AUTHOR'S NOTES: I'm back to my regular scheduled updating, and so here's the weekly chapter again. I wasn't able to write a bonus chapter to make up for the week I missed, so here's 15, and then 16 will be the following week, and so on. Anyhoo, here's the next chapter. The summary of these games exists in "The Victors' Chronicles", but doesn't cover much of the Cadence-Lucia interactions that this story covers, so here's some more of that.
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 15: Five Against Four

Cadence made camp near one of the edges of the cliff, knowing that while he risked being surrounded, that he was going to be fighting defensively anyways thanks to Lucia. Keeping three of his four directions surrounded meant that he only had to worry about being ambushed from the south, and that unless they were sniped, that he could keep himself between Lucia and any other danger. He left a small marker there to remind himself that that way was south, but otherwise didn't really change much else.

While Cadence aimed to lay low, he wasn't trying to keep an entirely low profile, and so he was not afraid of making a fire and developing his little camp. While they surprisingly didn't run into any mutts of any kind during their excursions, they did find game. Lucia was actually able to sniff it out, and Cadence proved to be a rather adept hunter even with little more than makeshift tools and shards of metal that he used as throwing knives. His training score of 11 wasn't just for his combat skills after all. They ate well that evening, and despite the natural threats the arena posed, neither of them stressed too much about it, and as such, the two fell asleep in each other's arms rather quickly.

The next morning Cadence woke up, rubbing his eyes, and as he headed south he nearly walked off the cliff before catching himself. He was certainly awake now.

"What the…" he stammered, waking Lucia up as well.

"What's wrong?" she asked, yawning and rubbing her eyes. She might not have been able to see, but her eyes still retained many of the same functions that working eyes did.

"Someone's given us the slip," Cadence growled, "Gamemakers, probably. I think they've tweaked my sense of direction…"
"Have they?" Lucia asked, "Where's your marker?"

Cadence looked around for it, but then realized that it was still right where he left it, undisturbed. If that was really still south, then…

"We're on one of those moving platforms," he warned, "Which means we need to get moving so we don't get caught on it again if it moves us back."
"Lead the way," Lucia smiled. "Let's pack up and get moving."

Lucia was actually a surprisingly competent helper for Cadence as they packed up and prepared to move out, where she displayed coordination ibn her movements, almost as if she wasn't blind at all. It was true what she had said to him back at the training center—she was a helper and a healer; not a fighter. It reminded him of the rank injustice that still loomed over Panem as he remembered how much Lucia did not deserve to be here.

They packed up what they could still reuse of their camp before trekking into the rocky woods of the new island that they were on. They made camp nearby on what they assumed was solid ground instead of a moving platform, and then began exploring. Cadence actually took an example from some of the earlier predecessor victors such as Aveline, Amy, and Korra, and trekked around barefoot. The rocks were not as hard on his feet as he expected, and the grass was soft as well. Besides, it felt nice to loosen up a little. The two of them moved slowly and methodically to prevent attracting too much noise or attention, and in hindsight, Cadence realized that this was a great idea. Their silence allowed Lucia to pick up noises from the southwest coming their way that Cadence might have otherwise overlooked.

"I hear them too…" he whispered, drawing his weapons. "Is it an animal?"
"No…" Lucia shook her head, "it sounds like tributes—a pair of tributes, no less."

"Let's be ready for them then," Cadence warned. Lucia stood behind him, and Cadence searched for a vantage point. Sure enough, their fears were verified as Isabela and Andraz from District 4 came into view, both of them wielding shards like knives and displaying some rather dexterous motions as they approached their quarries with the intent of intimidation.

"Don't worry," Cadence cracked his knuckles, drawing his blades, "I've got this."

"How long can loverboy protect you?" Andraz leered. They didn't seem to be trying to get under Cadence's skin as much as trying to sound threatening. District 4 was fill of wildcards like that.

"Till my last dying breath," Cadence replied, "it's a shame you won't be alive to see it."
"Oh really?" Isabela raised her eyebrows. "You and what alliance?"
"Law and Order," Cadence smirked, raising his left and right fists, "both of which are carrying huge sodding knives, in case your eyes don't work the way Lucia's don't. By the time we're done here I'll have Andraz's head rolling, and Isabela's corpse lying in a pool of her own blood. Bring it on."

This retaliatory jeer from Cadence earned the ire of the District 4 duo almost immediately, and soon metal clashed against metal as Cadence held off the assailants, using his own ferocity and blinding speed to keep them from touching him or worse, touching Lucia. The girl stepped a few feet back, cautiously wielding her knives, but also making sure she wouldn't accidentally slash at Cadence if he stepped too close. She did have to fend off Isabela at least once, but the moment the girl had tried to take the opportunistic jab at Lucia, Cadence plunged a dagger into her arm, drawing a great deal of blood. In this moment when she was stunned, Cadence took advantage of it and plunged another one right into her neck. Isabela gave half a gurgling cry before her throat filled with blood and she fell onto her back, drenched in her own blood just as Cadence had warned.

"Any second thoughts?" he taunted dryly towards her partner Andraz as Isabela's cannon fired.

"I definitely wasn't expecting that," Andraz retorted, staying on his toes, "but I can't just let you eviscerate my partner and then not do anything about exacting revenge. Sooner or later you'll come to realize the gravity of your mistake."
"If you say so," Cadence shrugged. He was a little bolder now that he had taken out one of his foes, but this little streak cost him. He felt a blade in his ribs just below his vitals, and he growled. He didn't realize it at the time, but it had only missed his organs by fractions of an inch. Perhaps what he didn't know was all the better at this point though. He retaliated by swinging his blades with such ferocity that he aimed to cut Andraz's throat as a response to the stab. Andraz, who had aimed to try and plunge his other blade into Cadence's gut again, had lunged forward, and so his neck was close enough to Cadence's reach that he straight-up decapitated the boy, and a second cannon fired.

"The irony of this isn't lost on me," he quipped, though there was a noticeable strain in his voice that Lucia picked up. Isabela and Andraz had both died exactly how Cadence warned that they would, and the funniest part about that to Cadence was that he was not even trying to do it.

"We need to get you cleaned up!" Lucia gasped, "the way you're breathing isn't good, Cadence. Let's get out of here."

Cadence had a slight stagger in his step. While his lungs had not been pierced, moving his stomach at all, even for breathing, was laborious considering that each movement sent another searing jolt of pain through his side where Andraz had stabbed him.

They hobbled back to camp before Lucia began pulling Cadence's shirt off. His pants and gloves remained on, however (and his boots were still at the camp), and so it wasn't as awkward as it could have been. Besides, Lucia was blind.

"I've got just the thing…" she took some of their water, chewed up a few herbs that she had been collecting, and began rubbing the salve on Cadence's wound. "Ugh… this is deep." She commented, "And stop moving, Cadence, or it'll hurt more!"

Lucia was assertive when she needed to be, but Cadence found it rather charming considering that she was just trying to help him. Within a few minutes, his pain had subsided somewhat (not even Lucia could heal things instantaneously), and he felt a bit better as Lucia finished bandaging his abdomen.

"So how do you know so many healing tricks if you're blind?" Cadence asked as he pulled his shirt off, hoping that Lucia hadn't somehow noticed that his cheeks were a lot redder than they had been before she had taken his shirt off, "I mean, not trying to offend or anything; I'm just curious."

"Being blind does not render me completely helpless," Lucia explained calmly, "it just means I have to find other ways to do things; and there are only a few things that are truly impossible for me, such as reading or writing."
"That… actually makes a lot of sense." Cadence nodded, "I might have said this before, Lucia, but… I'm glad you trust me. I… might not really know how this is going to turn out for us, but I really do want to keep you safe as long as humanely possible."
"I understand," Lucia leaned against Cadence, putting an arm around his back and uninjured side. "And I'm glad you're supporting me."
"It's the lease I can do." Cadence sighed. "Thank you…"

There was silence in the arena again apart from the brief moment where the hovercrafts appeared to claim the bodies of Andraz and Isabela, and while they still had around a dozen tributes to kill before the games ended, Cadence was slightly more at ease knowing that they were now two steps closer to the conclusion than they were before.