AUTHOR'S NOTES: Another year, another victor. There is not much to say about this one that has not already been said. The good news is, is that the story picks up, what with the quarter quell approaching. Similarly, as we go through the different games, more familiar (canon) characters will start to emerge.
In the meantime... Happy Reading!

The 20th Annual Hunger Games

It was not like the Capitol had to come up with a completely new and unique environment for the arena each year, and so when word spread through the Capitol that the Gamemakers were trying an old design from half a decade ago again, it was met with intrigue. Still, the tributes of the 20th Annual Hunger Games would have it better off than their predecessors. The notion of so many Hunger Games having already occurred meant that the Gamemakers had plenty of material to work with, and even some trends to watch for, even if this year none of the tributes seemed to stand out much from each other. It was no matter though—a victor was a victor regardless of his or her district, age, strength, size, or gender, and tributes were tributes all the same.

The first thing these tributes noticed about the arena was that there was a lot of white. It was another icy tundra-style arena, except the biggest difference this time was that instead of rocks there were trees, and it seemed that the cornucopia was stocked with fire starters and survival supplies, alongside the usual weaponry.

The tributes from the warmer, southerly districts, such as 5, 11, 8, 4, and even 2, had it harder than the others. The District 2 pair survived because they were trained career tributes that fought off the other kids before commandeering the warmest equipment, but most of the district tributes wound up suffering because of the heat. They were able to survive better due to the abundance of supplies and better chances at making shelters, but even then, all but the hardiest of them were more focused on survival rather than massacre.

Nelekar Carver and Tamiyo Zaila, on the other hand, were from the northern mountains of District 1 where fine gems were mined. While they were considered 'poorer' citizens, they were still better off than many of Panem's poorer districts, and they had developed a hardy resilience against the cold due to the climate where they lived. Not even the northerly District 7 could say the same.

The surprise survivor was Muscida Lee, an oddly-named boy from District 4 of all places, that had survived the bloodbath even if his partner Ari had not. Instead of trying to fight, he had decided to take shelter, and had used the shovel in his backpack to dig out a little cave out of a snowdrift, concealing the entrance with more snow. He disappeared from everyone's view except the Capitol's (thanks to the tracker in his right arm), and so as the games wore on and more tributes were eliminated, few people even remembered Muscida existed at all.

He emerged occasionally to find or forage for whatever food he could get, but otherwise was back in his little cave keeping warm, covering the entrance with extra snow to prevent someone thinking there was a tribute underneath it all.

His tactic was somewhat effective. Unlike the last Hunger Games to use a tundra-like setting, this one also had mutts roaming about, their white fur coats helping them blend into the environment as well as any tribute. Some of them, including Tamiyo and Nelekar, managed to kill off some of these mutts for meat, and they tasted surprisingly decent for Hunger Games food. However, for some tributes, these creatures spelled their demise, and as the days passed, only the strong and the smart were able to outwit and outmaneuver these creatures as they roamed an icy landscape that was surely reminiscent of their habitat—if artificially engineered creatures had a habitat, that was.

By the 10th day of the games, Tamiyo had just slaughtered Ayaka, a resilient and elusive girl from District 12 that had almost won the games, she being used to the woods and the winters the same as the District 1 pair had been. With her out of the way, they turned on each other, thinking that they were the only two left.

Thus, when Tamiyo's cannon went off and the games didn't end, Nelekar realized he had made a grave mistake. Counting the tributes off, he realized that they had overlooked a boy from District 4 the entire time, which he now sought to rectify.

The good news was that there were mutts chasing him and guiding him towards where Miscida's snow fort was, and Nelekar was used to outrunning and outmaneuvering them. The bad news was that at one point, he lost his footing and slipped into a drift, where the packs of arctic wolves that had been chasing him made a quick meal of the boy, firing the final cannon of the games. Muscida emerged from his snow cave to find, to his slight surprise, that he had been crowned the winner: the 2nd victor from District 4, and the 20th victor of the Hunger Games overall.

If not for the single kill he had made in the bloodbath, Muscida would have become the stuff of legend for being able to survive the Hunger Games without taking a single life. Still, it was considered a rather impressive feat (and an embarrassment on Tmiyo and Nelekar's parts) that he had managed to survive the games without having to attack or defend from anyone else.

As a result of the fairly simplistic way that he had won the games, Muscida's trauma was minimal, although he did find solace in the idea of a snow cave, even if most of his district was far too earm to ever have any snow of its own…

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)
18HG: Leah Holden (#2, District 7)
19HG: Zeruda Mezkiel (#2, District 6)
20HG: Muscida Lee (#2, District 4)