AUTHOR'S NOTES: Fun fact: Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 also have the exact same word count, both in the Author Notes, and in the story content itself. That aside, here's chapter 13. We're almost to Woof's games (17), but in the meantime, here's a bit of what happens when you put a whole ton of mutts into the games. It's a little longer and more exciting this time around.
Happy reading!

The 13th Annual Hunger Games

Unlike the previous two years, the 13th Annual Hunger Games did not seem like it was going to be a rehash of the rocky, rainy arena with the powerful career tributes. Of course, Districts 1 and 2 would still likely provide a threat like they so often did, but there were no more Karuha brothers like there had been during the 12th and 11th years of the games. The fact that a district had won back-to-back games was amazing in and of itself, but that the two victors had been related was equally incredible.

But the antics of the nefarious Gamemakers were only just beginning.

The outer districts were starting to develop a clear disadvantage, with none of the districts beyond District 7 having produced a single victor except for District 11, which seemed to be equipped for strength and survival—something most of the others couldn't boast.

Training scores were just numbers, as many people accepted and acknowledged, but they and the odds that the Capitol gave to each tribute could say a lot about who got sponsored and who didn't. In most cases, tributes were simply sponsored cool weapons or sometimes food or medical supplies, depending on the situation. However, if this year's training scores were anything to go by, it seemed that one of the richer districts would win again. The outer districts such as 10, 11, and 12 merely had average scores that year, while the careers had scored high, even if no one got higher than a 10 that year.

Unlike the last two years, this arena was a rainforest teeming with creatures, many of them deadly, aggressive, poisonous, or some combination of the above. Many of them were Capitol mutts, meaning that this year's tributes would have quite the challenge in this arena.

The first three days only saw 13 tributes die, 11 of which were in the bloodbath, and the other two were on days 2 and 3. Day Four, however, threw a wrench into the system.

First there were swarms of these fiery rodents that wiped out the entire 11-12 alliance that formed over the course of three days, and then right as the tributes thought they would catch a break, a swarm of electrical monkeys came out of nowhere and nearly wiped out the career pack, leaving only District 2's Alder, District 3's Cheren, and District 1's Rosa.

They did manage to destroy the electric monkeys (at least for the time), but they had to fall back and regroup at the cornucopia, where they felt like they would be safe for a while. 8 days in, and then the rain started. Instead of just drizzling, it started to pour. The career pack nestled themselves into the cornucopia in the hopes of waiting out the storm. The mutts that had ravaged many of the tributes had only left a small handful alive, and so even on the 8th day, there were only 8 tributes left. By the end of the day, that number had dropped down to 7 as a cannon went off in the wilderness.

"So who do we have left?" Rosa turned to Alder, who was acting as the leader of the group, as the career pack settled in for the night. The victim that day had been the girl from District 7.

"Well… there's the three of us, and then there's that Skyla girl from District 6, Hilda White from District 10, and then Jeriel and Tiffany from District 5."

"How'd an outlier get so far into games like these?" Cheren raised an eyebrow, "with all these mutts I'm surprised that the games haven't ended already. Besides, didn't her partner die in the bloodbath?"

"Maybe they are trying to draw it out a little," Alder suggested, "can't have the games over too quickly—and this rain isn't going to do anyone any favors."
But the rain did not stop—day 9 passed, and so did day 10, where the career pack found themselves face to face with Jeriel and Tiffany, the cunning District 5 pair. Seconds later, Alder, Rosa, and even Cheren found themselves peppered in little darts that pierced through their clothes and skin.

"It's poison!" Cheren exclaimed as Alder nearly clove Jeriel in two, "Get them out!"
Rosa followed up by lodging a spear cleanly through Tiffany's abdomen, causing two more cannons to go off on the 10th day. Already, the three of them could feel that tingling sensation in each little pinprick that the District 5 pair's darts had inflicted.

Cheren, being the thinnest of the careers, was the first to die, and despite their best efforts, including sponsored medicine, the poison seemed to still be spreading, and Rosa died quietly on day 11.

Alder held out the longest, lasting into day 12 before the poison finally got him. He wandered madly through the rain, before stumbling into Hilda, who was gutting a snake mutt—which had clearly been poisonous. That explained why the poison was so strong. However, he was in no condition to fight, and so he had left her alone before dying a couple hours later.

The next three days were rather peculiar, because the rain did not stop, and there were only two tributes—Skyla and Hilda—that were left alive. Neither one ran into the other, and both of them seemed particularly skilledat evading each other's traps, and anything the Gamemakers tried to pull. Both of them left trails of dead mutts in their wake, and soon it became clear that if anything, they would die of pneumonia before actually keeling over from each other. It was like a game of chess with two queens scampering around the board, waiting for the other to make a blunder.

And on the 15th day, Skyla did just that. She was injured by a rather vicious bear mutt that spewed a burst of cold air at her. Skyla managed to avoid the brunt of the attack, but it froze her right arm almost completely. Since she could not properly amputate it, it simply inhibited Skyla long enough for Hilda to finally come upon her, and do her in, ending the games.

Hilda became the 1st victor from District 10, and the 13th victor of the Hunger Games.

Hilda's victory had come through cunning and a keen knowledge of animals, which had been in abundance that year, despite the rain. It had been Hilda that had allied with the District 5 pair and supplied them with poison, but had only finished building two dartguns by the time Tiffany and Jeriel had wished to strike the career pack. Thus, they had gone in without her, and had paid the price.

Hilda didn't mind the rain despite her games, but she was much less fond of animals after that. However, even much later on, she was still considered one of the more stable victors, despite everything that had happened in the arena…

VICTORS BY YEAR:
1HG: Fukaya Kerezaki (#1, District 5)
2HG: Lucy Takamatzu (#1, District 11)
3HG: Naseru Litzak (#1, District 3)
4HG: Naisha Szasz (#1, District 2)
5HG: Jade Prima (#1, District 1)
6HG: Cedar Hardin (#1, District 7)
7HG: Susan Jackman (#2, District 5)
8HG: Malcolm Reed (#1, District 6)
9HG: Mags Cohen (#1, District 4)
10HG: Faren Dragmire (#2, District 1)
11HG: Maius Karuha (#2, District 2)
12HG: Iunius Karuha (#3, District 2)
13HG: Hilda White (#1, District 10)