AUTHOR'S NOTES: Enter Woof Casino, an older District 8 victor. Not much was revealed other than that he hid most of the time and then somehow emerged the victor. I imagine that the last couple of tributes didn't just trip over rocks and die, and so perhaps there was a streak of cunning in the boy that was only lost to age or the likes.
Happy Reading!

The 17th Annual Hunger Games

The 17th Annual Hunger Games was remembered for surprisingly very little. Even today, the details of the arena are not exactly clear, apart from the fact that it was apparently rocky, and lighting was minimal. The hidden cameras that graced the various landscape were somewhat infrared, because the entire arena was nearly pitch-black, even from the start. The moon seemed to be permanently a new moon, and so only the dim light of the fake stars overhead provided any light.

Tributes groped their way around foliage and rocks alike, finding that the terrain was not at all equal outside of the little clearing that the pedestals and cornucopia stood in. There was not really a bloodbath that year either given the lack of light to see who was who, and as such, even the career alliance was practically non-existent. The only alliance that managed to survive was the alliance between the two District 11 tributes, who, in the chaos of the darkness and mad scramble for supplies, had found the most useful item in the games—night vision glasses. Moreover, they were some of the only people who knew how to utilize them, and so they took advantage of the situation, scoring several kills (or at least injuring others) before departing into the rocky wilderness around them.

Only 5 tributes actually died the first day, although 3 more succumbed to injuries from the bloodbath by the evening or the 2nd "morning". Only three tributes were using those glasses to get around—the District 11 pair from before, and a boy form District 8 who wandered as far from the cornucopia as he could with little more than those glasses, a flimsy spear, and a fat backpack. He only stopped to check its contents after the 2nd day, to find it loaded with food. Knowing that he could subsist off of this for days if he found a water source, this Woof Casino fellow went on a hunt to find just that, locating a stream nearby a couple of large rocks and trees. As a fellow from District 8, he was not exactly a prime fighter, and so he was simply going to take the chance and hole himself up a ways off the ground, rigging up the surrounding area with a few simple traps. Ideally, he would wait for the others to kill each other off before letting them come to him, where they would hopefully fall into his traps. Woof constructed a slingshot and collected a few small stones as he lodged himself into this little area, ready to wait it out as long as he needed.

Oddly, this plan proved to be rather effective. A career alliance formed from the three remaining career tributes, but hunting the others was difficult in the pitch darkness. None of them had any way to see in the dark apart from whatever light they were able to produce, and they were more in pursuit of District 11 rather than Woof.

So simplistic and clever was Woof's plan that he actually got sponsor gifts because of it. The infrared cameras also showed some of his elaborate traps as he built them, and also even showed that unless someone had watched him build them, that there was almost no way to actually see them.

Cannons continued to fire day after day until there were only three tributes left: Woof, one of the District 11 tributes, and the girl who had killed that tribute's partner and taken their glasses. Really, Woof didn't know any of them, and didn't really care. He was still content with camping out in his little improvised citadel, waiting for someone to step into one of his traps.

On day 9, as his food started running low, Woof was awoken by a scream and a snapping noise, followed moments after by the boom of a cannon. One of the other tributes had triggered his trap. The other one had been in hot pursuit, but she froze as she saw the body getting lifted out by Capitol hovercrafts.

"Come on out, '8…" She licked the blade of her knife, knowing that if he had those glasses, he could probably see her, but her pride got in the way of her thought process for a moment. "It ends here."

"It sure does," Woof agreed, before striking her with a rock from his slingshot. This proceeded to make her angry, and she threw a knife with vicious velocity that nearly cut off Woof's hand. He crouched down a bit more before slinging another stone, trying to provoke her to approach him.

"The trap's been triggered," he admitted with something of a shrug, "it's not going to build itself and hit you again, you know."
To his surprise, this actually worked, and the girl charged at him—only to trigger a second trap. Woof had built three layers of traps on three sides of him, while using the back of the rocks and trees as his "fourth side". This simple act of baiting, combined with toying with the District 2 girl's pride, had just won Woof the games, making him the 1st victor from District 8, and the 17th victor overall.

Woof's trauma was minimal other than that he had an odd fondness for being by himself in the dark. He had anticipated the tributes approaching his traps, and so had not been afraid of them. He was still not much of a fighter, but he was much more aloof after his games. It would be foolish, after all, to suggest that he had not been affected. Rather than suffer from trauma or nightmares, however, Woof Casino was simply aloof and disconnected from most other people. He was still mentally sound, but he had served his time in the arena, and it showed—it would always show…

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)
17HG: Woof Casino (#1, District 8)