IKE

When he woke up, Ike found he'd somehow ended up so close to Zelgius their noses were practically touching. For a moment he was confused as to where he was, and then he felt Leanne's slender arm draped over his shoulders, remembered, and relaxed. Maybe next time, we should find a bigger cave, he thought wryly as he sat up.

He was trying to be quiet, but that didn't stop Zelgius' eyes from snapping open. As Ike slid out of his sleeping bag and rolled it up, the older boy sat up and silently retrieved his knife.

"How's the leg?" Ike asked in a hushed voice.

"Better," Zelgius replied. He examined his fingers briefly. "My hands, as well."

"Good thing Micaiah managed to pull through with the medicine," the younger boy commented as he stuffed the sleeping bag in his backpack.

"If it was her," Zelgius remarked. "Your mentor may have had something to do with it, too."

"Shinon?" Ike laughed quietly. "Not like he cares. Besides, why would he be helping you? He doesn't seem to like Branded."

"He may have been helping Micaiah. She helped him get through his first year." Zelgius gently slid out of his sleeping bag, careful not to wake Kita.

That was when Ike noticed something curious. A spark of blue on Zelgius' left ear. "Wait a sec... You have an earring?" he asked.

Zelgius blinked. "...Yes."

Ike raised an eyebrow. "...Seriously?"

"What?" Zelgius asked defensively.

"I don't know. It just seems... strange. For you, I mean."

"It was my mother's."

"Oh." Ike frowned. "So... wait... you did already have a district token."

Zelgius shook his head. "Elincia said the review board agreed not to count the earring, since it can't be removed." he explained.

"...Oh." Ike said again. "Um... okay." Out of curiosity, he glanced down at the sleeping Kita. Reaching over, he brushed a lock of hair aside from her right ear, revealing the matching little sapphire.

"...A friend of mine agreed to put them in for us after our mother died." Zelgius said quietly. "As a favor. He was her friend, too."

Ike felt no need to reply. He let her hair fall back and stood up, his hair just brushing the roof of the cave. "We could let them sleep while we get breakfast," he suggested.

"No; we shouldn't leave them here without letting them know where we're going," Zelgius corrected. "And we should start planning how to take out the Careers first, before they're all awake and prowling the hills."

Ike conceded to this logic. "Fine; I guess we still have a bit left over from yesterday. Though I don't know how you plan on taking out the Careers."

Zelgius bent down and gently shook Kita; she awoke almost instantly and sat up without a word. "You remember their strategy in previous years, right?" Zelgius asked.

Ike frowned again. "Yeah, they kill the weaklings in the bloodbath and hunt down the rest of the competition."

"Not that." Kita corrected, quickly picking up the gist of their conversation. "Their strategy concerning their food supplies."

"They always hoard it in one big pile after the bloodbath," Zelgius stated, "and set up their camp around it."

"Oh." Ike nodded. "Yeah, so... what does that have to do with anything?"

"Wake Leanne up." the raven-haired boy said. "We're going to figure out how to destroy their food."

Of course, Ike took some convincing before he agreed that yes, maybe it really was possible to take out the Careers' hoard without dying. By that time, they'd already gone on a quick hunting trip and eaten breakfast.

"Still, even if it is possible, how are we going to do it?" he finally asked. "There's five of them and they're all way better fighters than us!"

"Not necessarily," Leanne insisted. "I can outshoot both dragons and I'm sure you and Zelgy are much better sword fighters!"

"You might think that, Leanne, but it's probably not true." Ike persisted.

"Then how did you two both get elevens?"

He didn't have an answer to that. "W-well, besides," he said, quickly changing the subject, "who knows what kind of traps they've set? We'd be walking into an ambush!"

"That's exactly why we won't go 'walking' in." Zelgius stated. "And despite that, if you recall the more common Career strategies—which is very well illustrated in the 216th Hunger Games, if you remember them—they tend to spread out through the Arena and hunt down the weak tributes. Thus they'll be leaving one or two behind as a guard, which means we'll outnumber them if they do."

"But they have all the weapons," Ike argued. "All we have are a couple of knives."

"And a spear," Leanne chimed in.

"We lost that yesterday when we were hunting," he reminded her.

"So we won't go charging in to start with." Zelgius said. "That was never my intention, anyway. But I think it would be a good start to check out their base camp first, before we come up with any kind of permanent plan. Maybe we'll get lucky and manage to steal some of their weapons."

"And then what?" Ike demanded. "We fight them head-on? We'd all be dead in an hour."

"I already told you, that was never my intention." Zelgius insisted. "Maybe we can figure out some way to distract them..."

"I agree with Zelgius," Leanne quickly interceded. "We can at least scope them out before we decide anything, right?"

"Same here," Kita added.

Ike glanced back between them, then sighed. "Well, I guess there's no real harm in it. Unless we get hunted down and slaughtered individually."

"Don't be such a pessimist." Leanne got to her feet. "Now, are we going to get moving or are we going to wait around until they catch our scent and track us here?"

So the four of them went south, in the general direction where they guessed the Cornucopia was. They spread out to cover more distance, moving as quietly as possible, though Ike noticed they weren't equally distant, as Kita was fairly closer to Zelgius than he was.

When they finally reached the edge of a cliff, they managed to get a good view of the Cornucopia canyon. "I'd say we're about a mile away, not counting climbing distance," Zelgius mused. "Getting down the cliffs could be a problem..."

"I can help," Leanne said quickly. "I can help support anyone who slips. And I have the galdrar as well!"

"I... Is there no other way down?" Kita asked hesitantly.

Ike glanced at her. "Why? What is it?"

"I... I'm... it..." she stammered.

Zelgius finished it for her; "Ike, she's afraid of heights."

"...Oh." Ike paused. "Sorry, Kita, but I don't think there's any other way down."

She sighed. "O-okay...I'll just..."

Leanne put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry!" she said cheerfully. "I'll be there the whole time; if you slip at all, I'll be right there for you, I promise!"

Kita smiled weakly and nodded. "Yes... T-thank you..."

"The real problem will be finding decent handholds and footholds." Ike said. He looked down off the edge and immediately saw about five good places to put his foot to start with, with another foothold not far down from that. "Or not," he amended.

"Well," Zelgius said, "we have this cliff and another one before we get to the canyon. We'll be extremely open while we're climbing or on the edge, so... Best get started."

CAREERS

Kurth's hand slipped on the jutting rock and he almost cursed. "I hate climbing," he mumbled.

Medha smirked, leaning down from the top and offering her hand. "Need some help?"

He sighed and reached up to take her hand, and she pulled him up to join the rest of the Careers. "Climbing isn't any of our strong suits," he admitted.

"Except for those of us who don't need to climb," Vika added, unfurling her wings dramatically. "We have... no problem."

Skrimir glared at her. "Well, of course you don't! You can fly! That's hardly an honest comparison!"

She assumed a mock-offended expression. "But I never claimed to be honest! What an insulting assumption! It's like you don't know me at all..."

"Quiet, children." Sakira scolded from further ahead. "In case you forgot, we still have seven tributes to take care of. I'd like to get at least one today."

"Aye, Sakira." Medha said quickly. "Did you get a scent?"

The red lion tested the air and nodded hesitantly. "There...! A bit of wolf."

Skrimir growled. "Oh, I'll be looking forward to this..."

Vika flapped her wings and ascended to look around. "I think I see someone climbing down the cliffs over there," she called, pointing to the cliff-face on the opposite side of the canyon.

The other four looked. "I don't see anything," Kurth said hesitantly.

"Me neither." Medha agreed. "You sure, Vika?"

"No...Maybe it was a trick of the light." She shook her head and sighed.

"...There's beorc and red dragon near, too..." Sakira mused. "We're not far... this should be a breeze." She spun her sword in her hands and started off.

Skrimir shot one last glance at the opposing cliff-face. For a moment, he thought he saw a glimpse of blue; then he shook it off and followed after Sakira.

IKE

Ike bit his tongue to hold in a curse as his sweaty hand slipped on the rock again. He scrabbled to find a hold and his fingernails dug into a crack as the hold under his left foot broke off, falling some fifty feet to the ground below.

Leanne was by him in a second. "Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

He nodded, not trusting his breath to speak. A strong gust of wind came in and blew away any chance of his reply.

From below him(and a bit to the right), Kita carefully lowered herself to her next foothold. Her hands were shaky, and beads of sweat stood out on her forehead. "Don't look down, don't look down..." she mumbled to herself repeatedly, keeping her eyes fixed on the stone in front of her.

"Careful up there," Zelgius called, from about ten feet below Kita and having narrowly dodged the rock Ike dislodged.

"I'm doing my best," Ike called back harshly, "but the cliff isn't cooperating."

Kita nearly slipped and both she and Zelgius sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. She readjusted her grip and lowered herself again.

Leanne flew down a bit and turned, looking across at the opposite cliff-face. She frowned. "I think I see a bit of red on the other cliff."

"Is it one of the lions?" Ike asked, sliding down a bit.

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to focus. "I—I don't know, but I think I see—five people? They're going the other way... One is a flier, two of them have red..."

"That would be the Career pack," Ike commented. "That's good. They won't be there when we go down."

"That's strange, though." Zelgius called up. "If all the Careers are there, then who's watching their base camp?"

Leanne's frown deepened. "That is strange," she mused. "Maybe they recruited one of the other tributes?"

Thoughts of Mia teaming up with the Careers flashed through Ike's head. He shook those thoughts aside and accidentally lost his footing again; another piece of rock fell down.

Zelgius was a bit slow; the rock scraped his shoulder as it fell. "Watch it!" he snapped.

"Sorry," Ike called again, wincing.

The raven-haired boy finally hit the bottom, stepping away from the cliff and dusting off his hands. Kita slipped slightly and Leanne was there in an instant, catching her and helping her down.

So she wasn't there when Ike slipped again. And this time, as the rock dislodged itself, his sweat-covered left hand slipped and his right hand dragged down the stone, scraping the fingernails bloody. He shouted in alarm, scrabbling for a hand or foothold, but when his right hand touched anything his instinctive flinch caused him to release it again.

"Ike!" Leanne cried in alarm, but she was still holding Kita and helping her descend, so she could do nothing.

Ike's foot slipped again and then he was free-falling, about fifteen feet straight towards solid rock. This is gonna hurt flew randomly through his mind. Then; Why are you thinking about this now!? Geez, what're you—

His train of thought was cut off when he landed. Everything went dark.

CAREERS

They all figured the camera was on them at the moment. The two lions were in the lead, with the black dragons covering the rear and the raven female flying overhead.

Sakira paused, knelt down and found a track in the dirt. "Someone passed this way recently," she announced. "Small, light steps... Probably one of the girls."

"Think it's the half-breed?" Medha asked, hurrying to catch up with them.

Sakira shrugged. "Possibly... but unlikely, unless she's gotten separated from the other three. Same goes for the heron. This is probably the red dragon or the beorc."

"I call dibs on the beorc," Vika called as she descended lightly beside Skrimir. "She took out Esal, so she's mine."

"You can't get the dibs on everyone," Medha complained.

"She gets it rightfully this time, though," Sakira quickly said. "A sister deserves her revenge, after all." She stepped forward to stand right next to Vika, leaning in close. "But you'll have to find her first," she said quietly.

The raven quickly nodded. "I will find her. Count on that."

GAMES HEADQUARTERS

"That could be a problem," Micaiah mused, watching that interaction on-screen. "If the Careers have a grudge against Mia..."

"She'll be fine," Shinon said. "The raven boy was much more formidable than the girl, and she took him out."

"But the Careers are bound to cheat," Rafiel mused. "Can she take that into account?"

"She'd better."

Then the announcer's commentary began to come in. Shinon winced and quickly retreated, closing his eyes.

Rafiel frowned slightly. "What's that about?"

Micaiah shook her head. "He told it to me confidentially... and he asked me to keep it that way."

IKE

…...The stone is softer than I thought it would be...

...Almost like... lying...

…..on someone...

Ike finally opened his eyes to find Leanne's worried face hovering over his. He nearly started and she jumped back with a relieved laugh. "Oh, thank goodness, you're awake! We were worried that something had happened, but we didn't hear the cannon."

The beorc boy groaned slightly and sat up. "How are you feeling?" someone asked, and he turned around to see Zelgius sitting directly behind him. He realized his head had been on the other boy's lap.

"Uh...fine, mostly." Ike replied, then winced when he stood up. His right leg must've been bruised, but other than that he seemed fine.

"It's good that Zelgius caught you when you fell, or you might have broken something." Kita said with a faint smile.

Ike glanced back again as Zelgius stood up. "Oh...er...thanks?"

"Don't mention it."

ZELGIUS

Surprisingly, we don't see any more tributes on the path down towards the central canyon. It's been sunny most of the time, too, and we haven't managed to be greatly stealthy... I can only guess that the Careers didn't see us, but are still on the other side of the canyon, hunting the other tributes.

We get down to the cliff above the canyon, and look down there. Everything around the Cornucopia is gone; the Careers probably moved it inside, for the cover. I see no sign of traps in the dirt-packed canyon, and only a brief glimpse of a guard inside; I think it's the Hawk boy, but I can't be certain.

"Is that the Hawk?" Ike asks quietly, voicing my thoughts.

"I think so," I reply, equally quietly, "but it's hard to tell."

Leanne frowns. "I wouldn't have thought that the Careers trusted anyone else to guard their camp..."

"Maybe he's low on Transform time, so they threatened him." Ike suggests.

She shakes her head. "No... I've seen him in training; he knows how to fight Reverted, and they know that too. I would've thought they'd consider him dangerous."

"They do, Leanne." I say. "Otherwise, they wouldn't have thought he was good enough to defend the camp."

She concedes the point. "I suppose you're right."

Our conversation is interrupted when we hear a howl, somewhere to the south. The Hawk runs out of the Cornucopia, holding a spear, and the four of us fall back from the edge a bit. But I see no sign of Volug, and apparently the Hawk doesn't either; he goes back into the Cornucopia after just a minute.

"Now if only we had a bow..." Leanne muses quietly, "I could shoot something and get a distraction, and then we could go in there and get some stuff."

"Or you could shoot him." Kita says.

No one replies, though she is right. It's just, I don't think any of us really want to kill anyone here...

"We should go down there," I say.

Ike frowns. "I thought we were just scoping it out, though."

"But Ike, this is so perfect!" Leanne says, quickly seeing my point. "The Careers are on the opposite side of the canyon, hunting. There's only one guard, and four of us. We'll never get a better chance than this!"

Then the howl comes again, and this time, when the Hawk comes out, he moves off to investigate the sound. "Well, then now's our chance," Ike says, and he hurriedly slides over the edge and begins to make his way down. I follow quickly, with Leanne helping Kita get down.

This cliff is more solid, and we make it down without anyone falling. It takes us just a few minutes, and then we run to take cover behind one of the stone formations surrounding the river, which we've come down next to. Ike goes out ahead of us, moving almost silently with the practiced ease of a hunter, and Leanne follows just behind him. Kita and I take up the rear.

We catch up to Ike and Leanne and look around our cover just as the Hawk is returning to his post. He doesn't even glance our way as he enters the Cornucopia, and as soon as he's quiet again we begin to approach.

It's a hundred yards between the river and the Cornucopia. A hundred yards through open, dirt-packed ground; no cover whatsoever. We turn it into more of a dash, trying not to make too much noise. I don't know how we manage to reach the Cornucopia without the Hawk hearing us, but he doesn't come out as we step up to the cold steel walls at the back of the building.

Then the howl comes again, from much closer, and we freeze. A moment later the Hawk is out of the Cornucopia; we only just see him moving around the corner, going south a few yards and then stopping, looking around warily. Then he turns around and comes back yet again. I can't see anything, but I hear a sort of whirring right before he enters, so I think he might have pressed some sort of button; either way, I now believe the entrance is trapped.

Then Ike visibly starts, and when I glance at him, he points. On the northwestern cliff, there's a little purple speck, crawling down the side.

Another glance at Ike, and we both know who it is. Mia.

I lose sight of her when she gets to the bottom, but I know she must be coming to the Cornucopia for the same reasons we did. The difference is, when I get a glimpse of her coming around the front, I see she has a sword.

She whistles loudly and the Hawk comes out again; he starts when he sees her, then runs at her with his spear. She easily leaps aside, backing up, drawing him away from the building, and I see our chance.

So does Ike. He's already moving, running around to the entrance. I follow him just as he stops, aware of a slight ticking sound.

Now that I have a good look at the entrance, I see wires running all around the edges. The ticking is coming from the ground where we're standing, and I realize with alarm we must both be standing on mines.

Ike realizes this too; he freezes, and when Kita and Leanne run around he puts a hand out to stop them. "Wait. There're mines all over here. Be careful."

Kita immediately stops, and Leanne hovers slightly into the air to move forward. "Is there any way to deactivate them?" she asks.

I recall seeing the Hawk push something and bring it up. They both begin looking for some sort of button or switch, but they can't seem to find it. The ticking is speeding up; it feels like my heart rate is increasing with it, as I search for the switch as well.

It's Leanne who finally spots it; a little black switch, hidden among the wires. She flicks it and the ticking stops; I cautiously take a step, and when nothing blows up, we decide it's safe.

Mia and the Hawk are still fighting somewhere behind us; Ike doesn't hesitate, but runs straight in the building and grabs the first weapon he can find, a sword, before running back out and towards the two fighters.

Leanne and Kita run in and immediately begin to put food into the pack there. As I come in and get my own sword, I see a silver parachute and guess where the mines came from. Explosive traps seem like a gift the Gamemakers wouldn't allow, but apparently they decided it would make it more interesting...

I suddenly hear the death toll cannon, and for a moment I panic. When I come out again, though, the three of them are still alive.

Ike's already joined in, and the Hawk is losing badly; Mia isn't even in the fight anymore, however, but has fallen back to bandage an injury on her arm. She sees me and our eyes meet for just a moment, and then she runs towards me. I raise my sword defensively, but she isn't attacking me; she dashes straight past, going for the Cornucopia. My mind flies to Kita and Leanne, and I race after her.

But she isn't interested in killing; she runs past both the girls, grabbing the pack on the ground, and runs into me as she tries to come out. She takes a wild swing at my head, which I parry, and then rolls past me and makes for the cliffs. I see no point in trying to stop her; she can run faster anyway, so I go to rejoin Ike.

He's already knocked the weapon from the Hawk, and the laguz boy is just falling back to Shift when I come out. A moment later he dives upon Ike, and Ike barely manages to dodge.

Before any of us can do anything, an arrow appears and strikes the Hawk's wing; the laguz falls from the sky with a scream, crashing hard into the ground. I glance back and see Leanne, silver bow in hand with a quiver hastily slung over her shoulder, another arrow already on the string.

The Hawk Reverts and stands up shakily, pulling the silver arrow out of his arm. He sees Ike approaching and turns, running as fast as he can. Ike stops and lets him flee; Leanne returns the arrow to the quiver, and me and Ike return to the Cornucopia.

"Why'd you let him get away?" I ask as we walk. "He's with the Careers."

"...I thought he deserved a second chance," Ike mumbles.

"You realize that he's just one more person between us and survival?" I have to ask.

He nods. "I'm sorry... it won't happen again."

I have the feeling he doesn't mean that.

We return to the girls, who have already packed food into Ike's pack and the only other one that was in there. Kita has a spear; Leanne has one of the knives we already possessed, plus the bow;and me and Ike both have swords—relatively low-quality ones, but they will suffice. The rest of it is mostly items we can't or have no use for.

"What do we do about the rest of this?" Leanne asks, indicating the supplies left behind.

Me and Ike answer in unison; "Burn it."

We dig a box of matches out of the pile of supplies, as well as a wooden club; we light the wood on fire and toss it in, making sure it hits the bedrolls we already piled up in there. The cloth catches easily; we toss the rest of the matches in to join it, and Leanne flicks the switch back to armed before flying out to join us. We give it a few minutes, until the supplies inside is fully burning, and then I toss a rock onto the pressure mines and run back. We then retreat; the mines go off by the time we reach the river, exploding the entrance of the Cornucopia and causing it to collapse. By the time we get to the top off the first cliff, where we started, the Cornucopia is a pile of smoldering rubble and the smoke is all the way to the top of the mountains. The clouds rolled in while we were working, and now it begins to rain, putting an end to the last of the fire that destroyed the Careers supplies.

Now...let the real Hunger Games begin.

CAREERS

Sakira screamed in frustration, kicking a loose rock out of the smoking rubble that had once been the Cornucopia. The pouring rain had long put out the fires, but the black smoke wouldn't stop for a while yet.

"It's all gone..." Kurth mumbled, nursing a wound on his shoulder. "All of it... they burned it all..."

"This is the half-breed's doing!" Vika screeched angrily. "He came and destroyed everything!"

"All...gone..." the dragon boy repeated, a strange look in his eyes.

Skrimir and Medha both just stared at the rubble with smoldering eyes.

Sakira ran both hands through her hair and let out a long, harsh breath. "Overreacting...isn't going to get us anywhere." she said, trying hard to keep her voice even. "We...obviously can't get anything from here. Janaff...can't be dead yet, because we heard no cannon... so... he's probably still around."

"I'll take care of him," Skrimir said darkly; he turned and ran off, towards the cliffs.

"The half-breeds are becoming a problem," Medha said darkly. "What can we do about them?"

Sakira paused for a long moment, thinking. "It's not just the half-breeds...The heron and the beorc as well. The whole lot of them is a damned nuisance."

"So, what do we do?" Medha persisted.

The sound of the death toll cannon harshly punctuated Sakira's next words; "We hunt."