AUTHOR'S NOTES: I had a lot of fun with this chapter. The character in question also draws a lot of mystery, and so perhaps I might get them a bit more involved in the rest of my established universe. No new canon victors just yet, although Cecelia and Enobaria are not far off. There's a regular update schedule this week, although next week near the end of the month might be slightly erratic. I'll keep updates on my profile. In the meantime, thanks for all the support, and I'm glad the story is being enjoyed.
Happy Reading!

The 56th Annual Hunger Games

Even decades after the fact no one was entirely sure what was so endearing and memorable about the "Golden Age" of the Hunger Games, but at the same time, the Gamemakers that ran the show for the 56th Annual Hunger Games did not want to be remembered as the ones living in the shadows of their predecessors, and so they'd do what they could to keep the show going.

Designing an arena was tricky work. Some of them were easier to build foundations for, since all it took was finding landscape that matched the idea. Others were trickier because of some of the gimmicks the Gamemakers used. Either way, all land used in an arena was carefully engineered to be alterable and for them to be able to spawn mutts at any given time and any given place. This year they felt pretty satisfied with what they had come up with, and knew that it would necessitate a good deal of exploration when the time came. They just hoped that they would have tributes from the right walks to make the best use of this year's arena.

As the Reapings concluded, it seemed that the Gamemakers would get their wish after all. District 1's Inigo Starlight and Zoroka Chandaki wowed the crowds both because of their strength and dexterity, but also because of their good looks. Inigo was positively dashing, while Zoroka's beauty was more rugged and wild. She was a woman of few words, but her triumphant smile was a rather pleasing sight. Her squat, athletic build was more like something out of District 2, although District 2's Brady Dashner and Fox Colorado were taller and thus looked more intimidating. The most interesting thing about Zoroka to the Capitol anyhow was that very few records of her existence could be found. They found enough information on her family to know who she was, but short of that, it was almost as if she was born and then had vanished for 18 years. Whatever the case, she was fast and powerful, and would definitely leave an impact on the games this year.

One of the more unusual alliances this year was District 6 and District 7. Coming from starkly contrasting districts made them unlikely allies, but the uncanny skill with traps and gadgets made the District 6 pair formidable opponents that could augment the defensive and offensive prowess of their District 7 brethren. Even the Capitol knew this alliance had potential after 8s and 9s appeared next to their names on the night before the games.

Districts 1, 2, 3, and 5 also showed similar potential, with all of them scoring between 8 and 11 except Zoroka, who led the pack with a 12. The 7s that District 4's tributes both scored couldn't have been too detrimental to them either, provided they could survive the looming bloodbath that would claim many lives the following morning.

Said bloodbath wound up claiming 10 lives, one of which was from District 4's female tribute. No one beyond District 7 survived except a single District 11 girl named Vivian, who snatched a pair of sais before disappearing southward into an imposing cornfield. The rest of the tributes began to search the arena to see what awaited them. Barring Zoroka, the career pack remained at the cornucopia to take advantage of the crates of food and supplies that were there. The District 1 girl instead raced into the wilderness to find other tributes and to scout out the landscape.

After three days, she had toured almost the entire thing: the cornfield to the south that concealed Vivian covered most of the southern acreage of the arena, while to the east was a light forest and a lake. Heading north led to denser forests in the northeast, while the north central area became mountainous. Zoroka evaded tracker-jackers in the woods and wolves on the mountains. She was also fairly certain that she had located where the District 7 pair was hiding, but left them alone for now. Their time would come, and she'd be ready. Being sponsored a pair of metallic gauntlets didn't hurt either.

She slew the District 4 boy and the District 3 pair as she moved westward, where the mountainous terrain became flatter and more akin to a desert. As she finished her rounds after three days, she ventured into the cornfield, carefully zigzagging around to prevent her movement from being too predictable. Vivian would likely attack her on sight (probably in self-defense, since, while Zoroka was shorter, she was built as solid as the laborers from District 11, and had shown to be much faster than most tributes that size), and so Zoroka had to make sure she was fast enough to evade capture.

She waited until evening before making her move, and upon making sure that there were no weapons in reach before gently waking Vivian up. Naturally the girl jumped, but Zoroka calmed her down, and proposed an alliance. She aimed to backstab the other careers shortly after taking out the tributes from District 6 and District 7.

Over the next few days, a war was waged between the District 6/District 7 alliance and the career pack, with Vivian deliberately staying out of the way. Sometime during this scuffle, the District 5 pair were wiped out, and to Zoroka, this was enough of an indicator that the time to attack was now. She raced in, zigzagging around rocks and trees as well as patches of ground that she knew were rigged up with traps, and began assailing the District 7 pair, who were the front lines. Their District 6 comrades stood behind them launching projectiles of some sort, but Zoroka was at the top of her speed game that day, and so she went right in, swinging her metal-clad fists against these tributes, severely injuring them. Her comrades took advantage of the opportunity and laid waste to them with ease. For the time being, they made camp here. Zoroka scouted the area again in hopes of finding Vivian, and also noticed that her own alliance was extremely lucky. Traps riddled the area, and Zoroka's own gamble had been the only reason they had not walked right into one. None of the others seemed to notice though—not even Vivian a couple nights later when she walked into one. Of course, her death and the cannon that followed suddenly had the other careers on edge, and Zoroka explained what was going on.

"we're surrounded by traps except for three small areas," she explained, since by this point their original entrance had been forgotten, "and with Vivian's death, I don't want to be the first to die now that we turn on each other."
The others gave her a suspicious look.

"Luckily, I would rather fight fairly than let you fall into traps, so the places that aren't rigged are mostly on this side apart for this one…" she added.

Zoroka bounded over a rigged area, her speed barely missing the trap as it sliced through the air, cutting off a few stray strands of her hair. The careers followed her, only to fall victim to the traps, nearly giving the District 6 pair a few post-mortem kills. However, it weakened them to the point where Zoroka knew she had the game in the bag.

"I lied," was all she felt like she needed to say before she used a combination of her metallic gloves and her own swords to take down her three former allies. With three final shots from the cannons, Zoroka had been crowned the 9th victor from District 1, and the 56th victor of the Hunger Games.

The most intriguing aspect about Zoroka Chandaki was not so much the way she looked or the vicious way she fought in the arena, but more the notion of who she was as a person, and even the origins of her very existence. Were it not for records of the Chandakis having a daughter, as well as the victory in the 56th Hunger Games, there was very little other evidence that Zoroka existed. Her own memories of her first 18 years were fairly hazy as well, and she seldom spoke of it either. There was nothing necessarily unusual about her (she was definitely only human; and her skills had come from vigorous training and hard work) except the mystery that surrounded the origins of a victor who all people could really say about her was that she was born in District 1. What was clear, however, was that she was smart and cunning, and a prized fighter that most people would quite enjoy seeing again…

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)
44HG: Sagittaria Svenja (#4, District 11)
45HG: Dezna Meraxa (#4, District 6)
46HG: Alice DeSiete (#3, District 8)
47HG: Aurum Zianja (#8, District 1)
48HG: Layla Aranai (#9, District 2)
49HG: Chip Sangster (#5, District 3)
50HG: Haymitch Abernathy (#2, District 12)
51HG: Derrick James (#7, District 5)
52HG: Chaff Mitchell (#5, District 11)
53HG: Brutus Gunn (#10, District 2)
54HG: Tiffany Waxler (#2, District 10)
55HG: Zak Dreggite (#4, District 4)
56HG: Zoroka Chandaki (#9, District 1)