So this is the next chapter. It has all the points of view in it again. Next chapter or the one after will be Kasi's plan. Disclaimer today will be done by Terra Mason.
Terra: HpHgPj doesn't own the hunger games.
Me: perfect.
Willow Anner's POV
In the morning when I am awoken by Black I almost forget about the surprise I had found.
"So Willow, for breakfast what should we have?" Black asks. That's when I remember the berries. Quickly I run over to the bush where I found them. Inspecting them I determine they are safe. They are powdered blueish-blackish. I am able to identify them as Indian Plum. They are a wild, but edible berry.
"Black, over here. I found something." I call out to him. Black walks over to me. I hand him the berries. He recognizes them as well and pops them into his mouth. When he's done that he says "I love the Indian Plum." We have lots at home. I smile and pop some into my mouth.
I like Black and all, but I think I could do better without him. He is a nice enough guy. But he just hasn't really done anything useful towards the alliance. I'll wait another death though before we separate. Before I can think any further Black speaks.
"Hey, Willow there's a parachute for you." Awesome. I got a sponsor gift! I quickly run over to the silver chute. On it is a number five. I look inside and see a small knife. I smile. Quickly I tuck it into my belt. Now I have the one for throwing(the new short handles, small one) and one for hand to hand combat(that one is a dagger. It's got a smooth handle and glistening blade.) We then walk on. Let day 3 begin. I think to myself.
Black's POV
I thought that we were gonna have to have crackers or something for breakfast. But Willow found some berries. I love Indian Plum berries. Which oddly enough were the ones she found. Shortly after a parachute with a 5 comes down. In it Willow acquires a new knife.
Willow. She is a nice person and all, but I think we should split up. It's early on in the games. But even so we don't want to get to close. If we get to close we might not want to separate when the time comes. Maybe another death or two. I hope that Willow likes the idea.
All we did was walk through the forest silently but then we started to talk.
"Willow, what's your family like?" I ask her. I can see her face cringe at the word family but she talks anyways.
"I don't have one. My mother died in labor, and my father committed suicide a week later. I was left with my grandmother. 3 years ago, when I was 10 she died." Willow is now crying. "I don't even know how she died. The cause of death was "natural causes" but I'm not sure. Since them I've lived in the rundown orphanage. Kids got beaten on a regular basis, you got 2 meals a day. Breakfast was really stale bread and a glass of water. Then for dinner we got a bit of meat, more bread, and water. Throughout the rest of the day we were forced to work in the factories sewing, and sewing. It was awful." Now I feel bad for her.
"I'm sorry I didn't know." I say to her. Then I go on to tell her about my family.
"My sister Blue died in the 25th games. No one liked her but my family. People cheered when she died. My younger brothers Roy and Coy are identical twins. They are both 16. Then my other brother Red is 14. Then there is my other sister Elana who is 12. I miss them so much. And I don't want my mom to have to lose another child. I just hope she know's that I will try to win. For her, for dad, Roy, Coy, Red. For Blue." I say. thinking of them makes me sad. I hope that I can win this for Roy, and Coy, and Red, and Elana, and Blue. For mom. I need to win this for her because if I don't she won't be able to hold herself together.
Kevin Firestone's POV
I didn't sleep last night. Even if I had it wouldn't have worked out well. I mean who would if they were in my position. Humiliated. And above all by a girl. A girl from an outlying district too. I have a reputation to uphold, and if she thinks that she can just but in there and do what she wants. Uh I hate her. There's something off with her. I know it.
She's got to be hiding something. And I'm gonna find out. And right after I do that I'm gonna kill her. Because I can tell you one thing. That girl, is not going back to 9. But I think I have her figured out. Maybe she likes me. And wants to go out. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. The only date she's going on is a date with death. Coal finally comes back from doing inventory and speaks.
"So we've got a lot of food, water, and medicine. We have sleeping bags and some other stuff too." Great. With that I grab an apple. I start eating. It's really good. Nice crisp, juicy, and omg this is my third day and I'm already describing the taste of food! Man I suck.
"Like Kevin has demonstrated I think we should all have breakfast." Coal says. I smile at that. They all eat while Coal goes over today's agenda.
Coal Hartsell's POV
We are still at the cornucopia when we eat breakfast. Now's the time to go over the agenda Coal. Do it.
"Okay so today's agenda is:
Pack bags with a sleeping bag, food, water, 1 or 2 weapons, a first aid kit, and anything else we might need.
Then we'll need to figure out who is going to guard the supplies. I think that Kasi is a good candidate for this.
Then we will get ready to go into the desert.
Once in the desert we will track down Austin and Leigha.
Kasi stay here, and kill any tributes who come.
Is this clear?" When I get nods of approval we start off.
Once in the desert we quickly see footprints. We follow the path a while and then stop. The prints just disappeared.
Pholx Astridi's POV
Once we stepped into the desert we immediately follow the footprints that are there. But the odd thing is that they suddenly disappear. I realize before anyone else does that it's a trick by the game makers. I am about to voice the idea when I hear it.
I hear a roar in the sky. I look to the sky to see what it is, Hovering above us is a 50ft. long dragon. Dragons? Are they for real? Dragons aren't even real. No, no way. What are we supposed to do kill it? But we can't just kill a dragon now. Can we?
"Not good, not good." I hear myself say. Coal looks awestruck. And if it were any other time I would've laughed at his face. The mouth is literally hanging open. He also has pure shock, and confusion on his face. Kevin is standing there sword in hand shakily. Max is petrified with fear.
"What do we do? Fight it?" I ask. Surprisingly Kevin is the one to answer.
"No! Whatever you do don't fight it. That's what they want us to do. Just ignore it and it'll ignore you." Kevin instructs before saying "Also back at the training school they told us that we should never back out of a challenge but don't challenge a mutt." What do you know he does have more than half a brain.
Max's POV
Oh crap. Oh crap. There's a dragon right above me. I hate dragons. I've never seen one before(I didn't think they existed) but I know what they can do. I really hate dragons. They're scary and impossible to beat. Or at least that's what I think.
Why couldn't it be spiders? I fear spiders almost as much as dragons. But still why can't it be a nice, big, poisonous spider. And not a big, freakin fire-breathing dragon!? Why? Even after Kevin tells us not to attack I do it.
I know, I know, I'm stupid. But hey can you really blame me when there's an enormous, 1000ft dragon above my head? Can you? So I did the one thing that came natural. I swung my trident at it. I mean it's just natural. For me at least. Something that I fear comes up to me. What do I do? Kill it.
If the dragon isn't there it can't hurt me right? So I'll just make it disappear. I take another lunge at it. That was a mistake. Now it's attacking. Why can't it be a spider? Why? I see Phlox grab her bow and start shooting.
She starts shooting arrow after arrow but it's not enough. I hear the string snap one more time and look at her. She's out of arrows. Oh crap. Then Kevin grabs his sword and throws it straight at the dragons heart. It hits the stomach instead. But it's still a hit. That's when I regain thought.
I grab my trident and hurl it at the dragon as hard as I can. It also hits the stomach. Coal grabs a knife and smile. He is about to throw it too when the flame hit's me. I fall down on fire. I land on the ground.
Coal throws the knife and finishes off the dragon. Then all 3 of them come up to me and douse me in water. I feel fine after the water and some burn medicine from Phlox's first aid kit. Smiling I get up.
"I think we've had enough adventure for today. Let's head back." Coal suggests. All of us follow. Seriously why a dragon and not a spider though?
Kasi Pimonae's POV
I waited until the careers were out of site before continuing the next step of my plan. I walk to a bush of berries and pick them. I check to see if they are edible or not. Let's see dark red, with bumps. They could be either the raspberry or the Blackcap. Raspberries are really good edible berries, and blackcaps are deadly. I can't be sure though.
I guess I won't use them if I can't be sure. But maybe I could be the only guard my shift today and tomorrow night. I can do that then kill him in his sleep. That'll work. But I don't think that would be fair. I can always challenge him though. Hmm.
Suddenly I hear a noise. Quickly I turn to see Silk Hegry from district 1. I smile. Quickly I run over and pin him to the ground.
"What do you want Silk?" I ask determined to keep up my career persona. I need to know if he still is interested in being a career or if he just wants food.
"I want food. Look I don't want any trouble. Just food." I'll give him some food. I believe him. I walk off and come back with an apple, energy bar, pack of cracker, and water. What I don't get is that he has a container of rice and beans along with a peice of bread. Deciding to let it go I wait for him to leave before continuing.
Once I kill Kevin I will need to make a quick escape. That means just my knife, and necessities. I can probably get some sponsor gifts too. Well all I can do is wait now.
Silk Hegry's POV
I was going to the cornucopia to join the careers. But they weren't there. Instead it was that 9 girl. So when she pinned me I had to make some stupid excuse about food before going to leave. I decide that maybe being a loner is a better idea. So instead of hanging around I walk towards the beach. I bet the careers already scoped it out so I should be relatively safe.
I walk along the beach until I find a small cave. I walk in. It's kind of small inside, but I'm small too. So I go in and look around. It looks safe. Deciding it's safe I go outside to gather leaves and other things to make a bed.
Once I have a nice little bed made up in the corner of the cave I finish off the Capitol food and the bread. Finishing up I decide to take a nap. I dreamed I wasn't in the arena.
I was outside playing catch with my two friends Mace and Jayde. It is a Summer evening. We are all laughing and talking about the games and training. I smile and say "You know it wasn't that hard to win. I bet you could too." The next year in my dream Mace volunteers. He is killed. The year after Jayde does. He also dies.
I wake up to a start. The anthem is playing. No one died today. Good.
Austin Steampuff's POV
We saw the dragon. Leigha and I. But we ignored it and let the careers take the dragon out. We walked away towards the edge of the desert. We got to the edge and saw both a beach or the mountains. We both head down into the mountains.
They were snowy but it wasn't snowing. There were lots of evergreens, and junipers, and spruces. Spruce. I fought him in the bloodbath. I didn't kill him though. Even though he's dead now it's not my fault. I've made my peace with him. I haven't killed anyone yet. And I don't want too. I thought about my interview. I am stronger than the careers, just like I said.
I think back to those days into the factories. I let the memories flood in. Lift machine up to start. Then slam it down. Drag the 300 pounds across the plastic. Repeat. I worked in the worst factory of all. The plastic one. In the plastic factory you could suffocate to death, get killed by the machinery, or get killed by some other thing. It was dangerous, brutal, boring, and tedious. I was smart. And I should've worked with the technology. But I was sick the day of the tests.
If you are sick the day of the test there is nothing you can do. You either show up anyways and do poorly or don't show up and get put into a plastic factory. There were other factories to. But the test determined which one you went into. I should've been an engineer. But I wasn't. I got sick.
Leigha Marx's POV
We had settled on the mountains. Austin was in a daze. Almost like a flash back. I just let him stare off into nothingness and stay put. I look around and realize we've reached a good place for camp. I start setting up our tent with our sleeping bags in it. I then start a fire. I don't care if the careers see it. They fought a dragon today. They won't come after the fire.
I see a rabbit and throw a knife at it. I manage to kill it. Once the rabbit is dead I skin it and cook it. For once an actual meal in the arena.
"That smells wonderful Leigha." I smile.
"Well it should taste good too. I hope." I really do hope. I'm not much of a cook. Especially by Capitol standards. I had had Capitol food before. We got it sometimes when my mom got back from trips. The food was always the best. It was also always a disappointment to go back to the regular food afterwards.
I finish cooking up the rabbit and give Austin a big portion of it, and myself a smaller one. It turns out quite good for rabbit. But I wish I had some spices or something. Then it would be even better. But you can't have everything.
So that's the end of chapter 23. Or as I just thought of Snow, Dragons, and more. BTW I am holding a contest. Whoever is the hundredth reviewer gets a bonus 10 sponsor points.
The Fallen
Rye Grain killed by suicide
Rory Lockheart killed by Coal Hartsell
Randor Pencyn killed by Kevin Firestone
Lee Bengerson killed by Volos Belles
Volos Belles killed by Dessen Locklear
Valernia Lame killed by Kasi Pimonae
Terra Mason killed by Max Greene and Minnow Reedsworthy
Phoenix Depark killed by Nathaniel Kaskill
Dessen Locklear killed by an eelshark, Capitol mutt
Phoenyx Moore killed by Black Cob
Minnow Reedsworthy killed by Kasi Pimonae
Spruce Dejack killed by Max Greene and the Eletopus Capitol mutt
Sapphire Flash killed by Nathaniel Kaskill