AUTHOR'S NOTES: Shenanigans start here. More interesting chapters are approaching, since I have written a few of them out of order. Not that this one is necessarily slow; this one is important for a few reasons. It also helps advance us to interesting chapters and characters such as Woof, Seeder, Wiress, Beetee, and of course, the infamous 1st Quarter Quell.
Happy Reading!
The 16th Annual Hunger Games
Perhaps as a lesson learned from the year before, it was clear that the Capitol was steering away from frigid tundra arenas for the time being. Perhaps there were still kinks to iron out. Preventing 17 tributes from dying on the first day was one of those things.
And thus instead of the frozen wasteland dotted with shivering tributes just trying to stay alive rather than attempt to kill each other, the 16th Annual Hunger Games took an interesting turn that would change the way Hunger Games were done forever, and they were excited to reveal it to an eager Capitol audience who they knew would swallow it up.
The tributes all seemed fairly normal, and perhaps a bit stereotypical, even. The tributes from District 1 were confident and perhaps a bit ditzy, while their district 2 counterparts, Soren & Lynn, were a swift and lethal pair that were not exactly tiny, but their finesse and dexterity kept them on the stealthy side, even to the point where they terrified most of the tributes from the outlying districts with the element of playful surprise. Even the staunch District 11 pair, Rangi Calhoun and Lark Chandnea got their feathers ruffled, but they got a good laugh in when a crafty District 5 boy named Gerome Swann tricked them with a handmade joy buzzer, Despite this, the careers liked this kid's antics enough to let him and his partner join their alliance, and so it was looking to be another career game again. None of the tributes from districts beyond '8 showed much promise, and even Districts 7 and 8 did not exactly look like fighters this year.
The District 4 pair actually joined forces with Lavender Tylers, the scrawny but lithe girl from District 12, and the kids from District 3, and so perhaps there would be a different faction to stand up to the careers this year. Time would tell.
What none of the tributes expected, however, was the arena they were thrown into. It was a bright forest with a gorgeous spring atmosphere that almost aroused curiosity in some of the warier tributes: Why was the Capitol making the arena so simplistic? Surely there was a catch.
Within a few hours of the bloodbath ending, the surviving 13 tributes figured out what it was—there were mutts in the arena, although they mostly just looked like larger, fiercer wild forest animals such as cougars and wolves. They were aggressive, but durable fighters such as Lavender, Rangi, and Lark were able to handle them fairly easily, and the mutts were no match for Lynn and Soren's skills. Even Gerome managed to outwit them, which served as a boon to the career pack.
The 2nd day proved to house a surprise for the remaining tributes, who were starting to catch on to the arena's tricks. It was much hotter and drier today than it had been the previous day, and the lish meadows of flowers had disappeared, being replaced by thick dark leaves in the trees and grass on the ground. It was as if the season changed.
The pair from District 3 were the first to make the conclusion as to what had happened, but the boy had died in the bloodbath, and Lark assassinated the girl early in the afternoon, with a blade to the skull, and so their secret died with them—at least until the others figured it out.
Day 3 saw no deaths, and gone were the lush and vivid greens of the 2nd day. In their stead, the trees were shedding their leaves, and it started to look like autumn. At once, the remaining tributes began preparing for what they anticipated would come on the 4th day—winter.
Soren and Lynn's arrogance was their downfall by mid-afternoon on day 4, where the winter chills that verified some of the warier tributes' theories, finally bested the last two careers, leaving mostly just tributes from outer districts: Rangi, Lavender, and Lark, as well as Gerome.
Ultimately, the seasons thing seemed to be more of a test this year than anything, which may have explained the simplistic arena layout that had enabled so many deaths in the first four days. When the 5th day rolled around, there were only 7 tributes left.
The arena began to grow more hostile. As winter transitioned into spring, the wild weather that everyone often associated with the season came back in full swing, with weird periods of rain, snow, and even sleet and the occasional small hail. Summer on the 6th day proved even more brutal—Gerome's life was lost that day due to the sheer humidity and torrential rainfall known to some as the monsoon season. Being from a much more arid location, this meant that he could not cope with the drastic change in humidity around him. Lavender and Rangi struggled a bit, while Lark hunkered down and prepared for autumn and winter again. Autumn proved to be brutal by demonstrating the size of the hailstones the arena threw at the remaining tributes. Lark took initiative to try and find Lavender (and hope that Rangi got killed before she had to face him) or the District 3 pair, who had oddly survived. She zigzagged through the arena, only to hear a cannon go off later in the evening, revealing Rangi's face. Lavender died shortly after, at Lark's hand, and now her victory was nigh.
Despite being from a warmer district, Lark had been one of those to prepare and anticipate what was to come, and she shielded herself from the harsh elements and weather.
Early on the 9th day, the games ended with a sudden ambush to the District 3 pair courtesy of Lark. The harsh weather had stopped, and it seemed that the cycle had been about to start anew. Whatever the case, Lark Chandnea was crowned the victor, becoming the 2nd victor from District 11, and the 16th victor of the Hunger Games overall.
Lark tended to stay indoors a lot after her games, especially if the weather was bad or erratic. She did not fear the weather, but she did not like sudden changes like she had experienced in the arena.
If the arena had taught her anything, it had taught her to adapt and how to become a survival expert—tips and tricks she would sometimes teach to other children—especially tributes that she mentored. She wanted to get another District 11 victor soon, both because she wanted to be done mentoring soon, and because she wanted to see District 11 bring home survivors. Time would tell if she was successful in this endeavor or not…
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)
14HG: Minali Otoyome (#2, District 3)
15HG: Willow James (#3, District 1)
16HG: Lark Chandnea (#2, District 11)