I...have no excuses? I'm sorry, school is crazy, yada yada yada. Here's the next chapter, I started working on the next one already. This one is kind of slow but some nice Catani moments. Also, I got a comment saying not to get too depressing with the writing, but I wanted to just comment back on that and make sure you all understand, while Kalani is sweet and fun at times, you have to realize the girl is going into the hunger games where she'll witness a lot of death and may even have to kill herself. The series itself isn't a light one, and I needed to make sure that I give you fair warning, a trigger warning if you will, things later down the line will get dark. Kalani is a good soul, a decent human being, who is being thrown into a corrupted governments murderous games and plotlines. There will definitely be some happier times, after all she's got a lot of people back home who love her and overall this is a romance as well, but there will also be some dark times. So, you have been warned. Nonetheless, feel free to review your opinions on that, or anything else. I love constructive criticism, in fact, everyone has been super nice. I'm also extremely happy you love the culture I used for District Four and I'm really glad no one has been a racist asshole so far :) Kalani is my precious angel and I love her with all my heart. I'm glad you guys like her as well, it makes my heart all smiley!
Warning: I was lazy and did not proof read… :) love you guys lol please don't kill me.
For the next couple of hours, the Careers, Kai, and I spent our time packing up what we needed to ensure we didn't run out of food or water on our journey to find other tributes. Marvel and Glimmer offered to stay behind in order to keep watch over the supplies while we were gone. For a while, the rest of us walked in silence, only ever speaking when we absolutely needed to. It was kind of boring, and I guess I wasn't the only one who thought so.
"How did you get past it without getting attacked?" Clove had surprisingly taken a liking to me. She'd pretty much stuck by my side the entirety of our hike. I suspect she thought my killing the shark was super badass. It was. And if I knew anything about Clove, the more dangerous you seemed, the more inclined she was to like you.
"Do you really wanna know? I mean, it's interesting to me, but some people don't really care when I get all scientific about it, no matter how much I try to dumb it down." I warn her.
"That's not entirely true Lans," Cato butts in, "I think it's kinda cute when you ramble on about your little ocean animals."
"Little?"Clove chuckles. "I'm sorry did you see that thing? It was massive. I'm not even as impressed with you killing it as I am with you somehow getting out of the water after swimming with it. So, come on Four, spill. How'd you get it to leave you alone?"
I smile. That's actually a pretty nice compliment coming from Clove. "Ok," I spent the next few minutes teaching Clove the basics of swimming with sharks. She, surprising me once again, was hanging on to every word that came out of my mouth.
"Sharks are actually said to view humans as almost equals in terms of predatory status in the water. So," I continued, "if you keep steady movements the shark won't necessarily think of you as another fish in distress and won't waste it's time on you."
"That's why you went under the water then," I could practically see Clove's brain putting it all together in her head, "because the movements wouldn't be as bad as splashing the surface?"
"Exactly." I nudged her. She seemed proud of herself for figuring that part out. "It probably thought I was just another predator in the water. Also, it was a white shark so I needed to keep close to the bottom of the ocean."
Her eyebrows knitted in. "Why?"
Kai, feeling a little left out, took this as an opportunity to pitch into the conversation. "White's breach the water when they hunt."
Clove didn't look any less confused. "Meaning?"
"They attack from below for the most part. The closer I stay to the ocean floor, the harder it is for them to surprise attack me. And that's what they're counting on when they hunt, the surprise factor I mean." I explained.
"That's so cool that you know all that stuff." Clove smirked. "Guess it'll really come in handy in these games, huh?"
I shrugged. She wasn't wrong. The gamemakers didn't focus a lot on the bloodbath, at least not like they usually do. That didn't necessarily mean that that wouldn't change, for all I knew the gamemakers could've been leading us all into a surprise bloodbath just about now. Give us the indication that we're all pretty safe, just to fake us out. It would be pretty genius in a disgustingly homicidal kind of way, but I had a feeling that they were changing things up this year.
More walking and a couple of hours later, Cato, who had decreed himself as head of the pack without actually saying he was, spoke up again. "Alright, we're getting nowhere, we need to split up. Kalani, you're with me." I rolled my eyes and thought shocker, because who else would he pair me with? My district partner? Absurd.
"Kai, you cool with that?" I asked.
"ʻO kāu koho." It's your choice.
"E nānā i kou kua." Watch your back.
Splitting up from Kai this early on in the game wasn't my plan at all, but in this instance there was really no choice. I knew that Cato was splitting us up because he didn't want us together, probably afraid we would plan something like how to kill all of the other careers while they slept or something. Chances are he wouldn't let us keep watch together either. I didn't entirely blame him, I wouldn't want him and Clove alone together either.
"Are you sure splitting up is a good idea?" I asked Cato as we walked away from our district partners.
"We need to find the others, it'll be nightfall soon," he began to explain.
"Don't the careers usually hunt the first night anyways though?"
"No, not always."
"Really?" I laughed at his ignorance. "Name one of the games where they don't."
He struggled to think of an example.
"Exactly. You guys are entirely too predictable. You win the games a lot, sure, but it's not in any kind of innovative ways, nothing inspiring, just brute force. The interesting ones are the underdogs, those of us who aren't expected to win, who find ways to outwit the rest of the tributes. Everyone though Johanna Mason was a weak little girl until she got a hold of an axe and waited it out until the last few tributes, she was smart and planned her attacks our accordingly. Finnick was 14 when he won the games, sure to lose, until he used his knowledge of snares and fishing traps to his benefit and tied a bunch of tributes into nets, that made it almost too easy for him. Annie Cresta swam through rushing water coming from a broken dam, and I don't care what people say, to withstand the current that water was moving at takes a lot out of a person, she's a strong swimmer, maybe even better than Kai and me. Beetee Latier electrocuted the entire career pack at once because he was smart enough to use what little he had in the games to create that kind of weapon. Haymitch Abernathy used the force field at the edge of the arena to his advantage by purposefully throwing his axe over a cliff, knowing it would come right back up to hit the last standing tribute. Those are the people that stand out. The rest of you, the career pack, all you do is smash things with your big fists and go all stab crazy. You're brutal, and it's boring. And way overplayed at this point."
Cato chuckled, but not in a way that made me think he actually found what I said to be funny. "You're good, Four, you really are. It's why I wanted an alliance with you so bad."
"And why is that?"
He lightly grabbed my elbow, turning me around to come face to face - or chest - with him. He spoke low enough that I'm not sure the cameras would b able to pick up his voice. "You've got the entire Capitol eating out of the palm of your hand. You play the game physically and socially, you're good. Almost as good as Finnick." He stepped back, continuing to walk in the direction we were headed in before. "Speaking of Finnick, he's the only person you personalized in your little spiel back there."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you called everyone by their first and last names, expect for him. You're close with him, it's why you skip the formalities." The big blonde wasn't as dumb as everyone probably thought he was. That was the thing that kept surprising me about Cato, he was extremely perceptive.
"You're right." No point in hiding it. "I grew up with him. He's not just my mentor, he's like my best friend. And he's been there for me through all of this, you know? He reminds me so much of my big brother back home."
"You have siblings?"
"You don't?"
"Nope, it's just me. My mom was a victor, now she's a teacher, if you catch my drift," ah yes, the districts weren't technically allowed to train for the games, but everyone knew the richer districts got away with breaking that rule, "and my dad is a Peacekeeper, head Peacekeeper actually."
"No, it's not."
Out of the corner of my eye I could see his eyes narrow in on me. "Sorry?"
"You have no obligation to live up to who your parents are, you're your own person," I slowed my pace to look at him, "who you choose to be, what part you play in this life, that's up to you, Cato."
He changed the subject after a few seconds of silence. "What about you then? What part do you think you have to play in this life?"
I smiled sadly. "You saw my reaping right?"
He shook his head.
"That girl gets to live another year with her father, possibly even the rest of her life. A twelve year old girl isn't going to be brutally murdered for the sake of entertainment. I saved one life. That's enough for me. If I was put here for the sole purpose of saving a single person, then I would say that's a good purpose. I'd be proud to die knowing I may also be the reason someone else got to live."
"A sacrifice then? And you're just...ok with that?"
"I don't really have a choice anymore now do I?" I smiled, regardless of how helpless his question made me feel.
"You are one strange tribute, you know that?" Cato threw his arm around my shoulder, surprising me a little.
"Kept you interested, didn't it?"
"You're not wrong...baby shark."
I frowned and shoved him enough to unravel myself from his arm, muttering to myself as I walked faster while he continued to laugh, "asshole."