A/N: For the few of you who have read my stories 'Second Time Unlucky' and 'Mentor', the victor in this oneshot, Natalie, made a brief appearance in Chapter 2 of 'Mentor'. I doubt you'd remember her, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
Sorry if this chapter is a little bit short, I hope you enjoy it anyway :)
"Then as it was, then again it shall be
Though the course may change sometimes, rivers always reach the sea."
- Robert Plant, 1975.
The 17th Annual Hunger Games
Natalie Blackman (18), District 4 Female
Led Zeppelin - Ten Years Gone (1975)
The arena is silent at night. Only faint sound of the insects stands out above the breathing of my allies. Above me lie the stars, seemingly unmoving and timeless.
If only my life was so easy.
Maybe, when I return home as a victor in a few weeks, it will be. But for now, I have much more pressing matters.
This is the arena, where the Capitol send there tributes to fight to the death for wealth and glory. Well, that's what the winners get. For the twenty-three losers, there is only an undignified death in a foreign field, hundreds of miles from home.
But this year, no death will befall me. I trained for the arena. Not just for personal gain, like most of the wannabe-victors in District 4's Training Centre, but because I don't want another family to be in mourning because of the Games. If I can take the place of another girl, who had no chance of winning, then I can spare another family in District 4 of mourning a lost child. I've been through it once, and it's not something that I ever want to relive.
It's been ten years since he died. Evan. My eldest cousin. With there being a ten-year age gap, you wouldn't expect us to be close. But we were. After Father left me and Mother when I was two, I spent much of my young life with him, whilst my Mother earned a living at the docks. Well, the times when he wasn't at the Training Centre.
Like many impressionable young teenagers, he was taken in by Fraser Reynolds' famous 'Career as a celebrity' speech shortly before the 4th Games. Three years later, in Evan Blackman was on his way to the Capitol.
I remember watching the Games with Mother at my aunt's house, where Evan had grown up. He was high-scoring. A competent tribute. He got into all the right alliances. He survived everything the Gamemakers could throw at him. And he was betrayed.
He was abandoned by his allies when the picking got thin, left alone to starve. Thankfully, those who had neglected him didn't last long, either. The Careers were defeated just a few days later by a real underdog, the eventual victor, Michelle of District 12.
But I didn't care. Evan had been taken from me. And without his guidance (he had been a father figure to me whilst Mother worked long hours), I grew up quicker than I ever imagined.
But time is a great healer. By the age of twelve, I was prepared to train myself to become a tribute, and I enrolled at the Training Centre shortly after the 11th Games. But all the time, I was driven by Evan; his sacrifice shall not be in vain. A Blackman shall survive the arena. And it shall be me.
Also, I remember the name of the girl that I volunteered for. Alice Jackson. She was short, slender, and fourteen. Not victor material. And thanks to my actions, the Jackson family won't have to grieve a loved one.
And I'm determined to prevent a second Blackman funeral. I don't think my Mother could take much more loss in her life. Her parents. Her husband. Her nephew. Add her daughter to the list, and it might just push her over the edge. I really, really don't want to think about what will happen then.
The early morning sun starts to flood into the arena, which is mostly grassland with little chances of shelter, and I hear my allies, the other Careers, start to stir from their sleep. I force myself to stand and make the short trip to the thin stream that runs through the endless plains to collect some water for cooking whilst my allies wake.
The numbers are half what they originally were. Only eleven people stand between me and home. Only eleven people stand between me and the victory that my family rightfully deserve.
Ten years may have passed, but a Blackman never gives up the fight.
The arena for the 17th Games was similar to that of the 1st Games; predominantly grassland, a small copse on a hill providing the only shelter from the elements. Control of the hill was essential to success, and for the first week, Natalie played her part in the Career Alliance, controlling the high ground as the numbers dwindled to just six tributes by the morning of the eighth day.
It was then that she betrayed her three remaining allies, killing the boy from District 2 and injuring the girl from One before fleeing the hill. The boy from District 4 killed the girl from One later that day; she was too much of a burden to continue with. There were just four tributes left.
Natalie then killed the boy from District 11 with her bow and arrow on the morning of the eleventh day, taking the numbers down to three. The next day the boy from Four killed the girl from District 6 who had attempted to claim the high ground atop the hill.
At the end of the second week, the 17th Games had reached stalemate, with neither tribute wanting to move from their positions. Eventually the Gamemakers used fire to drive Natalie back towards the copse at the top of the hill, where she was able to use her bow to kill the boy from Four before she came within range of his spears and knives, crowning Natalie Blackman the victor of the 17th Annual Hunger Games.
A/N: Please review! As ever, constructive criticism is welcomed :)
