Ch. 16- Caught
Merida POV
The boy has brown eyes, elvish ears, and curly black hair. He jumps back in surprise, and then takes off running, shouting, "Beckandorf! Bianca! Nyssa! We got company!"
Hiccup lets out a few choice words that I'm surprised he knows.
"Great. Of course there're others in there. Looks like the District 3s. I'm guessing that was Leo. Let's go after him." As he steps into the secret passageway, the District 3s come around the corner, holding swords, and in Leo's case, a knife.
Beckandorf steps forward. "Give us one good reason why we shouldn't kill you."
Hiccup, thank God, thinks fast. "Because we can help, and we won't kill you, either. If you attack us, you're going to lose a couple."
Beckandorf thinks for a minute, then nods. "Lower your weapons, guys." As his teammates oblige, I lower my bow and put the arrow back in the quiver. "So, what's your business here, and how'd you figure out the mechanism?"
Hiccup answers yet again. "We were just changing areas. My business here was the same reason we figured out the door. I figured out how to translate the symbols that pop up everywhere, and they give clues. The clue in the castle that we found led us on here."
Beckandorf nods. "That does sound useful. What's your name? Mine's Beckandorf, that's Leo, this is Bianca, and this is Nyssa."
"I'm Hiccup, and this is Merida and Rapunzel."
"Oh yeah, you're the ones with the strange names."
Hiccup scowls at that, then sighs. "I'll forgive that if we make an alliance."
Beckandorf chuckles, "Sure."
Leo sighs loudly. "Good. I don't want to have to kill anybody yet."
Rapunzel smiles. "Me neither."
Beckandorf takes charge again. "So, any other clues?"
When Hiccup looks reluctant, I punch him. "Hic, you offered the information! Ya can't just back out!"
He he glares at me until Rapunzel asks. "C'mon, Hiccup, please?"
"Fine. We only have one other clue. 'Under the top of blue glass, the secret is kept.' Not super clear, huh? I'm still working on that one."
The big African American nods swiftly. "Me and Nyssa are going to prepare dinner." They walk out quickly.
Punzie blinks. "You have that much food?"
Leo grins. "Not a ton, but enough for a full stomach every night."
Bianca purses her lips at me. "But you guys have your own food, right? You should eat that." Then suddenly she's glaring. "I'll have you know that this alliance is temporary. I have a little brother that I'm planning to get back to." Then she too walks off. I'm suddenly reminded of Jack. Even though they're nothing alike, Jack and Bianca both have younger siblings that they need to get back to. I wonder what he's doing.
Leo is chattering away. "Bianca can sometimes be grumpy, sorry about that. Anyway, we can't understand those symbols. Can you give us the key? Oh wait, you wouldn't want us to have that when our alliance splits up sorry. Who wants to play Rock Paper Scissors?"
We just stare at him. "You guys don't have that in District 12?"
Rapunzel breaks out in a grin. "Oh, no, we were just surprised that you'd think of that in the middle of a Hunger Games!"
"Oh yeah, BIANCA! BECKANDORF! NYSSA! ROCK PAPER SCIZZORS TOURNAMENT!"
After a dinner of Fin, we all go to bed.
We wake up to footsteps and yells.
Jack POV
I finger the big, hooked branch that I found on the ground. Everybody's charging around the castle, looking for the tributes. Nobody else has noticed that there's an arrow sticking into the weird tapestry. I examined it for a bit, and saw that it was some kind of trigger.
Agh! Somebody's coming up, and I haven't taken the arrow out yet! I'm screwed!
Piper appears through the staircase. She looks at me, then the tapestry, then the arrow. "Story?" She asks pointedly.
I do my best to keep a poker face. "I came up here and found this. It seems to be some kind of trigger. And before you ask, I was about to tell everyone."
She nods. "Good. I'll call Jason. Then we can see just what it triggers."
She leaves. All I can do right now is ready myself, and hope that nobody's in there.
After a few minutes, everybody's piled up in this small room, with Jason at the front. The District 1 tribute looks at me. "So, Jack, you found this. Explain, then you trigger it."
I swallow. "So I was looking, and I decided to come up here. I found the arrow in the tapestry, and I looked at it for a bit. Turns out, it was in some kind of a trigger that the tapestry was covering." Then I spin around and stab the arrow right through the thin tear.
There's a series of clunks, and a big door swings open.
Some people look impressed, while others are scowling at me. Jason nods swiftly, saying "Nice job, Overland. Now, let's go in." Drew hurriedly pushes her way in.
Twang! Suddenly Drew has an arrow straight through her neck, oozing blood. She starts coughing, red liquid flying out of her mouth, the convulses and topples over.
We all stare in shock for a second, before a second arrow flys into Kida, one of Percy's friends. Luckily, it's a quicker and less gory death, but still painful. Ethan is knocked on the head with a frying pan, and then Hiccup, and four other tributes that I don't recognize come charging out. Damn, my cover has to go. I hook the nearest person, who happens to be Ruffnut, with my staff, bring her close. I snap her neck with a swift blow from my hands.
I see Hiccup staring at me, and I smirk at him. I charge, closing in for the kill…
Of Snotlout, who's behind him. Hiccup looks startled that I wasn't trying to kill him. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad, since he thought I was a threat, but that also that my plan worked. I'll think about that later.
Snotlout is a challenge. He has a pretty big sword, as long as my branch. He keeps on trying to stab me. The sword has to go.
I hook the handle out of his grip, disarming him. Then I bring him in close and drag him into a corner. I'm going to make this nice and slow…
He lands a couple of punches on my face. I kick his stomach. Soon enough, we're in a fistfight. I've taken some bad injuries. I'm not sure I can do this too much longer…
Suddenly, Snotlout stiffens. Then he falls back words, pushing the arrow that sprouted from his back through his chest. Long arrow.
I see Merida looking at me, another arrow notched in her bow. I grin at her, and spit a tooth out. "Never liked that guy."
She gives me a tight lipped smile, like she's angry at me. I would be too. Huh…
I push off the wall and do a flip over Merida, landing behind her. I'm about to run to a different fight when out of the corner of my eye I see a knife blade coming right at me. It's going to pierce a lung if it hits me! Then, out of nowhere, a sword blocks it. I look around me to see Percy fighting Ethan, his sword against Ethan's knife. Percy grins at me for a second. "I got your back, Jack!"
I give him a grateful smile. He's siding with me even though Merida killed Kida… which is more than I can say for the others. Frank is looking conflicted, and Amphitrite is fighting a slender girl with black hair.
Jason scowls, seeing how he's losing. "Careers, retreat!"
The remainders, (Jason, Piper, Ethan, Astrid, Fishlegs, and Amphitrite) run out, Frank and Percy staying with me.
I lean on my branch, exhausted. Hiccup is searching the killed's belongings, Rapunzel is using torn-up pieces of cloth from around the castle and bandaging wounds, Frank is standing uncomfortably next to Percy, Percy is cleaning Kida's body to take her outside, and Merida is just looking at me.
Am elf-ish guy and the dark-haired girl are standing beside a big, buff, brown-haired woman, who is kneeling by an African-American man, who's dead.
The living boy walks over to Rapunzel and murmurs something. She gasps, and cries out, "Beckandorf's dead?!" The boy nods sadly. Tears start coming out of her eyes.
Hiccup walks over to comfort her, his arm around her shoulders.
Merida shuffles over to me. "That's Leo, that's Bianca," she points to the boy and the dark-haired girl, "and that's Nyssa." She points at the grieving brunette.
I nod. "Thank you, Merida. And," I look straight into her eyes, "I'm sorry."
Then I go into the walls, find an empty space, and fall asleep.
Phew! That was my first battle scene I've ever written… G'syr: I'M BACK, EVERYONE! I had a nice vacation in the Bahamas, my second choice to the arctic. I'm glad to be back!
Sol: yep, it's nice to have him back. He's one of my only friends right now, with my other friend in Germany. :( But it's also nice to have you readers! I hope you liked this chap, and I know Beckandorf died too soon. He could have had a nice life, married his girlfriend… huuuuh. I'm depressing myself just thinking about it. Anyway, lots of death in this chap! And Jack is finally back with the others! Yay! Though its going to be veeeeery awkward telling them that he told Percy and not them. I had fun writing this, even though Jack's might be a little crappy. 'Cause I wasn't able to fall asleep until 12:00 after reading Powerless Guardian, and right when I was about to fall asleep, the hotel that I was staying in's alarm clock went off at 12:00, and it took me another 2 hours to fall asleep. Then I woke up at eight. And then, luckily, Mom let me sleep until 9:00, so I had 7 hours of sleep. Gaaag. Oaky, rant over. G'syr: try not to stay up late reading fanfiction anymore then, Sol. It's your own fault. Sol: shut up. Shoutouts:
Galatea R.S- there! G'syr is back, (he didn't tell me he was going to the Bahamas ): ), you found out who was in the castle, (though sadly with the price of character death) and since you mentioned it: I will never abandon a story. It's like leaving your baby out in the streets. Thanks for reviewing!
Doodlebug Diva- lots of drama. Hunger Games are dramatic XD
GuestWhoReviews- I thought so! And, well, now you know! None other than Leo Valdez!
Well, hope you like it! Oh, and the link I promised:
Project: GUARDIAN- the Rise and Fall (for those who like action)
Summery:
When Princess Thia is kidnapped by British terrorist, Pitch Black, a
mysterious secret agent comes the rescue. But protecting her is a challenge as
he is wanted dead by multiple spy agencies. Now she and the ex-spy who only
goes by the codename 'JACK FROST' must work together and stop Pitch, all while
uncovering the dark secrets of something he left called the GUARDIAN program.
AU
Link: s/9095215/1/Project-GUARDIAN-The-Rise-Fall
Powerless Guardian (for those who like comedy)
Summary: A monster who feeds on immortality appears, and Jack becomes his
unfortunate victim. Now Jack, with all his immortality gone, is forced to live
a drama-filled life as a normal 18-year-old boy named Jack Overland, all the
while trying to find a way to become Jack Frost once again. Cover art by
MaddieSeth on deviantArt.
Link: s/8775056/1/Powerless-Guardian
G'bye! G'syr: Goodbye…
*we both exit*
*G'syr starts shouting about advertising in stories as soon as he thinks we're alone*