Robbie Emmers- District Nine male (18)

We'd all known it was coming. We'd only wondered how long it would take to show. We'd done all we could, but our efforts had been in vain. We couldn't run from… the runs.

I drifted to the back of the group as we walked toward the challenge clearing. Most of us had already done so a few times. In addition to the stomach pain, headaches and nausea, the less-than-pristine water was also giving the lot of us a gross but inevitable increase in gas. It was a toss-up in the evenings between getting enough water before bed and stinking up the tent. We weren't seriously ill, but it wasn't great. Once when I was going out to the woods for the same thing we'd been doing a lot of lately, I saw Dorian leaning against a tree dry-heaving. All I could think was yeah, me too.

"It's gotta be Josie this time, right?" Trayne said from ahead of me. His pants were caked in dirt. It crossed my mind, with grade-school maturity, that the stains looked like poop, but so far no one had reached that point… to my knowledge. His hair looked as dirty as mine felt. We had the river and all, but it was no shower.

"Or Kendall or Kallik, probably," Alara said. I noticed Dorian gave Octavia a nervous glance. She pretended she didn't notice him and kept walking like Alara hadn't said anything.

Virgo and Trayne, who were walking nearest me, looked over as my stomach growled. It really wasn't a growl so much as a weird little quiver. It seemed to plaintively complain at once about both how much I wasn't putting into it and the inferior quality of what I was.

"Yeah," Trayne nodded in agreement.

"We're going to stink Isabella up so bad," Rowena contributed. There were scattered schoolkid titters throughout the group.

Isabella, who was standing a fair distance away, made no indication she was offended by our scent. She looked over at the other side of the clearing, which was blocked off by a giant curtain, and betrayed the fact that Huldra had already arrived and was waiting for a signal to enter. Out they marched, and…

"Huh," Dorian said, looking at Josie.

"Who was it?" Virgo mused. No one spoke up. We'd barely seen the other tribe. None of us even noticed anyone missing from Huldra.

"Good morning, Tributes!" Isabella broke in. "Clover is the second person to be voted out at tribal council."

Who?

"Now it's time for our third challenge." Isabella turned to the curtain behind her. "Behind this curtain is an obstacle course containing several pieces of a puzzle. The members of both tribes will be blindfolded save one on each tribe. The remaining members will serve as callers to guide their blindfolded tribemates through the course and to the pieces, which their callers must guide them into completing. First tribe to complete their puzzle wins immunity and reward. Losers go to tribal council where at least one of you will be eliminated. Ready to see what you're playing for?"

"Wooooooo!" Rowena dog-called.

Isabella picked up the cloth covering the basket at her feet. There was a chorus of cheers as we saw.

"Today's reward is an expanded kitchen. In this crate you'll find slivers of home such as cooking oil, bouillon, butter, sugar, onions and flour. In addition we have a spice rack celebrating the traditional spices of Denmark, such as chives, dill, mustard, coriander, marjoram, and thyme. Worth playing for?"

"Oh, yummy," I heard Persi whisper yearningly beside me. She saw I'd heard and turned away, her cheeks reddening.

"Ellekoner, you have two extra members. Who are you sitting out?"

We couldn't think of any skills that would give someone an edge in this challenge so we ended up just kind of seeing who volunteered. It turned out to be Cactus and Lana.

"Both tribes pick a caller and let's get this started."

Leo Fabrizio- District Eight male (18)

It was very nice of my team to let me be the caller so I could move less but still be able to contribute to a challenge. I did come with its pressures, though. We can't keep losing forever, right? We have to win one eventually. It's basically just fifty-fifty…

Isabella pulled a cord, triggering the curtain to fall. Immediately I scanned the field from one side to another. The six puzzle pieces were marked with bright orange flags to set off even more starkly against the wooden course, though most of the pieces were at least partially red. One lay in the middle of a small fence maze. Another dangled from a pole decorated with streamers and flowers maybe six and a half feet in the air. One was on a tiny island in a pool with a line of rickety floating pads in between. One was nestled under a low rope net. The fifth came after a fenced-off area accessible only through a line of three waist-high horizontal wall sections. The last was at the top of a set of giant block steps ending about six feet off the ground. I noticed a pad behind it that I guessed would be hidden from the cameras.

"Tribes, you may begin!"

Oh shoot I wasn't ready. What's the plan here? Divide and conquer? Teamwork makes the dream work? How could I possibly know which is right? Okay Leo just pick one.

Kallik- District Two female (18)

"Group up into three groups. I think it will be easier to guide you and also you can all search the area around each piece."

Before we'd put on these very awkward blindfolds, we'd been herded into two corrals just outside the challenge area. We were close enough together that I could move my hand and feel someone next to me.

"Who's this?" I asked.

"It's Val," Val whispered. "What are we, baby?'

"Just grab someone else, jokester." All around us, other conversations and groupings overlapped.

"Coming in," I recognized Birdie's voice as her hand slipped into my free one. The three of us shuffled off to the side to cleanly split the group. We dropped hands once we were clear. We could stick close to each other without being joined at the hip.

Alara Banks- District Four female (17)

I'd expected to feel disoriented, but I hadn't thought of just how many things would be more difficult if I couldn't see. It really messed with my idea of my body. I still knew where my feet were but it was just weird not seeing them when I walked. I couldn't imagine I could possibly find a puzzle piece.

"Alara! You're near one!" Amberlynne had volunteered to be our caller, citing her planning and event logistics skills. None of the rest of us were over-eager to take the riskiest position so she won unopposed.

Where? Like a moron, I turned my head from side to side. At least no one else saw it.

"Move forward a step," Amberlynne said.

"I did."

"Okay, four more steps just like that." Oh, that is pretty smart. She said one at first so she'd know how big my specific steps were.

"Lift up your arm!"

Is it on monkey bars or something? Am I going to have to climb monkey bars?

I felt something soft.

"Grab it!"

I grabbed and pulled. A bag hit me on the head and tumbled down my back. Lucky thing it wasn't heavy. I'd have broken my neck.

"Now what?"

"That's it! You got it!"

Kendall Delancy- District One male (18)

Team Dude was not off to a good start. Trydan and Shep and I had been wandering the fence maze since Shep had barely groped one edge of it and we'd figured out how to get in. Team Chick had completed their objective and was trying to find its way over to us to help as Leo switched between us.

"Kendall! Freeze!"

"Am I on it?" I asked.

"Turn to 4:00."

Smart, a way to make it exact.

"Step straight forward. You'll hit a fence on your left side. Run your hand down it until you feel a large knot."

One step later, sure enough. The fence brushed against my wrist and I felt down to a knot too big to mistake.

"Stand right in front of the knot with your back to it. Slowly walk forward and you'll hit the bag with your leg."

No kidding? I followed the instructions and walked forward. Thump.

No kidding.

Dorian Sargasso- District Four male (18)

"Alara! I found it!"

When Amberlynne described the pool and the line of floating pads, Alara and I had known right away we wouldn't need her direction once we found it. When Rowena wandered into the edges of the pool, which had a ring of shallow water on the edges so we could feel the wetness and not just fall in and break our necks, she called out its location and followed her voice.

"I'm coming!" she hollered back, her voice fighting past the three or so Tributes arguing about… something. The pyramid, maybe? They were trying to climb it.

I was wading around the pool's perimeter when Alara called again, this time from perhaps twenty feet to my side "They're over here!"

I dipped a leg into the deeper water past the edge of the shallow lip and lowered myself in. As one would expect of a Games not meant to be lethal, the water was no more than five feet deep. I swam across it, since it was shorter than walking to Alara's point on the other side, and hauled myself out.

"Right here," she said from a little below me.

I bent down on my knees next to her and leaned over. "Right he-"

It really hurts when two people bonk heads.

Josie Stone- District Twelve female (12)

That's right, Josie's the smallest, Josie can fit under the net really easily, she's a vital part of this challenge, see how lucky we are to have Josie?

Trayne Treadwell-Lang- District Six male (17)

"You're right in front of a chest-high wall. Climb over it."

I hooked a leg up over the wall and strained to shift enough weight to the other side that I fell. My foot caught the edge of the wall on the way down and I landed on my butt.

"This one's a waist-high rounded wall! It's thicker than the first!"

Not hard at all. One funky ballet turn and I was on the other side.

"One more hurdle, same size as the first one!"

I tripped over the bag, landing on my butt.

Isabella Disney-Busattil- Host

"Huldra and Ellekoner now both have all their puzzle pieces. Octavia is spreading out Ellekoner's while Huldra views their own pieces. Leo is struggling to find ways to verbalize the precise motions needed to fit the pieces together."

"Huldra has their first piece!"

"Alara! Virgo! Fit your pieces together, Alara's on top!"

"Like this!"

"Hold it lower!"

"Ahh I fell don't step on my hand!"

"Huldra has their second piece!"

"Huldra with a third piece!"

"Ellekoner with their second piece!"

"It has to be that one!"

"Huldra tries put those pieces just aren't fitting together."

"I figured it out! Persi, Robbie, together!"

"Is Amberlynne correct? Lana and Octavia testing her hypothesis."

"Third piece for Ellekoner! Fourth piece for Ellekoner! We are neck and neck again. Huldra is trying to keep its lead but they just can't get the pieces to match. Persi and Rowena are sliding a piece and- fifth piece for Ellkoner! Huldra is almost done with their fifth piece. Will it be enough?"

"Sixth piece for Ellekoner! Ellekoner wins immunity and reward!"

I thought about having Huldra win just in case you were getting bored of Huldra getting shafted, but then I thought after I mentioned how excited I was to do this to Huldra you probably guessed this chapter would end like this and weren't in much suspense. They WILL eventually get their time. Huldra's day will come. But anyway for this chapter I need to do another nonactive submitter removal so it really is no reflection on Huldra. I'll have to check but think there's at least one from Ellekoner so I'll eventually have to let them lose haha.

Idol clue: This one is punny so if English is not your first language message me for a hint:

My first is like a cow