Enjolras and Éponine heard the cannon boom twice successively. "Who do you think it is?" Éponine asked.
"It's probably allies dying at the same time. My guess would be Lucy and Edmund."
Later that night, he was proven wrong. Éponine let out an audible gasp and put her hand up to her mouth when Cato and Clove's pictures appeared in the sky. "I was convinced they were going to win."
"That means Lucy and Edmund are still alive," Enjolras said. "I'm surprised they've survived this long. It's down to the top five."
The impact of his words hit Éponine. "There's five of us left! We're so close! If we both make it, we can both go home!"
Enjolras smiled. "I really need to get back to Les Amis. Combeferre's in charge while I'm gone, but we both know I'm the only one who can keep Courfeyrac's shenanigans under control."
Éponine laughed. Seeing her laugh was a rare sight, and Enjolras soaked it in. She looked so beautiful when she was laughing, with her brown eyes shining and her white throat exposed in the moonlight. Enjolras pictured her in the Marianne dress, being as happy and carefree as she was right now, and the image was perfectly divine.
"Okay," he said, "I've told you about my plans for the future. What are you going to do when you get home?"
He had said "when," not "if." As if getting home was a guarantee. Éponine knew nothing in life was guaranteed, but she couldn't bring herself to shatter Enjolras's enthusiasm. "The first thing I'll do is go home for Azelma, and then I'll find Gavroche, and take them away from my parents. I'll buy a house with my winnings, and all three of us will live there." Then, because she knew Hooper would want her to say it, she added, "And maybe one day the man I love can live there too." She kept the identity of the man ambiguous on purpose. The audience might think she was talking about Enjolras, but she still had Marius in her head. She wasn't ready to give up on him yet.
Enjolras smiled again. "That sounds like a great plan." He found himself leaning forward, and to his surprise, he was the one to initiate the kiss this time.
Éponine returned it with sincerity. She felt a little conflicted. How could she keep holding out for Marius when kissing Enjolras felt so warm and wonderful?
Another parachute landed outside the cave. It was a container of roast beef and vegetables. Éponine almost squealed with excitement. She knew Hooper was sending a message that they were doing the right things. She and Enjolras divided the food between them so that they had enough for both dinner that night and breakfast the next morning.
Éponine went hunting the following day. Enjolras's shoulder was still healing, so she went alone. She shot two squirrels, skinned them, and brought the meat back to the cave. They had a sort of dinner party, for no other reason than they felt festive. With Hooper's sponsor gifts trickling in, they didn't have to worry about starving.
Claudius Templesmith's booming voice interrupted their meal. "Attention, tributes. You are all invited to a feast tomorrow at the Cornucopia. Afterwards, each of you will be sent off with party favors. As always, may the odds be ever in your favor."
As the anthem of Panem began to play, Éponine looked at Enjolras, bewildered. "What are party favors?"
"They're little gifts you take home after a party at someone's house," Enjolras explained. "I went to lots of parties with my parents when I was younger. They were all stupid. The hosts were always bourgeoisie who only wanted to show off their wealth to others."
Éponine spent a couple seconds in thought. "You don't have to go to the feast tomorrow if you don't want to, but I'm going. You can stay here and let your shoulder heal some more."
"A feast?" Lucy's eyes lit up. "Like the ones we held at Cair Paravel?"
"With hundreds of dishes to choose from!" Edmund nodded, remembering. "Beef, chicken, ham, venison, lamb, even roast goose! And fresh vegetables and fruit from the orchards!"
"And any kind of dessert you could imagine! Cake, trifles, plum pudding, jam rolls, jellies!"
"But no Turkish delight," Edmund said. "I could never look at that stuff again!"
Lucy lay down with a contented sigh. "I can't wait for tomorrow."
Tauriel had a bad feeling about the announcement. She sensed a trap. But what grounds did she have to be suspicious? It was just a feeling. She would go to the feast tomorrow and everything would be fine. She would fill up on a good meal and be nourished to finish the Games. Even so, she made sure her quiver was full of arrows and sharpened her twin daggers. It never hurt to be prepared.
The sun rose the next morning, glinting off the shiny gold metal of the Cornucopia. Éponine was hidden in the bushes, checking to make sure the coast was clear. The way to the Cornucopia looked clear, and in front of it she could make out a table laden with an array of foods.
She began to walk down the hill, keeping an eye out for the other characters. Tauriel was also heading for the Cornucopia, wearing her cast and armed with her bow and daggers, but she seemed more interested in the food on the table than in killing anyone. Edmund and Lucy walked hand-in-hand. Éponine noticed that Lucy had a dagger on her belt. She was glad that she had brought the handgun with her just in case.
The chairs were marked with the names of each remaining fandom and spaced far enough apart from each other so that the others could eat in peace. Éponine, Tauriel, Edmund, and Lucy sat down, served themselves, and eagerly dug in.
Lucy suddenly cried out in dismay! "It's not real! My fork goes right through it!"
"It's a hologram!" Edmund exclaimed in realization.
Éponine angrily stuck her fork into the wooden table. They had been tricked!
From inside the Cornucopia came a strange guttural noise, and the sound of scaly feet shuffling. Yellow-green eyes looked at the characters from the shadows, and then four huge, gray komodo dragon muttations crawled out into the sunlight. The characters grabbed their weapons and prepared for a battle for their lives.
Éponine shot the one that was charging her in the head. It fell to the ground, and she put a few more rounds in it to make sure it was dead. Then she turned to help Edmund and Lucy in their fight. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tauriel take down a komodo dragon mutt and limp back into the woods.
Edmund and Lucy were battling two mutts. When they saw Éponine join the fight, one of the mutts rammed into her and headbutted her so hard that she was thrown backward and her gun flew out of her hands. The mutt loomed over her and flicked its black tongue in and out. Lucy, seeing the danger Éponine was in, plunged her dagger into the creature's neck and somersaulted away when it tried to bite her, giving Éponine enough time to retrieve her gun and shoot the mutt dead.
Now there was only one komodo dragon left to defeat. Edmund was locked in intense combat with it. Lucy and Éponine added their strength to the fight. "See its saliva?" Edmund asked. The girls looked in the creature's mouth when it snarled at them. Yellow-green liquid dripped from its teeth. "It's got venom," Edmund said.
The mutt's skin seemed to be resistant to blades. Edmund had stabbed it with his sword multiple times already, but the huge creature ignored its wounds. Éponine prepared to fire her handgun at it, but when she pulled the trigger, nothing happened. She cursed. "I'm out of bullets!"
As if sensing that Éponine was now powerless, the komodo dragon moved to attack her. Lucy distracted it by stepping on its tail. This worked a little too well, and the mutt tried to bite her instead. Edmund pushed his sister out of the way, and the komodo dragon creature chomped down on his upper arm.
"No! Edmund!" Lucy screamed. She stabbed the mutt with her dagger over and over again. Even when it collapsed in defeat, she kept stabbing it.
"Lucy! It's dead!" Éponine yelled at the hysterical girl. She took Edmund's sword and cut the creature's head off. "See? It's dead now."
Edmund staggered and dropped to his knees, clutching the bite in his arm. It wasn't bleeding profusely, but the skin was already swelling and discolored. The poison had set in. There wasn't anything the girls could do besides comfort him in his last moments.
Lucy and Éponine knelt on either side of him. "You'll be alright," Lucy said in between sobs. "Aslan will take you back to Narnia. He'll walk with you on the seashore below Cair Paravel."
Edmund closed his eyes. "Yes. I can feel the warm sand. I can hear the rushing waves. I can taste the salty sea air." He opened his eyes again. His face suddenly turned pale and he made noises as if he was choking. "Aslan!" he cried, reaching out with his hand. It dropped limply on the grass and a cannon went off.
Lucy buried her face in her hands and wept. Éponine closed Edmund's eyes, then drew the crying girl into her arms. "Come on, the hovercraft has to collect his body, and we need to give it distance."
They walked back towards the woods. When they were on the fringe of the forest, Lucy turned to Éponine and said, "This is where I say goodbye. I know you're going to offer me to come with you, but I don't want it to come down to the two of us."
Éponine understood her reasoning, but she was still reluctant to let her leave. Lucy reminded her so much of Azelma the way she loved her brother and didn't want to leave him. Her world had been torn apart when he died. She could only hope that she wouldn't have to kill Lucy at the finale of the Games. She hugged the brown-haired girl. "Goodbye, Lucy. Take care of yourself." They went their separate ways, Lucy slipping back into the forest and Éponine following the river back to the cave.
When Éponine reached her and Enjolras's hideout, she ducked inside wordlessly. Edmund's death had shaken her up more than she'd like to admit.
"How was the feast?" Enjolras asked.
Éponine stared sullenly at the cave wall, like she was trying to bore a hole in it with her brown eyes. "It wasn't a feast. It was a trap! The 'party favors' were giant lizard monsters!" Enjolras listened as she told him what had happened at the Cornucopia, tears burning her eyes all the while. "And I can't bear the thought of having to kill Lucy to win these Games. It'd be like killing Azelma. I just can't do it!" Tears started leaking out of her eyes. She tried to stop them, crying made her look weak in front of the cameras, but she couldn't prevent them from spilling over.
Enjolras took her in his arms to soothe her. He dried her tears and kissed her cheek. He immediately pulled a face. "Salty! Remind me to never kiss you after you've been crying!"
In spite of herself, Éponine laughed. Enjolras had a talent for stabilizing her when her emotions threatened to overcome her. She suddenly realized that she didn't know what she would do without him.
Game notes
Day 15: Before the anthem plays that night, Claudius Templesmith invites all tributes to a feast the next morning.
Day 16: There is a banquet table at the Cornucopia laden with holographic food. Komodo dragon mutts are unleashed. Edmund dies protecting Lucy from the creature's venom.