AUTHOR'S NOTES: I've been waiting for this chapter for quite a while now. I've made many references to this victor, and why she's called "the Terror of the 35th". She's much older in my other fanfics, but her attitude mostly remains the same. This is one of a few chapters that is extra-length. There will be a few of them like this that I will particularly reference if they are such. Otherwise, I have little else to say on this one that I can't just show instead.
Happy Reading!
The 35th Annual Hunger Games
A wide assortment of tributes had come and gone into the games, and a similarly colorful variety of them had come out of there alive. There were tall kids, short kids, rich kids, poor kids—but one of the primary trends that the games seemed to set was that there were only a very few victors that had won the games at 15—and none younger than that had ever gotten out of there alive thus far.
Thus, it was considerably surprising when tiny little Leto Irizari clawed her way to the District 2 stage, given that she was not only 14 years old, but was a 14-year-old that had made it to the stage over all sorts of other bigger, stronger girls. Her diminutive frame that didn't even stand at 5 feet was something that the rest of Panem would not see again that year. Even the scrawniest kids from District 12 that year were at least 5'1".
The career pack for the 35th Annual Hunger Games was ruthless and powerful. Districts 1 and 2 recruited the strapping tributes from District 4, and were impressed enough by the wiles and brains of District 3 that both of them managed to make it into the pack as well. Leto was never fully removed from the alliance, but she was ridiculed and underestimated due to her small size.
They stopped laughing when she was the only tribute to score a perfect 12 in training that year.
While some of them attempted to make amends with the tiny girl, she shook them off.
"There was a time when I might have reconsidered," Leto warned, "but you all seemed to rather burn that bridge rather than embrace me. Watch your backs in the arena."
Leto had no more idea of what the arena was than anyone else, but she hoped that it would be something that involved stealth.
"It'd be a right shame for a career tribute—one that scored so high, no less—to die in the bloodbath, kid," Rakna, the girl from District 1, remarked. "Are you sure you don't want to knock heads in with us?"
"I did," Leto was clearly rather offended by how she had been treated during the days of training. "But none of you wanted me till you saw my score. I'm just granting those wishes."
"Opinions change as new information is revealed," Mihile reasoned. That District 4 boy had scored an 11, and so would also be a valid threat.
"But some facts remain constant," Leto countered, "such as only one victor crawling out of that arena alive. I'd hate to take 8th place after our alliance sweeps the rest of the field."
The arena that year was rather intriguing. At first glance, it appeared to be a forest, but looking at it again revealed that it was a fairly barren wilderness. However, the lack of food at the cornucopia was an indicator that such things would need to be found in the forest.
Leto offed two tributes (a girl from '7 and a boy from '10) before disappearing in the opposite direction of the career tributes, disappearing into the woods without hesitation. 8 more tributes died, but the 7-strong career pack was not among these. The boy from District 2, as well as both tributes from Districts 1, 3, and 4, were all on the prowl.
After the first day had ended, and the 2nd morning had begun, the tributes knew that they were in for a treat. Similar to a handful of Hunger Games before this one, the sun did not come back up. Instead, the moon, which seemed to be perpetually full—shone brightly down upon them, offering a dim illumination of the treacherous forest.
The next 5 days were a twisted game of hide and seek. Slowly all but the tributes from Districts, 2, 11, 3, 1, and 4 were eliminated, and even those from '11 eventually both fell at the careers' hands on the 7th day. However, one question lingered on all of their minds—where was Leto?
No one had seen the tiny District 2 girl since the bloodbath.
"You made a mistake, Leto!" the boy from District 1 called out in the forest. "now that 7-on-1 thing is really happening!"
All this did, however, was attract Wolf-mutts, which the careers were luckily able to fend off. Leto was safely nestled in the trees, content in terms of hunger and thirst, and was simply waiting for the opportune moment to strike.
The night was her element, and she moved in the darkness almost as proficiently as she did in the light. After her performance in the bloodbath, she had been sponsored some of the night-vision goggles that were commonly used in Districts like 9 and 11 that worked long hours into the evenings.
Perhaps to help the tributes find each other in the dark, there was a certain aura to the light that shone down on them that made their eyes 'reflect' it, similar to a cat's.
This was what the career pack saw in the trees one night, accompanied by a rather odd verse.
There's a whisper in the willows,
And perhaps it might be you?
I think tonight you're going to meet
The girl from District 2…
A second later, Leto jumped right into the middle of the pack, swiping with her knife before scampering back off into the darkness. They knew where she was, and what she was doing. The game was on.
Day 8 drew to a close, and as the careers were settling in for the night, they made the grave mistake of assuming that Leto had done the same. They heard a whisper, and that quaint verse again, except with a particularly obvious and ominous modification made to it:
There's a whisper in the willows,
And it sounds like lots of fun.
I think tonight I'm going to kill
The boy from District 1…
No sooner had she said this when Rakna heard a short gasp, and found a throwing knife lodged in her partner's throat. She instantly pulled out her bow and shot at the trees, but to no avail. Leto had disappeared once again.
"she's using the trees." Rakna warned, "we need to keep watch."
But each day, Leto remained skillfully elusive, appearing sometime during the day before the anthem, whispering her verse, and striking whatever tribute she targeted. The wind and ambience of the trees made it extremely difficult to track her voice and location, other than that she was somewhere in the trees. On day 9, she targeted the girl from District 4, and then the boy from District 2 the following day. Days 11 and 12 saw the deaths of the District 3 pair, one by one, and on day 13, Rakna was killed.
It was down to Mihile and Leto. They began migrating to a distinct part of the forest where they knew they could have a final battle. Leto was not sure her stealth would work against him, and so instead, she played on his fears, singing an ominous verse about his impending death over and over, watching (with her night-vision glasses) the fear starting to form inside of him.
She struck a few seconds later, but was not quick enough to make a clean kill, and so she jumped from her tree to initiate melee combat. While Mihile landed several nasty hits on Leto, the tiny girl proved her superiority with her blinding speed, and soon the District 4 boy was lying lacerated in a pool of his own blood, defeated. Leto was now the 7th victor from District 2, and the 35th victor of the Hunger Games.
While she seemed fairly stable, the little 14-year-old had proven to be ruthless, and so was rather insensitive to most other emotions after her games. She did later admit that she had 'written' all 12 verses to her little tune, in case she had needed to scare tributes from the other districts. Whatever the case, Leto's manipulation of fear and stealth, combined with her swift, ruthless, and efficient method of assassin-style murdering had earned her a nickname: The Terror of the 35th Hunger Games.
The games had given birth to this legend—not only for how scary Leto had been in the games with her kills, but she had also made a name for herself—as the youngest victor to ever win the games.
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)
21HG: Kada Lahka (#4, District 2)
22HG: Gleam DiFronzo (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ivette Coronado (#3, District 5)
24HG: Olivia Thurman (#1, District 9)
25HG: Laurel Fox (#1, District 12)
26HG: Daron Armstrong (#5, District 2)
27HG: Cobalt Evans (#5, District 1)
28HG: Lyme Golding (#6, District 2)
29HG: Ash LosDias (#3, District 7)
30HG: Challis Worth (#2, District 8)
31HG: Beetee Latier (#3, District 3)
32HG: Fletch Crossley (#4, District 5)
33HG: Seeder Howell (#3, District 11)
34HG: Price Emerson (#6, District 1)
35HG: Leto Irizari (#7, District 2)