Eleven

Katniss gulped down the water so quickly she almost choked, causing her to scold herself. She couldn't waste a drop of the water Haymitch had sent her, since she didn't know if she'd be back in the river anytime soon, or if the Careers were still there or had already had enough of chasing her. She looked to her right, where the little girl from 11, Rue, was sitting on a rock, giving her glances with those round, curious eyes. She was still keeping her distance from her, even though they had helped each other to take on those from the first districts.

"How long have I been sleeping?" Katniss asked. Her body was still weighing on her and her head was pounding, so she decided not to get up.

"Two days."

Katniss raised her eyebrows slightly. She thought it would've been a few hours or a day at the most, because now it seemed like daylight, but two whole days? No wonder she had had such long dreams, in which Prim, Gale, and even her mother appeared, smiling at her affectionately. They had been so real she would swear she had felt a slight caress on her cheek at some point. That must've been caused by the bites; either that or exhaustion was starting to take its toll on her.

"Do you want some water?," she asked the girl, handing her the bottle.

Rue shook her head.

"I've been drinking, there's a stream near," she explained, then got up and walked toward her, not seeming very sure of getting near. "I can heal that for you, if you want."

"How?"

Katniss recalled that her mother had some remedy for bites with some leaf, but no matter how much she thought about it, neither its name nor its appearance came to mind.

"I know a plant, I found it yesterday," she answered.

Then she sat down next to her and opened her backpack. Katniss wondered to herself how she had been able to catch something so large without getting hurt from the Cornucopia. Well, why was surprised, taking into account how she had stolen Cato's knife during the training? She let Rue wrap the leaves around her bites, while she couldn't stop thinking about her the day before, searching for something to help her, for no reason at all. After all, she appeared to not have any bites so she wasn't doing it for herself. She remembered Estee asking her how long they would stay together, when they should separate so they wouldn't end up killing each other. She couldn't do that to herself again, but the more she looked at Rue, the more she thought of Prim...

"Do you have any food?" The girl asked, somewhat shyly, when she finished. "I only have a few nuts and berries left."

Katniss smiled at her a little, to let her see she didn't mind her question.

"I don't have anything else, but we can hunt."

It was the least she could do for her, after she'd watched over her for two days and healed her on top of it. She had lost her damn bow because of that girl and she only had the knife and some wire she could reuse to make more traps.

"How do you know so much about plants, do you also work in your district? You don't go to school?"

Rue gave a little shrug.

"I go when I can. When the harvest comes everyone has to work."

For a moment, Katniss found it strange to hear her talk about her life. She didn't know anything about what they did in the other districts, and surely the others didn't know anything about 12 either. Movements between districts were very rare, and she was sure that only the victors and some people with important jobs could travel, and even they needed special permissions. That suited the Capitol very well, having them all separated and blinded to the realities of their other compatriots.

"Do you work in the mines?"

"No, but my father did," she answered simply, because it was clear she couldn't explain why she was able to hunt when there were cameras following them everywhere. "It's ready now."

After setting up the trap, Katniss briefly explained how it worked. They could wait quietly in the bushes for a rabbit or other small animal to fall into it or…

"How far is that creek?"

"It took me almost no time to get there and back," Rue told her.

"Then let's go get more water in the meantime."

Maybe if they went far away and that small part of the forest was silent for a while, something would appear of its own accord. The truth was, Katniss wasn't just thinking about having more water to drink. She couldn't remember the last day she had washed, not taking how she had crossed the river with Estee into account, and the truth was that she was still covered in dirt and bits of leaves from the previous two days. The Games were no place to relax, but she didn't want to think about Alder, or Estee, or how Rue reminded her of Prim, how Prim herself would've suffered if she had been in her shoes. She just wanted to clear her head for a second, because, even if she had slept for two days, it had been two days of nightmares more than rest.

She washed with her clothes in the stream, without her boots and jacket and with her pants rolled up. If she got wet, it wouldn't be a problem either, because it was sunny and surely, she would dry well before nightfall. Then, she slathered on the burn cream she'd taken from Estee's things and braided her hair properly. Rue had only washed her arms and face a bit and, in the meantime, she had taken the berries out of her bag. As Katniss sat down next to her on the shore, the girl smiled at her. At least it seemed she was starting to trust her.

"Are you sure they can be eaten?"

Rue nodded vigorously.

"We have them at home."

From the looks of them, they seemed harmless, or at least they weren't ones Katniss could recognize as dangerous. Rue was a very smart girl. Like her, she knew how to hide and distinguish what she could collect from what she couldn't. She deserved as much as her or anyone else to come home. Yes, of course Haymitch was right about Katniss, she cared about others. She cared about what was fair, and this wasn't. She took a test bite of a berry and it tasted just as good as the berries Katniss picked in 12. Only then she let herself relax at last. Rue had taken all the things out of the bag so they could see what could be of use to them. She had some kind of tool, something like a sling made of rope, some spare socks and a small container to store water. She was also carrying a spiked rock she could use to cut things.

"I know it's not much," she said, as if she were embarrassed, "but I had to get out of the Cornucopia fast."

"Good choice," Katniss murmured, impressed with how well she had managed on her own at her age. "It's actually great, Rue."

"The Careers have entrenched themselves there, I've been spying on them," she said suddenly. "They are hoarding everything they have, the food too."

Katniss frowned, before getting to her feet.

"Really?"

"They haven't moved from there since we threw the nest at them."

It was an intelligent decision, because if they had everything they needed they didn't have to leave there unless they were interested in hunting some tribute down. Maybe that's why no one had gone after them to take revenge.

"I think we can go back now."

"Are you too tired? We can sit for a while."

Katniss looked at Rue and broke out a smile. She was just a child, she should ask her, not the other way around.

"I'm fine, let's go."

She felt somewhat better, cleaner and less tired, although she notice dshe didn't have that much strength. Even after stuffing herself with food from the Capitol in the previous weeks, it hadn't helped to recover the kilos she needed to alleviate the difference between her and the other tributes. There, her bones were becoming more and more marked, even her hips. In addition, her legs were full of small bruises, cuts, bites and burns that remained, the worst being the one in her leg. Almost nothing. On the way to where they had left the trap, they managed to knock down a bird with Rue's slingshot and some random stone, so if they didn't get anything, at least they would have something to satisfy their hunger for a day. They would have to build a fire to cook it, but they could afford it if the Careers really were still far from them.

They had just returned to the exact place where they had been before, at the foot of the tree where they had slept, or so Katniss thought she remembered, when a soft whistle made its way through the trees. When she looked up, the parachute hurtling toward them seemed so large they had to take a few steps back to make room on the ground for it to fall.

"Do they send you stuff?" she heard Rue ask, amazed.

Katniss was so shocked she wasn't able to turn around to tell her this wasn't normal. She'd had only one thing all week: Haymitch's bottle of water, because the cream had been given to Estee, not her.

The bundle was an elongated rigid box, dark in color, and she had no clue what could be found inside. She hadn't asked for anything, nor was she as desperate as she had been with the water. Could it be a mistake? She didn't think the Capitol was capable of making one, but this didn't seem worthy of a girl from 12. Uncovering the box, her breath caught in her throat. Inside it, something she would not have expected even in her best dreams awaited: there was a bow and quiver full of arrows, as dark as the box, with a design so elegant that it even glowed. Katniss pulled it out with trembling hands, and Rue stepped closer, her mouth agape. How could Haymitch have afforded to buy her something like that? Either she was becoming more popular than she thought or he had gone crazy.

Katniss noticed that next to the bow was a small card with something written on it. With the bottle, Haymitch had just scribble "stay alive" and his initial, but this seemed like a complete sentence. When she picked up the card her pulse continued to falter. This one said: "I know it's not a Black Forest cake, but you might like it." There was no name at all, but she knew who it was from anyway. For some reason, she let out a laugh, though she felt her eyes water. Damn Finnick Odair and his stupid cakes and his way of insisting on saving her life.

She tucked the card into a jacket pocket, slung the arrows over her shoulder, caressed the bow, and smiled determinedly. She had made it through the first week at the Games, she was still alive and, most importantly, now she had a weapon.