Chapter 8:
Peeta stirred. He sat up stiffly and looked around the cave as if slightly dazed. Clove noticed his awakening and handed him a bottle.
"Drink up Lover Boy, you've been out for a while." She said nonchalantly. The girl seemed to be polishing her knife collection in a way that said: 'I won't hesitate to kill you if you give me a reason.'
"Where – where's Katniss?" He said with a slight lisp. He must have cracked his skull worse than I thought. Clove resisted the sudden urge to smile.
"She went to check her snares." The knife girl said simply.
"And Katniss left you here with me?" Peeta said disbelievingly. He eyed the bottle suspiciously as if he could tell if it was safe to drink.
Clove sighed. "If I wanted to kill you I would have stabbed you when we first met. I've had plenty of chances to kill you while you were sleeping you know."
"Katniss also wanted to make sure you didn't wake up with no one around and start panicking. It's better than what I would've done in her position."
"And what do you mean by that?" Peeta said challengingly.
"No offence, but what use are you? You can lift heavy stuff but so what? I'm sure that would be useful when fighting the careers." She said mordaciously.
"I'm diplomatic and besides, Katniss loves me."
Clove burst out laughing, much to Peeta's surprise and shock. "Katniss loves you does she? Last I checked she loved me."
"You're lying!"
"She was the one who came to me every night before the arena, she told me all of her plans, her talents and her fears. She trusts me."
"She trusts me too! I saved her life back in district 12, did she tell you that? She was starving and I gave her enough food to get by. It's not nice in 12 compared to 2 where I'm sure you live like Kings and Queens." Peeta said bitterly.
Clove raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Oh really? You do seem to be the expert at pretty much everything don't you? In district 2 we are well looked after, fed and trained but it's all part of a bigger picture. We are all bred to kill or die trying, it's a sickening cycle and I would have no part of it if I had the choice."
"I have no family or friends and I would love to live in somewhere like twelve, you seem so close there, like you'd know everyone by their first name. Like one big family." Clove said softly.
Peeta scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Exactly my point, you don't know anything about all the labour we all need to go through simply to survive."
"Yes, that's what I'm saying, I don't know. But I would love to find out." Clove said honestly.
"Even if two people managed to live through the Hunger Games, what makes you think Katniss would ever choose someone like you?" Peeta emphasised the last bit as if Clove were a piece of gum on his shoe and nothing more than a nuisance.
Clove growled. "Just for the record dough boy, I saved your ass when the mines went off. I carried you here rather than leaving you to the mercy of the careers. You're welcome by the way." Clove said sarcastically.
"Whatever." He said dismissively and drank from the bottle.
I should have left him. It would be so much easier.
Katniss returned to the cave to find both Clove and Peeta awake but very quiet, quite far away from one another as if scorning each other from a distance. "Hey, good to see you both are so energetic today."
They both looked pleased to see Katniss come back safe. Clove stood and traced her fingers down Katniss' back and purred into her ear.
"Clove!" Katniss said blushing. "We aren't alone." Katniss grinned.
"We've never been alone since we entered the arena Katniss, why so modest now?" She asked. Katniss shrugged. She had a fair point.
"So... Katniss, did you get any food?" Peeta inquired.
Katniss closed her eyes and took a calming breath. "No Peeta, the snares were empty. We're going to have to go out and hunt for food if we want to eat tonight." Clove could sense the slight annoyance in Katniss' tone and looked at Peeta tauntingly.
"That's okay Katniss." Clove hugged Katniss and looked at Peeta while doing this. She mouthed: "She's mine." As Katniss' back was turned Peeta gave Clove the one finger salute.
Katniss broke away from Clove after a minute or so. "Right, so are we ready to go?"
"You bet." Peeta said.
"Absolutely." Clove replied.
Katniss stepped over a fallen oak branch and listened. Not too far away she heard the mockingjay's call echo through the woods.
Katniss saw a white rabbit hop along and nibble on some leaves, it's ears perked up as it was checking for predators. The rabbit hadn't seen Katniss yet. Although the rabbit wouldn't be enough to feed the three of them, it would be a good start. She drew her arrow and took her aim.
A branch snapped.
The rabbit looked up with its beady eyes, saw its pursuing huntress and hopped off into the brush. Katniss breathed out and brought down her bow.
Peeta walked over to Katniss so loudly that she thought all the wildlife in the surrounding space may well have run off.
"Peeta!" Katniss hissed. "Can't you be any more quiet? You're scaring away the game!"
"I'm trying Katniss!" He said like a sad puppy. "I haven't had as much practise as you remember? What else can I do?" He pouted.
"I don't know, pick some berries or something. They can't run away in fear, so you should be okay."
"Right, got it." He grinned at Katniss and she could hear him run off.
Katniss sighed. "I hope Clove is having more luck on her end." She went to the pond from earlier to refill their bottles of water and managed to get a duck and a squirrel.
She looked up into the sky and saw the sun was beginning to set and thick grey storm clouds were covering the sky. She shivered against the bitter cold air. Katniss decided it was time to go back to the cave and cook some of the game she had hunted.
She returned to the cave to find Clove huddled up in the sleeping bag. When she saw Katniss, her eyes brightened.
"How did it go huntress?" She said with a grin.
"It was alright I guess, I got a squirrel and a duck near the pond but I could've done better if Peeta could step a little lighter." Katniss said a little distastefully.
"How about you?" She asked.
"Well I got a couple of lizards and a terrified looking rabbit. It was hopping along as if his life depended on it." Clove said. "Poor thing." She shook her head.
Katniss snickered. "Wait a minute, you have no problems killing a person but the big bad career doesn't like killing little bunny rabbits?"
Clove frowned. "Well sure. Bunnies are so cute and fuzzy and adorable. Kinda like you Fire Girl."
"Smooth Clove, very smooth. You must be a hit with the ladies back home." Katniss sat down next to Clove.
"Why so curious? Are you jealous?" Clove's voice had dropped an octave so it was lower and huskier.
"Oh definitely." Katniss nodded. She kissed Clove on the cheek and rested her head on Clove's shoulder.
Clove put her arm around Katniss and relaxed so their heads were just touching. "I don't know what it is about you Clove, but I feel safe when I'm with you, like nothing could hurt me."
"I'm so happy to hear you say that." Clove said softly. "You make me feel like I'm not alone anymore."
Clove stopped. "Peeta said that he saved you back in district 12. Is that true?"
"Yes it is. He gave me some burnt bread that I brought back home so my sister and I could eat. My father had just died in a mining accident and my mother had shut us both out. I had to provide for both of us. I managed to sell the milk from Prim's goat but that wasn't enough, that's when I started hunting."
"That sounds horrible Katniss. You must be so strong to be able to do get though something like that." Clove sounded in awe of Katniss.
"What I'm afraid of is that if I die, my mother will shut out Prim and she won't be able to feed herself. Dying of starvation is very common in district 12. I promised her I would win so she wouldn't have to worry about that, she could just focus on being a kid." Katniss said reverently.
The anthem started and silence fell across the arena. Katniss closed her eyes, she didn't want to see Rue up there, she couldn't.
"Katniss." Clove murmured, stoking her hair gently. "It's over."
Katniss opened her eyes and had astute awareness of her surroundings. "Where the hell is Peeta?" Katniss asked.
Clove shrugged. "I thought he was with you." She said candidly.
"I told him to go get berries." Katniss sighed irritably. "He's probably eaten a bad berry, maybe he's paralysed."
"Well we know he's not dead, his picture hasn't come up yet. I'm sure he'll be fine until the morning, you saw how good he was at camouflage." Clove insisted. "He's probably out there having the time of his life."
"Yeah, in the bitter cold and I'm pretty sure it's raining outside."
Don't forget the careers either." Clove added.
Clove started giggling. "It was a simple task you gave him, how could he mess that up?"
"I don't know. I feel bad that we're nice and warm with lots of food and he's... Somewhere out there."
"Like I said, I'm sure he's fine. Now to the important bit." Clove rummaged around in her pack and brought out a roasted lizard on a stick.
"Lizard?" She asked.
"You really do know how to make a lady feel special, you know that Clove?"
"I try."
Thunder boomed outside the cave and rain fell in buckets. Peeta was trudging through the thick mud that clung to his boots like tar. His hair stuck to his face as he tried to make sense of where he was. He shivered violently and coughed. Thankfully, in all the noise the storm was making, Peeta was barely audible to anyone else around him.
Earlier, Peeta was looking for berries like Katniss instructed when he got to thinking. There must be some way I can impress her.
Peeta thought that if he could bring home something to eat, Katniss would be grateful and would see he had some uses. So for the day, he had attempted to catch various forms of wildlife and failed every time.
But Peeta was stubborn, he wasn't going to give up without some form of trophy. He sat near a lake and waited for something to come along, unluckily for Peeta, he didn't see the snake.
It bit him and he felt a sharp pain in his arm, he yelped and beat the snake with a rock until it was dead. The wound was red and swollen.
"Oh great."He said after looking at the bite. At least I have a prize.
He put the snake corpse in his bag with his berries he had collected and thought he had got away lucky.
When he stood, he realised how grey and threatening the sky was and it started pouring down soon after that. He started to move, but felt drowsy, he stumbled over and climbed to his feet, suddenly unsteady.
Not good. Not good. Need to find Katniss, she'll know what to do.
That brings us to now where he was struggling desperately to get back to the cave. "K-Katniss." He mumbled.
He tripped on a root and tumbled down a hill. Under the cover of what looked like a massive tree, Peeta was saved from the unrelenting onslaught of the rain. Peeta was too tired to get up again and although where he lay was wet from the mud, it wasn't as bad as the storm. His eyes fluttered shut and his last thought was Katniss.