Hey everyone, I just wanted to thank you all for reading and reviewing! I love all of your kind comments and try to reply to all of them. I have some exciting news to share as well. On tumblr there are awards for different hunger game blogs (thgafta) and I was nominated for best fanfiction! If anyone knows about that, has a tumblr, and likes this fanfiction, vote for me (my blog is catokneelsbesideclove) I was so excited to be nominated! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
I tell Cato about the others in our pack fleeing and leaving him to die and Cato is rightfully angry about it.
"I'll just have to walk into camp and re-claim my dominance. I can't let them know this injured me." The task of getting Cato to his feet is no small one however and he has trouble walking even a few steps. I can see he's frustrated since he wants to just run into camp and threaten everyone. As I'm helping Cato regain his usual strut, he stops, a thought dawning on him.
"You stayed." He says.
"What?" I ask, a bit confused.
"The other careers all ran for it, but you stayed for me. You saved me." I'm a bit taken aback. Did Cato really think that I would have saved myself and let him die?
"Of course." I tell him, "I wasn't going to let you die because of a fire, of all things." If Cato does end up dying, I know he'll want it to be in some epic battle, not slowly being scorched to death. After a short pause I add, "If I hadn't been able to get past the the fire to reach you, I would have stayed right there and died." Cato's expression turns to a fiery one as he scolds me.
"Clove, don't do it again. If something like that happens again, you leave me and save yourself, got it? That's the way I would want it." Oh gosh, the whole argument of who's going to come out of these games has returned. I remember my plan to make him believe that I've accepted his death.
"Ok." I agree, while silently thinking that I would stop at nothing in an attempt to rescue him if the situation presented itself.
Cato's walking has improved, but when he attempts to pick up a jog, his body is unable to keep him upright, so he grabs onto my shoulder to steady himself. A pained noise escapes my lips and Cato retracts his hand. His eyes go to my shoulder and he pushes back the singed sleeve.
"Why didn't you treat yourself?" He asks.
"I forgot about it, what with you practically dying."
"Is that the only place you got burned?" I have to think for a moment before I realize the dull pain in my left thigh as well.
"My leg too." I say, "That's it though." Cato hobbles over to where I left the burn medicine and scoops it up in his hand. He returns to where I am standing and rubs the medicine on my shoulder. The cooling sensation feels a bit tingly at first, but once it stops, my shoulder feels infinitely better. I take off my pants and Cato tends to the burn on my thigh. How nice it is to be free of the 'just friends' illusion we had been playing for the past three days. No way he would have been able to put ointment on my shoulder and thigh for me. Even just the little things like this seem so much better now that our secret is out. However, I still have some reservations.
"I don't think we should let the other tributes know." I tell him and he agrees. We both know that they could use our relationship against us if they knew. They could easily lure us into a trap by harming one of us or putting the other danger. Cato says he feels well enough to head back to camp, so we gather our weapons and medical supplies and begin to walk towards the lake. In the silence of our walk, Cato must have had some time to think back on the day's events as he says,
"Wait. Clove, are you alright? You threw up earlier. Is everything fine?" Ugh, I knew he would probably remember at some point.
"Yeah," I say, "I feel a lot better. I think it was the jerky." Then I silently reprimand myself. Why did I say jerky? It was the only food I could think of, but still. It was also the only food I really enjoyed from the Cornucopia and now Cato certainly won't allow me to eat it. Luckily I have some stashed away in my bag back at camp. Perhaps I can sneak some while Cato's asleep. Sure enough, Cato says,
"Well, we'll have to tell the others to steer clear of it... Or maybe we shouldn't and just let them eat it and get sick." he laughs. Yes, they would deserve that for abandoning Cato, if only the jerky really was poisonous.
As we approach the camp, I am happy to see that the others are searching through the first aid supplies. Cato pockets the burn medicine so they can't have any. All four of them are burned, worse then I was, in fact. Odessaly must have lead them into another fire when they fled. Serves them right. Glimmer spots Cato and me first and looks shocked. She nudges Marvel who turns and sees us, mouth hanging open. Neither looks very happy about seeing us, they must have been hoping that we died. When we get closer to them Marvel says,
"Cato, Clove, you're back. Good, we were just-" but he's cut off as Cato grabs his arm (right on top of a burn) and pushes him to the ground, managing to knock Odessaly over in the process.
"We're going hunting, now." Cato orders. Glimmer lets out an audible groan that I quite agree with. Surely the gamemakers have had enough fun for the day and will let us sleep. Odessaly asks if we can wait until they've treated their injuries but Cato declines her request.
"Come one." He says, "Think about everyone hiding in the woods, they would have been affected by the fire too, they are probably all in one area, just waiting to be picked off. Let's not waste time. We're going now." Cato then heads over to District 3 to yell at him to hurry up on the protecting of the supplies. Marvel, Glimmer, Odessaly and Peeta reluctantly get their packs and weapons. I crawl into my tent and grab some more knives that I situate in my jacket, as well as get the night-vision glasses and store them in my pack, just in case we end up hunting after dark. Cato's still busy yelling at the others, so I grab him another sword and gather with the alliance outside. We go to the edge of the forest and start combing the woods. As night falls, I'm beginning to wonder if any tributes have even hidden in this area, when Cato spots someone sitting in a pond, asleep.
"It's her." He says, and yes, there she is, the girl on fire had gotten burned. Cato breaks out into a run and we all follow suit. As we get closer she wakes up, hearing our approach. I have to give her credit, she picks up her bag and starts running in an instant, she's quick too. So much for Peeta thinking she would hide in the grass. As we run, I look over at Lover Boy, wondering how he will react. His face is void of emotion and he seems to be watching the ground as he runs, not zeroing in on his district partner. We run through the trees panting and coughing as we are still suffering from the side effects of smoke inhalation. I lose sight of her for a moment, but Cato calls out that she took a left turn. I find her again, just in time to see her scurry up a tree. What an idiot. She was fast, if I was her I would have tried to outrun us. Instead she decided to get herself trapped in a tree. We gather at the base of the tree and I find myself smirking up at her, gotcha, I think. Finally the girl that so angered Cato, will be 's about 20 feet up in the tree, I wonder if I will be able to get a clear throw at her with my knives. No, Cato will surely want to be the one who finishes her. She smiles down at us, shit, is this a trap? Does she have the ability to kill us? No, she would have done so already of that was the case.
"How's everything with you?" She calls down to us, cheerfully. I'm a bit taken aback as are the others, and we allow Cato to answer back, everyone knows this is his kill.
"Well enough." He says, "Yourself?"
"It's been a bit warm for my taste" She replies. How is she so calm? We're about to murder her.
"The air's better up here." She continues, "Why don't you come up?"
"Think I will." Cato replies to her. I had seen this coming. I'm sure he could reach her if she stays put, but I have a feeling she's good at climbing and will scale the tree to get up higher.
"Here, take this, Cato." Glimmer says, offering her bow and arrows. Seriously? Are Cato and I the only two in this game with any common sense? Cato does not do archery. If he did, Glimmer would be weaponless right now.
"No." Cato pushes the bow away, annoyed. "I'll do better with my sword." he sneers, obviously thinking along the same lines as I am. Cato hoists himself into the tree and starts to climb after the girl who scored an 11. As I suspected, she scurries higher up in the tree. There's no way Cato can climb that high. I think about telling Cato to forget it, that he'll never reach her, but I decide against it. He wouldn't listen to me. He never backs down from a challenge. Sure enough there's a crack of a branch and Cato falls none to gracefully from the tree. He hits the ground hard and I'm a bit panicked for a second before he stands up and starts muttering his choice swear words. Glimmer had the poor judgement to laugh at him as he fell, so he turned to her now,
"Glimmer, if you think it's so funny, why don't you go up there and get her?" I glance upwards and see that she's 80 feet in the air. There's no way Glimmer can make it that high. Cato must know that as well and is hoping that she will fall to her death. God, it would be nice to get rid of her. She puts her bow over her shoulder and begins to make her way up the tree. She's about 50 feet up when she stops, hearing a branch begin to crack. I watch as Glimmer loads an arrow and shoots it at the fire girl. Oh God, she's terrible. I could do better with a bow and arrow then she could and they are one of my worst set of weapons! The girl grabs the arrow and waves it over her head, teasing us as Glimmer makes her way back down the tree. After getting mad at Glimmer for having such terrible aim, Cato suggests that Odessaly go up there, but she refuses, saying she's afraid of heights. What a wimp.
"Why doesn't Clove go up there?" Marvel asks. Like hell I'm gonna do that.
"Why don't you go up?" I spit back at him.
"I can't climb with a spear." he says, rationally. "But Clove, you keep your knives in your jacket, you could easily make it up there and throw one at her." He's right of course, but I don't want to risk the knife missing or hitting another branch and falling back down on me. Also, I really don't want to let her get ahold of another knife. Peeta has had enough of our arguing and says harshly,
"Oh let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning." It is getting dark out and he's right. It's not like she could escape. Marvel lights his torch and we set up for the night. Cato and I take the first guard shift and talk about ways that we could kill her when the morning comes. I'm guessing it's about 2:00 AM when Cato is too tired to stay up any longer and wakes Glimmer to take the next watch. Relieved that I can finally go to sleep after the eventful day, I move my sleeping bag closer to Cato and fall asleep almost immediately.
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