one day everything goes wrong when he gets a message from the capitol."

My heart drops, and I feel sick to my stomach. "Oh…"

"I figured you knew about some of the victors…extra activities, you being so close to Dash and all." He suddenly thinks of something and looks at me with a slightly horrified expression. "You're not…"

I shake my head. "No…not yet at least."

He breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank God, at least a few of us can escape it."

I frown. "Who else is required to?"

He shrugs. "The only ones that I know of for sure who get out of it are you and James, because he's sick most of the time."

I hold a hand to my stomach, willing myself not to get sick. "I…I didn't…even Kaden and Eliza? And Heather?"

He nods. "For those of us without families, they find other means of…convincing us."

"I think I'm going to be sick."

"Yeah well, I think the Capitol makes us all feel that way."

I take several deep breaths and rub my forehead. "So…what happened after he got the message from the Capitol?"

Ebony's eyes turn sad again. "Well, he told the President that he was engaged and refused to take on any…jobs."

I can't breathe, my mind racing as I think of Felix and I, we're not engaged, I haven't been called to the Capitol yet, but what if I was? What would I do? What if Felix and I got married, what then? Would I still be called to the Capitol, or would that grant me some kind of immunity?

"Turns out the President isn't too fond of his little puppets talking back to him. Freya was murdered a week later. They made it look like a robbery." He ground his teeth together at the memory. "But Riker knew…it wasn't a robbery, it was a message. Freya had been tortured…in more ways than one before she was killed. They left her lying in her own blood on Riker's bed."

I inhale sharply, too horrified to say anything.

Ebony sighs. "Riker's never been the same after that, he blames himself for her death, throws himself into doing whatever the Capitol wants as some sort of penance, as if that will somehow bring her back." He looks up at me. "You look kind of like her, her hair was a little darker blonde and she had hazel eyes, but there's definitely a resemblance. Plus she tended to be a little feisty like you at times."

I smile slightly. "So that's why he gets that look in his eyes whenever he's around me."

Ebony nods. "I'd say so. Anyway, that's Riker's story, I hope you'll think of him differently now."

I nod. "I will, thank you for telling me, Ebony."

He shrugs and heads for the door, pausing and saying over his shoulder before exiting. "Listen, when it comes down to it…we all want to bring a kid home, you can't blame anyone for how the games turn out in the end."

I frown, wondering what brought that up all of a sudden, and then I remember Eliza's meltdown.

Remembering what I left to do originally, I head to the kitchens, grab some snack type food and two cups of coffee, then I head back to the monitoring room.

Dash looks up from the screens as I walk in. "There you are, they just reached the forest floor."

I set the tray down and study the screens, getting my first look of the lower levels of the arena.

"Jungle" was dead on; the undergrowth is thick and tangled, vines, bushes, and all matter of other greenery huddles around the trunks of the giant trees. The light that trickles down from the treetops is dim, bathing the whole forest in an eerie greenish-gray light.

The buzz and trill of insects is a constant hum in the background, occasionally broken by the cry of some other jungle creature.

I remember reading about jungles in school, my mind automatically recalling every deadly creature that lurks within the depths of the forest. Snakes, gorillas, all many of big cats, and even some species of insects pose as deadly threats.

As if reading my mind, Dash reaches over and grips my shoulder reasurringly. "They'll be fine, survival training taught them how to survive wild atmospheres like this."

I sigh and rub my forehead. "I know…it's just, even without the other tributes, there's so much that could-"

I'm cut off by the sound of a canon, causing both Dash and I to jump in surprise.

"What…"

Dash scans the screens, and taps the girl from District three's profile, now marked with a large red X.

"I thought she died in the bloodbath…" I murmur, suddenly feeling guilty for assuming she was already dead.

Dash shook his head. "Nope, I was surprised she managed to survive this long too, what with her being deaf and all."

I frown and scan the screen displaying the broadcast. "How do you think she…" I gag and look quickly away from the screen as it shows her corpse.

"Looks like the acid rain got her." Dash says, his face creased in disgust.

"How awful." I say, still looking away from the screen.

Dash crosses his arms and leans back in his chair. "Poor girl, it looks like the acid rain washed over her a while ago and it's just now killed her."

Before I can dwell on how horrific her death must have been, a buzzer begins to sound, causing Dash and I both to jump again, and turn our eyes to the screens displaying the jungle around our tributes. "What is it?" I ask, fear tightening my voice as I look for the threat.

Dash shakes his head. "I don't know, I can't see anything."

Suddenly Ryder stops, turns his head slightly, then his eyes widen and he drops to the forest floor, pulling Lisa down with him.

Her cry of surprise turns into scream as a knife blade skims her shoulder before burying in the ground in front of them.

Ryder glances over his shoulder as he pulls his sword and pushes Lisa back onto her feet. "Go! Run!"

She takes off, making sure he's right on her heels as she begins to weave through the undergrowth expertly, barely disturbing the greenery as she dashes past.

"It's Heath, the boy from Six." Dash says, pointing to the screen showing the jungle just behind out tributes.

I see his curly blonde hair before his stocky form emerges from the bushes. He's holding a long dagger, and he snatches back the small knife he threw before pursuing our tributes.

"It doesn't look like he's that skilled at throwing knives, seeing as how even if Ryder hadn't pulled Lisa out of the way, she still would've only gotten hit in the back of her shoulder. And from his build I'd say speed and agility aren't strong points of his either. Ryder and Lisa are fast and nimble, they'll outrun him."

I push the panic aside and catalog all the fact Dash has just said, forcing my mind to think rationally like he is. Lisa and Ryder already have a head start, and they have the advantage of speed and evasiveness.

"Unless he's a skilled tracker, once Ryder and Lisa outrun him he'll have a hard time finding them again. Ryder excelled in stealth and covering his tracks, and Lisa was one of the top tributes on the obstacle course."

Dash smiles and nods in response. "True, look, he's already giving up."

Heath is breathing hard and slowing, finally he stops, rests his hands on his knees and catches his breath, then he looks at the forest around him and shakes his head before heading off in another direction, leaving Ryder and Lisa behind.

Ryder and Lisa continue to run for a while, when they finally stop, it's after crossing a small stream and hiding in a cluster of bushes.

Ryder's eyes scan the forest around them, looking for any signs of danger, waiting, watching. Finally, judging that for the moment they were safe, he turns to Lisa and smiles, still a little out of breath. "Looks like we lost him."

She smiles, relieved, then suddenly the rest of the color drains out of her face and she swoons.

Ryder catches her before she hits the ground, and curses as his hands come away bloody. The knife may not have done any serious damage, but the wild dash through the forest and adrenaline fueled heart rate caused the wound too bleed profusely.

Lisa's entire arm was soaked, the blood dripping from her fingertips and onto the ground.

Ryder curses again before peeling off his vest and bundling it under Lisa's head before lying her on the ground. Then he digs through their packs, looking for the medical supplies.

"Do they have any medical supplies?" I ask.

Dash nods. "A bit, she'll be fine, he just needs to stop the bleeding."

I raise an eyebrow at him. "I know that, you're talking to a doctor's daughter, remember?"

He smiles. "Right, sorry."

Ryder finally finds the medical supplies and pulls out a roll of bandages. He carefully removes Lisa's vest, then hesitates.

"He doesn't want to take her shirt off." Dash says, his voice slightly worried.

I frown. "But he has to in order to get to her wounds."

Dash nods. "I know that, and I think he does too, but he's scared."

I sigh frustrated and run my fingers through my hair. "Well he'd better just suck it up because she could die of blood loss! She's already passed out for goodness sakes."

Dash nudges me and motions to the screen. "He found a loophole."

Ryder has a small knife out, and is busy cutting the fabric around the wound out of the way.

Their shirts are long sleeved but light weight, the vests serving as extra protection more than warmth considering the arena is set in a jungle.

Ryder is converting one side of Lisa's shirt into a sleeveless top, slicing the fabric away slightly farther in the back than the front in order to get to the wound which is located in between her shoulder and her neck.

Once he's gotten the fabric out of the way, he sparingly cleans the wound with some of their water, and then after he's placed the thick cotton pad over the wound, he begins to wrap the bandages around her shoulder and upper arm, crossing the bandages around to her other shoulder once or twice to keep the bandages in place.

After he's finished, he lifts Lisa's head and forces a little water past her lips, reviving her from her faint.

She splutters and her eyes flicker open. "Ry-Ryder?" She asks, her voice weak.

He smiles and brushes some dirt off her face. "Hey, it's okay I'm here. You're all fixed up now."

She glances down at her bandaged shoulder, and then lifts her now bare arm. "You ruined my shirt."

He laughs quietly. "Sorry, I had to get it out of the way. Besides, it was all bloody anyway."

"Oh okay, I forgive you then." She sits up slowly with his help, and accepts some more water.

"Listen, once you're feeling up to it, I think we should look around for a good place to set up camp."

Lisa looks around at their current location. "What's wrong with right here?"

Ryder points to the dark stain on the ground. "Blood attracts predators, so it wouldn't be a good idea to stay here."

Dash chuckles. "That kid's got brains, good job."

Lisa nods and then takes a deep breath. "I think I'm okay now, we should start looking for a campsite before nightfall."

Ryder stands up then helps her to her feet, holding onto her arm for a few moments until he's sure she's can stand without help, then he shoulders both packs.

"Hey, I can-"

"No you can't, your shoulder's injured and you're still weak from blood loss. Don't bother arguing okay? You can carry both packs later."

She smiles and nods. "Okay, I'll lead the way then."

He nods and motions for her to start. "Come on, let's go."