Chapter 9:
Katniss' eyes fluttered open after a good night's sleep. She yawned and kissed Clove on the cheek. The young huntress thought Clove looked adorable while sleeping, she slept on her side with her arms around her chest protectively and her lips slightly open.
"Katniss." Clove muttered in her sleep, she grinned sheepishly and rolled over.
Katniss looked around the cave and saw no sign of Peeta. This isn't right, he should be back by now.
She got up and walked to the mouth of the cave, the smell of moist earth and pine hit her like a soft breeze. Katniss briefly thought back to her home and the day of the Reaping. She had gone to the woods surrounding district 12 to clear her head.
She had met Gale, her best friend and they mocked the Capitol's pompous attitude quite freely as the woods were the only place she had felt completely safe. They ate soft warm bread fresh from the bakery as they did so. Katniss frowned as she wondered if she would ever get to spend time with Gale again.
"Hey." Clove said sleepily. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah..." Katniss turned around to face Clove. "Peeta isn't back yet. We need to find him."
Clove groaned and turned on her back. "Really? Can't you just come back to bed? I don't want to go looking for dough boy, he's probably dead anyway." The career said dismissively.
"Dough boy?" Katniss chuckled. "Seriously Clove? And as enticing as that deal is, I'll have to decline." Clove mumbled to herself in mock annoyance then crawled out of the sleeping bag. "Where could he be?" She asked.
"Well, we should start where him and I last saw each other. Let's go knife girl." Clove walked next to Katniss and offered her arm, like she expected them to go skipping off into the woods together. "My lady."
"Thank you kind sir." And inclined her head.
They had been searching the area for some time and their search so far had been unproductive. "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with T." Clove said as she walked alongside Katniss.
"Tree?"
"Damn, you are good at this."
"Trees are the only thing around here Clove, what else is there?"
"Well there are clouds and bushes and other stuff." Clove glanced around thoughtfully.
Katniss glanced down at their hands intertwined loosely and smiled. "So why are we doing this again?" Clove asked.
"To see if Peeta's okay."
"No I mean why are we doing this? Peeta is an ass and he is head over heels in love with you. That's why he's my nemesis." Clove said matter of factly.
Katniss scoffed. "I think it's all an act, he's way too nice around me."
"And I'm not? You don't like my gift of lizards?" Clove asked innocently.
"No no, your lizards are lovely. What I'm saying is Peeta's melodramatic and you're just right."
"Stop, you're making me blush." Clove swiped at Katniss playfully.
"You didn't answer my question." Clove said seriously.
Katniss thought for a moment and Clove waited patiently. "I guess... I want to help Peeta because I feel like I owe him. He saved me."
"I really don't feel this urge to risk my beautiful girfriend's life to save him in return." Clove stated.
Katniss was about to respond when she felt a hand grip her foot. "Aah! A ghost!" Clove exclaimed and kicked the hand away.
"Oww!" It complained.
"It can talk!" Katniss stopped Clove from beating it with her fists by holding her shoulders.
"Wait Clove, that's Peeta!" Clove relaxed and backed off. "Oh, yeah of course. That makes sense I guess." Clove shuffled her weight between two legs uncomfortably.
The muddy figure brought his hands down from the defensive position they were in around his face and said: "Thanks Katniss."
"Peeta, what the hell happened to you? You look like you've literally been dragged though a field of feces."
"Funny story." He laughed nervously. "I was looking for berries as you said and long story short, I got bitten by a snake."
Katniss put her hand to her head and held in her rant about being aware of surroundings and asked: "Where did it bite you and what did it look like?"
Peeta held up his arm and Katniss saw the red, blistering mass that was his forearm. "What the hell? This isn't like any snake bite I've ever seen and my mother is a healer. It must be genetically engineered like the Tracker Jackers."
"What did the snake look like?"
"I can't remember it's all fuzzy." He said weakly. "It's in my bag though."
"What?!" Is it dead?" Katniss couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could he be so stupid?
"I think so, I beat it. I think so." His words were slurred.
"Dough boy, are you feeling alright?"
"I think so."
Clove looked at Katniss worriedly. "Peeta? What day is it?" Katniss asked.
His eyes were cloudy. "I... Think so."
For once, Katniss was lost for words. "We need to keep him warm and safe until we know how to cure him." Clove said.
Clove had once again amazed Katniss with a display of brute strength by picking Peeta up and carrying him as if he were a sack of flour and Katniss was listening out for anyone nearby with her bow in hand.
Clove had decided it was best to leave Peeta's bag (with the possibly alive snake in it) where they found him, not wanting to risk getting as bad as Peeta was currently.
They decided to take a small detour to the nearest lake to get the worst of the muck off of Peeta, Katniss then realised that he too had a number of Tracker Jacker stings on his body. It seemed that only Rue and Clove had gotten far enough away to be reasonably unharmed. He also had his fair share of cuts and scrapes as if he had fallen over into a bush of thorns.
"How could anybody get this dirty?" Clove asked no one in particular as she tore off fabric from Peeta's trouser leg to make a makeshift rag to wash his face and arms.
"We're going to have to roll him in the lake." Katniss said. But as soon as they moved Peeta he screamed out in agony. They stopped and thought for a moment.
"Katniss..." Peeta coughed weakly. "I love you." He tried to feebly grasp her hand.
"Peeta just relax, you're delirious."
Clove froze. She turned her head to the forest. "We need to move. Now." Clove put Peeta over her shoulder and ran as fast as she could with Katniss close behind.
Together, they both managed to get Peeta into the sleeping bag and zipped up to the chin to stop him from moving. He was shivering and mumbling incoherently and his eyes where still glazed over.
"What do we do now?" Katniss asked. "He's going to die without medical help."
The Capitol theme tune started and Claudius Templesmith's voice boomed over the arena as if to answer Katniss' question.
"Greetings tributes! You have all fought long and hard but you are now scarce in number. To make things a little more interesting, there will be a feast at dawn at the Cornucopia. There will be something there that each one of you desperately needs. I hope to see you all there."
"Oh and there has been a change in rules." He said as if suddenly remembering.
Katniss and Clove shared a look of confusion. There weren't any rules in the arena besides not stepping off the metal plate too early and not resorting to cannibalism.
"Two tributes can win the games, providing two people survive. Now that has been said, may the odds be ever in your favour!" His voice cut off and the arena was silent again.
Clove was overjoyed at this sudden news that she and Katniss could survive. She found herself grinning from ear to ear as she sat and watched Katniss from a small distance away.
"So how many tributes are left?" Katniss asked.
"There's Cato, Marvel, Thresh, you, me and dough boy I think." Clove counted on her fingers.
"What happened to Foxface? I kinda wanted to get revenge for her stealing my knives." Clove said aggressively.
Katniss was cooking the rabbit Clove had caught over a fire. There were six people left and Katniss was in the biggest group, so she she thought it was safe enough to build a fire.
"She won't bother us anymore." Katniss said bluntly.
Clove's smile decomposed. "Whoa, wait a minute! Did you kill her?" Katniss stilled and watched the flames lick at the cooking rabbit.
Clove stood and walked over to Katniss. She wouldn't meet her eyes. "Hey..." Clove said softly, touching Katniss' shoulder.
"I was so angry, she killed Rue. She was going to kill me, I didn't want to-" Katniss' voice was cracking. Clove hugged Katniss.
"It wasn't your fault, she was going to kill you, you just defended yourself."
"No." Katniss said. "You don't understand. I didn't kill her, I shot her in the eye and left her for dead while she begged me to kill her... I walked away."
Katniss began to cry tears she didn't know she was holding in. "I'm a monster."
"Don't ever say that. You're not a monster, President Snow is. He's the one that's making us do this in the first place." Clove said fiercely.
Katniss sniffled. "I was told that killing a person was just like killing an animal, that's not true at all."
"It gets easier. You'll just have to trust me." Clove whispered into Katniss' hair.
Clove comforted Katniss until she had calmed down noticeably, simply by holding her and whispering soothing things.
"Thank you. I don't know what I would do without you Clove." Katniss kissed Clove softly and her hands travelled down Clove's body. Her hands were on the waistband of Clove's trousers when the kiss deepened and Katniss put her tongue in Clove's mouth.
Clove moaned as Katniss' hands trailed down her body like a blaze of fire, making her feel hot and so very alive. Clove stopped Katniss' hands from going any further by taking them in her own and braking away from the kiss.
"I don't want you like this." Clove said breathlessly.
She frowned. "But I want you." Katniss responded.
"Now's not the time. I want our first time to be special and not rushed like it would be in here. We'll win first and then we'll see Katniss." She smiled shyly.
Clove sniffed. "I think dinner's burning."
Katniss looked alarmed as she ran over to the spit where the rabbit was roasting. "It's okay, it'll just be a little crispy."
"Fine by me Fire Girl."
After Clove and Katniss had eaten their dinner and forced Peeta to eat his, they discussed their plan for the morning. Clove had decided that Katniss' lap made an excellent pillow and lay there while Katniss stroked her dark curls.
"It's dark outside so we have to come up with some ideas, sleep in shifts and then leave just before sunrise." Katniss said.
"We obviously need to be careful though, everyone's gonna be there. Feasts in past games were massacres. Maybe it would be best if we avoided it altogether." Clove suggested.
Katniss scoffed. "Do you really think the Gamemakers are just going to let us sit this one out? They'll force us to get there if we don't go willingly."
Clove sighed. "You're right Katniss. Why'd you have to be so damn smart?"
Clove glanced over to the sleeping bag with Peeta cocooned within. Peeta was chalk white and shaking to the point where his body was convulsing. His lips were dry and he rarely opened his eyes, most of the time he slept.
Katniss knew that soon the fever would burn him out, it would be a very unpleasant death and though none had said it, they all knew. Peeta was dying.
"Lover Boy's not doing so good either. I'd bet there's some anti-venom in your pack and maybe some more arrows or something."
Packs at the feast were normally for tributes from the same district. So Peeta and Katniss both would have pack number 12.
"Should we try to get your pack Clove?" Katniss asked.
"No, I don't think it would be worth it. Cato would kill me before I even got the damn thing if he knew I was after it. Let's just go for yours and get out of there." Clove said resolutely.
"Okay, sounds good. What about our tactics?"
"We go there, get the backpack, avoid getting killed and come back. What else is there to do? If something goes wrong we'll just improvise." Clove shrugged.
"I guess plans never work out the way you want them to anyway." Katniss said.
Katniss sighed wearily. "You should get some sleep. I'll wake you up in a little while."
"Okay Fire Girl. You're the boss." Clove quite happily snuggled into Katniss' legs and soon after, she was fast asleep.
Katniss felt dread and fear bubble up inside her. Whatever was going to happen in a few hours, Katniss knew it wasn't going to be fun. But despite herself, she looked at Clove and she knew, she couldn't possibly be in better company.