Chapter Eleven

A/N: Thanks so much to my great reviewers, Faith and timta.

When she awoke early in the morning, after suffering a fitful night's sleep, Abby's guard on herself and her companions increased tenfold within the first couple of moments, as she remembered with a shock where she had given into to the merciful darkness, and how easily she could have done so permanently with the lack of caution she had shown.

She had not become very easily accustomed to sleeping in the outdoors, particularly in a place with such an air of danger surrounding it. That evening, none of the trio had slept extremely well, if at all, something that they expected to be true of all the Tributes, possibly excepting the Careers, who had been training for those many years in the Academy to survive in all aspects of the Hunger Games, and whom a lack of sleep would probably not prevent them from seeking out their path to victory.

After taking a moment to clear her head from the haze of sleep, the brunette moved forwards in the cave, so that she was sat on the very edge of it and could see over the side, having a full view of the Cornucopia below, and the majority of the Arena as well, something that was extremely unusual in the design of the competing area, which was usually so vast that the competitors had space to outrun the others, or more specifically, the Careers. To have it be so small, it made Abby feel that there was something else hidden in the place that they did not know of, and that it would be their downfall if they did not discover the secret before the Careers did. 'It shouldn't be too difficult to outfox those arrogant idiots.' the girl thought, a smile appearing on her face as she did so. 'After all, my mother did it. She was the one that killed three of them, and my father was there with them, set on betraying them, and they were too busy picking off the weaker children to notice. Well, I'm not weak, and I'm not letting them take me, or any of my friends, down for the sake of a bit of fun.'

She was concentrating so intensely on the ground below that the young girl did not notice that one of her companions had woken from their slumber, at least not until a twig cracked behind her and she whirled around, to such an extent that, had balance not been on her side, she would have plummeted to the ground, to her death.

"Sorry." came the small voice of the recently wakened child. "I didn't mean to scare you. I was just going to come and help you look out. It couldn't hurt to have extra people doing it."

"You're right, I suppose. It couldn't hurt. And you don't have to be sorry about startling me a little bit. I've had worse in this tournament already. It's alright…" Abby began, but trailed off when she realised that, with all of the terrible thoughts running through her mind that morning, she had forgotten the girl's name. However, as she seemed to have realised this, the blonde answered the question that her elder had been a little too fearful to ask.

"Belle." she told the brunette, a slight smile flickering across her face like the flame of a candle. "My name's Belle."

'Isabelle.' The girl's explanation on the matter of what she was called had rung bells in her head from the moment she had spoken the first word. Of course, the girl was Johanna Mason's daughter, as she could now see the resemblance between the two, judging by the photograph that her mother had kept in her parents' bedroom, of her friends at her wedding, and an earlier one of them, taken during the rebellion, as an attempt to lift their spirits a little. Harry's father had been in the front row in that picture, smiling contentedly, with no knowledge of the action which would break his family.

"I'm Abby." she returned, seeing it as polite to offer her name to the girl, given that she had offered her hers so readily. It was obvious that the child was beginning to trust her companions, especially after the incident at the Cornucopia, and it gave Abby a great deal of relief to know that, as, in all honesty, the blonde did not look to be strong enough to fight on her own, as she would have wished to, had she not made friends quickly. "Abby-Rue."

"You're almost thirteen, aren't you?" she asked suddenly, her voice becoming timid once more, as it had been at the beginning of their conversation. The brunette gave no vocal response, merely nodded in the affirmative. Belle understood and spoke again. "I'm a year younger than you."

"You're twelve as well." she pointed out to the child, who seemed to have missed a point. She wondered for a second about the quality of education in District Seven, but decided that it could not be that drastically terrible. 'After all, I live in District Twelve. The education there is worse than anywhere else, and I can still count past twelve.'

Once again, no vocal response was given, but on this occasion, it was not a nod that was given, but a shake of the head, in the negative. For another moment, Abby's brow furrowed in confusion. That made no sense, as she had said that she was a year younger. Then it hit her. This time, the Capitol had gone further than they had done before.

"You're eleven?" she questioned, her expression showing clearly her shock, despite her attempts to calm her features a little, so as not to scare the girl. And yet again, a timid nod was her only response, as the child seemed to retreat back into her shell. "But you aren't of Reaping age. You can't be here."

"The Capitol came up with a new rule for the Games this year." she sighed, a film of tears appearing in her eyes, before she blinked them all back, not wanting to show weakness to any cameras that could be filming. "As long as you are of Reaping age, top end or bottom of it, by the time the end of the Games has come around, then you are eligible to take part."

"And how far away is your birthday?" Abby asked, a smile appearing on her face, to replace the look of shock.

"Thirteen days." she replied, a look of confusion on her face that rivaled the one which had been on her companion's a moment earlier.

That was just the answer the young girl had wanted to hear, as she had formulated a plan in her mind, to get the Games closed down for good. All she had to do was ensure that they were over before twelve days were up. That meant that they had work to do, as there were eleven more Tributes who needed to fall, before they could reach their goal.

A/N: So, a plan is formed. I know it's a little bit half baked, but give the girl a break. She's only just woken up! Please review!