Chapter 10.
Magnus and I stand there for a few seconds, both of us watching the corpse of the girl from 8 float in the stream of the river. Her head bobs as her body hits a rock on the way, and her blood leaves a red silky trail in the water. We hear the familiar boom of the cannon as her body drifts away from us.
"She was going to die sooner or later, anyway." I tell Magnus in an attempt to comfort him, but it only appears to make it worse. For a split-second his expression appears to be… pained. But the expression on his face turns back to the usual grumpiness before I can be sure about it. It was our first kill after the blood bath, why isn't he proud of himself?
Why would he be? Says a little voice inside my head. I don't know where it comes from.
"Let's just keep moving." He murmurs, then looks up. In the distance, we can see the hovercraft flying into the arena. In just seconds it's hovering above our heads, descending as Magnus and I walk away from where the girl lies in the river.
"So, were you right about your theory?" I ask him after we've started walking again
"I have been right so far. But I'm currently still in the process of finding out."
"So what is this theory exactly?"
"I will tell you when I find out I'm right."
"Why not now?"
"Because I don't want to give you the wrong impression." He says. I don't know what to answer to that, and neither does he.
We walk for another ten minutes when we hear voices whispering around the corner. Magnus and I exchange looks and grab our weapons. Then we walk into the direction we heard the voices come from. There are two tributes here, a young boy with mousy brown hair that falls in waves over his eyes. Irvin, from district 4. I wonder why his stylists haven't cut his hair. Did he intend to keep it this way? Next to him is a girl with light blonde hair that I do not recognize until she looks at me with her light blue eyes. It's Nerida, but her hair does not fall in long waves over shoulder anymore. It's cropped short, like a boy's haircut. She no longer reminds me of a water nymph. Now she reminds me of a pixie. Nerida recognizes us right away, but not with the kindness she showed during training.
"Irvin…" She whispers as she backs up towards him. Her eyes are widened in fear and I can tell that her hands are trembling even though she is trying to keep them still.
Irvin, who had been preoccupied with knotting two bars of wood together, looks up and sees us too. His reaction is similar to Nerida's. Within a second, they face us, shoulder to shoulder. Nerida turns around suddenly so she stands back to back with Irvin. Her eyes scan the area restlessly.
"The rest of them are probably hiding somewhere, waiting for them to distract us so they can jump at us when we aren't paying attention." She hisses loud enough for us to hear.
"It's just the two of us." Magnus says loud and clearly.
Nerida appears to believe him, and stands shoulder to shoulder with Irvin again. Irvin has grabbed his trident and points it in our direction. I'm not sure what kind of weapon Nerida is holding, but it looks like a bundle of rope.
I feel the tension building, but then Magnus does something that I don't expect: He lowers his mace. I look at him, curious to find out what he's up to.
"What were you doing?" Magnus asks them.
"Does it matter?" Irvin speaks for the first time. His voice is lower than I expected it to be.
Magnus doesn't answer, but Irvin and Nerida are obviously waiting for one of us to say something, so I speak up. "Maybe."
"We were fishing." Nerida says reluctantly.
Of course. They are from district 4. If anyone would be fishing around here, it would be these two.
"Fishing?" Magnus asks with a neutral tone of voice. I know that tone: he's down to business. "Did you catch anything?"
"Yes, there are a few fish in here." Nerida points to another bundle of ropes in the snow. I see fish tails and heads protruding from the ropes. It must be some kind of net that they are caught in.
Magnus thinks for a moment, then looks at me shortly, then looks back at Irvin and Nerida.
"I have a proposal." He says. "If you can provide us with food, we can provide you with shelter and protection from a group with the career tributes."
"Career tributes?" Irvin asks. "Is that something new?"
"It's a term that we came up with, yes." I explain.
"So that's you two… and your district partners?" Nerida asks, still suspicious.
"Correct." Magnus says as he lifts up his mace again and plays with it. He looks mockingly hazardous. "So, deal or no deal?"
I can see the fear in their eyes, but Magnus' silent threat seems to have convinced them, so both of them nod.
The next hour, Nerida and Irvin continue fishing while Magnus and I stand guard for them. Sometimes we hear Nerida yell something at Irvin, or vice versa, but Magnus and I are both quiet. When Nerida's net is full, they gather their belongings and follow Magnus out of the ravine. He knows the way, so I walk in the back to make sure they don't step out of line. Magnus climbs up on the ridges and the three of us follow him. He yells some instruction to Irvin and Nerida on the way, but they move along quite well. It feels as if they've been waiting for us, because as soon as we reach the plains the snowfall starts again.
I forget about the time as we make our way back to the caves. Slowly, the sun crawls through the sky, to the other side of the arena. The four of us fasten our pace as we climb up the mountains. I'm glad to be almost back at our shelter, because twilight is setting in and I don't know how long it would take us to find the cave back after dark. When it's dark it's also harder to look out for other tributes that might want to attack us. I'm relieved to see the now familiar faces of Elza and Zircon when we enter the cave.
"Well, you surely took your ti-" Elza says, but she interrupts her sentence when she sees Irvin and Nerida are with us and jumps up to her feet with her pole arm in her hand.
"I brought us some new allies." Magnus tells her dryly. Elza seems to relax a little, but this time it's Zircon that's frowning.
"Great. Even more people to drag along." he growls.
"They can help us." I tell him. "Their fishing skills are excellent and it's because of them that we're going to have plenty of food for the next few days."
Zircon doesn't reply. He is not amused.
Elza gives me a small smile, which eases the tension a little bit for me. It doesn't have that effect on Irvin and Nerida, who are still lingering in the cave opening.
"We can still run." I hear Irvin whisper.
"Don't be an idiot." Nerida hisses. "They will hunt us down."
"Just come sit with us, will you?" Magnus says, trying not to sound too annoyed now. The two of them join us reluctantly. Nerida unpacks the catch of the day and starts cleaning the fish with a small knife that she retrieved from her pocket. Elza sits down next to her and watches her. Eventually she starts to help Nerida. When a pile of the fish has been cleaned, I light the fire again. Soon the six of us are filling our stomachs with the fish that tastes better than I expected.
"They call it The Hunger Games, but I haven't been really hungry so far." Zircon says with a grin on his face. "This is too easy."
I see Magnus' expression darken. Elza eyes him worriedly and so do I. What did Zircon say wrong? Nerida gives me a look of incomprehension. Irvin doesn't notice the entire thing and just keeps grilling fish.
"So we should discuss our tactic for tomorrow." I say in an attempt to change the subject. Both Magnus and Elza appear to be relieved with this change. Magnus then starts telling the rest about how we found the river and that we don't know where it leads exactly.
"It could go all the way into the forest. It would make sense." Elza comments.
"It sounds like a place a lot of the tributes would go to. It's the only obvious water resource." Zircon adds. "So I think that would be the first place for us to hunt tomorrow."
Nobody replies to Zircon, because suddenly we hear the Capitol anthem all around us. We head outside momentarily to see today's score. Only one face is shown in the sky tonight, and it's the one that's familiar to me and Magnus after today: the girl from 8.
"How well are you in fights?" Elza asks Nerida and Irvin once we are back inside. Irvin holds a golden trident up in response. I didn't see the trident in the cornucopia, so that must mean that it has been a sponsored gift.
"I'm not much of a fighter, but I know how to set traps." Nerida replies.
"Give her a weapon." Zircon commands.
"But traps are usef-" I start, but Zircon interrupts me. "Not when you're in combat. She needs to be able to defend herself directly."
I'm taken aback by Zircon's rude remarks once again, and I don't feel like taking part in this discussion anymore. I turn away from the group and try to get cozy with my blanket and pillow. In the meanwhile, a heated discussion is going between Elza and Zircon, but I'm not listening to it anymore. I try to block them out instead.
I don't know what time it is when I suddenly jerk up. I'm pretty sure I heard a sound in the distance, but it's gone before I can identify it. I listen closely for a while. After a minute or three, I again hear the sound that sends shivers running down my spine: the roar from some sort of animal, this time followed by the clamor of a fight going on. A muffled scream, which is interrupted suddenly, then the familiar boom of the cannon. I look around to see if anyone else has heard it, but everybody appears to be fast asleep. I quietly get up and step over Elza and Irvin to get to the entrance of the cave. I look into the valley of mountains around here, even though it's hard to see anything in the vast darkness of the arena, searching for a possible source of the sounds.
Then I spot them.
On the other side of the mountains. Colossal animals with a white fur that I've only seen on television once or twice before: icebears. But I know immediately that these icebears aren't at all like the ones I've seen on television. They're probably muttations, designed and created by the game makers. They walk on their hind legs, considerably faster than the ones on television did. Their front paws are gigantic claws with nails made out of icicles. But what's most striking about them are their eyes, that are so bright red that they appear to light up in the dark.
And they are heading this way.
I don't hesitate, I jump inside immediately.
"Wake up" I say as I start to gather my items. "Wake up!" I yell again, louder this time.
"What's going on?" asks the sleepy voice of Elza.
"Muttations!" I say, frantically checking if I've gathered all my weapons, then I fling the small backpack over my shoulder. In the meanwhile, the others have scrambled to their feet. I help Elza stuff the fish in one of the backpacks, and then the two of us steer the rest towards the entrance of the cave.
I follow Nerida and Zircon outside and I immediately see that the icebears have covered a great distance since I spotted them two minutes ago.
We have no time to waste.