AUTHOR'S NOTE: Enter Blight, Johanna's partner in the Quarter Quell during Catching Fire. He "might not have been much" according to her, but he was still apparently 'something' enough to be a victor. Moreover, I had his victory placed in my self-proclaimed "Golden Age", and as such, it's one of the more immersive chapters as well. So while sure, we all know Blight's gonna win the moment we see her name (even if I didn't have this A/N), that doesn't mean he just waltzed to victory. As for what DID happen... you'll just have to find out.
Update schedule for the next few is still every Monday (or late Sunday night, depending on timezones, but I'm in the western US) or so. Feedback is always welcome as usual, be it through review or PM.
Happy Reading!
The 43rd Annual Hunger Games
One of the other tricks that the Capitol Gamemakers had to remember is that tributes, especially from districts known for producing cunning or observant tributes, such as Districts 3, 2, 1, or 5, learned from things the Capitol did, and watched for trends in the games. The career tributes that trained for these games (this group also often included District 4) always tried to find patterns, and many of them studied other tributes in Reaping reruns to see what they were up against.
Of course, just as the tributes changed every year and grew smarter and stronger, so then did the Gamemakers as they rolled out the designs for the 43rd Annual Hunger Games. The arena did not always need dynamic hazards to be interesting: the treacherous, rocky cliffs and mountainous terrain of the previous year had done just fine at being a hostile and dangerous environment. For this year, it was a matter of perfecting that delicate balance between natural dangers and the tributes in question.
The reapings came and went this year in nine districts. District 1 produced a forebodingly strong pair of tributes, while District 2's Casimir and Romula promised to tear up the arena. District 3 did not produce volunteers, but the tribute pair that were chosen from the electronic lottery certainly seemed analytical of everything around them, including each other.
In the training center, the pair from District 3 eyed the other tributes suspiciously, causing the others to become suspicious of them in return. Eyeing the careers in turn were Hana Dusk and Blight McKay from District 7. While they were cool and analytical, they also boasted formidable physical strength given their background as District 7 lumberjacks. While they had not allied with each other formally, Hana and Blight didn't exactly plan on trying to kill each other this early. Unsurprisingly, they were found swinging or throwing axes almost the entire time, for that was what they excelled in. Blight picked up a war hammer a few times, swinging it like a sledgehammer, and finding the results to his liking.
His skill paid off in terms of training scores, with his partner Hana receiving an 8 for her training score, and Blight himself scoring a 10. The tributes from District 3 scored moderately (around 7 and 8), while their friends from District 4 scored slightly higher. The careers scored 9s and 10s, with the District 1 pair scoring 9s, and Casimir and Romula scoring 9s. There were no perfect scores this year; no 12s, and even no 11s, but the spread was also a lot lower—this was one of the few years that no one, not even the smallest tributes from District 12 or District 9, scored below a 5. A tight spread of scores meant either a batch of inferior tributes, or boys and girls so close in skill that it was hard to actually rank them.
Unlike the last couple of years, the career pack from District 1 and District 2 decided to become very tightly knit, not wanting incidents like Niles, Marcelina, or even Miriam to happen again. They wanted unity and camaraderie between them, so that they, trained tributes who spent years of their lives dedicated to excelling at these games, wouldn't get beaten by some kid whose only real reason for being there was getting their name pulled out of a glass bowl or displayed on a large screen.
The arena seemed fairly harmless at first: it was a dense forest jam-packed with large trees, barring the small meadow-like clearing where the golden cornucopia rested. The only thing unusual about it was the grey skies that loomed overhead. Some of the tributes suspected another eternal night. Some suspected fog, and others braced for the worst. At the moment though, most of the tributes focused on snatching up weapons or supplies and getting out of there. 8 tributes were killed in the bloodbath, but something unusual happened this year that had not really happened since the early days. Instead of the career pack seizing the supplies and weapons at the cornucopia, an alliance of tributes from Districts 9, 11, and 12 did. As such, 5 of the 6 of them survived the bloodbath, with the only casualty being the boy from District 9. The pair from District 8 disappeared eastward into the woods as well, and the others scattered. The career pack headed north, while Blight and Hana took off to the southwest.
That evening, it was clear what two of the largest hazards in the arena were: lightning, which was attracted to the frighteningly tall trees that covered all but the center of the entire arena, and red-eyed monkey mutts that had an almost humanoid shape to them. These savage mutts attacked tributes with impunity, but were not terribly hard to fight off. Hana used a pair of swords to devastating effect, while Blight swung away with a pair of handaxes. Thankfully for them, the lightning and thunder seemed far off, and so after slaying the red-eyed monkeys with minimal injuries on their own end, they decided to take their chances against the weather, and built a very low-lying shelter half in the ground. They managed to survive the night, and the 2nd morning kicked off, being just as dim and dreary as the first. It started to rain, although the canopy of trees kept most of the tributes dry. Unfortunately, for whatever reason (probably the Capitol at work again), the water made the trees conduct electricity even more so, posing a greater threat to the tributes.
The five tributes from '9, '11, and '12 remained in the shelter of the golden horn, waiting out the storm with their ample supplies. The career pack wandered eastward, closing in on the District 8 pair and killing off one of the kids from District 4 in the meantime. However, ultimately the hunt was slow, what with the heavy rains and the treacherous lightning. As such, it took a trick from the Gamemakers on day 5 to do the trick.
By this point, there were still 14 tributes remaining, meaning that this whole time, only two had died outside the bloodbath. While the rains had been reduced to a mere drizzle at this point, the periodic and somewhat sporadic lightning strikes continued, roasting trees in the areas they struck. Luckily for the tributes, none of them were under them just yet, although Romula was nearly hit by one that fell over. Fortunately for her, she only lost her sleeping bag instead of her life.
Late in the afternoon, however, a bolt of lightning struck the golden cornucopia, effectively roasting all four tributes that had been hiding inside. Little Sophie Howe (who was actually 17, but was a rather diminutive girl) from District 12 had been out trying to scout out the arena when it happened, and so she was suddenly the only member of her alliance that had survived.
While some in District 11 and District 12 thought that this was the Capitol's subtle way of silencing rebels or potential rebels, in truth, the only reason they had done it was because their "warning shots" had not worked, and the alliance apart from Sophie had not left the cornucopia at all—they had had no reason to, and did not assume that the dangerous lightning would strike them when there were so many tall trees surrounding them on all sides.
Oddly enough, little Sophie got sponsored some wire, and she knew exactly what to do with it. In an extremely risky maneuver, she began springing from tree to tree, her small, lithe form able to jump from the thick branches with relative ease. Like many District 12 tributes before her, she had gone into full-on saboteur mode. She attempted to get lightning to strike the trees right above the career camp, but they were onto her, and fled before it could happen. It did not stop her from throwing flash bombs at them from the trees, keeping them on their toes. None of them were small or swift enough to climb the trees the way she was, and so if they tried, Sophie could easily escape before they could catch her.
While all the others began scurrying around hunting for each other, Blight actually hunkered down and started reinforcing his shelter. His ingenuity and strength (shown against a few tributes, but mostly the red-eyed monkeys) had actually earned him a sponsor gift, where his mentor sent him a small shovel. It was built in such a way that it could almost double as an axe-type weapon due to the handle ending in a sharp metallic head, but it was also sent with the notion that electricity was probably his most dangerous non-tribute foe, and so with an easy way to move earth, he could ideally ground the lightning if it ever struck near or around him.
Hana was a bit skeptical of his whole strategy though, even if he had made enough room for her for the time being. She called him out on it.
"Are you just going to try and live here?" She tilted her head.
"I'm gonna let 'em come to me." Blight insisted, "if the Capitol tries to flush me out with mutts I'll fight for my life, and with other tributes I'll do the same."
"They'll still smoke you out," Hana frowned.
"I'll deal with that when the time comes," Blight quipped.
And that was exactly what he did. Blight wound up fending off mutts a few times after Hana left, and his shelter was built in such a way that it grounded any lightning strikes. Blight also spent his free time chopping the bases of some of the trees so that in the event that they fell over, they would fall away from his little semi-underground hut rather than on it. There were perks to being a lumberjack after all.
Ultimately, Blight went more than half a week completely unnoticed as he took his time and concealed his shelter, rigging it up with carefully placed traps and concealing it to help it blend in with the stormy environment more. Hana was not so fortunate, and she found her demise at Romula's hands on day 9, ultimately taking 7th place.
Day 10 had Blight emerging from his hovel, where he confronted one of the tributes from District 1, who was clearly hunting. Not wanting the boy to get too close to his own hideout, Blight pulled his arm backwards and threw a hatchet at his victim with stunning precision. It struck him in the back, severing his spinal column and killing him a few moments later.
Day 11 and Day 12 were plagued with such heavy rains that none of the 5 remaining tributes even moved. In truth, the Gamemakers were trying to condense the arena, and so when the 13th day rolled in, it was a lot smaller than people remembered it.
Sophie went out in a blaze of glory on this day. Leaping from one of the tallest trees she could find, armed with two grenades, she jumped down onto the career pack, killing off Casimir and the girl from District 1, and wounding Romula. It was not enough to kill her, and so naturally she retaliated by ending Sophie's life with her spear. Now it was just her and Blight contending for the crown, and she had a feeling that she'd have to come to him. She spent the remainder of her evening resting, watching as the faces of Sophie and her two remaining companions filled the sky.
"Looks like it's down to me and '7…" she mumbled to herself, "let the 43rd Hunger Games begin."
Incidentally, Blight was flushed out of his shelter by flooding, which was ironically one of the last things he expected to happen, but by this point, the games had been going on for 14 days and it was time for them to culminate in a finale. As such, it became a battle of lances and axes as Romula and Blight battled for victory—for survival.
"But don't you know?" Blight warned as he swung his axes to prevent becoming impaled, "lances beat swords; swords beat axes; and axes beat lances?"
"Then I best watch my step," Romula shook her head, twirling her spear to avoid getting her face cloven in two, "and hopefully my 9 years of training will pay off."
The two tributes continued battling it out in the rainy afternoon before Blight got the upper hand and struck his opponent down. He didn't necessarily regret it, but at the same time, he had developed a certain amount of respect for this girl who now lay dead at his feet as the final cannon rang out. Blight raised his axes skyward in triumph, before accepting his fate. He had just become the 4th victor from District 7, and the 43rd victor of the games overall.
Blight McKay was not really one to talk a whole lot, and this didn't change even after he was showered in the glory and fame that came with being a victor. He simply went back to doing what he always did, and mostly minded his own business, much like he did in the arena. District 7 might not have been a career district, but it produced strong and hardy fighters that knew their way around with an axe—and Blight would help ensure that that trend continued…
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)
36HG: Jackson Kjelle (#5, District 5)
37HG: Zerviah Hawke (#3, District 6)
38HG: Wiress Plummer (#4, District 3)
39HG: Nephi Lott (#3, District 4)
40HG: Miriam Luxio (#7, District 1)
41HG: Marcelina Kovac (#6, District 5)
42HG: Niles Lincoln (#8, District 2)
43HG: Blight McKay (#4, District 7)